Theatre Queen

The Queen Is Dead

2011-09-10T12:35:00.003-05:00

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted anything in ages. It got to the point that I got so sick of constantly writing while being in school that writing anything, even about my beloved theatre, just wasn't fun anymore. Now that I'm in a doctoral program, I just don't have the will to keep this going. However, I've started a new blog reflecting another of my passions that should be a little easier to maintain. Check me out at:

http://harmswashere.blogspot.com

While you're at it, be sure to see Book of Mormon, it really lives up to the hype and then some! End scene.

Tonight, Tonight

2009-08-08T15:17:00.002-05:00

Hello loyal readers! I know, it's been about 3 weeks since my last post, but I swear I've been legitimately busy. With my new classes I'm writing a 500-1000 word post just about every day, and on top of that I'm teaching, so I have to constantly write posts replying to my student's posts, which just leaves me not in the mood to sit down and punch out what is essentially yet another post, no matter how fun or vitally important the topic. However, there's been a lot going on so in order to avoid being totally overwhelmed later, I thought I'd pop in now for at least a few minutes.

First order of business is Patti at Ravinia tonight. Of course, after suffering through a frigid July, the night we go to Ravinia it's pushing 100 degrees with complete humidity on top of it. Fortunately we're eating at Mirabelle first so we can enjoy the air conditioning and even though it's still supposed to remain in the 80's all night, hopefully once the sun goes down the humidity will abate at least a little bit so that it's tolerable sitting in the pavilion. As long as Patti is good (and of course she will be), I can put up with just about any type of condition but my companion will get extremely cranky if it's the slightest bit uncomfortable. It sounds like it should be a good program overall, she's not the only attraction, although definitely the main one, and it sounds like they'e got a good selection put together. I really hope someone tries to take a picture, but it's not going to be me, she scares me too much!

In other news, I know we've all heard the big news about Billy Elliot by now. You know I'll be first in line for tickets when it arrives. It's truly a wonderful show and I felt bad when I was in New York last month about not seeing it there since I saw it in London, but since my time in NY is so short I have to maximize my opportunity for new shows, so this development will allow me to see it while leaving future NY trips open for new shows with no guilt. Also, in addition to Little Mermaid sinking at the end of the month, Avenue Q and 9 to 5 are both going to be right behind. Avenue Q though should feel no shame, it's had a remarkable run and they're pulling out all the stops, Rent-style, to send it out on top. I just hope that Wicked doesn't follow 3 months from now but instead continues running for years showing that not winning the Tony doesn't necessarily suck. It's sad to see 9 to 5 go, but not surprising. The critics really hated it and it's been struggling to get any positive mention in the press beyond Seth Rudetsky's column on playbill.com. Hopefully Dolly will attempt an original musical (maybe the full story of Jolene?) at some point soon. Hopefully also Joe Mantello can find another hit soon or his career's going to be going the way of Susan Stroman. Fortunately, there are a lot of good shows lining up to take their place, including a revival of Ragtime (hopefully the Best Revival category will right the wrong done in the Best Musical category 11 years ago), as well as Finian's Rainbow with Cheyenne, who's been looking FABULOUS in the publicity photos (and on top of that he's finally got an album coming out in the fall, although it's a duets album with Michael Feinstein which seriously tampers down my enthusiasm. I'm hoping for a recording of his recent solo show a la Jackie Hoffman, maybe if this one goes well that one will follow, which is reason enough to spring for this one), and an interesting sounding Off-Broadway play called The Understudy, written by Teresa Rebeck (of Mauritius) and starring Justin Kirk and Julie White. Closer to home, Light in the Piazza opened last week to rave reviews, I will find some way to see that one before it closes even if I have to drug my companion and drag him there against his will. Unfortunately, it's not looking so certain for History Boys, almost all the weekend shows are sold out at this point. Also, speaking of the Marriott, we tried but unfortunately were unsuccessful in getting a mounting of Carrie this season. However, the seed has been planted and you never know what may come of it in future seasons. They're sticking to a pretty traditional season this year; Fiddler, Chorus Line, Music Man, and Once on This Island, although it's great to get a second chance at Island after missing it at Porchlight. I may actually subscribe this season, I do want to see everything, they're all good shows and are traditional classics for a reason. Plus, the real highlight of the season is their fifth show, which will be The Drowsy Chaperone!!! I'm seriously thinking of auditioning, after all, it is based on my life, casting me should be a no-brainer!

Anyways, before I rush off, if you haven't already, head to Barbra Streisand's website and be sure to register for the drawing for tickets for her Sept. 28 show at the Village Vanguard. I'm a little apprehensive about the new album, but if anyone can pull cabaret music off, it's her (the standards she did in her 2006 concert were among the show's highlights even if they weren't her most famous songs), and in such an intimate setting, she could sing the entire score from The Color Purple and it would be a night to remember (yes, I went there!). I'm already registered, and if I win, I'm kind of stuck with the person for the other ticket, but if any of my readers win and don't have anyone in mind for the second, I'd be glad to buy the drinks once we're inside!

Boleros for the Disenchanted

2009-07-19T10:44:00.002-05:00

Well, this is certainly much quicker than I would have anticipated making another post now that I'm back in school, but I had to pull myself away from my other important projects for this post. As I mentioned last time, on Thursay I saw Boleros for the Disenchanted at the Goodman, and I have to get on the record and say that it was the best play I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of good plays. It was truly phenomenal and I can't recommend it highly enough. Anyone who's into theatre needs to rush to the Goodman before the 28th to check it out. It is the must see play of the summer. The story was wonderful, and while it could have been cliched in lesser hands, it was very profound and moving. All the performers were wonderful, particularly Elizabeth Ledo who played the younger version of the main character in the first act and a home health care nurse for that character's husband in the second act and Rene Rivera who played her character's father in the first act and her husband in the second act. They made us feel so personally invested in their characters and I can't remember the last time I was on the edge of my seat hoping and praying that a character would answer a question a certain way. Usually I just sit back with interest to see how they will answer, but this time I wanted a certain answer because I felt like I knew these characters and that they were family. It is so good, you have to go. Just be aware that while the signs on the theatre doors say the running time is 2 hours, it is actually closer to 2 1/2 so plan your intermission drinks and restroom stop accordingly. However, it's worth it for such a wonderful show. If there's any justice in the world, it will have a bigger life after the 28th, and in an ideal world it would head to Broadway, sweep the Tony's, and run for years. Unfortunately, In the Heights is already nicely filling the Hispanic niche and producers tend to discount this audience, so the play will likely not end up in New York until ItH closes, and that likely won't happen for a while (although now that Avenue Q is waving the white flat, ItH could be next, out of the four remaining Best Musical winners - Jersey Boys, Phantom, and Lion King being the others - it's the weakest in terms of proven staying power). Plus, it doesn't help that the Goodman's last transfer, Desire Under the Elms, was such a dud, it really weakened demand for any more Goodman material for a while, especially in these risk averse times. Still, maybe there's an Off-Broadway house it can transfer to and incubate for a while and then make the move like Avenue Q, In the Heights, Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens, and Next to Normal. Fortunately, the news isn't so bad for the city's other powerhouse. In case you missed it, Steppenwolf announced this week that the entire cast of Superior Donuts will be joining Michael McKean on Broadway, which is very good news indeed for a lot of Chicago actors. Also this week, I got my tickets for Souvenier and Awake and Sing at Northlight, with Souvenier in November and A&S in January. Now if I can just prod my companion into action on History Boys and Light in the Piazza it'll be a well spent theatre summer.

Honey, What's With The Torture?

2009-07-13T19:19:00.003-05:00

Lots of big news. First of all, the lead story on playbill.com today was that Megan Mullally will be playing Beverly Wilkins in an LA production of The Receptionist in August and September! From a boozy unreliable receptionist for an interior decorator to an efficient, yet antique teacup addicted, receptionist for a professional torture organization, she's moving up in the world! If Blithe Spirit and 33 Variations hadn't already claimed the title, this would be the one show I would want to see this year, unfortunately it'll end up with a 33 Variations ending (ie not getting to see it) instead of a Blithe Spirit ending. Still, doing it in LA may provide some impetus towards a movie project, although I would love to see Jayne Houdyshell get the part. So, those of you in the LA area, get your tickets now.

The other big news is the massive addition to emusic's catalog. Seriously, take a look at them. They've got actual pop music that people listen to (Aerosmith's entire catalogue, The Offspring, The Eurythmics, Michael Jackson, everything that I've been wanting to get but not willing to buy and the library doesn't have). Plus, their cast recording offering has gone through the roof. They don't yet have West Side Story or Road Show, but they do have Hair as well as a massive amount of older recordings, including Best Foot Forward, Liza Minnelli's theatrical debut and impossible to find on CD! Best of all, they have just about every single album Barbra Streisand has ever recorded. They are going to keep me busy for years. Another nice update is now that if you get an album at once, most albums that are over 12 tracks will only cost 12 credits, meaning that you can now get a couple of complete albums every month. Even better, if you have less than 12 credits left, you can get as many tracks as you have credits for and then next month, when you go back, it will let you download the rest of the album for the difference between the full 12 credits and the amount of credits that you used last month. So, if you have 5 credits left and want to get a 17 track cast recording, you can download the first 5 tracks, and then next month download the remaining 12 tracks for 7 credits, you don't lose out on anything. I got my monthly allotment last night and finished up The Story of My Life (spending only 6 credits to get the remaining 11 tracks!), The Offspring's Greatest Hits, the Eurythmics tracks from their first Greatest Hits CD that didn't make it onto their 2006 Ultimate Collection CD and some dance mixes, Mahler's First Symphony recorded by the CSO, and Brahms' 2nd Symphony recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic (a historic recording that you can tell was mastered from a record by still very good). Next month I'm getting the 1973 Candide recording (24 tracks, 12 for each disc) and then starting Kyle Riabko's Parkdale Sessions CD. The only problem so far is that not every CD over 12 is 12 credits, the Hair recording, which is 37 tracks is still the full 37 credits, so that'll take a couple months to work on, but I'll start it the next month after completing Parkdale Sessions. There's never been a better time to join.

Wednesday I've got Garrick Ohlson at Ravinia and Thursday is Boleros for the disenchanted at the Goodman. I'm back in class again so while I can say I'll try to report on them right away, I'm not making any promises, but I will see you soon.

Oh What A Beautiful Weekend

2009-07-05T15:45:00.000-05:00

Well, the rest of this trip has been a whirlwind, but in a good way. After my last post on Friday, we stepped outside into yet more rain, thus time a light drizzle. We ran into a Times Square souvenier store and got an umbrella and by the time we got outside and opened it up, the rain was prety much gone, and three blocks later it was totally gone, and was gorgeous for the rest of the weekend. One other thing I noticed was that the Starbucks that was acrossthe street from the Crowne Plaza two years ago is now gone, so I guess it's no big deal that I slept in so late, there was no centralized meeting place anyways. Next time I'll have to double check on Starbuck's website that the store I'm planning on going to is still there.

So, we went to the Biblical Art Museum at Columbus Circle, which was very nice. It was fairly small, we got through it in about 90 minutes, but they had a very nice, extensive collection of Medieval prints on display. Afterwards we had lunch at Fiorello's and then took a long walk through the park where I snapped about 200 pictures. We headed back to the hotel around 4 and briefly rested (and caught the fabulously shocking news about Sarah Palin) and then left about 5 for an early dinner at Seasonal. I cannot recommend that restaurant highly enough, it is our new find and favorite destination. The fod was excellent and the space is so nice. After that we headed off to the Marquis and I was pleasantly surprised to find that 9 to 5 is a very good musical. The three women were excellent (and I am not much of a fan of Allison Janney, but she was superb). Stephanie J. Block of coruse was fabulous and Megan Hilty perfectly captured the essence of Dolly. The music was very catchy and I will definitely be getting the cast recording when it comes out in a couple weeks. I can see why the critics weren't totally enamored of it, there were a couple too many fantasy sequences, especialy in the second act, which did make the story feel kind of lightweight, but it was thoroughly enjoyable, which is what really counts. Plus, as a bonus, there was a lot of eye candy on stage, my coffee invite list is going to be much longer on my next trip. Afterwards we headed up to the lobby bar to meet a friend for drinks and ended up hopping from there to Thalia for several drinks before calling it a night around 1 am.

The next morning we again slept in and then met some friends for brunch at a French restaurant whose name currently slips my mind but it was on 9th at 41st, and it was very good. After that we had just enough time to head to Broadway New York where I got a keychain to replace one I've had since I first got my driver's license that recently broke, and then it was off to the Jacobs for God of Carnage. However, on the way, I had my first confirmed celebrity sighting in all the times I've gone to New York (I do think that I saw Ralph Fiennes in 2006 when he was doing a play, but it was from a distance and no one was there to give a second opinion so I really don't count that one). We were walking down 44th past a deli across from the Shubert and right inside was Rupert Everett buying soup! My companion actually saw him first and I confirmed that it was him, so it's official. We left him alone, it was getting close to showtime and he was probably in a hurry, but it was kind of a thrill, and we kept going on our way to GoC. That was an interesting play and while I liked it, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It seemed a little lightweight and contrived to have won Best Play and Best Director, and Marcia Gay's performance was one those that's so out there that it really seems like some critical deity just flipped a coin and decided that was good but consensus really could have just as easily gone the other way and deemed it too over the top and bad. Still, it was entertaining, and like 9 to 5, that's what counts. Everyone was excellent, although Hope Davis was my favorite with Jeff Daniels a close second. James Gandolfino tried to throw a little too much Tony Soprano mannerisms into the role which was rather distracting, and that mumbling style of talking made him hard to understand at times. But, I'm still glad I got to see it with the original cast.

Afterwards, we took the subway to the village and walked around and then went to Strand where I got some good books (one a very critical biography of Bruno Bettleheim, who founded the institution where I got my first job after graduation; I hated that job so I'm very excited to read the book). We then hopped back onto the subway to 57th and walked to H & M where I got a couple of shirts (for less than $20!!!) and we then had dinner at an Indian Bistro on 9th around 50th. I had a very nice and mild tandoori lobster and they were giving out a free glass of wine with dinner, so I now have a second Indian Restaurant in New York that I will eat at if my companion insists on Indian. We then dropped off our purchases at the hotel and went to the Booth for Next to Normal.

First, Mr. Kyle Dean is even hotter in person than he is in his picture. I would really love to spehd some one on one time with those abs, pecs, and biceps on my next trip. That second scene of his where he's only wearing boxers with a towel drapped around his neck was worth the price of admission (plus, we had really good seats since the theatre is so small every seat is close to the stage). However, going beyond the eye-pleasingness of the show (and the rest of the men in the cast were not unpleasant to look at either, and the set was superb, having seen Billy Elliot's London set, I am surprised that N2N didn't win that award as well). The music was excellent, although I still think BE should have won that award, and everyone was fantastic, particularly Alice. She really deserved that Tony and Jennifrer Damiano really was robbed, having seen Haydn and Martha, and being familiar with Carole Shelley's role, if not her exact performance, I have to say that Jennifer seems to be the most deserving, and hopefully I'll see Karen's performance next time I'm here so that I can know for sure who was best. I am surprised that Aaron didn't get a nomination because that role seemed to require more work than any of the others with all the running around all over stage, but it was a crowded field this year. My companion liked it, but said it was his least favorite out of the 4 we saw because it was so sad. It was my second favorite, after Blithe Spirit. It will be a classic, although the end still needs just a little tinkering, it was still somewhat unresolved, and while that's kind of the point, they could have driven hat home in a more clear manner. Still, that is a very minor quibble and I'm annointing N2N as the show to see this summer. Originality like this needs to be encouraged. We them headed back to the hotel, fighting our way through the throngs leaving the fireworks display, and called it a night.

Today we again slept in and only managed to check out about 15 minutes before the noon deadline. We stored our luggage and went to the International Photography Center and saw the Richard Avedon exhibit, which was so fascinating. He was quite talented, although after seeing so many fashion photographs, I was expecting to see Tyra Banks at the exit saying "America's next Top Model is. . . Novina!" Afterwards we had about an hour and a half before we wanted to be in a cab on our way to Newark, so we just kept walking east on 42nd until we got to Tudor Village where I got a lot of good pictures of the shoreline, Brooklyn, and the UN. That is quite an impressive area, it doesn't even feel like a part of the city. I could see myself living there if I had unlimited riches. We then turned around and headed back, got our bags, and caught a cab. I was expecting that traffic was going to be awful, with holiday travellers cloggimg up the highway, but it was like driving in the middle of the night. We seriously got to Newark from the Times Square Crowne Plaza in 25 minutes! So now, I'm way early for my 7:15 flight (it's now 4:40), and I'm sitting at the gate typing this up on my phone. So far the flight is on time and with the weather being nice here and at home, hopefully there won't be any problems.

So, it's been a terrific trip. I've got one more week all to myself and then it's back to another 10 weeks of class with a residency in Arlington thrown in for good measure. Fortunately I'm now well rested and in a much better mental place than I was at the end of the term a few weeks ago. Next up is the CSO at Ravinia on the 15th. See you in Chicago!

High Spirits

2009-07-03T10:26:00.001-05:00

Well, it's 11:15 am and I'm writing this as I'm lounging in bed in the hotel room. I still haven't made it across the street to Starbucks. Getting rained on is exhausting and it kept raining last night. We stayed holed up in the hotel room until about 6 and then walked down the block to Pigalle for dinner, which was excellent. However, it was sprinkling the whole way and as soon as we stepped inside, it was a downpour again. The monsoon lasted through most of dinner but miraculously and unexpectedly, it let up some as soon as we were ready to go around 7:30. We managed to walk to the theatre and only get slightly damp. I pickedup the tickets and bought a magnet for my work fridge and we settled in for the show. I am happy to report that Blithe Spirit gets a big A+ and not just because of Angela, although she was truly superb and deserving of that 5th Tony, but the whole ensemble was terrific. I really can't understand how only Angela got a nomination, Rupert and Christine deserved them to and the production should have been up for Best Revival, it was pitch perfect and the packed audience seemed to love it. I guess the current glut of classics (some that got worse reviews than Spirit yet still got a nomination - I'm talking about you Mary Stewart) really pushed farcical comedies out of favor, which is to bad. Blithe Spirit is a classic itself. So, afterward, it finally stopped raining and we came back to the hotel. I had the rest of my sandwich and a brownie and went to bed and slept until just after 10. I'm now ready to go andmy companion is getting ready. He decided not to work since we both slept so long, so there's no trip to Starbucks to meet ay adoring, hot, fans, who may still be waiting, knowing that I always seem to show up later than I intend to. So far the weather looks ok, although there are plenty of clouds in the sky, so we're going to walk up to Columbus Circle and go to the Biblical Art Museum and then head over to 5th Ave. for lunch, shopping, and maybe another museum. Of course, since Little Mermaid starts at 2, the weather will probably be terrific until then and at 2:01 I will suddenly be standing in the middle of a monsoon. Trust me, that's my luck

When It Rains. . .

2009-07-02T16:19:00.001-05:00

Oh my God, I think I'm getting a message from someone not to come to New York anymore. We get here, get to the hotel, go to lunch, and then as we leave the Carnegie Deli, there's a slight drizzle. About a block and a half later the drizzle has become full fledged rain and after another block it's a monsoon with thunder and lightening. I had my camera around my neck and while it was in its bag, the bag got pretty wet, and if my camera is ruined I'm not going to be happy. We were on our way back to the hotel to drop off the half of the sandwich that I didn't eat and am saving for a late night snack tonight, so we tried to stay under canopies and made it to Colony Records and ran inside; I figured I could get my fix taken care of then. However, while I got some good CD'S (Promises, Promises; I Can Get it for you Wholesale, and On Your Toes with Elaine Stritch), I was rather disappointed as it looked like they've really downsized their collection and they didn't have anything really obscure, not even stuff I had seen on previous trips, and now they're somewhere between Borders and Barnes & Noble. Still, I like what I got, and the ran had died down by then, so we ran across the street to the hotel and have been here ever since. It's still pouring outside and without an umbrella I don't feel ike dealing with it. I've been watching USA's Burn Notice marathon while my companion has been sleeing (we did have to get up horribly early this morning). It's about 5:30 now, we will hopefully head back out around 6 for diner and if there's time we can get a little bit of shopping in before heading to the theatre, otherwise there's always tomorrow, and hopefully the sun will indeed come up then.

I can't quite believe it. . .

2009-07-02T13:07:00.001-05:00

. . .I'm actually here!!! The one place on earth I want to be! Yes, I made it and now New York is no longer short of perfection. Apparently United's misery was American's opportunity, the flight went smoothly, although the landing took forever and we landed about 20 minutes late, but in the grand scheme of things not bad at all. I'm currently sitting at Carnegie Deli, and my food just arrived so I'm out!

Knocking on Wood. . .

2009-07-02T07:39:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm sitting here at the gate about an hour and a half before takeoff and so far we're on time and the plane is here. Of course, that was also the case in November and we know how that turned out, and since the weather is supposed to be crappy today it still could. At the very least though, I'm glad I'm not on United. Apparently they're having some sort of computer glitch and nearly their entire fleet is grounded. Let's hope it's not a cascading problem.

So, here is the plan, assuming a smooth arrival. This afternoon is a late lunch at the Carnegie Deli and then a walk through the park, a trip to the Met, and a stop at H&M (no sales tax!!!!!!!) before heading back to the hotel for a nap and then dinner and Angela Lansbury. Tomorrow, given the weather forecast, it's going to be early coffee at Starbucks across from the Crowne Plaza (see you there Cheyenne, Matts (Morrison and Cavanaugh), Gossip Guys, Gavin, and/ or Kyles (Dean Massey and Riabko)), and then off to the International Center of Photography. My companion isn't too thrilled about going to another museum, so since we would rather take a wak and Sunday is supposed to be a nice walking day, we're going to flip the activities. Then it'll be down to the village with him when he's done with work for a trip to the Strand and NYU. Friday night is 9 to 5 and hopefully dinner at Seasonal. Saturday is a trip to Colony Records, God of Carnage, a trip next door to Broadway New York, and then Next to Normal. Sunday will then be Battery Park and downtown (much less crowded, another good argument for switching plans around), and then off to Newark for the trip home. It's going to be a whirlwind but I'm expecting a good time once/if we get there. I'm still kind of debating Little Mermaid tomorrow afternoon, especialy since they just announced that it will close in August, but since, unlike Tarzan, they are planning to tour, it's not quite as urgent. There's a lot of factors that I need to see how they'll play out (and hopefully at least one of them will show up for coffee tomorrow!) and we'll see how it goes. See you in New York!

Help Needed - Urgent!!!

2009-06-30T10:48:00.001-05:00

Alright, I saw The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Marriott Lincolnshire on Sunday, and it was FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The cast was perfect and the in the round format allowed for better blocking and choreography for this type of production than the Drury Lane Water Tower did (not that that was a bad production, but this one was even better). A good portion of the cast were graduates of that production and their experience really showed. I recognized some of the jokes from the previous productions, but there were also some new ones (or at least ones that I didn't remember) as well as the improvised lines, my favorite being that their normal celebrity pronouncer, Senator Roland Burris, was unavailable this year but they expect him to be free again soon. They did tone down some of the more off color ones for the suburban audience (the most disappointing absence being Dengue as a word and using it in a sentence, try to youtube the 2005 Tony Awards performance to see how it was used), which was a little disappointing although understandable. This was the first time out of all the shows I've been to there that the theatre wasn't completely packed (it wasn't totally empty either but the empty seats were noticeable), so they don't want to alienate their core audience. As I mentioned in my last post, they did have an intermission, it came after they eliminated the final audience member contestant (a young girl who did surprisingly well, they had to break out the difficult words for her to much audience applause), but the second act started then with Chip's song, My Unfortunate Erection (simpy titled M.U.E. in the program, again to avoid offending the suburban audience), there was no performance of We Love Spelling, but that was ok as the show was so good I didn't miss it. It came in at exactly 2 hours, leaving us plenty of time to get dinner and get home at a decent time.

Now, here is where the help is needed. Through midnight tonight (June 30), the theatre is letting the general public vote on which productions they would like to see next season. So, if you are reading this and it's still June, please, Please, PLEASE, click over to:

http://www.marriotttheatre.com/

and scroll all the way to the right (the site doesn't automatically resize to fit the screen), and at the top of the right column is an icon that says "Vote on our 2010 Season." Click on that and it opens a survey in a new window. Don't worry, you don't have to register or give any personal information, it stays completely anonymous. It asks you a couple questions about if you subscribe and how you chose what you want to see and then it gives you a list of about 10-12 shows and asks you to check off the 3 you would most like to see. Feel free to do that, I wasn't ecstatic about any of the choices, they were all pretty suburban and mainstream (I selected Chess, Titanic, and The King & I), but in a bad economy they need to produce what people will pay to see. However, the next question is the important one. They give you a text box and allow you to submit one name of a show that you would like to see that was not on the list. Go to this question, and type in "Carrie: The Musical" in the box. Do this as often as the site will allow. This is the best chance we're likely going to have to get another production mounted anywhere in the country. After this question there's a general comments section, this could be a good place to remind them that if they do the show, not only will it attract about 20 years' worth of frustrated impatient audiences who have been dying to see what all the fuss was about, it could also be an opportunity for them to expand their business and offer a world premiere cast recording, although this is not as important as just getting the show on their radar in the first place. Seriously, if they do Carrie, I will go multiple times. They've already got the gym decor from their current production that they can recycle. If we can pull this off and get them to do it, I will seriously do something for my readers, maybe have a drawing to meet at intermission for drinks or something, on me of course. Vote early and vote often, we only have until midnight tonight.

What's Wrong With Borders?

2009-06-25T16:45:00.003-05:00

As promised, I'm back before heading to New York, and I've had a disturbing event on my mind for the past couple of days that I have to get out (and no, it's not the rushed closing of August: Osage County, which while it was initially disappointing, it turns out it was to make way for Superior Donuts, so it all works out for the best). Remember last week I said I wanted to get the recording of Chess in Concert? Well, on Thursday I got an email coupon from Borders for 40% off one item. I figured since I was going to Naperville on Sunday to meet my family for dinner to celebrate Father's Day near the Fox Valley Mall, I could stop at the Naperville Borders and pick up the CD. On Friday I checked Border's website and it said that the complete 2 disc CD was "likely in store" (there's a 1 disc highlights version but since you can never get enough Idina, unless she's doing her own music, I want the whole thing). This Borders in particular holds a very special place in my heart as it was the first Borders to appear in the suburban area while I was in high school and the very first place I ever saw a "Gay & Lesbian Fiction" section. Granted, I couldn't keep myself in that section for more than about 10 seconds at a time out of fear that someone might see me, but it was still a huge turning point for me. Plus, over the years, I've bought so many cast recordings there, although after the Geneva Borders was built, my trips to Naperville have greatly decreased as the Geneva store is much more closer to my parents'. So, I left a little early on Sunday afternoon and headed to Naperville. The first problem occured about 15 minutes later as I reached Lakeshore and Jackson only to find that Jackson was blocked off for the Puerto Rican Pride parade and I had to go down to 55, take that to 83, and get off there to 75th street and take that all the way out. 55 was absolutely horrible for now discernable reason, so I ended up not getting to Borders until about 20 minutes before our dinner reservation. I figured I'd be in and out quickly, and ran in and headed towards where the music and movies section has been for the past 15 years and was confused when there were simply more bookshelves in that area and no music or movies. I figured they moved it and walked around the store, but could not find any music or movie section, only a few endcaps with clearance CD's. I went to the information center and checked on the computer and sure enough, it said the full Chess 2 Disc set was still "Likely In Store." As I turned to walk away, since there was no one there to ask, I saw that there were some Best Selling CD displays by the checkout line and went to check those out. One one of the displays was the highlights CD (their #2 best seller, surprise surprise!), but the 2 disc set was not there. I did a quick walk around again in case they had created a basement section and I had overlooked a staircase, but no such luck, it was still all on one floor. I went back to the information section and there was finally someone there, so I asked him and he said they're phasing out their music and movies, but to be sure, he checked their staff-only inventory list and said that even though the website was saying that the CD was in store, it looked like they actually didn't have it, but he could call some other stores. Well, at this time it was almost time for our dinner reservation, so I just left. I'm not so disappointed at not getting the CD, I can go to Barnes & Noble and get it since they still see the value in having a showtune section, but it's really sad to see Borders going so far downhill. When you walk into just about any Borders anymore, there's much more empty space than there is merchandise for sale, although some stores are able to hide it better than others. I understand they're having cash flow problems, but getting rid of music and movies is not going to draw in more customers, it's likely to actually have the opposite effect since people don't really read anymore, do they think people are going to come in for books? They need to figure out what brought them success in the first place and get back to basics. Showtunes and opera need to return.

On a happier note, one week from right now I'll be trekking about Central Park and the upper West Side, about time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner before heading to Blithe Spirit. I've been checking the extended forecast and Thursday looks great both here and in New York, so the airlines have no excuse for not getting us there as scheduled. Friday though is a little more problematic. I just downloaded an audio tour of public art and monuments in the downtown area, starting in Battery Park and ending at South Street Seaport, which I will put on my phone for Friday, but the forecast for Friday is rain in the morning and early afternoon before clearing out for a very nice rest of the weekend, meaning it could be an unpleasant, heading-to-Blau-Gans experience all over again. Fortunately, because of the holiday weekend, many shows are doing Friday matinees, so if I wake up and the weather's crappy, I plan on heading to TKTS and seeing if I can get a ticket for Little Mermaid. My companion will be working and has no desire to see it, so I can get it taken care of without having to deal with him. No matter what happens, there'll be a Starbucks stop across the street from the Crowne Plaza around 10:30 (hint, hint Gossip Guys).

Sunday is Spelling Bee at the Marriott. They're putting in an intermission, so I'm hopeful that means they'll restore "We Love Spelling," which is actually my favorite song on the CD. It looks like the weather will actually be very nice on Sunday, making it a little disappointing that I won't be going to the parade, but I've really outgrown that, it's no longer fun to get way too drunk standing around in a huge crowd outside where I always get sunburned. A fun show in an air conditioned theatre with a glass of wine at intermission followed by a good dinner nearby is much more my speed. I'll let you know how it turns out. See you in a week boys!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-06-18T18:46:00.003-05:00

Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check out the top headline on playbill.com:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/130366-Short-Lived_Glory_Days_Will_Get_a_Cast_Album_Authors_at_Work_on_New_Musical

I will be closely monitoring this development and will post any dates as soon as I have them. You know I'll be first in line the day it comes out. Of course, Lestat was also supposed to have a cast album and they went into the studio to record it, yet we're still waiting and it's been over 3 years now. Still, a girl can dream. Does this mean we're one step closer to a Carrie recording?

I'm Alive (at last, and I'm full of joy!)

2009-06-18T14:25:00.002-05:00

Alright, I know we've got a lot of ground to cover here. I'm finally coming out of the mental fog I was in as my classes were winding down last week. That was one fuck of a quarter, mostly because of shit going on at my job that was bringing me down, but next quarter should be better since I have a month (now almost down to three weeks) this time between classes, giving me more time to rest and recharge. I do have to say that procrastination works! You remember that paper I was working on during the Tony's? I got it turned in 10 minutes before it was due and got an A! Not quite the lesson I need to take away from that experience, but a valuable one nonetheless. Now, on to more important matters.

First of all, Chess! We all saw it on PBS/Great Performances last night, correct? FABULOUS, FABULOUS, FABULOUS. Yes, the story is weak and we're not given any reason to care about the cardboard cutouts of the characters, but the score is fantabulousnomenal. No one can belt like Idina (and ps, why can't she sing like that and perform that style of music at her own concert?) and Adam was in fine voice and looking quite good as well. I haven't really seen him since he was here with the tryout of Aida 10 (!!!) years ago but he hasn't aged a day. I'll take one night in Bangkok with him anytime. Josh Groban wasn't quite as exciting, but he did nail Anthem and that's what counts. If you didn't see it, stop reading now, click over to Netflix, add it to your queue, and bump it up to the top. Ok, welcome back. I know I got the original concept album a couple of years ago, but I'm going to have to get this CD as well. Let's hope some producer saw it and realized that the time is right to bring it back to Broadway with cast (and full sized orchestra) intact. Bring back Carrie while you're at it and make it 1986 all over again (and speaking of 1986, in that year there was only one Phantom on Broadway, let's make it 1986 and keep it that way too).

Finally, after many false announcements, I am officially back on my way to New York again, for a long 4th of July weekend. We're flying in on the morning of July 2 (hopefully without all the drama this time, we're taking American from O'Hare so it could be a tossup) and then I'm flying back on Sunday night July 5 while my companion stays for work and comes back a couple days later. The only problem is I need to fly out of Newark because he's actually working in Philadelphia and is going to drive there on Sunday and can drop me off at Newark, but the only flight that night was at 7:15, which means that there's no way to fit in a Sunday matinee show, not even God of Carnage. If it wasn't the Sunday night of a holiday weekend I might be tempted to try GoC, because if it started right on time and was exactly the 90 minute length playbill.com says it is and we were right by the door and got out before anyone else and got all green lights walking back to the hotel (we're at the Crowne Plaza this time, so coffee at the Starbucks across the street on Friday morning at 51st & Bway) and got our bags immediately and got in a cab, with no traffic I would get there about 6:15, giving me JUST enough time to check in, make it through security, and find the gate. Given that there's probably a road full of tourists doing the same thing that weekend though, the odds of it happening that smoothly are slim to none. So, we're only going to do four shows: Blithe Spirit (Thursday night), 9 to 5 (not my choice but my companion really wants to see it, on Friday night), God of Carnage (Saturday matinee) and Next to Normal (Saturday night), and we'll try to get West Side Story next time, as well as the ongoing saga of attempts to see Little Mermaid and South Pacific. So, it should be good, it's the highest ratio of musicals to plays out of the last couple of trips, although I think my souvenier magnet from this trip will be yet another play: Blithe Spirit (which could almost count as a musical since most of the stars are primarily known for their musical performances). Speaking of Blithe Spirit, we all the director, Michael Blakemore, directed City of Angels, and after this fall's production of Nine, guess what Tony winning musical is next slated for the big screen treatment??? That's right, completely out of left field but so deliciously on target is CoA itself. Could we possibly get the original cast? If not, may I suggest Richard Gere for the lead (he did such a fab job subbing in for James Naughton in Chicago, let's let him sub in for James's other Tony winning performance)? Anyways, back to the shows at hand, I'm rather disappointed that Aaron Tveit will be on break from Next to Normal (making him unavailable for coffee), but his replacement, Kyle Dean Massey, is quite hot himself and would make an excellent coffee mate Friday morning, as would the rest of the usual suspects (Cheyenne, Matt C., Matt M. (if he's in town and not working on Glee, more on that in a moment), Jonathan Groff (ditto on the being in town), Curtis Holbrook, and/or Gavin Creel, Friday morning July 3 boys!). Who cares how he sings, it's a fact that anyone named Dean is gay and hot (see Supernatural if you don't believe me). So, the plan is then on Thursday we'll have a late lunch at the Carnegie Deli (first time in years that I'll have been there, I can't believe I've been away so long) then walk around the park and museum row (too bad the Guggenheim's closed on Thursdays but the Neue Gallery and Met are open), then Friday I'm on my own and planning to grab coffee (and maybe something/someone else) and then head downtown to see Battery Park and do a self-guided audio walking tour provided by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center of the monuments in the downtown area, ending up at South Street Seaport where I can have lunch and see the museum, then hop on the el to the village and eventually back to the hotel for dinner and the show. Then Saturday is the shows with Colony Records stuffed in the middle, then on Sunday instead of the show we'll do the International Center for Photography instead, which should make for a nice afternoon. Then it's off to the airport and back to my crappy job on Monday.

Ok, on to Glee. Other than the scene with Matt M. laying shirtless in bed, I wasn't totally blown away. However, given the fact that I had Rehab stuck in my head for about 2 weeks afterwards, and the preview of the upcoming season actually looked much funnier, I'm definitely willing to give it a chance. After all, the first episode of Arrested Development wasn't the best of the series, but it got me hooked enough and I am so glad I went along on that journey. Hopefully Fox will treat Glee better.

Lastly, upcoming events in Chicago. It's looking like Once on this Island may be asking too much, but we are going to Spelling Bee at the Marriott Lincolnshire on the 28th instead of the Pride Parade (much gayer, funnier, and air conditioned with much less risk of drinking too much). Then in late July, they're starting Light in the Piazza, so I will definitely be back for that even if I have to go on a weeknight after work by myself like I did with Shenandoah. After that, in October, it's Hairspray through the beginning of December, so I'll be back for that again. Can I go ahead and request Carrie for next season? I'm hoping at the very least we'll make it to History Boys in July as well, and at this point, given everything with Ravinia in later July and August, if we can do those, I'll be happy through the end of the year. It's still too early to start checking to see what will be in Amsterdam and Prague, but by mid-August I should be able to.

Ok, I think that gets us caught up. I really don't have much more to say about the Tony's other than that Liza was fabulous and Elton was certainly very gracious in the acceptance speech for Billy's Best Musical win (and now having downloaded the Next to Normal recording from emusic, I can definitely say that while it's good, it doesn't have anything that beats the letter from the dead mother song in Billy and its win was absolutely much more a comment about Lestat than about N2N's superiority in comparison with Billy). Looking ahead to next year, hopefully we'll have some better choices among musicals, although there aren't any big projects on the horizon. It may be a few more trips of plays before we get anything to be excited about again, although if Roundabout can get Merrily mounted and do Bye Bye Birdie right (the way the producers of the upcoming movie version aren't; if it's all new songs, it's not Birdie, they might as well film Bring Back Birdie instead) there might be something to head back for. Anyways, I definitely plan on being back a few times before classes start, look for my thoughts on Spelling Bee a week from Monday.

Quick Update

2009-06-07T20:27:00.002-05:00

Ok, they just showed some of the technical awards, and there was actually a tie for Best Orchestrations between N2N and Billy, and Billy won Best Choreography, which it inexplicitly has not in Britain or Australia, which further indicates that Elton lost more because of Lestat than because N2N was the better score. It's looking like Billy could pull it off, although there's still always room for a suprise, especially since it's gone to the expected winner for the past few years, the voters may be feeling restive and needing to assert their independence. We'll see how it goes. Ok, they're doing Best Featured Actor in a musical, I'll stick with it and give my thoughts, I'm predicting Gregory Jbara, and it's. . . I was right!!! Yay!!! The Best Musical usually has at least one winner in an acting category (looking back to Avenue Q for the most recent exception to that rule), so it's looking good.

Quick Tony Check In

2009-06-07T20:12:00.002-05:00

Ok, I know I've been a little lax, but I've been swamped with shit from work and trying to knock out two papers for school. I'm actually working on one as I'm watching the Tony's, desperately (YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Liza just won her FOURTH!!!! Tony!) racing against rapidly declining motivation to knock out a paper on Oppositional Defiant Disorer. However, I had to make a quick check in with my thoughts. First of all, LOVED the opening number and I'm starting to rethink my position on Shrek, I may at least have to check out the cast recording. I'm still not down with Rock of Ages at all though, Constantine Maroulis still hasn't managed to find any talent since getting voted off Idol. Did anyone else tear up just a little during Angela Lansbury's acceptance speech? There's a good chance I might get to go to New York for the Fourth of July Weekend and that's top of my list to see. Lastly, it's looking like it might not be such a big night for Billy Elliot after all. Yes, it did get Best Book (which I had really been hoping would go to [title of show]) and surprisingly Best Director, but it shockingly lost Best Score and Best Orchestrations to Next to Normal, although the Tribune did predict the win for Score. However, there's a chance that those awards were the committee's way of punishing Sir Elton for the awfulness of Lestat rather than proclaiming N2N the superior musical achievement. I started downloading the N2N recording from emusic and will finish it up next week when my downloads refresh and then I can deliver a more balanced judgement, although I find it hard to believe that any score could have been better than Billy (and BTW, REALLY loved the very opening with the three Billy's dancing to Elton's singing). Lastly, what's with the horrible sound production on this telecast. During the switch from Billy to West Side Story in the opening number, there was more noise from the audience than there was music from the stage coming through, and now as the Guys & Dolls cast is performing, the feedback sounded like a thunderstorm, drowning out the performer. You'd think with their one shot a year at a national audience, they'd be paying more attention to the technical logistics, but at the same time, that's the magic of live theatre. Ok, back to Oppositional Defiant Disorder (I've been acting out long enough taking this break), barring any big surprises, I'll get my final thoughts up tomorrow, or the next day, or sometime. Oh, last thought, run to see A Little Night Music at Light Opera Works, I saw it this afternoon and it is SUPERB, excellent performances all around, and it's always great to hear a real orchestra turning out Sondheim's best score.

What if Their Show Wasn't Nominated for Any Tony Awards?

2009-05-06T13:28:00.001-05:00

Well, it's a good thing they didn't include the Tony Awards song on the cast recording after all. As we all know, the Tony Award nominations were announced yesterday, and while they are much better than last year (with a few caveats, the largest one known as Constantine Maroulis), all that love directed at [title of show] over the past 3 years had no effect. [tos] received only 1 nomination, for Best Book of a Musical. There's a chance it could win on a sympathy vote, but it's looking like Billy Elliot will steamroll the awards and will probably take it instead. As expected, Next to Normal joined Billy Elliot in the Best Musical category, with Shrek and Rock of Ages undeservedly taking the other 2 slots (seriously, what is it with Shrek? No one's wanted to see it since it opened, for the life of me I can't understand how it's racked up so many nominations this season). The other disappointment was that Daniel Radcliff didn't get a nomination and Equus was mostly shut out with nominations only for lighting and sound design, both of which it deserves to win. The rash of high profile play revivals in the past month proved too much distraction. However, it was good news for 33 Variations which picked up several nominations after having been mostly ignored by the other awards groups. Blithe Spirit was not so lucky though, scoring a sole nomination for Angela Lansbury, who appears a lock to win her 5th Tony. The other surprise was the expansion of the Best Revival of a Musical category from 3 nominees to 4, so Hair, Pal Joey, West Side Story, and Guys & Dolls all got recognized, and as much as I loved Joey, it'll be a bigger shock than LaChanze if Hair doesn't win. Overall, until we see how the Drama Desks and Outer Critics awards fall, it's looking like a big night for Billy, although Stephen Daldry himself will continue his personal losing streak; Best Director will likely go to Diane Paulus of Hair. Still, unless Next to Normal pulls a Spring Awakening resurgence, Billy should sweep Best Musical, Score, Orchestrations, most of the technical awards (although G&D could take scenic design for its revolutionary use of the video screens), Best Leading Actor, and likely Best Book and Featured Actor (for Gregory Jbara, it actually got 2 nominations in that category, as with Featured Actress in which Haydn Gwynne and Carole Shelley will cancel each other out and Martha Plimpton will win). Rock of Ages and Shrek should deservedly go home empty handed, although Shrek could pick off some of the technical awards, particularly costumes, but I think Rock and Shrek will cancel each other out, allowing Billy to pull through most of the categories. It's scary to think though that in a lesser year (like 2006) Rock of Ages would have had a real chance at least at Best Musical. All I can say is thank God the recession allowed more musicals to come and go and increase the competitive pool (although 13 and Tale of Two Cities were completely ignored despite picking up a few surprise nominations from the Drama Desks and Outer Critics). Lastly, with 9 to 5's poor showing, it's sad to realize that Joe Mantello is officially in an Andrew Lloyd Webber post-Phantom-like slump. Liek ALS, he's had a career full of huge hits and after his biggest hit yet which has the potential to completely change the musical theatre world, he's only had some middling hits and a lot of flops. Perhaps he's overextending himself, and Pal Joey did pick up some unexpected nominations, but after all the drama with that show, it was clear he was banking on 9 to 5 to restore him to glory and it really hasn't happened. As long as he can avoid involvement in musicalized versions of Son of a Witch or A Lion Among Men, he should still be better off than the delusional ALW who seems to think that Bring Back Phantom is actually a good idea.

Anyways, I could go on all day, but I don't think my boss would like that, so it's time to switch topics with an eye towards wrapping this up. As I mentioned, I saw Clemenza di Tito on Friday night, and it would be more accurately called Crap di Tito. Before I get completely negative though, I do have to say that the music was fantastic. The singers, despite all their dramatic faults, were all impeccable, and the orchestra led by the fabulous Jane Glover was superb. No one knows her way around Mozart like Ms. Glover and it's a shame that Lyric didn't snatch her up to conduct Figaro next season. However, for all its aural perfection, visually the show was tragic. I shelled out a lot of money for very close seats, and it was so not worth being close. The set itself was fine, but everything else was unfortunately; the costumes in particular, which looked like they raided the clearance rack at Walmart, but also the blocking, visual emoting, choreography (such as it was), and even the perfunctory lighting. It was literally painful to look at, it couldn't hold a candle to the first rate production I saw in Prague 2 1/2 years ago, in the actual theatre where it had its world premiere in 1791. I would have been better off going with the cheap seats in the balcony where we could still hear it just fine and not feel so cheated on the visual aspect.

Speaking of Prague, it's official, I will finally be back this fall, a couple of weeks earlier than usual in the hopes that the weather might be at least a little better than it was last time. We're heading out on Wednesday October 14 to Amsterdam, arriving early on the 15th, and then leaving on the 18th to Prague returning home on Saturday the 24th, giving us a day to recuperate before heading back to work. I know Tarzan was still going in Amsterdam earlier this year, so I have to check into that and see if it'll still be going while we're there. Apparently the Dutch like it much more than New Yorkers did, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see it, although my companion will be going kicking and screaming. I'll probably have to sit through something horrifically boring to make it up to him, but as long as the adult Tarzan is even half as hot as Josh Strickland, it'll be worth it. It's too early to see what'll be on tap for Prague, that'll have to wait until sometime in August when the National Opera announces the fall season. It was kind of disappointing the last two times that they didn't have another big musical after that fabulous over the top production of Miss Saigon my first time there in 2005 (and no, I don't count The Producers which was there in 2006). Hopefully there'll be something this time. Even if they don't though, I am so excited to finally go back and hopefully keep this a yearly event again.

So, that's it for now. Stay tuned for details about a possible Vegas trip at the end of this month. I may actually get to catch both Bette and Cher in one trip, getting them both taken care of and not having to try to squeeze in a second trip later!

Nobody Else Will Do

2009-04-22T15:19:00.001-05:00

Well, it's been a while, but there hasn't been a lot going on theatre-wise in my life right now. It's all been learning about how to assess and diagnose clients with psychopathology. Fun! However, last night I went to A Chorus Line and finally got to see what all the fuss was about. My only exposure to it prior to last night was seeing the god-awful movie, and after last night, I have to wonder even more how an Oscar-winning director could have fucked that up so badly. The movie is horrid, but the show last night was so wonderful. I was in the front of the balcony (and BTW, this was the first time in about 3 years that I've been in the Oriental since I saw Wicked early in its run here and it is such a gorgeous theatre, it's a shame they don't allow any photography at all inside, even just of the theatre itself) because when I went to buy the ticket about a month ago, most of the main floor was sold out except for the last couple of rows, but the way the theatre is constructed, I'm actually closer to the stage by sitting in the front of the balcony than I am from the back of the main floor, and it was about $40 cheaper. I think for that show too, it was a better view because it allowed us to see more of the dancers in the back and get a better overall view. Anyways, it is truly a great show. I have to declare a pox on both the Sun Time and the Tribune for their negative remarks about both the show in general (a couple years ago the Trib declared Chorus Line to be one of the most overrated shows ever, having completely lost all relevance due to the fact that it's set in 1975 (!?!) while the Sun Times really panned this production, for reasons that I completely disagree with. The reviewer likened it's confessional style to Jerry Springer while I see it as making the story universal to everyone, not just dancers. The dance is a metaphor for anything that brings life meaning). Having seen the movie I kind of remembered who got picked, but it was still so nerve wracking I felt invested in everyone. My favorite song, as always, is "Nothing," and it was performed in top form. Having had all the love of theatre but no actual talent throughout high school, I could more than empathize with Diana. I wish that I had had the maturity to come to her realization while I still had time to do something about it. Instead of wasting time trying to impress a choral director and music department chair who for his own unknown personal reasons was not going to cast me in anything nor give me any sort of helpful instruction, I should have realized sooner than I did that he was nothing and not worth my efforts to try to impress. But, were it not for all that pent up resentment, this blog would not exist, so everything works out.

With the marginally better weather heading our way, it must mean that it's awards season yet again. The Outer Critics and Drama League have announced their nominations and surprises abound. As expected, Billy Elliot led the OC nominations with 10, but shockingly, Shrek tied with 10 nominations of its own! I had totally forgotten that show existed. In further shocks, 13 and 9 to 5 were locked out of the Best Musical category while in addition to BE and Shrek, Rock of Ages and Tale of Two Cities made the cut. [title of show] and Next To Normal, two likely locks for Tony nominations were not eligible due to having been considered in their off-Broadway incarnations last year, and the addition of those will shake up the Tony race, although I'm really disturbed by the terrific reviews Rock of Ages has been getting and rather worried for how that could adversely shake up the Tony race. In the revival area, Pal Joey did indeed make the cut, which was a terrific surprise, I thought for sure it would get overlooked with the recent spate of better-received revivals, but it was Guys & Dolls that failed to make the cut there. Somewhat surprisingly, Daniel Radcliff was shut out, as was, less surprisingly, the rest of Equus, which only got 1 nomination for lighting design. However, I believe off the top of my head, that's one more nomination than All My Sons got. Lastly for the OC's, both Haydn Gwynne from BE and Martha Plimpton got nominated for featured actress, which shakes up that category. I was expecting Haydn to be up for leading, so it'll be interesting to see if one of them takes it or if they split and it goes to someone less deserving, a LaChanze. Haydn definitely plays a larger part in her show but Martha's part is showier and while Haydn proved herself creating the role in London, Martha's performance was a revelation, which favors her for the win. For some reason, despite the love for the show, Billy Elliot has always been somewhat weak when it comes time for awards. I think in London it only won for Best Musical and shared Best Actor among the three Billy's, and the same happened in Australia, and given the vast amount of material that's been on Broadway this year, I'm worried that could happen again, especially if the voters are still trying to punish Elton for Lestat, we could easily see [tos] or 9 to 5 walk away with Best Score, and I think that Hair's already a lock for director and a good deal of the technical awards, and if Alice Ripley doesn't win Best Actress for Next to Normal, there's going to be a riot in the auditorium on Tony night. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, we have to see who gets nominated. Last year there was so much potential for great nominees and the committee really fucked it up badly by giving most of Xanadu's deserving nominations to Passing Strange instead. This year more potential spoilers should actually mean that the most deserving ones will get nominated as the spoilers should cancel each other out.

Lastly, even though there hasn't been a lot of theatre, I've still been trying to stay culturally connected and am finally getting around to catching up on the Oscar nominees a few months late. I watched Milk over the weekend and that has become my posthumus favorite to win (which of course it didn't, but it did get Best Screenplay and actor, both highly deserved). RUN and get that movie. Seriously, the last movie that brought me to tears was Beaches, which I saw my junior year of high school, and this one is even more affecting. Part of it is because it's just so sad that the story should still be so relevant 30 years later when we needed another Harvey Milk and didn't get one. I have a feeling that while it didn't do so well at the box office, over time it's going to become one of those "lost" classics that gets a re-release 50 years later and blows away the box office competition, finally becoming a classic in its own right, like Vertigo did some years ago. If we're lucky, it might actually be a museum piece by then and still infuriatingly relevant. Next up is Clemenza di Tito at Chicago Opera Theatre next Friday and then trying to schedule dates for Curtains, Evita, Art and The History Boys before they disappear, and planning for Once on this Island and A Little Night Music later in the summer. I've given up on Pacific Overtures and Don't Dress For Dinner, I can only pull so many teeth to get to things and need to focus on what I haven't seen rather than re-seeing things I have. I haven't ordered my Ravinia tickets yet but probably will next week and it's looking like in addition to Camelot it's going to be Garrick Ohlsson, David Hyde Pierce and Victoria Clark, Patti, and Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot, so not a lot, but a fair amount, enough to keep me happy without becoming overwhelming. I can't believe we're looking ahead to September already. I can't wait to see what's on tap for the fall.

Now That It's Gone

2009-03-29T17:22:00.002-06:00

What a weekend this has been. Of course winter would come back in a big way the weekend I had Mauritius, Xanadu, and Music of the Baroque on consecutive days (although granted MOB isn't until tomorrow night and the snow should be gone by then). Fortunately, both Mauritius and Xanadu were A+ Fabulous. We saw Mauritius last night at Northlight, it's got one more week and I HIGHLY recommend running to see it before it disappears. It plays very well on the small stage, it's very intimate which increases the sense of forboding and makes it much more disturbing. The highly stylized dialogue took a few minutes to get used to, both in the first act and after intermission, but it really helped to highlight the fact that the real story was in what was not being said. I have a hard time seeing it as having been on Broadway given the very intimate nature of it, but regardless it was terrific.

Then today, in the middle of a blizzard was the second to last performance of Xanadu, with the last one starting in about half an hour. Shame on you Chicago for not stepping up to the plate and making this more of a hit. We finally regain our status as the coveted first stop for Broadway tours and get a fabulous production that, dare I say it (please forgive me Cheyenne) was even better than it was on Broadway, and we give it a collective yawn! No wonder we're dead last for Spring Awakening. However, the producers also deserve some blame for plopping it down in the middle of the second worst winter of the past 30 years (second only to last year) while promising that it would stay until July, which only encouraged ticket buyers such as myself, still sick of last year's winter and not wanting to deal with this one to wait to see it later in the spring when the weather gets better. Of course people were not going to show up right away. That being said, it's a terrific production, and if you had had the nerve to wait it out a couple of months and invest in more of an advertising campaign, you could have had an Alter Boyz, or maybe even a Spelling Bee sized hit. The cast was top notch, and I do have to say that Max Von Essen is far more gorgeous in person than he is in those ads. I'm not sure what kind of filter the photographer was using, but he looked old in those ads when in reality he looks almost just about as good as Cheyenne (and that's plenty good enough for me) when he's in his real costume on stage. The only difference between this production and the Broadway one, in addition to the lack of a balcony in the theatre, is that they got rid of the mirror and instead put the mural on a wall which then opened to allow the actors to come out, which was more effective than the mirror anyways. Everyone did a great job, and my eyes were partcularly drawn to Jason Michael Snow in the Curtis Holbrook chorus role (although due to casting constraints, the other male muse was the tap dancer for Whenever You're Away From Me). He is quite the cutie and I expect to see much more of him in the future (and BTW, he was in the pre-Broadway and workshop versions of Glory Days!). Lastly, while I do know that sufficient rehearsal was an issue for the Broadway production and I did see it in its first weekend, I felt that this production flowed much better and seemed much more of a whole than when I saw it on Bway when it was more of a series of sketches, although I did regret in this production Caliope's classic line was changed from "gay men" to "gay people" which doesn't quite has the same impact since lesbian's aren't really into theatre, and particularly not musical theatre. However, it's a minor quibble and the overall production was excellent. With the right stars lining up, there could be another movie in the Xanadu story, bringing it full circle and correcting a lot of wrongs. I'd be first in line for tickets.

Speaking of tickets, Ravinia announced its season and once again I'm a little underwhelmed. The highlight of couse is Patti's return, although just as it was with Gypsy, she's here the weekend of my mom's birthday which creates some scheduling conflicts. There'a also the concert version of Camelot which I'll be at, David Hyde Pierce doing Cole Porter songs which is intriguing, and Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot offering an evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein to close out the summer, so I'll probably do those and maybe one of Dmitri Hvoretovsky's performances. Other than Patti though, they are extremely light on the divas this year, and even the CSO is keeping it pretty safe, no Philip Glass (or appearances by Mr. Glass for that matter), or other interesting works. However, that can be a good thing as I'm shelling out small fortunes for tickets through the beginning of the summer, so buying less Ravinia tickets will give me more for Night Music, Art, and Once on this Island. Anyways, that's about all for now, I'm trying to keep this short so I can enjoy the rest of my Sunday with a few hours of nothing to do before it's back to work and my final week before classes start again and I'm overwhelmed for the next 10 weeks.

No Rest For You Know Who

2009-03-19T10:06:00.001-06:00

What a few weeks its been since my last post. I had intended to have this up on Monday, but I've been flat on my back with a horrible cold since almost the end of the opera tour on Sunday. I think my body put up with so much stress about whether or not that was going to happen, and if it did, how smoothly it was going to go, that as soon as it was over (and without too many actual problems thank god!), it just relaxed its defenses and now I'm being ravaged by all the bugs that my companion has been plagued with all winter. Fortunately classes are done and I have a couple of weeks to just rest and recoup with nothing at all to do. For the first time between terms I don't even have to study for the LPC exam, it really is nothing at all to do (and BTW, I got the confirmation from the testing company in the mail on Wednesday confirming that I passed and that my scores were sent to the state and that I should have my license within 2-3 weeks. Of course that means that I'll get the registration packet with more forms to fill out and another check to write in 2-3 and then I'll get my license a few weeks after that, the state does need all the money it can get). I've been fiddling with my mp3 player, finally updating it with all the new music I got and let pile up while I was studying and getting my music. With my most recent emusic allotment I finished up the Kander & Ebb compilation, got Sean McDermott's newer CD, A Piece of Sky (which is just ok, half the songs are good, but half are rather lackluster, he's got the voice but there doesn't seem to be much passion or conviction in his singing, I'm debating about whether or not I want the older one), Linda Hwang playing violin concerts by Grieg, Saint-Saens, and Janacek, John Barrowman's Aspects of Lloyd Webber (much better than Sean, you can tell that he loves singing what he does), and started on a recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations (which does have a Broadway connection as the Variations are the subjects of Jane Fonda's new play). The next allotment will be just enough to finish up the Variations and then I'll probably start on some of the older recordings that I've had in my Froogle list forever like Babes in Arms or A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine. The other good news is that apparently someone important is reading my blog as a couple of days after my last post, it was announced that there will indeed be a cast recording of The Story of my Life!!! It was recorded last week and will be released on June 2. It's on the Ghostlight label so it should be available on emusic and I can get it when my downloads refresh about a week later. I love it when things work out like that!

In addition to OD'ing once again on music, I've been quite busy finally getting back to seeing things. We did Miss Saigon a few weeks ago, the third to last performance and it was fabulous, and then last Sunday we had the opera backstage tour. We did get our picture taken on the stage, so when I get it in the mail I'll get it scanned and posted (and BTW, I know I said I'd post some Aladdin pics, but given Disney's litigious history, I've decided against that, the last thing I need is a court order demanding that I take them down and pay royalties for using their images without permission, so if you want to see them, you'll need to come visit me). Yesterday I finally got tickets for Xanadu (March 29 matinee, the second to last performance), A Chorus Line (April 21) and La Clemenza di Tito at Chicago Opera Theatre (May 1). Once those are done and a new credit card billing cycle has begun (extra important now that I've just renewed the Lyric and Music of the Baroque subscriptions and need to book my next colloquium within the next few weeks), we'll look at Pacific Overtures and Theo Ubique's highly acclaimed production of Evita. They did such a great job with Flora, I'm excited to see how they pull this one off. It is very operatic though, so I'm sure the stripped down staging probably works very well since it lets the characters come through easier without all the stage distractions, and it can't be worse than that horrible touring version that came through the Auditorium a couple years ago. New York appears to be permanently on hold right now, but there is so much to see here at home for a lot cheaper that I'm not too distraught about that right now. In addition to these great shows, the Art Institute has that Edvard Munch retrospective which is far more interesting than anything the Met, MOMA, or Guggenheim have going right now. That's also a lot more fiscally responsible right now too and keeps my money at home where it has more of a chance to come back and benefit me more directly. However, in a concession to the economy, we will not be renewing Northlight. We only really subscribed this season because we wanted to see everything they were doing, and next season is not so exciting, I really only want to see Souvenier, so we'll just get individual tickets.

Lastly, our hearts do go out to the Redgrave and Neeson families. It still hasn't fully sunk in that Natasha Richardson actually died, it was such a freak accident. I totally loved her 10 years ago when she was in Cabaret and came this close to naming my new car (at that time) after her, although I ended up settling on Bebe, after the star of the other huge K&E revival of the time since the white color of the car seemed to be more fitting. I would have loved to have seen what else she could have accomplished. RIP Natasha.

Keeping in Touch

2009-03-01T13:47:00.003-06:00

Well, as I promised, it hasn't been another 6 weeks between posts, although it still has been way too long. No rest for the wicked, it's been papers and postings for the past several weeks with only two more weeks to go and then a short break! Obviously, I am not in New York, but will hopefully be there towards the end of March, which is nice because I'll be between classes and won't have to take time out to do anything, which is always a plus. I do wish Cheyenne the best with his cabaret debut tomorrow and hope with all my heart that it is the first step towards ultimately releasing a solo CD.

Cav/Pag was excellent, and we've only got one more opera this season, Abduction from the Seraglio on the 22nd. We're doing the backstage tour on the 15th, which I'm very excited about, although I've been told they don't allow cameras, which is somewhat disappointing. Still, the premium package includes getting our picture taken on stage, so hopefully I will get that scanned and posted.

I've got Miss Saigon at Drury Lane next Saturday, and that's all that's on the immediate tap. We've got Mauritius at Northlight on the 28th and we're looking at Xanadu sometime in April, it is getting extended piecemeal, and then I must get tickets for Chorus Line (can you seriously believe that I've never had a chance to see it in my ## years on this planet?).

In music news, Liza's CD is fabulous, although it kind of threw me that it was actually a studio recording instead of live like Liza's Back was. I can just imagine all the applause she must have gotten at various points, so I can understand how a studio recording may have been preferrable, the listener can actually hear her instead of only getting the audience. Plus, it's nice to have studio versions of My Own Best Friend and New York, New York. I've listened to John Barrowman (Fabulous), as well as finally the Guys & Dolls and Lady in the Dark Recordings. For an anonymous company, the G&D recording is excellent and is really making me rethink my stance on that show. Yeah, the movie isn't all that great, but I'm really looking forward to getting to see the new revival when we go to New York. Lady in the Dark is also quite stellar, much more musical than I'd expect a Weill show to be. I just wish I could figure out even just a tiny bit of what the plot is actually about! But, that's what Wikipedia is for, I just need to find a few minutes somewhere. I've still got Once on this Island (the London one, in order to avoid that Bitch, although speaking of her, I also listened to The Secret Garden, which I copied from the library, and that is a truly fabulous score, it's too bad the creative team hasn't done much since, I'd love to see what else they could come up with, and Daisy Egan totally deserved her Tony, it's also too bad that she hasn't done much else since), and Sondheim: The Story so Far on my mp3 disc in my car and should hopefully get through them in about the next week and a half, which will then be just in time to download a new allotment of emusic and create a new disc for the car. Up next is finishing the Musicality of Kander & Ebb and then getting Sean McDermott's newer CD, John Barrowman's older CD, and then starting on Barbara Cook's new CD with any remaining allotments. I'm hoping they'll get Next to Normal once that's recorded. I'm thinking they'll release it before the Broadway opening because it's free publicity, but we'll see. After hearing so much about it, I'm very excited to finally get to hear it. Something else I'm also excited to hear but probably never will is The Story of my Life. I was not interested at all from the pre-opening publicity (I really don't care for Malcolm Gets), but when they announced that it was closing right after it opened, they finally spilled the beans and the plot sounded really interesting. It's a murder mystery!!! That is not at all what the pre-publicity made it sound like, and I can understand the lack of interest. Hopefully with the small cast, it'll be a natural pick up for local companies (I'm thinking Bailiwick, but since they're currently homeless that's kind of a long shot. About Face would also be good, but seeing as how they've cancelled the rest of their season due to massive debt, I don't think that will happen either. Ironically it's probably too small for Porchlight, although there's still a good chance, or maybe BoHo, which did such a fabulous job with Sideshow on a shoestring). We'll see. I doubt there'll be a cast recording, but you never know. Anyways, time to get back to work. I'm not making any promises, but hopefully I'll get a posting up after the opera tour.

Oscar Mania!

2009-02-18T21:32:00.001-06:00

Well, as I promised, I’m doing something new in honor of the Oscars this weekend. Since I haven’t seen any of the major nominees, while I could make predictions based on the awards season so far and the CW going into the weekend (Kate Winslet is on track to become the female Peter O’Toole, the Academy screwed her with her The Reader nomination, it’s FINALLY Meryl’s year, although for the wrong movie IMHO). So, instead of offering unsure predictions of the future, I thought it would be fun to kick off an annual event (at least for the next 6 years) and instead evaluate what has come before. So, in order from worst to best, here is how all the previous Best Picture winners stack up (next year will be directors, I’m predicting that the long overdue Danny Boyle will be part of that list, although it would be pretty cool if the just as long overdue David Fincher was instead). Just a note before we get started though, while this is a comprehensive list, two of the Best Picture winners: Wings (the first BP winner, from 1928) and Cavalcade (the 6th BP winner, from 1933) are not available for home viewing in any format, so I was unable to watch the in order to rate them. So, while there are 80 BP winners, we’ll only be covering 78, with the understanding that Wings and Cavalcade could fit anywhere in the ranking. Also, a little known historical curiosity is that in 1933, the first year of the Oscars, there were actually 2 Best Picture winners. Wings won Best Picture: Production, while Sunrise won Best Picture: Artistic Achievement. However, for reasons known only to itself, the next year the academy decided to scrap that format and only anoint one Best Picture winner. By some process, it was decided that Wings would be the official Best Picture winner from 1933 and has been the identified winner ever since, with Sunrise settling for recognition of its Best Actress and Cinematography wins. So, with all that said, let’s get this started, from worst to best, the Best Picture winners have been:

78. Titanic (1997): Really, if you have any taste at all, you’ll understand why no further justification is needed.
77. Forrest Gump (1994): A glorification of mediocrity and mental simplicity, was this the Academy’s attempt to pre-emptively justify it’s Best Picture picks for most of the next decade?
76. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003): A nearly incomprehensible story with all the visual panache and emotional heft of a video game. CGI is no substitute for either story or real special effects.
75. Terms of Endearment (1983): Painful to watch with the way it squandered its formidable talent and star power on a pointless story. There’s more artistry in any Danielle Steele or Jackie Collins novel. Seriously, after almost 30 years of classic movie roles, this is what Shirley MacLaine finally won her Oscar for? Shameful.
74. Tom Jones (1963): What the fuck was this shit? Were all the voters as high as the creators of this artless cabbage had to have been? No artistic or value or relevance here.
73. Annie Hall (1975): Another wtf. Somehow, after years of rightfully ignoring Woody Allen, the Academy somehow got it into its collective head to prematurely honor him for this incomprehensible, joyless, soul sucking, pretentious turd. While I have never been much of a fan of Woody, everyone would have been better off if the Academy had passed on Annie and waited to honor him for Hannah and her Sisters a decade later. Diane’s done much better since too, this entire year needs to be forgotten.
72. The Broadway Melody (1929): The second Best Picture winner and first sound picture to win (although wouldn’t it be more fair to say that Wings was the only silent movie to win?), the academy set artistic achievement back about 10 years by holding this one up as something to aspire to. While talkies were still a fad and obviously a period of adjustment was needed to figure out how to adapt, The Broadway Melody suffers from a chronic inability to decide whether it wanted to be silent or sound and seems to have settled on taking the worst aspects of both and combining them into one dull snoozefest.
71. The English Patient (1996): Better than Fargo? Are you fucking kidding me? Don’t even get me started on Juliette Binoche. Dull and pointless, this is another premature trophy-ation by the Academy; director Anthony Minghella did so much better with The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain, neither of which got respect from the Academy.
70. Cimarron (1931): Basically a live action Looney Toons meets the Old West, only Irene Dunne’s superb performance in the midst of clueless silent stars in the death throes of their careers as sound was proving more than a fad, and a surprisingly pro-social message keep this one from besting Titanic for the title of worst Best Picture.
69. Hamlet (1948): Yet another case (are we sensing a theme here) of right players, wrong picture. You’d think that the combination of Shakespeare, Laurence Olivier (who did/went on to do much better work in Rebecca, and Marathon Man, plus countless of non-nominated roles), and “To Be or not To Be” would be electrifying, yet Larry managed to find every dull moment and stretch it out to an interminable 2 and a half hours. Uninspired camera work and a stagebound adaptation don’t help.
68. The Godfather, Part II (1974): I’ve never understood the fascination with these movies, and while purists claim that this one is superior, the truth is they both suck, but at least things happened in the first one. This one is stupifyingly dull, bogged down with pointless flashback scenes that do nothing to illuminate the present story or move it forward. This is over 3 hours of absolutely nothing happening, and the kicker is that both Chinatown and Lenny were nominees that year. Apparently they split the vote, there’s no other explaining how this one took the prize.
67. Braveheart (1995): A first rate comedy. Too bad it wasn’t intended as one.
66. Dances With Wolves (1990): Beautiful cinematography and art direction can’t make up for an inconsequential story stretched out way too long.
65. You Can’t Take It With You (1938): These kinds of slapstick movies in which intelligent, successful, eloquent people suddenly find themselves unable to respond in an intelligible manner to an authority figure (sometimes a boss or a policeman, usually a judge as in this case) really piss me off. Completely unfunny, all the business is just a house of cards that comes crashing down by the time the obligatory indoor fireworks scene rolls around.
64. Gladiator (2000): Just like Dances, it’s way too long for interest level of a fairly perfunctory story. Way too much CGI completely ruins any human interest. How did Ridley Scott go from the fabulous effects combined with interesting storytelling of Alien and Bladerunner to this color-by-numbers unoriginal, uninteresting dreck?
63. A Beautiful Mind (2001): Written by the man responsible for Batman & Robin and executed by Opie. Need I say more? The story is supposed to be about a genius overcoming mental illness, a potentially interesting story, but nothing in the movie establishes his genius, his theory that won him the Nobel prize is a footnote to the story, no justification for his greatness is given, and the movie comes off as a Lifetime movie of the week.
62. Rain Man (1988): As with Mind, there’s a kernel of a good story here, but it takes the easy road and cheap shot at every opportunity.
61. Platoon (1986): Another beautifully shot non-story. There’s no emotional connection to any of the characters and so no engaging story. As I mentioned earlier, this should have been Woody’s year for Hannah and her Sisters and Oliver Stone could have waited. Given his output since then, he should still be waiting.
60. A Man For All Seasons (1966): Despite Paul Scofield’s commanding presence, gorgeous art direction, and a message more relevant now than ever, this movie unfortunately can’t overcome its stage origin. As we’ll see later on, there are ways to adapt a play into a brilliant movie, but simply adding exterior shots and background movement only enhance a sense of shallowness that can’t be overcome. Fred Zinneman’s relentless attempts at it though only serve to further beat the viewer into a comatose state.
59. Out Of Africa (1985): Do I have to say it again? Beautiful cinematography and art direction cannot overcome a weak and irrelevant story. A woman arranges a marriage to her friend for mutual financial gain on the condition that they not act like man and wife, and the instant he lives by that agreement she turns needy and vengeful, how are we supposed to care? Director Sydney Pollack did a much better job at plumbing a complex unusual relationship over a decade earlier in The Way We Were, also with star Robert Redford. If they had put just a fraction of that effort to use here, this could have been something. Instead it’s a National Geographic Channel special.
58. The Godfather (1972): While Bob Fosse at least managed to steal some of the thunder that night, it’s a shame that Cabaret couldn’t have gone the distance. For three hours I kept waiting to see what the big deal was with this movie. I’m still waiting.
57. Mrs. Miniver (1942): Maybe if I hadn’t watched this in early 2003 as Bush was trying to recycle the same pro-war message William Wyler was attempting to impart to justify the United States’s impending entry into WWII, I might like this one better. Instead, it comes off as a pro-war propaganda piece worthy of Stalin-era Soviet filmmaking. Anything else Wyler did is more deserving.
56. My Fair Lady (1964): A terrific score and excellent camerawork can’t make up for an inconsistent story and a horrible ending (seriously, just what is her reasoning for going back to him, the movie gives us no explanation, she storms off in a huff, he sees the light which she would have no way of knowing given that she’s not there, and then suddenly she shows up with all forgiven). This one is really more of a lifetime achievement award for director George Cuckor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), it’s too bad that this is the one that served as that symbol.
55. Schindler’s List (1993): Alright, we see another theme here, stretching an interesting story that could have been tight at an hour and 40 minutes out to 3+ hours is not artistic achievement. It’s an important story, but it feels too much like eating your vegetables.
54. The Apartment (1960): In the year of Psycho? Really? Of course, it wasn’t even nominated, but it signaled an impending shift in the way movies were thought of and how stories could be told, and this conventional, lightweight rom com is supposed to be the best of the year? They really dropped the ball on this one.
53. Chariots of Fire (1981): A solid movie ruined by a laugh inducing score that shrieks out electronic claptrap at the most inappropriate moments. Reds was by far a better choice, but was way too liberal for the early 80’s Regan Revolution and had to settled for Best Director for Warren Beatty as its consolation prize while this simplistic ode to unwavering belief in yourself and the rightness of your cause (thus meshing perfectly with Reagan-era politics) won the day.
52. The Deer Hunter (1978): Tom Jones notwithstanding, this is probably the most curious entry in the 80 year history of the Oscars. The story can’t figure out what it really wants to be about and despite its epic length, it felt like the story was rushed because not enough time is spend on any strand, and we’re left wondering what the purpose of it all was supposed to be. None of the other nominees that year were any stronger so it was the best choice, but it’s still an odd moment in Academy history.
51. From Here To Eternity (1953): Similar to Deer Hunter, it tries to pack in way too much in an attempt to please everyone and ends up giving short shrift to every story line. Still, I’ll take Burt Lancaster in a swimsuit over a Pennsylvania coal-town miner in the water any day.
50. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947): Yes, I know, the now-anachronistic anti-Semitism really stands for any type of discrimination and prejudice, but it’s still hard to take it seriously, and the way the movie treats Celeste Holm’s character, it sends the message that a person who spends their entire life fighting prejudice is not as important as a pretentious closet hater who realizes the error of her ways and makes a small gesture with the cover intention of winning a man.
49. Driving Miss Daisy (1989): Unoffensively pleasant, but that’s about it.
48. Gigi (1958): Another one that I just can’t understand what the deal is. I find it cold and distant with an undistinguished score and pedestrian story. As with Cuckor, this is really Vincente Minnelli’s lifetime achievement award and it’s also too bad that he couldn’t have gotten it for something more deserving.
47. Rocky (1976): Not really good, not too bad either, just bland, and what’s with that horribly 70’s hat Sly wears in one of his first scenes? Since he hadn’t yet become the caricature that he is now, Rocky is really only bad in comparison to the greatness of the other nominees that year.
46. It Happened One Night (1934): And we now cross the line from less deserving to more deserving. While insignificant in story, it’s a rollicking good time with a superb cast. What I wouldn’t give to trade places with Claudette Colbert.
45. All The King’s Men (1949): Another one I watched in early 2003 and this one sat much better with me. Still, it’s a little frustrating that the only solution to a seemingly inevitable despot about to be elected president is assassination. It doesn’t really give us a solution to the problem it presents, but maybe that’s the point? Still, commanding performances and a riveting story made this a very unlikely winner.
44. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930): It takes a while to get going, partially because, like most movies of the early Hollywood era, all the characters look exactly the same and it’s hard to tell what’s going on. But, once everything gets established, it’s a powerful and unfortunately still incredibly relevant story.
43. On The Waterfront (1954): Another unlikely winner, it often feels more like a big budget weekly Playhouse production, but hearfelt performances and a responsible message combine with the relatively short running time to keep the viewer’s interest.
42. The Lost Weekend (1945): Sometimes a little too earnest and preachy, it nevertheless tells a too often untold story. While director/writier Wilder would continue great achievements, it was unfortunately star Ray Milland’s only brush with greatness.
41. An American In Paris (1951): Similar to Gigi in that I can’t understand what the fascination is, it at least features Gene Kelly and a sparkling Gershwin score. The only problem is that the storytelling is a mess. The movie spends about 2 hours building up a confrontation between Leslie Carron’s character and Gene Kelly’s benefactress, only to whiff with the improbably graceful bow-out by said benefactress, which was quite a let down. Still, it’s the music that makes the movie.
40. Unforgiven (1992): After the damage of Cimarron, it took the Academy a long time to finally reward another western, but this time they got it oh so right. It was the night’s long-shot winner, but in the subsequent almost 17 years, it’s stood the test of time far better than any of the other nominees.
39. In The Heat Of The Night (1967): Okay, so this one hasn’t stood the test of time as well as The Graduate or Bonnie and Clyde, two other nominees, but it’s a fuck of a lot better than Dr. Doolittle, and is a surprisingly candid look at race relations, especially considering that despite it’s unwarranted liberal reputation, Hollywood is always two steps behind when it comes to telling socially responsible stories at the time they’re needed.
38. The Great Ziegfeld (1936): Truly spectacular if somewhat narratively slight, it’s filled with commanding performances and gorgeous set pieces. I’m truly surprised that it hasn’t been remade or adapted for Broadway. If not really the best movie of 1936, it was at least the most entertaining.
37. The Greatest Show On Earth (1952): Much maligned as the worst winner ever, Show deserves a lot more credit than it gets. Yes, it’s indulgent and overly long, but it’s a surprisingly accurate allegory of life in post WWII America. Plus, Jimmy Stewart as a clown just can’t be topped.
36. The Last Emporer (1987): Ok, my head says The Last Emperor but my heart says Moonstruck. Still, ignoring the fact that it was not the best of the nominees that year, it is still a phenomenally impressive achievement no less worthy by virtues of Moonstruck’s being more worthy.
35. Patton (1970): Honestly, I did not expect to like this one as much as I did. While the first hour is a little too GI Joe: Sergeant Slaughter, the remaining 2 hours are a riveting Shakespearian character study of a man who knows he is about to be obsolete yet carries out his obligations, often unthanked, anyways. Truly fascinating, great camerawork, and a picture perfect ending.
34. The Sting (1973): 1973 was a great year for movies, with the previously mentioned The Way We Were, which was not nominated, and the now classic The Exorcist, plus the unjustly forgotten A Touch of Class, which both were. This was a tough call and another one of Oscar’s oddities. Of course Exorcist should have been the big winner, but a movie this fun with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Eileen Brennan (who should have gotten her Oscar nomination here instead of the dreadful Private Benjamin) can’t be ignored.
33. Crash (2005): Ok, here it is. Yes, it was a spoiler and yes, Brokeback was more deserving, but if people didn’t like it, they wouldn’t have voted for it, and it’s a lot better than the backlash would lead you to believe. Plus, the best movie of that year was A History Of Violence which was not even nominated, so the controversy is rather moot.
32. No Country for Old Men (2007): A shockingly bold choice by Oscar, although There Will Be Blood would have been bolder.
31. The French Connection (1971): A very tough year as A Clockwork Orange and The Last Picture Show were both nominated and have come to represent the very best of 70’s filmmaking. Still, Connection is a terrific movie on its own merits with that car chase, Gene Hackman, and a lovely gritty, almost bankrupt, NYC. If atmosphere trumps story, it’s still a great atmosphere.
30. Around the World in 80 Days (1956): Another unjustly maligned winner, this time for being the second worst winner, World is nevertheless a pure delight. David Niven is perfectly in character, and unlike Out of Africa, the locations serve to further the story, moving the picture from beyond a run of the mill travelogue to a truly engaging story. This is why movies were made.
29. How Green Was My Valley (1941): Also much maligned given the magnitude of the competition that year (The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, as well as Suspicion and The Little Foxes), Valley can sometimes come across as cloyingly precocious, but it still has a lot to say, and says it very well.
28. American Beauty (1999): While my personal favorite that year was The Sixth Sense, which went home empty handed, Beauty had been such a steamroller at all the pre-Oscar awards that its win was pretty much pre-ordained, which makes the magnitutde of the backlash somewhat incomprehensible. It’s a smart, wickedly subversive and funny movie that was surprisingly prescient of the 8 years of American nightmare about to come. Too bad it represents the career peak of both director Sam Mendes as well as Best Actor Kevin Spacey. Neither of them has had a real hit since.
27. Grand Hotel (1932): Now we’re getting it. The first Best Picture winner to actually be really good, it was also one of the first all-star extravaganzas (of course it was only by this time that Hollywood actually had enough stars to make an all-star extravaganza). Of course, it’s the basis for the 1990 musical of the same name, which I would LOVE to see get the big screen adaptation (Gary Marshall needs a hit. . .). Fabulous in every possible way.
26. Ordinary People (1980): A surprising winner given that Raging Bull was expected to dominate, but voters were won over by the intimate and touching story. A very important story that shows that special effects, larger than life characters, and an epic length are not necessary to make your point.
25. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979): Ditto my last sentence. Obviously Robert Redford learned from the previous year’s winner. The only drawback with KvK’s win is that All That Jazz, one of the top 10 movies ever, was also one of the nominees, but this is one of those society-changing movies that had a lasting impact beyond that year’s Oscar ceremony.
24. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935): Fantastic effects for any year, much less 1935. Bounty suffers from a similar problem as All Quiet in that many of the young men on board look exactly the same, so it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys (of course, good guys vs. bad guys is the theme of the movie, but this just complicates comprehension). Still, there’s no confusing Charleton Heston and Clark Gable.
23. The Silence of the Lambs (1991): Oscar’s boldest choice. Period. Of course, I’m partial to The Prince of Tides, but Silence is riveting, shocking, electrifying, and every other superlative you can think of. Despite a crappy sequel and an ok remake of the prequel, Silence was another one of those fundamentally genre changing, not to mention industry changing movies.
22. Million Dollar Baby (2004): Clint’s real masterpiece and proof that Hilary Swank was not a one hit wonder. Now, if she could chose a movie like this every year and not once every 5.
21. The Departed (2006): While it may be a little premature ranking such a recent movie so high, The Departed has held up well over repeated viewings. It’s intelligent without being unintelligible and entertaining without being condescending. It’s much much more than just an excuse to finally give Scorcese the Oscar.
20. Casablanca (1943): Epic, heartbreaking, and important, but within a manageable running time, this is what all directors should aspire too. Of course having the best actors/actresses in Hollywood doesn’t hurt either.
19. Shakespeare in Love (1998): Yes, it’s better than Saving Private Ryan and Gwyneth Paltrow was better than Cate Blanchett. Just because she hasn’t done anything as good since, don’t hold this one against her.
18. Marty (1955): A totally improbable winner, just like its title character.
17. The Life of Emile Zola (1937): Initially unassuming, this paean to standing up for the little guy no matter what the personal cost is ultimately inspiriing on many levels. The prototypic bio-pic that every film biography should aspire to.
16. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975): While it’s always the cliché’s that the movie has since fostered that stick in your mind, watching this movie is always a riveting experience every time, reminding one of just how truly great it really is. While Jack and Louise give textbook worthy performances, the movie is more than just an acting showcase, it’s an experience.
15. Going My Way (1944): Another oddity, this gentle movie is incredibly uplifting and moving. Bing Crosby is something of an anti-Chigurh (the type of character now favored by Academy voters in acting categories), bringing goodness wherever he goes. It’s fallen by the wayside somewhat in movie history, but is worth discovering.
14. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): Everything a movie should be. Massive in scope yet intimate in scale, this movie has everything going for it and succeeds tremendously. Director David Lean surpases himself a few years later (see #12) but after that never again came close.
13. Rebecca (1940): Mrs. DeWinter bin ich!!!! No, it’s not a musical, but it is Hitchcock’s only movie to win Best Picture, although sadly he lost Best Director that year to John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath) and despite several additional nominations, never came as close to winning as he did here. Creepy and atmospheric, it’s not a “typical” Hitchcock picture (he didn’t truly settle on his personal style until about 5 years later), you can see what he would become. Unfortunately, that greatness has now somewhat overshadowed Rebecca, but as with Going My Way, it’s worth seeking out.
12. Lawrence of Arabia (1962): What Patton was trying to be. While Best Actor winner Gregory Peck was good in To Kill A Mockingbird, Peter O’Toole’s loss is still incomprehensible.
11. Midnight Cowboy (1969): Another shockingly bold choice by Oscar, this one is still mindboggling. This really presaged the upcoming golden era of independent cinema in the 70’s before everything got acquired by larger studios. The sense of depression is palpable but essential. It’s shocking that Cowboy only won director and picture given how groundbreaking it was.
10. Ben-Hur (1959): As shocking as Cowboy was 10 years later, Ben-Hur is as extreme in its conservative conventionalness, but nevertheless manages to be a truly terrific movie. In over 3 hours it never wears out its welcome, and while the overall message is somewhat noxious on the heels of the Bush years, that doesn’t lessen its overall impact.
9. Gone with the Wind (1939). What remains to be said? Simply a phenomenal achievement on all levels.
8. Oliver! (1968): Another one lost in history, possibly since Funny Girl was its main competition and as Barbra became a force to be reckoned with, voters may have regretted not being prescient and awarding her picture top prize. Plus, Oscar decided it didn’t want more, waiting almost 35 years before selecting another musical as Best Picture. However, Oliver! is a joy to watch and a triumph of artistic skill.
7. Chicago (2002): More than just razzle dazzle, this is the movie that after those 35 years, finally broke the musical losing streak. Seeing as how Chicago is my favorite Broadway musical, I was rather worried that the movie would suck, but it so does not.
6. Gandhi (1982): Simply inspiring, proof that CGI is not necessary to make an epic movie (and I’m talking to you Ridley Scott).
5. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946): William Wyler made up for Mrs. Miniver with this still relevant story of returning war veterans trying to pick up their lives. It’s sad how relevant this movie still is, but proof that this really is one of the best movies ever.
4. West Side Story (1961): A revolution in storytelling techniques, WSS used every aspect of visual artistry to tell its story. What Hamlet got wrong in its Shakespearian adaptation, WSS get exactly right.
3. All About Eve (1950): It feels like I’ve used every possible superlative up to this point, but they still all apply to Eve. A tremendous joy to watch, it makes me miss a New York I never had a chance to know.
2. Amadeus (1984): As I mentioned with Man for all Seasons, there are ways to adapt a play into a terrific movie, and Amadeus is it. I’ve seen the stage version and it is amazing how close the movie sticks to it yet manages to fill in the blanks to become a fully living breathing movie instead of just a filmed stage production like Man. A sumptuous feast for the eyes and ears, it’s too bad that no one involved has really done anything of note since, although Tom Hulce has become the Broadway producer du jour, which counts for something. If I was stranded on a desert island and could only have one movie with me, this would be the one (but only because it’s longer than the #1 Best Picure winner, thus keeping me occupied for a slightly longer period of time before getting bored again).
1. The Sound of Music (1965): It’s not just the hills, it’s the entire silver screen that’s alive. Not just the best Best Picture winner, Music is one of the best movies period with its gorgeous score, genuine performances, and inspiring (and sadly, still relevant) story. If only we could all sing evil away, the last 8 years might never have happened.

So there we go, the Best Picture winners that deserved it, didn’t deserve it, were good, and truly sucked. While it’s rare that the best movie of the year actually wins Best Picture, it happens just enough to keep us tuning in every year. So, with that, next year you can see my take on the directors.

Here She Is Boys!

2009-02-12T09:55:00.001-06:00

Well, it's the day after my testing date and you're reading a new post, which can only mean one thing. I passed the LPC exam and can get on with my life!!!!! For all you aspiring counselors out there (and why is it that the mental health field seems to go hand in hand with theatre queens?), I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Howard Rosenthal's audio study program. The test was phenomenally difficult, but listening to his material non-stop for two months obviously sunk in because I passed with a pretty good margin. Oh what the hell, it's my blog, I can brag my ass off. Out of 160 questions (actually, the test was 200 questions but only 160 count because they field test 40 questions, but you don't know which ones those are, so you have to do your best on each question), I only needed a 93 to pass, but I got a 142!!! That's right, despite not having taken graduate classes in 3 of the 6 content areas, I only missed 18 questions on the entire exam! That is pretty damn good if I say so myself, and a big fuck you to the state licensing board that tried to deny me my right to take the exam.

Now, on to more important things. During my hiatus I did catch The Seafarer at Steppenwolf and I strongly recommend running to the next available performance. It is a truly remarkable show. It does require some willingness to go along with it, but if you do you will be greatly rewarded. I also saw Madame Butterfly and Tristan und Isolde at the Lyric, both were excellent. I enjoyed Butterfly much more this time than I did the last time they did it, probably because this time I was expecting the epic length of the second act and made sure to monitor my liquid intake that morning. That is over now, but Tristan is just starting and if you have 4 hours and 45 minutes to spare, you can't find a better way to spend it. Debbie V. of course is fabulous and seems to have overcome the fatigue that reviewers of earlier performances at the Met and Vienna complained of, she made it through the entire thing and the end was just exquisite. The sets are different than the 1999-2000 production, they're a little more traditional with a touch of Disney inspiration in their use of bright primary colors (go see it, you'll see what I mean), and while I liked the 99 production better, these ones also work, and it's the singing that really makes the show.

Still no definite word yet on a possible trip to NY at the end of the month, my companion is really dragging his heels on getting it set up. It looks though like West Side Story is sold out that entire time, but South Pacific actually has tickets available on Sunday and I just got an email from playbill.com for 20%. I guess since Matty left no one wants to see it any more (and is anyone as excited about Glee as I am? Hopefully Fox will treat it better than they did Arrested Development, RIP). I would like to stay on Monday the 2nd to catch Cheyenne's cabaret debut, but that sucker sold out fast, so we're following our usual pattern. I certainly wish him the best though, and if he needs a stress reliever before the show, Starbucks on Friday morning! Locally we're trying to set a date for Miss Saigon at Drury Lane, and it looks like it will be the final weekend of the show, on March 7, cutting it close as usual. We're also trying to get a date for La Clemenza di Tito at Chicago Opera Theatre in April. I saw a terrific production in Prague 2 1/2 years ago, and while I'm sure the staging of this will be different, the music and story are excellent, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it again. It's one of the few Mozart operas that I truly enjoy. Looking a little further ahead is Xanadu and A Chorus Line, as well as Porchlight's production of Pacific Overtures, along with the rest of our operas and Northlight shows.

So the big story in the immediate future is the Oscars. This is the second year in a row that I haven't seen any of the major nominees. What's with the lack of Mamma Mia love? Best picture of the year, seriously. So, instead of doing my usual predictions, look for something a little different in the next week. Ok, it's time to get back to work. No rest for the Wicked. I've got a lot of music to catch up on, all of the CD's I got for Christmas as well as my emusic downloads (the Maurice Hines Guys & Dolls, NEO (finally!), the London Once on this Island (so much better without that bitch who stole Patti's Tony) and Lady in the Dark) plus the pre-passing gift I bought myself last week, Liza! Anyways, see you soon, no more 6 week waits between posts!

Why, oh why, oh Illinois?

2009-01-17T15:08:00.003-06:00

Greetings theatre fans! I know, I got back from Anaheim on the 4th and I'm just getting around to posting now, but I've been very busy getting caught back up with work and school and there just hasn't been much going on. It was very depressing logging on to playbill.com on Monday the 5th and seeing just about every headline on the page announcing a show closing. There were more last weekend, and there will be more on Monday. It's a sad state of affairs. Closer to home, I've got Madame Butterfly at the Lyric tomorrow and Music of the Baroque on Monday (thank god it's a holiday).

Anaheim was wonderful, and I had a great time, although the lack of celeb room calls was a little disappointing. Given the weather in Chicago over the last two weeks since I've been back, I'm wishing I was still there. One of the highlights was seeing Aladdin on Stage at Disney's California Adventure Park. It was a 45 minute stage show of Aladdin. Being so short, it didn't have the same emotional heft as the full movie, but it featured one new song not from the movie (sung by Princess Jasmine in her room right before Aladdin shows up at her window to wisk her away to A Whole New World), as well as the amazing sets and special effects. Given that Beauty and the Beast started out this way, is this a hint of Disney's next Broadway project? It worked much better than I would have expected on stage, with a multi-million dollar budget it could be spectacular. The best part was, we could take pictures, as long as the flash was off, so I got some good ones which I'll post on here sometime in the not too distant future. Then, when I got home, I had a package waiting for me, which was my remaining Christmas presents that hadn't arrived in time for Christmas, and one of them just happened to be the CD of New Girl In Town!!! Apparently it got a new foreign pressing last year and my parents were able to track it down for me! Thank god for Britain's looser copyright laws. Maybe that's how/where we'll finally be able to get Lestat and Dracula on CD someday.

Now, looking ahead to the future, I believe I've mentioned that I'll be taking the Licensed Professional Counselor exam soon, and I finally have a date, February 11 at 1:30. I've been listening to my audio study guide non-stop, which has meant no music until I pass, not even New Girl. Everything is on hold until I pass, which means that this is the last post until I do. If by chance I make it to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or Miss Saigon, I'll post a brief notification, but that is it. Everything else can wait until after I pass, Art, Pacific Overtures, and Xanadu are the other main ones I'm wanting to see, and they'll still be around for a while, and then Once on this Island is a little later in the spring. One other thing to look forward is a potential New York trip the last weekend of February. The timing is great as I will be able to catch preview of 33 Variations, Blithe Spirit, Guys and Dolls, and West Side Story. Little Mermaid will still have to wait until sometime when my companion will be entertaining a client and I can go on my own, and South Pacific is losing its luster with Matthew's departure (although is anyone else as excited about his upcoming TV show as I am?) and with Kelli going on maternity leave. I may just have to mentally file it as a coulda, woulda, shoulda, and leave it at that. So, I believe that gets us caught up. Wish me luck on the 11th, and hopefully I'll be back soon.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T15:11:00.002-06:00

Happy holidays to all you out there in theatre-world. I hope you all got everything you wanted. I got several good theatre-related gifts, including Charles Strauss's autobiography, the book My Unauthorized Travels with Patti LuPone (aka, my future life story), the boxed set Stephen Sondheim: So Far, and the cast recording of Me and My Girl. If I only I wasn't on a no-music plan until I pass the LPC exam in February, I'm obsessively listening to an audio study guide over and over and over and over right now trying to soak up as much as I can.

So, I hopefully head to Anaheim tomorrow. The last week and a half has not been kind to travellers, and with icy rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning, who knows if my flight will actually leave on time. I just checked online, and it's still forecast for on time, but the plane is arriving from LaGuardia, which has also had a tough couple of weeks, so there's still the potential for a lot of problems. Hopefully I'll make it there, otherwise I may be cancelling Disney and spending the week going to see Doubt, Frost/Nixon, and Benjamin Button instead. It would be great to see all of them in a theatre rather than sticking them in my queue. If I do make it to Anaheim, hopefully I'll get a chance to get out between seminars (I've got seminars Saturday though Thursday morning, I'm free tomorrow after I get there then Thursday afternoon and all day next Friday and Saturday when I'll be moving from the Hilton to Disney' Paradise Pier), and hopefully catch some celebrities (Max, Jensen, I'm looking at you!). With Broadway pretty much shutting down, it's a sure thing stars will be flocking back to Hollywood after having fled the other way about 10 years ago. It's good thing I saw all the shows I did this year, Gypsy, Young Frankenstein, and Mindgame are all closing early (Gypsy bumped up from March 1 to next week, so RUN to catch Patti in her best role since Evita), as well as Grease, but no one's going to be sad to see that one go. Boeing-Boeing is shutting down as well, leaving only In The Heights, August, and South Pacific as the last major Tony forces standing. Normally, this kind of clearing out would be good if it allowed for shows waiting in the wings to finally make it onto Broadway, but other than 9 to 5, it doesn't look like there's much product waiting to take these show's places. In fact, there's more off-Broadway now that I want to see than on Broadway (A Prayer for my Enemy and Dust are the top two). Hair may end up not showing up at all, and of February's upcoming revivals, only Blithe Spirit seems to have the star power to guarantee an audience, and being a play, it will have lower costs, increasing the probability that it will actually play, Guys & Dolls and West Side Story are question marks right now. Lastly, was any else surprised by the reception that Pal Joey got? Granted, I managed to catch Christian Hoff (a story that's now up there with my seeing Chita Rivera's half a performance in Spider Womaan story), but Matthew Risch did a great job with the small part he had then, and he's so unfairly stinking cute that I'd think the show would be a slam dunk. I find myself a little, bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by the show's reviews. Anyways, hopefully it'll still pull in its audience, Martha has been the one part of the show to get consistent praise (Tony award anyone?) and Stockard should be a good draw in her first musical role since Grease. Plus, it's old Broadway, a reminder of a better time. So, unless I get any good candids in Anaheim, which I promise to post right away, I'll talk to you all when I get back and my calendar starts filling up again.

Time to Catch Up, or Another Winter in a Winter City

2008-12-14T15:40:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted, and a lot has happened. Fortunately, the term ended on Friday so I now have a couple of weeks to relax and not feel so stressed. With nothing else to do I can write away.

So, since I last saw you, I've seen Sarah Brightman, Mame, and Grey Gardens as well as picked up some fab music.

Sarah as expected was fabulous. She looks amazing and still sounds like she did on the Phantom cast recording (and no, I don't think she was lip syncing). We had terrific seats, in the 10o ring about 5 rows up from the main floor, about 2/3 of the way back from the stage (although the stage itself took up about 1/3 of the floor, a full house for this concert was only about 1/2 the audience for most other events, but it was still packed). As promised in her press releases, the technology was truly fantastic. It was a bare stage but she had a massive screen behind her that allowed for 3-D projections so it really looked like she was walking around in the castle featured in the liner art for Symphony. She only did five songs from Symphony, and three of them were the first three songs. She opened with a fierce Fleurs du Mal, which was exactly everything I expected a Sarah Brightman concert to be, and I could have gone home after that song fully satisfied. She followed it up with Let It Rain, another one of my favorites, and then did Symphony. The backdrop for all the songs was the forboding castle. She then took a costume change and came back and started a long synopsis of earlier works, so the concert really was more of a greatest hits show than supporting the CD, but it sure made the audience (and me) quite happy. Later in the show she did Sarai Qui and closed the show with a fierce Running, which was again exactly everything I imagined one of her concerts to be. Along the way she did What A Wonderful World, which was quite a wonderful surprise since she never released it as a single even though it's the best song on Harem and the only version I like, The Phantom of the Opera, La Luna, You Take My Breath Away, and of course, Time To Say Goodbye, which she closed out the second act with before coming back to do her encores. There were lots of fabulous costumes and props, and it was a wonderful night. The only misfire was some wierd song she did mid-way through the second act in which she was dressed like Little Red Riding Hood and her dancers were dressed like Alice in Wonderland Characters and she was riding this wierd exercise bike with the projections making it look like she was riding through a forest being chased by wolves on motorcycles. I'm not sure what the song was, the chorus was something along the lines of her repeating "It's in my mind," but it wasn't Phantom. It may have been from Whistle Down the Wind because I know that one has a biker gang featured in it, but it wasn't a great song and visually just did not fit in with the rest of the concert. Fortunately, once it was done she did another costume change and came back and closed out the set with Christmas songs from Winter Symphony (which by the way I got from my Secret Santa at my practice's holiday party on Friday and listened to yesterday on the way too and from Grey Gardens and is a fabulous CD. I'm not into pop Christmas music other than the Carpenters, Vanessa Williams, and Linda Eder, but hers is a terrific edition to that elite group). The only other drawback to the night was that it felt like my friend and I were trapped in an open casting call for the next Cocoon sequel. There were so many old people there getting in the way, taking FOREVER to get up and down the stairs in the section. It took forever to get out, they were treating the aisle like an airplane and letting each 30-some seat aisle empty out before moving up, and since we were so close to the floor, it took forever and I did not want to get stuck in the parking lot with all of them behind the wheel. Once we got out we ran, which then put us in front of the very first people to have gotten out of the Allstate and we got out of the lot very quickly without incident. Another diva down, I think I just have Annie Lennox and then I can die.

Two nights later was Mame at Drury Lane, which was another terrific experience. My companion and I had planned to go out and do Christmas shopping first, but it was beyond fucking cold that night, so we just went out and had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, went to Borders, and then went to the theatre. It's so ridiculous that winter didn't end until June this year and now it's like it never left. I am so ready to move when I finish school and get licensed. At least it makes me look forward even more to Annaheim. While at Borders, I picked up the Liza Minnelli complete A & M recordings, which is a wonderful mix. It's her 4 A &M albums that she released between doing Flora and Cabaret and it reflects an interesting period in her professional life. Of course she sounds fabulous, but the music itself is a mixed bag. The first album is the best of the bunch, featuring several songs that have since become her concert standards. The next two are much more 60's pop oriented and sound somewhat dated, although of course they have their standouts, but I'm more inclined to pick and choose and just create a playlist rather than listen to them in their entirety. The fourth one though is also a winner, her first live CD done in a French nightclub in Paris, and this was the famous, career changing show that the producers of Cabaret came to see and convinced them to sign her to the movie. Her energy comes though loud and clear and is a harbinger of Liza with a Z. It closes the CD package out nicely, and really makes me want to hop the next plane to New York to catch her show before it closes, although that may not be the best idea. In top Madeline Kahn form, she got rave reviews from opening night and then promptly cancelled the rest of the week due to exhaustion. I'm a little confused about why she's cribbing from Madeline's playbook since Madeline's shennagins allowed Liza to nab the 1976 Tony, although to be fair, she was practically doing the same thing herself then, just not as egregiously as Madeline. Her producers didn't petition the Tony Committee to invalidate her eligibility and nominate her understudy instead. Still, having benefitted from the consequences of other people pulling these tricks, I'm a little confused as to why she's now doing it (sniff, sniff). Methinks her recently announced extension of the extension is an attempt at damage control, we'll see how well it works. Anyways, back to Mame. The show of course was fabulous. A good chunk of the Boys from Syracuse cast was back, which again makes me wonder how they plan on casting Miss Saigon, but we'll find that out in a few weeks. The set was fantastic and really makes me want to decorate my office in Art Deco style whenever I finally get my own private practice office. Of course the music was fabulous and everyone did a terrific job. I believe next weekend is the last weekend, so go see it.

Then, last night, we had the best of the bunch, Grey Gardens at Northlight Theatre. As expected, Hollis Resnick rocked the dual role of Big Edie/Little Edie, but the big surprise was how well the show held up when done on a much more intimate scale. Because the music is somewhat harsh when fully orchestrated, I was expected it not to sound so good with a reduced orchestra, but orchestrator Doug Peck did a fabulous job keeping it sounding full and musical. The true measure of a show's quality is how well it can stand up when plucked off of a Broadway stage and redone in a more intimate setting, and Grey Gardens hold up nicely, unlike the more spectacle driven shows like Miss Saigon or Phantom (the Maury Yeston one which is just about as opulent as the more famous version), which completely fall apart when deconstructed (note to Drury Lane, you've got to have the helicopter, there is no getting around it). However, Grey Gardens, like the surprisingly well done in a small setting Ragtime and Kiss of the Spider Woman really comes into its own. The focus is even more on the symbiotic yet parasitic relationship between the two Edies and really packs an emotional punch by the end. The set was a great reduction of the Broadway one (although let's not praise that too heavily and focus on its original aspects instead, we don't want another Urinetown debacle on our hands), conveying the immense wealth of the family in the first act and the decript ruin the house fell into in the second act. What I found particularly effective was that the back wall of the stage was completely tiled in the wooden tile of the house's exterior, with the house itself on a turntable center stage similar to August: Osage County with characters able to exit by walking up the stairs to the second floor and off stage through a hallway, or by walking off stage and through the back theatre doors. It really gave the impression of being trapped not only in but also by the house, which of course is what the show is about. The rest of the cast was marvelous as well, and the curtain call emphasized the ensemble nature of the show more than the Broadway production's did, there was no solo star call for Hollis like Christine got. Grey Gardens is playing two more weeks, and is my recommendation for a terrific time at the theatre between now and Christmas.

Today I've been lounging around. Without any school work to do I've been getting caught up on Gossip Girl. This week I need to start getting stuff together for Anaheim, we have to do some projects ahead of time and bring them with us, but it's nothing too extensive. There's no shows ahead until Madama Butterfly at the Lyric on January 18. We need to start planning the next round of theatre, with Circle's production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the top of my list, which plays through February 1st, so when I get back from Anaheim we'll try to make it to that. Then we need to plan Xanadu and Miss Saigon, but those are longer runs so we can wait until the weather at least gets maginally nicer in March and April and the rest of the opera season is over so we're not rushing around so much like we have been the past couple months. Oh, and lastly, between GG episodes, I got my monthly allotment of emusic downloads and FINALLY finished up Guys and Dolls (although if I was smart I never would have started it in the first place and just waited for next spring's revival cast recording to come out instead), got John Barrowman's 2000 Broadway CD and at long last started the NEO concert recording, getting the first 18 tracks off of that. Next month I'll finish that up, grab the other John Barrowman CD (Aspects of Lloyd Webber) and with whatever I have left start on Lady in the Dark. Now, back to Serena and Blair, and the homoerotic tension between Nate, Dan, and Chuck.

A Lulu of a Production

2008-11-30T19:16:00.002-06:00

I just got back from seeing Lulu at the Lyric Opera, and oh my god, that was one of the best things they have ever done. It really sucks that this was the final performance because I would be singing its praises from the rooftops and encouraging all theatre and music fans to go see it. It was truly a music drama with a compelling story, gorgeous sets, a great concept (the whole thing was done as a movie) and of course the music. Hopefully it won't take another 21 years before they do it again.

Last Sunday was Porgy & Bess which was not quite so thrilling. It was good, and everyone did a good job, but I don't think it will ever be one of my favorites. It actually wasn't as jazzy as I feared, the music really was traditional opera-style with subtle jazz influence, but that also hindered some of the songs, particularly Summertime. I'm so used to Fantasia Berrino's performance, it's hard to hear it done any other way, and since that's the opening song it kind of gets the whole show off on an unsteady foot.

So, that's it, just a quick update since I know it's been awhile and I've been very busy. Thursday is Sarah Brightman, let's just hope the weather doesn't pose a problem, and then Saturday is Mame at Drury Lane, and the following Saturday is Grey Gardens at Northlight, and then it's a nice extended break with a trip to Disneyland before the madness starts again.

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2008-11-20T19:14:00.002-06:00

Well, the trip back was not nearly so frustrating as getting there. Monday was a nice, calm day with good weather. We slept in a bit, then checked out of the hotel and stored our luggage. We stopped at the Broadway New York store where I got an Equus magnet for my fridge at work (now proudly displayed towards the top left corner between Evita and Passion), had lunch at the Westway Dinner (the #1 dinner in New York dontcha know!), and then hopped onto the subway to the Village. We finally stopped at the NYU bookstore after two foiled attempts on our last two trips and my companion got some gifts and other memorabilia, and then we went to Strand where I found a lot of good psych books that I want for my private practice library whenever I get my own office. Of course, I also want to read them, but God knows when I'll get the time for that. Instead of lugging the books back with us, my companion actually had the great idea of stopping at the FedEx store two blocks away and shipping them back home, which we did. We're still waiting, hopefully they'll arrive tomorrow. We then walked all the way back to the hotel (seriously, I got more exercise in those four days than I have all year), stopping for coffee at the Intercontinental. By the time we got back it was already 4, so we got our luggage, hopped in a cab, and made it to LaGuardia around 5:30. There were no disruptions this time, we got checked in and went through security, sat in the very nice Delta Shuttle terminal (seriously, all airports should have waiting areas like that), and our flight left on time. It was rather bumpy, probably due to all the snow over Indiana, but we made it, got a cab, and got home by 9. I was able to watch Friday's Top Model on the TiVo (I was so pulling for Marjorie, it was sad to see her go, but she needs to get a grip. You can tell she's European though with no hangover after the massive amount of wine she had). I've been catching up with work and school ever since and am finally about caught up, just in time for the final stretch of projects. We've got Porgy & Bess at the Lyric on Sunday, and then Lulu next Sunday, then I've got Sarah Brightman on the 4th and I need to get Mame tickets. There's no slowing down.

Wrap Up

2008-11-16T23:08:00.002-06:00

After all the drama on Friday, I can't believe this trip is almost over. This has been the best theatre trip since my first time coming to NY when I just saw Wicked. All the shows have been A+'s.

Saturday morning my companion and I met his college roommate at HK on 8th and 38th for brunch, which was excellent. The restaurant was rather loud due to the concrete floors and walls, and the huge groups of queens all over the place, but they had all you can drink mimosa's, and that made up for a lot. We then went to Boeing-Boeing, which was terrific. Rebecca Gayheart was out, but her understudy did a great job, and Christine Baranski was excellent as always. Mark Rylance's character was exactly like he was when he gave his Tony acceptance speech. Some parts of the show are dated and just silly for the sake of being silly, but overall it was excellent, very funny and well done, we left in such a good mood.

We then walked around for a while killing time and met another college friend of his at Malone & Porcelli (I think the P part of that is spelled right). We had a fantastic dinner and then headed for August: Osage County, although we ended up having to run to get there on time, we just slid into the seats as the lights were going down. Again, excellent. Estelle Parsons played a much more extreme version of Roseanne's mom, but made it so different and so perfect in the context of the play. It was great to see Amy Warren again after her fabulous performance in Adding Machine in June. It is truly a great play, and I can guarantee it will still be relevant 100 years from now.

Then it was back to the hotel and to bed, after a long day, and today we really slept in and then went to Aquavit for brunch. It was very different than I was expecting but completely in keeping with their Scanadavian cuisine. There were no Eggs Benedict, no waffles, no carving stations. Instead, they had all sorts of seafood salads, pickled fishes, Swedish Meatballs, and excellent deserts, and I had a Swedish Bellini. It was very filling and we then headed to Studio 54 for Pal Joey, probably my favorite out of everything we saw. The set design was great, and Christian Hoff, Stockard Channing, and Martha Plimpton were all fabulous, particularly Martha's performance of Red Hot Woman. Studio 54 is kind of an annoying theatre, but our seats were good and I put in an advance order for an intermission cocktail, which kept me in a good mood. Pal Joey should be in top contention come Tony time.

We then made a quick stop at the hotel and then walked all the way from 57th street to SoHo. We weren't hungry, so we stopped at Le Petit Cafe for some coffee and then went to the SoHo playhouse. We got some more caffeine at the basement lobby bar and then found our seats. We were towards the back, only about 3 rows from the back, but about 3 minutes before curtain, the usher informed us that if we wanted, we could move up to the second row, so of course we did. Mindgame was fabulous, probably the best thing Ken Russell has ever directed. I was a little worried during the first act that it was going to just be a rehash of Don't Go In The Basement, but oh my god, it turned out to be so much more. Keith Carradine was fabulous (it was a big Carradine family day for us), and we were so close we could see his stray strands of hair flopping about. The set design was fabulous, and all three performers were terrific. I highly recommend the show if you find yourself in New York. It was exactly the kind of theatre people go to New York for, small and intimate with a big star, telling a great story, and so unique that you won't find anything like it anywhere else. We then had a very late dinner at an Italian place a couple blocks away on Spring Street. We then hopped in a cab and are now back in our room. I've got to start packing and then tomorrow we're doing some shopping in the Village, with our obligatory stops at the NYU bookstore and Strand, and then our flight leaves LaGuardia at 7, hopefully no delays this time, and I can almost guarantee that since I'm not in any hurry to get home and don't really care if we get delayed or cancelled, tomorrow's flight will be the smoothest I've ever had.

Finally!

2008-11-14T23:02:00.003-06:00

Oh my god, what a disaster today almost turned out to be. I was supposed to be on a flight leaving at 9:00 am, and after two cancellations and a lengthy delay, my companion and I finally got on a flight that left at 1:40, just 20 minutes shy of the buffer I had mentally created. Once we were in the air, things got better. I listened to Patti and Jackie, and both were excellent. Patti's CD, being recorded in 1980, sounds a lot like Bette Midler's early bathhouse work. It's very different than she's ever been before or after, and she gives the definitive performance of Meadowlark, sorry Betty. Being in a gay club certainly brought out the catty side of her, she had quite a lot to say between songs. I highly recommend the CD, there are precious few acts like this any more, it's a great reminder of a time gone by. The other nice thing is that there have been posters for the CD all over midtown as we walked to the theatre tonight, it's really getting promoted, I may have to get my hands on one of those posters before I leave. As for Jackie, her CD is proably the best thing I have ever downloaded from emusic, All I have to say is get it. It's also something you don't hear much of any more, she is very original to say the least. I just got a start on 13, so I'll be listening to that on the way back.

Now, for what we all really care about, Harry Potter's gentles! We did make it to the hotel by about 5:30 and went for a great dinner at a little Italian place on 10th and 52nd, which I can't remember what it was called, but it was excellent. Then, we made it to the theatre with about 20 minutes to spare. Equus was fantastic in all of its aspects. The play was great (not nearly as dated as the critics would have you believe, the only thing that's not really done any more would be having the hospital psychiatrist doing therapy on a daily basis with patients, therapy now would be delegated to psychologists or counselors and would be 2-3 times weekly max). Richard Griffith as Dr. Dysert and Kate Mulgrew (aye captain!) as his lawyer friend were both fantastic, but Daniel is the true star of the show. There was no sign of Harry at all in his performance, he inhabited Alan Strang and had no inhibitions. It certainly was a very daring choice as he starts to prepare for a post-Harry career and I don't think he has anything to fear in terms of not living up to his performances as Harry. He certainly did have plenty there to push, but by the time the scene rolled around, the whole show was so electric that it seemed natural and not a big deal, as much as I was looking forward to seeing his magic wand. The set and costume design is a recreation by John Napier of his original design for the 1975 production, and is very effective. It's a very Gestalt-inspired design, keeping with the psychological themes of the play. I highly, highly, highly recommend the show. The Best Actor in a Play Tony race is going to be a tight one between Daniel and Frank Langella. Hopefully voters will decide that 3 is enough for Frank and pass the torch so to speak to the newcomer.

After the show we walked through Times Square and Colony Records was still open so I popped in and got Billy, The Magic Show, and The Mad Show (and no, those two are not related at all). I was expressly looking for Billy and The Magic Show, I had seen them last time but didn't get them and looking for them since discovered that they are not on amazon and are very hard to find, particularly Billy. Then, I decided to round it out with a third, and since they still don't have the new London Revival cast recording of Fiddler or any of John Barrowman's CD's, I went with Mad since I had been looking for it last time and they didn't have it then. Then it was back to the hotel and I've got some wine which should put me right to sleep. Tomorrow is another day, and hopefully it will be better than today.

Oh, and one other thing. To top this all off, the reason my companion and I even came to NY in the first place was so that he could participate in some meetings for work, which were cancelled while we were in flight, so we are going to go to the Village on Monday morning and then try to get on an earlier flight home. So, sorry boys, no meeting this time. I'll be back in late February for Blithe Spirit and West Side Story, so maybe then.

Jesus Christ

2008-11-14T11:54:00.001-06:00

And the 1:00 flight is now delayed until 1:30. When I said we could leave up to 5 hours late and just make it to the show on time, it wasn't supposed to be a challenge. That plane had better be taxiing down the runway and lifting off at 1:30 on the dot.

Motherfucking Delta Sucks Ass Worse Than NYC Transit

2008-11-14T10:24:00.001-06:00

And now my 11:00 flight which was delayed until noon has been cancelled. We are now on a flight at 1, which is 2:00 New York time, so with a 2 and a half hour flight time, that puts us on the ground at 4:30, and of course they won't have a gate for us for an hour and then we'll have to deal with rush hour traffic to get from LaGuardia to the west side of Manhattan, and then from the hotel to the theatre, which means I won't be eating and may miss the beginning of the show. If this flight gets fucked I'm goingto call the theatre and see if we can still pick up the tickets at intermission and at least see the second act, which is the money act anyways. I'll still fight with Delta about getting reimbursed but I'll at least see what I want to see. Keep your fingers crossed, with abit of luck I might actually get to New York in time to see Mindgame Sunday night.

Delta sucks even more.

2008-11-14T08:43:00.001-06:00

And Delta just keeps digging themselves into a deeper hole, our 11:00 flight is now delayed until 12. That's 3 hours into our 5 hour buffer, they're not leaving themselves much time to get me to naked Harry. If I miss it there will be a hissy fit of historic proportions in the lobby of Delta's headquarters.

DELTA AIRLINES SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-14T08:30:00.001-06:00

OMFG, Delta is now the worst airline in the world We made it to Midway just fine, got checked in and flew through security (one of the many reasons I like Midway so much more than O'Hare), we went for breakfast and then got back to the gate about an hour before scheduled takeoff, only to find the display showing that our flight is cancelled, with no one at the counter to offer any explanation or assitance. My companion called Delta, waited on hold for about 20 minutes, and finally got through to an operator who was able to put us on an 11:00 flight. Fortunately we're confirmed and someone finally showed up at the ticket counter, offering only the explanation that air trafic control forced them to cancel the flight, which is nowhere near good enough an explanation, although I know who to go to for reimbursement if we don't make it to naked Harry Potter tonight, and she was able to give us our new boarding passes. So now we just have to wait and see if this flight will leave on time. My afternoon plans are now fucked, so if any guys were planning on meeting me today, it's going to have to wait until Monday morning, around 10-11-ish, at the Starbucks on 57th between 8th & 9th. Moral of the story, don't fly Delta, even American is less incompetent.

Planning

2008-11-13T20:38:00.002-06:00

It's almost time boys! My flight leaves at 9 tomorrow morning, so I should hopefully be at the hotel around 1. However, it looks like everything will be as if I never said goodbye. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow and Saturday in NYC (although it will be clear here), so who knows what time I will land. I figure we can leave up to 5 hours late and still get to Equus on time, which is doable, we only left about 3 hours late from New York last time and that was a Biblical level storm. A mild rain should only delay us 1-2 hours. Speaking of Equus, my companion is leaving me on my own from about 2-5 tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to go to Colony Records then so we can hit the Village Saturday morning and go to Strand and finally the NYU bookstore which he has been trying to do the last two times. So, I may have to stop at Starbucks on 57th between 8th & 9th on the way and get a pick me up since I'll have to get up so early tomorrow and want to stay awake for the money scene tomorrow night. So, any free boys who don't want to wait until Monday may want to be hangning around Starbucks at maybe 2:30-ish tomorrow (hint hint Cheyenne!).

Speaking of showtunes, I stopped at Borders yesterday at got Patti's CD (and bad news boys, Gypsy is closing when her contract is up in March of next year, she's a busy woman, so get to the show NOW!). I haven't listened to it yet because I was in training at work all day today, but I did copy it and get it onto my mp3 player so I can listen to it on the plane tomorrow to set the mood for the weekend. They did not have Jackie Hoffman's CD, but emusic did, and my downloads happened to refresh last night, so I got that along with the 13 cast recording, again neither of which I have listened to but are now on my mp3 player. I was then only able to get 2 more tracks from Guys & Dolls, but there are only 5 more left and no matter what comes out between now and next month, I will get those 5. However, I had originally planned to then get Lady in the Dark, but on a hunch, I typed in John Barrowman's name to see if they had his CD which is supposed to be coming out sometime around now, and while they don't have the new one, they've got two older ones, an Andrew Lloyd Webber collection and a general Broadway collection, so guess what I'll be getting next month! I may just need to up my subscription level, I've had the NEO concert recording on the backburner almost all year now and that's going to be a multi-month download as well because of the number of tracks, and I want to start getting the "The Musicality Of. . ." CD's, particularly the Kander & Ebb one because it has the only recorded song from The Visit. Regardless of what I didn't get yet though, it's a great week for showtunes. Anyways, I've got to get to Supernatural (Jensen deserves my full attention) and then get packing and off to bed so I'm not falling asleep on anyone tomorrow. See you in New York!

A Brand New Day

2008-11-05T16:51:00.001-06:00

Yes, you read the title right, Obama actually pulled it off and our LONG national nightmare is almost over (although let's hope that Bush doesn't go into overdrive trying to ruin the country before having to turn it over and give up mining rights to create policies that enrich his family and friends). Things started looking up on Monday when Celine Dion announced that she was postponing her Tuesday night concert at the United Center due to some sort of bizarre sounding illness. I knew that would be a sign of good things to come, and it was. Now let's just hope this illness keeps Ms. Dion sidelined forever. Seriously, where is the justice in a world where Julie Andrews' singing voice has been silenced forever by an incompetent surgeon and Celine goes on and on?

It was also a good day for Liza and Broadway in general. Liza announced a 2 week extension of her concert at the Palace, taking it to the end of December. It won't benefit me since I won't be going during that time, but it's great that there's enough demand to keep her booked for a full month, especially when other shows are down. As if that wasn't enough, one of my all time favorite actresses (although I do find it ironic that her two Oscars are for two of my least favorite of her movies), the one and only fabulous Jane Fonda will be making a long overdue return to Broadway about a year from now in a new play called 33 Variations. It goes without saying that I will do everything in my power to be there, even if the play sucks, she's sure to be electrifying (see Monster-In-Law and Georgia Rule for proof). Speaking of being there, I bought tickets for all my top choice shows last night, Equus, Boeing-Boeing, August: Osage County, Pal Joey, and Mindgame. I didn't get great seats, but they're all good seats, and thanks to Playbill Club, I saved a boatload of money. It's obvious the economy isn't doing well when there are still bargain tickets to be had to see Harry Potter naked. Unfortunately I'll be in the mezzanine for that but I plan on having binoculars (although from what I hear, Daniel Radcliff doesn't really need anyone using binoculars to get a nice view, he's got plenty there to push to quote the Beggar Woman from Sweeney Todd). We're also in the balcony for Pal Joey, which sucks because the balcony aisles at Studio 54 are so narrow, but I did get aisle seats so my companion can at least stretch his legs out into the aisle. I would have sprung for main floor seats, but there were only 5 and none of them were together and were all on the very outer edge of the seating area, so I figured I'd get cheap seats since it's not that long anyways and use the money I save for an extra CD at Colony Records. Then we're on the main floor for B-B, August, and Mindgame, although towards the back for all of them, but that's ok, Broadway theatres are small and I'd prefer to have a panoramic view, particularly for August, and the Music Box is so small that I think our seats there will be almost perfect. We were in the middle for Deuce and I felt like we were almost looking straight up to see the top of the set, so being towards the back is better. Anyways, one final note, yesterday was a bad day for more than just John McCain and the Republicans, it was announced that Tale of Two Cities will be closing on the 16th. I'm a little disappointed that I won't be seeing it that weekend, but there are just so many other shows I want to see because they're good and not to see how bad they are that it just won't happen. It's not like it's like Carrie anyways, and hopefully I'll get to hear a cast recording sometime, although I'm still waiting on that Lestat recording to see the light of day. Anyways, after I issued my invites, I realized that several TV shows have also started filming in NY, and I know you guys have busy schedules, but if any of the Gossip guys (especially Chace Crawford) want to stop by Starbucks on Monday morning, I wouldn't mind, nor would I mind Joshua Jackson or Eric Mabius, and I can't imagine how I left this off my original list, but Daniel Radcliff is also absolutely welcome as well, and I promise I'll make up for the initial oversight. Someone's got to be desperate for attention. Anyways, it's time to wrap up and head home so I can finish up one class project and get to work on the other one so I can finish it up before leaving next week.

Good News and a Warning

2008-11-02T18:36:00.004-06:00

Ok, I don't have a lot of time, but there's been a rash of good news lately I've got to comment on. First of all, get ready boys, I'm on my way back to New York, Nov. 14-17. The plane tickets have been bought and the hotel reservations (again the Holiday Inn on 57th) have been made. We're waiting to hear if my companion's friends that we met last time want to go to any shows, so I haven't bought the tickets yet, but will on Tuesday if we don't hear anything. I've done some preliminary research and South Pacific is still sold out the entire time, apparetly it's the only show doing any business to speak of. So, barring any other sell outs, the shows will be: Equus, Boeing-Boeing, August: Osage County, Pal Joey, and Mindgame. It's kind of crazy there's only one musical, but plays are cheaper to produce, which means there's a lot more running right now with business down and the environment being even riskier than ever. The backups in case of a sellout are: Road Trip (and the only reason that's not on the to-see list is because I saw the Bounce incarnation at the Goodman 6(!) years ago, and I know there's a lot of changes and I love the new casting, but new shows always trump already-seen shows), White Christmas (not my choice at all, but my companion wants to see it, although he's using his one choice for Boeing-Boeing so if that's the one that's sold out, Christmas will be the replacement), the Seagull (again, not my choice at all, I've hated every Chekov production I've seen, although that could be that they all just happened to be sucky presentations of otherwise classic plays), and 13 (which I really would like to see and would be on my to-see list if it was just me, along with Little Mermaid, but my companion so hated Spring Awakening I'm not risking another youth-oriented show with him), and if we really need it, A Tale of Two Cities, just to see how awful it is (we did that with Dracula and actually ended up enjoying it on its own terms, maybe lightening can strike twice). We're flying in Friday morning, which makes me a little nervous for the Friday night show, but we're leaving early, so if the flight gets fucked up, we've still got plenty of options to get us there before showtime. Once we're there we'll check in and head to the Village to hit The Strand, the NYC bookstore, and our other haunts, head back for a nap, and then it's dinner and showtime. Saturday and Sunday are shows, and we'll be doing Mindgame Sunday night, which means another Times Square to SoHo between show trek, hopefully without the subway meltdown and biblical flood this time. Then Monday my companion is working so I'll be off to probably the Neue Gallery (because it's a quick romp to see everything and get your money's worth), lunch back across the park at the Carnegie Deli, and then hanging out at the Borders in Columbus Circle to use the wifi and do classwork until my companion is done, and then we pick up our luggage and head to the airport to fly back, and it's off to work on Tuesday. So, boys, Monday morning is Starbucks time before heading over the Neue Gallery, and I'd love to see Cheyenne, Matt Cavenaugh, Curtis Holbrook, Hunter Parrish, and/or Matthew Morrison Monday morning at Starbucks on 57th between 8th & 9th, as well as any other previous invitees who I may not know are in the city and hence left off the list (and Matt C. & Curtis, if it's going to make your upcoming work in West Side Story awkward, I'm open to scheduling one at a time, although you may find you can work together better on stage after all three of us meet up, I'm open). So, another quick but hopefully fun and rain-free trip.

Now, as I alluded to, there's been some great casting news. Matt Cavenaugh will be playing Tony in the upcoming West Side Story, with Curtis Holbrook cast in the ensemble, two hotties for the price of one. With WSS, Blithe Spirit, and Guys and Dolls, February is probably the next month I'll head back. Then, on top of West Side, it was just announced that the Pre-Broadway The Addams Family run will take place in Chicago about a year from now. While I'm not thrilled with Brickman & Elice writing the book, they did show a lot of improvement between Jersey Boys and Turn of the Century (which just finished up its final performance a couple hours ago), so maybe they'll continue to improve and give us something good. Music though is by Andrew Lippa, which is appropriate and gives me a lot of reason to hope, and then in the leads as Gomez and Morticia are Nathan Lane, and, wait for it, in her long awaited return to the stage (not counting her recent Chicago re-engagement in New York), Bebe Neuwirth!!! The role is tailor-made for her, and she's one of the few remaining divas I have yet to see either in concert or in a show (although I would love to see Bernadette Peters in a show, she's been concert only, and Angela Lansbury in a musical, she's been play only). Keep your fingers crossed, I'll be seeing it anyways, but if she comes along, I'll be first in line for tickets for multiple dates.

Speaking of Divas, while it's unfortunate that I won't be able to see Liza in her 2-week concert run at the Palace in New York (or Chita Rivera's 2-week run at Feinsteins, starting the day after we leave New York), A&M Records is re-releasing her first 4 non-cast album albums on a 2-disc CD set the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. They have been out of print for years, leaving the cast recording of Flora. . . as her earliest available legal recording (not counting her appearances on some of her mom's live concert recordings as a young teenager). Given her fabulous performance in Liza with a Z just a few years later, I'm very eager to hear how these early albums sound compared to her later showtune-adult contemporary recordings (although the Pet Shop Boys produced Results is a fabulous departure). With Patti's and Jackie Hoffman's CD's, November is going to be pretty divalicious as well.

Lastly, the title of this post mentions a warning. First of all, I want to remind everyone to vote on Tuesday. However, while Obama's coattails will carry a lot of dems to victory (although I'm not convinced he'll win, the Republicans have too long a history of election-day hijincks and while they can let some house and senate races go, they're not going to give up the oval office), please be mindful about blindly voting for Dem candidates in Illinois. While this is not a political blog and I don't want to run afowl of campaigning laws, I believe the sharing of information is perfectly legit, and I have some to share about Dick Durbin, running for re-election as Illinois Senator. Four years ago, as the last presidential election was in full swing and the Republicans were trying to get the marriage amendment going, I sent emails to both Durbin and Fitzgerald (the senator that Obama replaced in that election, although he was a co-sponsor of the amendment and did not even acknowledge my email) urging them to prevent the amendment from coming up for a vote, and if it did, to vote against it. While Fitzgerald did not respond, I got a prompt, auto-reply, back from Durbin assuring me that while he is opposed to gay marriage, he is also opposed to writing discrimination into the constitution and would do everything he could to defeat the amendment, but do know that he is personally against gay marriage. What the fuck?!?!?!?!?!?!? With supporters like that, who needs Republicans? I swore then and there that I will never vote for him again. Unfortunately, his opponent, Steve Sauerberg, is no better, being resolutely pro-Iraq war and running basically as a last ditch attempt by Republicans to try to give some legitimacy to Bush's legacy by showing that there are people out there who do still support the war even though the vast consensus is that it was such a horrible mistake. So, I can't really vote for him either, so I will be leaving that contest blank on my ballot. While Durbin is on track to win, if enough of us don't vote, particularly in the Lakeview-area and adjacent districts, that will get his attention. With that, hopefully the title of my next post will be Brand New Day and not Something Bad. See you in a new world.

One Sweet Weekend

2008-10-29T15:15:00.000-06:00

Oh, what a great weekend last weekend was. Saturday I went to Candide at Porchlight, which was thoroughly delightful. I've never seen any production of it before, and this one lived up to Porchlight's generally stellar standards (not counting last fall's Phantom). Ryan Lanning was just adorable as Candide and quite an excellent performer, and Jeremy Rill as Maximillian was also quite fantastic, with this and his turn in Jerry Springer, he's quite the performer to watch at the moment. The orchestra was set up in the middle of the theatre with platforms extending on all sides, and the audience set up around all four walls of the room, so it was more of an in-the-round production, but it worked really well to give the story a sense of the characters' travels around the world. The orchestra was great, although I'm not a fan of reduced instrument overture orchestrations. Overtures should either be done full orchestra or just piano, anything in between feels incomplete. However, the orchestra did an excellent job with what they were given, and then once the show started they really complemented the performers well. I was particularly impressed with percussionist Phil Martin (also quite the cutie) who interacted with the actors as part of the story-telling. It only plays this weekend and then it's done, so go catch it.

Then, Sunday night was all about Madonna and the Sticky & Sweet Tour. This was by far her best tour since Drowned World (which I did not get to see in person, although not for lack of trying, and had to settle for watching on HBO). She only started 50 minutes later and kept the AC on. Apparently getting divorced has actually loosened her up. She seemed much more relaxed on stage and focused on having a good time and giving the audience a good time instead of putting on huge, spectacular yet soulless spectacles. The show was much more focused in that it really was a promotion of Hard Candy and made a terrific argument for giving the unjustly overlooked CD (her second worst selling after American Life) a second look. She did just about the entire CD over the course of the 2 hour show, and worked in one song from each previous CD except for Like A Virgin which was oddly unrepresented, but since she did Material Girl on both previous tours and Like A Virgin on the Confessions tour, she may have felt it was time to give it a rest. For those who want to know, the older songs were: Borderline (in a great punk-pop arrangement), La Isla Bonita (the show's one misfire done in a hoe-down meets gypsy band arrangement), Into The Groove with a brief sampling of Jump (one of the best moments of the show), Like A Prayer (the best performance of the show), Vogue, but done to the accompaniment of Heartbeat from Hard candy (and Vogue covered both I'm Breathless and Immaculate Collection, she did not do either of the "new" songs from Immaculate nor did she do any of the "new" songs from Something To Remember), Rain, done as a video interlude during a costume change with a sampling of the Eurythmics Here Comes The Rain Again, Human Nature, You Must Love Me (making the concert showtune queen relevant), Ray of Light, a sampling of Beautiful Stranger, Die Another Die (done as a vocal-over during a costume change while two dancers did a homoerotic boxing routine) and Hung Up. So, it was about half Hard Candy and Half hits, not a bad ratio for a tour for any artist. Furthermore, I was so much closer this time than the other two times. Both previous times we were up in the upper 300 level of the UC, this time we were in the 100 level and had the perfect seats. We were in the uppermost row of the section, so there was no one behind us, and above on of the entrances to the section, so there was no one sitting in front of us. We could stand when we wanted to and sit when we wanted to, which was nice since I was wearing my uncomfortable boots that make me taller so I can see over people if I have to. We were about halfway along the wall between the stage and where the stadium curves around, and she had the same set up as the Confessions tour; the stage with video screens and then a long catwalk extending about halfway down the main floor, so when she was at the end of the catwalk, she was almost right in front of us, I got to actually see her in so much more detail this time instead of seeing a tiny stick figure down on the stage in harsh backlighting, and at 50 years old, she looks damn better than most people do in a lifetime. The costumes and video backdrops were also much more colorful this time, giving the show a much more upbeat lighthearted feel. She only made two lengthy costume changes this time, keeping the momentum going, and interpersed it with a few very brief costume modifications, which kept the show moving and kept it from bogging down. She also cut most of the mystical, save the world, Kabbalah crap that seriously bogged down a good portion of the Confessions tour, limiting it to an appropriate video display during Like A Prayer, and she also limited the political save the world commentary that bogged down Reinvention, again limiting it to one video montage, the one with the infamous shot of John McCain mixed in with shots of dictators past and present. There was no mirrored cross with a crown of thorns, no grenade thrown at Bush, or anything else done for shock value instead of pure entertainment. It was a great night and finally the show that I always imagined a Madonna concert would be. I'll definitely be there the next time she comes through.

One More Thing

2008-10-24T15:49:00.001-05:00

I know I just posted, but motherfuck, I just got an email from Broadway in Chicago with Linda Eder One Night Only as the subject, eagerly opened it up, and it turns out the one night is December 13, the same night we already have tickets for Grey Gardens at Northlight. Linda, if you're reading, please reschedule. Why is it you go to Rosemont the nights I'm free and make me drive all the way out there and deal with their fucked-up parking and then half the time you're in the city when I can easily hop on the el, you chose nights that I already have something? Seriously, you've got to check with me first. I'm sure it will be a fabulous concert, I wouldn't expect anything else from you, and wish I could be there.

Prompt Devotion, Delayed Post

2008-10-24T15:46:00.001-05:00

Well, it's been, and will continue to be, a busy week. Pearl Fishers at the Lyric was excellent. For being a fairly slight opera, they really turned it into an all-out event production. It was nice to see Nathan Gunn this time around (he was out sick for Barber of Seville in February, which apparently was just a cursed production, the Lyric's version of Macbeth), and the homo-erotic subtext matched that of Iphigenie en Tauride from two years ago. All in all a fabulous production.

However, the event of the week was Monday night when I saw Duffy at the Vic. I love her CD. Of course Mercy is an awesome song, but Delayed Devotion is probably my favorite. Still, knowing that this was her first tour and she only has one (very short) CD out, my expectations were not that high, but man did she come through. First of all, I have not been to the Vic in over 10 years, and that place is just disgusting, so there was kind of a flowers of the mud type of feeling to show, but that just helped the overall ambience. She is so beautiful, much more than you would expect from the photos in the CD booklet which make her look kind of working-class British (ie, not attractive), but in person she's got kind of a Charro crossed with 60's-era Jane Fonda look going on and it really works. Her voice is a little more chipmunk-y/Kristen Chenoweth-y in person than on the CD, and that kind of threw more for the first song, Syrup & Honey, but once I got used to it, it was great, and I could totally see her playing Glinda if she ever wanted to take a break and try something different. For that matter, I could even see her playing Elphaba, but then the Glinda would need a different tone to provide the vocal contrast. Anyways, she did all the songs on the CD, and I've got two words for Distant Dreamer--Dance Mix. That was her last song and she started it very subdued and really worked it up in intensity, even though it's a ballad it could be a killer dance mix the way Whitney Houston's My Love is Your Love and I Learned From The Best turned out to be. She also did 3 new songs, one of which is a B side (Today) and two other new ones, one of which should be the upcoming single from the next CD, called "Rain on Your Parade," which is kind of a Mercy sound with a little more club/dance-y feel to it, it really got the audience going and I sure liked it. It was a short concert, she was on for about 70 minutes, and even with the opening act (which was not that great, some guy named Eli "Paperboy" something or other from Boston doing kind of a 60's-ish blues/rock kind of sound), it was over before 10. But, it was the kind of show that then makes you want to go out for a couple drinks after and then a few more somewhere else, and make a whole night of it, going home around 4:00 am, as opposed to more established divas who put on such a spectacle that you're exhausted just watching it by the end and just want to get home. Ten years ago I would have hit Spin or Roscoe's afterwards, but now I'm responsible and went home and went to work the next day.

This weekend I've got Candide on Saturday at Porchlight and the big one, Madonna, on Sunday (and yes, she's kind of one of the one's I'm referring to putting on a big spectacle that wears the audience down, but she at least makes the wearing down process enjoyable, it's usually the audience that ends up driving me nuts at her shows, although it is nice not to be the gayest person around, it's not that often that that happens). I'm very excited about her, although a little worried that at any minute she's going to decide the stress of the upcoming divorce is too much and just chuck the rest of the tour the way Britney did with her Onyx hotel tour in 2004. Madonna's a little more with it though, and her Kabbala advisors will definitely encourage her to keep going because the more money she rakes in from the tour the more she'll donate to them. I've almost got my outfit picked out, I just have to decide between two shirts. It's going to be fairly cold on Sunday, but she always has it hotter than the fiery furnace with her air-conditioning phobia, so I want to dress cool enough to be comfortable but warm enough that I don't catch a cold on the way there or back. Of course I'm going to end up going for fashion and wear something skimpier that will be more comfortable at the show and just deal with the cold afterwards. Now, if she can just start something reasonably close to on time this time. . .

It looks like New York is going to get delayed just a couple of weeks, but after all this busy-ness lately, I certainly don't mind. It looks like we'll be flying out Friday morning November 14 and the coming back in the evening on Monday the 17th, so even though it's short, I'll still get one more show than we had last time if I can find something to see on Sunday night. If there's nothing I may see what the Met is doing and do an opera, which would work out well if we see South Pacific Sunday afternoon. We could do that, go to dinner nearby, and then come back across the Lincoln Center plaza for the opera and then we're only about 4 blocks from the hotel. Plus, even if Sunday night doesn't work out, it's still one more show than we would have gotten had we gone next weekend because we would have flown out Saturday, so I can get Equus, August OC, South Pacific and hopefully Mindgame, which will have officially opened instead of still being in previews. My companion is actually much more excited about Mindgame than I would have expected, but Keith Carradine in a Ken Russell directed play is exactly why you go to New York for theatre. Speaking of New York theatre, what's up with the sudden rash of Best Musical winners announcing closing dates? In less than a week, Spamalot, Hairspray, and Spring Awakening all announced that they will be closing in January. Granted, I'm not broken up at all about Spamalot and hope that Clay will follow it up with a super gay gay gay project that will finally live up to the potential he showed on Idol, and Hairspray has had a good run and is getting Harvey back to send it off, but it seems kind of soon for Spring Awakening, and it's disappointing that Hunter's run is getting cut short. Maybe he'll need some consolation while I'm there? Still, the tour is going strong and plans to continue on with it's original schedule. It can't bring Kyle to Chicago soon enough. Phantom, Jersey Boys, Lion King, Avenue Q and In The Heights need to watch out, they're the last winners remaining. I'm sure Phantom and Jersey Boys are fairly recession-proof (Phantom's going on it's third and still going strong), but Lion King, Avenue Q and especially In The Heights could be vulnerable, their numbers are trending down, and if that accelearates, Ave. Q may not need to worry about coming up with a new lyric for it's second to last line once Bush is out of office. For that matter, Chicago and South Pacific may want to watch out, this trend may spread to the Best Revival winners.

Patti countdown: A week and a half until the CD comes out, and as a bonus, Jackie Hoffman is releasing her live CD on the same day, which will make for a very diva-licious afternoon as I enjoy the CD's after picking them up at Borders on my lunch. Anyways, that's all for now, just wanted to get a quick posting out on a rare break. See you after Madonna!

A Tale of Three Shows

2008-10-19T09:37:00.002-05:00

Well, I feel like I should call this the reunion posting or something. It's been way too long since I've had the chance to sit down and get my thoughts out in a public forum. Oh, the fun of being back in class. Speaking of class, I've got my reservations for my Anaheim colloquium made for the end of December, and I've heard that Max went back to LA after finishing in Grease so maybe there's hope yet for a personal encounter. If not Max, I've also got my sights set on Jensen Ackles from Supernatural, nothing would make me happier than a personal hotel room visit from the leading man on the best show on TV. Seriously, where's his Emmy?

Anyways, personal fantasies aside, this has been a busy few weeks outside of having started clas again. Two weeks ago I saw Jersey Boys and I can now officially say that The Drowsy Chaperone should have won the Tony for Best Musical two years ago. Jersey Boys is definitely entertaining but that's about it. There's no deeper meaning to the story, it's just their biography played out on stage to their music. We had "limited view" seats in the dress circle area, which meant that we could see all of the floor of the stage, but we couldn't see any of the LCD signs that came down from the ceiling every so often to provide mood scenery, and we could only see from about waist down on the actors who went up to the second level of the stage and walked around. Fortuntately, not much took place up there that fully needed to be seen. It was worth it for $60, I'd rather miss a few facial expressions and signs than pay $150 for main floor seats. The music is pretty much what you get on the cast recording and everyone did a good job. However, what really turned me off to this show was when I was looking through the playbill at intermission, I saw a name that looked familiar. I kind of chuckled at the coincidence but then read the bio and it actually was someone I had gone to High School with and absolutely HATED. This guy was so needy for attention, obnoxious, show-offy, arrogant, and just a general ass, I felt a huge surge of disgust with the world that someone so undeserving has my fabulous showbiz life. However, I then remembered that he always had a penchant for self-aggrandizement and reading between the lines in his bio, I realize that his life must pretty much suck. While he is an Equity member, his bio listed three other shows in addition to Jersey Boys in the almost 15 years since we graduated High School, and they were: the touring production of Mamma Mia (and who hasn't been in that ), the touring production of Joseph. . .(and who hasn't done that) and the touring production of My Fair Lady (and who hasn't done that). Obviously he's the local cast component that Equity touring contracts require producers to use, and he still hasn't been able to get into anything good, no Wicked, no Chicago, no Cabaret, no Avenue Q, not even The Color Purple, nothing of any artistic or national significance, and no local productions, not Porchlight, not BoHo, not Lookingglass, much less Steppenwolf or Goodman. Plus, he was the very last cast member mentioned and the first one to come out and take a bow, so he's obviously very low on the Jersey Boys totem pole. I didn't even recognize him in the first act and it was only because I had seen his name and picture in the playbill during intermission that I recognized him in the first place. Time has not been good to him at all (and that's not just my sour grapes gloating, his headshot looked awful), and that may be due in large part to his pot habit that he developed senior year and ended up getting him kicked out of all of his activities (to my great delight) 6 weeks before graduation. That might also explain his lack of professional advancement, after all a pothead's motto is tomorrow I will (in this case, audition, practice, etc.), today I'm going to eat chips, and he's obviously had a lot of chips. So, while Jersey Boys was entertaining, I didn't feel that it was anything more special than Buddy or Ella or any of the other regional musical bio-shows around. Plus, the it really wasn't even a musical. The vast majority of music was all actually part of the show, they were performing the songs to audiences, and while the songs that were picked added emotional resonance to the scenes, particularly in the better second act, no one just burst into song while walking down the street. The only time the music came from outside the story was at the very end of the first act when Tommy gets busted for gambling and the other guys surround him and just sing out the one line "Walk like a man," and that was as jarring as Jennifer Hudson (speaking of, I am so ecstatic that her CD is getting panned and after a decent debut on the record charts is dropping like a stone), suddenly singing to Beyonce and the other girl halfway through Dreamgirls when all the music up to that point has also been performances as part of the story. Just because there's music in the story does not automatically make it a musical, and for that reason alone, I would say that The Drowsy Chaperone is a much better musical, not to mention that Drowsy had much more entertaining and relevant story that actually means something.

So, moving from Jersey Boys, as we all know, the creators of that show are now premiering their second musical, which is also a jukebox musical, at the Goodman, called Turn of the Century, and directed by Tommy Tune. After weeks of badgering my companion, we went to see that last weekend, which gave me a good opportunity to compare and contrast the two efforts. Century is definitely the better show, although still not what I would consider Broadway-calliber. It's a great regional show and could have a good life off-Broadway, but it's still too insignificant and small-scale to really work on a Broadway stage. However, once the show got started, up until about 5 minutes before the end, I really enjoyed it. It's only 100 minutes long, no intermission. The stage is gorgeous, it's got a circle-shaped procscenium made up to look like a clock, which cuts down on the visible stage space which may be part of what keeps it feeling small, both for better and worse, and the stage is completely white. The sets are minimal, but it works well, allowing our imaginations to fill in the blanks and working well with the Goodman's limited space so that the stage never seemed overcrowded, which very easily could have happened. Jeff Daniels is a passable singer and excellent actor, and Rachel York, as I expected, was FABULOUS. There was much more of a story, which as we all know by this point concerns two never-been lounge performers who at midnight on December 31, 1999, get transported back 100 years to 1900 rather than forward into 2000. They become huge stars by "writing" the great songs of Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Helen Reddy (in the best segment of the show), and most importantly to the plot, Irving Berlin. Most of the show consists of them performing these songs, but they do sing some of them to each other and to other outside of the performances, making it a true, if slight, musical, unlike Jersey Boys. However, I was not fond at all of the Moulin Rouge-esque opening number in which the entire cast sang Prince's 1999, it was completely cringe-inducing and needs to seriously be rethought (and I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Moulin Rouge; not a good movie, REALLY not a good movie), and I wanted more of a resolution than the How I Met Your Mother styled ending (kids, did I ever tell you about the time your mother and I got sent back in time and created musical history?). The first half of the story seemed as if it was going to set up an Alan Ayckborn Communicating Doors-style story as the duo's rivals become more and more desparate to figure out how they write such great songs so quickly, but then that story got dropped once the real Irving Berlin, at that point 12 years old, showed up and then it became more of a melodrama between Jeff Daniels and Rachel York, although it did give us the second best moment of the show as they belted out Anyplace I Hang My Hat is Home, and then as Rachel became overwhelemed with guilt and ran off, it descended into a Bette Davis Dangerous style story line before resolving in a How I Met Your Mother storyline ending. The story definitely needs to be tightened a bit a given more of a focus, trimming about 10 minutes off to take it down to a flat 90 would help a lot, but there's a lot of potential. I'd definitely recommend Turn over Jersey Boys. Hopefully we'll get a cast recording out of it someday, although we're still waiting for The Visit recording going on 7 years later. At least we got Bounce, although I have a feeling we're going to get gouged for a new recording once it opens as Road Show in New York in a few weeks. Still, for Michael Cerveris and Alexander Gemignani, I think I'd shell out the bucks.

However, despite the dualing Brickman and Elice shows, the best entertainment value for the dollar right now is north of the city at Northlight Theatre in Skokie where they are doing a sharp, fantastic, chilling production of a new play version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (and note I said new play, it's not the Frank Wildhorn Jekyll and Hyde musical). We saw that last night and I am still in awe 12 hours later. It's the best dramatized version of the story I've seen, with the possible exception of BBC America's Jekyll mini-series last summer, although that one went off on a lot of sci-fi-ish tangents making it a terrific overall story, while this one stuck to the original. It's short, only 1 hour and 50 minutes including a 15 minute intermission, but it covers a lot of ground and is truly engaging. The whole cast does a great job (and I don't want to give any of the originality away, so I can't go into too much detail), and I had a much more enjoyable time at that than either of the previous musicals. You've got another week or so, go catch it.

Coming up this afternoon I've got the Pearl Fishers at the Lyric, which I'm not that excited about, but half naked men may help keep my interest, tomorrow I've got Duffy at the Vic (which I'm a little pissed about, she was originally supposed to be at the Riviera which is only about 3 blocks away from where I live, but then a couple weeks ago they decided to move it to the Vic for unknown reasons, which necessitates a ride on the el and more time to get there and back), and then one week from tonight is Madonna, which I'm very excited about, buzz on the show is excellent. I'm hoping that we can go to Candide at Porchlight on Saturday night, stay tuned.

Speaking of future plans, there is a slim chance I may get to New York Halloween weekend (in 2 weeks). Hopefully we can finally catch South Pacific as well as work in August: Osage County (although I think Estelle Parsons just left, but it should still be good), and Equus, although I think getting tickets for that is going to be about as difficult as it was for South Pacific back in June. We'll see. Regardless of what happens, I am determined to go back in February. It was just announced that Noel Coward's play Blythe Spirit is going to be revived, and while I would prefer a revival of the musicalized version, High Spirits, the cast is going to consist of Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole (as Elvira, the dead wife), and Angela Lansbury (as Madame Arcati, the role I actually think she could nail in a revival of the musical). Nothing is going to keep me from that dream cast.

Lastly, I know this has also been a couple weeks, but the world lost one of it's finest actors and best people a couple weeks ago with Paul Newman's passing. He was a legend, and rightly so. He will be missed.

The Other Side Of Linda

2008-10-02T13:51:00.001-05:00

I'm going to try to keep this quick, but as expected, Linda's new CD is FABULOUS. It's a very different path for her, although her liner notes explain that a lot of it has to do with being dumped (dumped!) by Atlantic after making several successful discs for them and ending up with a new studio and using the opportunity to try something different. It's much more of a country-pop type sound, heavier on country than on pop, so it sounds more Dixie Chicks-ish than Carrie Underwood-ish. Normally it's not the kind of music I would like, but her voice is so fabulous she totally pulls it off. There are a few Broadway-sounding songs, such as If I Could, which is so wonderful to finally have on disc after hearing her do it in concert for years, and If You Believe (The Way I Do), and in the vein of her first two albums, a fabulous rendition of Both Sides Now. In addition, Linda also finally tried her hand at writing, with Waiting For The Fall, and it's not at all the type of song that I would have expected her to write, and that's actually a good thing. It's a very different album and one that has the potential to finally break her through to mainstream success. This is the type of album that could end up finally with some Grammy nominations and maybe even a long overdue Best New Artist Grammy. If Shelby Lynne could do it after 14 albums, then it should be no problem for Linda, it's the same kind of music. Get the CD, you won't be disappointed, her string of fabulous CD's is still unbroken.

A Weekend With the Boys

2008-09-30T15:19:00.001-05:00

Well, this was a very sad weekend. Not only did Xanadu close far earlier than its time, it was also time to say goodbye to one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, Paul Newman. He was a complete class act as well as a much underappreciated actor (really, one Oscar?). There will never be another like him.

Fortunately, I had the fantastic Boys From Syracuse to cheer me up Saturday night. It's too bad it ended the next day or else I'd be exhorting everyone to go see it. It was a top notch production, one under-miked performer notwithstanding and even that got fixed quickly. I do have to wonder though, exactly how they're going to pull off Miss Saigon. Obviously they cast the way the City of Chicago hires, through friends and family, giving every show a heavily Melrose Park-Italian feel. That might work here in a show with a classic Mediterranean setting, but I'm not sure where they're planning on finding the Asians for Miss Saigon. Anyways, the entire cast was fantastic, and it was nice to see Devin DeSantos, who was so great as Matthew in Altar Boyz and in The Most Happy Fella back on stage, although I do have to say that considering the weight he's put on since I saw him last November, it's obvious that Altar Boyz's choreography must be the best workout since the New York City Ballet copyrighted their workout routine and sold it on DVD. I'd love to get my hands on an Altar Boyz workout program. Anyways, he was fantastic, as was the rest of the cast. They did a great job with the classic songs, and finally seeing the show helps me understand the cast album a lot better. I can't wait to see what they do with Mame.

As I mentioned, today is Linda day, except I have to wait for tomorrow to go get the CD when I'm back out of the city and contributing to the corruption by paying sales tax. Of course I'll have my thoughts posted by the end of the day. Oh, and what in the world was Heather Locklear thinking? She's the last person I'd expect to pull something stupid like driving under the influence. And finally, the Sun Times gave Jennifer Hudson's CD a big, fat 1 star rating. Finally, someone else has seen through her bombast and called her on her lack of talent. Let's hope others follow suit quickly.

I Love The 80's!

2008-09-26T12:44:00.001-05:00

Well, last night was certainly worth the 15 year wait. I've been dying to see Janet Jackson since her janet. CD in 1993, but have never been able to until last night. Despite putting out 3 crappy CD's in a row, she's still got it. At least the new one isn't all bad, Feedback is actually incredibly catchy, and 2nite and So Much Betta are also up there with her classics. Unfortunately, the boring title track inspired the worst section of the show, an S&M fantasty played out with audience members, that I really could have done with out. It brought the show to a screeching halt for about 10-15 minutes, and given that she had already done most of her hits, it sent a lot of people around me for the doors. However, once she finally got it out of her system, she came back for the finale and encore with a vengeance, rocking Black Cat and If, two of my favorites that I wasn't sure she'd do, with tons of pyrotechnics, which was everything I imagined her janet tour to be while sitting in my room on the night of that concert listening the the CD because my parents wouldn't let me go. Not only did she do them, she did about everything else, it was a 2 1/2 hour show, not bad considering she's supporting a failed CD and could easily have done a 90 minute montage of hits a la Whitney Houston's 1994 tour or Cher's Believe and Farewell tours. She did work in a couple of medleys which annoyed me, I'd really rather hear the entire song and either have the show be longer, or just have her pick a handful of her most meaningful songs and do them in their entirety, but I'm only really annoyed because it was Escapade and Love Will Never Do that she mixed together, and those are both my favorites and I really wanted her to do them in their entirety. However, she rocked a complete performance of Nasty as well as Together Again, which was the highlight of the night. Visually, the show was absolutely a celebration of her rise to fame in the 80's. Given that the opening act was LL Cool J (which was really sad, but he still looks pretty damn good), it would have been very easy to think we had stepped into a time warp and gone back 20 years, she had a huge faux-hawk and started in a a white sequened skin tight body stocking, and changed into an 80's style prom dress/evening gown, track suit, and a jungle-inspired ensemble. It was all a bit of a disconnect from the rocking music, but a reminder of the time we all loved her music, which really made the concert a make up for those of us too young to have been able to see her then. All in all, a great evening. Next up is Boys from Syracuse this weekend, Manon at the Lyric and then Jersey Boys next weekend, then Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Northlight, Duffy, Madonna, finally a break, and then Sarah Brightman, all over about the next 6 weeks.

It's not all good news though, right after I posted on Tuesday about Xanadu's imminent closing, I went to playbill.com and the lead story was an update that the producers decided to close it even earlier, and pull the plug after this Sunday's performance. However, the article then went on to explain that it has nothing to do with the quality of the show or the lack of an audience, the economic climate has sapped the producer's investments, and they don't have enough cash on hand to cover costs during the traditionally slow October, so they decided to lock in their profit and close the show, which is also what appears to be happening with [title of show]. So, it sucks that they're going, but at least they're going out winners. However, I forgot to mention a piece of good news, and that is that Shrek very abruptly left Seattle after only running not even 2 weeks. The press release made it sound like it was planned to get it ready for it's Broadway opening in early November, which is coming up, but reading between the lines, the abruptness of the announcement, and the fact that it played almost 5 times more preview performances than regular performances all indicate that it's a show in trouble. Why even bother with the Broadway opening? Just close the damn thing now, learn a lesson, and be done with it. In other good news, Legally Blonde announced yesterday that it is also smelling the burnt toast and will be closing in a few weeks. It kind of sucks for the girl that just got cast via that MTV reality show, but that's what she gets for joining a crappy musical. Next generation of Wicked my ass, good riddance!

Lastly, we all know that the long overdue release of the recording of Patti's 1980 cabaret show is almost here, but did you know that the recording of her late 1980's London show The Cradle Will Rock (her follow up show from Les Miz, prior to the Sunset Blvd. debacle) is also available? I did a search for her name on emusic to see if they had the cabaret show pre-listed, which they did not, but Cradle came up instead, so I'm putting Guys & Dolls on the backburner and will be getting Cradle in a couple of weeks when my downloads refresh, and then I'll get more of Guys with the leftovers and then finish Guys with my November downloads.

So, that I think brings us up to date. I've got one more week before school starts again, so I should get something about Boys up early next week.

Sad Days

2008-09-23T14:01:00.001-05:00

Well, this is old news by now, but when I heard it a week ago I became so depressed that I just couldn't write. The end is here, Cheyenne's biceps are leaving Broadway on October 12 when Xanadu will close. It's a sad day for fans of quality musical theatre. However, they had a great run considering the almost unprecedented negativity they had deal with prior to opening, and at least Passing Strange bit it first. Plus, the guy they got for Cheyenne's part on the tour (and no, they didn't go with Carpinello, I guess he's even more depressed than I am and wants nothing more to do with the show), is really hot, so I can't wait for it to get to Chicago in January.

Just a couple days after Xanadu's closing was announced, it was announced that [title of show] will be joining it in the great hereafter on the same day, which was even more of a shock. Xanadu at least had over a year-long run on a show no one thought would last 7 performances, but the buzz on [tos] has been formidable. I'm pissed that I won't be able to see it, but I've got the cast recording. It does sound like something that will work well for local and community theatres, so hopefully it'll find its way to Porchlight, Bailiwick, or Light Opera Works sometime in the not too distant future.

Looking ahead to better times, one week from today is Linda day, the new CD will finally be here. Of course, as with Gypsy, I'll have to wait until the next day to go get it since I'm stuck downtown on Tuesdays and refuse to buy anything in the city after the recent sales tax hikes, but I'm sure she will be more than worth the wait. It already looks like she's got some tour dates lined up, let's hope she gets back here soon, maybe finally getting her own headlining concert at Ravinia next summer.

So, that's about it. There's a lot coming up between now and the end of the year, it seems like almost all my weekends are already booked. On top of Caroline or Change, Candide, and Boys from Syracuse, we've now got Mame, replacing Boys at Drury Lane Oakbrook in 3 weeks, followed by Miss Saigon in January (which I'm not sure I can ever see again after the fantabulous production I saw in Prague 3 years ago that put all other productions to shame). There's so much to do and so little time, I've already missed out on The Full Monty, although Marriott's schedule next season is truly superb, with Hairspray, Spelling Bee, and most importantly, Light in the Piazza, which you can bet I will be front and center at. In the immediate future, I've got Janet Jackson on Thursday (after a 15 year wait, it's so about time), and then the first opera of the season (Manon) next Saturday, followed by Jersey Boys (also finally) on Sunday. Then the new round of classes starts, so god only know when I'll actually get my reviews up, but it should be sometime before the end of the year. That's it for now, see you all later.

Finally

2008-09-13T16:26:00.002-05:00

I don't have one of Lucille yet, but here's my refrigerator door at work. A fridge fit for a queen!

Here She Is Boys!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-07T18:44:00.002-05:00

Ok, I realize this post is way overdue, but when I went to see Superior Donuts, it was the last weekend, so there really wasn't much of a rush to get a review up, and I've been so busy with school stuff that I just put it by the wayside. But, we're now down to the last week of school, most of the major projects are done, and I've just got a couple small things to wrap up this week, so finally I have some time to get my thoughts down.

First of all, Superior Donuts was excellent. It was great seeing Michael McKeon, and everyone else in the cast was excellent. It was kind of a weird story, and I'm not quite sure how realistic (there's no Russian mafia in Uptown, only the Southeast Asians, I'd imagine the Russian mafia would be in Ukranian Village), but they did get the Uptown vibe right on. It was very entertaining and just the right length. Because it is so Chicago specific, I can't see it having the kind of extended life that August has had, but you never know, he's in demand right now so anything could happen.

As expected, the Gypsy cast recording is FABULOUS!!!! Every day at work I feel like Jessica Walter in Arrested Developement, dancing around the office belting out Rose's Turn at the top of my lungs. Unfortunately I don't have the glass of wine (stupid sober workplace polices), but it still makes the workday so much more entertaining. I'm sure the interns in the office next to mine are thrilled that I got the CD. Once I'm done with all of school next week I'll rip the beginning section of Rose's Turn for my ringtone. No new CD's to look forward to until Linda's in a few weeks, although I got my bonus 10 emusic downloads and finished up [title of show] and started The Frogs. My regular downloads refresh on Sunday and I'll finish the Frogs and get I Remember Mama, and then start Guys and Dolls with what I've got left.

In show news, it turns out a green skin color may be more symbolic of illness rather than being flush with money. After only about 2 weeks of previews in Seattle, Shrek has already called in show doctors. Not a good sign. Most shows that need a doctor are completely incapable of being fixed (Kelly, Golden Boy, Subways are for Sleeping all come to mind), but every so often there's a show that just needs a new perspective and goes on despite all initial naysayers to be a smash (Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, and My One and Only come to mind in this category). Let's hope Shrek is in the former category, although the doctor is Jason Roberts, director of Avenue Q and Curtains, so they certainly went for the best.

Now, saving the best for last, have you ever wondered what Baby Jane's stage show would have been like had she actually gotten it to the stage and not gone completely bonkers on that beach? Well, Ravinia presented it Thursday night when Carol Lawrence (after a long delay) took to the stage. To set the scene, it had rained all fucking day since 9:30 in the morning, without stopping for even 2 minutes. I really was not in the mood to pay over $50 for a buffet dinner in the indoor restaurant, and it was so gross that the foodcourt was not going to be an option, so I stayed at work until about 6:30 just killing time and then drove to Ravinia, figuring I'd just run in, see the show, and then pick something up on my way home. I got there around 7, and sat in my car in the parking lot until 7:30. It almost brought back PTSD from the Deborah Voigt concert last year, except fortunately we did not have the apocalyptic thunder and lightening, it was just constant rain. I had decided that I didn't care about paying for parking, it was so disgusting there was no way I was going to hike down that forrest trail between the remote parking and the gate, and was pleasantly surprised when I pulled in, $20 in hand, that apparently Ravinia staff had decided it was too gross and just opened up the parking to anyone who wanted to pull in. So, I did get one more free parking for a Martin Theatre concert after all. I was worried I was going to come back and find my car under water, or at least so sunk in mud that I wouldn't get any traction to move, but I found a nice spot on a more gravel-covered section of the parking lot and that turned out not to be the case. I just left all my shit sitting in the car and grabbed the umbrella and made a run for it. I still got completely soaked, although not as bad as in New York, and got into the theatre. There were actually more people in there than I was expecting, especially given the lack of cars in the lot. 8:00 came, 8:05 came, 8:15 came, and still no Carol. At 8:20, this big queen walked onto the stage, and I was not expecting good news, and he said that he was Carol's son and she was still getting ready downstairs and begged us to be patient. He got off the stage and 8:25 came, 8:30 came, and finally, about 8:35 the lights went down and a video montage was projected onto the back of the stage of scenes of Carol in WWS and then over the years, accompanied by a fabulously 70's Love Boat-styled remix of a medley of WWS songs, obviouly pre-taped but fully orchestrated, and she came out in an over the top high necked, long sleeved, floor length dress in a weird salmon color, with a completely bedazzled torso and pleated skirt, with sunburst diamond earrings and a blinding diamond necklace. She did a medley of WWS, accompanied by the same taped disco mix, and Billy Cox came out and sat at the piano. Apparently his job was to turn the tape recorder on and off, he played very little piano, which is kind of a waste for a man of his talent and experience. She then launched into another very 70's Love Boat styled song, accompanied again by a recorded track, and then went into a very long monologue for about 10 minutes about nothing in particular. Idina and Heather take note, this is what happens to your career if you don't get a tighter stage banter down. It was definitely interesting in just how loopy she was, but I was also hungry, wet, tired, and cranky, and not fully in the mood. She did a couple more songs, a costume change into a hideously inappropriate at her age red dress with a skirt made of red streamers, and then went out into the audience and got 8 old men to come up on stage with her, spent 10 minutes teaching them a dance, then did a 30 second number in which they did the dance and then picked her up and carried her offstage. She then did another 1 minute long number and then brought out a special guest, LeRoy Reemes (I think that's spelled right, fresh off the Producers national tour) and had him do several numbers while she was offstage, which begged the question, if she had him on the program, how come once she realized she wasn't going to be ready by 8 (and there's no excuse why she shouldn't have been, she lives in Melrose Park for god's sake and the traffic wasn't that awful even with the torrential rain), why didn't she send him on as an opening act and have him do some of the songs? When she joined him after about 5 songs (all very well done), she was still in the same costume, she obviously didn't need him to buy her time to do a costume change. She then did a couple songs with him and again left, leaving him on his own, and after only about 2 songs, came back in another high necked salmon colored, very 70's dress and did 42nd street with him and then they both left and it was intermission. By that time it was 9:45 and I was so tired, but I was curious to see if the second half would get even more over the top, so unlike about 90% of the audience, I stayed. Seriously, almost the entire theatre cleared out like they couldn't get out of there fast enough. I do understand that there was a 10:08 train and then not another one until almost 11:30 so some people may have had to go, but come on, after all that, you're not going to stay and get your money's worth, especially at $75 a ticket? I was a little concerned that she'd take another 2 hours for her intermission, but she did stick to 15 minutes and came out promptly at 10, coming from the side stage door and walked around the audience. I was in the 4th row, square in the middle, so I never got any attention from her any of the times she came wandering in to the audience, but that's fine because I was not in the mood. It's not like she was Liza, Barbra, Patti, or Diana Ross, the only 4 woman that I would put up with that behavior from, and even Liza and Barbra both managed to start within about 10 minutes of the start time printed on the tickets. The second half was much tighter. She did a lot of tap dancing and then brought LeRoy out again for several Gershwin songs, then she left him to do Hello Dolly, impersonating all the people (except for Babs) who have played the part before, and then came out in the best dress yet. LeRoy said goodnight and she did Embraceable You (which seems to be the theme of the diva season thus far-Embraceable You and poorly conducted stage chatter), and then the most fabulous schmaltzy 70's disco remix medley of several light rock songs, the most noteworthy being Through The Eyes of Love. Then, that was it, no encore, although that may have been because the audience got up and left before the lights even came back on. They probably realized it was better just to cut it there and let everyone go. So, it was very fun and for the most part worth seeing, although the massive stage chatter in the first half did kind of get bogged down and went from Baby Jane campy fun to kind of dull, but overall it was such a sadly fabulous display of a faded star firmly stuck in the 30 years ago past. It was still raining when I left, although not quite as heavily, and I headed home, forgoing picking something up because I do not want my new car to smell like Taco Bell or McDonald's. The rule is no eating, drinking, smoking, or transporting of smelly foods or people. The new car smell is almost completely gone, so I would like to try to at least keep it non-smelling.

So, I think that gets me all caught up. There's nothing definite although I'm finally getting my companion talking about Boys From Syracuse, although we don't have much time left. I think The Full Monty is out, but when there's a glut of things to see, the shows I haven't seen before generally take priority over those I have unless it's Kander & Ebb or Sondheim (except for last fall's Passion, which I'm still kicking myself for not seeing), and even then I still don't get all of them, such as I Do I Do. Drury Lane Oakbrook is doing Mame starting next month, so my priorities are Boys, Mame, and Court Theatre's production of Caroline or Change, which is a real long shot with my companion. Anyways, that's it for now.

I Did It!

2008-08-23T11:50:00.003-05:00

Well, this post has been a LONG time in coming. Sorry to keep you all waiting, out there in the dark, but things have been very busy. Fortunately, this is week 8 of 10 with the current school term, so in another couple of weeks I'll finally have time to take a breather and get current with my writing again. So, just to clarify, because I think I was a little unduly harsh and have been getting some questions about it, Idina was not awful. She was good, just not as good as I know she could have been, having seen her in Wicked. I know she's extremely excited about her first tour, especially after her aborted attempt at joining the music industry 10 years ago, but she tried to cram way too much in. It would have been much better had she either took an intermission (and HOB reopened the bar so that we could get something to drink in the 110 degree temperature inside) or if she had just focused on the music and saved the skits for a different show. If she can tighten up the show, I would love to see her as one of Ravinia's Martini's at the Martin performers next summer, even if I do have to pay for parking. Lastly, I think I forgot to mention, she looked fabulous, whatever she had in that cup, it hasn't affected her looks. Hopefully Nero will work out and we'll see her back on Broadway soon.

Now, as for the title of this post, I finally got Playbill Radio to work on my laptop, and I'm listening to it right now (Barbara Cook singing Nothing's Gonna Harm You from her Live at Carenegie CD). I wasn't able to get it to stream through Windows Media Player no matter what I did, but I finally got the other mp3 stream setting to work. For some reason, Nero (the burning program, not the Duncan Sheik musical with Idina) was trying to open it and kept freezing because I don't have Nero set as the default player. I finally downloaded the file instead of trying to open it and then manually set Yahoo Jukebox as the default player for that type of file, and then deleted the file, went back to the website, selected the mp3 stream, and clicked on Open, and right away Yahoo Jukebox opened and began playing it. I have never heard a more glorious sound in myself, except for maybe Linda Eder singing I Don't Know How To Love Him at Ravinia in 2000, why hasn't she sung it again?

Speaking of Linda Eder, at long last there is news about her CD that was supposed to come out earlier this year. I know this is old news now, but for the few of you that haven't heard, the CD will be out at the end of September. If I Could is on the playlist, but it otherwise promises a "new sound" for Linda. Appropriately, the CD is titled The Other Side of Me and is supposed to have more of a blue collar rock sound, a very interesting choice, but seeing as how she pulled off other pop music on Gold and even got me to enjoy Jazz on It's No Secret Anymore, if anyone can pull this off, it will be her. I can't wait!

Speaking of upcoming CD's, Tuesday is G day, or more appropriately, P day, when the Gypsy cast recording finally hits shelves. Unfortunately I'm working at our downtown office on Tuesdays now, and I refuse to buy anything in Chicago after the recent sales tax hike (thanks Todd!), so I have to wait until Wednesday when I'm back in the burbs and can run to Borders at lunch (in my nice new car). I've got my coupons all set, I can't wait.

Another CD I'm very excited about is John Barrowman's upcoming CD. Yes, I know I've mentioned this before, but Captain Jack can sing and is finally getting around to putting out a solo CD (maybe Cheyenne and Matt will take a cue, although Cheyenne at least is doing a cabaret show later this, too bad it's a one-night-only benefit, but so was Barbara's 1993 New Year's Eve Vegas concert and look what happened with that). It's supposed to be a mix of showtunes and pop music, and is being released in the UK in November. No word yet on a stateside release, but that's what the internet is for. If I could get the Rebecca cast recording, Capt. Jack will be no problem.

Lastly on the music theme, have you checked out emusic lately? I'm a little peeved about their price increase, although it's not too bad, and the silver lining is that is has enabled them to massively increase their catalog. About half the increase is wierd fluff stuff, like off-label cast recordings, but the other half is fabulous. They've got I Remember Mama, so that is up next month, as well as more London recordings, including Lady in the Dark with Maria Friedman, which will also be up soon, and more solo recordings, including Debbie Gravitte's Defying Gravity, which will also be up soon. When my downloads refreshed last week, I got Kerry Butler and Kelli O'Hara as I had planned, but did not have enough to get The Frogs, so I put that on hold until next month when I'll get that and Mama, and I got most of [Title of Show]'s Off-Broadway recording. I just have to get two more tracks when they refresh again next month. I've listened to a couple and especially love "Die Vampire Die." I've got my own Miss Johnson, and I subsitute his name (Mr. Betcher for anyone who cares) when I sing along, it's very empowering. I can't wait to go see the show, hopefully in October, along with August: OC, Equus, and finally South Pacific.

Speaking of August: OC, tonight I'm going to see Superior Donuts, I'll let you know how it is. I've also added another diva to the fall's lineup. I'm going to see Duffy on October 20 at the Riviera. The Sun Times didn't care too much for her Lollapalooza performance, but her CD, which I got last week, along with Barbara Cook's fablous Live at the Met CD, is wonderful. Like Amy W's, it's short and sweet, but it's just as musical, and while there are a lot of similarities, which is what attracted me to the CD, there are also a lot of differences that establish Duffy as her own person, kind of like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. They both appeal to the exact same audience but had their own unique styles and stories. Anyways, with all that, it's about time to go. My battery is running low, so I'd better get this submitted before it dies and I lose everything I wrote, I don't have time to do it all again. Look for a quick post tomorrow or Monday about Donuts.

She's Not Coming Down Anytime Soon

2008-08-07T15:27:00.001-05:00

And the end of the year diva season got started last night with Idina Menzel's concert at the House of Blues. I kind of already knew this from seeing her in Wicked, but she's one of those people like Linda Eder that sound exactly the same live as they do on CD, which is always nice (seriously, remember how Ricky Martin's career effectively peaked once he performed on SNL in 1999 and sounded awful compared to his CD. Sales were never the same). This was only my fourth time at HOB (amazing how after years of going to concerts all over Chicago, I suddenly doubled the number of times I've been there in the last 6 months), and I'm really pretty determined never to go there again unless it's someone really good. The other three times I've been there, it's always been general admission, with the floor wide open for standing room. So, this time I headed in (actually getting through the TSA security pretty quickly, they guessed it right this time), excited to head as close to the stage as possible, and found the floor completely sealed off and filled with folding chairs. General Admission was limited to standing around the bars on either side of the theater, smashed in with a few hundred other people. There was nothing on Ticketmaster's site when I bought the ticket indicating that this was going to be the setup. They simply had GA tickets and reserved seat tickets which I thought were the balcony seats and bar stools that are usually set up around the perimeter of the floor. Plus, this was also my first time being in there during the summer, and even though the weather was decent outside, it was so hot inside. So, I headed to the bar right at the top of the stairs so that I could make a quick exit once it was done, got a drink and some pizza, and quickly got crowded in on all sides. I got there about 6:50 and the opening act was already playing, which is a good idea. However, he was exactly the type of opening act I would expect based on her solo CD. It was some slightly overweight guy with a guitar doing Five For Fighting-style songs, a complete snoozefest and not exactly who I'd want warming up my crowd if I was a professional entertainer. It wasn't bad, it was just very bland. As more people started coming in, I wondered if I had gotten the venue wrong and instead of being at Idina Menzel's concert, I had somehow wandered into a Future Social Workers of America convention. Again, I realize it's a consequence of the type of solo music she prefers to do, and thank god it's not as egregious as Heather Headley's solo crap, but at the same time, she's got kind of a career schizophrenia going on. There was a decent showtune queen contingent, but the vast majority of the audience was overweight mid-30's Jewish women who looked like they were on a study break from the LCSW exam. In another 10 years they'll all be carrying around gigantic knit bags filled with bottles of saline solution and single serving emergency cat food packs. So, I knew the showtunes were going to be minimal, but based on her interview in playbill.com's Diva Talk column a couple months ago, I was expecting more than 3 (actually 2 1/2, she only did half of For Good, but more on that in a few). She came out around 7:50 and opened with a very tight series of songs from I Stand, beginning with the title track and working through about 4 or 5 more. As I said, she sounded just as good live, and she did the best songs, so it wasn't quite as crunchy as it could have been, plus she kept her plastic accessorizing down to a bare minimum, just one bracelet, no neckwear, so it wasn't quite as folks-y a vibe as the CD itself is. She kept the between song-banter to a minimum, and really picked up a lot of steam. Then the first cracks started appearing, coinciding with her starting to drink out of the cup by her feet that her assistant had set on the stage just before the show. I would love to know what was in it, because as the show kept going on and she kept drinking from it, she seemed to get looser and more distracted, almost like a Jewish Amy Winehouse. So after about 5 or 6 songs from I Stand, she did Here, the title track from her first EP, and spent almost 5 minutes teaching the audience how to accurately do the "huh" part of the introduction, like it was the most fun thing ever. Once she got into the song, it was good, and she then followed it up with My Own Worst Enemy, which proved to be so prophetic. That song was the effective end of the concert, the rest was her talking about random topics and working in about 4 more songs over the next 45 minutes. She started with a long story about dropping out of Hebrew school and she never got to do her Bat Mitzvah, and she regrets not getting to sing one particular passage of the Bible (or the Torah or whatever it is they make their selections from), so she sang some Jewish verse about Deborah and her role in leading Israel's army, but she kept interrupting it with tangential stories that didn't quite fit with the theme of the passage, and she kept repeating it over and over and lost all the energy she had built up prior to that point. She then did a very lengthy variety show-type sketch about her early career when she was 15 as a wedding/bar/bat mitzvah singer on Long Island. It could have been really funny, but she kept rambling on all these tangents and it was about 5 minutes too long. She did some great self-aware re-enactments of the 80's songs she had had to perform and the crazy choreography that went with them, and it could have been a tight sketch piece like Bette Midler does in her shows, but it just lacked focus. However, she did a phenomenal performance of Embraceable You, which was probably the highlight of the show towards the end of the skit to illustrate how she had tried to work in serious music, but then she really went off track after that. It turned out the point was to show how she ended up in Rent (she didn't get along with the headliner and quit when he threw a microphone at her), but it took so long to get there through so many detours that it didn't quite seem worth it. Seriously, Betty Buckley, who is a master at telling stories on the stage that keep the show moving along, should give a master class on how to do stage banter, and Idina and Heather should both be required to go before anyone will book them anywhere ever again. At this point the show was effectively over. She talked for about another 10 minutes about the Rent experience (which of course I could have done without) and then finally did her first showtune, "No Day But Today," and it wasn't bad (and definitely a better choice than Seasons of Love), but then she really lost focus. She did some song about someone named Roxanne turning on a red light, and jumped around all over the stage to the point where she was winded and needed about 5 minutes to catch her breath. She then skipped over The Wild Party and Wicked on Broadway altogether and jumped to going to London for Wicked but then used that to segue into having a great writing session with some famous songwriter in London the day after she finished her run and then did Wasted. She then went right into an a capella version of For Good, but only did the first verse and chorus, and then said goodnight, but stayed on stage for one more song and then left. There was no I'm Not That Girl, nothing from See What I Wanna See, and no Damsel in Distress (from the Desperate Housewives soundtrack). She quickly came back for an encore and did a song from the upcoming Duncan Sheik musical Nero (ok, so make that 3 1/2 showtunes, this one is just hard to count since it's not actually a show yet for the song to be a tune from). It was really good, and then she got into Defying Gravity, which unfortunately, being the last song of the night, was one of the biggest disappointments. After listening to her ramble for the last 45 minutes, I wanted belting. I wanted the full Broadway orchestra, the screaming and wailing, and I even wouldn't have minded some flying. Instead, she did it almost as a lullaby, completely out of tune from the show's arrangement, and mostly just repeating "I think I'll try defying gravity" over and over, and then getting the audience to sing along (which actually is great that there's enough people out there to actually do a sing along to a showtune), and then completely skipped the bridge and final verse, and just kept doing "I think I'll try defying gravity" for another several minutes, and then finally did the end note and hold, and that was it. The woman is obviously talented, but like Heather Headley, she needs to make a choice. Does she want to do showtunes or does she want to do some other style of music? It doesn't have to be completely mutually exclusive, Betty Buckley does a great fusion of jazz (which I would hate from anyone else) and showtunes, and Linda Eder does pop music, standards, and showtunes, but they both have their own personal style that allows them to do those different styles but to make the choices seem totally natural, giving continuity to their performances. Heather and Idina can't seem to reconcile their preferred musical styles, which makes them rather schizophrenic performers. Plus, whatever she had in that cup was not helping at all. So, for $35 it was worth seeing, but next time she might be better off at Ravinia (if she can cut the banter and focus on the music, she'd be a great choice for next year's Martinis at the Martin series), and sticking to more showtunes.

Greetings

2008-07-29T19:09:00.000-05:00

Well hello again. It's been another eventful weekend with American Airlines and O'Hare. They both suck. I went to Montreal over the weekend and had a fabulous time, but it was bookended by horrible travelling experiences. Going there on Friday was a little bit better than coming back. The flight was technically American Eagle, which is basically American's Ted-type service, and the gates are in the basement of O'Hare where it smells like homeless people and there are no cell phone or wireless signals. The plane was only about 20 minutes late, but then once we got on, the plane smelled like a litter box and they realized that the bathroom was completely backed up. They had to get a crew on board to come and fix it, which took about another 40 minutes, and then because it was such a small plane (about 20 rows with one seat on the left and two on the right, very rickety which I don't like) and people had moved around to get as far away from the smell as possible, they had to reshuffle people around to balance the load (again, not reassuring at all), and one guy who had apparently had a few before getting on board was rather non-cooperative. Fortunately someone else jumped in (I would have myself except I was already in the area they needed more people to move in to), and we got on our way and made up about 20 minutes of that in the air, so we weren't too late arriving.

Montreal was beautiful, but I got horrendously sunburned Saturday early afternoon, and then rained on and soaked Saturday late afternoon. It went from hot and sunny to cloudy and rainy about as quickly as New York, although it did not rain nearly as hard and was actually pleasant to walk in. It also helped that I was not carrying a bag full of books, theatre tickets, and dressed in khakis and a dress shirt. Shorts and a t-shirt are much more preferable when walking in the rain, they don't cling to you when they're wet and they dry out much quicker when the rain stops. The only slight disappointment was that there was almost no cultural activity that night, no theatre, no symphony, no opera, or anything. So, instead, we had a leisurely, wonderful dinner at a French restaurant (called Le Grill) in the old town area, had some wine at the hotel after, and called it a day fairly early, which was fine because we were exhausted after walking all over the place. Sunday we went to the Fine Art Museum and saw their Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, which was very cool, I really felt like a Top Model, they even had a catwalk through one of the exhibit halls. Then it was time to head to the airport to come back, and everything was fine until it was about time to take off. It's a very nice airport and very well set up. Heathrow and Charles DeGaul could really do to take notes from Montreal. The only annoyance was that we had to play musical gates about 3 times because all of New England was being deluged with rain and all the flights were cancelled. We were fine however until about 20 minutes to boarding when we were informed there would be an hour delay, for no reason. After about 15 minutes they told us we were going to board because there was a window to get out, so we boarded, and were then informed that we were going to have to pull out to the tarmac and wait about another 50 minutes (again on a rickety little jet that did not inspire confidence) because O'Hare's radar system had gone out and they were working on sight, which meant the entire airline system was getting backed up. Now, this happens like every other week, you'd think O'Hare would stock up on radar parts or just buy a new system. It's so ridiculous, but we got out in 50 minutes and again made up some of it in the air. The nice thing was that we went through customs in Montreal so we were able to land at one of the regular terminals, my companion could get his suitcase, and we could leave without jumping through any more hoops. He then saw my new car for the first time and loved it, and we rode home. So, as usual, it was a great weekend marred only by the country's sucky air travel system. Somebody's got to do something about that.

Other tidbits that I've been forgetting to mention:

I did get the magnets and the Glory Days shirts. The front of my fridge at work is now very nicely adorned, I've actually got room for maybe 1 or 2 more, or 3 or 4 if I put a couple on the sides. But, it's very nicely spaced out without being cluttered, so it would have to be something good. The Glory Days shirt is very nice and very comfortable, I did wear it to Mamma Mia so I could show off my showtune pride. I was worried it would be one of those scratchy almost polyester-like ones, but it is very soft and light. It's a keeper, and I've got another one wrapped up in cellophane for safe keeping.

Paging Michelle Pfeiffer, New Line announced plans to make a movie musical sequel to Hairspray, penned by John Waters and involving the same creative team as Hairspray, with hopes for the original cast to return. Grease 2 anyone?

It's been another good weekend for Mamma Mia at the box office, shrugging off those bad reviews and hauling in another $17-some million. You go dancing queen!

Check this out: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/119885.html Nothing shocking, but still very revealing, and I'll never get tired of seeing that picture. Still, remember anyone who caught Damn Yankees, I mean ANYTHING for a picture of him in the Washington Senators uniform.

I did get the rest of Catered Affair from emusic and as I was going for Kelli O'Hara's album, I came across a link to a compilation she contributed to of Jule Styne's music called Jule Styne in Hollywood. As luck would have it, it contained just as many tracks as I had downloads remaining, so I got that instead. Next month I'll get Kerry Butler's and Kelli O'Hara's and then start on The Frogs. Now that I've got the actual Evening Primrose recording, I don't need the earlier studio recording, I can get the Broadway Cast Recording with Nathan Lane instead, since that's the one emusic has, and not have to worry about losing out on Primrose.

So, I think that's about it for now. I know I still have to post a picture of Lucille, and I'll throw in a picture of my fridge in its showtune pride glory, but that takes some doing, so I'll get to it later. A week from tomorrow is Idina. Hopefully I'll keep next week in a Wicked theme if my friend will get around to getting the Wicked tickets he's been promising. I think she's coming here from one show and heading right out to another, so I don't think Tuesday night's Wicked audience can expect any surprises, but you never know. I just hope she does Defying Gravity or I'm Not That Girl for us on Wednesday. And with that, it's time to work, so talk to you all later.

The Blair Witch Musical

2008-07-22T14:13:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not referring to a harebrained (although given the reality of Shrek the Musical, not altogether unfathomable) scheme of some opportunistic yet artistically bankrupt producer, but rather to the camera work of the otherwise FABULOUS Mamma Mia. First off, a pox on critics!!! The vehemence of most of the reviews I've read has been staggering, yet the same critics who have it in for this warm and fuzzy feel-good family movie raved about the ultraviolent Dark Knight. Now, I'm all for ultraviolence in my movies, but, as evidenced by the strong box office returns for MM, there is certainly more than enough room for both in an opening weekend. One of the common themes of all the reviews was mediocre to incompetent directing and cinematography. Now, we all know my feelings about creators of stage versions being allowed to create the movie version (other than Sondheim, who was limited to approval or disapproval, no one from any of the stage incarnations was involved in Sweeeney and that turned out to be a classic while meddling from Andrew Lloyd Webber ruined Phantom and Evita, and JC Superstar for that matter, and the less said about Susan Stroman's film version of her The Producers the better, and even Hairspray didn't fully live up to i's potential), but other than some very shaky camerawork designed to give the illusion of being on a yacht, I thought it was very well done. The cinematography was anything but dingy as all the reviewers complained, everything was well framed, the only problem was the insistent camera jerking throughout the first half of the movie. I know Phyllida was probably trying to avoid the cardinal sin of movie to musical adaption of simply focusing the camera on a single point and filming the scene as it was happening on stage, but she went a little too far in the other direction. I should have brought my leftover dramamine patch from the cruise, at least it's a good thing I didn't eat beforehand. However, everything else about the movie works so well it really doesn't even matter. Again, ignore the reviewers, while Meryl is superb, she is not the only one. Of course Christine Baranski is fabulous as is Julie Waters, Amanda Seyfreid (if a little too wide-eyed innocent at times) and all the men. Speaking of men, the strength of the show is that it knows its audience, and this is where having Phyllida helm the movie after having created the stage show was a good idea. While it takes a little longer, there is just as much gorgeous island boy eye candy in the movie as there is on stage, and the gay reveal at the end is ramped up a notch in a very definite nod to the core audience that has kept the show so successful for so long. Good for you Phyllida! Also as with the stage show though, it takes about 20 minutes for the story to really get going, and apparently trying to be 100% opposite of Lord of the Rings, there are about 8 or 9 false starts in that 20 minutes where someone says something a little over the top, the music picks up, and then all of a sudden we cut to another scene without a song. However, once they finally get to the Chiqitita/Dancing Queen number, the movie takes off like a rocket. I dare you not not applaud after Dancing Queen. The movie flies by and works as a whole, avoiding the other big stage show to movie sin, maintaining two separate story arcs of the first and second act but cutting out the intermission, causing a mid-movie lull as the first arc winds down and the second has to pick up. Yes, Sound of Music and West Side Story did have intermissions, so their two act arc worked, but Evita really got bogged down at the moment it should have soared with Don't Cry For Me Argentina, and Phantom fizzled as soon as Masquerade stole All I Ask Of You's thunder, the retiming of the chandelier crash notwithstanding. Then there was Dreamgirls which got so stagebound but we're not going there. Think Chicago, Sweeney, and even Hairspray, all of which told one continuous story from beginning to end. Anyways, it's a fabulous movie and I see a few more trips to the theatre over the summer for me. Oh, and by the way, I am now the proud owner of a brand new Toyota Yaris. They finally called me on Friday and said it had arrived, which of course was horrible timing (I would have just gone to see Mamma Mia Friday night if I had known, but having bought the ticket for Sunday on Thursday night, there was nothing I could do). I went out and got it after my clients on Saturday, and the only even slight letdown was that I got my second choice color, so instead of a Tobias, I have a Lucille (I still had to go with an Arrested Developoment theme, and I felt that the Jessica Walters and Liza Minnelli characters would be an appropriate name, and I can nickname her Gangy as well, maybe when my companion gets back from Europe I'll have Pop-Pop in the car too). Anyways, time to get back to work, I've still got papers and disucssions do before heading of to Montreal for the weekend.

Evening Primrose

2008-07-17T16:57:00.001-05:00

Just a very quick note as I am trying to wrap up for the day and get out of here, but I think I mentioned awhile ago that I tracked down the Evening Primrose soundtrack online and ordered it direct from the label. It arrived yesterday and I've been listening to it repeatedly all day today and I just have to say how fabulous it is. The label did a terrific job transfering the soundtrack from the video onto CD. There's only a couple very short places where you can tell it's a recording of a recording, otherwise it's very pristine and very well done. Of course the music is fabulous and as much as I love Loesser, Sondheim's music is really much beter suited for Anthony Perkins' voice. Too bad he was never able to write anything for Vincent Price. I highly recommend that you track down a copy while they're still available: www.kritzerland.com There were only 3000 copies pressed and from whst I gather, there's only a few remaining.

Replacements and more

2008-07-15T15:14:00.001-05:00

Ok, I forgot a couple of things yesterday in my haste to get back to class work, and got some important (although not necessarily good) news about a few things last night and today.

Most importantly, it appears the producers of Spring Awakening are committed to having a hottie in the role of Melchior. While the gorgeous, Gorgeous, GORGEOUS Kyle Riabko is leaving next month to go on tour, there will not be any lack of eye candy on the stage as the equally gorgeous and slightly more hunky Hunter Parrish of Weeds has been cast as the replacement. As long as he can sing, and the producers are confident that he can, that will be worth seeing. Now if they could just cast Mary Louise Parker as the adult woman. . .

Another replacement that has me somewhat more worried is happening in Xanadu. Jackie Hoffman is going on vacation for 6 weeks and will be replaced by . . . Sasquatch, oops, I mean Whoopi Goldberg. That's very interesting casting as Whoopi looks about 30 years older than Jackie. Still, since the show is so goofy anyways, it just might work. However, bad things happen to Xanadu when Whoopi is around and I'm worried that Jackie may not have a job to come back to after her vacay. Here's hoping for a roller skate malfunction.

Making a tenuous connection from one topic to the next along the lines of movie adaptations, a new producing entity is planning on bringing Rebecca to the Broadway stage, with a target date of Spring, 2010. Here's hoping they have better luck than the producers of Tanze der Vampire. At least the name translates the same and they don't have to worry about random 80's pop songs being interpolated into the score. As fantastic as Vampire was in Berlin, listening to it in German kind of blunts the impact of being immersed in a gorgeous score and then suddenly getting jarred back into reality by the cast singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. I can't imagine that worked well in English at all. However, I do have to ask that they keep "Mrs. DeWinter Bin Ich" in German, there is no topping the campiness of Mrs. Danvers shreiking out "Nein, NEIN!" and then a heartbeat later hearing something shatter and the new Mrs. DeWinter changing keys as she belts out the chorus. Please don't change that song. Also, with a more well known source, hopefully the producers won't be tempted to hire a new script writer to completely alter the script into something unrecognizable and incomprehensible as reportedly happened with Vampire.

And lastly, I keep forgetting to ask, is anyone else having problems playing playbillradio.com on Windows Vista? I can play it on my phone for pete's sake, but when I try it on my new laptop, the player pops up but nothing plays. The track information keeps updating as presumably the tracks change, but there is no sound or anything. I tried it on my older, crappy laptop after I reinstalled the operating system, and it plays fine on XP, although when the player popped up, a separate Windows Media Player popped up as well and the stream seemed to be playing through that rather than the pop up player. On Vista I don't get Windows Media Player popping up. There's no support documentation about this on the site and I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing this. Otherwise the new laptop has been running great lately (knock on wood), but I'd like to be able to use it for Playbill Radio, they've got a better selection and more original content than Accuradio, which does play fine. Oh, and my downloads refresh on Thursday so I can finish getting Catered Affair and follow it up wiht Kelli O'Hara's solo CD. They just added Kerry Butler's so I'll start on that with the remaining downloads and then finish it up next month.

Ok, so that reminds me I've got one more topic. Just aboute every diva in New York has released a solo album lately (Idina, Victoria Clark, Andrea Burns, Lauren Kennedy, Kerri, Kelly, Betty Buckley), but how come none of the guys have? This would be a great time for Cheyenne or Matty Mo to put out a CD (with some shirtless liner photos), or even Jonathan Groff, Christian Borle, Gavin Creel, or even Michael Cerveris (as long as it's better than his last alt-rock-lite snoozefest). Even Mandy Patinkin's only done children's songs and Yiddish folk songs lately. What's the deal guys? It's great that you're all into contributing to compilations, but don't be shy, we want to hear more of you. With all the crap in record stores right now, we could use some fresh voices. At least think about it. And with that, it's back to work. I'll let you know my thoughts about Mamma Mia on Monday.

Catching Up

2008-07-14T16:30:00.001-05:00

Well, it's 2 weeks into the new term and I'm already sick of being back in school. I'm ready for this term to be over and to have a few more weeks off. 8 more to go! Anyways, I know this is so late, but I've been busy once again, but I did go see Barbara Cook last Sunday at Ravinia and it was fabulous. Once again, there was no bus service from the remote lot which pissed me off and did not seem to make a few other people very happy. I am suprised though, how many people just sucked it up and parked in the main lot, but since the average age was about $85 and the average income probably $300,000 more than mine, they may not have cared, even though for me it's all about principle. Regardless, Barbara was fantastic. It was fairly short, only about 80 minutes, no intermission (shorter than the Gershwin queen's even), but packed wiht fabulousness. She did a lot of Richard Rodgers (partnered with both Hammerstein and Hart) and Sondheim, but did also did a lot of other great songs as well. She did not really do any of her standards though (there was no Goodnight My Somone, Till There Was You, or Ice Cream), but the program said this was her 3rd or 4th Ravinia appearance since 2001, so she may have figured the Ravinia audience had had enough of those and opted to give us something new. It was a really great night, and it's hard to believe that this summer's concerts are almost over. I've got the 5 Browns on August 13, and then I just bought my Carol Lawrence ticket today for September 4, and then that's it for the year. Already!!! I can't believe it. However, that disappointing realization was put to rest when I went looking online for some more magnets since I didn't get everything I wanted in New York. I did find a Gypsy magnet, but it sucks. It only has the Gypsy logo in spotlights on the pale blue background, there's no Patti or anything. Personally, I liked the Encores art design better, but there are only posters available now. There were no Xanadu magnets to be found, and all I could find of Cheyenne Jackson were some All Shook Up souveniers, which should be burned rather than sold. But, I did find an A Catered Affair magnet, and then found a nice stash of Glory Days merchandise at playbill.com's store (www.playbillstore.com). I ordered a magnet, an opening night Playbill, and a t-shirt. Actually, I got 2 T-Shirts, one to keep in pristine condition and one to wear (they were almost half off so it was a bargain, they're obviously priced to move). So, I got all the Glory Days stuff and the Catered Affair magnet at Playbill's store and then went to Broadway New York's store. They had a Barbara Streisand magnet that was a replica of a poster for her 1968 concert tour, so I got that, and then got two more of those cool ceramic tile magnets. One is similar to the Passion one I have, but is of the theatre Evita was at and shows the huge Evita logo on the marquis. I figured that's the closest to a Patti one I'll find. Then I got one that had the Ragtime logo since that is one of my all time favorite shows. That brings me up to 8 magnets which will seriously crowd the front of my little fridge, so I ended it there. It makes for a nice, eclectic collection that says just as much about me as it does the magnets themselves. So, that's about it for now. It's Mamma Mia all weekend this weekend!!!

Catching Up

2008-07-04T15:02:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been a busy week, with clients just about every night, so I didn't get to catch up on my sleep until last night, and I slept almost 12 hours!!! It's been a nice relaxing day, although with my new classes starting on Monday, I've been perusing the syllabi and starting the readings for next week. I am so not looking forward to another 10 weeks, but at least it's just 10 weeks and then another few weeks off, which should be good timing. The Met is doing La Giocanda with Debbie Voigt, Olga Borodina, and James Morris at the end of September and I'd love to see it, and then we may be able to catch South Pacific and possibly Billy Elliot (although since I've already seen it in London, if there's something else by then, I'd go see that, but Billy makes for an excellent standby). Speaking of Billy Elliot, ever since I saw Young Frankenstein and Catered Affair last weekend, I've been rethinking my opposition to movies turned into musicals. Yes, stuff like Legally Blonde, Shrek, and now Dirty Dancing are wastes of time produced with a cynical eye towards profit, yet there are plenty of non-movies turned into musicals produced for the same reason, such as Three Days of Rain and the upcoming My Three Sons, where they think they can stick a high powered movie star in it and people will flock to it (which they do, further reinforcing the trend). But, this trend, which started with the powerful adaptation of Shenandoah in 1975, has also given us Nine, Grand Hotel, Xanadu, The Light in the Piazza, YF, Catered, Hairspray, and of course, Billy Elliot, and all of those do outweigh such crap as the aforementioned ones, plus The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and High Fidelity. So, I say, keep the quality movie adaptations coming. I would say let's see an adaptation of Muriel's Wedding, because that would make such a fabulous musical, but Mamma Mia kind of renders it unnecessary. However, there are plenty of other great ones to chose from. Jukebox musicals on the other hand, are getting very tired, and unless someone wants to do a Cher or a Carpenters musical (and how fabulous would either of those be?!), I can't see any need for any more of those. Lastly, it looks like while the rest of the country is getting lucky, Chicago is once again getting screwed. It was announced this week that Kyle Riabko has been doing such a fantastic job in Spring Awakening that he's been tapped to head the national tour starting this fall. So, he may be gone from NY by the time I get back, and, as usual, Chicago is the dead last stop of the show, it's not coming here until August 2009, by which time there's a good chance Kyle will be gone and we'll have someone else. It happened with Drowsey Chaperone (while we did get Georgia Engel, Bob Martin was long gone), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Light in the Piazza. At least though, we are getting Xanadu first and that's something to be proud of.

I Can't Stand The Rain

2008-06-30T14:58:00.001-05:00

NEW YORK'S TRANSPORTATION SUCKS ASS BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, with that said, the rest of the trip overall was good, but I am so exhausted after dealing with all the random travel-related crap that happened. So, Saturday started out well. We slept in, then got ready and walked down to Times Square. I took the tickets for both Young Frankenstein and Adding Machine with me so that we wouldn't have to go back to the hotel, since that was the wrong direction. I went to Colony Records, and while they did not have the Evening Primrose TV soundtrack, Annie Warbucks, Woman of the Year, How Now Dow Jones, or New Girl In Town, they did have She Loves Me, which is disappearing from shelves pretty quickly and an appropriate buy since I'm going to see Barbara at Ravinia on Sunday, and The Me Nobody Knows, which has also almost completely disappeared. Then, as I was browsing, I came across Charles Strouse's Nightingale, featuring Sarah Brightman, which I had never heard of, so I grabbed that. They did not have the Adding Machine recording, so since I figured I could get that at the theatre that night, I just got those three CD's. I then met my companion at Ruby Foo's for lunch and then we headed towards the Hilton Theatre. We stopped in at the Broadway New York Theatreworld store, and I was hoping to get some magnets for my new refrigerator in my office. I wanted to get Gypsy and Xanadu, but the selection was rather disappointing. They didn't have much, so I ended up with a Wicked one, a Times Square souvenier one, and a kind of cool one that's a tile painted with the Marquis of the Plymouth Theatre advertising Passion. Hopefully I can find Gypsy and Xanadu online. They also did not have any Glory Days merchandise, apparently the producers hid it all or something to avoid further embarassment, completely erasing any trace that the show ever existed. I got the magnets and we walked over to the Hilton. We were in the very last row of the balcony, but dead center, so that worked pretty well. I looked through the program and was pleasantly surprised to see that Andrea Burns was still in the show. It was great to see her, but now I'm completely confused. I had read last fall that she was only doing YF until In The Heights re-opened in February. I never heard anything after that about her staying with YF, and she's on the Heights cast recording and performed with them at the Tony's, so is she running back and forth between theatres a la Elaine Stritch or what? Anyways, she was excellent, as was everyone else, but the big surprise was that the show was actually good! It was really good!!! For all my carping about enough movies having been turned into musicals, Young Frankenstein is an excellent addition to the group, and would have been a much more deserving Best Musical nominee than either Passing Strange or Cry Baby. While I haven't been a huge fan of the cast recording up to now, it makes a lot more sense now having seen it and I appreciate it a lot more. All the performers were excellent, and it was fabulous to see Megan live. Granted, her character was basically Karen Walker, but she totally should have gotten a Tony Nomination along with Andrea. She looked fabulous (at least as much as I could tell from the very last row), sounded fabulous, and her timing was dead on. Then, as we all know, I'm not a huge fan of Sutton Foster, but she turned out excellent as well. Given her back to back turns in Drowsey Chaperone and Young Frankenstein, I'd be inclined to say that she's fully atoned for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Little Women, but the fact that her next show is going to be Shrek means that she's back to square one with her atoning. Plot-wise, there wasn't much to the show, it was basically a farce, but it was entertaining and funny, so I don't know what most of the critics were carping about, it's really a terrific show and I urge you to go see it before Andrea, Sutton, and Megan leave over the course of the next two months.

After Young Frankenstein, things started going downhill. We hopped on the subway and went down to the Village to go to Strand. As we got out of the subway, we could see some darker clouds rolling in. We went to Strand, and it was so fucking unbelievably crowded, I gave up pretty quickly. I wanted to see if they had Lance Bass's autobiography, but I didn't see it on any of the tables and couldn't get in to any of the aisles to look for it. My companion found some stuff pretty quickly and paid, and we got out of there. However, as soon as we stepped out, the rain started. I stood under the awning with the homeless people eyeing the outdoor shelves of books, and he ran in and bought an umbrella. Before leaving for YF, I had made a reservation for 6:00 at Blau Gans. It was about 5:15, so we decided to stop in a cafe for some coffee and see if it would stop raining, and then walk over to the 6th Ave. 14th St. subway stop and go down to Chambers and walk to the restaurant. We got the coffee, and about 5:40 the rain stopped, so we walked to the subway, and that's when things went down the crapper. The subway station was completely fucked up. It took us 10 minutes of just walking around various tunnels, making u-turns, following apparently incorrect signs, before we finally found the 1-2-3 platform, and it was so fucking humid. The rain had not cooled anything down. There was a huge crowd on the platform, and it took almost 20 minutes for a train to finally show up. Actually, during that 20 minutes, two 1 trains showed up, but then dropped off all the passengers, and then backed up, going back the way they came instead of continuing on. A 3 train finally showed up, and we all pushed our way on. Even though it was supposed to be an express, it made every stop, but then when we reached Franklin, the stop before Chambers, the doors opened so that people could get on and off, and then. . .nothing. The doors stayed open and the train didn't move. After about 5 minutes, people started getting off, but then some would get back on, and there seemed to be a lot of general confusion. After about another 5 minutes (it was now about 6:15), the conductor came on the intercom and said that the train was out of service and all passengers had to disembark. So we did, but the train still stayed there, making it impossible for any other train to show up. So, we decided that since Chambers was the next stop and the restaurant was right there, we'd just walk. We went through the turnstile and up the stairs, and met the fiercest monsoon we have ever experienced. The umbrella did nothing, the rain was coming down almost horizontally, and the water was just gushing down the streets. It was coming down so hard, we could barely even look up at the street signs to get our bearings. We ran under a construction awning with about 10 other people just to catch our breath. Of course, by then we were already soaked, and I was worried that the Adding Machine tickets that I had in my pocket were ruined. My companion called the restaurant and got directions on how to walk there, but then we couldn't cross the street because the standing water at the curb was already several inches deep. We had to go west about two blocks before we could cross and then walk back, which just got us more soaked. The umbrella was not big enough for the two of us, and he kept moving it around, so I just got the runoff water dumped on my rather than keeping dry, and the books in his bag completely got waterlogged. We kept going, and then, all of a sudden, about two blocks from the restaurant, it stopped. It didn't taper off, or let up, or anything like that, it just stopped like a faucet had been turned off. Of course that would happen right as we were getting to the restaurant, it couldn't have stopped while we were under the construction awning. Fortunately, the restaurant was not busy at all, so we were able to get seated, but by then it was about 6:45, and the show was at 8, and since the subway apparently was not a trustworthy option for getting back up to the village, I was rather worried that we wouldn't be able to get a cab, since cabs in Manhattan all disappear when it rains. Then, my companion's friend finally called (the one whose partner does Patti's wigs and makeup), and wanted to meet, but he was still in the Village, and my companion told him to just come to the restaurant. So, we had to switch tables, and he didn't like the table they moved us to, so we had to move again, and then he wanted to wait until his friend got there before ordering, and I was so ready to throttle him. I was soaked, I was hungry, and we only had about 45 minutes before showtime. Fortunately, the friend showed up quickly and we got our order in, and the waiter was great about getting it out quickly. I checked the tickets, and while they were damp and the colors around the edge were bleeding, the barcode and printed information were still intact. So, I had some (ok, A LOT) of wine and tried to relax a bit. We got out of there at 7:45, and surprisingly, managed to catch a cab right at the corner and got to Minetta Lane by 7:55. We settled in, and the show began. Unfortunately, all the wine I had caught up with me by the 3rd scene and I spent most of the show waiting for it to be over so I could get to the bathroom. However, even with that distraction, it was phenomenal. We were in the second row, and off to the side, so our view wasn't very good, we saw it more in profile rather than straight on (that theatre design is very strange, but at least we weren't sitting in the seats facing the wall next to the stage), but the music was excellent, and the way they had the sets designed, we were able to see pretty well. That was truly a phenomenal show. However, my companion hated it, almost as much as he hated Spring Awakening and Sunday in the Park with George. So, he was ready to go by the time it was done. I did get a CD, which he grumbled about, but he wasn't paying so it doesn't matter. We braved the subway and got back to the hotel without incident, of course, with no rain this time when the subway was actually working. I was still completely wet, and was a little worried that after sitting in a heavily air conditioned theatre for an hour and a half that I'd wake up with a sore throat or a full blown cold. So, I got some more wine at the hotel bar, got out of my wet clothes, took a warm shower, and snuggled into bed. I was exhausted, so after I finished the wine, I was out pretty quickly.

We slept very late on Sunday, having been worn out by the night before, but woke up to sun streaming in and what looked like a very nice day. We got ready, checked out, stored the luggage, and went to meet another friend of his at a Mexican restaurant (I forget the name) at 62nd and Columbus, across from Lincoln Center, for brunch. Fortunately, my companion had the presence of mind to bring the umbrella along even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky at the time. The food (and drinks) were excellent, and I got a lot of good stories from his friend. We took our time and left about 2:15. We stepped outside, and it was so dark. The grey clouds were almost completely covering the sky, so we started walking quickly. We walked down 8th Ave. and made it to 50th St. before the rain started. Just like the night before, it was a monsoon. It didn't start sprinkling and then get stronger, again it was like someone just turned a faucet on. So, up came the umbrella, and once again I got more runoff going down my collar rather than staying dry. We got to the Walter Kerr and fought our way through the mass huddled under the marquis and got into the lobby to get the tickets. However, they had a velvet rope stretched across the middle, so we had to go back outside and in the next set of doors, so we decided to just wait until the mass got in and then we could just duck out and back in without having to wait in line. As we were standing in the lobby, I noticed the "At This Performance" board and saw that Tom Wopat's role was going to be played by someone else, which was disappointing. My companion was extremely disappointed since he hasn't seen him at all before, I at least saw him in Chicago the last time it came through in late 2005. After everyone got in, we ducked out and went in, and the seats weren't too bad. We were off to the side, but pretty close up. I again was miserable, completely wet and once again in an over-air conditioned theatre, but once the show started, I got over it. What a terrific show, again, another far more deserving Best Musical nominee than Passing Strange or Cry Baby. Tom Wopat's replacement did well, although he flubbed some lines towards the end, and everyone else was fabulous, particualarly Faith Prince. Plus, our first view of Matt Cavenaugh as he jumped out of bed to get dressed certainly brightened up my day. He will certainly be getting an invitation for a personal meeting the next time I'm in New York if he's around (although that may be a while as my story is not over yet). I had paid much more attention to my liquid consumption prior to this show, so I didn't have to get impatient waiting for it to end, which was good because it was so elegant I would have hated to want it to rush. It was so heartwarming, and we both loved it. eMusic has finally added it, and I got about the first 1/4 of it after In The Heights before I used up all my downloads, so as soon as they refresh in mid-July, I'll be getting the rest of it. It may not have been too popular this time around (although the theatre was pretty full), but I'm betting this one will have a huge afterlife. Yes, the music was not traditional musical theatre, but it was so perfectly suited to the story. I just can't say enough good things about the show without sounding like I'm repeating myself, so just let it suffice to say that if you haven't seen it yet, go now before it closes at the end of July. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to get a tour, and even if you're lucky enough for a regional theatre to pick it up, it's highly doubtful you'll get Faith Prince, who, if this hadn't been Patti's year (and I'll bet she gave Patti a run for her money among the voters), would have undoubtedly picked up her second Tony for this fabulous, touching, performance.

So, we were both in a better mood, until we stepped outside and saw that it was still fucking raining. It wasn't quite monsoon level anymore, but it was still coming down pretty good, and there was lightening and thunder to boot. We walked all the way back to the hotel (again with the runoff from the umbrella going down my collar, all the way from 8th and 48th to 10th and 57th), and got our luggage and a cab to LaGuardia. Traffic was terrible, as we knew it would be, and we got there around 6. We had been hoping to get on an earlier flight like we did in December, but out of the 4 flights before ours, the first one was delayed several hours, and the others were cancelled. Ours was still listed as being on time, so we checked in, got some food, and then went through security. Once through (which actually went very quickly, apparently everyone was standing in line at the ticket counters to rebook rather than going to gates to catch flights), we checked the board, and saw that our flight was now delayed an hour until 10. My companion belongs to the Admiral's Club, so we went in there and got a day pass for me and just hung out until they closed at 8:30. I was still soaked, but the club was nice (although they had a huge line to get in of members needing to rebook, and one of the women was very rude to eveyone that was unfortunate enough to get her), and relaxing, which was good, because when they closed and we went to the gate, there was a massive crowd. The plane that was supposed to take off before ours wasn't there yet, and apparently tons of people were trying to get rebooked on it. We managed to find two seats, and about 10 minutes later, the fire alarm went off. However, not one person blinked an eye. Everyone just sat there, the gate attendants kept working with people in line, and nothing happened as the alarm kept blaring. After about 5 minutes it shut off, and everyone just kept going about their job. However, around 9:30, their plane still hadn't arrived, and our flight then got bumped to 10:30. Fortunately, their plane showed up shortly after and they got on it (at least those who could) and they left. However, 10:00 came and went, which was supposed to be boarding time, and nothing was happening. Finally, about 10:20 one of the attendants got on the overhead and announced that our plane had just landed and was on its way to the gate, but we had to get everyone on the plane and away from the gate by 10:49 or one of the crew would time out and the flight would have to be cancelled. Talk about panic inducing. The crowd started to get very ugly, but the staff was pretty methodical. I was convinced that we were not going to get out, but they got the passengers off quickly, didn't bother doing any cleaning, and just started boarding from the back. They didn't care about carryons, they said just stash them anywhere you could and get to your seat so that we can get everyone on the plane and close the door by 10:49, and we made it with less than 2 minutes. However, the next hurdle was that we had to be in the air by 11:17 (which was about the time we should have been landing in Chicago), and they announced that the staff person that was going to time out was the pilot, so we really would have been out of luck. They got us backed away, but it must have been a battle with air traffic control to get us out, because we didn't take off until 11:15 and 30 seconds. Now, I'm glad they got us in the air and on our way, but this just goes to show how inefficient the airlines are and how much they deserve to fail. These storms had been forecast since at least Tuesay of last week. You'd think that at some point, someone at American Airlines would watch the weather forecast and think, "huh, there may be some bad weather on Sunday. We may want to make sure we've got some staff on standby and maybe look at how we can do some re-routing so that we can swap some planes among routes if we need to in order to keep things moving as smoothly as possible," but apparently no one did. They'd rather play it fast and loose, rush the customers, and then take off less than 2 minutes under the wire and over 2 hours late. Seriously, if they had cancelled the flight, I would have pitched a fit right there because where could we go at 11:00 at night? They may as well have just cancelled it when we didn't take off at 9 like we were supposed to so we could have at least gotten to a hotel at a decent time and been able to talk to someone at the ticket counter before they all left for the night to rebook. But, they did get us home, although by the time we got to the car and drove home, it was almost 2. Since I had called in sick on Friday, saying I had a migraine, I didn't want to miss today, so here I am at work, completely exhausted, but here, and listening to my new CD's. So, while it was a horrible way to end a trip, and a complete dis-incentive to ever travel by air again, it was a good time. I loved all the shows (even if my companion didn't), had some great food and drinks, got to meet some of my companion's college friends, went to a cool zoo, and just got away from work for awhile. Then, my friend called me shortly after noon today and said he got the Sarah Brightman tickets, so it looks like I'll be having a diva-fabulous fall to make up for my dis-inclination to take any more trips for a while. Now, if 5:00 will just hurry up and get here so I can go home and crash.

Snakes at a Zoo

2008-06-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I have to say that an afternoon on my back on Cheyenne's mattress could not even come close to being as great of a day as yesterday turned out to be. Leaving my disappointment behind at Starbucks, I hopped on a train and went up to the Bronx Zoo, and that was quite a day. That place is HUGE and there was so much to see, I left a lot undone and have to go back sometime to see everything else. I was very impressed with their reptile house, while it was small, it was the great old school dark concrete building with small habitats for each snake behind a thick glass window. While Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago and Atlanta's Zoo have larger snake collections, the Bronx had the best specimens in the categories they did have. I'll post some pictures when I get home, I can't do it throigh email. After an afternoon tromping around the zoo, I hopped back on the train to the hotel, filled with a new feeling of having street cred now that I've set foot in the Bronx. I'm keeping it real, just like JLo.

After a quick shower, my companion and I had a great diner at La Rivista and then it was time. I have to say that the tone of this production was different than the Encores production, focusing more on the humor in the first act, it wasn't so dark from the get go, but it was just as fabulous. The focus was more on Rose and Louise's change over the years. Last sumer, Patti's Rose was driven and demanding from the start. Here, we saw more of her humanity at the start and she gets more driven as it goes on. It was once again a fabulous performance and I can't wait to get the cast recording in August. Now, it's about 11 on Saturday, and we're about to head out for lunch and some shopping, and then it's showtime.

Disappointing

2008-06-27T10:40:00.001-05:00

OK, I got the Idina Menzel ticket (woo hoo), but now I'm sitting here at Starbucks with nary a hottie in sight. There's a few women, one professional looking guy and some borderline homeless people, but no Cheyenne, Max, Kyle, Matt, or Chad. So ok, Cheyene may be in rehearsals for Damn Yankees (and note to any cell phone camera wielding audience members, I will do ANYTHING to see what he looks like in his Washington Senators uniform), but really there's no excuse for any of the others. Now I'm glad I'm not seeing any of their shows this weekend. Well, it's off to the zoo.

Good Morning New York

2008-06-27T09:29:00.000-05:00

Well, it's about 10:15 and I'm finally getting around to starting my day. Everything was going fine at O'Hare last tonight until we got on the plane. We pulled away from the gate and then sat there for almost an hour, inching up a few feet every 10-15 minutes or so. Finally, the captain came on and said that air traffic was being delayed getting into NY but that we should be on our way soon. About
10 minutes later the engines fired up again and we finally took off. The flight was a little bumpy but not bad, but then when we landed, we had another 20 minute wait because there was another plane at our gate waiting to take off. I find it hard to believe that at 12:15 in the morning there was not one single empty gate at LaGuardia that they could have diverted us to. Finally, around 12:30 we got to the gate and got off the plane, and sure enough, walking through the terminal, there were plenty of empty gates. However, there was one bright spot. I got a glass of wine on the plane, and the very friendly flight attendant gave me a second one for free. So, we didn't get to the hotel until around 1. Then, I had to wake up around 8 to call in sick with a splitting migraine. I laid around but couldn't quite fall back asleep. Fortunately, my companion needed to go online before going to work, so he went ahead and paid for the hotel's wireless, so at 11 I can just log in to ticketmaster here for Idina's tickets and not have to lug the computer to Starbucks. However, I will still stop by right after that to get a pick-me-up on my way to the Bronx Zoo, so be patient guys, I should be there shortly. So, it's time to get ready and get out and enjoy my favorite city.

Gettin' Ready Rag

2008-06-26T15:28:00.001-05:00

Ok, before the trip update, let me provide the explanation tying my preparation for tonight's trip with a song from Ragtime. Apparently, Winnetka's Park District does a free summer theatre festival, and had decided to present Ragtime, a terrific choice, and they put a lot of time and energy into getting it ready for this weekend's premiere. Well, somehow in the pst couple days, the uptight citizen's brigade decided the subject matter was inappropriate for Winnetka and successfully pressured the town council into cancelling the performance. I can't even begin to describe how many levels this is wrong on. Apparently the north shore burbs are planning on continuing to vote Republican in November.

Anyways, it's about 3:15 and I can't wait to get out of work and be on my way. I'm working at our downtown office today, so I can pick up my companion at 5 and we can drive to the airport together, avoiding a repeat of last spring's fiasco. At least this time we're not checking anything. And, we're going one better than our December trip, we managed to get all our stuff into one carryon suitcase, so I just have my little bag with books and music to lug around and if we go shopping I can make that bag my carryon. My companion is bringing his laptop, which works well for me because in a case of horrible timing, Idina Menzel's tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 10. That's 11 NY time, which was just about the time I had wanted to be on my way. So, boys, I will be at Starbucks on 57th between 8th & 9th tomorrow morning at 11 with a laptop ordering Idina Menzel tickets. I'll see you there The only concern right now is the weather. It's been looking like there's about to be a huge thunderstorm all day, but it hasn't struck yet. I'm a little worried it will wait just until I walk out the door and then unleash it's day-long pent up fury, mangling traffic (and the Cubs game ending right around then isn't going to help) and wreaking havoc with the aviation system. Plus, it looks like NY's dealing with some weather of their own. Still, as long as we can get on the plane, we should be able to get out sometime tonight so I'm not too stressed out yet. Signing off for now, see you in New York.

Fabulous Memories

2008-06-23T13:30:00.002-05:00

Well, Ravinia owes Betty Buckly a HUGE debt. She was SO FABULOUS, I got over being pissed off and am not pursuing venting my anger at them. No shitty emails or anything, just understanding that now I know there is no more free parking for Martin Theatre concerts and I will plan accordingly. I do have to wonder though, how come for the concert that I didn't care about, everything went so smoothly, even with the anxiety around my car, but for the concert I was really looking forward to, it was like having to brave the 9 circles of hell to get to it? The first time I saw Madonna was the same way, as was the Barbra Streisand concert, Mika, and to a lesser extent, Liza. Would there really be anything wrong with having an easy time getting to a concert I'm looking forward to and having the concert turn out fabulous so that I really have a fantabulous experience? As Princeton says, "Why does everything have to be so hard?" Anyways, enough dwelling on the sucky part of the day, the important thing is that Betty was fabulous. There wasn't much of a crowd in the theatre, which was disappointing (she was sold out in 2000 and about 3/4 full in 2005, but this time I don't think the theatre was even half full), but there was a huge ass lawn crowd. I don't think I've ever seen so many people on the lawn for a Martin concert, so that was nice to see, I just wish they would have coughed up the money to come inside and packed the place. I guess that's one of the side effects of forcing people to buy a subscription series instead of allowing them to get individual tickets. However, the benefit to me was that I was about 10 rows back from the stage and dead center, so it was perfect. She was so wonderful. In 2000 she was very chatty, telling lots of stories from her career, and did a great selection of mostly Broadway songs with some of her jazz and contemporary songs thrown in, that all mixed well. Most of the music has been preserved on her Stars and the Moon, Live at the Donmar Warehouse CD, although they cut out all the stage chatter and some of the Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. However, when she came back in 2005, it was a very different Betty. She did very little talking and focused mostly on jazz and contemporary songs, and most of them were downers. I appreciated what she was trying to do with the show, but the audience got pretty restless, and after she finished the second act, a lot of them got up and left before she even came back to do Memory as her encore. That could have a lot to do with why the crowd was so sparse this time. This time, she was back to her 2000 self. She was very chatty (and told a great story about Patti getting peeved with her doing Meadlowlark), and while she did do some jazz/contemporary songs, the focus was back on Broadway. She opened in full Barbra mode with As If We Never Said Goodbye (knocking it out of the park) and just kept going. She did Mama from 1776, which was fabulous, as well as He Plays The Violin, and best of all, she did When No One's There from Carrie, which was the highlight of the show. It was such a great night, she is truly a musical theatre treasure. I just wish at some point she'd come back and perform in the pavilion with a full orchestra, which she hinted at in 2000 but has yet to actually follow through on. She wrapped up around 6:15, and I trudged back to my car, and noticed that they finally had buses running, I don't know when they would have started, but they really would have been cutting it close to the beginning of the concert. Of course, I didn't realize this until I was halfway back to my car and couldn't catch one, but I'll keep that in mind for next time. Now, on to New York and some more divas and terrific shows. See you on Friday at Starbucks boys!

Bad Vibes

2008-06-22T15:10:00.002-05:00

OK, Ravinia is now on my shit list. I got here fine, but when I pulled into the parking lot around 2:45, there were attendants there and they tried to charge me $20 for parking even though Betty is a Martin Theatre concert for which parking is supposed to be free. I tried to tell them this and they were insistent that that is no longer the case. I had the little information brochure with me and tried to point out that it clearly states that parking is free for Martin Theatre concerts, and they still continued to try to charge me. At this point there were several cars behind me, so I politely told them in effect to shove it and turned the car around and went to the remote parking lot in downtown Highland Park. Well, usually when they are charging for parking, they run the buses for free from the free remote lots, but apparently not today, there was no bus, so I had to trek about a mile back to Ravinia where I found the gate closed and a huge crowd assembled even though the concert was by now less than an hour away. Fearing the worst, I asked one of the people at the members' table if Betty was cancelled and she appeared a little confused as to why I would be asking that and assured me that no, the concert is still on and that the gates would open shortly. So, I'm sitting on a bench by the train tracks typing this out as I plan what to say in a shitty email to Ravinia when I get home tonight. I do not appreciate this opportunism that they are showing by changing their parking policy not only mid-season but without any notice. Really, is the money they are going to make from a Martin Theatre-sized crowd really worth the staffing expense? This may be the last year I subscribe to the Martin series. At least I got her in plenty of time to go to the remote lot and walk back, and I know to make time for that for Barbara Cook's concert in two weeks. As pissed as I am, if I had decided to cut it close, and got here with 15 minutes or so to spare and had to chose between mising Betty's first few songs while I drove to the remote lot or paying the $20, I would be even more pissed. At least I know that Betty will be worth the aggravation, which makes it easier to handle.

Fiorello!

2008-06-22T13:14:00.001-05:00

What a weekend it's turning out to be, and it's only halfway over. First, when I got home on Friday, I found our Entertainment Weekly waitimg in the mailbox, with the cover announcing their pronouncement of the "new classics." New for them means anything in the last 25 years, but their definition of classic is much, much looser. They picked 100 movies, albums, books, TV shows, and video games, and 50 Broadway shows, to be the new classics, and I knew as soon as I saw the cover graphics that it would be in my best interest to just burn the magazine without ever opening it. Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of me, and what it did to the cat, it's been doing to me all weekend. I thought I was going to have a stroke as I read through it, not only are some of the best in each category completely ignored (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, Parade, Carrie the Musical, all of Linda Eder's, Audra McDonald's, Sarah Brightman's, and Betty Buckley's CD's, the movie versions of Chicago and Sweeney, A History of Violence, AI, Amadeus, Supernatural, Boston Legal, and the list goes on and on), but some of what they consider classics leaves a lot to be desired, including Pulp Fiction, Titanic, Rent, Naked Gun, Casino Royale, The Breakfast Club, Blue Velvet, Lord of the Rings, The Emancipation of Mimi, Sheryl Crow, Achtung Baby, Dangerous in Love, Jersey Boys, The Producers, The Lion King (stage musical, the movie totaly deserved its inclusion), Noise/Funk, just to scratch the surface. Really, who picked these, the Frat boys of Animal House? About the only bright spot was the inclusion of Chess at number 50 in the stage classics. I could go on and on and on, but I think my doctor would prefer it if I stop here and focus on something that doesn't send my blood pressure through the roof. So, Saturday night I went to see Fiorello, and that restored my confidence in the state of the arts. It was a terrific show, and I highly recommend it. The entire cast was excellent, although PJ Powers as Fiorello came across as somewhat affected at first, but that grew on me as the show went on. It was so great to see an honest to god real book musical, it's about time for them to return. Concert style shows are more of a novelty, exciting the first time, but without strong characters and a compelling story, they don't hold up to repeated viewings. Anyways, other standouts in the cast included Andrea Prestinario, who played Violet in Side Show last summer, as Thea, who rocked When Did I Fall in Love, Rebecca Finnegan as Marie (and the program contains snippets of a fascinating interview with Sheldom Harnick who talks about meeting the real Marie and her opinion of Thea), Michael Kingston as Morris, Fiorello's very loyal assistant, and cutie Andy Schmuckler, who was one of the hot brothers in Shenandoah last summer, as the other assistant, and who is welcome to be my assistant any time his cute little heart desires. Anyways, it was a great night, and I strongly encourage everyone to head over to Timeline Theatre before July 18. On the way home, we picked up the Sunday paper, and as usual, I grabbed the Arts section, and halfway through was a full page ad for Sarah Brightman's Symphony tour, coming to the Allstate Arena on December 4, which will make a nice, slightly belated birthday present to myself. Tickets go on sale Monday the 30th at noon, so hopefully our flight back from NY the night before will go smoothly and I won't find myself stranded there with no computer access at sale time. Given her history, it's a sure bet this will sell out quickley, and I intend to finally be there. Now, it's time to head to Ravinia for Betty B. See you tomorrow with my thoughts.

Divas

2008-06-20T13:51:00.001-05:00

As if the Tony awards were not enough of a fabulous diva fest, not one, but two more divas are making their way to Chicago this fall, although still no word about Sarah Brightman's promised tour. Janet Jackson will be here in late September, and while it is not nearly as exciting as it would have been 10 years ago, since she's always managed to come on nights that I've had class (across her janet., Velvet Rope, and All For You tours), this is finally my opportunity to see her before her career so fully implodes that she can't even tour. So, I'll get her and then about 5 weeks later Madonna, for a complete stuck in high school themed fall. More related to this blog is Idina Menzel's announcement that she's expanding her tour beyond her northeast home base, and will be in Chicago on Wednesday August 6 at the House of Blues. I'll have to put up with the TSA-styled security, but it will be worth it to see her up close. Janet's tickets go on sale Saturday, and I'll probably just get a balcony tickets (she's at the Allstate arena so those aren't too bad) since I'm already shelling out big bucks for Madonna and as I mentioned, it's not like she's still supporting her janet. cd, which was her best, or even her All For You CD which was still ok, this is really more just about seeing her while there's still a chance. No word yet on when Idina's go on sale, the Chicago date is not yet on Ticketmaster, but I'll be keeping close tabs on that.

One week from today I'll be in New York, getting ready for Gypsy. It looks like my companion will be working Friday morning, so Cheyenne Jackson, Max Crumm, Matthew Morrison, Kyle Riabko, and Chad Douric (not sure if that's spelled right, but it's Chad from Grease. . .YTOTIW and now Altar Boyz), any or all of you are invited to meet me Friday morning at the Starbucks on 57th between 8th and 9th, and we'll take it from there. I'm not quite sure what time I'll be in, the plane lands at like 11:30 at LaGuardia, so I'm probably going to be sleeping in, but I'd say around 11-ish. It looks like we chose the right show for Sunday afternoon, A Catered Affair will be closing at the end of July, so this was our one chance to catch it. Cry-Baby is also closing, but I've got no tears for that one. I'm not sure yet how I'll be spending Friday afternoon, although it partly depends on the weather. If the weather is crappy I'll probably have lunch at Carnegie Deli and then head over to the Met to see their Superheroes and Fashion exhibit. If it's nice I've got a choice of either lunch at Carnegie and going to the Central Park Zoo, or just hopping on the subway and making my way up to the Bronx Zoo. I'm leaning towards the Bronx because that's the granddaddy of all zoos, but I may not have enough time to fully appreciate it, depending on how late I sleep in. We'll see, maybe one of the boys will have some suggestions. I can hit Colony Records and the Broadway New York stores on Saturday either before YF or between shows. I'm hoping to find some Glory Days souveniers. Since any Carrie souveniers are long gone, Glory Days is now the one to get. Before New York though, I've got Fiorello tomorrow night (finally) and Betty Buckley on Sunday at Ravinia, so look for my posts. Then next week I should be able to get my ticket for Carol Lawrence. Now if we can just get Sarah to confirm her tour, it will be the most diva fabulous year ever!

Thank God

2008-06-15T22:09:00.002-05:00

I don't have to throw a brick through the Tony Awards Committee's window when I'm in New York in two weeks, Justice has finally been served, Patti has her lomg overdue second Tony, and that was a terrific speech. It was great to hear her throw in a shout out to Ravinia, especially since they rescusitated her career back in 2001, I'm sure it will get plenty of mention on WFMT tomorrow morning. She looked great, and I can't wait to see the show, her reception is going to be astonishing as long as she plays the role. Plus, to all the naysayers who've been claiming that Gypsy was only revived to nab her a second Tony, Boyd and Laura's awards should finaly dispel that crap. This Gypsy deserves its place on the stage Then to follow that up, I'm thrilled that In The Heights made it to the home stretch, I just wish they would have let them do a full speech instead of cutting them off. Overall, this was the best Tony night I can remember since 1996 when Chicago and Titanic swept the show. Now, one more glass of champagne and it's off to bed, to dream of a classwork-free lunch break tomorrow.

Hour Two

2008-06-15T21:11:00.001-05:00

Well, things have been shaken up here in the second hour. Best Actress in a Play has been decided (Deanna Dunnegan), and not only did Laura Benanti win, Boyd Gaines won too. If Patti doesn't win, I'd give anything to be backstage Tuesday night. The Catered Affair performance didn't thrill me, but Young Frankenstein was actually pretty good, Megan had better not be on vacation in two weeks.

More pressure

2008-06-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

And we finally have our first shock of the night with Boyd Gaines's well deserved win. Patti really better fucking win now, but with two wins for the show, it's actualy looking good.

Quick Note

2008-06-15T20:21:00.001-05:00

Patti had better win Best Actress now or backstage life at Gypsy is going to be hell!

First Hour Thoughts

2008-06-15T20:10:00.002-05:00

One third of the way through, and so far no huge surprises. Whoopi's doing good and the show's moving along at a good clip. Other than Passing Strange wining Best Book (which was not unexpected), there's not a lot to complain about. The only kind of a surprise was Best Featured Actor in a Play. I was expecting Raoul to get it as a consolation prize for last year, but since August wasn't a contender in this category, it was really pretty up for grabs. I was not impressed at all with Cry Baby's and Passing Strange's performances, but how fabulous was Patti? However, where was Matt during South Pacific's performance. Ok, Kirstin's on with Best Featured Actress in a Musical, so it's time to go, see you in another hour.

The Drama Continues

2008-06-14T23:27:00.003-05:00

At least for a short time. I went car shopping today as planned, but the Toyota dealer did not have any hatchback Yaris's in stock, they have to order one for me, which could take 1-6 weeks. One week I can deal with, I can run out next Saturday and get it and have a new car for Betty Buckley on Sunday at Ravinia. However, in two weeks I'll be in New York, and then it's a holiday weekend and then we're well into July, increasing the chances of running out of oil again. They were pretty confident it would be sooner rather than later, but sooner includes a potential compromise on the color, which I'm not thrilled about, I really want Blue so I can name it Tobias. However, if I get red, which is my alternate color, I can name it Ariel. Twenty and a half hours to go until the other big drama celebration. My fingers are crossed and the champagne is chilling. Let's hope I get a reason to drink it.

Done

2008-06-13T15:03:00.002-05:00

Alright, I have officially finished my two classes for the term and have about 3 weeks all to myself. The papers have been written and turned in, the final discussions have been posted, and the end of term evaluations completed. With that, it's time to turn our attention to the Tony Awards! I'm sorry I haven't been able to provide my usual scintillating analysis, but hopefully we can recapture some of the magic in a brief discussion here.

As I mentioned earlier this week, August: Osage County will sweep all the play categories. Best Actress in a Play is completely up in the air between its two leading ladies, but maybe there will be a tie. I have not seen one single critic come out and make a prediction for the category, everyone is hedging their bets. There are only a couple play categories that A: OC is not nominated in, one being Best Sound Design, which should give Rock 'n Roll its single win. Otherwise, it's a big night for Chicago.

The musical category is far more interesting. Again, as I mentioned earlier, South Pacific will sweep most of its categories: Best Revival, Best Director (long overdue for Mr. Sher, he should have won for Light in the Piazza), Best Featured Actor, most likely Best Actor (although this Stew guy could be an upset, while Lin-Manuel has completely faded out of the race), and all the tech awards, except for Lighting Design which should go to Sunday in the Park. However, there is a chance that Xanadu could get Best Choreography, but don't count on it, the Tony Committee has made its disdain for the show clear. With all of the attention on the Best Revival category (it's like the late 90's all over again, maybe the economy and White House occupant will soon follow suit!), Best Musical is something of a snooze. In a just world, Xanadu would win, and having won the Drama Desk (or was that Outer Critics Circle, I can't keep them straight but it was won of them, although it was a tie), it does have a slight chance. However, Passing Strange has been racking up the wins while In The Heights has been Grey Gardens-ed to the sidelines since it was a big winner last year when it was Off-Broadway, which has seriously blunted its momentum. Cry Baby's nomination is a joke, leaving Passing and Heights to duke it out. Experts are still predicting that Heights will take it, but keeping in this year's spirit of equivocating, I'm going to stay on the fence and say it will be one of the two. I think they'll split book and score with Heights getting book (and a pox on the Tribune for saying the book is incomprehensible, how much did you drink before going to see it?) and Strange getting score, the voters love to appear hip (remember Noise/Funk winning Best Director over Rent? Not that either of them deserved it, but on a night when Rent was supposed to sweep it was a shocking choice), which will give Strange the edge.

That leaves us with the two most highly anticipated categories: Featured and Leading Actress in a Musical. Laura Benanti has done pretty well in the pre-Tony's awards, which should give her some momentum going in, and she's my personal fave. I've loved Andrea Martin's solo CD, but she's up for the wrong show, and with the exception of Audra, no one has ever had multiple wins in the Featured Actress category. Since Andrea's already got one (granted, for a show about as deserving as YF), she'll be empty handed tonight. However, if South Pacific is truly on a role, look for Loretta Ables-Sayre to take it. But, if Passing Strange goes on a role, it could be de'Adre Aziza as this year's LaChanze. Speaking of the bitch, let's turn our attention to Best Leading Actress. Of course, we all know who deserves it. However, this category is rarely about who deserves it for that performance, it's usually about who deserved it 10 years ago and was robbed, or who will deserve it 10 years from now but we'll go ahead and give it to them now. Yes, Patti has swept all the pre-Tony awards, but she did that 2 years ago too. Granted, she now has a lot more sentimentality on her side this time around after that loss, but she had a lot her side then, and these are the same people that screwed her over, so there's a very good chance, especially if South Pacific goes on a role, that Kelli O'Hara will win, especially because she deserved the Featured Tony three years ago for Light and lost to Sara Ramierez for fuckin' Spamalot. She also fits nicely into the will deserve it in 10 years but we'll give it to her now category. Fortunately, other than Faith Prince, no one can come close to splitting the vote with Patti this time around the way that Chita did three years ago, and it is more likely that votes will be split between Kelli and Kerry Butler, another will deserve it in 10 years person. Faith's musical was pretty much hated so she doesn't have a chance. However, the real threat is Jenna Russell. She is the dark horse ingenue that the voters also love to recognize in this category. There's still a lot of conviction that Sunday was robbed the first time around, and a win in one major category (lighting design alone isn't going to cut it) could go a long way towards making amends, and this is the category to do it. As much as I favor Patti, keep an eye on Jenna, should could be the night's one truly shocking moment.

So, I think that wraps it up. I'm on my way home in a few hours to get a new car, which should clear out the rest of the drama in my life. Notice that the title of this blog is Theatre Queen, not Drama Queen, and I can't figure out how my life gets those confused. I'll be back in shortly before the awards start (which, by the way, despite some performances from awful shows, should be pretty good, Whoopi's always been a solid Oscar host and generally excels in live situations. However, the theme of Xanadu getting screwed when she's around is likely to continue). Then in two weeks it's off to NY to see some of these shows for myself.

The Bitchery is Back

2008-06-09T16:32:00.001-05:00

No, I'm not referring to myself, I had a great time at Ravinia last night with nothing to complain about. The concert was actually very enjoyable, it was a lovely evening, and my car did not break down, plus the GPS got me around the Edens construction very nicely, although I think I single-handedly brought down the property values of several neighborhoods in Winnetka and Glencoe just by driving my piece of crap car through them. I'm also not referring to the fact that when I went to buy my Gypsy tickets on Saturday, the third row seats I had seen Thursday night were gone and the best they could get me was row O (about five rows from the back) way off to the side, but that's still better than the balcony seats I had at City Center last summer (and by the way, it is A Catered Affair for the Sunday show). No, I'm referring to an announcement today that The Little Mermaid, Young Frankenstein, and A Catered Affair will all be performing at the Tony Awards even though none of them were nominated for Best Musical. Remember last year? It was announced a few weeks before the ceremony that Lovemusik and Legally Blonde would perform since they had gotten so many nominations even though Best Musical was not one of them. There was an immediate outcry that that was breaking 50 years of Tony tradition, and within 48 hours their invitations to perform were rescinded. However, the awards show's producers managed to get in a backdoor performance by including an almost full number from each show in the video montage of "all the other musicals on Broadway this season" that traditionally gets shown, otherwise known as "the crap we refused to nominate but contractual obligations force us to acknowledge." There was 30 seconds of High Fidelity, 2 and a half minutes of Lovemusik, 15 seconds of The Times They Are A Changin', and 2 minutes of Legally Blonde. It was pretty obvious what they were doing. Apparently they got their point across if they're feeling bold enough to try for the real thing again this year, we'll see if it sticks. I'd rather have an outcry about performances from Rent and The Lion King, but those are at least Best Musical winners. Hopefully the Lion King number will be one of Elton's and not one of the boring-ass ones by the other guy.

Curses!

2008-06-06T09:55:00.001-05:00

Foiled again! I haven't been this frustrated since I tried to see Avenue Q over the course of about 3 trips to NY in late 2004/early 2005. My trip has been confirmed for the 26th-29th, we've got the plane tickets and hotel room. We're not leaving until about 8:00 pm on the 26th and getting there about 11:30, so we don't get a show, but since I don't have much vacation time yet, that's fine. We're staying at the 57th St. Holiday Inn again, which is also fine, it was very nice and conveniently located. However, I was planning on the biggest convenience being on Sunday the 29th, we could go see South Pacific at Lincoln Center four blocks away then be able to quickly come back to get our luggage and hop in a cab to LaGuardia for a 9:00 pm flight back. Well, I was doing my pre-ticket-buying ritual last night, checking to see what availability there was on each day for each show, and was able to find tickets for Gypsy on Friday night (3rd row!), Young Frankenstein on Saturday matinee (there are orchestra seats but I think I'm going to save money and just go for balcony since I'm not crazy about the show, I just want to see Megan), and Adding Machine on Saturday night (5th row), but then when I went to South Pacific on Sunday at 3:00, I got a message that there were no tickets available. Ok, that's why I do this checking before I actually buy the tickets so I don't get to the last day and get a nasty surprise and am unable to rearrange my schedule. I plugged in Saturday matinee thinking we could start there on Saturday and then make our way downtown for Adding Machine, and again, no tickets. I checked Saturday night, although that would require some more serious rearranging, and again, no tickets. I urgently typed in Friday's date, crossed my fingers, and. . . no tickets. Since it's already sold out for the entire weekend, I don't think I can count on TKTS. Apparently a lot of the queens coming in for gay pride that weekend find Matt's bare torso a bigger draw than the parade. I am extremely disappointed, but maybe later in the summer or fall I can try again. He just seems to have a habit of leaving shows as soon as his contract is up, so if he has a standard 6 month contract, that will only give me until about August to get back and try again. For this trip, I may have to content myself with Harvey Fierstein, which is not quite the same. I told my companion and gave him the choice of Little Mermaid (almost certainly a no for him, he's not a Disney queen like I am), Sunday in the Park with George (another almost certain no, he hated Ravinia's production a few years ago), August: Osage County (most likely), or A Catered Affair (the one I'm hoping for, since it's only an hour and a half we can see it and still have plenty of time to get back to the hotel and get to LaGuardia and maybe get on an earlier flight like we did last time). I'm very disappointed, but it does give me a good reason to go back.

I'm Alive

2008-06-05T11:25:00.001-05:00

Good morning readers. Yes, as the title states, I'm not dead or ill or disinterested, just very busy. Over the past two weeks I've seen Stone Temple Pilots in concert, The Ballad of Emmett Till, Avenue Q, and eighth blackbird in concert plus had exasperating car troubles and school projects. Fortunately, the term ends a week from Sunday and I can celebrate by toasting Patti's long overdue win with a cold glass of Galena Cellars sparkling. However, that doesn't mean the business ends anytime soon. In addition to two papers I have due by Tony time (which have not been started yet), I've got my first Ravinia concert this Sunday, Fiorello to schedule, a new car to buy, and a trip to New York.

The Gershwin queen's concert is Sunday at Ravinia and I'm a little miffed at them. Apparently, there were two Martinis in the Martin packages, one for the queen, Betty Buckley, and Barbara Cook, and one for Betty, Barbara, and Carol Lawrence. This information was not on the website, it arrived in a flier the day after tickets went on sale. Apparently the package does not include all four tickets as I logically assumed from the information presented on their website. So, I could have just gotten tickets for the concerts I wanted, but instead I'm stuck with the Gershwin queen and have to wait until after Betty's concert and can then buy a ticket (for another $75) for Carol. I always like to get my tickets as soon as they go on sale, but next year I'm waiting for the flier.

Fiorello has been extended again until July 20, which means that I may actually be able to catch it if I can get my companion to pull out his calendar and schedule it. However, we'll have to work it around our trip to NY. Since I need a new car sooner rather than later, I'm going to go home and get it the weekend of the Tony's, so we're pushing our NY trip to the last weekend of the month. It coincides with Pride weekend, but after having way too much to drink last year, I'm not too upset about missing it, although I am already starting to get a little miffed about having to deal with it in NY. At least we've got plane tickets and a hotel room, so I'll just have to avoid the Village, which shouldn't be too hard, although we may have to trek through it to catch Adding Machine Saturday night. I'm going to try to do Gypsy on Friday night, June 27, Young Frankenstein Saturday matinee (hopefully Megan will still be around), Adding Machine Saturday night, and South Pacific Sunday matinee, which works out well because we're staying at the 57th St. Holiday Inn again, so we can quickly rush back to get our bags and get to the airport. The best part is, I finish classes on the 15th and don't start again until July 7, so the entire time in NY is my time. Matt, Cheyenne, Max, and Kyle, here I come!

Of course while I'm there I'll have to stop at Colony Records again and see what I can get. eMusic has In The Heights, which will be my download on the 16th when they refresh, but it does not have Catered Affair, so I'll probably pick that up along with the Annie 30th Anniversary double disc with songs from Annie 2, and hopefully Little Mary Sunshine, I Remember Mama, and maybe something else. We'll see if they have The New Girl In Town, although since they didn't have How Now Dow Jones or Woman of the Year, I doubt they'd have that. I'm sure they'll have something though, maybe the Evening Primrose soundtrack.

Alright, that brings us to the important topic, awards. Since I've got two papers due next week, I may not be able to do my extensive predictions, so in case not, I'm shorthanding it here. South Pacific and August: Osage County will sweep most of their categories, although my money is on Patti for Best Actress this time. However, it looks like In the Heights may end up getting Grey Gardens-ed this year after all as Passing Strange has been on a Spring Awakening-like roll. Lin-Manuel is now the underdog in the acting category to Paulo Szot for South Pacific, and he may end up losing his music awards to this Stew guy as well. The one ray of hope is that after having voted for Spring Awakening last year, voters may be wary of another offbeat show and decide to go more traditional. While In The Heights is hardly a fully traditional musical, it does make a nice alternative to Strange's edginess, which may be too out there for most voters. Of course, in a truly just world Xanadu would win, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. See you next Sunday.

Oh, No.

2008-05-17T10:40:00.001-05:00

And it just keeps getting worse. The worst American Idol winner ever (although not the worst contestant, that would be John Stevens), just signed on to join the revival of one of the worst musicals ever directed by one of the most overrated director/choreographers ever. Taylor Hicks is going to play Teen Angel in Grease. At least the part is somewhat age appropriate, he could have been cast as Danny, perfectly replicating the movie's aesthetic of 40 year olds pretending to be 17. And, while Grease (and everyone involved, except for Max who deserves better) has at least gotten the non-recognition it deserves this time around, the fact that Taylor Hicks can get cast in anything music related just gives too much validation to his obnoxious personality to talent ratio. It tells anyone out there with no musical talent that if they go on a reality show and act spastic to music, they can get a theatre career, which is not the message we want to be sending.

However, the replacement cast news is not all bad. This is Jonathon Groff's last weekend in Spring Awakening (and Lea's as well but we don't care about the girls), and this Kyle Riabko guy they got to replace him is GORGEOUS It would totally be worth seeing the show again just to get an u close view of that naked butt. Kyle is on my list of invitees for some special 1 on 1 (or more depending on who else shows up) time the next time I'm in New York.

Now We've Got Four!

2008-05-13T23:00:00.001-05:00

While the Tony nominations were not as exciting as I had hoped (Cry Baby up for Best Musical? Grease for Best Revival of a Musical? Rufus Sewell for Best Actor in a Play? And who the hell is this Stew guy anyways? He's got Cheyenne's nomination), there was one shining spot besides Heights' 13 nominations (no Grey Gardens-ing this year, I'm predicting more of a Spring Awkening-ing), and that was Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's winning the Best Regional Theatre award. When Victory Gardens won a few years ago we became the only city to have 3 companies with the award, and now we've increased that lead. Despite double digit sales taxes, massive corruption, untravellable streets, and incompetent public transportation, the theatre scene keeps this city livable. The Outer Critics Circle awards were announced on Monday and may offer some clues to how the Tonys should play out. The ignoring of Y. Frankenstein and Catered Affair certainly presaged their almost ignoring here. It looks like it should be Patti's year, finally, but more on specific predictions later. The bigger surprises were Grease's inclusion for Best Revival but no other nominations, Little Mermaids's nomination for Best Score (and don't get me wrong, it's a great score, but it's already a movie score. I know the Tony Committee made a specific ruling about this, but if Mermaid could get a nomination, Xanadu should have too), and Andrea Burns's nomination. . .for Young Frank (while Megan is still a never-been-nominated, and Sutton's sure thing streak came crashing to an end too). While I'm not surprised that Max didn't get nominated (maybe in June he, Cheyenne, Matty Mo, and I can have a group comforting), I am surprised that Priscilla Lopez didn't. They Tony's are very feast or famine when it comes to subsequent nominations for their winners, and they've been on quite a famine streak since 2001,when Nathan Lane got his second, with only Christine and Audra picking up repeat wins since (at least off the top of my head I think that's correct, if you can think of any others, let me know). Anyways, you can view the entire list and some "official" commentary here (plus a reposting of my favorite picture; come on, doesn't someone who can take a picture like this deserve a Tony nomination?):

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/117686.html

The show is on June 15th, look for my commentary, assuming I've got time to write any between schoolwork, the week before. Gooooooo Patti!

Carrie Lives On!!!!!

2008-05-08T14:03:00.001-05:00

Well, we haven't had one of these in quite a while. The Times They Are A Changin' and High Fidelty both closed after about 2 weeks, but Glory Days has now closed after one performance. I guess I can scratch that off my list of shows to see next month. I'd say its impact on the Tony Awards is going to be nil. I'm surprised since it was a huge hit at its world premiere engagement in Arlington, but then, Carrie was a big hit in London before coming to New York. Hopefully at some point we'll get a cast recording, if Kelly could get one then every failed show deserves to have one, although we're still waiting on that Carrie recording. Still, even though it took 12 years, we did get Anna Karenina, and it was worth the wait, that one's really growing on me the more I listen to it. It's very Maury Yeston-sounding. Maybe we'll get an all pop-star recording of GBoys in 10 years or so. The cast and creators are going to be on Seth Rudetsky's Chatterbox on Sirius tonight, since my companion got Sirius for his birthday, maybe I'll try to steal it and check it out to see what they have to say.

Also, in my haste to wrap up Tuesday's post since my client showed up as I was typing, I do have to again reiterate that Les Miz was so fabulous, I wish I could have spent more time discussing what all I really liked about it, but just didn't have the time or energy to do so. Take your Mom on Sunday, it'll be her best Mother's Day ever, as well as your last chance to see the show. I'm looking forward to what they'll do with The Full Monty this summer. We're all going back for that one. Lastly, Cheyenne Jackson has signed on to do Encores' summer production of Damn Yankees, which will definitely be worth seeing. I might try to postpone the June trip until July since it'll be next to impossible to go both months. Curtis Holbrook will be playing Sonny in Xanadu while he's out, and that would actually be worth going back to see as well. So, now I think we're really caught up. Tony nominations are Tuesday, see you then.

One Week More

2008-05-06T22:11:00.001-05:00

Ok, again this is a little late, even an easy week in my classes requires too much damn work. I can't wait to be done. So, the gist of it is that Les Miz was faboo. The cast was superb and the in the round production really worked. John Cudia was fabulous as Valjean, and I have to say that this is by far the hottest group of students I have seen, it's very easy to see how they inspired their followers to join them at the barricades. It ends this weekend, so go see it.

In other updates, the Gypsy cast recording should be out in February. Tony nominations are coming up and it will be interesting to see how everything shakes out. Look for my commentary sometime in the next month.

Updates

2008-05-01T10:56:00.001-05:00

So, there's a lot to follow up on from my last post. First of all, and very good news indeed, emusic did add Make Me A Song to its lineup, and unlike Grey Gardens, Seesaw, and Pal Joey, is offering the entire album, all 30 tracks. The one problem is that I still need to get the final track of Evil Monkey Man, which would then only give me 29 tracks of MMAS, causing me to wait another month to finish it up and move on to the next album. Fortunately, Amazon offers both EMM and MMAS as mp3 downloads, like it does with Seesaw and Pal Joey, so I think I'll just spend the 99 cents and buy the last track of EMM and on May 20 go ahead and download all 30 tracks of MMAS. Then I can start June off with a clean slate. Maybe by that time they'll have Kerry Butler's solo CD available.

Speaking of Ms. Butler, is Xanadu in trouble? It was announced today that the 5 main performers (Cheyenne, Kerry, Tony, Mary, and Jackie) have all renewed their contracts through 2009. However, in recent history, both Sweeney Todd and Curtains made big announcements that the principles were renewing and then posted closing notices about 2 weeks later, ending the run well before the renewed contracts were supposed to end. While Mary Louise Wilson did not renew her Grey Gardens contract, Christine did and again and a big announcement was made that she renewed through October, but the show closed in July. The Tony odds will not be good if Xanadu posts a closing notice before the ceremony, let's hope it holds on, and if it makes a good showing, it might keep the show running, at least through summer.

I also mentioned on Tuesday that Javier Bardem was set to star in the movie version of Nine. Well, it was also announced today that he has withdrawn. I have to admit I was surprised they didn't offer the part to Antonio Banderas right off the bat (granted, he was not good in Evita, but his singing on the Nine cast recording was actually pretty good, and more in character with Guido). Hopefully they'll take this opportunity to right that wrong and actually let a show's star preserve the performance on film. Other than Rent, that hasn't happened in a long time, and the less said about Rent, the better.

Lastly, Boston Legal did it again. Christine Ebersole was on last night's show, in a very memorable performance, that at least has a small chance of appearing again. When can we expect to see Patti? Or at least Betty, Chita, Idina, or Judy Kaye? Granted, Kristin and Audra are busy with their own shows, but given that NBC in its heyday encouraged its must-see stars to jump around onto each other's shows on a routine basis, ABC should be able to follow suit.

So, that's it for now, hopefully I'll get my thoughts about Les Miz up on Sunday. See you then.

Sweeney, Nine, and Awards

2008-04-29T15:26:00.001-05:00

Well, it's been a busy weekend despite numerous client cancellations, and I'm not just talking about the never-ending reading and discussion question postings for class, over the weekend, not only did I see Sweeney on Saturday, I also went to Nine on Sunday.

Sweeney was, as expected, fabulous. Other than one emotional slipup, David Hess was as fabulous as I expected in the role. The real surprise was Judy Kaye. I fully expect to be struck down by lightning when I finish typing this sentence, but she was even better than Patti. She really was Mrs. Lovett on all levels, while Patti, although fabulous, had more of an air of Patti playing Mrs. Lovett (which fortunately, is not there with her Mama Rose and should result in a Tony this time). All I have to say is, a pox on the Sun-Times! The show is fabulous, and holds up extremely well. You've got until Sunday, go see it.

Since I've got obligations pretty much every weekend until the end of June, Sunday was really my only chance to go see Nine. My companion didn't want to go, so I went by myself and had a great time. Porchlight is now back in my good graces. This was a completely professional production. The stage was sparse and uncluttered but fully effective. While some of the fake Italian accents bordered on grating, all the performers were excellent, particularly Jeff Parker as Guido, Heather Townsend as his wife Louisa, and Marie Svejda-Groh as Claudia, who delivered a gorgeous "Unusual Way." Also entertaining was Danielle Brothers, as Lilliane, the role Chita played in the revival a few years ago. She wasn't as affected as she was playing Ada in Flora, but then the part didn't call for that like it did in Flora. She looked the part and was fabulous. It's a very short, but powerful show with gorgeous singing and music (no novocained trumpet players this time). I can see how the original Broadway production trumped Dreamgirls and how the revival trumped the Bernadette Gypsy. I can't wait for the movie.

More awards nominations have been announced, both the Drama League and the Drama Desks. The Drama League only nominated play, musical, revival play, and revival musical, and then has one category for performer of the year. Young Frankenstein and Xanadu are both in the musical category, along with Adding Machine (the one to beat) and Cry-Baby, but not Little Mermaid or In The Heights, which is in danger of getting Grey-Gardens-ed. Of course August: Osage County is the play to beat, although I would like to see The Receptionist take it. However, Grease was not in the revival category, although the three suspects were, with South Pacific my prediction to win. When it comes to the performer category, pretty much anyone that was in anything during the year is nominated, so Jane Houdyshell has her nomination for The Receptionist, and Cheyenne Jackson and Kerry Butler are nominated, but Max and Laura from Grease are not. That Best Revival Tony for Pajama Game is going to prove very expensive for Kathleen Marshall's career. Patti of course is the one to beat, but with so many performers, it's always a toss-up. Last year it should have been Brian F. O'Byrne for his performance across three plays in Utopia, but ended up going to Liev Schreiber for Talk Radio, even though he didn't win anything else all season, with Best Actor going to Frank Langella at the Tonys. Then the Drama Desk award nominations were announced. Young Frankenstein got knocked off its pedestal by A Catered Affair, which got 12 nominations. YF was ignored for Best Musical, with Affair being joined by Xanadu, Adding Machine, and Passing Strange. Again, Heights is losing out on a lot of momentum and is in danger of only taking Best Actor at the Tonys. This time Cheyenne got a nomination, along with Mary Testa (in the supporting category) but Kerry and Jackie Hoffman were out. Sierra Bogess got a nomination in the leading actress category, but otherwise Mermaid was shut out, and Grease was completely shut out. The surprise was Matty M. getting a nomination in the leading category for 10 Million Miles, the show's only nomination. Unfortunately, but consistent with the other awards, he did not get a nomination for South Pacific, which is not speaking well for his Tony chances. We'll have to see what removing Adding Machine from the mix does for the Tony race, although while the show has been nominated for musical, score, and book awards, no one in the cast has gotten a nomination yet, so its absence may not have that much of an impact other than allowing Cry-Baby a shot at a nomination if it can capitalize on Heights' pre-Tony's absence.

Lastly, the case recording of Make Me A Song is out today. Hopefully it will find its way to emusic by the time my downloads refresh next month. I got all of Bea Arthur last week, although I'm a little irritated because some of the tracks have some static that sounds like the mp3's were made from a dirty disc. I can't tell if it's from the performance, maybe the piano player or Bea flipping pages too close to the mike, but it happens in random places. Still, it's a very funny and entertaining recording. I still need to get the last track of Evil Monkey Man, which I'll do next month and then start working on the NEO concert recording if Make Me A Song isn't available. Oh, the new Madonna CD is out today, and while it does have too many guest rappers, it's still excellent. That's it for new. I've got Les Miz on Saturday, good or bad that will be an experience.

And They're Off. . .

2008-04-21T11:36:00.001-05:00

Awards season has just heated up with today's announcements of the Outer Critics Cirle Nominations. The full list is at:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/116967.html

and is full of surprises. I can't say any surprise is the biggest because they're all pretty shocking, so we'll just run them all down. First, as stated in the article's title, Young Frankenstein leads the pack with 10 nominations. Pretty good for a show that was completely reviled by critics, although it may turn out to be this year's Wicked or Spamalot, lauded with nominations in recognition of its clout, but rewarded with very few wins. While Young Frankenstein was raking them in, Off-Broadway's Frankenstein was shut out, as were Broadway's In The Heights (shocking, but it may be in a similar situation as Grey Gardens was last year, which is too bad because it will lose a lot of visibility among Tony voters as awards season goes on) and Grease (while I'm not upset about that one, it's disappointing for Max). Xanadu only got one nomination for best musical, no acting or directing nominations. The Little Mermaid also only got one nomination, Sherie Renee Scott for Featured Actress (Sierra got shut out of Actress, along with Kerry Butler, opening up Patti's way for her long overdue second Tony. With those two out of the way, though Kelli O'Hara could be a bigger challenge). Off-Broadway's Adding Maching (yay!!!) and Make Me A Song (bigger yay!!!) got nominations for best off-bway musical, and The Receptionist got a well deserved nomination for best off-bway play, but no acting nominations. Jane Houdyshell did get a nomination for her featured performance in The New Century, but I can't imagine anyone was better than her portrayal of Beverly Wilkins, major oversight. Gypsy and South Pacific (which both got A's from Entertainment Weekly last week) will be slugging it out all spring, although Sunday in the Park could throw in some spoilers. Best Musicals were kind of snooze, and again it was shocking that Cry Baby, which hasn't even officially opened yet got a nomination while In The Heights got nothing. However, Glory Days was not eligible, but will be next year, so once that gets thrown into the mix, the Tony Awards could be much better. Still, it's a very unexpected start to the season, no telling where it will go from here.

Seasons

2008-04-16T16:39:00.001-05:00

Well, I've figured out why Ravinia decided to crap out on its season this year; the Edens construction project. In rush hour traffic, it could easily take 3 hours or more to get to Ravinia from downtown during the week, and weekends aren't going to be much better. People are not going to want to put up with that. I think that's why we're seeing many, many more pop concerts this year, which encourage use of the train due to the insufficient parking, thereby bypassing having to take the Edens altogether. With that realization, I'm totally skipping BSB, as well as Donna Summer and just sticking with the Martin series (and I may even see if I can just sell the Gershwin queen ticket, although god knows who'd want to buy it) and the Browns. With two of the Sunday Martin concerts being at 4, I should be able to get up there fairly easily taking Sheridan all the way, and that only leaves one at 7. The other Martin concert is on a Wednesday as is the Browns, so I can just go up locally from work on 41 and then take Sheridan back home afterwards. Tickets are onsale tomorrow.

Broadway in Chicago also announced next year's season, and while most of it's a snooze (Spamalot, again???, Mary Poppins, Bronx Tale, Cirque du Soleil), there are two very exciting events: Xanadu (presumably with original Sonny James Carpinello, but no casting announcement has been made yet), and A Chorus Line. It'll be interesting to see how well Xanadu plays in a larger house since Chicago's smallest available possible space is still going to be larger than the Helen Hayes (only the Apollo would be close, and I can't imagine them using that, it's too out of the way). Plus, with A Chorus Line coming here, I can cross it off my list for the next NY trip (hopefully in June either the weekend of the Tony's, although it would suck to be on a plane back here while the Tony's are going on, or the weekend after), and make room for Gypsy, South Pacific, Young Frankenstin (got to catch it while Megan's still around) and Glory Days. Sunday probably won't happen b/c my companion hated it when Ravinia did it, and Mermaid will just have to wait until I can catch a Wednesday matinee without my companion. November, as well as off-bway's Little Flower of East Orange and the Diva show are also on standby if one of the first choices is sold out.

I mentioned earlier that a lot of cast recordings are coming out in the next couple of months (although still no word on Gypsy), and I realized, it's been way over a year since the Legends of Broadway CD's came out, where's the next batch? I had thought they said it was supposed to be the start of a series, and how can you have a series of legends and not include the Merm, Carol Channing, Robert Preston, or Mary Martin, just to name a few? Let's get moving on that Sony. With the complete collapse of your crappy Connect music store (that I still blame for fucking up my old laptop altogether), you've got plenty of time to devote to creating new collections.

Speaking of laptops and crap, have you heard about Blockbuster's proposed buyout of Circuit City? The two companies I hate the most consolidating into one, it's kind of poetic. Blockbuster just sucks on so many levels, but I personally hate them because in early 2000, the one in Hyde Park (which really sucked more than your average Blockbuster to start with, you'd think being in U of C's neighborhood they'd have a more intellectual collection, but no, it was actually even more dumbed down, I guess in deference to the surrounding neighborhoods), kept trying to tell me I was returning movies late, or not at all, which was totally not true. I'm so neurotic about that, I can tell you the exact date and time I've returned every movie I've ever rented from anywhere, including Netflix. They also kept trying to screw me over on their Blockbuster rewards program, saying I didn't have all the credits towards free movies I knew I did every month and trying to get out of having to give me free movies. Their shadiness knew no bounds, and the second time they called me and said I had a movie two weeks or more overdue that I had returned the day after I watched it, I was done. I complained vociferously to their regional headquarters and after ripping them new ones, got them to clean my account so it didn't look like anything was missing and that I didn't owe them any money, and have not gone back since. Then, the less said about Circuit City, the better. However, it's been a year and I'm forgiving the Bannana, as soon as I need a new pair of khakis, I'm there.

Lastly, Melrose Place Season 4 came out yesterday, and this time all Best Buys in the area had it in stock. It's very strange the way Season 3, which was the most popular, and the best, season got swept under the rug (they still don't have a picture of it with its listing on BB's website), while Season 4, the season that started the show's long decline as it crossed the line from high drama to over the top, causing a massive hemorrhaging of viewers, is getting VIP treatment. Oh well, bad Melrose Place is still better than good OC, One Tree Hill, or any of the other wannabes from recent memory. We're at the median now, three previous seasons out, this one, and then three more to go and I'll have it all. Of course, then they'll release some sort of deluxe collector's edition with the real music in all the episodes or something, but we'll see how well I can resist temptation or not.

Me in chair

2008-04-07T13:08:00.001-05:00

Alright Chicago, you've got one week left. The Drowsy Chaperone is even better on tour than it was in New York. The pacing seems a little tighter which keeps the action moving a bit better. As much as I loved it the first time, it did seem to get bogged down a bit. That problem was not present this time. The only change I noticed was the bit of MIC's dialogue about the Morosco Theatre having been torn down and a gaudy hotel built in its place. Otherwise, everything was there, just delivered better. Not to say that the NY production was awful, it was still one of the best things I've ever seen, this production just seemed to have fine tuned the one area that needed just a smidgen of improvement and has come up with a perfect show. The theatre was packed and the audience just seemed to love the production, including two student groups that were up in the balcony with us - take that, Jersey Boys! Nancy Opel (as the Chaperone), Jonathan Crombie (as MIC), and Georgia Engel were all fabulous, as was the rest of the cast. While it's too bad that Nancy isn't getting to reprise her performance of Miss Mazeppa on Broadway (truly one of the highlights of Gypsy's second act, next to Patti's Rose's Turn), she was just terrific as the Chaperone, ably portraying both the Chaperone character and the actress behind her (forgive me, I'm blanking on the name at the moment), more so than Beth Leavell did. While Bob Martin is the definitive MIC, Jonathan Crombie was just as good. My only quibble is that from our seats in the balcony, it was hard to hear the performers, it seems like the mics were stuck at 6 or 7 when they should have been at 10. Whenever anyone coughed or laughed, it completely obfuscated what was being said on stage. It didn't bother me so much since I've seen it and have the score memorized, but our friend that was with us seemed to miss some stuff. Still, that's a minor issue if you get main floor seats, which you should.

Ravinia has put out its calendar, with tickets going on sale April 17, and I'm much less than impressed. While the Martini's in the Martin series looks good (Betty Buckley, Barbara Cook, and Carol Lawrence, plus some queen singing Gershwin which I'm not all that excited about), there's no Broadway show this year, and there's a much heavier focus on pop, including having the Backstreet Boys perform, which just sounds so odd I'm tempted to buy a ticket just to see how that's going to get pulled off. I think I'm just going to get the MitM Sunday series and The 5 Browns and leave it at that. Since the Browns are on a Wednesay, and 3 of the Martin shows are on Sundays with the 4th being on a Wednesday, it won't disrupt my client schedule like last summer did. However, I can plug the gap this year with more shows. Nine is starting up for the next six weeks, and TimeLine will be reprising Fiorello! starting in a couple of weeks, and I really want to see that this time around. Plus, Steppenwolf is doing Dead Man's Cell Phone, although without Mary Louise Parker, but the show itself sounds interesting enough that I'd love to see it. So, while Ravinia may be declining in quality, there's still plenty to see.

My Honey Bun

2008-04-04T20:51:00.002-06:00

You MUST check this link out now:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/116512.html

While the story is very good news for the most part (ignoring the implications for Patti and Gypsy as a whole at the Tony's), the highlight comes when you scroll all the way down to the bottom. If that's in the show, I'm getting front row seats for every night I'm in NY.

Matt also had a Q & A piece earlier this week, and while most of it wasn't too eyebrow raising, he was asked who would play him in the movie of his life, and he said his "best friend" (male of course) who knows him better than anyone. As we all know, it's a small step from "best friend" to "roommate." No mention though of a girlfriend living in Canada.

Lastly, speaking of good reviews, Drowsy got a fabulous review from the Sun Times, at least someone truly appreciates it. While Bob Martin is no longer with it, it looks like we'll still be getting Georgia Engel. With tomorrow looking to be the nicest day so far this year, there's a lot to look forward to.

He's a Diva!

2008-04-02T14:55:00.002-06:00

Well, there's a lot of news to report, but the biggest of all, as I'm sure you've heard by now is Mandy Patinkin. It's taken me a while to figure out my feelings about it, hence the somewhat tardy report. Musically it was wonderful. His voice is still in fine form, and he did a great selection of songs, about 2/3 from Sondheim and 1/3 from other sources. There were some self-indulgent moments, such as unnecessary Yiddish versions of White Christmas, Take Me Out To The Ballgame, and Maria, a very bizarre A Tisket A Tasket, I Lost My Yellow Basket, his crazy stylized movements, and at the very end, a monologue from Princess Bride, one of the worst movies ever. However, the real drama came in about the first 10 minutes. After taking the stage with his pianist and sole accompanist, and opening with Children and Art and Sunday, Mandy began a dialogue and started to segue into a recognition of earth hour, which started right at the beginning of the concert. Now, I don't know if he thought he was performing in Carnegie Hall or Symphony Center or what, but the Chicago Theatre (which is looking a bit dilapidated these days, dirty seats, dirty proscenium, threadbare carpeting) allows drinks in the theatre and provides service to the VIP ticket holders in the first few rows. Well, the waitress came in after the opening numbers and started distributing the drinks to the people who had ordered them, and Mandy had a drag-queen sized hissy fit. At first it seemed like he was joking, but as he kept tearing into the waitress, it just got uncomfortable. She, unlike Mandy, remained professional and finished handing out her drinks, collected her money, all the while with Mandy making shitty comments to her, and then walked out without making any sort of scene. While it was a questionable decision on the part of the theatre, a true artist would have gone on with the show and let the woman do her job. It was very disappointing and took quite a while for Mandy to get the momentum back. The audience around us was very disconcerted and took a few songs for the whispered chattering to stop, although they may have been discombobulated by the overall bizarness of the night, with his stage design and stage presentation. To start with, the staging was rather odd, although I gather it's standard for him. It was him and a piano, performing on a bare, stripped down stage, reminiscent of the Pet Shop Boy's stage design for their 2002 Release tour. He came out, obviously having listened to his own instructions, dressed fairly casually in black slacks and a grey henley, and with a Madonna-style headset, although it was wired, giving him a fairly short leash, adding to the overall bizarness of his presentation. He started most of his songs standing next to the piano, hands glued to his thighs Jerry Espenson-style, and about halfway through each song started doing Mummenschanz-style movements. It was the craziest thing to watch, but his voice was so good that he pulled it off. Having just a piano as his accompaniment also helped keep the histrionic level at tolerable, I gather from some of his reviews that when he's with an orchestra it can get pretty schmaltzy. Highlights included great renditions of On The Atchison, Topeka, & the Santa Fe, Sorry-Grateful, In Sally's Eyes, Franklin Shepherd Inc., a blistering Brother Can You Spare A Dime, and a vaudeville-style When Movies Were Movies, and a terrific ending of the main set with Being Alive, among so many others. Interestingly though, other than the songs from Sunday in the Park with George (the opening numbers as well as Finishing The Hat later on), he didn't do anything from any of the shows he's been in. I can understand having solidarity with Patti and not doing anything from Evita, but I would have thought he would have worked something in from Falsettos or The Secret Garden. Still, it ended up being a great night. If only he had been a little more professional, it could have been a perfect night.

Now, backtracking a few days, I have wireless internet! As usual with Comcast though, nothing went smoothly. They gave us a window of 8-noon, and of course showed up at 11:50 when I had a 1:30 appointment elsewhere. We had told them we would provide our own modem and router, but when I showed the guy what we had, he said that his order showed that they were providing the equipment and since they have to program in the serial number and MAC address of the equipment prior to connection (to prevent service theft, which I can understand), he had to complete the installation with his equipment. We could call later and have them make another trip to uninstall their equipment and install ours (all for an additional fee, plus a rental fee for the time we use their equipment). So, I've got about $150 of wireless networking equipment that's now useless. However, the network is set up, and is FAST, and I kind of don't want to mess with it now that I've got the Tivo connected and all our computers are set up to automatically connect. We'll take a look at the bill and see how we feel about paying a rental fee every month. We already opened the cable modem and router boxes so they can't be returned, but we can save them for our next place or I can try to sell them with my old laptop. It is so nice to not have to manually connect the Tivo to the phone line every Saturday afternoon now. I also got my monthly 30 downloads from emusic in about 10 minutes, as opposed to 6 hours with my cell phone modem. I finished Lauren Kennedy's album (terrific), got Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova's album, which is basically the same as the Once soundtrack, got the cast recording of Gone Missing (interesting, for being only 20 minutes it's strange how it can still kind of fizzle out by the end, but it starts very strong), and started on David Yazbek's Crazy Monkey Man. Next month I'll finish that and get Bea Arthur on Broadway for my companion's birthday (I'm sure I've mentioned his Golden Girls fetish before somewhere on here). Then on Saturday my project was due for class, and it took all of 90 seconds from the time I flipped on the wireless antenna switch until I got to the screen that said Assignment Submitted. So nice.

Speaking of music, there's going to be a lot more soon. While there's no offical word on Gypsy yet (and with the reception it's getting it'll only be a matter of time), it was announced this week that In The Heights, A Catered Affair, South Pacific and The Adding Machine will all be getting cast albums, with a good probability of Glory Days getting one as well. This is going to be a very interesting Tony Awards, and it looks like all the shows (with the exception of Adding Machine which is Off-Bway) are trying to capitalize on that by releasing within 1-2 weeks of the ceremony, and Adding Machine is trying to piggyback on that and release in that time frame as well. One more reason to look forward to summer.

This weekend it's Drowsy Chaperone, hopefully next weekend will be Nine, and then on the 25th it's Sweeney, with hopefully a trip to NY in early June, maybe coinciding with the Tony Awards. Finally, it's show seeing season again!

Finally

2008-03-24T14:35:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I've always had it in the back of mind that I needed to get one done, but logging in, I see that it's been over 3 weeks since my last one! Part of it definitely is school, but part of it is that I've just been feeling so blah thanks to this never ending winter and have not had any motivation to do anything. Even though we had yet another big fucking blizzard over the weekend, just what we needed, most have it has now melted and the sun is out today, so even though it's still only right around freezing, at least it looks warmer as I stare out the window and count down the minutes until I can leave the office. Plus, it is so nice to not have it look like midnight by the time I get home.

So, trying to stay positive here, things are finally picking up on the theatre front. We have our tickets for Drowsy, Sweeney, and Les Miz. Drowsy and Sweeney were actually sold out on the main floor for the nights that we're going (April 5 and 23, both Saturdays), which is pretty impressive, you guys are obviously listening to me. It's important that we keep showing producers that we'll show up for shows, because Spring Awakening just announced its tour schedule and guess what major theatre-centric city was not on the list? It did say more stops would be announced soon, but I still can't believe that they'd front load the tour with Albequerque, Houston, Boulder, etc. instead of Chicago and other somewhat more liberal cities where the show will probably play better. Next up is trying to figure out when we're going to do Avenue Q (tickets go on sale Friday, but apparently if you go to a BinC box office and tell them the code word is Tribune, you can buy them now, that's hearsay though, I haven't actually tried it), as well as Nine, which is about to start and only running through mid-May, not giving us much time since just about every weekend is already taken. It looks like I won't be making it to Drood for the same reason. It ends in two weeks, but we've got shit every weekend, and I'm not driving out to St. Charles in the middle of the week for it. Hopefully someplace like Porchlight or Circle will pick it up. Speaking of Circle, they're doing Can-Can, which I'd love to see, but it's only a three week run, so that's not happening either. It kind of sucks that we have to appease the big Broadway producers and go to see shows that we've already seen in order to keep them coming at the expense of the smaller theatres that are just as good or even better and are doing rarely seen shows. Once the Lyric's season is over this weekend and we get these shows out of the way, things should open up. We'll probably catch Nine at the end of its run and should be open for anything coming up in the summer. Plus, if we go to New York in May, I can catch Adding Machine there as well as all the B-way shows I want to see. Since it looks like we're not going to go to Europe this fall due to the weak dollar as well as my having no time off after the cruise, we can try to make more long weekend trips to NY and if we just catch a couple shows each time, I should be caught up after about 3 trips, providing nothing closes unexpectedly. I'm looking forward to catching Matty Morrison in a stripped down soldier's outfit.

Also, going back to things not coming to Chicago, apparently Idina Menzel is going to tour, but is sticking to the east coast, where she's already well known. I guess that makes sense if she wants to fill larger venues, but it would be nice to see her branch out and play smaller venues like the Vic or Apollo, and take that show across the country. Fortunately, PBS will be taping the first night for future broadcast so it won't be completely lost. Lastly, one more thing is finally happening, yours truly is finally getting broadband on Thursday. Finally I can listen to Playbill radio (if I can find the time between all my Tivo'd movies and shows I'm trying to catch up on). That'll make it so much easier to download my emusic songs, I may even be able to move up to the next subscription level! Anyways, that pretty much gets us caught up. I've got Mandy Pants on Saturday and Eugene Onegin at the Lyric on Sunday, so look for reviews as well as an update on the broadband next week.

Stuck in Winter

2008-03-10T10:23:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Not much has been going on since then other than I just finished my first paper in my return to school. Four weeks down, two years, ten months, and three weeks to go! Still now word on when I'll be seeing Drowsey or Sweeney, or Les Miz, my companion is being characteristically stubborn about discussing dates. While I'm kind of frustrated that we're seeing all the shows for the second (or fifth) time when there are so many good new shows going on (Augusta and Columbinus in particular), it's important to at least show up for Drowsey and Sweeney to show the producers that there is an audience in Chicago for Broadway shows and we deserve to be more than an afterthought in their touring plans. Plus, there's still Nine at Porchlight to look forward to this spring and I'll make sure we get to that.

I finished my monthly allotment of downloads and listend to Andrea Burns' solo CD yesterday, what a fabulous album!!! It really lifted my mood out of the winter blahs. I actually like it better than Victoria Clark's, which is a pretty tall order. Hopefully she'll get a Tony nod for In The Heights, she certainly deserves it, although I'm firmly routing for Jackie Hoffman to win. I also finally listened to Seesaw and enjoyed it, although wasn't overwhelmed. I'm not a huge Cy fan other than City of Angels and On the Twentieth Century, but it definitely had its moments. I started on Lauren Kennedy and will finish her up when my downloads refresh and then go for David Yazbek's solo CD and the Gone Missing cast recording.

Speaking of winter blahs, when is it going to be over? All my clients last week were talking about how this endless weather is making them depressed and that just made me more depressed myself. I looked up weekend getaways to Vegas, but Bette is wrapping up this week and won't be back until fall, and Cher doesn't start until May, by which time hopefully the weather here will at least be out of freezing temperatures. Plus, a two day getaway, leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday costs as much as our three day getaway for Liza last year, and more if we want convenient times, which makes it seem like we're getting ripped off if we go now, which would not do much for improving my mood. New York isn't looking possible in the near future, my companion doesn't have any work-related reasons to go and we're trying to save our points as well as my vacation time for Europe. Plus, the weather there would be just as bad as here, I can still feel the cold in my bones from last March's trip. So, I'm trying to survive as best I can, hopefully a few shows and dinners out here can at least make it feel like I'm on vacation without the New York prices.

Lessons Were Learned

2008-02-27T12:51:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a busy couple of days, I had intended to get this posted Monday morning. I've been back in school for 2 1/2 weeks and am so ready to be done. Just another 2 years, 10 months, 2 weeks and 4 days left to go!

So to start with, Linda was FABULOUS!!! Like I expected anything different. The nice surprise this time was that the Rosemont pops orchestra, instead of giving us an hour of Spanish-themed music filtered through a harmonica virtuoso before brining Linda out, this time only did 4 songs, all Broadway related (although the Harry Potter medley was somewhat obliquely related, at least coming from the show-biz category). They started with a medley of Broadway overtures, which was about two lines each from Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, The Music Man, Sweet Charity, and Phantom. It was pleasant and got the evening off on the right note, although I have issues with amplified orchestras. They then did the Harry Potter medley, the Funny Girl overture (probably the most appropriate number) and then a medley of songs from Chicago, basically the Overture, All That Jazz, All I Care About Is Love, and Me and My Baby, wrapping up with the background music of Velma and Roxie's last few lines of the finale. We then got a nice intermission for a glass of wine and then it was time for Linda. The crowd really was there for her, she got a huge reception when she first came out. The show was basically an abridged version of the concert she did last March, but she did all the important numbers, including a tight rendition of Zing Went The Strings of my Heart/The Trolley Song, Stormy Weather, If I Could, Don't Rain on my Parade, and of course, Vienna and Man of La Mancha. She was on stage for about an hour and a half, and it seemed like she was barely there at all, I wanted her to stay all night. She didn't mention anything about a new album this time though. When she was here in March, she mentioned that she had a new album scheduled for early this year, and it was going to include If I Could. Well, we're almost done with the first quarter, and there's no news of a new album, only the Greatest Hits CD she originally released exclusively through Barnes & Noble last year now in wide release. She didn't mention anything about it this time, hopefully it's not delayed. In the meantime though, she may want to consider a live album. She's really come into her own as a live performer and it would be great to get that energy and excitement captured on disc while she's at her peak.

Then on Sunday it was time for the Oscars. As I had expected, I got home about an hour after it started and just used the fast forward function of the TiVo to cut through the speeches and filler, so it wasn't as annoying of a show as usual, although afterwards I felt kind of unfulfilled. Granted, it was a short show, they only went 15 minutes over, but it felt like I had missed something. Jon Stewart wasn't that funny (other than his lines about Hilary thinking Away From Her was the feel good movie of the year and when we have a female or black president, an asteroid is about to hit the statue of liberty, I really don't remember much about him other than his one really classy gesture, and more on that in a second), and as usual the scripted banter was just putrid, with poor Anne Hathaway as this year's top casualty. It was unfair enough having to pair her with Steve Carrell, but to give them such a horrendously unfunny conversation was criminal. Awards wise, I did about the same as last year in the major categories, only missing Actress and Director, although in my predictions I did acknowledge that either of the winners were real possibilities. The lesson I learned was not to bet against history. The academy is on a roll awarding female biographical portrayals, and while I thought that Cate Blanchett would have siphoned off enough votes from Marion with hers to allow Julie Christie to win, the academy was determined to make it happen. And, there's still no best director winner whose picture wasn't nominated, but it was nice to see the Coens finally get their due. Of course, I was thrilled to be wrong about art direction (Sweeney won) and best song, which was truly a shock for me. It was so great to see them win, and Jon Stewart was so classy bringing Marketa Irglova back out to give her full speech after the orchestra cut her off when she tried to speak after Glen Hansard. Way to read my instructions Jon! Speaking of Best Song, how fabulous was Kristen Chenoweth? And Amy Adams! Too bad that guy they got to do the 3rd song from Enchanted couldn't sing a note in tune to save his life. While being gorgeous can enhance the enjoyment of listening to a great singer (like Cheyenne Jackson, Matthew Morrison, Justin Timberlake, etc.), being goregous alone can't make up for being a bad singer (Anthony Rapp, Ryan Cabrera, and this guy, whoever he was). Despite being somewhat lackluster, at least they learned most of the lessons from last year, I would only say to Javier Bardem, don't apologize for giving your speech in Spanish, be proud! The only lesson for next year is for nominees, no matter how much of a long shot they may think they are, don't get baked before the ceremony. Tilda Swinton seemed like she was on the verge of freaking out every time the camera panned on her, and then when she won, the jig was up, that was the most out of it acceptance speech I can remember in a long time, which could have made the night more memorable had she tried to eat the Oscar or take her clothes off or tried to hump Alan Arkin when she got up to the stage. Lastly, just to rub it in, did anyone else think Jennifer Hudson's delivery of the Best Supporting Actor award was completely wooden? There was no emotion or any excitement there, maybe she was high too. At least this year's winners were all deserving.

Top Prizes

2008-02-22T13:33:00.001-06:00

Just over 48 hours left to go, and here are my final two predictions.

Best Director
Who Will Win: Ok, I'm going to do it. I do this every year even though I totally no better, and always end up making some wild prediction completely convinced it will happen. Last year I thought Peter O'Toole would win best actor, in previous years I've thought Julianne Moore would win best supporting actress, I thought Titanic would get shut out, and this year I'm predicting Julian Schnabel will win best director. It'll be a first, no director has ever won for a movie that was not nominated for Best Picture. However, on Julian's side is that fact that over the past 10 years, the academy has bucked almost 40 years' worth of tradition and issued several split decisions on director and picture (Stephen Spielberg and Shakespeare in Love, Steven Soderburgh and Gladiator, Roman Polanski and Chicago, and Ang Lee and Crash). While the academy routinely issued these split decisions in the 30's and into the 40's, somewhere around the end of World War II they started showing solidarity between picture and director, splitting only a handful of times until the late 90's. That makes it at least somewhat more likely that they would consider Schnabel, who has already won an armload of awards, without necessarily being concerned that The Diving Bell and the Butterfly wasn't nominated for best picture. There's a chance they could go with the Coen brothers for No Country, but they've shown a dislike of the brothers in the past, how else can you explain the snub of Fargo in favor of the bloated, boring, insipid The English Patient? I don't think they'll overcome that now even though the movie should steamroll most of the other categories. While I consider Paul Thomas Anderson a genius, the academy again has refused several times to concur and he's out of luck. Tony Gilroy and Jason Reitman, for Michael Clayton and Juno, are also out of the running, genre pieces don't win best director. The last director to win for a comedy was Woody Allen over 30 years ago, and while Erin Brokovich was up for director, I can't even remember the last time a legal procedural actually won.

Who Should Win: The Coen Brothers, and maybe it's that fact that's keeping me from predicting a win for them. They so deserved the award for Fargo and it was heartbreaking to see them lose after Fargo had been built up for almost 10 months as the movie to beat only to see The English Patient sweep in just under the cutoff and win everything. The academy so rarely rewards the truly deserving for their truly deserving work that I'm reluctant to believe they'll do it now. Still, it did happen for Roman Polanksi, maybe, just maybe, they'll be ready to do it again.

Who Should Have Been Nominated: For putting up with all the crap I said about him before getting a chance to see the finished product, Tim Burton hands down should have gotten a long overdue nomination here. Sweeney Todd was quite an achievement, one that he can rightfully be proud of, and I can't understand what the academy was thinking shutting him out again.

Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: Easily enough, Jason Reitman. Nothing about Juno deserved to be nominated, not here, not in any category.

Best Picture
Who Will Win: And we thought last year was up in the air! At least we could narrow down the field to 3 probables and 2 less probables, although I did pick the wrong probable. This year, any of them could win, including Juno. Atonement was the early favorite, but while it won the Golden Globe and the BAFTA, it's lost just about everything else. Juno and Michael Clayton are genre pictures, which usually don't win, and like I said earlier, if Little Miss Sunshine couldn't win last year, Juno definitely won't win this year. Plus, all three of these movies did not get nominated for Best Editing, and no movie has ever won best picture without at least being nominated for editing, which was an early indication 2 years ago that Brokeback wasn't going to go all the way. That leaves No Country and Blood, both of which have editing nominations, and both of which completely deserve to win. The edge goes to No Country though, having picked up more awards throughout the night, the academy will give it the final big one.

Who Should Win: This is a tough call for me, I was fond of Atonement, but really No Country For Old Men is the one for me. It's bleak, violent, relentless, and completely perfect.

Who Should Have Been Nominated: Another tough one on a personal level. In a year that gave us Once, Hairspray, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Rescue Dawn, Harry Potter, Enchanted, and In The Valley of Elah, it's hard to pick just one here. Still, I'm going to have to go with my theme and say that Sweeney Todd should have been much more recognized than it was. The academy rarely seems to like Golden Globe comedy/musical winners, having only recognized Chicago in recent memory with a nomination after it won the Golden Globe. Dreamgirls, Nurse Betty, Walk the Line, and now Sweeney Todd all won best comedy/musical at the Golden Globes only to find themselves shut out of the oscar race, and Sweeney now joins the ranks of the egregiously overlooked (except in Dreamgirls' case, that was justifiably overlooked). The academy shouldn't punish good movies just because they justifiably dislike the Golden Globes and the fact that they have two best pictures.

Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: Wrapping up my other theme, Juno is so completely out of place here. Other than last year, there's always at least one, and this year she's it.

So, how did I do? We'll have to watch Sunday and find out. While I'll try to post some updates during the show, I'm not going to be doing live posting like I was for the Tony's. We've had our friend from Prague staying with us and he's flying back home at 9:00 pm on Sunday, and we have to get him to the airport. Still, that means we have to have him there by 7, which should give me just enough time to get back home in time to fast forward the Tivo through the monologue and catch up with the awards. I'd urge the everyone to remember the lessons learned last year: start with some real awards like the supporting acting awards to grab our interest; practice your lines ahead of time, don't try to wing it; subtitles are highly preferable over Clint Eastwood for providing translation; classiness is always preferable over crassness; no matter how overwhelmed you are at winning, look to Judi Dench as your speech giving model and keep it under 30 seconds; and lastly, once the show runs long, nix everything except the awards, no contortionists, montages, musical numbers, tributes, sound effects choirs, special presentations, comedy bits, etc. Once you hit 3 hours, name the category, list the nominees, announce the winner, quick acceptance speech, then next category and keep repeating unil the end. Look for my thoughts on Monday as well as a review of Linda Eder's Saturday night concert with the Rosemont Pops. Let's hope she learned some lessons too and skips the harmonica impressario this time.

Actors

2008-02-21T13:29:00.001-06:00

A couple of things before we get into the actor predictions. I watched the first act of Company on PBS' Great Performances last night (it went way past my bedtime so I'll be watching the rest sometime this weekend between Linda Eder and the Oscars). I loved the sets and costumes even more with an up close view and am even more baffled how it got shut out from nominations in both categories at the Tony's. I can appreciate Raul's performance more too seeing his closeups instead of watching the action from the upper half of the balcony. It's definitely a very subtle performance which is probably what hurt him at the Tony's. The voters in all the critics and guild awards probably would have scored closer seats than some of the Tony voters and been able to fully appraise his performance. Still, if the people in the balcony can't see enough to appreciate it, is it really a good performance? While I'm liking it more than when I saw it, I'm still not completely sold on it. There's a lot of business on the stage that I find distracting and too many of the cast members are "Acting" which really grates on my nerves. It doesn't feel like anyone's taking it seriously. It comes across even more so on TV than it did live, so I am now even more firm in my opinion that 110 in the Shade should have gotten best revival, and probably would have had Sweeney not been robbed the year before. Next, when I went to playbill.com for my daily dose of news, I saw the thrilling announcment that John Barrowman, who does such an excellent job playing Captain Jack on Torchwood (the best show currently on TV, if you get BBC America, you must check it out), is in talks to play the title role in Barnum next year in London. I may be making another trip. Now, onto the actors.

Best Supporting Actor
Who Will Win: One of the other no-brainers of the night, this one goes to Javier Bardem. No one else will come close.
Who Should Win: Javier, it's as close to a perfect performance as possible.
Who Should Have Been Nominated: Really, any of the other male performers in Sweeney, except maybe for Borat who I exclude on principle, should have been nominated, but the best among them was definitely Alan Rickman, another long overdue underappreciated performer in a long list of them this year.
Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: Normally I like him, but Philip Seymour Hoffman just doesn't cut it here. The whole movie didn't cut it, although it was gratifying to see just how low Tom Hanks' and Julia Roberts' caches have sunk over just a few years. The Terminal and Mona Lisa Smile may turn out to have been bigger mistakes than they even seemed at the time.

Best Actor
Who Will Win: This is being touted as a no-brainer, but I think it may be a little closer than the conventional wisdom is assuming. Still, it would take a lot for anyone other than Daniel Day Lewis to win this one. The ending and that infamous line may scare away some voters towards George Clooney, but Daniel's got enough support he should still come out on top. It'll be nice to see him win for something he deserves and we can finally all put Gangs of New York behind us.
Who Should Win: No surprise for my constant readers, but Johnny Depp gave the gutsiest and most successful performance of the bunch. Unfortunately, he's being O'Toole-ed by the Academy and the most he can look forward to is an honorary Oscar in about another 20-30 years.
Who Should Have Been Nominated: No question, Glen Hansard deserved to belong in this group. It was a very nuanced, balanced performance, no "Acting" here.
Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: It's so hard for me to say this, but Viggo Mortenson is the odd one out here. He's nominated for the wrong movie. He should have been nominated 2 years ago for A History Of Violence, one of the greatest movies of the last 25 years. Maybe my expectations were too high after seeing that movie, but Eastern Promises just didn't live up and I found his performance flat and flaccid, although the bath house scene certainly provided a nice diversion. Still, while the nomination is an award for his gutsiness in filming that scene, the scene also guarantees he won't win, it'll turn off too many older conservative voters.

We're almost there, come back tomorrow for the final predictions.

Actresses and a Song

2008-02-20T12:40:00.001-06:00

One of the more interesting "lesser" categories that I forgot to mention yesterday was Best Song. Obviously, I'm pulling for "Falling Slowly" from Once to win. Unfortunately, as is true with most categories, the most deserving is the least likely to win. Looking at the nominees, the odds would seem to favor Stephen Schwartz, who would deservingly win as well for any of the three songs from Enchanted, and indeed, 10 years ago, he would have been assured a win. However, times have changed, and in an effort to appear more "hip" the Academy over the past few years has had a habit of awarding what can most charitably be categorized as "crap" in this category, culminating in the execrable and inexplicable win for "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" two years ago. They made up for it last year by ignoring all 3 Dreamgirls nominations and giving the award to the truly best song and best performer in the category, but having done that, they will now feel free to go back to awarding crap and the winner will be "Raise It Up" from August Rush. Not a good night for music.

Best Supporting Actress
Who Will Win: This is one of the more interesting categories as none of the nominees are all that great, giving the category a distinct lack of excitement. Even an upset in this category really wouldn't be very exciting as it would just be one blah actress winning instead of another. The early favorite here was Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone, but after winning an armful of early awards, she suddenly saw her cache drop when Ruby Dee won the SAG award and Cate Blanchett won the Golden Globe, placing them in the running. However, I'm thinking that Tilda Swinton will take this one. Hollywood loves her almost as much as it loves George Clooney, and since Michael Clayton doesn't have much chance for any other awards, they'll be sure to recognize it, and by extension George, here. It's the same consolation prize tendency that brought us the phrase "Oscar Winning Actress Marcia Gay Harden."

Who Should Win: Again, I'm not that thrilled with any of these, but Amy Ryan seems to be the best choice. It's a meaty role and she gave it her all, making it definitely the most memorable of the 5 performances here.

Who Should Have Been Nominated: I know it would have been a long shot, but Imelda Staunton strongly deserved a nomination for her performance in Harry Potter. This one was NOT a kids' movie and her performance as a female George W. was strong, three dimensional, and memorable, completely unlike the real life George. She made it very easy to understand how evil can flourish in uncertain times.

Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: I love her, but this was not her year for making movies. Cate Blanchett has no business being in this category, or in the Best Actress category either. Unlike Amy Ryan's showy performance, this was a show-off-y performance and the Academy should have known better. Cate should have too.

Best Actress
Who Will Win: In a somewhat more exciting category (they've got three deserving nominees here), it's a close race between early favorite Julie Christie, and gaining-ground-fast Marion Cotillard. I'm thinking Christie has the edge, she's a previous winner long overdue for a second while Cotillard can always come back later. However, the Academy has been loving female biographical portrayals lately (after Gwyneth Paltrow won at the 1998 ceremony, only 2 other actresses since have won for playing fictional characters - Halle Berry in 2001 for Monster's Ball and Hilary Swank in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby), which could favor Cotillard. She also stepped up her momentum just as the Oscar ballots went out. Still, there's a lot of love for Christie among the acting community and I think she'll come out on top.

Who Should Win: In a rare occurance, Julie Christie is the most deserving here. Why she hasn't gotten a second Oscar way before this is a mystery. It'll be nice to see the Academy finally coming to its senses.

Who Should Have Been Nominated: Nikky Blonsky. Two words: Jennifer Hudson. If that untalented wannabe hack could win, Nikky should at least have been nominated. Enough said.

Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: While I am not fond of Cate Blanchett's nomination here either (she got a second nomination for the same role with the god-awful Elizabeth: The Golden Age while Anthony Hopkins got ignored on his second and third go-rounds with Hannibal Lecter? Criminal.), it's Ellen Page here that really pisses me off. Don't get me wrong, I love her and totally think she should have been nominated for Hard Candy, and can't wait to see what she'll do next, but this was not a performance to remember. Similar to how the Moldy Peaches completely embody Juno's character in almost the completely opposite way from what Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody intended, Ellen's performance here completely works against establishing the personality that Reitman and Cody intended Juno to have. She manages to get the characterization completely right and yet so completely wrong at the same time, maybe she does deserve the nomination after all, it's not many actresses that can do that.

With that, come back tomorrow for a look at the much more interesting actor races.

February Madness

2008-02-19T12:57:00.001-06:00

It seems like just yesterday I was predicting Alan Arkin's win and now it's time to do it again. Everyone thought last year was a wide open race, but that was nothing compared to this year. Seeing as how the straight Oscars ended with a surprise upset a few weeks ago, I'm betting it's more than likely we'll be seeing a few of those this year, more than just Alan Arkin or Crash (which really were no surprise here). With that said, here are my thought.

Since no one really cares about the technical awards, I'm not going to spend much time here. I care more about the snubs in these categories than most of the nominees. Rescue Dawn and Harry Potter should have dominated the music, costumes, cinematography, editing, and all the categories of visual and audio effects. I can understand why the Academy would shy away from Harry, but do they really hate Christian Bale that much? And if so, why? Or, is it that they just hate movies? What does it say about the Academy, and the world we live in, when Norbit is an academy award nominated movie, and Hairspray didn't get any? Ironically, Norbit's one nomination is in the category that Hairspray didn't deserve - makeup, but Hairspray definitely should have at least gotten a nod for costumes. And even if Hairspray didn't deserve a makeup nomination (whoever did John Travolta should be kicked out of the makeup artists union for life), is Eddie Murphy in another fat suit really worth a nomination? I would have prefered 28 Weeks Later in this category. Looking at Documentaries, any of them would be worthy. I'm partial to Sicko, but No End In Sight will probably take it. Animation has lately replaced Best Supporting Actress as the upset category du jour, so look for Persepolis to win there. Now, on to the ones we care about!

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Who Will Win: As with most of the major categories, there's no frontrunner here. With No Country and Blood leading the Best Picture race, either could be favored here, and indeed, the winner in this category will probably make a return trip to the stage at the end of the night. However, they could cancel each other out, opening the way for Atonement, a potential dark horse in the Best Picture race. Away from Her and Diving Bell probably have little chance here, although seeing as how the Academy likes to use the screenplay category as a consolation prize (see Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Brokeback, Little Miss Sunshine), Diving Bell could take this one. However, the consolation prize this year is more likely to happen in the Original category, and I'm predicting No Country For Old Men to take this one. While the ending has been criticized, Blood's ending has been widely ridiculed and the Academy won't take a chance on it. No Country has an impeccable literary pedigree and survived the page to screen adaptation process much better than Blood or Atonement, making it the winner.

Who Should Win: Call me sentimental, but I think Sarah Polley's touching Away From Her deserves this one. Her achievement, at the age of 28 no less, and for a first time picture, is astonishing. Of course, being in Academy-land, the most deserving is the least likely to win.

Who Should Have Been Nominated: John Logan, for Sweeney Todd. He took a sprawling, messy (narratively, that is), not necessarily linear, chorus-based (as in Greek Chorus), fabulous stage production, and turned it into a sprawling, tightly told, gut-wrenching, emotionally involving, absorbing, fabulous movie. He accomplished what screenwriters on Phantom, Rent, The Producers, Dreamgirls, and to a certain extent Hairspray, all failed to do: he produced the first quality script for a movie musical since Chicago and should have gotten his due here, especially since he claims not to have been a fan of musicals to start with. We never would have known, there's that much love throughout the script.

Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: Really, the nominees here are all deserving. In some ways, Diving Bell is the weakest choice, but in others it's also the strongest. There's been a lot of rumbling that Atonement botched the book's surprise ending, so that's the one most likely in need of replacing. I know I would have appreciated Sweeney over any of these 5, but Atonement is probably the weakest link.

Best Original Screenplay:
Who Will Win: This is one of the night's few no-brainers. Diablo Cody will take home the prize for Juno. Remember what I said earlier about the screenplay category usually being a consolation prize? Everyone loves Juno but comedies don't win (and if Little Miss Sunshine couldn't win last year, when only one person in the world - Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwartzbaum - hated it, Juno is not going to win with the amount of backlash it's already generated), so Juno gets the consolation prize this year. There's a decent chance that Michael Clayton could end up getting the consolation prize instead - the Academy LOVES George Clooney, and by extension anything he does, but also won't give the top prize to a procedural - but Diablo's got the better rags to riches story and will ride this one all the way home.

Who Should Win: The pickings are much slimmer on this side of the fence (was it really that weak a year for screenplays? All of these were written well before the strike, what's that going to say about next year's crop of nominees?), so Michael Clayton stands head and shoulders above all the others. If there was any justice, Tony Gilroy would be striding up to the podium instead of Diablo Cody slinking up to it.

Who Should Have Been Nominated: So many choices, but my heart goes with John Carney for Once. Like Sarah Polley, he crafted such a warm gentle yet profound movie that belies its hidden depths. Movies like Once don't come around very often, it would be nice if the Academy could recognize them when they do.

Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: And here it is, the start of this year's hate train. Last year we had Dreamgirls, this year we have Juno. I can understand the appeal, I want to like it too, but no one, not even yours truly, was that precocious of a 16-year-old girl. The script is a mix of preposterous and pretentious (The Moldy Peaches?!?!?! It definitely nailed Juno's character, but not in the way they intended, see Jim DeRogatis's excellent commentary in the Sun-Times on this topic), and while it means well, you know what they say about good intentions. Just ask Sweeney.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the Actress predictions.

Sad Day

2008-02-11T11:25:00.001-06:00

I never watch the Grammy's anymore, they're almost as irrelevant as the Golden Globes, but I was rather pleasantly surprised when I woke up this morning and heard on the radio that Amy Winehouse had won 5, but then was stunned to hear that she was beaten out for Album of the Year by Herbie Hancock, the least relevant and worst "musician" of the nominees. Of course, I had predicted that he would win based on those traits, but it was still saddening to hear just how right I was. Winehouse would have been the best pick out of all of them, although her CD also wasn't what I would consider the best of the year. Knowing that the Grammy's year doesn't correspond to the calendar so the Xanadu cast recording wouldn't have been considered, I would have thought last year's best CD to be the 110 in the Shade cast recording, with Prince, Kelly Clarkson, and Mika as runners up, as well as the Scissor Sisters, who released Ta-Dah around the same time in 96 that Amy's CD came out (Victoria Clark can be considered next year with Xanadu since her fabulous CD came out in November). Still, Spring Awakening got Best Soundtrack which it highly deserved. I was then further saddened to read on msnbc.com this morning that Roy Scheider died. I know I mentioned this earlier, but given his performances in French Connection, Marathon Man, and All That Jazz, it is criminal that he didn't have a more high profile career. The film community is definitely the worse off for his passing. Lastly, a bit of kind of good news. As I predicted last week, Sarah Brightman did chart last week, although she came in at number 13 in her first week. Given the empty shelf space at Target, I had hoped she would break the top 10, which I don't think she's done since La Luna. Still, it's been quite a while since Harem came out, so she may need to remind her audience that she's around. We'll see how future week's sales stack up. Idina was nowhere to be found on the chart (although it only went to 20), hopefully she'll continue to grow her audience and be making an appearance soon. Oh, one other thing, as I was looking through the A&E section of the Trib yesterday, I saw a listing for The Mystery of Edwin Drood at Pheasant Run starting next month. It seems they've finally realized that the Fox Valley is not Wicker Park and booted Noble Fool and brought back their theatre productions. I'll definitely have to make a trip out there to catch it. One more thing to add to the list with Drury Lane's Goodbye Girl (the actual musical, not the play!), Les Miz, Little Dog Laughed, and Shining City. I'm going to have to get on these, time's awastin' and we're only getting more shows as the year goes on.

Drama

2008-02-07T16:34:00.001-06:00

Just as the hurt feelings on both sides finally seemed to be smoothed after the Urinetown brouhaha, Chicago's local theatre scene again finds itself facing Broadway's ire. Apparently, Eric Rosen, who is a phenomenally talented director and who will be greatly missed when he departs for Kansas City later this year, made some cuts in his production of The Little Dog Laughed without Douglas Carter Beane's approval. Specifically, he changed the nude scene so that both actors were wearing underwear, and changed some lines to reflect this visual change. Well, seeing as how this is one of the first regional productions of the show, Beane showed up a few days ago to check it out and was outraged that anyone had dared to change his show, no matter how much they may have known the audience and what would fly, and threatened to have the show closed, which would have cost About Face Theatre several thousand dollars. Eric personally interceded and got Beane to withdraw his threats but had to send out a humiliating letter to local critics outlining how he had "substantially" changed the show. Let me see if I understand this; first, a Chicago theatre gets in trouble for being too similar to a Broadway production, now, another one is in trouble for being too different. How is a regional theatre supposed to know what to do? Is the Mariott going to get in trouble for their production of Les Miz because they don't have a turntable stage? Or, conversely, if they installed a turntable, would they then get in trouble for being too similar? These producers in New York need to figure out what they want or they're going to find regional theatres demanding fewer and fewer licensed productions and going the route of Drury Lane (and Mariott for that matter) and starting to produce more original materials. That actually wouldn't be a bad thing for theatre in general. Looking at it that way, let's see how else we can piss off New York.

Love Last Night

2008-02-06T18:46:00.001-06:00

Try as it might, the new wave of horrendous weather yesterday couldn't prevent from having a great time last night at thr House of Blues where I saw Mika in concert. I had bought tickets for myself and a friend for Christmas and had planned to make a whole night of it. Thanks to the weather, we just did the show and called it a night, but the concert itself was fabulous. I was a little cranky beforehand, dealing with the freezing rain while driving home after work and then trying to race down there. I don't know why it had to be so early, but I made it to the hotel about 6:15 and met my friend and walked across the street to get in line. Now, I don't know if the TSA or Homeland Security are the owners of HOB, but trying to get in is even worse than trying to get through O'Hare. Back in college I almost missed an entire concert standing in line waiting to get in. They have one entryway for approximately 3000 people and this was a sold out show. It took about 10 minutes from getting in line to get to the door where they checked our tickets and gave us our wristbands (although I don't know why they bother with that, the bartenders inside still want to see I'D, it's an extraneous step that just slows everything down). Then, as we were herded inside, they were wanding everyone and for some reason had two lines for women but only one line for men. They really didn't know their target audience at all. It was like being on the Kennedy during rush hour, the other two lanes kept moving, but the one I was in was at a standstill. Finally, after about another 10 minutes, as we were getting toward the front, they changed one of the women's lines to men and it moved. My friend got into that one and I stayed in the one we were in and figred out why we were going so slowly. The guy doing his line got about three people through for every one that my guy got through, he was SLOW and kind of rude. So, my friend got through before me, and then when I finished I stepped around the corner to where the staircase is to go up to the actual concert hall. I didn't see him and was looking around and the one woman taking tickets (again, 3000 people and they have 1 ticket taker) was really rude. She tried to take my ticket and I said I was looking for someone and she's like "you can't wait in this area, you have to go upstairs." So, I rolled my eyes and gave her my ticket and started walking up the stairs and heard her yelling at a bunch of other people who were standing waiting. Seriously, this isn't O'Hare, if we need to wait for someone because their staff can't move the line along at a reasonable rate, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to. Fortunately, my friend was at the top of the stairs, so while it ws kind of a crappy start to the night (seriously, do they not want people to enjoy the evening?), we went and got a drink and were over it. It was already filling up, but a helpful staff directed us to two empty stools at a table. There were two other people sitting there, a young straight couple, and I was so worried that they were going to be annoying, but Chris and Stephanie actually ended up being so cool. It was a very fun evening. The opening act sucked, they were kind of like Maroon 5 meets Dave Matthews meets Jack Johnson, very boring. I used the time to get food from the bar, and that really picked me up. Mika came on around 8 and gave us an almost 90 minute high-energy, hughly entertaining show. He opened with Relax and followed it up with a rocking Big Girls, You Are Beautiful, complete with blow up dolls and strobe lights. I have to say, I thought he looked kind of weird in the album photos, but in person he's gorgeous (as were a lot of the guys there, it was better than a Saturday night at Roscoe's). He went through a lot of the album tracks, a couple new tracks (one good, one just ok), and then did a rocking version of the Eurythmics' Missionary Man as a duet with his backup singer, appropriately drag-named Sarah Naid. He then wrapped up most of the rest of the album tracks, all high energy (even the ballads) with lots of running around the stage, and then launched into Love Today, driving the audience nuts. He ended by ripping off his shirt and banging away on a trashcan drum set, and then capped it all off with Grace Kelly. He thanked everyone and walked off, but was back a few minutes later to perform Lollipop as his encore, and he outdid the gayness of Cher's performance of Believe as her encore number on her last 2 tours. It was THE gayest thing I have ever seen, it was so awesome. It really ended the night on just the right note and I was so glad I had dealt with the rudeness and pain-in-the-ass-ness of getting into the place. I can't wait to see him again, it was such a terrific show, it's being able to do stuff like that that keeps me in Chicago Chris and Steph had driven up from Purdue and it was obvious they were ready to move here as soon as they graduate for the same reason. It definitely was one of the most theatrical things I've ever seen and it was nice to see it in a smaller, more intimate venue and not from the third balcony of the United Center. Of course I blasted the CD all day at work today. It'll be in heavy rotation, at least until we go to Les Miz at the Marriott and the London recording will end up back in my CD player.

Pictures (3 of 3)

2008-02-02T13:01:00.000-06:00

Saving the best for last, this is me on the zip line in St. Maarten. There were 32 "conveyances" between platforms high up in the trees, fortunately they took this picture on the first zip line and not the last one, which would have been very different. There were rope bridges, tight rope wires, combinations of those with swinging logs, and one rope swing. It was exhausting and I ached in the strangest places for the next three days. I was very tempted to open up those Bacardi bottles when I got back to my room.

Pictures (2 of 3)

2008-02-02T12:57:00.001-06:00

This one is after I went on the Bacardi factory tour in San Juan. Every evening, the Royal Caribbean housekeeping staff would leave towels for the next day in the room, "sculpted" in some animal shape. Over the week we had a dog, turtle, stingray, and monkey. This one was a bat, which just happens to be Bacardi's logo. I thought they did it intentionally, having gotten the names from the excursions staff of who went on the tour, but it turned out apparently everyone got the bat. Still, it was pretty good timing. Also, I'm holding my spoils from the trip, a Bacardi reserve that is not sold in the US and a Ruby Red Peach rum that I've never seen before either. We weren't supposed to have them in our rooms, but there was no one at the gangway collecting them, so I just walked right in and up to my room with my big Bacardi bag and no one stopped me. I just kept it in the back of my closet then sent it home with my parents and these are part of the haul I picked up on Sunday.

Pictures (1 of 3)

2008-02-02T12:49:00.001-06:00

Ok, it's a little later than I intended, but today is Elaine Stritch's birthday and to honor her I started celebrating early and didn't get around to posting these last night. So, without further ado, here is my pre-boarding picture:

They take everyone's picture as you're about to board the ship, presumably so that if you try to sue them after the cruise saying you got injured, they've got a picture of what you look like beforehand and can see if you already had the injury prior to boarding, then after the cruise they try to sell you the picture. As I mentioned Thursday, I usually don't buy these but this one turned out fairly well, you can't tell that I only got 4 hours of sleep and endured a bumpy plane ride, a bumpy bus ride, and stood in line for almost 2 hours to get to this point.