Post-Tony Thoughts

Ok, so Tony night wasn't exactly what I had hoped.  It was fun, but not as fun as I was hoping it to be.  I had the chance to see the awards in the city, which made me very happy.  My Broadway buddy and I decided to attend a viewing party at the new Green Room 42.  Now this was the first big event that was held at this space.  And you could kind of tell.  Everyone was super nice, but there were a few growing pains.  For instance, as soon as the Tony's started - in the very first number - they experienced technical difficulties.  These difficulties caused the television to randomly go to black - about 15 times in the first 5 minutes.  So the big opening number that everyone was ready for, was missed.

After they had the technical issues fixed, the rest of the evening - telecast wise - was smooth sailing.  The food on the other hand was less than stellar.  But at least my margarita was yummy.  And speaking of margaritas, if you paid the $100 like a lot of people did (we did not), you were treated to an open bar all evening.  This meant, that as the evening went on, most people got drunker and louder.  Even lovely theatre people are annoying when drunk.

Then there were the Tony's themselves.  Not a single thing that I predicted to win, won.  No one I loved won, and no show I loved won.  Well that's not true.  Bette Midler and Hello Dolly both won, but Hello Dolly stole the show from Falsettos so I was super sad about that.  On the upside the performances by Falsettos, Hello Dolly, and Come From Away were stellar.  All of the performances were stellar.  It's just that the host was less so.  Don't get me wrong, I love Kevin Spacey.  But James Corden seemed to set the bar so high last year, that I think anyone would have had a hard time hitting it.

In the end, we decided that we loved the idea of a viewing party, but maybe next year we need to find a crowd that's slightly older and less likely to get ugly-drunk.  But we also decided that a night in New York City was definitely more of an experience to remember than any night just sitting at home on the couch and watching it.  At least we have a story to tell now and some fun memories.  

Friday Five

Warning: It's Tony's week, so there's a very good chance that everything I like this week, will in fact be Broadway-related.  Just give me this week, and I'll promise to go back to having other non-geeky (probably not.) interests next week!

1. This interview with the cast of Falsettos and Jenn Colella made my week.  I love all of these people and I just want to be their friends.  I'll join them for dinner the next time, if they need a 6th.  Though, I have this pesky habit of being starstruck, so it would be a quiet dinner for me I'm sure...

2. Oops, I forgot about this, and hey look at that!  Not Broadway : )  Anyway, I don't usually watch John Oliver, but as a British citizen, I wanted to see what he had to say in light of the attack in London last weekend.  His response was beautiful and perfect - just excuse a little of the language.  He said, what many of the Brits were feeling about the sometimes insulting American press coverage of the attack.

3. Now, back to Broadway : )  I may be gushing but the theater community as a whole this week has made me smile bigger than many things have.  They all seem to support each other so much.  My favorite thing has been the Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and the writers have all gone out to dinner with each other.  Each category has had a meal together to celebrate their nominations.  Now seriously, can you ever imagine Oscar or Emmy nominees doing that?  It's really beautiful the support and love this community has for each other.  It makes my heart happy - and since most of the news of today is full of awful things by our administration, my heart could really use a smile!

4. Thanks to BroadwayWorld my Broadway buddy and I were able to find a place to watch the Tony's in the city on Sunday while eating yummy food and drinking.  They provided an all inclusive list of all of the places in the city that were doing viewing parties, and luckily one still had seats available.  Woohoo!  Watching them alone on my sofa is pretty great, but watching them with other Broadway lovers should be pretty fund too!

5. I finally, finally, finally figured out the hows and whys of Instagram Story.  It's only taken me months and months.  Apparently I just touch a little picture, and up a "story" pops.  This is fabulous because Broadway people seem to love this feature, as evidenced by all of the Instagram story takeovers I've watched in the last week.  It's awesome.  Thanks to ridiculous advances in social media - which I usually whine about - Tony week has gotten so much more fun!  

Came From Away Again

Yesterday was an exhausting but fabulous day spent in the city.  Now before you say - weren't you just there?! - I'd like to go on record as saying yesterday's trip had been planned for months before I decided to go rogue and buy Broadway Backwards tickets for last week.  So while both trips fell within days of each other, that wasn't the plan...

So this planned trip was planned so I could show off Come From Away to my travel friend, Jennifer.  She's always up for theater and we plan lots of trips to NY but she never saw Come From Away when it was here at Ford's.  So all of the love I've been sending it for the last six months, she didn't understand.  After seeing it last September, I've pretty much talked of nothing else.  I love everything about this show, and I'm so happy to say that it seems the critics and audiences do too.

This story of Gander New Foundland on September 11, 2001 is beautiful, and uplifting and just makes me happy every single time I talk about it.  At the time I said I liked it more than Hamilton, and that still holds true.  It's amazing and the cast is too!  So what was Jennifer's verdict, you ask.  While she didn't think it was better than Hamilton she agreed that it was something special.  I even caught her crying - something I did this time around, but not the first time.  Strange!  

The First Female American Captain in History - Beverly Bass

What was even cooler was Beverly Bass - the real life pilot portrayed in the show so masterfully by Jenn Collella, was in the audience yesterday, as well as the real Nick and Diane - a couple that met, and fell in love during that week in Gander and ultimately were married.  It's so fun to see the real people this show portrays fully embracing this production.  And it's also fun to see these people getting the credit and attention they deserve.  

After falling madly back in love with the tiny show that could - we headed to dinner and then decided to try to win tickets to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  You see, there's a contest on Twitter to upload pictures of yourself in front of the "factory" and each week they pick the best picture, and give that person tickets.  And as you can see, we're totally going to win with the sheer amazingness of our photos, right? ; )

Friday Five: 2016 in Review

For the next 3 Fridays, I figured I'd write about my favorites in the year 2016. Today's post is on the top 5 shows I saw this year.  2016 is what I call, the year of theatre.  I was lucky enough to see 24 shows - not all on Broadway, but all were fabulous in their own ways.  It's definitely my record for a year, and one that I loved breaking!  Here's to beating that in 2017!

5. (Most Surprising) "School Of Rock": I totally didn't expect to love this show as much as I did.  It was the cheapest show that played on a Sunday night.  We needed to see something, since we had decided to not stand in line for Shakespeare in the Park.  I had seen the movie and thought it was cutesy and didn't really deserve a whole musical - scored by Andrew Lloyd Webber no less.  What I discovered was this show was awesome! I was blown away by the kids in the cast.  All of which played their own instruments, danced and sang perfectly.  The kids and the adults all sang the heck out of the super-fun rock and roll score.  It had a great message and some fabulous music - what's there not to like? I judge a musical by whether or not the music makes it onto my iPod and "Stick it to the Man" was most definitely downloaded when I got home, so it was definitely a hit in my book!

4. (Most Bizarre) "The Robber Bridegroom": I knew absolutely nothing about this show, other than I like Steven Pasquale and I wanted to see him sing.  Also, it was Off-Broadway which was new for me too.  I came away from this show being totally perplexed by the story in general, and never having laughed so hard in a theater in my life. It was uproariously funny!  This "southern fried fairy tale" was so, so, so weird.  (Just read the IMDB on the plot - I dare you not to think "huh?")  But what made the show completely awesome, was the cast that was having so much fun, that they broke on stage 2 separate times.  The show itself is very funny, but seeing the cast unable to make it through the funny parts - even funnier!  Based on my earlier scale - 3 songs made it to the iPod so it's definitely up there on my all-time faves list!

3. (Most Able to Turn me into a Blubbering Mess) "Falsettos":  Just as I've never laughed as hard as I did at "The Robber Bridegroom," I've never cried as hard as I did at "Falsettos."  Oh my goodness did I cry.  From about right after the curtain came up for Act 2 straight on through to the bitter end, I was crying while attempting to not disturb those around me.  It was bad.  But it was also so very good!  That cast - Christian Borle, Andrew Rannells, Stephanie J. Block, Brandon Uranowitz, Anthony Rosenthal, Tracie Thoms and Betsey Wolfe - every single one of them was perfectly cast for their part.  I once again went in knowing not much - other than the inevitable was going to happen and make me cry - but I walked out just blown away by a cast that can get that emotional every night, and then smile and laugh at curtain call.  The songs were beautiful.  The relationships were beautiful. And most of all the message - family is what you make it - was beautiful and so needed!  The soundtrack isn't out yet, so I can't tell you how many songs are on my iPod, however I already have the iTunes cash earmarked for the whole kit and caboodle.

2. (Most Obvious and Groundbreaking) "Hamilton": What can I say about it that hasn't already been said?  It is as good - maybe better - than everyone says.  What I loved most about it is that it's entirely new.  From the set design, to the musical styles, to the cast and the choreography.  All of it could have been a mess, but all of it works together to create something that's just gorgeous.  Seeing it with an audience that loved it as much as I did, was so energizing.  I knew exactly what would happen at the end, and it's never made me cry before. But I think just feeling that energy from the cast and the audience, I admit to tearing up a bit and getting major goosebumps!  Number of songs on the iPod - the whole darn album!

*Bet you thought Hamilton would be number one, didn't you? : )

1. (Most Able to Make me Smile Uncontrollably) "Come From Away": Not since "Jesus Christ Superstar" opened my eyes to how amazing musical theatre is, have I been more in love with a single show.  I've been talking, googling, watching, singing, and stalking this gorgeous show since I saw it in September.  I honestly can't get enough of it and the all together lovely cast. When I first heard about the 9/11 musical - I was completely against it.  Too soon, I thought.  Then I heard the storyline - 5 days in Gander when the US airspace was closed that day - and I thought, ok that's a bit better.  Then I saw it at Ford's (another theatre first for me!) and I fell in love.  I laughed.  I smiled from ear to ear.  I got goosebumps.  I teared up.  As the kids say, I felt all the feels! It is by far, the happiest show I had ever seen.  The message of acceptance, and love and kindness needs to be repeated over and over in today's world.  And a show devoted to singing that message 8 days a week - Perfection!  

The music is sort of Celtic-rock which works perfectly for the setting of New Foundland.  It's played by an on stage band instead of an orchestra which also makes it feel more intimate and more like a bunch of people hanging out in a bar on a Friday night.  And the cast!  Each cast member plays about a dozen characters each - going in and out of different nationalities or accents constantly - and they do it perfectly.  They're all perfectly suited to their particular parts and they honestly look like they're having the best time.  I'm sure some shows like Falsettos are rough each night, but these actors get to spread the word of kindness every night and smile and laugh the entire show, and I can only imagine - based on what I've seen - they're loving it!  Almost as much as I love them!

Number of songs on the iPod - Nothing, as it hasn't even opened on Broadway yet, but just like Falsettos - the iTunes money is already earmarked.  Now if you're basing it on my YouTube browsing history - that's chock full of every single video I can find!