2 out of 5

Yesterday was Day 1 of a 5 Show week.  I'm a big fan of lots of theater, but this week is sort of out of hand. However, there are worse things to have an overabundance of than theater, so I'm definitely not complaining.

Last night, was Falsettos on the big screen.  Now I know I've talked a lot about it, but it was and still is amazing.  The show totally held up on the screen.  I'll always think that Live is best when it comes to great performances, but seeing a filmed version of this particular show did provide some insight.  I was able to see things I wasn't able to see in the theater, like tiny facial expressions, or line readings that made more sense when accompanied by a gesture or a smirk.  It really was quite beautiful!

I only had 2 complaints.  One was the change to a lot of the words.  Since it was being filmed ultimately for PBS, they had to change many of the harsher words.  Sometimes the changes were seamless, other times they were super clunky.  That had to be a bear for the actors to memorize!  My second complaint was the lack of an intermission.  Every other time that I've seen a taped performance, they actually build the 15 minute break in.  This time they went straight from act 1 to act 2.  Anticipating the intermission, I had smuggled in a hot tea from Starbucks and drank it all in the first act.  I was quite upset by the lack of a built in potty break.  Other than those 2 minor issues, the show was flawless!

Tonight, on the other hand was less than flawless.  Tonight was a production of Godspell - one of my all time favorites - performed by the Maryland based Infinity Theater company.  They made a bold choice to stage the entire show in the style of SNL  This meant that the actors were all disciples doubling as well-known characters from SNL over the years.  At one point, John the Baptist was the Church Lady, 2 disciples were the Blues Brothers while another was the musical guest, which I think was supposed to be Amy Winehouse.  Jesus, obviously, was the host this week.

It was incredibly bizarre.  It was so strange, that even after seeing this show dozens of times, I had a hard time following what the heck was happening.  This may have had something to do with the extra hour of content they somehow added to make the usually 90 minute show, jump to 2 hours and 30 minutes.  The funniest part was that my friend who had never seen the show before, loved it.  She thought it was fabulous, and she's usually much more skeptical about the weird than I am.  Go figure.  It was definitely not my cup of tea.  Thank goodness that the 3rd show of my 5 show week is yet another production of Godspell, hopefully done by a company that stays a bit more true to its roots.

If not I see a viewing of the Victor Garber version in my future, if only to get tonight's production out of my head.

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!  

Mendel Sings it Out

When I was stuck in New York, I had the pleasure of seeing 2 Broadway shows and a taping of Live! with Kelly, all of which were lovely in their own ways.  However, the real reason I was in New York was to see Brandon Uranowitz in his very first show at Feinsteins @ 54 Below.  And I have to admit, I've never been so happy to see a solo performance in all my life!  I had the very best time, and left having the biggest smile on my face.  He definitely made me a very happy girl!

A few months ago, Brandon - who played Mendel in the Falsettos production I keep gushing about - announced he'd be doing a few shows at Feinsteins and that this would be the very first time he'd ever done something like this.  Because I loved him in Falsettos, I bought the ticket immediately.  Also, I knew from some digging that famous friends sometimes show up un-announced as special guests, and I had hoped that this would be the case.  Then a few weeks ago, he announced that Stephanie J. Block would be joining him for one night only - and somehow I got lucky, that it was the night I'd be there. Woohoo!

Even though I was excited about the show, I was still a bit nervous.  I don't really like going to events like these alone.  Making awkward small talk with the person you've been seated with is just odd.  But again, I got lucky and was seated with 2 other theater-nerds that were there by themselves as well.  We spent the hour leading up to the show gushing about our love for Broadway and specifically Falsettos.  If that wasn't enough, we were graced with the presence of Andrew Rannells and Christian Borle who were there to cheer on Brandon and Stephanie.  I must admit, I got a little tongue-tied at that point, and had to make a serious effort to not continuously stare at their table - which was about 10 feet away!!! (I was so good at trying not to embarrass myself that I missed the chance to sneak a smile at Andrew when I heard his voice as he was heading to the men's room and I was heading to the ladies...Why can't I be not me for like 30 seconds?!)  This seems to happen a lot at 54 Below, and if I lived in the city, I think I'd go broke just hanging out to see who I could spot going in.

The best pic I could snap of Rannells and Borle...

Anyway, enough about my crush on cute Broadway stars, it was finally time for the show to start. And here's where I gush.  If he hadn't said that this was his first time doing something like this, I would have thought he'd been performing like this for years.  He was unbelievable!  He was funny and sweet.  He told hilarious stories about himself and his life, while singing the beautiful music of Bill Finn.  He shared the stage with Stephanie J. Block, his partner and another friend, and sang gorgeously with all 3.  He was gracious to his friends in the audience that came, as well as everyone else that was there to see him.  To put it simply, he was absolutely fabulous! He represented the music well and also was able to throw a lot of himself into the show, which is always a trait of a great performer.

In the end, I left thinking  that all I want to do is sit down and have lunch with this amazing man. And I hope that he realizes just how well he performed, because if he never does this again, I'll be super sad but super happy I got to see him at least once.

Bravo Falsettos!

So yesterday I checked off a bucket item for myself.  I was able to attend the closing of a show I loved.  I'm not happy that it's closing, but I was happy to see it one more time. Falsettos is so heartbreaking and so beautiful at the same time.  It's one of those shows that gets in your head and your heart, and stays there for a very long time.

I won't go on much more about the show itself, because I'm fairly sure I went on and on about how perfect the cast and the music and the story are back in November when I saw it the first time. But it must be said - through its last show, it remained perfect in every way!

So what exactly happens at a closing?  Well, one of the reasons I wanted to go was the possibility of some star-sighting.  This cast is full of fabulous people that are well-respected in the theater, so I assumed there'd be a few big names in the audience.  The musical itself has also been well-reviewed and well-received and has always been close to the hearts of a lot of theater people, so there's that too.  And I'm fairly sure that there were definitely some famous theater types there - however, I wasn't sure who many of them were.  I did recognize Bill Finn (the writer of Falsettos), Jordan Roth (the producer of Falsettos and Something Rotten!), Sebastian Arcelus (Stephanie Block's husband and Jay on Madam Secretary) and Matthew Morrison (Mr. Schu on Glee).  But since I'm me, I let these gentleman enjoy the show without bothering them for an autograph.  (Nerd Alert: Bill Finn would have been the only one I would have asked - he wrote this amazing musical!) Then it was time for the show to start.

From the moment the curtain went up, you could tell this show was different for everyone. The cast has been very open about how much they adore each other and the material, so the thought of saying goodbye has been difficult for them.  And you noticed it a bit in the performances.  Not that it affected them negatively, you could just tell they were feeling the sadness of the story a little more than usual.  Anthony Rosenthal, who plays little Jason, cried through most of a song that's not too terribly sad.  Andrew Rannells cried through most of his big number as well, (already heartbreaking without the tears) which made it even harder for me to keep it together because when someone cries, I usually cry, and I was already crying because that's what I do...

What was really beautiful was the cast sort of taking care of Anthony Rosenthal.  He had missed his only performance the night before because he was sick.  But he very much wanted to perform in the last show.  You could tell in his singing that he still was feeling rough, but I think the whole audience and especially the cast was behind him, and he made it through.  At one point, when he did start crying, you could see Stephanie J. Block, notice and start to worry about him, but he still rocked the part. I held my breath each time he had a solo, because I so wanted him to succeed, but it looked like we needn't have worried. He's such a big talent in a little kid's body and he's so going to go far!

After 2 hours and 45 minutes of this amazing music and story, it was over.  At this point, I assumed some flowers for the cast, the creative team speaking, speeches, etc.  Nope, that's where I was wrong.  The cast took their bows and then brought their understudies up to take their bows.  They all cried.  And then that was it.  It was over.  Who knew, closings were so low-key?  But once again, you could just see how much they all cared for each other.  There were hugs and tears and smiles.  And a standing ovation of course - which had already happened earlier in the show for Stephanie J. Block.  See?  I told you the cast and show were perfect!

On my way out, I decided to not be me for a change and try the stage door thing since this was my last chance.  It turns out, it wasn't me that ruined my chances this time - it was the weather.  Also, I assumed the cast was all hanging out with each other for the last time.  It was a long shot, but at least I tried, right?

In the end, I'm so happy I had the chance to see it again live.  Like I said, I wasn't ready to see it go, but I get it.  However, I can completely understand why this cast didn't want to move on.  If I had the chance to perform this material every night, with these people, I'd never leave! Luckily for us, it's going to be shown on PBS soon. At least it's been recorded for posterity's sake.  But that's not the same as seeing it in person.  You feel so much more in a theater when you get to experience it with other people.    Whether you're sharing laughs or tears - both happen in this gorgeous piece of work - you feel a part of something more when you're surrounded by people that are having the same experience.  And that's what makes the theater so special.

Another Closing, Another Show

Seeing the closing performance of Falsettos - a show I'm so in love with that it's hard to explain - was definitely the Bucket List Icing on the Bucket List cake today.  I successfully completed a few things on my list, including something that wasn't on my list: walking - according to my phone - more than 7 miles around Manhattan in 25 degree weather.  I think I'll be cold until I'm 42.  Anyway, it was such a day that I'm still processing and what better way to do that than tucked in snugly in my bed.

Good night!

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!