Ginger ale and drag queens - my Priscilla adventure!

                 Oh my God.  I am so crazy behind on my blogging.  I’m blogging mid-June about a show I saw in mid-May.  It’s a problem.  I don’t even have a good excuse.  The real, true, honest reason for my lapse in blogging is that I’ve been hopelessly addicted to Criminal Minds and I’ve been spending all my free time watching it.  That was embarrassing to admit, but now that it’s out in the open, I can get to what I really want to write about – Priscilla Queen of the Desert on Broadway.  This was the fifth show that my parents and I saw on our seven-show Broadway extravaganza, and it was amazing!

                Our seats at the beautiful Palace Theatre were in the front row of the mezzanine, and they were perfect seats.  The view was marvelous – I highly recommend those seats to anyone in the position to be picky about seat location.  When I got to my seat, I was really just glad to be there.  Earlier in the day, my dad and I got the brilliant idea to walk from our hotel on 55^th and 7^th all the way to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, many many blocks away.  It was a gross rainy day, and I happened to eat some noodles that didn’t agree with me, and we had to leave our tour early and hail a cab back to the hotel.  I wish I could have seen the rest of the tour of that awesome museum – something for my next trip to NYC.  Anyway, I got back to the hotel, loaded up on ibuprofen and pepto, drank my weight in ginger ale, and was feeling well enough to go to Priscilla.  I got some ginger ale in a Priscilla cup from the bar, and took my seat.  On that note, drinks and snacks at the Palace were a more reasonable price than some Broadway theaters.

                The show got underway and I was instantly in awe of the sheer glitz and fabulosity.  The men were gorgeous, the costumes were beautiful, and the music was uplifting.  My mom, in particular, was a huge fan.  During the curtain call, she was dancing and singing along.  My dad, who is extremely cool for a sixty-something straight man, who wasn’t for a second fazed when I told him we were seeing a show about three drag queens, enjoyed it, but I think he would have rather done without the foreskin humor and ping pong ball tricks.  Yet, all three of us agreed that the storyline of Tick and his son Benji was super touching, and we love it.  I also broke into tears when Nick Adams’s character Adam/Felicia cries on Bernadette’s (Tony Sheldon) shoulder.  Speaking of the actors – they were phenomenal!  I had seen Will Swenson in Hair, and it was really cool to see him doing equally good work in a very different kind of show.  Nick Adams absolutely rocked – and I especially enjoyed the fact that a high percentage of his costumes are, well, butt-less.  And Tony Sheldon was exquisite – so believable as a woman.  The entire cast, especially the hard-working ensemble, was phenomenal.

                Overall, I loved the show’s wonderful message of acceptance and being who you are, but I love even more that the message was delivered through high-energy disco numbers, brightly colored sets and costumes, and amazing talent.  I’ve been listening to the cast album a lot since seeing the show – my favorite track is “Color My World” – it’s so addicting!

                I was disappointed that I couldn’t go to the stage door after the performance, because I was still fighting off the nasty noodle-induced stomach bug, and had to get home for more ginger ale and a good night’s sleep – I guess I will just have to come back to New York, avoid sketchy restaurants, and see Priscilla again.  Who’s with me?

Hot damn and gumbo! Two awesome days of Catch Me If You Can!

                On the Thursday of my family’s week-long NYC/Broadway extravaganza, we spent the morning being tourists.  We went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  On the ferry boat, I kept singing Ragtime.  I don’t think my parents or any of the other passengers were super pleased to hear me in the deepest voice I could muster, “one going from, one coming to, Americaaaaaaaaaaa.”  But that’s beside the point.  The real excitement on Thursday was in the evening, when we saw Catch Me If You Can at the Neil Simon Theatre.  However, our Catch Me adventure actually started the day before, right in the middle of Times Square.

                On Wednesday, shortly before noon, my parents and I entered the Times Square Visitor Center for the weekly recording of Seth Rudetsky’s Sirius XM Satellite Radio Show, Live on Broadway.  The guests that day were Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote the music and lyrics for Catch Me If You Can, and Aaron Tveit, who, of course, plays Frank Abagnale, Jr.  There were perhaps fifty or so people there (being noon on a work day and all), and we found seats about five rows back.  We were so close, and it was very exciting.

                So, Seth chatted with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman about writing the show and what that experience was like.  It was really cool to hear songwriters discuss their craft, especially since, although I love music, there’s no bone in my body with the ability to sing on key.  It was awesome to hear about making music from people who are really good at it.  Then, Aaron Tveit sang two songs.  It was great to have him singing those songs in a smaller venue.  One of the songs, it seemed like he was singing right to me – either because he was looking at about the middle of the audience, where I happened to be, or because he secretly loves me.  Okay, I’m kidding.  Unless he really does love me, in which case I’m not.  Seth tried to convince him to do “Seven Wonders” authentically, like it is in the show – in his underwear.  Unfortunately, he said no, but the performance was amazing nonetheless.  He is a really talented performer, and it was a privilege to hear him sing in that venue.  If you’re ever free in NYC on a Wednesday, head down to the Times Square Visitors center at noon – they do the show each week, always with exciting guests.  It was so fun.  Seth is so funny!  My parents even enjoyed themselves, and they’re not even close to as theater-obsessed as I am.  And, for a short time, the visitor center is home to a Tony Awards mini-museum with costumes from Broadway shows and other fun stuff.

                Cut to Thursday night, when we saw the show for real.  Our seats were in the center orchestra on the aisle, near the back of the house.  The seats on the aisle turned out to be extra awesome because Aaron Tveit and Norbert Leo Butz ran down the aisle, right by us, a few times.

                We absolutely loved the show!  The score was absolutely swingin’, the acting was phenomenal, the singing blew me away, and the dancing was down-right cool.  I have been listening to the cast recording ever since I got home.  I’m particularly enamored with Norbert Leo Butz singing “Don’t Break the Rules.”  I can’t get enough.  The choreography was amazing – kudos to Jerry Mitchell and the entire ensemble of amazing dancers.  I’ll admit that I’m a tad obsessed with Diary of a Chorus Girl, so it was fun to see their rehearsals chronicled and then see the finished product.

                After the show, my parents headed back to our hotel, and I waited at the stage door.  I must say, this is one of my top two stage door experiences ever (the other being during a blizzard at the In the Heights).  Almost the entire cast came out to meet fans, including all the principals.  It was so fun to tell them how much I love the show.  I got to tell Tom Wopat that when I was a kid, my dad took me to the Kennedy Center to see him in Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters, and that it was that show that started me on this crazy journey of musical theater obsession.  I got to get my picture taken with arguably Broadway’s number-one heartthrob.  I got to chat with other fans and gush with them about the people we were meeting.  The entire cast was so gracious and so friendly and just seemed to genuinely grateful to their fans and eager to be there, at the stage door, meeting them and signing autographs for them.  It was such a delight.  Even if you don’t regularly frequent the stage door, I urge you to head that way when you see Catch Me if You Can.

Memphis is a wonderfully soulful way to end a two-show day

                Wednesday on Broadway is a two-show day.  So, naturally, I saw two shows.  After a wonderful matinee of Anything Goes, my parents and I headed to the Shubert Theatre to see Memphis, which was my mom’s top pick for our week of Broadway.  In retrospect, I realize that it’s the only show we saw the whole week that wasn’t part of this year’s Tony season, having won the 2010 Tony Award for best musical.

                The seats at the Shubert were extremely comfortable – perhaps the most comfortable all week, and our particular seats were on the aisle in the center orchestra section, about twenty rows back, under the mezzanine overhang.  They were awesome seats and we had a great view of the stage!

                My parents, being the baby-boomers that they are, grew up listening to music a lot like that in Memphis.  And so did I.  It was wonderful to hear original songs which are so reminiscent of the jubilant rock and roll of the mid-twentieth century.  The music was fun and meaningful, and they sang it so well.  It’s definitely a good thing that the Shubert Theatre is well-constructed, or Montego Glover may well have blown the roof off the place.  My mom loved Montego as well, saying that she was way too beautiful to fall in love with someone who has a receding hairline and stooped walk.  Love is blind, mom!

                My father enjoyed the show a lot, especially the music, but he says he was quite distracted by Chad Kimball’s “Huey voice” and bent knees.  While I guess I see where my dad’s coming from here, I think those distinctive attributes are important to the character.  The way I see it, it’s important that we don’t see Huey as a smooth, suave white guy coming in to take advantage of the awesome musical talent on Beale Street.  It’s important that we recognize that, although he is white, he’s far from privileged.  Although there are scenes which indicate as much, I thought it was good that he stood out from the crowd for reasons other than race.  The music of Felicia and the other black musicians in Memphis appeals to him because he is also different.  That’s not to say his experiences are the same or even comparable, but it’s important to remember that Huey is different, too.   I don’t know if any of that made sense, but I’m going to roll with it.

                My hat-tip of the night has to go to the character of Bobby for his awesome big-dude dancing and general amazing-ness.  And I’d also like to thank the folks who threw away their expensive re-usable cups.  As my parents and I were leaving the theater, we notice two such logo-emblazoned cups (lids and all) sitting inside an otherwise-empty wastepaper basket.  In my world, that’s a free souvenir.  Of course, I sent them on a trip through the dishwasher, and now I have an awesome, useful souvenir! 

Now, I’m very curious to see the national touring company of Memphis, which will be making its way to Durham this upcoming season.  I’m always eager to see how an entirely different cast interprets a show, but I’m also interested in some of the technical aspects of the show.  In The Lion King, the tour can’t have Pride Rock come out of the ground.  The same is also true for the kitchen/bedroom set in Billy Elliot.  I really loved the Broadway set of Memphis, with the columns large enough to hold dancing teenagers, the people walking on the street level above the club, and the radio booth coming out of the ground.  It will be interesting to see how those scenic elements are handled when the set has to move from theater to theater.

Anything Goes is thrilling for audiences of all ages!

               For the second show of our seven-show Broadway extravaganza, my parents and I saw a Wednesday matinee of Anything Goes at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.  I was so excited – I’ve been a fan of Sutton Foster’s for a long time, but this was my first time seeing her live.  And who couldn’t be thrilled to see a legend like Joel Grey?!  I think it’s safe to say that my excitement was appropriate for the situation.

                Wednesday matinees on Broadway are, as far as I can tell, a very specific crowd.  There were a lot of elderly folks there enjoying some mid-week theater fun.  I must say that I’m secretly looking forward to when I get to be an old matinee lady.  I’m probably as close to it as any 25-year-old can get.   

Our seats for Anything Goes were in the second-to-last row of the mezzanine, right next to a group of middle-schoolers on a field trip.  At first I was nervous that they would talk the whole show, but they really didn’t.  At one point the boys behind me were chatting, and I shot them a look, and one of the boys shushed his friends, but that was it.  Before the show, I overheard the group of middle school boys behind me discussing what they thought the show would be like, and I could tell that they were worried it would be boring.  However, I chuckled when one of them pointed out the picture of Sutton Foster in a sexy sailor outfit on the cover of the Playbill, and said “well, if the whole show’s like this, I’ll be okay with that.”  Ah, the priorities of 13-year-old boys.  But, hey, they paid attention and they enjoyed the show.  They, like myself, were in awe at the end of the first act, during the incredible (and very long!) tap number, “Anything Goes.”  If I ever meet Sutton Foster, remind me to ask her how in the world she can belt those notes after tap dancing that long!  My dad in particular was absolutely floored by her performance.  I told him she was awesome.  I told him she had just won the Astaire Award for best female dancer this year.  I told him she just got her fifth Tony nomination.  I guess he just had to see it to believe it.  I’m pretty sure he’s ready to sign up for a fan club.

                That’s not to say that the rest of the cast wasn’t also amazing – they certainly were!  It was such a joy for me to see Joel Grey live, and I thought the rest of the cast was spot-on in both serious and comic moments.   It was one of the most visually spectacular shows I’ve ever seen.  Anything Goes, which is from the 1930s, is a very traditional book musical, and I loved that.  Sure, there are shows that decidedly break with tradition which I enjoy very much, but there’s just something intangibly awesome about a well-executed old-school musical.  I can’t get over it.

                Even though the armrests of the seats at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre were very pointy and kept poking into my legs, I would recommend this show to absolutely everybody.  I loved it, my parents loved it, the middle school boys loved it, and you’ll love it.

A history lesson like no other at The Normal Heart

                Once my parents and I decided that, for our first family vacation in years, we would go to NYC to see a bunch of Broadway shows (seven, to be exact), I knew we had to see The Normal Heart.  I had heard so much buzz about it, and my parents were willing to go along, as well – my dad because I told him he had to and that it was groundbreaking theater, and my mom because she loves Jim Parsons.

                So, on that Tuesday, two days after arriving in New York City for the best vacation ever, we settled into our seats at the John Golden Theatre – in the center of the front row of the rear mezzanine, to see The Normal Heart, my first ever straight play on Broadway.  Though the seats at the Golden were slightly cramped, I was busy reading my Playbill and taking in the sights of the theater.  The theater walls were mostly white with some gold and blue emblems for decoration.  The relatively less ornate décor of the John Golden was a good companion to the set design.  Before the show began, the stage was completely empty, and the backdrop was solid white, with quotes etched out.  Once the play began, the white backdrop was used for well-designed projection.  The set pieces, which came out with the actors, were minimal and utilitarian.  I liked it.  It let the acting shine.

                No matter how someone feels about this play, it is undeniable that the acting is first-rate.  My particular acting shout-out has to go to Ellen Barkin.  She was simply stunning.  Her second-act monologue brought me to tears, simply from how committed she was to her character and how committed her character was to the cause.  It doesn’t get better than that, folks!  The ensemble cast was stunning – every single actor contributed nicely to the piece as a whole.

                As for the play itself, I found it moving.  There was a point when I was thinking it might be too focused on the anger of Ned, but when I thought about the people who aren’t in the play – everyone else in New York City at the time – and I realized that Ned is one of only a handful of people who were that furious, it made sense.  The context is important.  In addition, at the TalkOut afterward, Cynthia O’Neal said that the play shows exactly what it was like in the early 1980s: young men were dying, and no one really seemed to care at all.

                It was just pure good luck that the tickets we had for The Normal Heart fell on the night of the TalkOut with Anthony Rapp and Cynthia O’Neal, founder of Friends in Deed.  We bought the tickets before the TalkOut was announced, but I was pretty excited that I got to go to it.  My mom is still disappointed that she was never called on, even though she was raising her hand, but other than that, my family enjoyed it as well.  The topics discussed ranged from what it was really like in New York City in the early 1980s, particularly for the LGBT community to what is being done now to make sure stories like this don’t get pushed aside.  Aside from the fact that it was really cool to be sitting mere feet from Anthony Rapp (I have some friends who are totally jealous), it was great to put the show, which takes place in the early 1980s, into context and really see what it means to a current audience.

                As someone who wasn’t born until 1986, what I took away from my experience at The Normal Heart was an understanding of what happened to the generation before me, from an uncensored source, depicted honestly and beautifully.

Hair continues to be an experience like no other

                I love Hair.  It’s no secret.  I’ve seen it twice before – once on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld, and once on tour at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.  I can’t get enough of that show.  A number of songs from the cast recording are on my top played songs on my ipod.  My cat is named Frank Mills.  It’s safe to say I’m at least slightly obsessed with Hair.

                Needless to say, I was more than pleased when I found out that the national tour of Hair would be making a stop in North Carolina at the Durham Performing Arts Center.  I bought tickets to see it – twice.  I actually had a third ticket as well, but I had to leave for NYC that day, so the ticket went to a very deserving friend.  I saw it two nights in a row, and it was awesome.  This was one of the times that I was particularly glad that I enjoy going to the theater alone, because I met some awesome people.

                The first night I went, I was sitting near two sets of mother and daughter, who were some of the coolest people I've met at DPAC.  I chatted with them a lot about the show, about favorite songs, about what the experience of this production was like – they hadn’t seen it before, but were very familiar with it through press stuff and the cast recording.  We danced on stage together after the show.  At intermission, I chatted with an Elon musical theater student who grew up in the same area as me, and who is excited about Elon doing Hair next year.  I might even go see it.  I just love being around other theatergoers who are just as passionate about theater as I am, who react to me telling them that I’m about to go to NYC for a week and see seven Broadway shows with awe and envy rather than a diagnosis of insanity.  These are my people.

                The show was just as thrilling as ever, except even more so, because I was sitting right at the bottom of the steps that lead to the stage.  The actors were interacting with me so much, and I loved it!  During “White Boys,” one of the actors came and sat down on the floor right in front of me, leaning against my legs, wrapping his arm around my leg and kissing it.  What other show provides its audience with crazy experiences like that?  But the best part of those experiences is that they add to the authenticity of the show.  They make us, the audience, really become a part of the tribe, an integral piece of the action.  I don’t think if one of the actors in, say, Guys and Dolls, started kissing my leg, I would feel like it added to the show – I would wonder who let this actor stop taking his meds.  But Hair is so unique in the way that the audience is really an active part of the success of the show.  I love it.  One of the actors untied the shoes of the gentleman sitting next to me, and sitting so close, it was like that was part of the show that was just for the few of us who could see it.

                The second night, I was sitting in much the same seat, just on the opposite side of the row, the other side of the stage.  It was equally great.  It turns out that I was sitting next to the mother of one of the cast members.  That was so cool, to see a proud parent witness her child living out a dream.  Oh, and she had these awesome peace sign sandals, of which I am quite jealous.

                Some people I know were a little worried that seeing this production of Hair so many times might spoil the magic of it for me.  In fact, the opposite is true.  It just keeps getting better and better.  For one thing, the show is never the same twice.  There’s always new ad-libbing, new audience members, and something new to discover about the material.  This show is so rich and so deep, that I don’t think I could get to the bottom of it if I were to see it two hundred times.  So, if you haven’t seen it, so.  If you’ve already seen it, revisit it.  It’s like hanging out with an old friend – who happens to do drugs and get naked.

Venturing UpStage for The America Play at Triad Stage

I apologize that this is a very late post, which has become an unfortunate trend for me.  However, I was in NYC doing my theater addict thing for eight days (I saw seven Broadway shows, which I will, of course, be writing about), and didn’t get around to writing this until now.

Since seeing Educating Rita late last fall, I’ve been enamored with Triad Stage.  I love their main stage productions.  However, I became increasingly curious about their UpStage Cabaret, and decided to buy a ticket to see their newest UpStage Cabaret production, The America Play, having no idea what to expect of the space or the work.

                Immediately upon entering the space, I realized that it was the Triad Stage that I know and love, just… a little more intimate.  I’m not used to seeing theater from regular chairs, sitting at a table.  I am, however, used to Triad Stage’s amazing and innovative sets.  I felt right at home sitting mere feet from a large dirt mound with trees, two old televisions, political posters from throughout America’s racially-charged history, and a big hole.  No, it wasn’t an accident – it was the awesome, though small, set, in the middle of the room, surrounded by cute little tables and mismatched chairs.

                I’m not used to being that close to the actors.  I am, however, used to Triad Stage casting incredibly talented performers to populate their productions.  I was mesmerized by the actors.  While I wasn’t always entirely sure exactly what the characters were talking about (the play tended toward the abstract), I was never unsure of how the characters felt or who they were.

                As a fan of great theater, and a not-so-secret admirer of Triad Stage’s work, I must say that this show did not disappoint.  I was moved, I was challenged, I was entertained.

                The one thing I really missed was a talk-back.  My season pass tickets are for the main stage performances which include Triad Stage’s InSight talk-back series.  These talk-backs are a great way for me to unwind from a show, figure out what I just saw, and understand and appreciate the work and the playwright even more.  With The America Play, I was desperate to talk about it!  I was at the show by myself, so I didn’t have anyone to bounce crazy theories off of, or a scholar grounding me into the context of the play.  I very much enjoyed the show – it was an intense play, and I wanted to delve even deeper into the hole – both literally and metaphorically.

                I can’t wait to see what will be at the UpStage Cabaret next season!

Conducting a social experiment at Avenue Q... sort of

              When it was announced that the national touring company of Avenue Q would be making its way into Durham for a brief, two-show stint at the Durham Performing Arts Center, I knew I had to be there.  I had seen the show once before, with my mom, when the national tour came to the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC.  When I bought the ticket this time, it was right before I swore off the balcony forever.  I bought a balcony seat.  I went the first night of the two-night engagement, and I enjoyed it well enough – it’s an amazing show after all.  However, I wanted to be closer.  Being the hopeless musical theater junkie I am, I went home from the satisfactory balcony experience of Avenue Q and immediately booked one of the few remaining seats in the orchestra for the following night’s performance.  I justified the purchase to myself under the guise of a social experiment – I wanted to see if there was a difference in audience reaction to a show like Avenue Q between those in the cheap seats and those in the orchestra.  To be honest, this was a relatively thin cover for the fact that I just wanted to see the show again.

                On my second night at Avenue Q, my seat was in row K of the orchestra, way far too the right of the house.  I was so far right that the tower which holds the TV and speakers was blocking the entire staircase and most of Princeton’s apartment.  However, a kind gentlemen who, I’m assuming, is the house manager or something similar, offered me and another patron who was attending alone, seats in row K right smack dab in the middle of the theater.  Attending the theater alone definitely has its perks.  This seat was so much more enjoyable for me than in the balcony.  Now, I know that some people really like sitting in the balcony, and they prefer that vantage point at the theater.  I’m not trying to hurt the balcony’s feelings – I just don’t care to sit there.  That seat in the middle of row K was utter perfection.  Although, in the interest in sharing pros and cons, I feel the need to mention that the gentleman sitting next to me was far too excited, and his mid-show fist-pumps were a little much.

                And the social experiment?  Turns out, there’s not much of a difference between the cheap seats and the orchestra seats, in terms of audience reaction to Avenue Q.  That just goes to show that funny is funny.  The show is relatable for college students and forty-somethings alike.  My little fake-y experiment just proves what I already figured: Avenue Q rocks.