THE GOOD
After our trip to Columbus Circle, we headed back to the theater district for the matinee performance
of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. The play was about an author, his wife, a medium, and the ghost of his ex-wife. I know, sounds a little ridiculous, but it was really pretty awesome. Angela Lansbury was the medium, Rupert Everett was the author, Jayne Atkinson (she was on 24 a few seasons back) was the wife and Christine Ebersole was the ghost. It was a classic farce, and it had that high-brow British humor- the dialogue was rapid fire, and you had to pay attention to keep up and get the (sometimes extremely funny) jokes. It's definitely not for everyone, but I highly recommend it. It was only the 3rd preview, and the show was in excellent shape. I'm confident that once it opens, it will be met with a slew of excellent reviews and probably quite a few Tony nominations. I wouldn't be surprised if Angela Lansbury is nominated and wins Best Featured Actress.THE BAD
We stayed at the Milford Plaza. It was an ok hotel, had nice facilities, except, for our room. We had booked 2 double beds, but we ended up with two twin beds. I had to sleep on the floor, and the room was about the size of a double room in Sylvan at UMass. And there were mirrors all over one wall. And the walls were paper thin. Oh well, for one night, and we were there legit to just sleep, it wasn't too bad. And it was $100. Unheard of in New York. The gym was really nice- it had the same equipment as Planet Fitness. I didn't use the treadmill, I ended up doing 10 miles on the stationary bike, which was a little more forgiving on my foot.
THE UGLY
There is 12 - 15 inches of snow in the forecast for the next 12 hours. Seriously. The only possible good thing to come from this? There is a chance that the MOS may be closed tomorrow. Hooray snow day!
THE UNDECIDED
The real purpose of the trip was to see the revival of West Side Story. The show was being billed as a "groundbreaking" rethinking of the original production, and the original librettist, Arthur Laurents, was directing (he's about 90). We bought our tickets in October, the day they went on sale. I had never seen West Side Story (shocking, I know, but sadly 100% true), s
o I was really looking forward to this. Sadly, I was pretty disappointed. The show didn't really do anything for me. There were a couple things I really liked; hearing Bernstein's score played by a 35 piece orchestra, the scenic design, the choreography and the insertion of Spanish into the book and score, "I Feel Pretty" became "Siento Hermosa" and "A Boy Like That" became "Un Hombre Asi", worked well for me. My biggest problem? All of the fighting, for the most part, is done very stylized, Riff and Bernardo do this amazing ballet knife fight dance, so it has this sort of "graceful" feel to it. Then, there is a part towards the end of Act II where Anita goes into the drugstore, and the Jets attempt to rape her. The way it was done was extremely jarring, and borderline gratuitous, and totally took me out of the show. It was portrayed unlike any of the other violence in the show up til then. I understand the stark contrast that Laurents was going for, but this was a bit much. I was kind of thinking "is this really happening?!". I also thought there was ZERO chemistry between Tony and Maria and, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's pretty vital to the show. I don't know if it's the show that I didn't like...I think it might have just been this production. It was still early in previews, so I would entertain the thought of going to see it again in 6 months, to see if anything has changed.So there you have it friends, the weekend in a nutshell. Hopefully the snow won't be TOO terrible, but if the result is a snow day, all will not be lost. Also, 12 weeks from today til the half marathon...no time to quit now....
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