Friday night I took the BoltBus, which was pretty awesome. Saturday morning we went for a nice 4 mile run in Central Park, had an awesome brunch in Rockefeller Center, did some shopping on 5th Avenue; I bought a pair of madras shorts at J.Crew (a big purchase for me).
That afternoon we saw the revival of Guys and Dolls. When it opened back in March, the reviews were less than kind, and there were rumors that it was g
oing to close within a couple of weeks. I went in with an open mind, and it was ok, nothing too spectacular, but Lauren Graham was outstanding as Miss Adeliade, who knew she could sing so well? The sets were really odd...pieces would come in and out, but instead of having backdrops, there were all kinds of projections...which were kind of cool, but they also kind of took away from the production, and when there were scene changes and the projections changed, I thought I was going to be sick- not really, but I just didn't like them. And some of the songs were a little underwhelming (like "Luck Be A Lady"), but the choreography was awesome. And thankfully, "Sit Down You're Rockin the Boat" brought the house down, as it should. Oliver Platt was a little underwhelming, and so was Craig Bierko as Sky...the director, Des McAnuff (who did amazing things with Jersey Boys and The Who's Tommy) decided that the show needed to be bookended with the image of Damon Runyon writing the two short stories that were the inspiration for the musical, which I felt was a little much...After the show, we hit up a bar in Times Square to watch the Sox pummel the Yankees and the bar had $2 Bud Lites and half price appetizers...so we stayed there for about 2 hours.
After spending a good amount of time at the bar, we ran back to the hotel to chan
ge and we had tickets to Neil LaBute's new play reasons to be pretty. I was excited to see it, I had heard a lot about it when it was Off-Broadway, and I had read a couple of his plays before, but had never seen one on state. It was met with excellent reviews when it opened a few weeks ago, but it was having a hard time finding an audience (it played to 30% capacity this past week), so I figured that I could do my part to help the show survive. Basically, it was standard LaBute, a social commentary...the long and short, a guy makes a comment to a friend at work about his girlfriend being "ordinary", lots of yelling, ruined relationships, and male chauvenism ensue. I really enjoyed it, and the four actors were outstanding. Thomas Sadowski gave an incredible performance as the offending boyfriend, and Steven Pasquale (Sean Garrity on Rescue Me) was great as the typical jock, and Piper Perabo and Marin Ireland were outstanding in their roles, Perabo as Pasquales wife and Ireland as the "ordinary" girlfriend. Hopefully it will garner a couple of Tony nominations tomorrow morning, at least a Best Play nomination, and it can stay afloat for a little bit longer...Sunday we tried to go to the Guggenheim, but 90% of it was closed for a Frank Lloyd Wright installation, which opens May 15th that I want to go back and see, so we ended up checking out the Met, and almost got caught up in the Greek pride parade down 5th avenue...had a late brunch and then headed our separate ways, me back to Boston and Kim back to DC. It was a great trip (even though it was SUPER hot), and great to see Kim, who I hadn't seen since last summer when I was in DC for the JOH arrival.
Quick predictions for Tony nominations tomorrow:
Best Musical - 9 to 5, Billy Elliot, Next to Normal, Shrek (alt: [title of show], Rock of Ages)
Best Play - 33 Variations, Dividing the Estate, God of Carnage, reasons to be pretty
Best Revival of a Musical - Guys and Dolls, Hair, Pal Joey, West Side Story
Best Revival of a Play - The Norman Conquests, The Seagull, Speed-the-Plow, Waiting for Godot
Best Actor, Musical - The Billy's - Billy Elliot, James Barbour - A Tale of Two Cities, Gavin Creel - Hair, Brian d'Arcy James - Shrek, J. Robert Spencer - Next to Normal
Best Actress, Musical - Stockard Channing - Pal Joey, Sutton Foster - Shrek, Lauren Graham - Guys and Dolls, Allison Janney - 9 to 5, Alice Ripley - Next to Normal
Best Actor, Play - Raul Esparza - Speed-the-Plow, Bill Irwin - Waiting for Godot, Stephen Mangan - The Norman Conquests, Geoffrey Rush - Exit the King, Thomas Sadowski - reasons to be pretty
Billy Elliot will have the most overall nominations (I'm thinking 13) and 9 to 5 should also pick up double digits, and I'm crossing my fingers that Next to Normal will get 11 (Musical, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Director, Original Score, Book, Orchestrations, Sets, Lights, Sound)
Check back tomorrow morning for a full list as well as an update of an AMAZING 30 hours in my favorite home away from home...
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