IS 6 DAYS AWAY!!!Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
What a weekend
First off, I want to give readers fair warning - there is going to be a fair amount of theater geeking-out in this post, if you're so inclined to not read further, no problem. Alright, you've been warned.
I spent the weekend in NYC with the family which was fun. Saturday we walked all over the city, walked through central park, went shopping on Canal St, and had dinner at Sea in Williamsburg. Sunday we ended up at the Museum of Natural History which was kinda meh - the Rose Center was amazing, but the rest of the museum was just kinda blah. I was also thoroughly disappointed that the climate change exhibit that I'd heard so much about required an additional charge that wasn't listed when we bought the tickets. Whatever. After the AMNH, the family left and I was on my own for the rest of the afternoon.
I had a ticket to the matinee of Next to Normal, a show that I knew nothing about, except that it had pretty good buzz from it's off-Broadway and D.C. I also knew that I did NOT like it's marketing
/advertising. I went in not knowing what to expect, and came out having had a religious experience. I know, a little over dramatic, but seriously, Next to Normal was one of the most unbelievable things I've ever seen. Basic premise: Mom has schizophrenia and her family struggles to cope; drugs, suicide, depression and heartbreak ensue. It was one of the most thought-provoking, difficult and depressing shows I've ever seen, and I loved every minute of it. Everything about the show was incredible, starting with the performances. It's a small cast (6 characters) and each one of them gives a revelatory performance; Alice Ripley (who plays the mother) gives new meaning to "tour-de-force", her performance as Diana is one of the most fantastic things I've ever seen; she has the Best Actress Tony award locked up. The rest of the cast also gives stellar performances and blow the roof off the Booth Theater with an amazing contemporary score by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt. Michael Greif directs his cast with ease around Mark Wendland's great 3 level set, beautifully lit by Kevin Adams. The last 20 or so minutes were heartbreaking, I could hear people crying around me in the theater, I also was almost in tears. Moving doesn't even begin to describe this show. I think that I can honestly say that it's the best new musical (note NEW) I've seen in a long, long, LONG time. I also think it could give Billy Elliot a serious run for its money in several Tony races, not to mention Best Musical, which Billy had presumed sewn up before it started a single preview at the Imperial. Don't get me wrong, Billy Elliot was excellent, and I enjoyed it immensely, but it's nothing like Next to Normal. It's a difficult show to sit through yes, but it is an extremely satisfying evening of theater. Beg, borrow or steal to get tickets, and if you need some one to go with, give me a call, I'll go again. I even pre-ordered the CD that comes out in April. You must see this show.
I also saw the revival of Hair Sunday night, which also was good. While I didn't love it, I liked it quite a bit. The energy and enthusiasm that the cast put forward was wonderful, an
d it was a really fun atmosphere. There was a lot of audience participation, "the tribe" handed out flowers, fliers to go to the "be-in", and performed in the aisles and on the chairs. I wasn't too familiar with Hair either, so the nudity scene, though brief, threw me...they're burning their draft cards one minute and the next minute no one has any clothes on...well ok then! Two minor and one major issue; the minors were sometimes there was TOO much going on at one time and I didn't really know where to look, and there is a 20 minute hallucination scene in Act II that went on a little too long. The major issue? The character of Berger. I didn't really like him nor sympathize with him. I don't really know if it was the actor or the role, but to me, that was the weakest link in the entire production. This revival of a "classic" musical was MUCH more satisfying than West Side Story, and I would be thrilled if it won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, because it truly is (well, I haven't seen Guys and Dolls yet, I have tickets for the end of April) the best revival of the year.
I would say that yesterday made up for the last trip to New York which was pretty much a downer, about 10 times over. Seriously. See Next to Normal.
Got tickets to U2 in Foxboro in September, so this has been an all around great 24 hours. I bought 4 tickets, wanna go?
I spent the weekend in NYC with the family which was fun. Saturday we walked all over the city, walked through central park, went shopping on Canal St, and had dinner at Sea in Williamsburg. Sunday we ended up at the Museum of Natural History which was kinda meh - the Rose Center was amazing, but the rest of the museum was just kinda blah. I was also thoroughly disappointed that the climate change exhibit that I'd heard so much about required an additional charge that wasn't listed when we bought the tickets. Whatever. After the AMNH, the family left and I was on my own for the rest of the afternoon.
I had a ticket to the matinee of Next to Normal, a show that I knew nothing about, except that it had pretty good buzz from it's off-Broadway and D.C. I also knew that I did NOT like it's marketing
/advertising. I went in not knowing what to expect, and came out having had a religious experience. I know, a little over dramatic, but seriously, Next to Normal was one of the most unbelievable things I've ever seen. Basic premise: Mom has schizophrenia and her family struggles to cope; drugs, suicide, depression and heartbreak ensue. It was one of the most thought-provoking, difficult and depressing shows I've ever seen, and I loved every minute of it. Everything about the show was incredible, starting with the performances. It's a small cast (6 characters) and each one of them gives a revelatory performance; Alice Ripley (who plays the mother) gives new meaning to "tour-de-force", her performance as Diana is one of the most fantastic things I've ever seen; she has the Best Actress Tony award locked up. The rest of the cast also gives stellar performances and blow the roof off the Booth Theater with an amazing contemporary score by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt. Michael Greif directs his cast with ease around Mark Wendland's great 3 level set, beautifully lit by Kevin Adams. The last 20 or so minutes were heartbreaking, I could hear people crying around me in the theater, I also was almost in tears. Moving doesn't even begin to describe this show. I think that I can honestly say that it's the best new musical (note NEW) I've seen in a long, long, LONG time. I also think it could give Billy Elliot a serious run for its money in several Tony races, not to mention Best Musical, which Billy had presumed sewn up before it started a single preview at the Imperial. Don't get me wrong, Billy Elliot was excellent, and I enjoyed it immensely, but it's nothing like Next to Normal. It's a difficult show to sit through yes, but it is an extremely satisfying evening of theater. Beg, borrow or steal to get tickets, and if you need some one to go with, give me a call, I'll go again. I even pre-ordered the CD that comes out in April. You must see this show.I also saw the revival of Hair Sunday night, which also was good. While I didn't love it, I liked it quite a bit. The energy and enthusiasm that the cast put forward was wonderful, an
d it was a really fun atmosphere. There was a lot of audience participation, "the tribe" handed out flowers, fliers to go to the "be-in", and performed in the aisles and on the chairs. I wasn't too familiar with Hair either, so the nudity scene, though brief, threw me...they're burning their draft cards one minute and the next minute no one has any clothes on...well ok then! Two minor and one major issue; the minors were sometimes there was TOO much going on at one time and I didn't really know where to look, and there is a 20 minute hallucination scene in Act II that went on a little too long. The major issue? The character of Berger. I didn't really like him nor sympathize with him. I don't really know if it was the actor or the role, but to me, that was the weakest link in the entire production. This revival of a "classic" musical was MUCH more satisfying than West Side Story, and I would be thrilled if it won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, because it truly is (well, I haven't seen Guys and Dolls yet, I have tickets for the end of April) the best revival of the year.I would say that yesterday made up for the last trip to New York which was pretty much a downer, about 10 times over. Seriously. See Next to Normal.
Got tickets to U2 in Foxboro in September, so this has been an all around great 24 hours. I bought 4 tickets, wanna go?
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Hurrah free wireless!
Greetings from the lobby of the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers! Thanks to the free wireless, I am able to peruse the internet while I wait for everyone else to get here. I lucked out this morning, my flight was at 9:15, and I got to the airport at around 7:35 to check in. When I got to the desk, the ticket agent asked if I was checking in for the 8am flight, I said no, and he was like "well, I can put you on it". He checked me in real quick, then escorted me to the gate; I got to bypass security, and went from ticket counter to gate in less than 10 minutes. Awesome! The new JetBlue terminal at JFK is beautiful, it's designed by David Rockwell and was ultra-futuristic with clean lines and lots of white/silver patterns. I wanted to take pictures, but alas, I did not.
Last night I met up with Kris, Nick, James, Michael, Mulligan, Doug and Matt at the MME conference (or something like that, it's a music educator geek-fest) and we were going to dinner at Morton's. Before dinner, Doug, Nick and I checked out the concert band rehearsal (it's also All-State's, where the best high school musicians in the state come and perform); it was being run by Robert W. Smith (who wrote Oakmont's show last year The Divine Comedy) and he was premiering his new work, The Quest; written in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' Don Quixote. It. Was. Excellent. And the kids were ridiculously talented. I couldn't believe that they were only in high school. They're going to premiere the piece this afternoon at Symphony Hall. You can't get tickets though- it's been sold out for weeks.
After the great performance, we had a great meal at Morton's. They were participating in restaurant week, and $33 for dinner at Morton's is a steal. I went to the one in Chicago with dad a couple years ago, and it was easily $150, and I don't even think we drank. The food was outstanding, best steak I've had in a while, and we had their great onion loaf, my favorite part of the meal.
Ok, thats it for now, have a great weekend everyone, full recap of the weekend coming Monday...
Last night I met up with Kris, Nick, James, Michael, Mulligan, Doug and Matt at the MME conference (or something like that, it's a music educator geek-fest) and we were going to dinner at Morton's. Before dinner, Doug, Nick and I checked out the concert band rehearsal (it's also All-State's, where the best high school musicians in the state come and perform); it was being run by Robert W. Smith (who wrote Oakmont's show last year The Divine Comedy) and he was premiering his new work, The Quest; written in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' Don Quixote. It. Was. Excellent. And the kids were ridiculously talented. I couldn't believe that they were only in high school. They're going to premiere the piece this afternoon at Symphony Hall. You can't get tickets though- it's been sold out for weeks.
After the great performance, we had a great meal at Morton's. They were participating in restaurant week, and $33 for dinner at Morton's is a steal. I went to the one in Chicago with dad a couple years ago, and it was easily $150, and I don't even think we drank. The food was outstanding, best steak I've had in a while, and we had their great onion loaf, my favorite part of the meal.
Ok, thats it for now, have a great weekend everyone, full recap of the weekend coming Monday...
Friday, March 27, 2009
A confession....
For the past month or so, I've been harboring a secret - I've been watching American Idol...I know, I know, totally awful and how can I bring myself to watch such dreck...but it's so awesome! 90% of the folks on the show are super talented, and I've really only been watching the last 5 minutes or so, so that I can see the recap, and then (and this is the worst) I'll check out itunes and watch the free preview part of their performance the next morning. So far the season has been pretty good. I think the last time I watched a whole season from start to finish was the 2nd one, my freshman year in college when my suitemates and the girls across the hall would watch Idol and then Joe Millionaire (I know, another shameful admission). I have a couple of issues with this season though. They are:
1. Adam Lambert - While I don't disagree that he's an excellent performer my issue is this; he's had professional experience before. He was in the national tour of Wicked and understudied and performed the roles of Boq and Fiyero, the two lead male roles. Isn't Idol supposed to be about discovering new talent? I'm pretty sure they booted someone who played the title role in the revival of Annie about 10 years ago, so why does Adam get a pass?
2. Scott and Megan - Seriously? They're both not good. I get it with Scott, he's legally blind, plays the piano well and sings ok, but are people giving him the pity vote? And isn't that kind of patronizing? And Megan, she's just plain awful. I was sure she'd be gone after her dreadful rendition of "Rockin' Robin". The judges tell her she's awful, but voters seem to turn a blind eye.
I'm going to guess that the top 3 are going to be Adam, Danny and Allison, with, ideally, a showdown between Adam and Danny with Danny for the win. He's great, and has a good presence on stage. And he's got pretty good chops, check out his rendition of "Jesus Take the Wheel" from a couple weeks ago.
1. Adam Lambert - While I don't disagree that he's an excellent performer my issue is this; he's had professional experience before. He was in the national tour of Wicked and understudied and performed the roles of Boq and Fiyero, the two lead male roles. Isn't Idol supposed to be about discovering new talent? I'm pretty sure they booted someone who played the title role in the revival of Annie about 10 years ago, so why does Adam get a pass?
2. Scott and Megan - Seriously? They're both not good. I get it with Scott, he's legally blind, plays the piano well and sings ok, but are people giving him the pity vote? And isn't that kind of patronizing? And Megan, she's just plain awful. I was sure she'd be gone after her dreadful rendition of "Rockin' Robin". The judges tell her she's awful, but voters seem to turn a blind eye.
I'm going to guess that the top 3 are going to be Adam, Danny and Allison, with, ideally, a showdown between Adam and Danny with Danny for the win. He's great, and has a good presence on stage. And he's got pretty good chops, check out his rendition of "Jesus Take the Wheel" from a couple weeks ago.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Long Week...
Greetings readers! Apologies for the lack of updating lately, it's been a crazy week. Let's recap....
Late last week I decided to jump on the bandwagon and joined twitter. I'm not 100% sure if I like it, but it's kinda cool. I figure since I'm a popculture whore, I'd thoroughly enjoy it; that remains to be seen. It kind of creeps me out that people can start following you and you don't even know who they are, so I decided to change my settings so that I approve who follows me. Take that anonymous stalkers. Miss Alison Hay sent me this amazing twitter video, which everyone should watch. tweet! tweet!
The past 2 weeks have been restaurant week in Boston where, in essence, you go to fancy restaurants, and have a great, 3 course meal for half the price. Thursday I pulled double duty, went to L'Espalier for lunch (in the Mandarin Hotel) with some folks from work and Todd English's Kingfish Hall for a bromantic dinner with Nick, Val and Kramer. Friday night, the family came in and we had dinner at Davio's, which was amazing. I've always wanted to go there but the menu is fairly pricey. The food was excellent, and I don't remember what I had for wine, but it too, was excellent. After dinner, mom and Jess went and saw Dirty Dancing (BLECH) and dad and I went and saw Duplicity. Well, we were supposed to see Duplicity, but we also ended up seeing the first reel of Sunshine Cleaning. The projectionist started the wrong movie, and I'm pretty sure someone got fired.
Anyways, I was looking forward to seeing the film, it as written and directed by Tony Gi
lroy, the man behind Michael Clayton, and it had the uber-attractive leads of Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Basic premise? An incredibly sexy version of Spy vs. Spy, with Ray and Claire working for dueling pharmaceutical companies trying to get their hands on the next revolution in personal cosmetic projects. The script consisted of razor sharp banter (albeit a little predictable), and delivery relied heavily on it's two stars; it would fallen pretty flat if there were other leads. It had a very slick look to it, and in addition to the super high wattage of Roberts and Owen, the supporting players were quite good, among them Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson. The last 20 minutes seemed a little labored, but overall it was a great, fluff of a film and a good way to spend 2 hours. GRADE: B
My uncle Eddie passed away last Thursday, so we ended up going to Baltimore for the weekend. More on that in a second....I'm watching Around the Horn and a geico commercial was just on, and I have to smile every time I see the dollar bill with the google eyes, haha...Sunday we left for Baltimore for Uncle Eddie's wake and funeral. Sunday night we went out to dinner with Aunt Marybeth and Uncle Bill and had great crab cakes (my favorite part of going to Maryland). The only bad part about going to MD was it threw off my training plans for the half-marathon, but I was determined to try and stay on track. Sunday night I checked out the gym at the hotel, but wasn't successful. The equipment was terrible, and I lasted about 2 miles on the treadmill. When I got back to the room, I found out that there was a Planet Fitness about a mile away, so I decided that I would venture there the next morning. And I did. I got up at about 7:30 and paid a visit to Planet Fitness in Lutherville and ran 5 miles on the treadmill. The PF was awesome, a little better than the one in Somerville even! Later, I needed a haircut, so I ventured over to the Towson Town Center and tried to find a SuperCuts or something, but all I could find was Salon Cielo and $35 later I had a haircut...it doesn't really look any different than my normal $12 haircut, but I digress...the funeral was on Tuesday morning and my dad and I were pallbearers, and it was a sobering experience....we had a small gathering at my aunt's house after, and then we hit the road back to MA and I was back in Somerville by 9:30 on Tuesday night. Having those two days off has kind of thrown my week off, I keep forgetting that tomorrow is Friday.
In other news, West Side Story opened to reviews that were all over the place, some pure elation others absolutely dreadful. God of Carnage opened to unanimously positive reviews - hooray for going to see it in May. The Where the Wild Things Are trailer has been released, I ran 2 miles in the rain today, heading to New York City this weekend with the family with tickets to Hair and Next to Normal and I'm going to Morton's for dinner tomorrow night....could this week get any better?!
Late last week I decided to jump on the bandwagon and joined twitter. I'm not 100% sure if I like it, but it's kinda cool. I figure since I'm a popculture whore, I'd thoroughly enjoy it; that remains to be seen. It kind of creeps me out that people can start following you and you don't even know who they are, so I decided to change my settings so that I approve who follows me. Take that anonymous stalkers. Miss Alison Hay sent me this amazing twitter video, which everyone should watch. tweet! tweet!
The past 2 weeks have been restaurant week in Boston where, in essence, you go to fancy restaurants, and have a great, 3 course meal for half the price. Thursday I pulled double duty, went to L'Espalier for lunch (in the Mandarin Hotel) with some folks from work and Todd English's Kingfish Hall for a bromantic dinner with Nick, Val and Kramer. Friday night, the family came in and we had dinner at Davio's, which was amazing. I've always wanted to go there but the menu is fairly pricey. The food was excellent, and I don't remember what I had for wine, but it too, was excellent. After dinner, mom and Jess went and saw Dirty Dancing (BLECH) and dad and I went and saw Duplicity. Well, we were supposed to see Duplicity, but we also ended up seeing the first reel of Sunshine Cleaning. The projectionist started the wrong movie, and I'm pretty sure someone got fired.
Anyways, I was looking forward to seeing the film, it as written and directed by Tony Gi
lroy, the man behind Michael Clayton, and it had the uber-attractive leads of Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Basic premise? An incredibly sexy version of Spy vs. Spy, with Ray and Claire working for dueling pharmaceutical companies trying to get their hands on the next revolution in personal cosmetic projects. The script consisted of razor sharp banter (albeit a little predictable), and delivery relied heavily on it's two stars; it would fallen pretty flat if there were other leads. It had a very slick look to it, and in addition to the super high wattage of Roberts and Owen, the supporting players were quite good, among them Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson. The last 20 minutes seemed a little labored, but overall it was a great, fluff of a film and a good way to spend 2 hours. GRADE: BMy uncle Eddie passed away last Thursday, so we ended up going to Baltimore for the weekend. More on that in a second....I'm watching Around the Horn and a geico commercial was just on, and I have to smile every time I see the dollar bill with the google eyes, haha...Sunday we left for Baltimore for Uncle Eddie's wake and funeral. Sunday night we went out to dinner with Aunt Marybeth and Uncle Bill and had great crab cakes (my favorite part of going to Maryland). The only bad part about going to MD was it threw off my training plans for the half-marathon, but I was determined to try and stay on track. Sunday night I checked out the gym at the hotel, but wasn't successful. The equipment was terrible, and I lasted about 2 miles on the treadmill. When I got back to the room, I found out that there was a Planet Fitness about a mile away, so I decided that I would venture there the next morning. And I did. I got up at about 7:30 and paid a visit to Planet Fitness in Lutherville and ran 5 miles on the treadmill. The PF was awesome, a little better than the one in Somerville even! Later, I needed a haircut, so I ventured over to the Towson Town Center and tried to find a SuperCuts or something, but all I could find was Salon Cielo and $35 later I had a haircut...it doesn't really look any different than my normal $12 haircut, but I digress...the funeral was on Tuesday morning and my dad and I were pallbearers, and it was a sobering experience....we had a small gathering at my aunt's house after, and then we hit the road back to MA and I was back in Somerville by 9:30 on Tuesday night. Having those two days off has kind of thrown my week off, I keep forgetting that tomorrow is Friday.
In other news, West Side Story opened to reviews that were all over the place, some pure elation others absolutely dreadful. God of Carnage opened to unanimously positive reviews - hooray for going to see it in May. The Where the Wild Things Are trailer has been released, I ran 2 miles in the rain today, heading to New York City this weekend with the family with tickets to Hair and Next to Normal and I'm going to Morton's for dinner tomorrow night....could this week get any better?!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
West Side Story
Frequent readers of this blog will know that at the end of February I saw the revival of West Side Story on Broadway. This was going to be my first exposure to the classic show - I'd never seen a production of it, and I've seen about 15 minutes of the movie. I knew (or was at least somewhat familiar) with most of the score, but I was really excited to see this legendary show live, on Broadway, and be fortunate enough to see a production that was directed by the show's librettist (Arthur Laurents, a living legend) in what he called a "groundbreaking new production". Needless to say my hopes were sky high.
Anyways, I saw the show, and was totally underwhelmed. As I have previously blogged, I enjoyed hearing the the score played by a 35 piece orchestra (the opening saxophone/marimba soli gave me chills), and the choreography was nothing less than extraordinary (especially "Dance at the Gym"), but everything else was kind of meh. I really didn't get what the big deal was with West Side Story.
West Side Story opens tomorrow night, and there is a theater message board that I check out every morning, and there is a guy who posts his reviews on shows usually a day or two before they open. He's usually right on the money, if a bit self-indulgent, and they're pretty thorough. His review of West Side Story hit the nail on the head and much more eloquently describes my thoughts. I 100% agree with all of his observations. It's too bad, I really wanted to like this. Oh well, at least I have God of Carnage to look forward to in may with James Gandolfini.
Anyways, I saw the show, and was totally underwhelmed. As I have previously blogged, I enjoyed hearing the the score played by a 35 piece orchestra (the opening saxophone/marimba soli gave me chills), and the choreography was nothing less than extraordinary (especially "Dance at the Gym"), but everything else was kind of meh. I really didn't get what the big deal was with West Side Story.
West Side Story opens tomorrow night, and there is a theater message board that I check out every morning, and there is a guy who posts his reviews on shows usually a day or two before they open. He's usually right on the money, if a bit self-indulgent, and they're pretty thorough. His review of West Side Story hit the nail on the head and much more eloquently describes my thoughts. I 100% agree with all of his observations. It's too bad, I really wanted to like this. Oh well, at least I have God of Carnage to look forward to in may with James Gandolfini.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
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