Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 By The Numbers

So, 2011 was quite a year.  Not quite in the way I could’ve imagined, but that which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.  Or so they say.  Anyway, I was taking a look at my desk calendar and found the following numbers interesting:

Theater visits: 49
Ballet visits: 10
Readings/workshops: 11
New museums: 4
New restaurants: 12
Surgeries: 4
Doctor appointments: 30

Yikes!  Thirty visits to doctors?!  No wonder I’m sick of them!  That’s just crazy.  Hats off, though, to Dr Vera Wang, Dr Julie Halston, Dr Pay in Advance, Dr Pinhead, Dr They Didn’t Operate on Your Legs, Dr Hume Cronyn and Dr Let’s Skip That Test, for making all these visits a little more bearable.  Here’s hoping that in 2012, the number of visits decreases dramatically.

Making Top Ten lists seems to be popular, but I’m not quite sure I can do it with so small a sample size.  First, here are my 2011 Eleven Favorite Theater Pieces (didn’t include ballets here).  Seems like a good compromise to me.  So, in no particular order:
NY Philharmonic Company concert
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
The Normal Heart
Peter & Wendy
Good People
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Jerusalem
Follies
Chinglish
Lemon Sky
Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway

Some work I'm looking forward to in 2012:

Porgy and Bess (Norm Lewis, hello)
Jesus Christ Superstar (um, Tom Hewitt?  I'm THERE!)
Evita (oh, I don't know, can we say Michael Cerveris??)
Rebecca (I'm actually sort of terrified, but I'm sooooo curious, and, I just read Howard McGillin is going in!  I love Howard McGillin!!)
Newsies (dancing newsboys--what's not to like?)
The Best Man (I enjoyed the last revival, and this has a killer cast)
Harvey (first play I ever did)
How I Learned to Drive (the original was brilliant but I'm dying to see what Norbert Leo Butz does with it)
Judith of Bethulia (Charles Busch's new play--I already have my ticket!)

Favorite foods of 2011:

sweet corn tortellini at Quince restaurant in Evanston, IL









penne martelli at Villa Mozart, Fairfax, VA (no photo, sorry)

linguini alla vongole at Regional









avocado timbale at Candle 79









crab with glutinous rice at East Lake Seafood Restaurant











chalupas/sopes at La Palapa









lobster roll at Lobster Pot, Provincetown, MA











octopus salad at Cavo











lemon dessert crepe at Crepes du Nord











watermelon feta salad from Whole Foods (sorry, no photo)
sun-dried tomato/kalamata olive pizza slice at Bella Vita, around the corner from my office  :)   (I'll have to get a photo of this next time I get it for lunch!!)

Welcome to new boyfriends

Perhaps I should do a reality competition, like the Next Iron Chef, to be Tari's Next Boyfriend.  I'm sure there would be thousands of applicants.  Ha.  Anyway, speaking of Next Iron Chef, I am adding a surprise boyfriend this year:

Geoffrey Zakarian - he had me at 'Shazam', and the little giggle after he won.  adorkable.
Arian Moayed - he was sublime in Bengal Tiger and tragic in King Lear.  I can't wait to see what he does next
Michael Park - yum; was amazing in Burnt Part Boys as maybe seven different characters

Thank you to old boyfriends, who remain forever loved in my heart:  Mark Blum and Mark Rylance, who each rocked the house in TWO shows this year.  Love.  Looking forward to seeing some uber-fave boyfriends in shows next year: Cerveris, Esparza and Norm Lewis.  I just know they're going to bring it and remind me why I fell in love with them in the first place...

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

From the Review Archive: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

This was my very first review, from 2005.  Be gentle...


OK.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  My.  It's really hard to gather my thoughts.  I wish I could write clever and incisive reviews like all my friends do.  I get too muddled.  Anway, our seats were fabulous and comfy, all the staff there were charming and delightful.  We knew the show wasn't going to be good, but we were determined to have fun anyway.

Well, we did have fun.  We always have fun.  But.  Oh. My. God.  I didn't imagine the depths of the awfulness of this show.  It's really REALLY bad.  Did I say it was bad?  It's bad.  And EVERYONE IN THE CAST KNOWS IT.  It was sloppy and uninspired, along with being bad.

I hold the director completely responsible.  And anyone who knows the director.  How could he put that stuff on stage?  Did no one say to him, um, putting another flashing set piece on stage will not mask the fact that the book is terrible?!  Obviously not.  It's soulless and practically a slap in the face/offensive to anyone who cares about theater.

I could almost wrap my brains around the total differences in acting styles and character development--Raul and his family can be understated and "real," while the Vulgarians (led by the DIVINE and she should be paid TRIPLE what she's getting Jan Maxwell) are, well, vulgar and big and cartoony.  Fine.  But then be consistent with that choice!  Don't have chorus members with giant clown heads come dancing into the windmill house while Raul is singing his guts out during "Hushabye Mountain"!  Let him have his real goshdarned moment, for heaven's sake!  Can't he have one?  And my.  I love Raul and he sang divinely (and looked adorable in the ridiculous lederhosen), but I don't know what in the heck he was doing.  His character is supposedly eccentric and distracted, but he was just odd.  Creepy almost.  Borderline mental.  And the kid playing his son spoke as if he had just come out of a Korean mental hospital.  So perhaps Raul was trying for some sort of filial mental relationship thing.  Perhaps.

My pal was all for leaving at intermission, understandably, but I had to stick it out.  God love him for staying with me.  The second act is marginally better than the first, in that it's MUCH shorter and the divine Jan Maxwell has two numbers and makes you remember that musicals are fun AND mean something.  BUT: imagine me sitting in the theater, looking like the audience in the movie of The Producers during "Springtime for Hitler," mouth agape, when the Nosferatu Child Catcher came on.  His number scared the crap out of ME!  In a BAD way!  Who told him to be that way?!  And he said ok?!?!  Or he came up with it himself?!?!  And the director said ok?!?!?  He carries a scythe and LICKS IT!  Excuse me?!

There's so much to tell and so little time to tell it.  But, may I just conclude with the oddest (out of many odd choices) event of the evening:  we're at the end (thank god) of the show and the car is flying over us (and the car flying is cool, so at least there's that).  All of a sudden, you hear the Child Catcher behind us saying "I'll be back!  I'll get you!  I'll be back!"   Just guess what happens next.

Wait for it.  Wait for it.

Yes.  You guessed it.  Truly Scrumptious pulls a RIFLE OUT OF THE BACK SEAT OF CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG AND KILLS THE CHILD CATCHER.  Then silver confetti falls.  We are covered with silver confetti meant to signify the exploded DNA of the Child Catcher.  I needed a shower.  And perhaps therapy.

It was bad.  But I did buy my nephew a car.  ;)

Saturday, December 24, 2011

My GNO Angels

I’ve written a lot this year about friends and family who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help me through some dark days.  No one has done more for me, though, than my GNO angels.  God bless our friend who finally brought us together over fourteen years ago.  I feel like I’ve known them and loved them forever—whatever did I do before they arrived in my life, bringing laughter and fun with them?!

As I was growing up, my mom always poo-poohed the idea of female friends.  Her best friends were her mom and her sisters and she didn’t see the need for any outside sustenance.  Now, don’t get me wrong, my mom and my beyond-wonderful sister ARE my very best friends in the world, but that doesn’t mean that a different set of eyes and ears aren’t necessary, not to mention a different set of hugging arms.  Maybe all those practice-friends of the past, the ones my mother didn’t approve of, prepared me for the wonderfulness of my darling Coterie and my GNO angels.  Perhaps they taught me how to be a better friend and to deserve these wonderful people’s love and support. 

My gal pals reign supreme.  We’ve laughed, we’ve cried; we’ve gossiped, we’ve railed.  We even bonded over disliking the same overrated performers.  They brighten my world like no others can.  They’ve listened to me be scared, be stupid, be depressed.  They’ve waited in waiting rooms for me to finish with doctors or surgeries; they’ve paid for prescriptions and office visit co-pays; they’ve helped me get dressed and tied my shoes.  They’ve roamed the halls looking for nurses and/or doctors to help me.  They’ve been the point people, talking to my family and other friends with updates.  They handled nearly everything about the fire—insurance paperwork, cleaners, inspections.  They’ve listened and considered and counseled.  They’ve seen me at my absolute worst and love me anyway.  There is no way I can ever repay their steadfast and unconditional support. 

My mom finally, I think, understood the love I have for my friends, and the love they have for me, when she was here last February.  She was touched by their help and dedication, and by their love and respect for her by virtue of being my mom.  I love her, therefore, they did too.  So, after living in New York off and on for over twenty years, my mother FINALLY allows me to call this “home,” because she knows I have another family here.  Not by blood, but by choice.  Which runs just as deep.

AND, to keep from being too maudlin (too late!), hello, my GNO angels and I won a game show!  The GNO World Tour began in Italy in 2007 and must continue in 2012!  Where should we go next?!  It doesn’t matter where we go, though, there will be laughter, joy and fun, wherever these beautiful women are.  They can’t help it—that’s just who they are.  My angels.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Review - The Mountaintop, plus other various holiday musings

I’m so looking forward to getting out of town and heading home for the holidays, but I couldn’t resist checking TDF one more time and voila!  Finally, The Mountaintop was there!  There haven’t been many discounts available for this one, probably due to its stars, so I was happy to grab a ticket for last night.  God bless TDF.  My seat was fantastic, in the second row of the mezzanine.

Katori Hall’s play won the Olivier Award for best play, over such heavyhitting contenders as Jerusalem, Enron and Red.  Quite a pedigree.  I will say that, as a play, I enjoyed Jerusalem much more.  Taste is so subjective…

The Mountaintop is full of spoilers, so I’ll try not to spill any secrets.  It takes place in a hotel in Memphis, in April 1968, after Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, and the only two characters in the play are King and a hotel maid.  The stars are Samuel L Jackson and Angela Bassett.  I believe your imaginations are churning now, yes?

The play runs an intermission-less 90 minutes, and I have to admit I was only engaged for maybe half that amount of time.  Dramaturgically, I understand what the playwright is trying to do, but I just don’t think she’s entirely successful.  Plus, and God knows I love me some Angela Bassett, but oh my, she is just overplaying the sh*t out of this part.  If she pulled back a bit, especially at the beginning, maybe I could’ve gotten engaged sooner.

Having said that, I will say that about halfway through, once we get the BIG secret of the play, I did find myself very connected to what Samuel L Jackson was doing.  The dialogue and the relationship between the two characters during this stretch of the play was quite compelling to me.  Then, once we got to the big ‘phone call,’ the playwright lost me again.  But the last ten minutes or so of the play are sublime and I was weeping.  So…there you have it. 

I liked the idea of having a play about King the man, instead of King the myth, but the playwright is trying to have it both ways, I think, and that’s where she’s unsuccessful.  But Samuel L Jackson is really terrific and he’s pretty successful playing both sides of the man.  He’s charming and humble, yet not.  There’s a stillness that he achieves that is quite beautiful and he captures the dignity and uncertainty of a man in the midst of the maelstrom of history.  I really hope we get to see Jackson do more stage work.  I will consider all of my problems with Angela Bassett mostly the fault of the director, and a little bit the fault of the playwright, but will continue to love Angela from now until the end of time.  J

So…I would say that if you are interested in seeing some compelling moments featuring Samuel L Jackson in perhaps an incomplete theatrical experience, then check out The Mountaintop.  I wish I had liked it more, but I was intermittently moved, and that is always a happy thing.  To me, anyway.  I know others’ mileage may vary.

Random musings:  I've been reading some of my favorite blogs lately, and several of the bloggers have gotten really interesting jobs, thanks to their blogs.  Hmmmm.  Is that the goal?  Start blogging to get a really interesting job?  I wonder.  What kind of job could I get, if more than ten people were reading my blog??  Something to think about... ;)   But congrats to all my favorite bloggers!

I had a dream last night that I got fired, because I demanded an extra $250 a year for my salary.  OK.  Seriously.  That is weird.  Clearly, I'm having anxiety about something...but what?!?!  Reading my favorite blogs while in the office?  Another interesting job coming my way due to my blog?  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.  Dream Dictionary, here I come.

Why I Need a Boyfriend.  Uh, no reason, really.  But it would be nice to have someone bring me something from Starbucks every now and again (I am reminded of this as an office chum's boyfriend brings him coffee).  Oh, and open the stuck jars out of my pantry.  And kill the dam* waterbugs in my apartment.  And get my holiday china off the top shelf.  Perhaps what I really need is a personal assistant.  Can I ask an office intern to get me coffee?  Something to think about for 2012...

Upcoming via auto-post:  favorite things of 2011, crappy year though it was in many respects.  God love auto-post.  But to finish off for today, here is a photo of my holiday poinsettia.  Enjoy the last few days before Christmas!!!


Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Actually, I'M getting fat!  :)     Anyway, I met some friends out in Flushing last weekend, and I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts, along with photos, and a mini-review at the end. 

We decided to go to a different restaurant this time (last summer, we went to Fu Run) - East Lake Seafood Restaurant.  It's an offshoot, apparently, of the popular Imperial Garden, with the world-famous crab with glutinous rice.  I didn't try the crab when we went to Imperial Garden last year, so I was eager to try it today.  I generally let my friends do the ordering, since they've been to China so often, and since they know the restaurants' menus better than I.


Oh, I forgot, there was some amusement when I got there:  I arrived about a half hour before my friends (they were trapped in Flushing parking hell).  While I waited, all of the servers stood around, watching me, and whispering.  I'm guessing they were assuming I was at the wrong restaurant and were taking bets as to how long I'd stay.  Plus, it was funny to see them whispering behind their hands while staring at me.  As if I'd be able to understand their gossiping, since they were speaking in Chinese.  :)   Anyway, I was glad when my friends finally arrived and everyone saw that I was indeed in the right place and hadn't been fibbing about the other people on their way.  PLUS, the gal who seated me and brought me some tea made me giggle by taking away the 'lunch specials' menu and telling me "portions too small."  Did I look THAT hungry???

I took a photo of the front of the menu, because it reminded me of the play Chinglish.  Was that wrong??

My friends ordered two 'specials of the day' (but apparently not the lunch specials, since those portions are too small for me):  the scrambled eggs with oysters, which was more like a frittata with oysters in it, and the pan-fried pumpkin, which was actually more deep-fried, like cheese sticks, only with pumpkin in them.  Both dishes were delicious.    And the portion-size was large enough for four people, even including me (clearly, I'm going to milk the 'small portion' thing throughout this post).

 Naturally, my friends made fun of me because I said I wasn't eating red meat at the moment.  I told them to go ahead and order whatever meat dishes they wanted, I just wouldn't eat it!  So they went ahead and got lamb chops (which looked amazing!), but didn't order the duck.  I guess it's a good thing they didn't order duck, because I may not have been able to resist it.  And I'm guessing that much fatty deliciousness wouldn't do my blood pressure any favors.

The crab with glutinous rice was DELICIOUS!  I can see why it's their specialty.  There is a ton of crab in there (plus, it's fun to use the nutcracker things to get the crab out of the legs), the sticky rice is fantastic and, once you get to the bottom, there is more fatty deliciousness in the roe that sort of deposits itself there once it falls out of the crab.  Just yum yummy.


(FYI, I'm having photo-posting difficulty at the moment, due to formatting issues brought on by new computer without any of my saved formatting features, so please put up with the crappy formatting.  Argh.)

This was a lot of food for four people, so we ended up taking a lot of it home.  Oh, we also got an order of sauteed snap pea shoots with garlic, but I'm giving up on the photo attaching for the moment.  They were also tres tasty.  I enjoyed myself tremendously, and hope I ate enough to justify the 'no small portions for her' label I received when I arrived.  Oh, and the restaurant is BYOB, so I had a tiny bit of the tempranillo that my pals brought along.  It was delish as well.

After lunch, I had thought about doing some shopping in Flushing, but the gent that drove my friends to the restaurant offered to give me a lift home.  I wasn't about to turn down a free ride, so I just bought a few groceries in the grocery store near their parking garage.  Hopefully, I'll do some cooking this week and will report later.  I bought some soba noodles, some baby bok choy, an enormous yam, some black bean sauce and an interesting-looking green curry/coconut sauce.  I'm considering doing the yam with the coconut sauce and some soba noodles tonight.  We'll see how that goes.

Mini-reivew:  I caught the first preview of Roundabout's new production of Athol Fugard's The Road to Mecca last Friday night.  I don't want to review a first preview, so I'll only say a couple of things:  first, the play is gorgeous.  The language is so evocative and its message is beautiful.  Second, Rosemary Harris and Jim Dale are treasures.  I did wish the cast played up to the balcony a little more, but that will probably get worked out during the rehearsal process as well.  I would definitely like to go back after it opens - maybe one of my Tony-voter friends will invite me.  Fingers crossed.

OK, back to trying to get this new computer to do the things my old one used to (like sync my iPhone)...









Thursday, December 15, 2011

Battle of the Nutcrackers is OVER!

Every year, I try to watch the Battle of the Nutcrackers on Ovation TV.  It's fun to see different interpretations (well, it's fun when they're good; I'm not fond of the one I saw the other night--too crazy with not enough dancing) and it's always interesting to hear the "hosts" comment on the content of the ballets.  I think Matthew Bourne's wins every year, though, so perhaps a change in the voting would be in order.  :)

BUT, for me, I saw the winner last night.  Not on Ovation TV, mind you, but at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  I was fortunate to have a fantastic ticket for the opening night of ABT's Nutcracker, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky.  I found it completely enchanting and beautifully magical.  He's taken a familiar story, tells it in a familiar way, with some unfamiliar twists and delights.  I just loved it and only wish I could see it again this year.  This is its second year; I missed it last year, but I am definitely going to make it an annual tradition.

I found the choreography to be charming--whimsical and fun, but not overly simplified.  I very much enjoyed how the child Clara and her Nutcracker Boy were mirrored by their adult Prince and Princess.  They all shared the same sense of wonder and joy at this lovely story.  I think we all know how I love me some Marcelo Gomes, and he did not disappoint as the Prince.  He is just all that--athletic and powerful, yet gentle and lyrical.  Again, I found myself watching him act when he wasn't dancing, and missing the dancing that was going on around him.  He's that magnetic.  Veronika Part, as the Princess, was lovely, though she has this weird tilt when she's doing pirouettes.  I'm not sure if she's supposed to tilt due to the choreography, but her tilt made me nervous.  :)    Their first pas de deux, in the Snowflake scene, was magical.  Their second, at the end of the ballet, was also lovely.

The young Clara and Nutcracker Boy were wonderful, especially in the scene with the Snowflakes.  They started out with wonder, running through the snow, then, as the snow got thicker and the dancing Snowflakes got more intense, the kids were running scared and communicated their fear very well.

I will say I thought the first act was way more enchanting than the second.  Perhaps the whimsy was slathered on a little thickly in the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy.  I didn't really enjoy the Arabian dance, though Sascha Radetsky's abs needed a curtain call of their own.  The choreography looked a little messy from where I was sitting.  The bees in the Dance of the Flowers was a cute idea, and the ending of that number was ingeniously staged, but it perhaps became a little much.  Daniil Simkin in the Chinese dance was a delight, and the surprise guest in the Mother Ginger dance made me laugh out loud.

I have to say, though, I came away really impressed with a young boy named Justin Souriau-Levine, who played the Little Mouse.  That boy is going to be a star.  From the first moment he was on stage, to his curtain call, he OWNED it.  His body language, his miming (even with a big mouse head on), his adorable waves and crazy slides were just terrific.  He very nearly steals the show.  There's an adorable interview with him on the New York Times website, if you're interested.  But, you read it here first:  HE. WILL. BE. A. STAR.

I don't think I'd ever been to the BAM Opera House before.  I've only been to the Harvey Theater.  The Opera House is lovely, and it's beautifully decked out for the holidays.  I'll include some photos at the end.  I will tell you one downside of having an excellent fifth-row orchestra seat (as opposed to my balcony seats at the Met):  you can't take any secret photos during the curtain call.  I would've gotten my phone out if flashes started throughout the house and everyone was taking photos.  Didn't happen.  In fact, one of the snooty chairs of the event, who was seated across the aisle from me, took a picture and the house manager swooped down to make her stop.  So...there's that.  OH, and Christian Siriano from Project Runway was also across the aisle from me!  He must've designed a dress for another of the evening chairs.  The dress was lovely, a rich red taffeta, though I'm sure she was freezing.  It was strapless, and it was about 30 degrees outside and 25 degrees in the theater... ;)

Strangely, the house wasn't at all full.  My row was completely empty, except for the woman with consumption on the aisle.  But it was nice to be able to see everything without giant heads in the way.  Most parents were very cognizant when their kids got a little vocal and took them quickly outside.  All in all, it was a very well-behaved crowd, and if the consumptive lady waited too long to leave her seat to get a cough drop, oh well.  The show was so wonderful, I promptly forgot about her.  For once.  My biggest regret?  I forgot to take expendable income to buy souvenirs.  I'm trying to decide if I should go back, before a show, and pick up some mementos.  It's a quick trip on the Q train.  Hmmm, long lunch break next week on a matinee day could work...






Friday, December 9, 2011

Reviews - Stick Fly and Mamma Mia, plus an irrational rant

I was fortunate to have generous friends take me to see Stick Fly and Mamma Mia (well, I went to each show with a different generous friend).  I don’t know why, but for some reason, I had in my head that Stick Fly was a multi-media-type piece, and that’s why Alicia Keys came on board as producer.  So, imagine my surprise when the play turned out to be an old-fashioned melodrama.  Who knows where these wackadoodle ideas of mine come from?!  Anyway, the play takes place on Martha’s Vineyard, over a weekend when the boys of the family are bringing home their new ladyfriends to meet the parents.  Wacky hijinks ensue.

Not really.  I just like to write the words wacky hijinks.  The play is a pretty standard dysfunctional family comedy, although the family in this case is an upper-middle-class African-American family.  So we do have some racial and political issues thrown into the mix.  I enjoyed a lot of the dialogue and scenework, but I don’t really think this play is anything special.  It’s WAY too long, for one thing.  Not only is the script overwritten with entirely too many secrets/revelations and confrontations (especially when the secrets/revelations were telegraphed from the opening scene), plus it has at least three ‘final scenes,’ and, hello, the most important plot point is conveyed offstage and OVER THE PHONE, but the physical production is also overlong, due to the length of the musical interludes.  I guess when Alicia Keys is the producer and writes the score, you have to present ALL her music, but the scene changes were much too long to accommodate her music, and the music wasn’t all that appropriate to the play, in my opinion.  PLUS, and this really worked my last nerve, for some reason, during the musical scene changes, if the actors were on stage, instead of just sitting there quietly waiting for the music to stop and the scene to start, the actors would do some weird verbal noises, like “mmmmm hmmmmm” or grunts or squeals or stuff.  It was so odd.  As if they wanted to make sure we knew they weren’t ‘frozen’ on stage and were still acting even though they weren’t talking.  I just found it so…dumb.

The women come off much better, acting- and character-wise in the show than do the men.  The gents were generally given stilted dialogue and they presented it, um, stiltedly.  The gals, most especially Condola Rashad, are quite good, but their characters are also more fleshed out.  I think part of the problem of the play is that it can’t really decide whose story it is, so everyone gets their own story, which contributes to the overlong quality and the diffusiveness of the whole evening.  Though, I will say, the final scene between Condola Rashad and Ruben Santiago-Hudson was terrific and I was moved.  But it was a long slog to actually get there.  Director Kenny Leon did no one any favors – even as traffic cop, he wasn’t very imaginative.   All in all, Condola Rashad is giving a performance that’s well worth seeing, but I find it hard to recommend Stick Fly as a play.  She actually has one line that sort of evokes how I feel about the play, “So, you’re mad and I’m supposed to feel sorry for you because girls were mean to you…AT HARVARD??!!”  That’s kinda how I felt about the play.  Why should I care?  And I know I’m in the minority amongst my friends, several of whom have really enjoyed it.  And the rest of the audience seemed to really enjoy it too, so...ah well.

Moving on.  I can’t believe Mamma Mia has been running for ten years and I’ve never seen it!  Well, actually, I can’t believe it’s been running for ten years.  The end.  lol    But, anyway, my friend got rush tickets last night and invited me to join him.  We had a lot of fun!

The second act of the show is WAY better than the first, I think.  The first act seems long, with a lot of exposition that the actors didn’t seem to have much interest in, therefore, neither did the audience.  This audience seemed especially rude, with texting and talking throughout.  I kept getting quite annoyed.  For the first act, we were behind people with the largest heads EVER, and they kept leaning forward, then putting their arms around each other, or talking to each other.  It was so frustrating.  So we moved for the second act, to much more central seats with a better view (although the gal in front of me who texted throughout the second act was thisclose to being beheaded by me via an airborne Ricola).  I had to toss out a “SHUSH” towards the end of the evening as well.  It was probably a good idea that we moved, though, not only to be able to see, but to get away from the well-meaning but entirely too chatty gals from Alabama sitting next to me, one of whom played Lily St Regis in Annie, one of whom is on diuretics for her high blood pressure, and both of whom had seen Wicked earlier in the week and definitely thought I should go see it.  Wow.  That’s lots of information.  J 

But, all in all, we did have a grand time.  Lisa Brescia is terrific as Donna, the mom, and the gals playing her friends (Judy McLane and Jennifer Perry) were also quite good.  I wasn’t as thrilled with the prospective dads, but they grew on me.  I didn’t love the gal playing the daughter, Sophie—I thought her voice was kind of pretty but too thin, and her acting wasn’t anything special, though she certainly was adorable.  And the boy playing her fiancé?  We had no idea why he was in the show until he did a song shirtless.  We literally whispered to each other, “aha, THAT’S why he was cast.”  My goodness, that boy has quite a naked torso.  Singing and acting?  Not so much.

I always forget how much I love me some Abba songs, even Abba songs that are oddly shoehorned into a plot (I found the daughter singing “Name of the Game” to one of her prospective dads kinda icky—clearly, listening closely to the lyrics doesn’t help your enjoyment of the piece).  The final curtain call is actually worth the price of a rush ticket.  It’s tons of fun, and if that much fun had been part of the first act, I would think Mamma Mia is a genius piece of theater.  J

Irrational rant time:  so, it came out this week that a host on E! tv is having a double mastectomy.  She had announced her breast cancer earlier this year, and that she decided to have a lumpectomy and radiation, but she recently discovered that her margins weren't clear so she made the decision to have the double mastectomy.  OK.  I know it's perfectly within her rights to make all this public.  She's a public figure, she has a reality show in addition to her duties on E! News, so it makes sense to announce things to avoid rumor and innuendo.  But something about her whole spiel makes me incredibly uncomfortable.  And irritated.  Intellectually, yes, perhaps by coming forward, more women will get tested.  And women may be less afraid after hearing about someone they watch on television having the same procedure.  But the publicness of it.  The "oh, she's so brave" aspects.  The cover story on People magazine that says "I'm fighting for my life."  It's putting my teeth on edge and I don't know quite why.  Maybe I'm ticked that she's making me re-think all of my stuff of the past year.  Remembering hearing my pathology report, struggling with the decisions, reliving the surgery and then the fire.  I suppose I could be resenting her for that.  But inviting all this...attention.  It just seems so wrong.  Health is such a private matter.  Choosing who you tell is one thing.  Having your own segments on an entertainment news channel and introducing your friends who come on and talk about how brave you are, then you say 'thank you' in the studio.  It just really rubs me the wrong way.  And then I feel guilty about feeling annoyed.  Sigh.

I have a couple of blogs by breast cancer survivors that I read (they're not as bad as the discussion boards, which I really have to stop reading, but sometimes I just can't help myself, and I get so depressed afterwards), and they are applauding this tv gal's decision to go through all this stuff publicly.  I wish I could put my finger on why I disagree.  Perhaps it's simply that I'm mad about the bursting of my 'denial' bubble...

Monday, December 5, 2011

Review - The Visit concert, plus this 'n that in a NY girl's life

When the Actors Fund announced that this year’s concert would be Kander & Ebb’s (and McNally’s) The Visit, I jumped at the chance to get a ticket!  I’ve wanted to see this musical for ever so long—I adore Kander & Ebb, and we did a production of the play when I was in college.  Symmetry, yes?  Adding to the excitement were the stars: Chita Rivera and John Cullum!  They definitely had me at hello.

I had a grand time at the concert.  It was a theater-star-studded audience (not that I was seated near any stars; my seat was second row, extreme house left) – I saw Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, Tom Jones (the lyricist, not the singer), most of the gents who were in Scottsboro Boys, David Marshall Grant, Charles Busch, Mario Cantone.  I’m sure there were others there, I just didn’t see them.  It was sad that the house wasn't completely full, but I'm pretty sure everyone who was there had a grand time, like me.

Chita Rivera was simply breathtaking.  It must be such a gift for her to have a complex role like this at this stage in her career.  (Yes, I know she's been doing versions of this musical over the last ten years, but the sentiment works regardless.)  I really hope the show comes in for a Broadway run so she can do it for more than one night and so she can win a Tony.  In fact, I may start a campaign for her to win the Tony for this concert version performance alone.  Because she was that fantastic.  Claire Zachanassian has to be one of the most difficult women to play, because the story is essentially a twisted love story, yet she is a complete and total monster.  There are so many facets and she captures each and every one.  Apparently, most of the company had done the show before, and their comfort level with each other really showed.  I thought the strongest numbers in the piece were with Chita and her hangers-on.  Most especially “I Would Never Leave You” (not to be confused with the anthem from Side Show).  That song has to rank way up there in the pantheon of great Kander & Ebb songs.  As do “You, You, You” and “Love and Love Alone.” 

I love John Cullum, but he did seem a little under-rehearsed and garbled a lyric or two.  Plus, I don’t think his songs are on the same level as Chita’s.  Dramaturgically, if his songs are to be a little less interesting because his character is, that didn’t work for me.  I also understand that the townfolk need to be strong characters, but their choral pieces weren’t as successful for me, either.  It could perhaps be because the sound was a bit muddy over where I was sitting, so if more than a few people were singing at one time, I had a hard time with it.  And I think there was some weird feedback during John Cullum’s first song, so that might’ve thrown him off.  I do think that, if they were to do a full production, Cullum would be perfect as Anton Schill.  He has a kindly, benign physical presence that would contrast nicely with the atrocities he’s accused of throughout the piece.  The confrontation scene in the first act was terrifically horrifying, and Cullum acted the heck out of it (as did Chita, of course).

I thought Jeremy Webb as the schoolmaster (the one voice of reason in the town) was terrific and his solo in the second act was chilling.  I’m not generally a fan of Mark Jacoby, who played the Mayor, but I think he worked well in this piece.  There was one gal in the chorus who was WAY over the top and worked my last nerve, but happily, my seat on the extreme side worked to my advantage here, because she was out of my sightlines a lot of the time.  Whew. 

I definitely want to hear the score again, but I’ll admit that much of it didn’t grab me on first hearing, except for the pieces I’ve already mentioned.  Again, that could be because of the sound issues on my side of the house.  I also think the book tends to shy away from the horror that the play really needs to have.  It’s a dark and terrible story, and I’m sure you have to tread on a tightrope to also make it into an enjoyable musical theater piece.  But it can be done, hello, just look at Cabaret and, on a lesser level, Scottsboro Boys.  I think they really have to go there, balls to the wall.  But that’s just my opinion.  Chita is already going there, that’s for sure.

I've been busy about town recently (and am looking forward to a quiet week this coming week):  I had brunch at Elsewhere in Hell's Kitchen.  Any time I have brunch with my circle of friends is a good time, but this was particularly enjoyable.  I believe we spent about four hours there without any attitude or fuss from the staff.  The brunch menu has quite a lot of tasty items on it.  We all shared an appetizer of maple spoonbread, which was incredibly delicious.  It generally comes with walnuts, which I'm sure adds a nice textural contrast, but most of our party had issues with walnuts, it was good to leave them off.

The spoonbread also comes with whipped cream cheese (also flavored with maple), which was quite tasty.  Although the pan looked small when our server placed it on the table, the dish is pretty rich, and it was just the right size for a party of five.

I opted to just get the scrambled eggs because I wanted the Old Bay potatoes (which could've used a touch more Old Bay, imo).  I asked to substitute a salad for the meat that generally comes with the dish (darn it--I MISS BACON), and the salad was perfectly fine, if a little heavily dressed for brunch.  I'll admit that I didn't finish the salad.  I think that when we go back (and we'll definitely go back), I'll ask to substitute toast instead of salad.  I mean, really.  Why have something healthy at brunch?!  :)   I finished my brunch with a mug of their special triple chocolate hot chocolate with mint.  It was delicious, exactly what I wanted, and much too rich to finish.  I always feel so virtuous when I don't finish a dessert-type thing...

I went up to the 92nd Street Y for a lecture between Christopher Kimball, Jacques Pepin and Adam Gopnik.  I watch Cook's Country and America's Test Kitchen all the time and find Christopher Kimball to be a lovable curmudgeon, plus he's so knowledgable about food.  I saw him lecture last year and had a great time.  Jacques Pepin is always adorable, and I love Adam Gopnik's writing.  Paris to the Moon is one of my very favorite books, plus he's working on a new musical right now with David Shire, so I was particularly looking forward to seeing him.  Unfortunately, Adam Gopnik was sick with the flu, so he didn't come.  He was replaced as moderator by Alexandra Leaf, who was described as a food historian.  I was probably just disgruntled, but I found her a little pretentious.  Maybe she was nervous, being thrown in at the last minute.  But I didn't love her.  At all.  I did, however, love Jacques Pepin and Christopher Kimball (who described himself as "a little tipsy").  Both gents have recently published new cookbooks, so they were there to shill the books, plus talk about trends in food and other topics.  They were both really interesting--Christopher Kimball spoke very eloquently about the advent of e-books and how he doesn't think they'll affect cookbook sales; Jacques Pepin was quite moving talking about food as memory and sensory experience instead of an intellectual one.  He expresses himself so beautifully for someone speaking English as a second language.  His description of how eating dark chocolate and bread means something totally different to him than to his wife because of his childhood memories and associations was quite genius.  You could hear the crowd murmur, "yessssss," and collectively nod.  I enjoyed the lecture quite a lot.  They spoke for about 90 minutes and I could've listened to them for at least 90 more.  Their books are ginormous, so I didn't buy either one and therefore could not get in the autograph line, but I did get a Cook's Illustrated chocolate chip cookie and brownie on the way out.  They were quite tasty.

Advantages of working in Times Square:  I heard a ruckus outside my office the other day, looked downstairs and found Tim Gunn!  I love Tim Gunn!  He was taping promos and other stuff for his new tv show The Revolution.  After arguing with myself over going downstairs to see him, I just went down to get some photos.  A gal asked me if I wanted to be on the show.  Uh, no.  But I was thrilled to have Tim Gunn smile at me...

Advantages of having actor friends:  I was invited to a recent screening of the new movie The Artist.  We had to get in line really early, since it was such a popular screening, but it was a nice afternoon and it was great to just stand there and catch up with my SAG member friend.  The movie is really wonderful.  The more I think about it, the more I love it.  The acting is wonderful, especially from lead Jean Dujardin.  He is so effortlessly charming, yet very moving.  The music is gorgeous and the story took me places I didn't expect.  I'd say, even if you don't think you'll be interested in a black-and-white silent movie, think again.  It's joyful and a real love letter to the magic of film.

I had some high school friends in the city last weekend, so I made the trek to the tree at Rockefeller Center Saturday night.  Oh my, it was enough to ruin my holiday spirit forever.  I have never seen it so crowded!  You literally could not move along Fifth Avenue.  I don't know if the police are being overzealous with the crowd control and are making things worse, or if the tourists are really that bad.  Look at all those people.  Blech.    I'll have to go back.  I couldn't even get a good shot of the tree.  I got better photos of the tree at Bryant Park, and a few good shots of the windows at Lord & Taylor.  I'll include photos at the end of this post. 


Just a brief mention of my goddaughters' dance recital yesterday--they were, of course, the most beautiful and the best dancers there (in my humble, unbiased opinion, of course).  It was a long day, I have to admit - because there were so many students, they had to do the show twice, with different casts (plus, there were WAY too many hip-hop numbers).  So, in the early show, one pretty ballerina was in the Nutcracker and the other was in a secular tap number, then they switched it up for the later show.  But it was fun.  Look at pretty girls taking curtain calls! 

It's nice having the show at the Danny Kaye Playhouse, though I do feel so guilty about taking videos of the girls' dance numbers, when a dear friend is the house manager and is supposed to stop people from taking videos in that union house.  Oops.  Sorry, just can't help myself.  I love watching their little dance routines throughout the year.  They're adorable.  OH, and it was nice to have better seats than George Stephanopoulos.  Advantages to having friends in house management.  I felt so important.  lol

Lastly, I've decorated my office with a little tree, a wreath and some garland, which is nice.  I also got out some decorations for my apartment that didn't involve my climbing into my closet for boxes.  I think I'll get a poinsettia and maybe a string of lights to run along the floor where the air conditioner cord usually lives.  That will seem festive enough.  Maybe sometime this week I'll do a tour of Manhattan trees and store windows to get better photos.  Maybe... :)