My Tony nomination hopes

So...the Tony nominations come out tomorrow morning.  There's always a flurry of activity surrounding the awards time of year - some of it is fun, some of it isn't.  I've already told my Tony nominator friends to please please please keep Venus in Fur in everyone's mind.  With all of the new plays that have opened in the past few weeks, I would hate for it to be left off the Best Play list.  I've already resigned myself to Chinglish being left off the list.  Sigh.  Well, then, goshdarnit, it's going on MY list!!!  :)

Here are my hopes for nominees in just a few categories.  I'm only including productions I've seen this season (for the most part).  I'm sure I'll be more wrong than right, but that's about par for my course.  I thought The Scottsboro Boys was actually going to WIN something last year.  You'll also notice that I just didn't even try to fill musical score or book categories.  I didn't see enough of the musicals, and, well, it also made me too sad...

Best Play
Chinglish
Clybourne Park [ok, I haven't seen the NY production, but I did see it in Chicago, so I'm giving myself some leeway here]
Other Desert Cities
Venus in Fur

Best Musical
[wow.  this is hard.  I didn't love any of the musicals I saw this year.  And I seriously cannot make myself type the words Spider-Man and Best Musical in the same sentence]
Leap of Faith
Newsies

Best Actor in a Play
Hugh Dancy, Venus in Fur
Samuel L Jackson, The Mountaintop
Stacy Keach, Other Desert Cities
Alan Rickman, Seminar

Best Actress in a Play
Nina Arianda, Venus in Fur
Stockard Channing, Other Desert Cities
Tyne Daly, Master Class
Rosemary Harris, Road to Mecca
Linda Lavin, The Lyons
Jennifer Lim, Chinglish
[I know there are six here.  I just couldn't leave anyone off.  I also know there's no chance on God's green earth for two of these nominations, but hello.  It's my list. :)]

Best Featured Actor in a Play
Bill Camp, Death of a Salesman
Michael Cumpsty, End of the Rainbow
Dick Latessa, The Lyons
Thomas Sadoski, Other Desert Cities
Finn Whitrock, Death of a Salesman
[I adore Frank Wood and really want to see him nominated for Clybourne Park, so I'd be happy with any of my choices falling off the list to accommodate Frank]

Best Featured Actress in a Play
Linda Emond, Death of a Salesman
Spencer Kayden, Don't Dress for Dinner
Angela Lansbury, The Best Man [ok, fine, I didn't see this one, but I demand that Angela Lansbury be nominated for anything and everything]
Judith Light, Other Desert Cities
Condola Rashad, Stick Fly

Best Actor in a Musical
Danny Burstein, Follies
Raul Esparza, Leap of Faith
Jeremy Jordan, Newsies
[I'm sure I would put Norm Lewis on this list if I ever see Porgy & Bess...]

Best Actress in a Musical
Jan Maxwell, Follies
Bernadette Peters, Follies
[after these two ladies, I don't really care]

Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, Evita
Leslie Odom Jr, Leap of Faith
Patrick Page, Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark

Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Rosalind Elias, Follies
Jayne Houdyshell, Follies
Elaine Page, Follies
Mary Beth Piel, Follies
Terri White, Follies
[I have a one-track mind, obviously]

I'm still trying to think of a way to sneak Charles Busch in here somewhere.  And Chita Rivera.  She did that one-night Actors Fund performance of The Visit that surely should net her some sort of award...  Good luck to everyone.  I'll probably be back tomorrow, complaining about one thing or another!  :)

Review - Don't Dress for Dinner, plus a tiny bit extra...

I’m fortunate that a friend had an extra ticket for Roundabout’s Don’t Dress for Dinner last night and that he asked me to join him.  Free theater is always more fun.  J   And we did have fun.

Don’t Dress for Dinner is a sequel, of sorts, to Boeing-Boeing, which was on Broadway a few years ago.  Boeing-Boeing seemed to be produced because it had a Tony Award-winning performance by Mark Rylance at its center; I can’t figure out why a theater would want to do Don’t Dress for Dinner.  I mean, I guess it’s relatively funny enough at times (though this translation isn’t as crisp as the one used for Boeing-Boeing), but nothing really special.  The actors are funny enough, but nothing really special (with one exception).  I had a fine time with my friend and did giggle and laugh fairly regularly, but it certainly wasn’t as fun as Boeing-Boeing, and the second act is a pretty dull slog.  Plus, there’s no enchanting curtain call to send you out on a high.  This production does make use of fun French pop music, though.  I still think they should sell a CD in the lobby.

Instead of wacky romantic hi-jinks in a swanky Paris apartment (with Mark Rylance and Bradley Whitford), we have wacky romantic hi-jinks in a stuffy suburban French home (with Ben Daniels and Adam Jones).  Now, god bless Ben and Adam, but they are not the physical comedians that Mark and Bradley were.  And now, inexplicably, they’re not American expatriates in Paris, they’re British expatriates in Paris.  I don’t get it.  Oh well.  But anyway, the action starts when Bernard invites his mistress down for the weekend when he assumes his wife is going out of town.  Of course, his wife doesn’t go out of town and all hell breaks loose.

Adam Jones is Bernard, and while he does have some charming moments, he’s just trying way too hard.  Ben Daniels fares better – he has a little of the loose-limbed quality of Bill Irwin, though the physical humor is a bit mechanical and feels overly-rehearsed.  Patricia Kalember looks lovely in her costumes, and has some funny reactions, but her role is probably the thinnest in the writing, so it was hard for her to make a real impression.  The true treasure in this show is Spencer Kayden, who hasn’t been on Broadway since she cracked me up as Little Sally in Urinetown.  She is completely and totally hysterical in this production, as the hired cook who becomes so much more as the evening wears on.  She is the only one who has farce in her bones, and is not pushing or forcing the comedy on us.  She is very nearly worth the price of admission.

Jennifer Tilly, on the other hand, is not.  She plays Bernard’s mistress, and as I was telling my boss earlier, her performance is so wrong, it’s right.  And she is truly from the Planet Tilly.  What she’s doing has no relation to farce, this play or the other characters, and yet, she’s so wrong, you laugh.  It’s weird.  I don’t blame her, though, I blame the director.  Clearly she was cast for her Jennifer Tilly-ness, but was it necessary?  I’m not sure.

The first act was pretty fast and funny, so, I guess if comps or severely discounted tickets come your way, you might have a good time at Don’t Dress for Dinner.  It’s certainly more fun than Spider-Man.  J    Would I have enjoyed this play more if I hadn’t seen Boeing-Boeing?  Hmmmmmm.  I just don’t know.  Probably not.  I probably would’ve still laughed, then promptly forgotten about it.  It’s just not that great a play.  But when compared with a superior production, it suffers in comparison even more.

That’s it.  I have no shows scheduled for the foreseeable future.  There is just something wrong with that.  Maybe I’ll see if I have energy for TKTS tomorrow (since I just couldn’t do another show last Tuesday night).  I’m thinking of doing a blog post about MY choices for the Tony nominees before Tuesday’s nominations.  I should probably see at least one more musical before I try that, since I only have two on my preliminary list so far… ;)

I'm just going to include a couple of random photos here at the end:  I went to a restaurant called et cetera et cetera the other night, to have drinks with office chums.  They have very tasty bar snacks (shown in the photo are the rosemary grissini) and a pretty large cocktail list.  I had the Rossini, which was proseco and raspberry puree.  DELICIOUS.  I had two.  :)   Then, yesterday, for some unknown reason, they decided to announce the cover boy for a new football video game in a big ceremony outside my office.  There was quite a crowd...

**Six years ago, I reviewed the much-reviled (by me) Roundabout production of The Threepenny Opera; five years ago, Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes were lovely in Deuce; four years ago, I saw the Albee double-feature of The American Dream/Sandbox; two years ago, I became obsessed by Barbara Cook's version of "Beautiful" in Sondheim on Sondheim; and last year, I was devastated by the power and beauty of The Normal Heart.



Review - The Lyons

I was very fortunate to receive a ticket to last night’s performance of Nicky Silver’s play The Lyons.  It turned out to be opening night (and the theater was nowhere near full, which was quite sad).  I was up in the mezzanine, so I didn’t get much in the way of celeb sightings.  I did see Julie Halston and Peter Bartlett when I was on my way into the theater, and then I saw Douglas Carter Beane on my way out.   So that was fun! 

I missed The Lyons when it played at the Vineyard last fall, but I was intrigued by it – both because it was by Nicky Silver, who I’ve always enjoyed, and because it was the play that caused Linda Lavin to turn down the Broadway productions of Other Desert Cities and Follies.  I’m sure Linda Lavin doesn’t really have ‘career trajectory’ thoughts in her head, but I did think it was fascinating that she would prefer to do an off-Broadway limited run instead of a big splashy Broadway show.  Of course, she was right, because she got to have her cake and eat it, too!!  J

Lavin is simply brilliant in the role of Rita Lyons, the matriarch of a SEVERELY dysfunctional family in the middle of a family crisis.  Every turn of phrase is expertly given, and she achieves maximum comic potential from her very first line.  She also digs deep and finds great emotional depth in the surprising (to me) final scene.  I thought she was sublime.  Her monologue about the gun?  GENIUS.

Dick Latessa is irascible, horrible and moving as Rita’s husband.  As he lies in his hospital bed, the bile that springs forth shouldn’t be funny, but it is.  Normally, I find continual use of obscenities to be a cop-out by a writer, but here, I think this device worked perfectly as a character choice that affected everyone around him, as opposed to just being gratuitous language.

Kate Jennings Grant is their single-mother/recovering-alcoholic daughter, and Michael Esper is their gay son.  They’ve both been called to say goodbye to their father in the hospital, and the secrets that come pouring out are played for laughs, mostly, but you also get a sense of the bottomless pain in this family.  I thought the first act was really expert.

I wasn’t as sold on the second act, especially the first scene.  Intellectually, I understand why Nicky Silver may have wanted a scene like this (I’m avoiding massive spoilers here), but it just didn’t work for me and almost felt like a scene from another play.  I also didn’t love Michael Esper’s work in this act.  I just don’t think his acting resonates for me – I also didn’t love his work in the Tony Kushner play at the Public last year.  I acknowledge that the reviews today really like his work, so mine is a minority opinion here.  But then the last scene, especially the choices that Linda Lavin makes, works like gangbusters.  I totally didn’t expect the play to go there, which was great fun for me.

I found a lot to relate to in The Lyons.  Issues of personal responsibility for your own happiness are very interesting to me.  There’s a lot of dark humor in this play – cancer, alcoholism, spousal abuse, gay-bashing, loveless marriages – these don’t seem like typically funny topics, but I tell you, these characters (and the author) are so smart and funny that you just can’t help laughing.  If the play as a whole is a little less than the individual elements, oh well.  I’m just glad I got to see the master class of acting that Linda Lavin is currently performing.  I’m guessing many discounts are available for this one, even after the love letters in today’s reviews, so definitely try to go.



Review - Massacre (sing to your children)

 I have yet another busy show week ahead (wow, is the end of the season jam-packed this year or what?!), but I wanted to throw down a few thoughts of a show I saw last Friday at Rattlestick, Jose Rivera’s Massacre (sing to your children).  Oh, and I forgot to get a photo of the marquee, but here's the program, and I got a shot of the new Freedom Tower as I was heading downtown...

[spoilers will follow in this review]  Clearly I thought the title would be a metaphor for something, or else this show may not have been at the top of my list of ‘must-see shows.’  J   But, no, no metaphor.  Just massacres.  And although this play is NOT my cup of tea in any way, shape or form, I do grudgingly appreciate what it was trying to do.

The play begins with an assault on all the audience’s senses, when a bloodied body rolls onto the stage, then other bloodied cast members, wearing weird animal masks, come careening onto the stage, with music blaring, lights flashing and much screaming.  It’s loud loud loud and immediately places you at the height of strong emotion.  You see almost orgiastic behavior, though there are some characters who have regret or weak stomachs (yes, we have vomiting into a bucket).  My eyes were closed for quite a stretch of the beginning of the play, but once the actors began to calm down and wash off, I could open my eyes and try to engage.

The seven bloody cast members have apparently killed their neighbor, who was the head of the small town where they all live.  Each cast member speaks to the atrocities committed at the hand of Joe, the gentleman they killed.  I guess we do have a metaphor here, because Joe seems to be a metaphor for a dictator of a small country (at least to me).  But each cast member also seems to be trying to convince themselves that what they did was the right thing.  But was savagely killing a killer really the right thing to do?  They begin to question, reason, then turn on each other, when suddenly there is loud knocking on the door.  Intermission.

It was at this point I thought I needed to leave.  I’m not good with all this violence, and since I had looked at the cast list in the program and knew Joe was going to be a character in the play, I began to think I wouldn’t be able to take a revenge scenario in the second act.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), I was sitting right next to the playwright, so leaving wasn’t an option.

I’m kinda glad I stayed, though, because I do think the second act was worthwhile.  Anatol Yusef, as Joe, was a really powerful actor and character, slithery and cool in an all-white costume and a blood red poppy in his lapel.  Even though in actuality he was outside the door of the room, in the play he’s on the inside – inside all of the characters’ heads and fears.  His dialogue is poetic and vivid.  He tries to tear down all the characters and their reasons for wanting to kill him.  He’s completely lethal.  The plot starts to turn, but it was also at this point that I had a bad feeling:  I began to count how many characters were left to hear their stories told.  For me, that meant the script was getting too long-winded.  Perhaps it was getting overly repetitious for me.  Also, the actors were starting to get more and more over-the-top in their acting, and if that was a stylistic/directorial choice, it didn’t work for me.  A little less, thank you, will really help me in.  But, as my theater-going companion pointed out, perhaps they didn’t want to let me in.  Emotionally engaging isn’t really the raison d’etre for Rattlestick productions.  So maybe if I saw this piece someplace else, we’d get a different approach.

Not that I could see this piece again, though, I don’t think.  It’s just a little too intense for my tastes.  I admired the production for going balls to the wall, and there were some striking images and strikingly poetic language, but ultimately, I’m really a wuss.  I freely admit it.  I just don’t like the stomach-churning anticipation of ‘what are they going to do with that ice pick?!?!'  I did amuse the playwright, though, a couple of times when I screamed and covered my face.  I think he liked my reactions. 

If you like this kind of type of work, you may want to check it out this week, because the playwright, Jose Rivera, is going into the cast for a few performances.  I do enjoy hearing a playwright speak his own words.  I don’t think I’ll be able to make a return visit, though.  Side note:  Jose was very nice to chat with and reassured us that we were outside the ‘splatter zone’ in the second act (our seats were in the fourth row - closer than that, beware). 

Reviews - Evita and The Big Meal

Gee, I haven’t had a two-show day in a long time, but yesterday I unexpectedly saw the matinee of Evita (my boss’s ticket-date canceled, so I got the nod) and then the evening performance of The Big Meal at Playwrights Horizons.  I definitely enjoyed them both!  Though I’m getting much too old to see two shows in one day – I feel almost hungover… ;)  

Evita is the first Broadway musical I ever saw.  I have very strong memories of it (the rocking chairs!), along with repeated viewings of the Tony broadcast numbers.   It’s the first cast album I ever purchased, so I’ve been listening to Patti and Mandy wail on those songs for YEARS.  It’s been so long, though, that I was looking forward to seeing a new take on the material.

On the whole, I enjoyed the revival.  I thought the staging was terrific; the choreography was fantastic; the sets and lights were stunning; the characterizations were solid.  If the show on the whole came off as less exciting as I remember it, well…ok.

I’ve never really been on the Ricky Martin bandwagon.  I saw him in Les Miz a million years ago – I remember thinking he looked quite fetching in the Marius costumes, but his singing was painful.  Painful as in “I’m fearing his vocal cords are going to come out of his mouth at any moment.”  Almost as painful as Pierce Brosnan’s singing in the Mamma Mia movie.  Blech.  I will say that his singing seemed much freer and stronger in Evita.  His sound was perfectly pleasant and he held the stage gracefully.  But he’s not very compelling.  He’s a genial narrator of sorts, instead of Patinkin’s Che Guevara/opposition to the Perons.  I think the show loses something in that change.  There’s no push/pull,  no tension.  Maybe the show is robbed of some of its electricity.  Ricky Martin finally got a chance to dance in the second act and he moves very nicely.  Perhaps they should’ve taken advantage of that earlier in the show.  The Argentine tango is used quite effectively throughout this production as a parallel to politics.  I liked how it was used, and think they could've utilized Ricky Martin better through the dance. 

Michael Cerveris is, as you might expect, wonderful.  J   He captures the pompousness and egotism of Peron, and includes an extra dimension of warmth and affection for Eva.  I liked how he saw her as an asset to his campaign, but also as a woman.  He sings beautifully (too bad he doesn’t have more to sing) and moves quite well, too.  He and Eva have a bit of a tango in “I’ll Be Surprisingly Good to You” that is very effective.

Yes, I’ve saved the star for last.  Elena Roger, who is originally from Argentina, played Eva to great acclaim in London a few years ago.  She’s a tiny slip of a thing, so to see that much ambition and raw appetite in such an itty bitty lady was quite interesting.  I liked her acting, her dancing was fantastic and her singing was…not.  God love her, she can’t really sing.  And, hello, if nothing else, the lead female in an Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera should be able to sing.  I’m not wrong here, am I?  I could’ve gone with the overly-nasal tone of her voice if she just could’ve hit the notes.  Sigh.  And I believe we have yet another reason why this show wasn’t as exciting as I would’ve wanted it to be.  But when she was dancing (and not singing), especially in “What’s New, Buenos Aires,” she was exhilarating. 

So…I guess I give Evita a qualified thumbs-up.  If you have memories of the original production emblazoned on your brain and you want the excitement of the Hal Prince version, you’ll probably be very disappointed in this revival.  But if you like the musical well-enough and don’t mind seeing it presented in a very different way (and without a powerhouse singer as Eva), you should check this one out.

A few months ago, I was at a seminar featuring playwrights Annie Baker and Dan LeFranc, talking about their work and careers.  They were both really charming and delightful, and the way Annie and Dan described Dan’s work made it sound like stuff I would really want to see.  So when tickets finally became available for Dan’s The Big Meal at Playwrights Horizons, I pounced on them.  And I was not disappointed.

 The Big Meal is about eighty years in the life of one family, presented at various restaurant’s dinner tables.  It speeds along at a quick clip, about 90 minutes, but you never feel rushed or short-changed.  The family dynamics are immediately familiar, yet you go to places you couldn’t really expect at the start.   The fantastic cast of eight plays everyone in the various generations, so we have a couple in their 20s, a couple in their late 30s, and an older couple of a certain age, plus two children.  So, the couple we meet in the beginning on their first date will eventually be played by the older actors, as the younger actors begin to play the children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.  It’s a wonderful conceit.  You’ve always heard ‘we become our parents,’ yes?  It’s quite moving to see that sentiment played out, yet not.  There are clichéd situations, but they’re never written, performed or directed in a clichéd manner.

The ephemeral aspects of time, sibling rivalry, birth, death—all aspects of the lives of three generations of a family are played out.  I think the way the author wrote about death, in particular, and the way the director has staged it, is genius.  I won’t spoil it, in case you want to see the show (which you should – they’ve just added another extension, so stop reading and buy tickets!), but it really takes balls to go there.  For the actors, too, I think.

All of the actors are grand, but I just want to single out Anita Gillette and Jennifer Mudge, as really finding so many layers in all of the characters they play.  And they even use the layers of the previous actor when they take on a role themselves.  Brilliant.

The show is quite funny and very touching and I highly recommend it.  In the interest of full disclosure, though, there were quite a few people in the audience last night who were bored out of their minds.  I know this because they began talking to each other in their outdoor voices, and/or began texting furiously.  I also have a couple of friends who didn’t enjoy it quite so much.  And, honestly, I do think it’s maybe ten minutes too long, with one too many ‘end scenes.’  But I found the play to have a fresh voice on an old topic and I look forward to what Dan LeFranc brings us next. 


Reviews - End of the Rainbow and Newsies

I got to see three shows this weekend (plus spend time with friends), thanks to the generosity of out-of-town pals.  Since one of the shows was a return visit to Death of a Salesman (where I found Philip Seymour Hoffman a tad more effective and Linda Emond less so), I’ll only speak on the other two.

Friday night, I went with a grad school chum to see End of the Rainbow (thanks, grad school chum!).  I was curious about seeing this, since much has been written about Tracie Bennett and her performance as Judy Garland.  I don’t remember hearing much about the play itself, which purports to be a dramatization about Judy preparing for concerts in London months before her death.

Well, I think the buzz on Tracie Bennett is certainly justified.  She’s giving an incredible performance, not just an impersonation.  She sounds uncannily like Garland (of course she doesn’t have the ineffable specialness of Judy, but who does?  you suspend disbelief on that and move on) and just tears into this icon, making her all-too human.  I’ll admit to thinking a couple of times, “oh, sister, dial it down,” but then she would do something so breathtakingly interesting, that I was back on board.  Though I’m firmly in the “Nina Arianda for the Tony” bandwagon, I wouldn’t quibble with Bennett taking the award.

Michael Cumpsty is his usually wonderful self as Anthony, Judy’s gay accompanist.  So much is going on behind that placidly kind face.  And the look on his face when Judy makes her choice at the end is heartbreaking.  Tom Pelphrey as Mickey Deans is less successful, but the playwright has also done him no favors.  I found his performance very shallow and surface-y.  I realize the character is probably shallow and surface-y, but it seemed to me an actor issue.  The set is gorgeous, the on-stage band is terrific.  The costumes are nice and seem appropriate to the period and the characters.

BUT, I think this play is kinda terrible.  It’s trying to be too many things – a docudrama, a lurid tabloid exploitation, a concert-within-a-play… and it fails at all things, I think.  Who wants to see Judy Garland crawling around on the floor as a dog, lifting her leg to pee?  Who wants to see Mickey Deans stuffing pills down Judy’s throat?  Who wants to hear more arguments about who loves Judy more – gay men or straight men?  Then there were the monologues with all the exposition we didn’t really need.  Judy’s children were not mentioned once (for legal reasons, I’m certain).  I didn’t find any of the dialogue to be dramatic or interesting, though Bennett and Cumpsty delivered so well (Bennett is especially good at the bitchy comeback) that I was caught up in the characterizations while simultaneously being repulsed by the dialogue.

I guess, on the whole, I’d say the show is worth seeing (via a discount only) for Bennett and Cumpsty, but if you will be offended by the disrespect (and bad writing) shown to Judy, stay away. 

Moving on.  When my other out-of-town friend was asking me which shows I’d like to see with him, he said something like, “well, I have tickets for Newsies, ugh, which you probably don’t want to see.”  I’m like, uh, YEAH I want to see Newsies!  Hello!  I’m one of those crazy gals who love the movie!  And, double hello, I’m a single woman of a certain age, of COURSE I want to see dancing newsboys!  Please.  ;)

Newsies is a bouncy, tuneful musical that surely doesn’t want anything more than to be a bouncy, tuneful musical.  There’s no great wit or point of view, but it’s warmhearted,  well-crafted and performed with good cheer.  The audience was filled with kids who were screaming with pleasure, so that was also fun.  I definitely had a good time.

I did feel the most successful songs were the ones from the movie.  Alan Menken's music and Jack Feldman's lyrics are quite exciting in those group numbers for the newsboys.  The newer songs seemed of a different style (which I guess makes sense, since they were written more than twenty years past the original impulse), plus they seemed to slow whatever dramatic build there is in the story.  I did, however, like the love song added in the second act, and the new love-interest’s character song.  Harvey Fierstein’s book seemed a bit subdued, though the waiter in the newsboys’ favorite deli had some choice zingers.

Jeremy Jordan is a charming leading man.  Though the script doesn’t ask much more of him than to be charming, he nevertheless holds the stage and commands attention.  Poor John Dossett has terrible scenes and an even worse song as Joseph Pulitzer.  Which he has to sing twice.  Blech.  Capathia Jenkins is also saddled with a terrible song as the music hall hostess with a heart of gold, and she must’ve been under-the-weather, because she delivered the song most underwhelmingly.  I've seen and enjoyed her before, so I can only assume it’s a big number that she just couldn’t do because of her illness.  Kara Lindsay as the love-interest (this is a new character, and I’m a tad conflicted on her – she’s a newspaper reporter yet has a relationship with a seventeen-year-old newsboy?) looks like a Disney princess come to life and sang nicely.

The other stars of the show are the ensemble, though, and their rough-and-tumble athletic choreography (by Christopher Gatelli) is really engaging.  There’s leaping and somersaulting and backflipping (and a tap number!  hurrah!), with enough energy to lift the spirits of even the biggest curmudgeon.  If some of the more balletic choreography looked out of place (as did the tallest newsboy who just couldn’t un-classical himself enough), those moments were few and far between.  Their group numbers were really terrific – their voices blended nicely in the songs and their dance chemistry was excellent. 

I didn’t love the scaffolding/rolling set, though it was effective in one number in the second act, and the projections were used maybe too sparingly.  They just looked like accidents rather than part of the set, and I’m sure they weren’t visible to many parts of the audience at any given time.  The costumes were good and the lighting was especially fine. 

So, thumbs up on Newsies from me.  If you’re not, however,  a fan of the movie or of dancing newsboys, I’d say stay home.  lol   

Food photos I've neglected lately

For some reason, I've been neglectful of several restaurants I've vistited recently where I had really tasty food.  I'll try to remedy that now.

I finally stopped by the new wine bar in Astoria - DiWine.  It's only a couple of blocks from my apartment and I've meant to go for...forever.  Usually, when I pass by the restaurant, it's packed with loud people.  For some reason, on this night, it was completely empty.  Yay for me!  So, I dropped by and had one server all to myself.  Unfortunately for me, it was not the devastatingly attractive young man who waited on the couple who came in after me.  Oh well...

I started off with a glass of malbec, which was delicious, then I got a personal pizza.  The menu here is very meat-heavy, and I wasn't really in the mood for a big fish entree.  So a mushroom and basil pizza sounded good to me.  And it was.  It might've been a little too cheese-y (yes, there is such a thing), but the crust was good and the mushrooms were tasty.  I'd definitely order it again.  The vibe of DiWine is nice--the music isn't too loud and the lighting is all by candle (to loosely quote The Nanny, after a certain age, a woman's best lighting is by candle and/or moon...).  So thumbs up on DiWine.  I'll definitely be back, though, again, it's not an everyday place.  The prices are a little high for my neighborhood, in my humble opinion.

For my birthday, some pals and I went to West Bank Cafe.  I love West Bank Cafe.  They always have a nice wine list and very tasty food.  When we got there, our server promptly informed us that the deep fryer was down, so no fried foods.  Hmmmm.  Well, I guess we wouldn't be getting the risotto ball appetizer.  Oh well.  Instead we shared the guacamole and the truffled mac & cheese.  Yummmmm!  That mac & cheese was to die for.  I know it looks like soup in the photo, but it wasn't nearly that runny.  The pasta was orzo and it had gruyere, fontina and parmesan cheeses, with a little truffle oil on top.  It was rich and earthy and delicious.  I don't think I could ever eat an entire dish of it by myself, but it was great to have a third of it.

I was going to be a good vegetarian for my entree and get their spaghetti squash dish, but I just couldn't resist getting scallops.  Hey, it was my birthday!  :)   And boy, was I glad I got this dish!  We have another candidate for best dish of 2012.  It was yum yummy.  The scallops were served on top of a velvety celery root puree, along with some pan-roasted brussels sprouts and butternut squash.  All around the dish was a pomegranate vinaigrette along with some pomegranate seeds.  Wow!  The acidity of the vinaigrette really cut through the richness of the puree and the meatiness of the scallops.  And the seeds were a great crunch element.  It was really just a perfectly balanced dish for me.  Thumbs WAY up.

For dessert, I got my uber-favorite, the frozen lemon mousse with a toasted meringue on top, and candied pistachios and fruit compote on the bottom.  I LOVE this dessert.  Plus, look how prettily they decorated it for my birthday!!   Sorry about the bite being missing, I just had to have a taste immediately.  :)

When I got back from my work travels, I met with my darling GNO angels for a dinner at Pigalle.  We used to go to Pigalle a lot, so when we went this time, we were a little startled to see the prices were significantly higher.  So we probably won't be stopping there as we used to.  Maybe it's our fault the prices went up - their volume went down when we stopped going more regularly...

Anyway, I got the fish special of the evening, pan-seared tilapia, with basil mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach.  It was very yummy, if nothing really special.  In fact, the spinach was VERY underseasoned, so I didn't finish it once the delicious buerre blanc was gone.  But the mashed potatoes were tasty and the fish was well-cooked.  Plus, sorry to be coarse, but it was $10 less than the other fish entrees on the menu!  That's crazy!

Prices did not deter us from getting the chocolate mousse cake for dessert.  We just shared it.  In the interest of fiscal responsibility.  ;)   It was rich and delicious.  We also got a scoop of coffee ice cream, which came with a little container of hot fudge.  Jeepers, that hot fudge was amazing!  I immediately put a mini-spoonful of it in my cappuccino!  Sorry I didn't get a photo...

That's all the food stuff that's fit to print for now.  I'll just end with some photos I got on various planes lately.  Not that they have anything to do with food.  I just like plane photos.  Enjoy!

I guess I can't fill out a certain kind of survey anymore! (TMI alert)

You know the kind of survey I mean - the one that gets e-mailed around your circles of friends and asks questions like: who was your first prom date, do you prefer vanilla or chocolate, what is your favorite color and DO YOU HAVE ANY TATTOOS??  Now that I have to answer 'yes' to that last question, no more surveys for me...

Yes, the saga of my new breasts is (hopefully) complete.  I made a visit to Dr Vera Wang's tasteful office on the East Side yesterday and had my nipples tattooed.  For some reason, I had sort of forgotten about this appointment.  For one thing, I made it in January.  And for another, I guess it's part of my denial/avoidance thing.  I'm just tired of thinking about it.  And I'm not looking forward to another period of breast high-maintenance...

I got to the offices early and was ushered in quickly.  As I was changing into the lovely peach-colored robe, I took a couple of photos - one of yet another syringe, and one of a color wheel and Spirograph-looking wheel guide.  Interesting!  Dr Vera Wang came in and made small talk.  Then she showed me, on the Spirograph thing, which sizes she thought would be appropriate for me (I ended up choosing a circumference a bit smaller than the 'normal' size), then we decided which shades would be good for my skin tone.  I thought it was funny she thought a combination of beige 2, beige 3 and rose would go well with my "red" hair.  I didn't remind her that my red hair is fake.  Just like my breasts, I guess.  :)

The process was pretty painless.  She did numb me, since I'm starting to have some sensation, especially at the top of my breasts (which she said was excellent news - uh, ok).  Then she got out a little machine that looked and sounded like a dental drill.  She drew the circles on, colored them in with the custom-mixed pigment, then drilled/tattooed it on.  I felt a little pressure, but that's it.  It took her a couple of tries to get the colors quite right.  She had me take a look and, yes, I got a little teary.  There they were.  Breasts that almost looked as they did last year.  Not really, but close enough.  The color looks a little dark right now, but she said that's because the tattooing brought blood to the surface and the colors will lighten over the next week or so.  More gauze bandages, antibiotic cream and the return of my stupid surgical bra that makes me look like I have the chest of a pudgy twelve-year-old boy.  Oh well.  I can stand it for one more week.  The whole tattooing process took about a half hour.

I see Dr Vera Wang next month, to make sure the tattoos are right, then I'll only see her once a year after that.  It will feel strange, seeing these doctors occasionally instead of all the time.  But it will help me get back to feeling like myself, I'm sure.  She took one last look before she left and said, "You look beautiful."  Thanks to you, Dr Vera Wang.

One more fun photo.  I admit I was a little anxious walking from the subway over to her office this morning.  Imagine my happiness seeing this billboard on my way.  Imaginary boyfriends always make a day better and put a spring in a girl's step... :)

**Six years ago, I reviewed the hideous stage production of Festen; five years ago, it was the Kevin Spacey Moon for the Misbegotten; four years ago, I saw Candide at New York City Opera; three years ago, I greatly enjoyed the Lincoln Center revival of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.  April is always a big theater month for me...

Review - Judith of Bethulia

Clearly, I don’t even need to do a review of this show.  It’s the new Charles Busch play.  You all KNOW what I’m going to say:

THUMBS UP!!!!

Seriously, Charles Busch deserves an Obie, Drama Desk, Tony, Olivier, Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, Kennedy Center Honor, Sarah Siddons Award, Nobel Peace Prize and whatever hell else we can give him.  To me, the man is a treasure.  A TREASURE, I tell you!!  J

Following The Divine Sister and its witty take on films featuring nuns,  Judith of Bethulia is a ‘celebration’ of biblical epics.  The preshow music even included tunes from The Ten Commandments.  Oh yeah.  I love that movie!  This play is everything you expect from a Charles Busch piece: high brow/low brow comedy, wit, camp, warmth, affection, craft and joy.  It was tons of fun and full of laughs.  If it didn’t have quite the sustained giddiness of The Divine Sister, well, that’s ok.  It’s early and they’re still playing.

Charles is playing Judith, a wealthy Jewish widow who isn’t quite what she appears to be.  How she evolves into the woman we see at the end of the evening is a tons-of-fun journey.  As always, Charles is gorgeously attired and wigged (seriously, I need to have my hair and makeup done by Charles’ peeps – he’s gorgeous!).  His first entrance is frankly worth the price of admission!  I won’t spoil it for you.  Regarding his co-stars, Charles has again surrounded himself with actors who are as fast and funny as he is – Mary Testa, Jen Cody, Jennifer Van Dyck and Christopher Borg were my favorites.  And another reason to love Charles (as if I need one):  after the curtain call, he steps forward and gives such a lovely thank-you to the audience.  It’s genuine and heartfelt and reflects exactly how we all feel watching him.  Love-fests are so few and far between, I say indulge in them when you can.  J

Of course I urge everyone to see this show.  Now, truth be told, the entire run at Theater for the New City is sold out, BUT they have a waiting list and I can tell you with absolute certainty that there were empty seats last night.  Two of them were in front of me.  So don’t give up!  

I guess I’m unable to write a very critical review.  Sorry, but I have next to no objectivity about Charles or his work.  I just love him.  I knew very little about him or his work when I moved to New York (shame on me), then I happened to see him speak on a panel.  He was so charming and so delightful, I immediately decided to read all his plays.  The first play of his I saw was Queen Amarantha at the WPA in 1997.  And...I was hooked.  I’ve seen them all since then.  I just love his very sincere, very real love for the movies, theater and women/actresses.  It all shows in his work.  I don’t enjoy camp for camp’s sake most of the time, but his stuff transcends.  Plus, it's just joyfully fun.  In my humble opinion, of course.  Your mileage may vary.  J

It's almost ballet time!!

I'm so excited - I have my ballet tickets!  Only four-plus weeks to wait!  This season, I'll be seeing Giselle, La Bayadere, Onegin, Thirteen Diversions/Apollo/Firebird, Romeo and Juliet, The Dream, Swan Lake and Le Corsaire.  If casting holds true to the current schedule, I'll be seeing all my favorites - my Julie (Kent), the divine Marcelo Gomes, Natalia Osipova, Polina Semionova, Diana Vishneva, Roberto Bolle, Herman Cornejo, and Ivan Vasiliev.  And my uber-favorite, David Hallberg, three times!!  Whee!  I'm thinking I may need to also pick up a ticket to Ethan Stiefel's final performance with the company in July.  Hmmmm.  Perhaps I should send an e-mail over to ABT asking everyone to please wrap themselves in bubble wrap so they stay happy and healthy the whole season.  :)

[In case you were ever wondering, no, at any given date, I have no savings, no money, no nothing.  Just soul-satisfying artistic happiness.  And debt.  :) ]

Ballet time also means Summer Friday time!  Hooray!  I can hardly wait for summer Fridays, either.  This year, I'm thinking of doing the museum thing again, since there are so many I still haven't seen.  Since my Diners Deck has expired, I'm also thinking of having lunch at restaurants with chefs I've seen on Food Network and/or Top Chef Masters.  There are so many to choose from!  I'm definitely going to be trying Geoffrey Zakarian's Lambs Club, since it's practically across the street from my office, and hello, he IS my boyfriend.  Ha ha.  But I also for sure want to hit Alex Guarnaschelli's Butter, Marcus Samuelsson's Red Rooster, Aaron Sanchez's Centrico, and Marc Forgione's Forgione.  I also want to try the restaurants of Jonathan Waxman, Floyd Cardoz, Susur Lee, and Maneet Chauhan.  I seriously need to get a second (and third?) job, and should probably start working out now...

Bring on the summer!!!

Review - Leap of Faith

Hi everybody!  I’ve got a jam-packed theater week coming up!  I’m getting tired just thinking about it!  ;)   Last night, I saw Leap of Faith via a TDF ticket.  My seat was great, about twelve rows back, on the side/off-center aisle.  Word of warning: it is FREEZING in that theater!  Thank heavens I had a trusty scarf with me!

Well, really, all I need to say about the show is—Raul Esparza wears leather pants.  Thumbs up.

Thank you.  I hope you enjoyed the review.  J   OK, OK, I’ll go on.  But Raul is beyond hot. 

Anyway, I had a good-enough time at the show, but I think it could be a whole lot better.  I’m not sure the framing device that they’re using really works; it might make more sense to just tell the story chronologically.  But maybe not.  I don’t know.  I’m actually puzzling over why the show wasn’t totally successful for me.  I like the basic premise.  I like the actors.  The songs (by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater) were fine, though (oddly enough for a musical) I think there may be too many of them.  At least, there are too many songs that sound alike.  The gospel numbers all ran together for me.  I preferred the gospel music in Menken’s Sister Act to this, though Leap of Faith’s quieter numbers, away from the revival tent, were quite nice.   There were a couple of times, though, where I understood and agreed with the sentiment and placement of the song, but I didn’t like the actual song.  Does that make sense?  And at intermission, I found myself humming “Skid Row” from Little Shop, which may mean I got a generic Menken feel out of this music.

Apparently, the earlier production that they did of Leap of Faith in LA caused the producers to bring in Warren Leight as a co-librettist.  I generally like Warren’s work, but I didn’t really get a sense of him here.  The book was pretty generic.  And though I appreciated the script’s not going with the “laughline-a-minute” technique that a lot of movies-to-musicals use, I could’ve used a bit of a lighter touch.  And more character development.  We’re thrown a lot of character information and are just supposed to run with it.  One or two more book scenes might’ve helped with that.  As it was, I didn’t really get engaged until about fifteen minutes before the end of the first act.  That’s a long wait.  The second act works better, I think, because there are more character songs and less gospel songs.  I will say I was moved at the end – even though you can see the ending coming a mile away (I didn’t see the original Steve Martin movie).  I was also a tad confused with the character monologues (which didn't really illuminate the characters) - some of them seemed to take place in the 'now' and some seemed to be in the 'then,' which I found odd.  Perhaps it's because I wasn't fully on board with the framing device...

I thought the direction was pretty disjointed – actors seemed at times to be wandering around the stage aimlessly and without a sense of space co-existing with the set design.  The choreography was hot and cold for me – I really liked a couple of the group numbers, but I didn’t like the choir choreography.  And I hated the costumes.  HATED them (well, except for the leather pants, of course).  And I’m normally not one to really notice costumes.

The cast was excellent, starting and ending with boyfriend Raul.  He’s just electric and has a wonderful character arc and lovely chemistry with his co-stars.  His 11:00 number is amazing.  He owns the stage and this is really his show, all the way.  I think he flubbed some lyrics towards the end of the show, but charmingly kept going until he was back on track.  Jessica Phillips (who took over for Brooke Shields from the LA production) is fine as our leading lady, though she could use a little more character development.  Her big solo in the second act is terrific, though.  A friend of mine from undergrad is making her Broadway debut in a small role, so hooray for her!  I got pretty choked up seeing her beautiful face on that stage.  Leslie Odom Jr as the rival evangelist was terrific, as was Kecia Lewis-Evans as his mom.  I also thought the boy playing the disabled son, Talon Ackerman, was quite good.  Maybe that character is the way into the story.  Hmmm.  Let me think on that…

So, to sum up, I had a perfectly pleasant evening, watching tremendously talented people share their talent and work their butts off.  If the material wasn’t yet quite up to their talent, well, ok.  I hear they’re still working on the first act, so maybe Warren can find a way to strengthen those characters without slowing down the story.  The show doesn’t open until April 26, so there seems to be time to tinker.  I will take a leap of faith with Warren.  :)  But Raul, and those leather pants, are rocking the house.  


Happy Easter!

To celebrate Easter, I present some of my favorite shots of flowers or other Easter-y type poses.  Have a happy day, all...