Review - The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Ever since Roundabout announced they were doing The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and that it would star Chita Rivera, my co-godparent (TW) and I have been so excited about seeing the show together.  He saw the original production and I almost saw it (I still growl with rage when I think about my sister's friends who refused to see it with me), but I've enjoyed the cast album tremendously over the years.  When TDF had a few tickets for yesterday's matinee, we snapped them up!  We had no idea what kind of hijinks would occur!  :)

We booked the tickets before the Hurricane Sandy nonsense, but thank heavens it was a matinee that started at 2pm.  When we found out the subways would close at 7pm, we cancelled our post-show dinner, though I did walk with TW as he hurried to Penn Station to get back to Jersey - I made a pit stop at my office to get some work to take care of from home.  (as I write this, the winds are really blowing.  I hope my a/c doesn't fall out or the repeatedly-wonky roof doesn't fall in)

When we settled into our mezzanine seats at Studio 54, we noticed that the mezz wasn't full at all.  I'm guessing a lot of people decided not to even come in for the matinee.  The ushers were moving some people downstairs, but we didn't get moved.  But our seats were good.  Then...the director, Scott Ellis came out.  I said to TW, this can't be good.  Ellis came out and thanked us all for braving the elements, then dropped the bad news:  Chita was unwell and wouldn't be performing.  We all groaned.  Ellis said he understood our disappointment and Chita was more disappointed to not perform, but he hoped we would all stay to support the understudy.  And even if we stayed, we could use our tickets to come back.  I hope he cleared that with the box office before giving that option!  But after he said that, it looked like most people stayed and settled in.

So, this was still an early preview, and I don't think it's nice to be overly critical, but I'll give a few impressions.  I think people are still working through some things, but on the whole, this show is ever-so-ready for primetime.  What a fun production!  Everyone seems to be having a great time and that includes the audience.  The score is terrifically well-sung and the staging is vigorous and grand.  I didn't love some of the choreography, but that's ok.  Chita's understudy, Alison Cimmet (at least, that's the name in the Playbill), was quite good and the rest of the cast was so supportive of her.  I'm guessing it's the first time she's gone on.  I loved the whole cast, but especially enjoyed Jessie Mueller and Andy Karl as the Landless siblings.  They were just full of fun.

I guess I've used the word 'fun' at lot, but that's exactly what the show is.  The whole music hall set-up is maintained throughout all of Studio 54, and the entire staff is filled with good cheer and a generous spirit.  They've put together a beautiful physical production to surround the fantastic cast, so I think Roundabout has a winner here.  I'm looking forward to going back!

Review - Bring It On

I finally caught Bring It On last night.  I don't know why it took me so long, I like the first movie well enough (the musical has been 'inspired by' all the movies, but not literally adapted from any of them), and I'm a big fan of the collaborators Tom Kitt, Amanda Green, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeff Whitty.  I also thought Andy Blankenbuehler's work on In the Heights was fantastic.  So, with that celebrated a team, why did it take me so long to get there?  Who knows?  But once they announced a closing date, I figured I'd better get myself over to the St. James.

I guess the ushering staff is used to people coming in couples or in groups.  When the usher looked at my ticket, he said "Just you, then?  Are you meeting someone?"  I said, uh, no, can't single people see this show?  He got a bit flustered.  Note to self - don't passive-agressively banter with the ushers.  Then there was the man in the aisle seat who refused to let me pass to my seat.  He just sort of pretended he didn't know what was going on, so I went to the other side and went in that way.  Sigh.  Whatever.  The youngsters sitting on one side of me were quite excited to be there and even took a flash picture of their Playbill.  Why it had to be during the overture and not another time, I have no idea.  They were pretty amusing though - I overheard the guy say to the gal "Wow, you're really smitten by him!  What did he do to tick you off so much?!"  Um, not sure that word means what he THINKS it means.  The gals in front of me wanted everyone to hear them talk and laugh, so they proceeded to talk and laugh in their outdoor voices.  No, not even their outdoor voices.  Their standing-next-to-a-landing-helicopter voices.  I had to shush them a couple of times.  I should've just moved, but I can be so stubborn. 

 

Actually, quite a few people in the audience were talking.  I guess they're so used to seeing the movies in their own home, it doesn't dawn on them to shush during a live performance.  After a couple of SHs, I gave up.   They were paying attention to the show, so I decided to let it go.  For once.  OH, and on my way into the theater, there was a board that listed quite a few understudies who would be performing, but since there was no slip of paper in my Playbill, I'm not quite sure who all the understudies were.  I hope I don't mess up anybody's name.

 

Anyway, after all that, I really enjoyed the show!  It's all sorts of adorable, with a really energetic young cast, a tuneful score and a pretty humorous book.  It seemed fairly obvious to me which songs were composed by Kitt and which by Miranda, but all the songs fit together very well and fit the characters/situations cleanly.  And the choreography, from the dance routines to the amazing cheer routines, was fantastic!  Andy did a great job with the choreography, but his direction is also spot on.  The pacing and movement of the show is brisk, but never hurried.

 

The lead gal, Taylor Louderman (who so reminded me of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless), was really good.  Smart and funny, yet vulnerable.  She gets all the highs and lows of a teen having to change schools in her senior year exactly right.  Her singing and dancing are terrific, though she did throw in a few Liza Minnelli-type S/Sh sounds, which were a little off-putting.  But I stopped noticing as the show went on.  Adrienne Warren is excellent as Danielle, the leader of the dance crew at the new high school, with sass and heart.  The girls' big 'I really like you' number seemed to come out of nowhere, but it was excellently performed.  I'm pretty sure I saw understudies for two of the most fun supporting characters, Bridget, the wannabe cheerleader who goes from outcast to popular in her new school, and La Cienega, a transgendered teen at the new school.  If the pictures I saw in the playbill can be trusted, I believe I saw Janet Krupin as Bridget and Michael Mindlin as La Cienega.  Please forgive me if the names are wrong - but they were both fantastic!  They found all the laughs, but also created real teenagers who could be excellent role models for the teens in the audience.  Well done, both.  Actually, the whole cast was quite good.  Thumbs way up on the entire cast.

 

I really enjoyed Bring It On.  It's sunny and good-natured, which appeals to me right about now.  I'm sorry I didn't take my sister to see it when she was in town, I think she'd have liked it, too.  Though I'm sure theater companies across America will be doing this fun show for a long time to come.

 

p.s.  subway story:  I was waiting for the R train, seemingly forever, to go home.  A guy walked past me and very helpfully pointed out to me that his c*ck was really big.  Good to know.  And good thing I was playing Solitaire on my iPhone at the time.  I would've hated to actually make eye contact with him when he told me...

 

A weekend of beautiful music and beautiful friends

A beautiful gal pal has a friend who works for ABT, so she secured a couple of tickets from him for last Saturday night's performance at City Center!  Score!  I love seeing different casts in ballets - it's ever so fun to compare and contrast.  Plus, since they were doing the new Ratmansky ballet again, I could get a better sense of some of the choreography.  AND I would get to see my favorite, Julie Kent, perform in another piece!  A bonus all around. 

First, however, we met at PizzArte, a Neopolitan restaurant near City Center.  I'd never been to this restaurant before, but my gal pals and I love to try pizza at Neopolitan restaurants around town to see if the food actually compares to the food we had in the REAL Naples!  It's a hobby, what can I say.  PizzArte's website is rather homey, so I was surprised to see such a spare and modern-looking restaurant.  The bar is downstairs and the restaurant is upstairs.  I will say that the seats are awfully close together upstairs, which makes walking to and from your table a bit of a pain, but oh well. 

 

I had a delicious glass of the falanghina, which was quite nice.  Then we started with an appetizer called masanielli, which is described on the menu as fried finger dough with cherry tomatoes and basil.  Um, anything that calls itself 'fried dough' is ok by me.  It was awfully tasty!  Then I ordered the Verace pie, which is like a margherita pie, except it had bufala mozzarella.  Yum.  Now, I know what you're thinking:  but MissTari, you don't eat before a performance!  Yes, you would normally be correct, but since the ABT chum (and my new best friend) wanted to go out to dinner beforehand, I couldn't subject someone I just met to my weirdo quirks.  I didn't eat all day, then I just had a few bites at dinner and took the rest home to enjoy later.  Thankfully, we had no ill effects during the performance.  :) 

 

Heading back to City Center, my new best friend from ABT gave us a backstage tour AND gave us swag!  Whee!  I have two new ABT t-shirts and I got to see some dancers warming up backstage!  It was so exciting, I could hardly stand it.  It's probably a good thing I didn't see Marcelo Gomes or someone.  I may have spontaneously combusted.  Our seats in the house were excellently positioned in the center orchestra!  Double whee!  I rarely see dance from so close!  It definitely was a different perspective - you get less of a sense of the choreographic patterns, but more of a sense of the dancers themselves.  Either way works for me.  The ONLY bad thing about sitting in the orchestra, and it's not really a bad thing, is that I can't get my camera out and take vaguely illegal photos during curtain call.  Oh well.

 

As the house lights went down, a disembodied voice announced that Herman Cornejo had injured himself during the matinee (big groan from the audience) and that Craig Salstein would be taking his place (a smattering of applause).  I enjoyed Craig's dancing on Thursday night, so although I was disappointed to miss Herman dance in the Tharp piece, I knew we were in good hands.

 

First up was the Ratmansky.  I enjoyed seeing it from close-up, to see even more of the whimsy put in the choreography.  Veronika Part and Roberto Bolle danced the major soloists, and they were terrific.  If Polina Semionova was all beautiful back and arms and neck last time, Veronika Part was all gorgeous legs legs legs on Saturday.  She has amazing legs and feet.  She seemed to push deeper into her knees, whereas Polina seemed to skim the surface.  Both gorgeous interpretations of the choreography.  Roberto Bolle, like Marcelo Gomes, is just not right, but his loveliness is more naive and youthful, whereas Marcelo is more virile and mature.  Again, both quite nice.  Actually, nice is an understatement.  Stella Abrera and Sascha Radetsky were the other soloists and they were very good together.  Much better than some of the partnering issues over the summer.  I enjoyed them.  If Jared Matthews doesn't have quite the oomph that Herman Cornejo has, well, who does?  But Jared acquitted himself nicely in his solos.  Thumbs up again for Symphony #9, and I look forward to seeing it again next summer, along with the two other Shostakovich pieces Ratmansky is cooking up.

 

The second piece was The Moor's Pavane, choreographed by Jose Limon with music by Henry Purcell.  I love me some Purcell.  Seriously.  I've never seen this piece before, but several friends of mine have mentioned that they enjoy it, so I figured I would too.  And I did!  It's a variation of the Othello story, with Marcelo Gomes as the Moor, Julie Kent as his wife, Cory Stearns as his friend, and Veronika Part as the friend's wife.  This is a powerful piece, filled with passion, rage, love, hate, all done in a civilized ritualized dance.  The juxtaposition is amazing.  Marcelo Gomes, as per usual, was fantastic as the Moor - all smoldering torment and emotion.  And he looked fantastic in those regal robes.  I'm sure I'm biased, but I also loved my Julie.  She was gorgeously delicate and so beautiful.  I felt her love and her pleading and confusion.  Cory Stearns and Veronika Part were also terrific, very lusty and devious.  Each dancer was crystal clear in their emotional life - bravo.  I hope to see this piece again soon.

 

The last piece of the evening was In the Upper Room, choreographed by Twyla Tharp with music by Philip Glass.  Good golly, this piece is a ballbuster.  It moves at a thousand miles per hour, with that percussive Glass music pounding in your brain (in a good way!) - I don't even know how these dancers can finish the final variation without falling down.  Wow.  Just.  Wow.  And the audience went nuts for it.  The entrances and exits through the steam were spectacular and so was the energy and verve of the entire cast.  I especially enjoyed Simone Messmer and I adored the two gals who were always together, I think they were Skylar Brandt and Nicole Graniero.  But, really, everyone was topnotch and it was an exhilarating way to end the evening.  Oh, ABT, how I will miss you until I see Nutcracker in December...

 

Sunday, I went with another handsome dear one to see the NY Virtuoso Singers at Merkin Concert Hall.  He has a friend in the company and she generously offered us comps.  There was a bit of a contretemps to get into the building, since the union is picking Merkin Hall (like the photo of the rat?!), then the box office didn't have a record of our tickets, but, luckily, the lovely house manager intervened and we got excellent seats to the concert.  This was part one of the Virtuoso Singers' 25th Anniversary Concert, and they performed twelve world premiere pieces, commissioned especially for their anniversary.  The other thirteen pieces will be performed next March.  I know next to nothing about contemporary choral music, but I always love beautiful music and beautiful singing.   As always, the story pieces spoke to me more than the abstract ones.  I am such a creature of habit. 

 

Of the twelve pieces, I think I loved two, really enjoyed six of them, appreciated a couple, and disliked a couple.  That's probably a pretty good ratio.  Next time, though, I will be sure to NOT to read the composers' notes about their compositions in the program beforehand - one gentleman just ticked me off in his bio, so then I was predisposed to NOT enjoy his piece.  I need to work on my whole grudge thing.  But the piece that opened the second act and featured a beautiful youth choir, brought tears to my eyes.  Can't put a price on that, so I'll live with my grudge to get to the tears.  :)

After the concert, my handsome dear one and I went to dinner at Emerald Inn, a cute little pub over on Columbus Avenue.  It was great to have some alone time to chat with my handsome dear one.  I ordered the fish and chips, which were yum yummy.  They had some other tasty-sounding food on their menu, so I'd like to go back.  And after dinner, we stopped at a new (to us) place called Bomboloni serving gelato and doughnuts!  We had delicious gelato (I can highly recommend the chocolate and the coconut) and will have to go back for doughnuts.  Hooray for gelato and doughnuts!! 

 

What a wonderful weekend.  Even though I was tired before I left my apartment each afternoon (boy, am I tired of feeling tired), spending time with my dear ones and reveling in the beauty and art NYC provides me, made me again so happy and grateful to live in this city.  Viva New York!!!  :)

 

ABT at City Center

Last night, I made the trek to City Center to see ABT and it was fantastic!  Everyone's shocked to hear I enjoyed myself, I'm sure.  But I've been looking forward to seeing their fall season for a long time now, and last night's performance certainly didn't disappoint.  It was a lovely evening with beautiful dancing and an awesomely handsome date.  I'll apologize for my horribly blurry photos in advance...

First up was The Leaves are Fading.  This piece, with choreography by Antony Tudor and music by Dvorak, premiered at ABT in 1978, but I've never seen it performed live before.  I've seen bits and pieces of it on film, however.  It's so lovely, with lyricial dancing and beautiful people in love.  My favorite kind of goopy romantic ballet dancing.  :)  The pas de deux were gorgeous, especially those danced by Hee Seo and Roberto Bolle.  He is youthful romance personified and she has such stunning extension - lovely.  They danced beautifully together.  The ensemble was also terrific, especially one gent who just seemed to have all the time in the world.  The other guys looked rushed at times (and we had a minor tumble), but one dancer just seemed to be in a zen place where everything he did was perfectly timed and he seemed to really watch his partner and enjoy her.  I will have to look on the ABT website and see if I can figure out which dancer it was.  I loved loved loved this piece and wish I could see it again.  Thank god for You Tube.  I will say, however, they could probably cut the men's neckerchief's though...

Next was the piece I was most excited to see, the world premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's new ballet, set to Symphony #9 by Shostakovich.  I've really enjoyed the other ballets of Ratmansky's that I've seen (Nutcracker, Bright Stream, Firebird), and I love me some Shostakovich, so all signs pointed towards me loving this piece.  And love it, I did.  I can't wait to see it again, though, because so much happens, you just can't take it in all at once.  The piece is vibrant, with humor and vigor, and it's danced with freedom and commitment.  We did have another minor tumble, so maybe the floor was a little too slippery, or maybe the dancers were a little too excited (there was a fall in the last piece, too, which made this the first evening where I've seen different dancers take similar falls in each piece.  hmmm.), but I guess I'd rather see dancers go for it and slip than play it safe and stay upright.  Maybe.  If this keeps happening, I'll have to re-evaluate. 

 Ratmansky has described the piece as 'storyless, but not abstract,' and I think that sounds about right.  The people on stage connected with each other, and filled the music with movement, but not in a stylized way.  The lead couples, Marcelo Gomes (who truly is ALL THAT) and Polina Semionova were more serious, in a way, and more traditional, and Simone Messmer and Craig Salstein were more loose and humorous.  And then there's Herman Cornejo.  Jeepers, can that man dance.  His elevation is superb, his turns are so fast, and he fills the dance steps with so much personality.  He was fantastic.  The crowd LOVED him.  As they should.  Actually, the audience went wild for everyone.  Everyone was grand.  (I totally stole the above photo of Gomes and Semionova, taken by Gene Schiavone, from ABT's Facebook page.  If they ask me to take it down, I will.  Hopefully, they won't mind...)

 

Ratmansky came out and took a well-deserved bow after the dancers took their curtain call.  He is choregraphing two other pieces to Shostakovich symphonies that will premiere in next year's ABT summer season.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I'm also looking forward to seeing this piece again Saturday night, when a dear friend is taking me back to City Center.  It will be so interesting to see different dancers' interpretations of this piece.  They have pretty big shoes to fill because last night's cast was AWESOME. 

 

The last piece was the one my handsome date was looking forward to, Rodeo, with choreography by Agnes De Mille and music by Aaron Copland.  I think everyone has seen bits and pieces of Rodeo, but my handsome date and I have never seen the entire thing danced live.  What a treat it is.  Marian Butler was a delight as The Cowgirl - mixing spunk and sass with a lovesick heart.  Her appearance in the last scene in a dress, and enjoying her newfound femininity, was just terrific.  She danced and acted with equal success.  Roman Zhurbin and Craig Salstein were also terrific as the rivals for Cowgirl's affections.  I've actually only seen Zhurbin dance as the lizard Rothbart in Swan Lake (at least I can't remember seeing him in other roles) and he moves beautifully, but seeing him dance without a huge lizard costume is a treat.  He has a wonderful presence and beautiful line.  Craig Salstein had himself quite a night - and he delivered the Champion Roper with aplomb.  His tapping/clogging was terrific and his enthusiasm was infectious.  I also thought Lauren Post as the Daughter was excellent.  I loved it and hope to see it again soon.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention - there was an orchestra!  I was so happy - as I've said before, a lot of the time they used recorded music for dance pieces at City Center.  It was fantastic to have an orchestra play the beautiful, and beautifully different, music last night.  Hearing the end of Copland's Rodeo was especially thrilling.

 

It was my first time in the renovated City Center's balcony - it takes a long time to get up there, but the seat was excellent.  Wonderful sightlines (when the gals with big hair in front of me would sit back) and excellent acoustics.  I admit to sneaking a couple of photos after the program.  And it was interesting how quickly the ghost light came out!  We gave the stagehands a well-deserved round of applause, which they charmingly acknowledged.  But what a treat to get to see such an everyday routine after a not-everyday evening of wonderful dance.  All hail ABT!  Can't wait until Saturday night... 

 

 

Review - Ivanov

Actually, to tell the truth, I don't think I should really say much about CSC's Ivanov, directed by Austin Pendleton and starring Ethan Hawke.  I didn't realize when I received the ticket that I would be seeing the first preview.  So it doesn't seem right to me to 'review' a first preview.  I'll just make a couple of observations...

I saw the Lincoln Center production of Ivanov, starring Kevin Kline, that played about fifteen years ago, featuring an adaptation by David Hare.  I remember enjoying the production, finding Kevin Kline's central performance quite affecting, even though the character of Ivanov can be trying and hard to get behind.  It's really a tightrope to walk, to make an audience feel for Ivanov's intertia and self-loathing without wanting to slap him to make him stop whining!  I thought Kline walked that tightrope beautifully.

 

As for last night's performance, I think the performers were all in different stages of readiness.  The older performers, most especially Louis Zorich, George Morfogen and Roberta Maxwell, were already terrific and can only get more wonderful as the previews continue.  I see no reason to doubt the other actors will get there eventually. It's eerie how much Joely Richardson sounds like her late sister and looks like her mother.  Her performance as Ivanov's wife was lovely.  It did occur to me that perhaps everyone was trying just a little too hard last night, since it was their first night in front of an audience.  Unsurprising, I guess.  I'll be interested to go back and see it again after it opens.

 

I think the production is beautifully directed by Austin Pendleton, who finds the right rhythms and balances needed to bring Chekhov to life.  There are definitely moments where you want to laugh and cry at the same time.  I'm not sure how I feel about this adaptation - there were some jarring turns of phrase and some speeches seemed repetitive.  The set design is nice, though I will admit that from the far side (where I was sitting), sometimes it looked like people were making entrances and exits through a wall instead of a door.  That could've just been an optical illusion from my vantage point.  The lighting seemed a little wonky from the side, too.  I was disappointed to miss a key moment at the end because an actor was blocking my view, but I'm fairly positive it just couldn't be helped, because of the dimensions of the space.  The costumes are lovely, especially the ingenue's dress in the final scene, and the sound design is terrific.  The preshow cello music was evocative and set up the play very well.  A funny moment though:  I heard some church bells chiming and thought them a grand sound effect, but they turned out to be a ringtone of a lunkhead who forgot to turn off his cell phone.  So I was annoyed at the lunkhead, but intrigued by the thought of finding those church bells as a ringtone...

 

Non-show-related:  they've added a row of seats to the side sections, so the leg room is now practically non-existent.  I started to worry about having one of those blood clots that start in your cramped legs and travels to your brain and gives you a stroke.  Not a good thing to be worrying about as you're watching Chekhov.  ;)  The house was full, which was great, though a few people left at intermission.  Thankfully, two of them were next to me, so I had more leg room in the second act.  The show ran about three hours last night, but they'll definitely tighten that up.  I thought the pacing was mainly good, though, and I was always engaged and never bored.  They're already extended the run of the show, so ticket demand must be high.  I hope I'll get the chance to see the show again, after it's been on its feet for a bit.  Ivanov isn't done all that often, so I recommend using this opportunity to check out some early Chekhov.

 

Review - Charlie Victor Romeo

Yesterday, after my lovely afternoon at the Lambs Club, I went back to my office to pass the time until I went to the evening performane of Charlie Victor Romeo at the 3LD Arts & Technology Center.  The show is being produced by a co-worker pal, and I've heard about it enough over the years to check it out (it was originally produced in 1999 and won several awards).

I've never been to 3LD before.  I thought the space was really interesting and seemed like the perfect venue for this piece.  The futuristic white hallway really looked like an airplane jetway.  I think they were presenting another piece about planes in another studio so maybe it's a theme at the space. 

I'm generally a nervous flyer, so I admit to being apprehensive about seeing a play dealing with airplane disasters.  But I also enjoy works that use existing text to construct a script.  Knowing that Charlie Victor Romeo used the transcripts from the cockpit voice recordings told me there would be high drama, and I'm always up for high drama.

I'm glad I read through the program before the show started - I read a little about each of the incidents depicted in the play.  For me, it was good to know how each incident turned out.  I'm bad with too much suspense.  So knowing the result allowed me to relax (as much as you can relax during this play) and just watch how the tragedies played out.

The physical production is excellent, with a wonderful sound design by Jamie Mereness, executed live in the back of the house by Kevin Reilly.  On stage is a cramped cockpit with lots of realistic looking equipment, and above the stage is a screen that showed slides.  Before each section, a slide showed the flight number, how many people were on board, and the problem that occurred.  After the end of the section, the slide came back up and showed the number of fatalities.  I thought this was a very non-sensational way to handle the outcomes.  Moving, but still non-sensational.

Each piece has a different vibe and rhythm, even though they all dealt with a plane disaster.  It was amazing how the actors found such human details in all the technical jargon from the transcripts.  There was even a little humor.  We saw a pilot flirt with a flight attendant, a male crew member distrust a female co-worker (sigh, will that particular dynamic ever leave society??), and other little details that kept the piece from becoming maudlin or manipulative.  I was afraid the show would be overwhelmingly sad and tragic, but it wasn't.  It was tense and unsettling, of course, knowing the outcome in advance, but ultimately, it showed real people working together in a real crisis, trying to find an answer and solve a problem.  It was very human and theatrical at the same time.

The actors were all terrific, especially Patrick Daniels, who is also one of the creators of the show.  (I borrowed the photo from the Charlie Victor Romeo Facebook page.)  He played several different pilots and brought different shades to each one.  All the actors were good, though, at playing different characters.  This can't be an easy piece to do, with all the technical stuff to say, in so many different ways.  They must be absolutely exhausted after, but post-performance, all the actors, and co-creator Bob Berger, conducted a Q & A.  Most of the audience stayed, as did I, and it was really interesting.  The creators talked about the process and what they wanted to do with the play, and the audience members asked really good questions that forced the actors and creators to really dig deep for their answers.  I think the Q & A complemented the evening perfectly.

I give Charlie Victor Romeo a huge thumbs up - it's running for another week, so you should definitely check it out.

Hot Cocktails (how's that for a provocative title?!)

Every year, I want to attend an event at the NYC Wine & Food Festival, and every year I talk myself out of it.  It's a bit pricey and sells out quickly.  Well, when I got an e-alert this year for the festival, and I saw that my (imaginary) chef boyfriend Geoffrey Zakarian would be hosting an event at the Lambs Club, I was IN!  I could finally get to the Lambs Club, taste the chef's food and participate in the NYC Wine & Food Festival!  The trifecta!!  :)

The Lambs Club is lovely, very warm and comfy, yet plush.  The room where the event, Hot Cocktails, took place also had a gorgeous fireplace designed by Stanford White (if I heard Boyfriend Geoffrey's incredibly lovely wife correctly).  It was nice to hear a little bit about the room, though it made me giggle to hear how shocked the rest of the crowd were to hear about how Stanford White died.  Clearly, no one in that room has ever seen Ragtime.  :)

 

I sat next to a very nice couple from Arizona, who save their money all year and come to New York for this festival.  They were excited to be seeing Boyfriend Geoffrey (hereafter known as BGZ) today, and then later they would be seeing Tyler Florence.  I don't know if I could take a whole event with Tyler Florence.  He is certainly handsome, but his voice...not so much.

 

BGZ, unsurprisingly, is charming and delightful.  Duh.  I choose boyfriends very carefully, you know.  But he was a very good teacher, explaining why they chose the particular ingredients for each drink and each nibble.  He's quite passionate about making sure recipes are easy for the home cook, and he also is very definite about using as much local product as possible.  His co-host, Chef Eric Haugen, was also charming and an excellent teacher.  I learned quite a bit and took a lot of notes during the 90 minute presentation.

 

First up was Hot Mulled Wine, which was delicious, well-balanced with spice and fruit and warmth.  Very yummy.  And listening to BGZ's explanation of how to make it cleared up why I can't make good mulled wine.  I cook it at too high a temperature.  I won't be doing that anymore.  The mulled wine was served with crispy duck rillettes topped with pickled onions and mulled wine gel.  OK, I know, I pretend to be a vegetarian, but I had to give the duck a try.  One, hello, it was duck.  But also, how can you tell about a food and wine pairing if you don't taste the food?  I wanted to taste how the wine changed by eating the duck.  And it did!  When I first tasted the mulled wine, it was full and rich, but not sweet at all (by design).  But after a taste of that wonderful duck, the wine achieved a little bit of sweetness.  Food and wine pairings always amaze me.  So eating the duck was a food experiment.  A very successful food experiment.  But I didn't eat it all, much to the chagrin of the nice couple next to me.  :)

 

While we were tasting and sipping, BGZ also answered questions from the crowd, ranging from good recipes for sous vide chicken, the worst dish he'd ever had on Chopped, what wines he would recommend for a dinner party, what percentage of bittersweet chocolate should go in hot chocolate.  Again, lots of notes.

 

Next came a Hot White Russian.  You may remember I gave up vodka a few years ago after the Great Candy Cane Martini Nightmare, but I figured I could do a little bit today.  After all, I just ate duck!!  The drink had vodka, kahlua, a bit of hot espresso and some cream, that was shaken just a bit to give it a thicker consistency.  This was also a yum yummy drink, very creamy and potent.  It would be good for a dessert.  If you drink vodka, I mean.  It was paired with a housemade espresso-cured bresaola, on housemade rye toast, with choucroute and Russian dressing.  Again, meat.  My oh my, it was delicious.  Chef Eric described it as a play on a reuben, to keep on the 'Russian' theme.  The crunch was very welcome with the creaminess of the drink, and the vinegary choucroute paired so well with the richness of the drink.  Another wonderful pairing! 

 

The third drink was Brandy Tea.  A bit of brandy, a deliciously full-bodied tea, and a touch of honey.  Really wonderful.  The balance of sweet, bitter and brandy was really great.  I generally prefer my tea a little darker, but the mash-up in this drink was perfect.  I asked if it could work with stronger tea and Chef Eric explained how it could work.  He was really well-spoken and made everything so easy to understand.  Now, note to self - when you ask a question at a food and cocktail tasting, you should not ask a question about the third drink.  it was getting quite loud in the room by this time and BGZ had sort of lost his authority.  Everyone was a tiny bit buzzed and just talking to each other and not in their indoor voice.  I would've preferred to hear more from the two chefs, but oh well.  At least I got to eat the fantastic dessert they paired with the tea.  It was a hazelnut dacquoise, sitting on a praline, with chantilly cream.  I totally could've eaten that little delight all day.  It had everything - richness, lightness, sweetness, creaminess and crunch from the praline crust.  SO good. 

 

All in all, it was a terrific afternoon, with handsome chefs, helpful tips and delicious food and drink.  Thumbs WAY up from me.  I'll have to do more events at next year's festival (almost everything is sold out for the rest of this year's events).  Oh, and I was thrilled to get my BGZ cookbook signed and a photo.  He was quite charming and kind (of course), but unfortunately, they were trying to rush him out to his next event, so my little chat was cut short and the photo is blurry.  Oh well.  Next year.  Must.have.good.photo.with.imaginary.boyfriend.someday... 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Dance review - Fall for Dance

I’ve been in ballet withdrawal since ABT closed their summer season at the Met.  I’m so looking forward to going with a pal to see them in a couple of weeks, but I was fortunate that a former co-worker offered me a ticket to last night’s Fall for Dance Festival performance at City Center.  I’ve never done the Fall for Dance Festival before, though I guess I should.  There are a lot of dance companies represented that I wouldn’t ordinarily follow.  The tickets are all discounted, so they sell out really quickly.  I’ll have to make sure to put them on my radar a little earlier next year.  Oh, and I didn't get any photos of dancers/curtain calls, so the photos are of the redesigned interior of City Center.  I thought they looked nice...

Funnily enough, one of the companies performing last night was Ballet West.  I watched the cheesy reality show, Breaking Pointe, over the summer and Ballet West was the company featured on the show.  So to see one of the pieces they were rehearsing (Paquita), featuring some of the dancers they thrust in the spotlight, was a tad surreal.  Since they didn’t show a lot of performance footage during the reality show, deciding to feature more interpersonal drama (sigh), it was interesting to actually see how these people dance.  Three of last night’s dancers were featured on Breaking Pointe. 

I didn’t really love the grand pas from Paquita.  The choreography, modeled after Petipa, seemed small and not grand or sweeping enough for the music.  (oh, and the recorded music at City Center is never really enjoyable.)  The dancers in the corps also seemed a bit tentative, though they were nicely in unison.  The lone gent, Rex Tilton, was quite good though, with nice ease and amplitude.  He seemed very natural and unforced, whereas the female soloists seemed tight.  There was one gal who was frighteningly thin.  I mean, all ballerinas are thin, but this gal was extra-thin.  It made me a little nervous to watch her, I will admit.  The lead ballerina, Christiania Bennett, seemed very nervous to me, at least in her first variation.  And she had a habit of looking down during her dancing, instead of out into the audience, so it was like she was dancing for herself and not for us.  But her last variation of pirouettes was much freer and exciting.  Maybe she just needed to get warmed up.  Breaking Pointe got renewed for a second season, so I’ll probably watch it again, though it’s not a great show.  I’ll be interested to see if they include this trip to New York on the program.  J

 

The second piece, High Heel Blues, was from Tu Dance, a company I’d never heard of before.  It was a cute and playful piece about a gal’s craving for uncomfortable shoes.  The dialogue in song was pretty funny and the dance itself was attractively done.  The dancers, Yusha Marie Sorzano and Uri Sands, had lovely extension and personality, especially Mr. Sands.  I would’ve liked to see them do another piece, actually, since this one was so short.  Maybe next year.

After intermission, we saw Tarian Malam (Night Dances), by the Indonesian company Nan Jombang.  I will admit that this piece was not quite my cup of tea, though I thought the beginning and the end were very exciting.  It opened with a woman in red, doing a plaintive cry in long sort-of chants.  Her voice was lovely and very evocative.  A shirtless gentleman joined her on stage and they did a very interesting duet that featured their reaching, reaching for something.  I liked that part, but then the rest of the dancers came on stage and I slowly got less interested in what they were doing.  In the program, the piece is described as being a narrative about the earthquake in West Sumatra in 2009, but it was a little too abstract for my tastes, I guess.  There was actually a lot of stillness and silence in the piece, which was intellectually interesting to me, but if the dancers were filling the silences with something, I wasn’t getting it.  The drumming and live chanting sounded interesting, but got repetitive after a while.  But the ending, with all the dancers drumming and gyrating into frenzy, was exciting.  So I’m glad I saw it, but I have to admit it didn’t really make itself fully known to me.

The last piece was by the Moiseyev Dance Company, called Moiseyev’s Classics.  Again, I wasn’t familiar with this company, but I loved them.  LOVED.  They danced with verve and joy.  The pieces were traditional dances from the former Soviet Union.  The opening was the Kalmyk Dance, representing the Kalmyk nomads.  The three dancers in this piece were incredible!  Their body control and precision were breathtaking, plus they performed with such joie de vivre!  These guys had “IT”!  Their ability to isolate was incredible.  LOVED.  The second and third pieces were great, but not as exciting as the first, but the last, the Suite of Moldavian Dances, was AWESOME!  Just the perfect thing to send everyone out on a happy, exhilarated note.  Seriously, it was thrilling.  The speed with which the dancers moved across the floor, with the precision and exuberance of so many wonderful souls, was amazing.  LOVED.  I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this company – they apparently used to make many trips to the US, but haven’t performed in New York since 2000.  I hope they come back soon!

 

Review - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

I check TDF a lot and was so excited to see Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? listed for its early previews.  I bought the ticket quite a while ago, but I wasn’t about to let a little tiredness stop me from seeing this play!  I consider it a masterpiece and I adored the most recent revival with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin.  I remember especially finding Irwin to be a revelation.

Now, strangely enough, when I got to the theater early to find my seat, I started thinking about that revival, and the performances that came to me weren’t Turner and Irwin, but instead the younger actors playing Nick and Honey – David Harbour and Mireille Enos.  And throughout the show last night, it was their performances I kept comparing the newbies to, and not the leads.  Isn’t that odd?  I thought it was.

It’s always so good to be reminded what a cracking good play sounds like.  And Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a cracking good play.  It’s f*cking brilliant, now that you mention it.  BRILLIANT.  It’s amazing to me that, no matter how many times I’ve seen it, I always hear something new to marvel at.  Last night, it was the absolute Shakespearean quality of Martha’s monologue at the top of the third act.  Stunning.

Brilliantly directed by Pam MacKinnon, this rendition of Virginia Woolf is much the same, yet so different from any production I’ve seen before.  As always, it’s funny, horrible, searing, vulgar, poetic, sad and totally original.  But maybe this revival is a tad more human than before.  Interesting.  That appealed to me, yet didn't, in a way.  Madison Dirks, as Nick, was a little more smarmy and a little more naïve than any Nick I’ve seen before and I loved it.  Carrie Coon, as Honey, shows such a stunning array of emotions while lying on a couch for nearly three hours.  I thought she was fantastic.  They both were totally real and more than up to the performances I kept comparing them with in my mind.

 

I found Tracy Letts, as George, to be monumentally, amazingly fantastic.  Seriously.  Passive-aggressive yet contained, Letts brilliantly shows the self-loathing of the man, but also the qualities that attracted him to Martha (and still attracts her!) in the first place.  His monologue in the second act to Nick about the ‘boy who shot his mother’ was mesmerizing.  He’s so witty and funny, but so wounded and angry.  The balance is truly something to see.  He honestly had me on the edge of my seat throughout.  I thoroughly loved his performance.  I may even be adding him to my list of 'favorite performances ever.'

I’m still on the fence, and trying to wrap my brain around Amy Morton.  I adored her in August: Osage County and she brought a lot of those same marvelous qualities to this play.  She’s playing Martha with a little more naturalism, a little more pathos, and while she is stunningly layered and nuanced, and bitingly funny, I still feel as if the ending suffered the tiniest bit without a bigger-than-life Martha having to fall from such heights to such lows.  I don’t know.  I saw the fear and loathing and disappointment, but I didn’t see the monster.  But maybe they didn't want me to – that could just be my preconceived notion of the character.  Morton certainly commanded my attention throughout, and I always wondered what she would show me next, but I will admit to feeling the faintest twinge of wanting more from her during George’s final power play.  I will freely acknowledge that this is my problem and not hers.  I guess this wonderful play has forever spoiled me and made me greedy.  But I'm not really complaining – this was an amazing evening with a still-revelatory play, acted by artists at the top of their game, using the familiar and explosive but making it totally their own.  Bravo.  I will definitely be going back…