Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 By The Numbers

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone!  I'm sure you're shocked that I'm back with another wrap-up (you're not really shocked, are you?)!  It's always interesting to look back at my year and see exactly what happened.  At least it is to me.  One personal goal was to have gender parity in my theater viewing, but I dropped the ball on that.  I was doing well earlier in the year, so I have to figure out why my numbers dropped.  I will try much harder next year.  I also need to do better in the museum department.  I live in NY, for pete's sake!  There are tons of museums here!  I mean, one of those new museums was in Dublin!  But, it was a good year.  I made a trip to Europe finally, so that was awesome.  I need to make that a more regular thing (every eight years just doesn't cut it).  So, in case you’re interested, here’s how 2015 stacked up:

  • Theater visits: 62
  • Shows written by women:  23
  • Ballet visits: 11
  • Readings/workshops: 15
  • Concerts: 10
  • Award presentations:  5
  • Operas:  1
  • New museums: 4
  • New restaurants: 17
  • Movies:  8
  • Tweets:  440 (wait, what?  who AM I?!?!)
  • Trips for work:  2
  • Trips for ME:  2
  • Walking tours:  4
  • Castles:  1


Here are my 2015 Favorite Theater Pieces.  These are in chronological-ish order...

  • You Can't Take it With You
  • The Heidi Chronicles
  • A Man of No Importance (at 54 Below)
  • The Further Adventures Of...
  • Hedda Gabler (at the Abbey Theatre)
  • The Visit
  • Guards at the Taj
  • The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek
  • King Liz
  • John
  • The Flick
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
  • Hand to God
  • Street Theater
  • King Charles III
  • Incident at Vichy
  • Marjorie Prime


 
 
 





 
 
 
 


 
 
 


And, again, thankfully, I had so much good food, I had to do my Top 15 of 2015 Food Experiences!  Restaurant Week has been a big help here:

  • Duck confit salad at Pigalle
  • Jamon croquetas at Casa Mono
  • Brown sugar roasted pineapple at db Bistro Moderne
  • shrimp and crab nachos at Torreyana Lounge (La Jolla)
  • maple bacon tiramisu at Jakes's (Del Mar)
  • Roasted butternut squash tagine at Larder (Dublin)
  • Fish and chips at Beshoff's (Dublin)
  • Pan con tomate at El Comado
  • Grilled octopus with pork belly at Burke & Wills
  • Paella at Tertulia
  • Zuppe de pesce amalfitana at Esca
  • Berry Pavlova at Craftbar
  • Helga's meatballs at Red Rooster
  • Duck cigars at Marseille (no photos, sorry)
  • Crispy bird sandwich at Streetbird

 




 
 








 
Let's raise a glass to 2015 - goodbye to what's past and hello to 2016!  May there be more theater, ballet, great food, spectacular cocktails, and adventurous days ahead!!

Monday, December 28, 2015

Holiday Auto-Post: Review Flashback to 2010

Today is my last day of holiday vacation, so here is one last auto-post.  I tried to cram a lot of info into this post!  Oh, well, actually, now that I think about it, another one is coming later this week, if I'm being accurate... ;)


12/28/10:  At the beginning of December, a Tony-voter boss very kindly let me accompany him to Driving Miss Daisy.  I'm sorry to say, I was a tad disappointed.  Perhaps I’ve seen the movie entirely too many times, but the pacing of the play was deadly slow to me, and Vanessa Redgrave seemed very disconnected, especially at the beginning of the evening.  She did start to catch fire about halfway through, but the beginning, the first scene especially, was not good.  And I think James Earl Jones was overcompensating a bit at the beginning, kind of overdoing it in spots, but they seemed to eventually sync up.  The last scenes were very touching, thankfully.  And Boyd Gaines is quite good, as usual.  His interpretation is miles different from Dan Ackroyd in the film and it works just as well.  So…on the whole, sort of a disappointment.   Maybe now that they’ve announced an extension, I’ll try to see it again.  I’m hoping we just saw an off night.  Oh, but the Broadway Cares plea at the end was terrific.  They did an auction of an autographed apron, that Vanessa modeled, and she was so visibly thrilled by the amount of money they raised.  She seemed way more connected to the auction than the play.  Oop.  But it was a fun way to end the evening.

I went out to Brooklyn to catch a friend’s one-act in the Brick’s Fight Fest—the play was called Dar and Matey’s Christmas Spectaculargh.  I had seen a previous piece featuring pirates Dar and Matey at Manhattan Theater Source (written by all-around fun guy Larry Pontius) and had really liked it, so I was happy to catch this holiday piece.  It was silly and funny and fun, and well worth the trip out to the Brick (which, actually, is a quick trip from Manhattan).  It has pirates and Santa and multiple versions of ‘The Carol of the Bells.’  Really, what more could anyone ask??  It was directed by Robert Ross Parker, the guy who fantastically directs the Vampire Cowboy stuff, so I give it a thumbs way up.  I think it has one more performance Wednesday night, if you’re so inclined.  I was almost privy to a command performance, since I was the only audience member up until a few minutes after the advertised start time, but thankfully, more people walked in and I didn't have to be an audience of one.  Whew.

I went to the annual performance of Charles Busch’s Times Square Angel last Monday night.  I have been wanting to go for years, and I never get my tickets in time.  This year, I got a heads up when tickets went on sale (probably because I saw Divine Sister a couple of times) and pounced.  Oh my, it was ever so much fun!  There’s a little jazz combo off stage, and it’s just a fun It’s a Wonderful Life -type show, with Charles as a hard-bitten chanteuse who learns the meaning of Christmas.  I had a great time.  It was full of laughs and fun (and Julie Halston as God!), and I got a tear in my eye at the end, during the curtain call, when Charles serenaded us with ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’  All in all, a grand evening (and Victor Garber was sitting a few rows behind me!!) and I highly recommend we all go next time.

Repeat visit to La Bete:  fantastic.  It’s even better in repeat visits.  Then, Friday night, a handsome friend had comps to see the new Off-Broadway production of Dracula at the Little Shubert Theater on 42nd Street.  Wow.  You may have read about the trials and tribulations of this production—they fired their leading lady on the first day of previews.  It's probably not very nice of me to pile on when they've had such problems, but...pile on I will.

This was truly one of the worst things I’ve seen in a long time.  And it wasn’t even ‘so bad it’s fun.’  It was just bad.  And not fun.  If the guy playing Dracula had had one scintilla of charm, the evening could’ve been more bearable.  But he was generally charm-free and not very compelling.  Eye-rolling, he could do.  Acting…not so much.  If you don’t have a seductive or compelling Dracula, forget it.  His only character development seemed to be the new-lock-of-hair-tumbling-outside-the-ponytail that appeared in each successive scene.  Yes, then, his hair was down and flowing for the final (awkward) fight scene.  Even his costume was wrong and way too baggy.  I’m thinking, really?  You couldn’t spring for a tailor?  Make that dinner jacket fit?

photo credit: Carol Rosegg
No one seemed really sure of their lines, the gals in the show were profoundly unlucky to have badly written characters along with everything else; the guy playing Renfield was camping it up like crazy (but wasn’t very good at it); poor George Hearn was trying, but his accent kept coming and going, as did his memory of his next line.  The set was terrible (really?  painted books in the library scene?) and the sound design was terrible.  The music choices were just completely uninteresting.  And the sound operator seemed to be having issues, too.  He couldn’t get anyone’s mic levels right.  It was like they were speaking through the wrong end of a megaphone.  Then, just to put a ribbon on things, at the end, to lead the actors into their curtain call, the music cue is:  the dying Swan from Swan Lake.  I believe my words were:  'oh no they didn’t!'  Or something like that.  The ‘special effects,’ such as they were, were laughable.  And we did.  Laugh, I mean.  Quietly, though.  I hate being so mean about theater, when I'm sure no one went into the enterprise thinking it would be so unsuccessful, but oh my.  A lot went wrong and it's hard to imagine there was no one who said, 'maybe we should wait? or start over?'  I don't know...

If this kind of show interests you, more power to you, but make sure you take an extra sweater and scarf.  The theater is FREEZING!  I don’t know if it’s to keep you awake, but golly it was cold in there.  In the interest of full disclosure, much of the audience seemed to enjoy the show.  I find it hard to believe, but there you have it.

Friday, December 25, 2015

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

May all your holiday dreams come true!!!

 




 
 

Monday, December 21, 2015

Holiday Auto-Post: Review Flashback to 2006

Hi again, everybody!  I'm currently home, (hopefully) enjoying some quality time with the family.  Here we're flashing back to 2006, to a play I still think about every now and then...

12/21/06:  I unexpectedly saw a new play, The American Pilot, at the Manhattan Theatre Club smaller space last night.  I had a vague notion that it didn’t really get very good reviews and it has practically no buzz, so I didn’t know what to expect.  I just wanted to see a new play and a free ticket fell into my lap.

In brief, I was very impressed with The American Pilot.  It’s lean at 95 minutes, including a ten-minute intermission, but it packs a lot in it.  It concerns, yes, an American pilot, who is discovered in an unnamed Middle Eastern-type country that is at war.  He is hidden in a simple farmer’s barn and much of the action centers around what is to be done with him.  The characters are all referred to as The Farmer, The Captain, The Daughter, etc., and they each (except for the American Pilot) have a monologue that describes their feelings about the situation AROUND the pilot, plus each of their monologues reveals a smidgeon of detail of what will happen further down the road in the play.  I found it very well written, with smart, pointed dialogue that wasn’t pretentious or smug in the least.  Even the simple, uneducated characters had a bright-type of common sense that was totally in keeping with the subject matter of the play.  Each character was treated as a type, naturally (this is an anti-war play, after all), but was still an individual.  The ramifications of their actions were examined, discussed and felt.  I thought it was quite well done.  There was the requisite study of how Americans tromp around the world thinking everything belongs to them, but there was also careful consideration of how America can help countries that find it hard to help themselves.  The play was one of the most balanced, yet articulate pieces of war drama I’ve seen in awhile.  Having recently been rather bludgeoned over the head by a couple of plays, it was nice to be treated as an intelligent person who could reason out things for herself.

photo credit: Carol Rosegg
The actors were all excellent.  It’s one of the best companies of actors I’ve seen Off-Broadway in a long time.  I don’t really know any of them (the guy playing The Farmer was in No Foreigners Beyond This Point (which I loved) last season, but he made much more of an impression here), but I’m going to keep an eye out for them.  As well as the playwright, David Greig, who works at the National Theater of Scotland, I believe.  But I really enjoyed the show and give it an unexpected thumbs way up.  Smart, political plays like this one are truly few and far between.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Holiday Auto-Post: Review Flashback to 2007

Hello there!  I'm currently on a plane, winging towards my family's holiday celebration, so I thought I'd do some auto-posting while I'm gone.  I always find it interesting to look back at my reviews - I hope you do, too!  And if you're winging your way anywhere, safe travels!!



12/17/07:  Hi!  Unexpected review!  A good friend from grad school gave me my Christmas present early and took me to see Cyrano de Bergerac!  Woo hoo!  I wouldn’t have gotten to see it otherwise, so I feel very fortunate.  I enjoyed the evening, didn’t adore it.  It’s certainly not the definitive version of Cyrano.  I remember enjoying the production with Frank Langella a few years ago too, so I imagine I’m predisposed to enjoy the play.  I do so love my VHS of Derek Jacobi in the role…

(timely update:  a friend with Tony tickets just called to invite me to see the show with him tomorrow night!  Hooray!  Because later in this review, I will probably note my sadness at being so far away from the stage!  So maybe you’ll get an amended review!  Or not.)

photo credit: Carol Rosegg
This production has been briskly directed, and the nearly three hours pretty much flew by.  It is supremely entertaining, thanks to Mr. Kevin Kline.  He finds all of the humor in the script, though perhaps to the detriment of the final scene.  I found him very panache-ful, though I understand that opinion is not shared by everyone.  Yes, he was not flamboyant, he was relatively restrained, but yet the way he presented his world view and self-deprecation was with flair.  To me, that spells panache.  You can’t take your eyes off Cyrano, because he has such intelligent vitality.  I will quibble with his choices in the scene with Roxane in the bakery—I would’ve liked to see exactly where he realizes she’s not talking about him.  I didn’t get that, but it could be because I was in the last row, far left.  It was hard for me to get any character detail from there, frankly.  I just couldn’t see.  I think I need to get my glasses’ prescription renewed.

I will say that the show could’ve been much better with a stronger Roxane and Christian.  I think Jennifer Garner is a lovely girl and a good actress, but this part was perhaps beyond her, as a Broadway debut.  To her credit, however, she made bold choices and played them fully.  That can be hard for a stage novice, so a tip of the hat on that.  The fact that I don’t agree with those bold choices is beside the point (sort of).  ;)   And Sunjata, though very handsome, is just too flat and modern in his delivery to be effective.  And he seemed to rush his final scene, which robbed me of some of Kline’s pathos.

You know what—I think I will wait until after I see the show again for definitive judgments.  I saw big picture from where I was Friday night, but now I’m ready to see some details.  I’ll fill you in later.  Besides, I’ve got ‘I think I’m coming down with a cold’ fuzzy head, so thinking is becoming difficult. 


12/19/07:  So, I enjoyed Cyrano again last night and reveled in the small details that I missed last week!  Kevin Kline is even more astounding up close—he was just on fire last night.  I cried with him twice and had my heart broken by him in the final scene.  Thumbs way up for him.  Though he still didn’t give me what I was looking for in the bakery scene.  Perhaps that’s my fault more than his.  But shouldn’t we see when he realizes Roxane isn’t talking about him?  I think so, but maybe I’m asking too much.  Perhaps my working on that scene in acting class lo those many years ago have clouded my judgment.  I found him to be exquisite, though, otherwise.

Being closer also allowed me to see the gorgeous lighting design more fully and to appreciate the set design.  It’s really lovely—too bad you can’t really tell from the last row.  The bad thing about being closer is that it magnified Daniel Sunjata’s problems as Christian (for me).  He really is flat.  Nothing is happening on that handsome face.  I realize Christian is supposed to be ‘comely and dumb,’ but the actor doesn’t have to be as well.  And his mugging during the balcony scene turned me off.  I was being transported by Kline, while Sunjata was doing some schtick.  Granted, I can understand we don’t want to forget about Christian during this scene, but pulling focus with mugging so that the audience’s laughter muffles the glorious words Kline is speaking is not the right idea.

photo credit: Sara Krulwich
Oddly enough, I found Garner more appealing last night.  I’m not sure if it’s because I knew going in about her limitations, but I found her to be a little more relaxed and acting WITH instead of AT the other actors.  Having said that, she still isn’t really ready to play Roxane, but I found her work more positive last night than Friday.  I hope she comes back soon and tries a contemporary play next time.  I know I would’ve enjoyed her a great deal more than Amanda Peet in Barefoot in the Park.

The other actors are fine—I enjoyed the baker and I always love Euan Morton (though his English accent is a distraction).  Chris Sarandon is always lovely, though I found him a little contemporary.  I’m just not sure he would manhandle Roxane quite so much, especially in that first scene.  Maybe later, when he’s trying to press his advantage, but…perhaps he was just trying to make something out of his character.  I’m thinking De Guiche may have lost a little something in this adaptation.

All in all, I enjoyed myself.  Again.  It’s just a lovely play that nearly always plays well and Kevin Kline is a treat.  Plus, it's grand to spend time with my handsome Tony-voter friend.  And, on a fun celebrity note, we were one row in front of Lauren Bacall (who looked great!) and four rows in front of Steve Martin (yay!  Cyranos everywhere!).  Lauren Bacall’s companion practically knocked me over so they could get backstage, but oh well.  I’m just glad I got to see the show again from a much better seat - I mean, if you're near Lauren Bacall and Steve Martin, you're doing pretty ok for yourself!  :)




Friday, December 11, 2015

Christmas Time is (almost) Here!

I've wandered around town to look at the holiday decorations - it's nice that it's been so warm out, which has made it easy to sightsee.  I haven't quite been to all the decorated trees and windows about town, but I like what I've seen so far!  I'm going to try to also add a video at the bottom of this post.  Only one week to go before I head home for the holidays - huzzah!  So turn on your holiday playlist and enjoy...

Tiffany's

Barneys




Macy's



nice of Charlie Brown himself to make an appearance




my neighborhood

caught the super decorating the courtyard of my building

my office

my apartment

Bloomingdale's


along Park Avenue


along Fifth Avenue

Saks



in front of Saks, looking towards Rockefeller Center



Rockefeller Center


Bryant Park

Lord & Taylor