It's That Time Again - Tony Nom Hopes/Predictions!

I can't believe it's that time of year again!  It just seems to fly in sooner and sooner every year.  In looking over my notes, I have to say up front that these predictions will most likely be the worst ever.  I haven't seen a lot of Broadway this season and a lot of what I HAVE seen isn't what I would want to nominate.  That's being mean, I know.  I'll try to keep specifics to myself.  I probably should've done a Drama Desk Award nomination prediction post, since I've seen and enjoyed so much more Off-Broadway recently.  Ah well.  Live and learn.  As usual, I will share the names I hope to hear tomorrow morning.  The performances are the ones I'll be unsure about, since I haven't seen so many of the shows, though that won't stop me from mentioning a few names because I love them (not because I've seen their shows, ha ha).  But to be serious for a moment:  my thanks and gratitude to everyone who put themselves and their talent out there for all the world to see.  I hope they find the joy in the process, even if we don't hear their names tomorrow...


PLAY

Farinelli and the King, Claire van Kampen
Junk, Ayad Akhtar
Latin History for Morons, John Leguizamo
Terms of My Surrender, Michael Moore

My heart is breaking a little, typing the above names while remembering the four wonderful plays nominated last year.  Any one of last year's nominees would kick the pants off any of these four plays.  It's so unfair that none of them are still running.  Moving on.  Oh, and full disclosure: I didn't actually see John Leguizamo's play, but he is so smart and funny, and the other eligible plays kinda weren't, so I put him here.  Of course, I haven't seen Harry Potter yet, so there's that...

MUSICAL

The Band's Visit
Frozen
Mean Girls
SpongeBob SquarePants, the Musical

OK, so I've only seen two of these musicals, sue me.  The others have friends involved, so I want to hear their names announced on tv.  For the record, if The Band's Visit doesn't win, I will be heartily perturbed.

REVIVAL OF A PLAY

Angels in America
M Butterfly
Three Tall Women

I realize that I am probably the only person who will be jotting down anything about M Butterfly and the Tony Awards in the same sentence, but I think the play is beautiful.  So there.  I'm hoping to get to Travesties and Lobby Hero at some point, and I guess I have to see Iceman Cometh because my goodness that cast (most of whom will be nominated, I'm thinking), but I'm pretty sure this race is between Angels and Three Tall Women, both of which are sublimely devastating, wonderful and deserving.  


REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

Once On This Island

I haven't seen any of the other musical revivals yet (I think a handsome Tony voter pal is taking me to My Fair Lady, but the jury's still out on that), but I'm sure that even if I had, Once On This Island would be my top (and probably only) choice.  It's THAT good.  Note to self:  go back and see it again...


ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Glenda Jackson, Three Tall Women
Condola Rashad, Saint Joan
Lauren Ridloff, Children of a Lesser God

This seems like a slam-dunk for Jackson, who is beyond amazing in Three Tall Women, and she would be my vote even if I had seen and enjoyed other performances.  I haven't seen Saint Joan yet, but I am a big fan of Rashad, so I would like to see her get recognized.  I didn't really enjoy this production of Children of a Lesser God, but Ridloff was beautiful and I'd love to see her on stage again soon.


ACTOR IN A PLAY

Andrew Garfield, Angels in America
John Leguizamo, Latin History for Morons
Michael Moore, Terms of My Surrender
Mark Rylance, Farinelli and the King

We all know I adore Rylance, so hello.  I thought Garfield was terrific in Angels, so I think he's my choice.  Michael Moore and his show really surprised me, so even though I don't think he belongs in this category, I'll put him here.  And I mentioned my fondness for Leguizamo above.


FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Blair Brown, The Parisian Woman
Denise Gough, Angels in America
Laurie Metcalf, Three Tall Women
Allison Pill, Three Tall Women

I can't imagine anyone other than Metcalf or Gough winning this award, though Blair Brown has the only good scene in The Parisian Woman and she makes the most of it.  She's actually always grand, so I'm really hoping to hear her name.

photo credit: Matthew Murphy

FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY

Sam Crane, Farinelli and the King
Gabriel Ebert, Time and the Conways
Jin Ha, M Butterfly
Nathan Lane, Angels in America
John McGinty, Children of a Lesser God

Here's where I start to go a little nuts.  I actually don't think any of the above people will be named tomorrow except for Nathan Lane (who is a lock).  But I enjoyed all of these performances very much, so I'm typing them for my own enjoyment.  👩   Though Bill Irwin, David Morse and Frank Wood (all in Iceman Cometh) are also personal favorites, so I'd be happy to hear any of their names as well...

photo credit: Matthew Murphy

ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Hailey Kilgore, Once On This Island
LaChanze, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
Katrina Lenk, The Band's Visit

I am on Team Lenk all.the.way, especially since she should've won LAST year for Indecent (and the fact she didn't even get nominated still ticks me off)!  But she is spectacular in The Band's Visit.  I did think that Kilgore was enchanting in Once On This Island and I am a huge fan of LaChanze (oh, hey, from the original cast of Once On This Island - symmetry!), so I hope to hear them be recognized tomorrow.


ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Joshua Henry, Carousel
Tony Shalhoub, The Band's Visit

Yeah, missing so many shows is hurting me here.  I actually haven't seen Carousel, but I've loved Joshua Henry for years, so I had to type his name.  Shalhoub is fantastic, though, as he always is.  I'm rooting for him.  I'm pretty sure Henry Higgins and SpongeBob will find themselves on this list, too...

FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Merle Dandridge, Once On This Island
Kenita R. Miller, Once On This Island
Ashley Park, Mean Girls
Kate Rockwell, Mean Girls
Lea Salonga, Once On This Island

Kenita Miller has been so wonderful in so many shows, I am rooting for her nomination tomorrow the absolute most.  She's also terrifically moving in Once On This Island, so it's a deserving nom.  The other gals in OOTI are also fabulous, so I'm hoping they'll be included on the list.  I believe I mentioned in my Mean Girls post that I found the performances to be the best part of the evening - these two gals, part of the mean girls pack, were grand.  It's probably not a coincidence that they have two of the best songs of the night.


FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Philip Boykin, Once On This Island
John Cariani, The Band's Visit
Quentin Earl Darrington, Once On This Island
Alex Newell, Once On This Island
Ari'el Stachel, The Band's Visit

Gosh, it's not too hard to see what my two favorite musicals of the season have been.  I'll be happy with any and all of these wonderful gents.  

oh, hey, genius composer/lyricist here!

SCORE OF A MUSICAL

Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez, Frozen 
Nell Benjamin & Jeff Richmond, Mean Girls
various songwriters, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Musical 
David Yazbek, The Band's Visit

This isn't a hard category to predict, since I think these are the only original musicals this season.  They all have friends involved, so good luck to all and I hope to hear these names.  Of course, I've been listening to The Band's Visit CD on repeat for months now, so...that's my choice.  But I haven't seen them all yet, to be fair.






BOOK OF A MUSICAL

Tina Fey, Mean Girls
Kyle Jarrow, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Musical
Jennifer Lee, Frozen
Itamar Moses, The Band's Visit

Again, friends on teams.  Hope to hear names.  Rinse and repeat.


OTHER MISC THOUGHTS

As usual, I'm not good at picking directing or design categories, though I hope to hear Michael Arden's name for his wonderful direction of Once On This Island, Joe Mantello's name for directing Three Tall Women, and all of the designers of Farinelli and the King (that physical production was gorgeous) and Three Tall Women (ditto).  Interestingly, most of the sets I saw this year were primarily video, so I'm guessing that there will be a lot of video people recognized this year.  Randomly, I wish Bernadette Peters and Victor Garber could get awards for their loveliness in Hello, Dolly, but the replacement cast Tony never really got off the ground.  I'll be interested to see how Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban do as hosts of the broadcast this year - they are both genial and pleasant personalities, so perhaps this is a reset year.  The productions this year seem to be going for brand-name-familiarity, so it makes sense to have hosts in the same mold.  I hope to be surprised by shocking originality moving forward...

It's Not Friday, But Here's a Flashback!

Why, hello there!  Thankfully, I have a light week ahead (though I may blog later this week about a special event I'm attending tonight, we'll just have to see), though I am making my return visit to The Confession of Lily Dare starring the inimitable Charles Busch.  As I was cleaning out some of my review archives, I found a review of a Busch play that I hadn't reprinted before!  Well, as Jonathan Larson so beautifully wrote, "no day like today!"  And so I present a flashback featuring two of my absolute favorite gents of the theater - Charles Busch and Macbeth...enjoy!

4/30/07:  Last Friday night, I saw Charles Busch’s Our Leading Lady at Manhattan Theatre Club.  I really enjoyed it.  Charles’ evident love of the theater and the people who give their lives to it is just joyful.  And even though the tone of each act is different, I didn’t mind, because that’s how life is!  I thought he did a grand job of capturing the highs and lows of a theatrical company, magnified by the expectation of President Lincoln attending their show and the ramifications of his assassination at their show.  Really well done.  It was delightful to see fact and faction rolled into one.

Kate Mulgrew is a pip, truly.  I would love to see her onstage more often.  To my untrained ear, sometimes, her line readings sounded just like Charles!  That could have just been my mind playing tricks on me.  I would, in fact, love to hear him do a reading of this play some time.  The entire cast is spot-on, it could be one of the best acting ensembles I've seen in a long time.  I’m especially sorry I didn’t see it earlier in the run so I could’ve told everyone to go.  Oops!  But it was fun to see it with a beautiful gal pal!

And then on Saturday, I went to see a production of Macbeth at the New Victory.  In my quest to see every version of Macbeth ever done, I went to see this one because it was being performed by marionettes.  The Chicago Shakespeare Theater teamed with an Italian troupe to perform this Macbeth and it was terrific.  Probably one of the best I’ve seen!  I would venture to say the acting was fabulous because they were concentrating on telling the story.  The actors sat in front of the stage, facing the stage, with their scripts on music stands, acting out the play, while the marionette company had whole sets and stuff onstage.  I can’t tell you how expressive the marionettes were.  At one point, the Lady Macbeth took the daggers from Macbeth!  It was incredible!  There was also original music played underneath the scene changes that was quite good.  They pared it down to about 90 minutes or so, with an intermission.  The kids in the audience were also enraptured!  Well, the 12-year-old boy next to me was bored, but at least he was polite and sat still.  The maybe 7- and 9-year olds on the other side of me, however, loved it!

Oh, and the witches have to be my favorite witches ever.  The actors’ interpretation combined with what the marionettes looked like was amazing.  And what they had Lady Macbeth do at the end of her sleepwalking scene was terrific!  I’d like to see a live actor-performance try that interpretation!  Plus, the ending was a surprise as well.  I’m not sure I liked the VERY end, but what the director did after the soldiers left the stage was fab.  Thumbs WAY up for the Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla e Figli.  Who I may have to look for when we’re in Italy. They had some marionettes on display in the lower lobby of the New Victory.  I took some pictures - too bad they don't really show how fantastic these marionettes were!  I need to go to the New Victory more often, they really do some fantastic stuff...

Reviews - Mlima's Tale and Mean Girls

You're probably wondering if I've taken a second and third job to afford all this theater I'm seeing lately - the answer is no.  I probably should take additional jobs, but this past week has been a lucky one for me - handsome Tony voter friends have let me be their plus-one for the new Broadway shows.  It is award season, after all.  And for the Off-Broadway show, I put myself on a standby list and was fortunate to receive a free ticket.  So I've saved money on ticket costs, though I have had more cocktails lately than is probably good for me.  There's where my money is going...

Anyway, last weekend I was on the standby list for a free ticket to Lynn Nottage's new play at the Public Theater, Mlima's Tale.  They had put so many people on the standby list, though, that not everyone could get in.  They very kindly offered us a ticket for another date, should there be room.  I happily took advantage of that offer.  As I'm a big fan of Lynn's work, I was quite keen to see the show and yet not-as-keen to spend all my money (did I mention it's award season?).  When free stuff comes my way, I try to pounce.

Mlima's Tale is Nottage's follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat (which you may remember I greatly enjoyed - you can remind yourself of my review HERE).  Further showing Nottage's eye for detail and elegance of language,  Mlima's Tale tells the story of an old African elephant, slaughtered at the beginning of the play for his ivory tusks.  Mlima is played by the charismatic and powerful actor Sahr Ngaujah, whose physicalization of Mlima is simply spectacular.  Even though Mlima's physical body is dead throughout the play, his spirit and tragedy pervades the entire evening.  The play basically shows us the chain of the illegal ivory trade industry in Africa and Asia, from Mlima's death to the display of his tusks in a wealthy family's home.  

Using the form of Schnitzler's play La Ronde as a model, Mlima's Tale uses that same form where one person from the previous scene moves into the next scene and so on and so on.  So the poachers who kill Mlima meet with a shady police chief, who then tries to pay off his ranger nephew, who tries to persuade a bureaucrat...all down the line to the wealthy purchaser.  It's an ingenious way to show us how we're all complicit in the ivory trade, whether we know it or not.  

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Alongside Ngaujah's Mlima, all the other characters in the play are portrayed by only three actors.  They are astoundingly good, with just tiny changes of costumes to aid them in their many characterizations - they each play across ethnicity, across gender, across power dynamics.  Mlima's Tale is a terrifically acted piece.  It is also wonderfully designed and directed; there are so many beautifully evocative stage pictures and sound effects (the live music was terrific), I was frequently transported.  The use of white paint, marking Mlima's dead body and then marking all of the people who aided in his illegal transfer, was brilliant.  If I occasionally hoped for more theatrical magic along the lines of Ngaujah's elephant, well, that's on me.  Nottage has given us a beautiful and sad story of how humans destroy the earth (with echoes of how they destroy each other - the disturbing image of Mlima being transported on a cargo ship carried terrible reminders of other African cargo).  I marvel at her imagination and I can't wait to see what she brings us next.

Last night, a handsome Tony voter friend invited me to tag along to see Mean Girls, the new Broadway musical.  I have to admit two things up front: one, I've never seen the movie (I know, it seems strange to me, too), and two, I know a member of the creative team (we were college roommates, but haven't really kept in touch).  So I had those two things in my mind as we sat down to experience the show.

I guess Mean Girls is quite a big part of certain consumers' pop culture, there seemed to be such enjoyment from most of the audience for lines and situations they already knew by heart.  Going in with no previous knowledge put me at a little bit of a disadvantage, I think.  I mean, I could see where the story was headed, but because I didn't already have a fondness or a reference for it, stuff didn't land in my funny wheelhouse as easily.  I was confused by the framing device, because it didn't continue throughout the entire piece and I was often unsure about who our narrator was.  I did laugh at a lot of the very funny dialogue, and I did enjoy the monstrously talented cast.  Seriously, this cast was working.it.  But it was a tad annoying to not be in on the joke most of the time.  So, when I parse it out, I guess I liked Mean Girls, it was fine, but it just seemed kind of a waste of time to simply replicate the film onto the stage without finding a new way in.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

I took a look at the internet last night, to see which actress played which part in the movie, and when I looked at some stills from the film, the design of the film looked so much like the design of the musical.  Characters were costumed in the same way or carried exact same props (even if they weren't really necessary).  At intermission, I asked my handsome Tony voter friend if they had added a lot of material to the musical, since the first act was nearly 90 minutes long.  He said no, it was basically the movie, just with songs.  So the songs didn't really move things along, they just sort of happened alongside the book.  They were fine, they were definitely well-performed, but...I don't know.

The second act was more successful for me, with the extra-infusion of girl power and empowerment.  I enjoyed seeing a cast of all shapes and sizes on stage, though then having the mean girl's punishment be that she's made fat (and her newly costume-extra-padded butt was the center of ridicule) didn't sit the right way for me.  As a gal of a certain size, it seemed awkward to me to both ridicule for comedy the girl's weight gain and also denounce the ridicule.  Again, I don't know.  Maybe I was just taking the whole thing too seriously.  I did frequently smile, I did laugh, and I do think this is an awesome cast doing an awesome job.  Do I wish Mean Girls took more chances?  Maybe.  But I guess that's not what it was written to do.  If the rest of the audience's continual glee throughout the evening is any indication, the show was designed to replicate the film experience and that's what they came for.  So perhaps the show is successful after all and doesn't need me on board.  And that's ok.  Lots of happy people buying lots of theater tickets makes me happy.  That's ok, too.    

Reviews - The Confession of Lily Dare and Three Tall Women

photo credit: Michael Wakefield

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I believe you all know how much I enjoy the work of Charles Busch.  I try to see all of his plays and appearances around town because he (and his work) just brings me so much joy and happiness.  He has a huge generosity of spirit and an enormous capacity for laughter and pathos and I just respond to him like gangbusters.  You can remind yourselves of a few of my previous writings about him HERE, HERE, and HERE.  When a friend emailed me and said that Charles' new piece would be premiering downtown, I immediately picked up not one, but two tickets.  I went to my first viewing of The Confession of Lily Dare last week.  Unsurprisingly, I LOVED IT.

I told my handsome seat neighbor (and fellow Charles-ophile) that seeing Charles' show was exactly what I needed to see last week - it has been busy and exhausting and fairly unfun around here lately.  The stupid weather has something to do with it, I'm sure, and I've been feeling a little unwell lately, just to add to the unfun.  Having some joy and laughter, courtesy of Mr. Busch, was just what the doctor ordered.  The cast of the new piece is filled with some of my very favorite stage actors, too, so believe me when I say I had just the best time.

The Confession of Lily Dare is another loving homage to strong women and classic films about strong women.  I laughed lustily and loudly whenever I caught a reference to another familiar-to-me movie (the Pollyanna section especially slayed me).  Of course, I laughed lustily and loudly throughout the play anyway, since it's so funny and clever.  But it also has much warmth and poignancy, too.  It's the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of a convent girl turned chanteuse turned madam, with another touching plot point running through the play.

I tell you, I went from laughing to crying several times throughout the evening.  There was one moment I won't soon forget, when Charles' Lily is truly down on her luck and performs in a dive bar between swigs from her flask.  And then the torch song she performs is absolutely heartbreaking.  I was sobbing.  There is so much honesty in what Charles does - it's parody, yes; it's campy, yes; it features drag, yes; but it is so much more.  At least it is to me.  And what it is seems to be the purest form of theater.  A group of people who want nothing more than to put on a show and share themselves with an audience.  Obviously I highly recommend seeing The Confession of Lily Dare - I'll be back for a return visit next week.  Once is never enough.

Speaking of 'once is never enough':  I can only imagine that I'll be returning to the Golden Theater for repeat visits of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women because OH.MY.GOD.IT.IS.
AMAZING.  Seriously.  I have been looking forward to seeing this production ever since it was announced.  One: I loved the original production; two: I've never seen Glenda Jackson live on stage before; three: Laurie Metcalf is a genius; four: I always enjoy Allison Pill; five: I was lucky enough to have a handsome Tony voter pal offer to take me; six: hello. Albee.  So all signs pointed to my enjoying my evening.



Enjoying isn't quite the right word.  I may have trouble finding the right words because I was absolutely stunned by Three Tall Women.  Gobsmacked, even.  It was like a gale force was blowing directly in my face and I had to hold my breath to make it through to the other side.  Several of my friends told me they found the play profoundly moving and cried copiously at the end.  Surprisingly, I was so overwhelmed and awed by the play's power and emotion that I didn't cry.  Sure, I welled up a time or two, but I didn't sob at the end, the way I thought I might.  I was too...overcome.  It was brilliance.  The only other time I can remember this sort of reaction is from the first time I saw The Normal Heart at the Public Theater.  I just couldn't believe the genius and I felt as if I couldn't speak, because it might ruin the magic.  That's how I felt the other night.

I totally forgot I had this signed copy of the script!

On the way home and ever since, though, I have been sobbing.  Just thinking about the experience of watching the play makes me weep.  Oh, how I wish Edward were here!  He would make fun of me, I know, but I would've had to try to express what the play did to me.  I've seen it before, but it was as if I was seeing it anew, and seeing something entirely new.  I really don't know what to say.

I wrote a few things down on my phone as I was crying on the subway:  it was incredible the way all of the truth-telling was so ugly, yet also starkly beautiful.  Even as the women, all based on Edward's adoptive mother who was less than maternal, were exposing their ugliness, they were still written and treated with gentleness.  With affection. With compassion.  It was quite gorgeous.  The way the play is written seems to me near-perfection: the way it uses repetition and wrapping memories around themselves is genius.  And the language...rapture.  The production is almost like a high-wire act - one wrong step and everything could topple.  Obviously, there was no toppling the night I was there.

photo credit: Sara Krulwich

Glenda Jackson was all that I could've hoped she would be - wickedly funny, powerful, domineering yet frail, and ever so smart.  She broke my heart, but really, all three ladies did.  Laurie Metcalf is once again pitch-perfect - she is never anything other than absolutely believable and when I tell you she scared me to death talking about being halfway done with life, believe me.  Chills.  Allison Pill was also terrific - I can't imagine it was easy standing up with Jackson and Metcalf, but she went for it, full out, and grabbed her share.  I enjoyed her performance very much.

The physical production and the direction were also sublime - the way the physical world morphs and expands between the first and second acts was fantastic.  I enjoyed seeing the play without an intermission; it made the sense that we were in the fractured mind of this woman on the precipice of death even more tangible.  The last image?  Breathtaking.  Oh, and the use of The Boy?  Heartbreaking, on so many levels.  Too many to talk about without crying again.  So I'll just stop trying to talk - please, everyone, go see this marvelous production.  You will not be sorry, I guarantee.  I am so grateful to my handsome Tony voter friend for taking me and I can hardly wait to go back.  Maybe I'll see you there!

Seven Years Ago Today...

My oh my.  Don’t they say that in seven years, your whole body has regenerated?  I don’t know where I’ve heard that before, probably on The Golden Girls, which isn’t exactly a scientific powerhouse.  But still.  I’d like to think that my body has regenerated, though I'm pretty sure it hasn't.  I've made two new doctor consultation appointments today alone.  If only my body could also lose weight on its own, then life would be a dream.  Speaking of life as a dream:  last year, I mentioned that I had a blogging day of 400+ hits; little did I know that recently I would have a 600+ day!  I mean, I just figure that someone has me set for auto-clicking or something.  My mind can’t wrap around 600 people wondering about what I have to say on any particular day…

the magnificent seven.  just because.

But seven years ago today, this blog began - woo hoo!  Over the past year, I have sometimes found it difficult to write.  To write anything, let alone report on outings I've enjoyed.  Strangely, I still found myself self-editing on the blog all the time.  Though, interestingly, some of my more personal rantings are also some of my more popular posts, when I actually have the nerve to jot the rantings down.  I really do need to start exploring that part of myself a little more, I think.  I need to trust the anonymity of the internet and just shout from the rooftops, because god knows I'm often mad as hell and don't want to take it any more.  Some of my favorite people on social media just let it all hang out – I need to do that, too.

One of my very favorite people on social media is Roxane Gay.  I'm shamefully late in noticing her genius - she was at a conference I attended last year and she was incredible there.  After I heard her speak, I bought one of her books of essays, Bad Feminist, and found it to be so moving and smart and also terrifically funny.  I have recently started reading her memoir, Hunger, and I find so much in her writing to mirror my thoughts.  She talks a lot about feeling 'seen,' which is something I yearn for as well, and it's strange to feel seen by someone I've never met and probably never will meet.  Her life experience and my life experience are so radically different, yet I feel a kinship.  She writes with such truth and power; I would love to be able to do that, too.  I guess I'm just a big fan.  You probably should be, too.  

It's interesting - I feel as if I have three times of year when I look inward: at the end of the calendar year, at the end of the 'school year', and in February, because my life changed so much in February 2011.  So I find myself making resolutions, or plans, or promises to myself throughout the year, though without much consequence if I don't follow through.  That can't be good.  I have followed through on at least one of my goals from January, so that's a good thing.  I haven't tackled the other goal and I've just set a new one for myself, after my trip to Louisville.  Some days, it's hard to keep track...

Speaking of Louisville, I so wish I could get more travelling into my life, for my personal pleasure AND for my blogging pleasure!  Besides enjoying seeing new places, I also love sharing my experiences far from home.  I really need to work harder on that.  I have a mini-trip to Chicago planned for the fall and I'm looking forward to it, but a big trip to a new location would be wonderful.

Oh, and when speaking of blog posts, I should also point out that I don’t blog about every show/ballet/concert that I see.  If I didn’t really enjoy myself, I will generally just skip talking about it, because I don’t like putting that negative energy out into the world, at least about theater.  The real critics do enough of that.  I guess I save my negative energy for when I'm speaking about my frustration with the world at large. 

So, blah blah blah, the numbers.  You would think I would like or even be good at math, with all my obsession with numbers.  Not so much.  I just think I’m obsessed with people liking me.  I always have been.  One of my recurring nightmares is that I go someplace with a group of people and then they leave me behind for some reason.  Oh, paranoid self-doubt, you are a pip.  Anyway.  Numbers.  In the past seven years, I've written 766 posts that have been looked at 81,350 times, which is crazy, because it means even though I blogged much less than last year (69 posts vs 107 last year), I almost doubled my total hits (they were at 44,457 this time last year)!  There’s something seriously crazy about that, right?  I mean, how can that even be possible?!  My all-time list of most-read posts has finally shifted around a little, which really makes me happy, especially with my new most-popular-ever post.  Woo hoo on that!  Though I am a little bummed my game show post fell off the list, if we're being really honest, ha ha... 

All-Time Most Popular Posts:

Review – Street Theater, 10/23/15, 411 views
ABT - Sleeping Beauty, 7/7/11, 372 views
ABT Fall Season - GUEST BLOGGER ALERT, 11/13/13, 359 views
Burrowing…but not, 10/10/17, 328 views
Review - The Healing, 6/17/16, 298 views

My list of most-read posts since last year's anniversary is also interesting to me; again, I think being linked by other sites has helped me out here.  I guess I need to figure out how to make that happen more often to really boost my stats:

Top Posts since April 2017:

Burrowing…but not, 10/10/17, 328 views
Revival-ing, 6/19/17, 236 views
Terror and Rage, 8/16/17, 227 views
A Night at the US Open – an exercise in frustration, 9/7/17, 224 views
Thoughts on KPOP, 9/13/17, 222 views

whee!  a big day!

Interestingly, nearly all of my posts from the last year or so have cracked 200 hits, whereas most of my early posts have barely cracked 30.  Maybe I should promote them more often.  Or not.  I do rather think my writing has improved over the last seven years.  At least that's what I'm telling myself, lol.  Judge for yourself - here's one of my least-viewed old posts:  READ ME.  Like I say every year, I could probably share my blog posts more often on social media.  Maybe I'll start with this one and see what happens.  Maybe.  That's my word of the day.  But here's to another year of tons of blah blah blah.  Thanks for continuing to join me on this tour!

Return to Humana

Howdy again!  Long post alert!  I'm back, after a nice long weekend in Louisville, KY, for the Humana Fest of New American Plays.  We were supposed to go to the festival last year, but got tornado-ed out by Delta.  My co-worker and I have been waiting to have fried green tomatoes for TWO YEARS!  I will cut to the chase and say that our food dreams were dashed within minutes...

Last year, my co-worker and I sat at the airport for hours before finally being sent home.  It was really a pain in the patootie, and I do have to credit Delta for taking responsibility and allowing us a refund.  This year, when we got to the airport, I admit I was nervous until we actually got onto the plane - I had heard there was heavy rain in Kentucky and some weather reports were also talking about flooding, so I was afraid we wouldn't get out of LGA again, but happily, we did.  It was a gray and forbidding day, but we finally arrived in Louisville (the descent into the airport was a bit bumpy, but otherwise, it was a good flight).  

Arriving safely at our hotel, we immediately walked into a lobby of construction.  My, it was noisy and loud in that lobby.  I was glad that our rooms were on the fifteenth floor, away from the noise and dust, but it was still annoying.  As was a group attending a conference at the hotel - Lads to Leaders and Leaderettes.  I don't even know where to begin, but I will mainly say that this conference seemed to be parents just setting their annoying children free to run around the hotel and scream to their hearts content.  Some kids were just riding up and down the elevators, others were watching movies on their devices with no headsets, and still others were running around as if the lobby were a track meet.  I was quite displeased throughout the weekend that no one seemed to want to curb these children and tell them that leaders (and leaderettes, whatever the hell that means) behave themselves at all times.  Perhaps a strongly worded letter to the hotel...

I had made a reservation at our favorite restaurant for almost the moment we arrived - all we could talk about was having some fried green tomatoes.  I guess I should've realized that nothing stays the same.  We went to our favorite restaurant all right, but fried green tomatoes are no longer on the appetizer menu.  WAIT, WHAT?!?!  My co-worker and I were peppering the poor server about this terrible decision; he said the kitchen said it wasn't worth the time and effort to have them as a dish on the menu.  But as I looked at other menu items, I saw that fried green tomatoes were still a component of other dishes, so why couldn't we have some?!?!  Our server went and asked the chef and so we got a tiny side order of itty bitty fried green tomatoes.  Delicious, but not nearly enough.  I will say that my pulled pork tacos were quite tasty, as was my sweet tea, but that didn't push away my immense disappointment.  I had read about another restaurant in town that serves a fried green tomato po' boy, so we decided to check that restaurant out another day.  Oh, the best laid plans...

After our lunch, we went back to the hotel to change for a work event at the Green Building, a completely sustainable building on the other side of town.  It was a lovely space and our event went well, if sparsely attended.  Apparently, Easter/Passover weekend is not the best time to hold events in Louisville.  Who knew?!  But the conversation was lively, the catered food was delicious and the staff at the Green Building were terrific.  I would hold another event there in a heartbeat.  After the meeting was over, my handsome co-worker and I had a debrief in the hotel's new restaurant, Porch.  Porch is quite a lovely space and we went back again later in the weekend.  Since I had eaten so much of the catered food, I only had some corn muffins and they were yummy!  Plus, I had some leftover to go with the leftover catered food I was carting back to my hotel room...

Friday was the first day of theater-going.  But our first event wasn't until the evening, so I took my time getting my day started.  I ordered a delicious egg sandwich from room service and enjoyed a leisurely morning.  At lunch time, I went over to Actors Theatre to pick up my weekend's tickets, then I just took a walk around town.  I walked over to a pier overlooking the Ohio River and enjoyed the brisk air over the water.  I then walked down the main drag and bought some souvenirs, enjoyed some ice cream, toured a new indoor market and had a generally lovely (though gray outside) day.  I was a little miffed when I went back to the hotel for a break and my room hadn't been cleaned yet and the lobby was filled with screaming children.  So I went back out to Panera Bread and had a little caffeine and nosh.  I hate going to chain restaurants when I'm travelling, but it was close to the hotel and I could use up my birthday freebies, so I forgave myself.  My handsome co-worker and I met up at Panera and had a nice chat before going back to the hotel to get ready for our first play.

photo credit: Bill Bymer

First up was Do You Feel Anger?, by Mara Nelson-Greenberg.  It was in the small theater-in-the-round, which is my favorite space to see a show at Humana.  The opening of the show is a little off-putting: it's highly stylized and it took me a few minutes to get into the full-on satirical performance style and writing style, but once I did, I really enjoyed myself.  The play centers on an 'empathy coach,' who comes to work with a company sorely needing some empathy.  Of course, the men in the company don't feel they need any training for anything, and the strongly-driven point that corporate life is different for men and women is broadly and pointedly presented.  As the empathy coach's empathy began to erode for the other female character, the scenes did have a humor and a sameness, so I began to wonder what did it all mean and why did it matter?  Then the final scene, which was a dreamlike fugue featuring a character we had only heard referenced but didn't see ourselves, was quite a revelation.  It was ambiguous and interesting and led me somewhere I didn't expect.  I still rather wish there had been more layers to the earlier story-telling, but I was quite satisfied with the experience of watching this play on the whole.  I also recognized quite a few of the behaviors explored, whether heightened or satirized or not.  So this was a very good start to our weekend's playwatching.  Well, except for the grammatical error that kept getting repeated throughout the play.  That did set my teeth on edge.  But other than that...

We had a little break, so we walked down to Original Impellizzeri’s Pizza, which is down the street from Actors Theatre.  We got the thin crust margherita pizza and it was quite tasty.  The crust was crispy and vaguely garlicky and the tomatoes were nice and fresh.  I maybe could've used a touch more mozzarella, but that's just me.  We were in the restaurant as the women's college basketball semifinals were going on and Louisville was playing.  I will just say that the fans in the restaurant were quite vocal and were quite devastated when Louisville lost in the final seconds.  I felt badly for them.  The place was really quiet after that.  Which, actually, was nice for us, since we were getting ready for an 11pm curtain...

Our 11pm show was the annual acting apprentice piece.  This year's was called You Across From Me.  Every time I go to Humana, this apprentice piece is a mixed bag, since the writers are commissioned to not only write about a particular theme, but also on particular actors.  I will say that this iteration was one of the more successful that I've seen.  There were twelve little vignettes written for twenty young actors, and I did find a few of the vignettes to be very sharp, especially those written by Dipika Guha (her three part "A Date with the Family" was particularly smart) and Jaclyn Backhaus.  It was an enjoyable enough 90 minutes, though we were keen to get back to the hotel for a little shuteye before a big Saturday of theater.  Oh, and we also had pie at a tiny reception before the show.  Pie is good.  😄

In the morning, after a quick stop at Starbucks, we went to our first Saturday event, a panel discussion called "Lessons from Inclusive Theater: Making Work Accessible to the Disability Community."  The discussion was led by Actors Theatre's Inclusion Consultant Talleri McRae.  She was a terrific moderator, leading the panelists well, yet giving them room to express themselves.  We heard from two playwrights, two actors and two educators, talking about opportunities for disabled performers and what theaters and other arts organizations might do to make things more accessible for everyone.  It was a terrific conversation and one that could easily have lasted another two hours, but we all had to cut it short to go see more plays.

photo credit: Bill Brymer

Our next play was we, the invisibles by Susan Soon He Stanton.  What starts off as a rather light comedy of manners, set in a boutique hotel, rapidly turns into something more meaningful as the character of Susan, ostensibly standing in for the playwright, becomes obsessed with the case of Dominique Strass-Kahn, who was alleged to have assaulted a hotel maid.  Susan decides she wants to hear the stories of her boutique hotel co-workers, the often overlooked and 'invisible' people who are treated poorly to keep the guests happy.  The acting ensemble of we, the invisibles is nothing short of stupendous.  They all play multiple characters, of multiple countries of origin, and multiple accents, and the fact that they keep them all straight and made each character a fully realized, three-dimensional human is amazing.  I thought the play was smart, funny, empathetic and very true.  The last scene was so lovely, I'll be thinking on it for a long time.  

After the play, my handsome co-worker and I went across the street to the restaurant that supposedly serves a fried green tomato po' boy.  But they were closed.  DRATS.  We figured we'd go back another time.  Since we had a limited amount of break time, we just ran over to Porch, the restaurant in our hotel, for a quick snack.  They were still serving brunch, so I got an order of the lump crab hush puppies and hash browns.  A dumb pairing, I know, but you have to carb load on a day when you're seeing three plays and a panel discussion.  The hush puppies were AMAZING, so light and airy, with just enough crabmeat to make them a little sweet, alongside the corn.  And the hash browns were just as I like them, shredded.  Yum.  A dumb pairing but so delicious and just enough to get me through the afternoon. 

Our next play was Evocation to Visible Appearance by Mark Schultz.  I will only say that I did not enjoy this piece in the extreme, nor did it make itself known to me in any way.  It made me quite angry, in fact, though my co-worker thought I was perhaps overreacting.  Probably.  But after it was over, I demanded to go out for a drink, so we went to the lovely bar in the Galt House hotel, Al J's at the Conservatory.  Light, airy and kind of funky, this bar was the perfect place to decompress.  My cocktail, the smokey sour, was tremendous and put me in a much better mood, as did the sugar cookie I had purchased at the market the day before.  The smokey sour had mezcal, tequila, sweet and sour mix, and lots of fresh lemon.  Delicious.  This will definitely go on my list of top cocktails for 2018.

photo credit: Jonathan Roberts

Our last play of the day was God Said This, by Leah Nanako Winkler.  This play recently won the Yale Drama Prize and will be at Primary Stages next season, so it's maybe the most high-profile of the Humana line-up.  I enjoyed it quite a bit - it's a moving story about a family, illness, redemption, and sacrifice.  It's quite human, very moving and terrifically acted.  A fractured family comes together around the gravely-ill mother, trying to finish her last round of chemo.  The father is a recovering alcoholic, one daughter is a born-again Christian and the other has been estranged from her family for seven years.  It sounds a bit 'been there, done that,' but it's all done with great humanity and wonderful acting.  I thought the father's monologues, as if he's speaking at an AA meeting, were very well done, and set the tone for the play.  The physical production, and the direction, were very good, too.  I was happy to be back in a good place after the earlier play.  

Sunday was Easter, so I made a special Easter brunch reservation at Proof on Main.  It's one of our favorite restaurants in Louisville.  It's just quirky and fun, with modern art all over the walls and random red plastic penguins making appearances at tables.  The restaurant is inside the 21C Museum Hotel, so there's art everywhere.  More on that later.  The three-course prix fixe brunch menu had several tasty treats on it, but I first settled on the Late for Work cocktail, which had cynar (an artichoke liqueur), grapefruit, lemon, simple syrup and ginger ale.  Boy, was that potent!  It was sweet and bitter and had a slightly vegetal after-taste.  It actually went really well with the meal I had - for my first course, I had the orange carrot bread, which had a yummy orange ginger glaze on it, and was served with chantilly cream and candied pistachios.  OK, this was seriously delicious.  It was like having dessert for the first course.  It was tender and sweet and the nuts were crunchy and sweet.  Delicious.  And I'm glad my drink was slightly bitter, to counterbalance the sweetness.  For my entree, I had the Proof Benedict, which was poached eggs over a cornmeal biscuit, with country ham and a 'redeye' hollandaise sauce. And arugula on the side.  SHUT UP, this was amazing.  I now want to have redeye hollandaise sauce on everything I ever eat again.  This was definitely the best eggs benedict I've ever had, thank you very much.  The dessert course was a little anticlimactic and, frankly, too much sweetness, so I barely touched my mini pecan pie, bourbon chocolate ganache square and jellied fruit thing.  I mean, they were yummy, don't get me wrong, but I had been sugared out.  It was a terrific brunch, though.  

photo credit: Dana Rogers

After we finished eating, we still had time before our matinee, so we wandered through the 21C Museum Hotel lobby and museum.  There was a lot of amazing art, which I'll talk about later, because it was so fascinating, we actually went BACK after our show.  So I'll go on to the last show of our weekend, Marginal Loss, by Deborah Stein.  Set in the days immediately after 9/11, the play takes place in a New Jersey warehouse, which is where a financial firm (who had been housed in an upper floor of the World Trade Center) is temporarily operating until they figure out how many employees survived the terrorist attacks, and what they need to do before the stock market opens.  I have to admit, I have an aversion to 9/11 plays, it's an involuntary response.  I mean, I guess I've never seen this particular story play out before, about how the financial firms got their mojo back and started making money again, so there's that.  But would this story resonate without the 9/11 backdrop?  I'm not sure.  I was reminded of something a panelist said at the disability and inclusion seminar - she said plays that are just about disability are dull.  Plays that are about people, and disability is a part of people, those stories are what's interesting.  So, extrapolating that, I'm thinking that a play that uses 9/11 as a hook and that's its only distinguishing characteristic...hm.  Maybe it's just me and my aversion to 9/11 plays.

After the play, our Humana experience was over.  We went back to the 21C Museum Hotel to check out their exhibit more closely.  They're currently presenting Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation.  The description on their website says "...the figures populating Dress Up, Speak Up occupy fluid space and time, evoking past and present, fact and fiction, memory and desire, to illuminate the complexity of contemporary identity."  My handsome co-worker and I found the exhibit fascinating - there were so many beautiful things to look at, and also so many provocative and startling things as well.  Some of the artists represented were Ebony G Patterson, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Firelei Báez, Stephanie Syjuco, and Kudzanai Chiurai.  I was especially taken with Patterson's work and Chiurai's work.  I wish I had taken more photos throughout the exhibit because I found so much of the work to be incredibly powerful.  But I'm glad to have so many artists to learn more about.

We started wandering along Main Street and I noticed another museum across the street from the 21C Museum Hotel: the KMAC Museum.  They were also exhibiting interesting modern art, mostly by the artists Amanda Ross-Ho and Nathan Hayden.  We were both taken by the mural painted by Hayden in the museum's lobby.  The woman at the information desk told us that Hayden painted the mural freehand, which was amazing to imagine!  She also told us there was a video of his painting it on the second floor, so we made sure to check it out.  His exhibition was called "What was Magic of Numbers, Hypnotic and Wonders, and Amanda Ross-Ho's was called "Contents and Index."  I will admit that the meaning of a lot of modern art simply escapes me, and I was confused by several of the pieces exhibited, but I also saw a lot of whimsy and interesting shapes and forms.  We could only wander through the first two floors because they were closing early (it was Easter Sunday, after all), but I enjoyed experiencing more new work.  

After we left the museum, we just sort of looked at architecture and took our time heading over to our dinner location, Dish on Market.  They have a pretty eclectic menu and it was hard to choose what to get.  Well, it was hard to choose what to get to eat.  What to order as my cocktail was not hard: I got the KY Mule.  Yum.  It was bourbon and ginger beer with lime.  Did I say yum?  Yum.  I finally opted to get the pulled pork flatbread, with barbecue sauce (mmmmmmmm, barbecue sauce) and fried onions.  This was terrifically tasty and just what I needed for the end of a long theater weekend.  Because, of course, the place that featured fried green tomato po' boys was closed for Easter Sunday.  I don't know why the universe was keeping me from my dream food, but oh well.  We had a good time, eating and watching theater, anyway.  Hopefully, I can get the scheduling right for next year and eat/see even more!