A Very Busy Week - Nights Three and Four

Yikes, this week is still going strong and it's Friday!  I have a matinee tomorrow, Sunday off (thank heavens!), then a special matinee on Monday, an Off-Broadway performance on Tuesday, a ballet matinee on Wednesday, and another Off-Broadway performance on Thursday!  I should've called this a Very Busy Fortnight instead!  I am going to be exhausted, but most of these things have been free (I'm very grateful to friends who invite me to be their plus-one), so how can I say no?!  And I've enjoyed everything so far, so hopefully that trend will continue.

Wednesday night, I went to a reading of Kia Corthron's new play, Slingshot, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, as part of their F*cking Good Plays Festival.  Since it was a reading of a new play, all I will say is that it's filled with Kia's usual brilliant dialogue and characterizations, it's about a topic I've never considered before, and I'm hoping someone produces it soon so I can see a full production.  If you see that title on someone's upcoming season, check it out.

Last night, a friend took me out, as a belated birthday treat, to see The Rebecca Luker Songbook at Symphony Space.  I love Rebecca Luker - I actually saw her in Phantom of the Opera many years ago and hearing her sing in The Secret Garden was one of the joys of my theater-going past.  Her soprano truly shimmers and I'm always glad to see her name on a cast list.  Here is the description of the evening from Symphony Space's website:  "This unique concert features three-time Tony Award-nominee Rebecca Luker (Fun Home, Mary Poppins, The Music Man), one of Broadway's most revered and versatile stars, in a dazzling collection of world-premiere songs written especially for her by such esteemed composers as Jeff Blumenkrantz, John Bucchino, Sam Davis, Stephen Flaherty, Peter Foley, Jenny Giering, Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid, Stephen Hoffman, Caleb Hoyer, Henry Krieger, Steve Marzullo, Georgia Stitt, and Joseph Thalken. The evening will be music directed by Joseph Thalken."

In a few words, this concert was simply spectacular!  Rebecca Luker is such a warm, wonderful presence and her voice is just sublime.  I have several recordings featuring her and I never tire of listening to her sing.  The songs (22 in all) were mainly songs set to poems, though there was at least one song that wasn't.  All of the songs were truly gorgeous, and Luker brought a different feel to each.  I know a few of the composers who wrote these songs for her and I was just delighted at all of their contributions.  I can't put my hands on my program from last night, darn it, but off the top of my head, I remember that Georgia Stitt set a gorgeous Christina Rossetti poem, Jenny Giering brought a Langston Hughes poem to beautiful life, Stephen Flaherty stunned with an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem and Heitzman & Reid wrote an hysterically funny song about how sopranos aren't funny especially for Luker.  Well, all the songs were written for her, but this one was an original (not based on a poem), so it seemed especially personal.  And oh so funny.  It maybe got the biggest hand of the night.

But, really, every song was terrific and if they had been selling a recording in the lobby after the concert, I would've bought it (and if I didn't mention your song, it's because I forget your poet, but I loved what you did regardless!).  She mentioned that she has another 60+ songs available to her, so she may do a follow-up concert and she hopes to maybe record some someday.  I hope she is able to, because original songs by contemporary songwriters are some of my very favorite things.  This concert was yet another installment in my very busy fortnight and it was a wonderful (and unexpected) delight.