Jere-Rigged

Brain Freeze

Wow...I had such an embarrassing audition yesterday and I have no explanation for it.

It was for a series of one act plays being done off-Broadway sometimes this summer. They had requested a contemporary monologue, so I trotted out a piece that I've done literally a hundred times before.

And there came a point in the middle of it when I just froze. I couldn't remember the next line. I stammered, I stopped, I turned several shades of red. I had no idea what to do.

The auditioners took pity and suggested that I take a few minutes in the hall to pull myself together while they saw the next person and I could come back in later.

So I did and I was able to get the monologue completely back in a matter a minutes. I went back in and did a fine job for them. But I have a feeling that my moment had passed and I don't expect to ever hear from these people again.

I had considered just running from the building as fast as I could, but didn't. I gathered up the courage and went back in and that, I think, is a victory, even though I won't be getting this show.

It was scary though. I mean, I've done this piece so many times that it really is second nature. I have no clue why I fucked it up so badly this one time. And I'm not exaggerating here...I'm talking "deer in the headlights." It was NOT pretty.

Oh, well...onward and upward.

Pride Pictures

Here are some pictures from Sunday's Pride Parade...

These are a couple of shots of me with David Bromstad. These were taken in our staging area at 53rd and 5th. Funnily enough, I was watching an episode of Color Splash tonight as I was writing this. Fun show.

This is me and David in the car along the parade route.

And a front view. I actually took this one.

Pride Weekend A Go Go, Part II: The Parade

I spent most of today riding down Fifth Avenue, 8th Street, Greenwich Avenue, and Christopher Street in a yellow Ford Mustang convertible decked out to advertise HGTV as a part of this year's Gay Pride Parade here in New York. (The organizers insist upon calling it a march, but I was a Boy Scout. I know what a march is and it's a very specific thing. This was not a march; it was a parade.)

Perched high on the back seat of the Mustang was David Bromstad, the winner of HGTV's Design Star reality show and (as his prize for winning) current host of Color Splash. David turned out to be a great guy, as well as being smoking hot as evidenced early in the parade when he doffed his shirt for the assembled masses.

The parade did not get off to a great start as, for whatever reason, our section didn't leave the staging area until two hours after we had been originally scheduled. I have no idea how a parade that's be going for years and years could get a full two hours behind.

But anyway...

Oh, hey...sidebar...I hope no one on the east side of midtown ever needs a drugstore on a Sunday. I went to three Duane Reades in the area, all closed. I found not a single other drug store in the area of Madison Avenue between the low 40's and the mid-50's.

Our car was in between a group representing cabaret show at Don't Tell Mama called Guy Pride and a group from Ars Nova, a kicky little performance space that happens to be right around the corner from my apartment.

Highlights of the parade route included David's needing to pee and hopping out of the car to run into a Burger King on Fifth Avenue to do so. He did this without putting his shirt back on, but we figured that a Burger King on the Gay Pride Parade route had probably seen much worse over the course of the day. And then the parade started moving on...and no David. The two of us in the car were wondering just what to do as we were moving down Fifth Avenue without our star attraction. I volunteered to grab the wheel of the Mustang and allow my colleague to jump into the back seat, take off his shirt, and pretend to be David. He didn't go for it. Eventually David did make it back to us with a story of a woman who got into the restroom just before he did and proceeded to take forever and a day to do her business.

Because of the HGTV banners lining the sides of the car, we were not able to open the doors to get in and out of the car, which we needed to do to take pictures (and for David to pee). So we jumped in and out of the car Dukes of Hazzard style, which was very amusing for me. Coincidentally, I have dark hair and the driver of our car had light hair, just like the Duke boys. Although, if I remember correctly, it was usually Luke, the dark haired one, who drove.

Do other parades down Fifth Avenue have to actually stop every block or two for traffic? I thought this was highly unusual and this is what really added to the length of the parade. The police quite literally stopped the parade every block to allow through traffic to cross Fifth Avenue. It was weird. It took us 3 hours to get from the mid-50's on Fifth to Christopher and Greenwich, where the parade was dispersed. Had through traffic not been an issue, we could have knocked at least an hour off that time.

We saw two protesters along the way holding signs telling us how much God hates gays, etc. Boo Hoo. At least they were being peaceful about it. I suspect that they were very lonely people without much going on in their lives. It always seems to me that these sorts of people are so very unhappy. Whenever I see hate groups protesting gay issues or such things, I'm always struck by how miserable and unhappy they seem. While, in contrast, most gay people are perfectly happy with much of their lives and a day like today is all about joy and happiness and inclusiveness.

It was a bit strange being in the car and waving to people, but, most of the time, not being the one at which they were waving. My colleague and I were joking about having the tops of our heads in all these random pictures from the day.

On the whole, I missed the Festival...the street fair, where HGTV usually sets up a booth, and which was cancelled this year. I missed the swag. I came home with not a single condom and nary a packet of lube or a dental dam. I missed having a shot at some free SkyMiles from Delta Air Lines and I missed swapping HGTV swag for delicious food from the stand next door. The parade was a lot less work though, I must say.

Plus, it's nice to have a chance to actually talk to people, which you can do when you're at a booth flogging HGTV and giving away tape measures and backpacks and pens.

But, since I hadn't even seen the parade in about 4 years due to working the street fair, this was a nice change of pace.

And it was a perfect day for it. Not too hot, not too sunny, no rain. I got a little color, which I'm hoping doesn't turn into a burn later.

Anybody out there see us?

Pride Weekend A Go Go, Part I

Happy Pride, Everybody!!

My weekend started on Friday when Jim and Anthony and I got together Friday night at Cowgirl Hall of Fame in the West Village for a late dinner. It was a lovely evening and we sat at a table outside on the sidewalk while we talked and ate barbeque. After that, it was off to BowlMor Lanes on University Place to bowl a couple of games. It was fun, although I did pretty poorly. I managed a 105 in the first game and an 84 (I think) in the second. If you've never been, BowlMor is a little bit pricier than we were expecting, so I'm not sure I'll be going back there anytime soon. But we did have a lot of fun.

After bowling, Jim left us to head back to the Kingdom of Far Far Away in Queens, where he lives. Anthony and I went bar hopping in the West Village. Our original thought was to head to Marie's Crisis, which turned out to be packed shoulder-to-shoulder. We ended up checking out the Monster, Pieces, Stonewall, and the Duplex, but all were either too crowded or we just weren't feeling the vibe. Just for the hell of it, we returned to Marie's, at which the crowd had, miracle of miracles, thinned somewhat. So we had a couple of drinks and hung out some and sang showtunes for awhile.

It was fun, although after a couple of drinks, we were both more than ready to go.

Here's What I've Been Doing

Over the weekend, I headed down the shore to see my Dad for Fathers Day. I took cupcakes from the Cupcake Cafe, which my parents love, as well as an assortment of cookies from Amy's Bread that were iced and said things like "#1 Dad" and "I [Heart] My Dad."

Once I got down there, we headed to the pool in their complex. The water was freezing, of course. It's such a waste...these people in this community will not pony up what I once calculated to be less than $200 per house to put in a heating system for the pool so that the water might have a chance to be a little less frigid. My parents (and most of the community) hardly ever use the pool because the water is so cold, which is such a marked contrast to the heated pool at the Florida condo, which is not only used frequently, but is a social center for the residents of the condo community.

Anyway, that night we watched a Jodie Foster movie called Flightplan, which had a very interesting premise, but which had plot holes that you could fly a plane through if you thought about it for five seconds. Luckily, the film keeps up the fast pace and you really don't get much chance to think about it until it's over and done.

Sunday, we drove up to Philadelphia to go to a Phillies game at their new ballpark, Citizen's Bank Park. Well, it's not really new any more...more like 2 or 3 years old. But this was my first visit to a game since the Phils played at the old Veteran's Stadium.

This, by the way, was an inter-league game against the Detroit Tigers. I just don't like inter-league baseball. It's just not right. That's the purpose of the World Series and I don't see the point of mixing National League and American League teams until they reach that point. Exhibition games? Sure. Spring Training? Absolutely. But during the regular season? No.

But it was a pretty good game until the Phils completely fell apart in the 7th inning. So sad.

After the game, we met up with some family for dinner and I was dropped off at the bus station to return to New York. And the bus station was madness. The line for the New York bus stretched from the gate clear around the entire terminal. You'd have thought the whole of Philadelphia was lining up to get to New York. Lucikly Greyhound was able to find extra buses to accomodate the crowd. To give you an idea...I finally got on the third bus and they were in the process of calling in a fourth. Ugh.

On Tuesday, I performed in a show downtown at the National Museam of the American Indian, which is housed in the former US Customs House on Bowling Green. The show was the entertainment portion of an awards banquet for a trade organization. It was fun.

Hey, on Sunday, I'll be riding in the Gay Pride Parade! Whoo-Hoo! I'll be in a convertible for HGTV alongside David Bromstad, the winner of HGTV's DesignStar reality show and the host HGTV's Color Splash. Fun. Look for me if you're going to be watching the parade.

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Tonight I saw [title of show] writer/star Hunter Bell in the audience of Beyond Glory, a new play written and performed by Stephen Lang at the Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre.

I thought about speaking to him, but I really didn't know what else to say other than "Hey...really loved [title of show]." And that seemed dorky, even for me.

LOVEMUSIK/SPALDING GRAY

On Wednesday, I made a return visit to Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway production of LoveMusik at the Biltmore Theatre on West 47th Street. I had seen the very first preview and was curious to see how the show had evolved and changed throughout the preview process.

Of course, this is the Harold Prince-directed story of the complicated relationship between composer Kurt Weill and his wife/muse Lotte Lenya. Weill's music is used throughout to help tell the story. Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy were nominated for Tonys for their performances as Weill and Lenya, as was David Pittu for his as Bertolt Brecht.

The answer to my initial question of what changes had been made in previews was...not a whole lot. In fact, I really didn't notice anything that was different this time around, which is unusual for such an ambitious production (the book is by Alfred Uhry, by the way).

The show is still too long, but the performances really make it something special. Both the leads do their usual sterling work here and I was especially impressed by Donna Murphy. While Murphy is always terrific, her total transformation here is noteworthy. There was no sign of any Donna Murphy I had ever seen before. She was almost even physically unrecognizeable. It was incredible. In another year, she'd have won that Tony.

I was troubled by a few things in this show.

While I understand the use of Weill's music to tell this story, it was jarring at times to hear songs being sung at times in the show decades before they were actually written. There were times when it was just...weird.

Also, there is a question of accents. Both Cerveris and Murphy use heavy German accents throughout the show. It's not an issue of understanding them; I had no trouble understanding them. However, issue is made later on the show, first when the couple go to Paris and later when they head to New York, of Lenya's thick German accent and how that impedes her success as a singer in French and English. Had I been the director, I'd have discarded the accents entirely when the characters are in Germany and, presumably speaking German and have added them in when they move to other cultures to point out the difference. What I mean is that German people don't have German accents when they're speaking German, but they do when they're speaking, for example, English.

Anyway...

I also feel like the show telescopes real history in such a way that calls attention to the telescoping and left me with a lot of real questions about what what going on, especially at the end.

I still feel like it's a worthwhile production...it's just that I wish they could have shaved 20 minutes. :)

Tonight, I joined Tim at Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell downtown at the Minetta Lane Theatre. This is the collection of writings put together by Gray's widow after his 2004 suicide. The various monologues, essays, and journal entries are performed by a cast of five, including tonight's special guest star, Ugly Betty's Christopher Gorham.

Other members of the cast included the divine Kathleen Chalfont who is brilliant in everything, Frank Wood, who I haven't seen in anything since the superb Side Man, Darnell Williams, who I remembered from his stint on All My Children when I was a kid (he was the Jesse half of super-couple Angie and Jesse), and comedienne Hazelle Goodman.

The show is brilliantly simple. The cast takes the stage together and basically just hangs out on different parts of the multi-level set taking turns reading or reciting Gray's words and watching each of the others in turn. (For some reason Gorham did not enter with the rest of the cast at the beginning and I couldn't quite figure out why.)

Each performer had readings that represented a particular aspect of Gray's life: Love (Chalfont), Adventure (Goodman), Family (Wood), Career (Gorham), and Journals (Williams).

I really loved how the five voices here (literally and figuratively) meshed to create a picture of who Spalding Gray was.

It's interesting to me that I'm here writing about two very different biographical stage pieces in which the subject's own work is used to illuminate him. I came away from the Spalding Gray show with a much better understanding of who he was and why he did what he did than I ever did at the Weill show.

You know, I can't even pick a favorite performer or story. Each one had his or her moments.

I heartily recommend Spalding Grey: Stories Left To Tell. Go check it out. Even if you know nothing about the man or his work, it's worth it.

The 2007 Tony Award Recap

My friend Tim reminded me that my count of Tony Nominees With Whom I Have Worked really should have been 4, counting Sunday's winner for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for his work on Spring Awakening, Kevin Adams, and Allen Moyer, nominated for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for his work on Grey Gardens. Both Adams and Moyer worked up at Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer that Tim and I were there. I didn't remember that, so thanks to Tim for the correction.

As far as predictions go, I didn't do too badly, especially considering the near sweep by Spring Awakening, which I honestly didn't think would come to pass. I mean, Spring Awakening is a good show, it's just not so great a show that I thought it would triuimph in nearly every award for which it was nominated.

Out of 25 categories, I correctly guessed 17 of them. That's about 68%. Not too bad, all in all.

The biggest surprise, of course, was Curtains' David Hyde Pierce winning Best Actor in a Musical over the heavily favoured Raul Esparza. I too thought Esparza should have won, but Pierce is phenomenal and his performance is the best thing about Curtains and I can't really begrudge it. And how great was it for Pierce to end his speech by thanking his long term partner who was sitting in the audience. If there was anyone left who didn't know that he was gay, this was a very public coming out. Loved it.

I thought the broadcast was pretty well done for the most part. Even without a host, they managed to keep it moving along and keep it fairly entertaining. Some observations:

Christine Ebersole's performance of "Revolutionary Costume for Today" from Grey Gardens played surprisingly well on television. I was expecting that it might not make sense out of context, but Ebersole carried it off well.

The medley from Spring Awakening was fine, except for the herky-jerky camera work that made it difficult to see. But it did what a Tony number should do in the sense that it gave viewers a clear idea of what attending a performance of the show would be like. In fact, Spring Awakening may have done the best job of the night at doing that.

I loved the A Chorus Line opening, leading into headshots of all the presenters. What a clever idea. I wondered why more of the actual celebrities were not shown revealing themselves from behind their photos. My only guess was that those shown were the only ones available at whatever time this segment was put together.

I also loved the announcer "calling" the casts of each musical to the stage and the cameras catching them in various places. I especially liked the schtick by Audra McDonald and John Cullum of 110 in the Shade who appeared to be primping in a dressing room. When called, Cullum started to head out before being stopped by McDonald so that SHE could go first...a funny bit that was all the funnier since McDonald is not known for diva antics backstage.

Also, you've got to hand it to the cast of A Chorus Line for trading in their sprung stage floor for the concrete of Sixth Avenue. That cannot have been easy on their bodies. I doubt any other performers on the telecast were risking bodily injury simply by performing.

I'm torn about having Raul Esparza sing "Being Alive" to represent the revival of Company. On the one hand, he was a little over the top with it, but his intensity is not out of place for that moment in the context of the show. The problem was, this was NOT in the context of the show. They should have done something a little more akin to what Doyle's production of Sweeney Todd did last year and really emphasized the cast accompanying themselves on their own instruments. Again...something a little more representative of the show and the production to give the viewers an idea of what an evening at this show is like.

Mary Poppins did well with the medley idea, but I was surprised that they emphasized a new song over one from the film. I thought they'd do a modified version of "Step in Time" or "Supercalifragilisticespialidocious"

Again, with 110 in the Shade, it was odd that the producers chose the one moment in the show when the Lizzie character really lets go. It's certainly an atypical scene and didn't make as much an impact out of context. Although it WAS fun...that's probably why they chose it.

I liked the comedy sketch that enlivened the usually humdrum portion of the broadcast devoted to explaining to the wider world what the American Theatre Wing does. Jane Krakowski and John Mahoney did a great job, although the bleeping at the end was confusing.

And how in the world did the manage to mess up the "In Memorium" section? Wow...that was the broadcast's most surprising botch. Don't they run through these things ahead of time and why didn't anyone notice how awful this was going to be?

The speeches were tasteful and classy for the most part. The best moments (other than David Hyde Pierce's, mentioned above) were Julie White's adreneline-fueled acceptance, Mary Louise Wilson's grateful whoop and Michael Mayer's honoring of his parents for embracing him for everything he is (while it wasn't mentioned specifically, it was pretty clear that Mayer was referring to his sexuality when he mentioned getting a Judy Garland album as a gift).

Anyway, it was a pretty entertaining night and, once again, I'm proud to be a part of this community. Hope you watched and hope you're planning on catching a show when you're next in the area.

The Annual Tony Awards Post

Okay, I've seen most of the nominated productions this season (all that are currently running; I did miss some productions that closed earlier in the season), and I have things to say. You can see a complete list of nominees here.

When I was ruminating on the Tonys a while back in this space, I forgot one of my favorites statistics: Number of Nominees With Whom I Have Worked. This year, that number is 2...Karen Ziemba, nominated for her turn in the musical Curtains and Ethan Hawke for his in The Coast of Utopia. So good luck to both of them.

Let's move on.

Best Play: There are four excellent nominees this year, each worthy of the award. In fact, it was a much stronger year for plays this year than musicals. Even so, I think this one really comes down to a choice between the epic The Coast of Utopia and the fascinating and compact Frost/Nixon. I think people might look at Frost/Nixon as a star vehicle that would be somewhat slight without its stars. However, The Coast of Utopia is an undeniable achievement and was quite the hot ticket when it was running. That's why I'm going with Tom Stoppard on this one and throwing in with The Coast of Utopia.

Best Musical: I'm not in love with any of the new musicals this year. That being said...Mary Poppins is not even a factor. Curtains had good moments, but...no. So it's really a choice between the pop rock stylings of Spring Awakening and the more traditional Broadway star vehicle Grey Gardens. If I were voting, I'd vote for Grey Gardens. However, all the momentum now seems to behind Spring Awakening. Aww...hell with it, I'm calling it for Grey Gardens. It really is the best of the lot this season.

Best Book of a Musical: I don't think there's much contest here. This really has to go to Doug Wright for his work on Grey Gardens. This is a seriously under-rated art and Wright's book really pulls this somewhat difficult piece into focus.

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre: Again, a squeaker between Grey Gardens and Spring Awakening. Like the horse race for Best Musical, this will depend on whether voters prefer the youth-centric pop of Duncan Sheik and Steven Slater or the more traditional Broadway score provided by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie. I'm a Grey Gardens guy this year, so I'm going with Frankel and Korie. It wouldn't surprise me if one show won Best Musical and the other won this. Voters love to split things up like that, regardless of how little actual sense that makes.

Best Revival of a Play - I didn't see Manhattan Theatre Club's revival of Brian Friel's Translations, but the other three productions are excellent. All the momentum here is behind the revival of R.C. Sherriff's Journey's End and I can't argue. I'll go with conventional wisdom on this one.

Best Revival of a Musical - Again, all four nominees turned out to be excellent, something to which the new musicals this season can only aspire. But for me, this is one of the easiest categories to make a decision on. Company was, hands down, the best thing I saw this year, really the only production to spark a visceral, emotional reaction in me. Whether or not it wins, this is the best musical of the year. No question.

Best Special Theatrical Event - Okay, I didn't see either nominee in this category. In a coin toss, I'll go with Jay Johnson: The Two and Only. Everyone who went seemed to love it.

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play - Wow! Talk about an embarrassment of riches. Each of these five men were amazing. I'm going with Frank Langella who, as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, managed to humanized the former president without actually doing an impersonation. It was a fascinating portrait of a flawed man trying to find a place in history. Go see this if you have a chance.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play - This is another category where voters could hardly make a wrong choice. Angela Lansbury is the sentimental choice for her return to Broadway after 20+ years, but I'm going with Julie White whose acerbic Hollywood agent in The Little Dog Laughed was the season's most irreplaceable performance(ironic considering that an acquaintance of mine was her understudy).

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical - This one is also a horse race, but this one is between Company's Raul Esparza and Curtains' David Hyde Pierce. Pierce is giving the performance of his life in Curtains and is really the best part of a lackluster show. In any other year, he'd have easily won. But this award belongs to Esparza who is the heart and soul of the best show of the year. If you haven't seen this, shame on you. You're really missing something.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - There are four good choices here (sorry, Laura Bell Bundy), but this one has belonged to Christine Ebersole pretty much since Grey Gardens opened. And she deserves it. It's the closest thing to a lock this season.

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play - Five worthy nominees, and none of them are jumping out at me as THE performance. I think I'll go with Billy Crudup for his work in the sprawling The Coast of Utopia plays. This guy pops up on Broadway every couple of years, always does excellent work, and has never won. I think it's his year.

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play - I didn't see Dana Ivey in Butley, but, nonetheless, this category is another tough one. Jennifer Ehle played three different roles over the course of The Coast of Utopia and was excellent in each. I think it gives her the edge and that's why I'm choosing her.

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical: I didn't see Brooks Ashmanskas in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. It wouldn't surprise me if this one were to go to John Gallagher Jr. of Spring Awakening, but I'd give it to John Cullum, who was superb as Audra McDonald's father in the excellent revival of 110 in the Shade. All anyone talks about in this production is McDonald, but she's not the only one on stage and the father/daughter dynamic here rivals the potential romantic relationships. It's a truely beautiful thing.

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical - Here's another category where I'm going to have to go with the conventional wisdom and annoint Mary Louise Wilson for her turn in the second act of Grey Gardens. I liked the other actresses (well, except Orfeh who does not deserve to be here at the expense of Company's Barbara Walsh), but I really do think this is Wilson's.

Best Direction of a Play - Again, a lot of great work here, but I'm going with Jack O'Brien for his corraling of Tom Stoppard's three play epic The Coast of Utopia. It was quite amazing.

Best Direction of a Musical - This one has got to go (for the second year in a row, I think) to John Doyle for his reimagining of Company. His actors-as-musicians (or is it vice versa?) concept may not work for every show, but it's perfect here. It's a wow! The man's a genius.

Best Choreography - I was very disappointed with Curtains, but not with Rob Ashford's work designing dances that were old-fashioned, yet thrilling and perfectly executed by a stellar cast. If Curtains wins nothing else (and I don't really think it will), it should win this.

Best Orchestrations - The season's best orchestrations, Mary-Mitchell Campbell's for Company, were actually not nominated, which is a puzzlement. Of the actual nominees, I'm inclined to go with Duncan Sheik for orchestrating his own score for Spring Awakening. The show sounds really rockin'. Okay. I don't really know a damn thing about orchestrations. Sorry.

Best Scenic Design of a Play - Not much contest here. The epic scope of The Coast of Utopia should easily nab this for Bob Crowley and Scott Pask.

Best Scenic Design of a Musical - This is one award I have no problem with Mary Poppins winning. Bob Crowley's set here is fuckin' huge and pretty and it moves around. And flashy normally takes this award. I would also have no trouble with this going to Grey Gardens' Allen Moyer whose work for the very different halves of his show perfectly illustrated the decline of eccentric aristocracy. But I honestly do think this one is Crowley's.

Best Costume Design of a Play - Again, I think the epic sweep of The Coast of Utopia will snare this Tony for Catherine Zuber. All the other work was excellent though and each and every nominee is deserving.

Best Costume Design of a Musical - I'm really hoping that this goes to William Ivey Long for Grey Gardens because this is the only show where the clothes were so important that the leading lady actually has a song called "The Revolutionary Costume For Today." The gorgeous 1940's stuff and the hilarious 1970's stuff was all perfect. It's got to be this.

Best Lighting Design of a Play - Lord knows, I know nothing about lighting. I'm going with the three people behind the lighting at The Coast of Utopia. Again, it's the epic nature of it, but then I keep thinking...wow, three people had to work together to come up with this. That's probably deserving of an award in and of itself.

Best Lighting Design of a Musical - Good God, I could see all four of them just fine. In a shrug of the shoulders, I'm going with Peter Kaczorowski for Grey Gardens.

So that's it. We'll see how I do. Don't forget to watch the awards on CBS at 8.00pm EDT. Should be fun. Anyone having a party?

Have I Got A Show For You

I wanted to save my thoughts on the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's and George Furth's Company at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre for their own post. Not only was this the best thing I saw this season, it's probably one of the best things I've seen...EVER.

And I hardly know where to begin.

Company introduces us to Robert, a New York bachelor who's turning 35 years old with the help of his disparate group of friends, all couples, and a trio of women he dates on occasion. As Robert reviews his life in a single moment, we meet all these people and see how Robert fits into the big picture of his own life.

This production was directed by John Doyle, who directed last season's superb Sweeney Todd revival in which the actors played all the musical instruments. And so it is here, as well. And the gimmick works even better, in the sense that it really serves to emphasize Robert's isolation within this large group of people. This style wouldn't work for every show, but here it's perfect.

Raul Esparza is Robert and, to be honest, I never really got the appeal of this actor. He was a terrific Riff Raff in that Rocky Horror Show revival, but I didn't think he was any more than adequate as a replacement Emcee in the Cabaret revival or as the leading man of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But now I get it. Here Esparza is witty, charming, and sexy while simultaneously being scared, confused, and desperate. He is exactly what this character is required to be.

I particular loved how Esparza had these moments where you could just tell that he's a wee bit terrified of all these people in his life.

It's very fashionable to fault this show for being cold and distant, being filled with unlikable characters, and having no "heart." But that is certainly not the case here. These characters are charming and quirky, flaws and all.

And it's really amazing to watch these actors hauling various musical instruments around the stage.

This production is like a huge New York party where, now and then, the other guests haul out musical instruments and jam a bit.

I was so enthralled that I'm actually finding it difficult to write about the show. I mean...wow.

Just so I say it, the rest of the company of Company was terrific too. There's not a weak link in the bunch.

Everything was just so...perfect.

Run, don't walk to see this. Now.

Are you listening? Did you hear? GO!

Why are you still reading this? Get thee to the Barrymore and see this show.

And More Theatre

Still playing catch-up. I'd have a lot more time to write if I went to the theatre less. But then I'd have less to write about. It's a catch-22 really.

The Pirate Queen - So this is shaping up to the one of (if not the) biggest flops in Broadway history. This is the story of 16th century pirate captain and Irish clan chieftain Grace O'Malley and comes to us from Boublil & Schonberg, the composer and lyricist of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, among other things, and the producers of the worldwide phenomenon called Riverdance. And while the score is pretty forgettable, I found a lot to like here, not least of which is Stephanie Block's Grace. Block is superb here and this show would have made her a star if anyone had come to see it. The dance, very much in the Riverdance style, is fun. The story, which is based on truth, but a bit historically dubious as these things tend to be, is a fascinating footnote to history, especially in the scenes that depict Grace going to meet with England's Queen Elizabeth I with nothing less than saving the whole of Ireland on her mind. Quibbles? Sure. Like I said, the score is entirely forgettable. I didn't care for the portrayal of Elizabeth...while the show is celebrating Grace as a strong woman in a man's world, Elizabeth is reduced to a being a harpy in increasingly opulent and enormous costumes. It's as if the show is supposing that the Queen of England lived each day in the type of exaggerated formal gowns that Saturday Night Live might use to parody Elizabethan England. The central romantic triangle is suspense-free and historically suspect.

The set's really nice though.

I liked this way more than some of the shows that are continuing to run this season. It's funny how that works.

110 in the Shade - All anyone cares about in this revival of the Schmidt and Jones musical version of The Rainmaker is star Audra McDonald. It's hard to blame folks, because McDonald is every inch the star here and giving a performance that absolutely justifies the Roundabout's putting up this entire production for her. You know this story...plain spinster Lizzie and her family are dealing with a never-ending drought. She's convinced she'll never meet anyone who'll love her, when a man shows up claiming to be able to make rain. And chaos ensues. Here McDonald's funny and sad and joyful and mad and basically everything that a Lizzie should be. And she's ably supported by the entire company, notably John Cullum as her father. It doesn't even matter that the actress is hardly the plain Jane that Lizzie is said to be. You believe it because you know that SHE believes it. I didn't know this show before, but it's really quite a (reletively forgotten) gem. Go see it. You really should.

Deuce - Hey, have you heard? Angela Lansbury's back on Broadway! Whoo-Hoo! She's doing this play by Terrence McNally about two retired doubles tennis players who are being honored and who have reunited for the occasion. Her partner is played by another New York stage jewel, Marian Seldes. Okay, so this isn't the best play in the world. It's basically Lansbury and Seldes sitting on stage for 90 minutes talking. But I didn't care. It was great to see them and I really did think these characters had some interesting things to say about women in sports, about the game of tennis, and the nature of friendship. These two spend 90 minutes remembering their career together while watching a match, and, in some ways, actually talking and listening to each other for the first time. It was fascinating. I know, I know...everyone hates this play. So the hell what? I had a good time and was really glad I went. Huge fan of both ladies and I'm so glad I got to see them. Don't go in expecting Shakespeare and you'll be fine.

Legally Blonde - This is the new musical based on the popular Reese Witherspoon movie of a few years ago. It's not good. Nothing about it is good enough. Not the score, not the book, and, sadly, not the leading lady. Maybe this plays better from the orchestra (I was way way up in the Palace's balcony). There are good moments here and good performances though. Christian Borle as the teaching assistant with a soft spot for our leading lady was superb. As was Kate Shindle as the new finacee of our lead's ex. However, there are whole digressions involving a hair dresser and a UPS guy that do nothing but distract from the story and stop the show cold, and not in a good way. If you want to write a show about a tough hairdresser with a heart of gold and her romantic travails, do that and commit to it. Here? No. Apparently, this show is popular and it's got a slew of Tony nominations (though not one for Best Musical). No idea why. About any of it.

Mary Poppins - You have no idea how much I love this movie. And you have no idea how much I wanted to like this show. And...I hated it, both here in New York and a couple of months ago in London. Although, I think I did prefer it here on Broadway. Much of the movie material has been jettisoned in favor of making the story more closely resemble the original books. Huge Mistake. Huge. Almost none of the new material is even close to the same league of that which it replaces. The show is almost 3 hours long, which is way too much. I've never seen so many kids having to be taken to the bathroom during a show. Even the very character of Mary Poppins is twisted into something that Julie Andrews would hardly recognize. I was appalled at a scene in the second act where our title heroine appears to send another character to Hell. This show actually made me angry because it should have been practically perfect in every way. Instead...well, it's most unfortunate. The actors are working hard though and there are good moments there. Gavin Lee is quite good, in a Dick Van Dyke sort of way, as Bert. Ashley Brown does her best with the mishmash that's been made of the title character and does come up with a moment of two where she manages to make it her own. Daniel Jenkins and Rebecca Luker are Mr. and Mrs. Banks and are both doing their damnest to try to sell us these two as a couple, which the script fights against at every turn. Jane Carr and Mark Price have a lovely time as the Banks' servents.

Oh, and former Altar Boy Tyler Maynard is in the ensemble and totally wasted here.

What a disappointment the whole enterprise turned out to be. You have no idea how much this depresses me.

Finally...Some Theatre

Okay, I have a bit of a break in my day and I'm going to try to rundown some of the plays and musicals I've seen lately. In no particular order, let's hit it...

Tarzan - I went to see this Disney musical from last season because I had planned to pick up tickets to something else at TKTS and what I'd planned to see was unexpectedly not available. And the Richard Rodgers Theatre is literally steps from the TKTS booth. I turned around and there it was. And it was 7.45pm. So I did it. Oh, boy, is this not good. The cast, mostly still originals who have stuck around over the year or so this has been open, was working hard, but once you get used to all the cool flying about on wires, there's nothing much here. They use the "character flying over the audience" schtick not once, not twice, but THREE times in some attempt to keep the kids engaged. The score is generic pop ballad after generic pop ballad and it pretty much what you'd expect from Phil Collins. The show is at least 30 minutes longer than it should be with lots of extraneous material that has little bearing on the main plot, which is, essentially, can Tarzan and Jane cross the cultural divide and find a way to be together? There's a villain who is such a cardboard cut-out that he might as well be an actual cartoon. I was surprised he wasn't twirling his moustache all night...it'd have been right in character. If you're going to keep saying all night long that your leading man is running about in a loincloth, make sure you actually put the actor in a LOINCLOTH (a very specific article of clothing) and not a green pair of cargo shorts. And why would a person raised in the jungle by apes be wearing anything at all? Anyway, my biggest problem with the show is that it stripped away all the sexuality from the Tarzan/Jane pairing. Yes, these characters are feeling things they've never felt before...but those feeling aren't love or romance as presented here. It's pure animal lust. Jane is a Victorian lady fighting her increasingly inconvenient libido and Tarzan has never seen a human female and is in heat. It's as simple as that. And, of course, all that is cut by Disney in the effort to present a story well-scrubbed enough for the kiddies. The Tarzan story would actually be far more at home in porn than in over-produced children's theatre as it is here.

Les Miserables - Boy, what a disappointment. This scaled down revival is under-powered, under-sung, and under-paced. The new orchestrations not only sound tinny at times, they sound like they're being played on a Casio from Radio Shack. And there's a big black hole in the middle of the whole thing called Alexander Gemignani. He's playing Valjean and he is the season's most egregious example of miscasting. He's too young, too slight, and just too...wrong...for this role. Valjean spends most of the show in his 40's and 50's and casting a 20-something in the role just makes the show look like a middling college production. Lea Salonga doesn't get much chance to make an impression as Fantine and I was really hoping that Gary Beach and Ann Harada as the Thenardiers would be better. The whole production just had no spark and no reason to exist. The only time I got goosebumps was during the two act finales. That's it. Ugh. No wonder this was ignored by the Tony committee.

Spamalot - Made a return visit to this 2005 Tony-winning Best Musical for the first time since I saw the original cast doing it. It's holding up really well, even though the only original lead left is Christopher Sieber in a number of roles, but notably Sir Galahad. Joanathan Hadary is the current Arthur and he does an excellent job. Marin Mazzie also does fine as The Lady of the Lake, which is, honestly, just not much of a part. I still can't believe that Sara Ramirez actually won that Tony for this role. Mazzie is over-qualified, and does a terrific job with what's there. This one is still worth catching...still not the best musical ever, but it's still a fun evening.

The Drowsy Chaperone - Recently ended up seeing this one for the fourth time. This show is also holding up well with recent cast changes. Notably, John Glover is the new Man in Chair. Jo-Anne Worley is new Mrs. Tottendale, and Janine LaManna is the new Janet. All the cast members put their own spins on the roles, but it's not their fault that their predecessors were so perfect and put such a singular stamp on these roles that nothing else quite measures up. And it really make you appreciate the original cast members who remain with the production, especially Danny Burstein's Aldolpho and Beth Leavel's Chaperone. The show is still worth checking out, just not quite the perfect shining jewel it was a year ago.

The Year of Magical Thinking - This is the one person play that Vanessa Redgrave is doing on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. It's by Joan Didion, based on her memoir of the year following her husband's death. Redgrave is amazing here and I felt ever so privledged to be in her presence. The play itself drags a bit as Didion faces the trials of Job, but Redgrave is always engaging. I'm so glad I finally got to see this.

The Romance of Magno Rubio - This was a new play downtown at Ma-Yi Theatre Company that tells a story of Filipino migrant workers in California during the Great Depression. One of them falls in love with a big, blonde Arkansas girl and therein lies the story. This was an interesting evening, but this play was intended for a very specific audience of which I was not a member. It was amusing to hear the laughter from audience members who speak Tagalong during the sections in that language. I liked this, and the cast was terrific, but it could be a hard slog at times.

Grey Gardens - While I was revisiting things, I wanted to catch this one again...mainly because I'd missed the Tony-nominated performance of Mary Louse Wilson. Also, my seat the first time was really only partial view, which really does make a difference sometimes. And, as it turned out, this was one of those times. I really liked the show this time, from Christine Ebersole's much-talked-about leading performance to - yes - Wilson's strong support in her second act featured role. I even liked the score and the set better this time around. Maybe this one just had to grow on me. It's been known to happen.

More Later.

Two More Dreams

I hate that all I seem to have to time to write about lately is my strange dreams, and I'm hoping to write more about other things soon. But, anyway, I actually had TWO dreams last night.

In the first, I was helping my parents scout locations for a zombie movie that they were making. I know. Don't ask. I have no idea. We ended up checking out the south end of Roosevelt Island, near where that old, abandoned TB (?) hospital is. More specifically, we were mucking around in some mud just under the 59th Street Bridge. In the dream the island was somewhat telescoped with the bridge being much nearer the hospital than it is in reality. Anyway, afterward, I went back to our house (which was none of our actual, real life houses) and worked on cleaning the mud off myself, my clothes, and my shoes. Later on, my Dad was pissed off at me in the kitchen for leaving all this mud around and I protested that it really wasn't all that much mud and that I'd gotten most of it cleaned up. I then pointed out a dining room table piled high with papers and other things belonging to him to the point of us not being able to use it. He just stalked off not saying anything and Mom was pissed at me for bringing it up. The End.

In Dream #2, I was at some kind of drag party on Long Island where all the guests were required to wear red wigs and red dresses. Again, I have no idea...don't ask me. I went outside to the porch to fill up my plastic cup at the keg (it really was like a college party) when I overheard two guys, one dressed for the party and one not, fighting. Turns out they were brothers and the one was trying to keep the other from coming in and joining the party.

At some point, the brother left and I was there comforting the, as it turned out, teenage proto-gay boy who was sobbing onto my shoulder.

Then the mother showed up. I asked to speak to her privately and we went into the detacted garage of the house where the party was happening to talk. She was very overwrought and I was doing my best to talk her down from the ledge (not literally, but you know what I mean). She was terrified that her son was gay and thought that she could somehow prevent it if she could keep him out of this party. I talked to her about her fears and tried to explain how gay people are pretty normal and live everyday lives and that being gay is nothing to fear or be worried about. She wasn't all that impressed that I was trying to explain this to her while wearing a red dress and a red wig. But I was able to get her to come around some and, at least, be able to speak rationally.

I never did see how this ended, so I have no idea what happened.

And Another Dream

Last night I dreamed that I was pregnant.

It was a fairly naturalistic dream without the fantasical elements that my dreams sometimes have. It all felt very real. My parents were there. My mother came with me to the hospital to verify this. My Dad, in the one non-realistic part, was a doctor at the hospital.

I remember being very concerned with figuring out who the other father might be. There were, I think, three possibilities, but I was very confused as to how this could have happened since I hadn't "bottomed" for any of these three people.

I also remember talking privately with my Dad, the "doctor," while he was choosing a necktie from a closet in a hospital hallway filled with neckties on racks, all of which were in styles and colors that were exactly suited to my father's taste in neckties. I remember thinking "Ooooh, so this is where he gets all those ties."

I suspect that this was sparked because I had met up with Jim last night to see the new movie Knocked Up, which turned out to be really good. I recommend the movie, but not so much the dream, although I must say that I was pretty calm and collected throughout most of it. It wasn't a scary dream, just a perplexing one.

Oh, by the way, I never actually gave birth in the dream. The scenes I saw were with me around probably the 3 month mark, when I was just beginning to show.

Disturbing Dream

It's been awhile since I had a bizarre dream, but last night's was quite a return to form.

I'd been hired as a voice actor on a major feature film cartoon. Not sure if it was Disney or some other company, but it was to be a full-length major release.

It was set at the bottom of the ocean and was to focus on legal matters in the sea as a way of introducing children to the law through comedy and snappy musical numbers. Think of a combination of the styles of The Little Mermaid and SpongeBob SquarePants, but with a legal theme.

I was voicing the part of a lobster who was one of the story's lawyers.

Anyway, the cast had gathered for the first read-through of the script and everything was going...swimmingly (ba dum dum)...until I got to a monologue for my character that I'd never seen before.

This speech involved my character breaking down and telling the anguished story of how his father beat and sexually abused him as a child. The most graphic language was used and I finally had to stop and question the inclusion of such a thing into a cartoon film aimed at children.

I was told that the movie was no longer a cartoon and no longer set under the sea. We were going to be actually playing our characters as humans in a realistic setting. No one had mentioned this to me before, and I somehow didn't notice any changes in the script to reflect this until my own monologue.

I was very confused, but I seemed to be the only one.

Anyhow, that's where the dream ended. Weird.