Okay, here's more...
Jamaica, Farewell - This was a Fringe Encore production, a one-woman show written and performed by Debra Ehrhardt about her life growing up in Jamaica and her quest to come to America for a better life. This was amazing! This tale has all the intrigue and thrills of a Hollywood movie and Ehrhardt's story is an edge-of-the-seat triumph. If you missed this, you missed a gem.
...Double Vision - Another Fringe Encore production. Interesting idea, not terribly well-realized. Cute guy naked. That was nice. Sort of pointless, otherwise.
I Dig Doug - Yet another Fringe Encore show. This was an intriguing comedy about an empty-headed rich girl from the city who finds deeper meaning in life through an obsession with a minor presidential candidate. Except all is not what it seems. To reveal more would be unfair. This should return in an off-Broadway run somewhere. If it does, go see it.
A Midsummer Night's Dream - It's always great to see a Shakespeare play in the park, even this one, which is my least favorite of the comedies. The mechanicals stuff was brilliant, the lovers stuff was great, and the fairies stuff was pretty good. So this was all-in-all a terrific production.
Scout's Honor! - This was a really cute Fringe show that satirized the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts in two acts with a versatile cast all playing boys and girls and men and women. Very cute and funny.
Roxy Font - Another Fringe show, this one a play about a girl from a trailer park who goes on an odyssey to reunite with her one true love, a former neighbor who's become a famous rock star. And along the way, she seems to accidentally keep killing people. Really interesting work here from another amazing cast and a very intriguing play.
Bye, Bye Big Guy - This one was a Fringe musical set at a memorial service for the deceased Rumplestiltskin. A calvacade of comedy ensues, some of which works and some of which doesn't. Carly Jibson, a former Tracy in Hairspray and soon to be in the upcoming Cry Baby, scored with virtually every character and bit. The other actors were more hit and miss, as was the show as a whole.
100 Saints You Should Know - This was a new play by Kate Fodor over at Playwright Horizons. It asked a lot of questions about the nature of faith as we watch some characters lose theirs and others find their way toward it. I really loved this.
Walmartopia - This was a Fringe musical last year and has returned to an off-Broadway run this season. Sadly, most of the problems with the show remain and it's just not all that good. The production is gorgeous though and a game cast is really giving it their all. In those respects, the production is a huge improvement over what was seen at Fringe last year.
Xanadu - So, of course, I've been to see this campy musical adaptation of the famously awful 1980 Olivia Newton John movie. It's great fun because the cast seems to be having a marvelous time spoofing such bad material. It would be nice if the score was better, but the creators were sort of hamstrung by having to use the songs featured in the film. Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson were a piss in the leads. It's a good time.
I'm working on organzing my living room and I've come across a ton of programs from various things I've seen, but just never had time to write anything about. So, here we go, in no particular order...
Mautitius - This is the new Theresa Rebeck play on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre that's being presented by Manhattan Theatre Club. Short version: Life sucks and nothing can be counted on but the value of rare stamps. Rebeck presents a collection of interesting characters with interesting stories here; most of these stories are touched upon and never resolved. This can be frustrating. The story she wants to tell is compelling, even if we really have no idea what's driving the characters through it. The cast is great and goes a long way toward helping the audience focus. I didn't really appreciate all the dangling plot points that are simply not explained, but, overall, I enjoyed it. It really got my friend and I talking.
The Good Fight - This was an Australian musical about famous Australian boxer Les Darcy that was part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. You don't hear a lot about Australian musicals, but I've enjoyed the other two I've seen and really liked this one as well. The cast was made up of students from a big drama school in Perth and that was my only issue...all the actors were about the same age and it just made it look like a drama school presentation (which it, of course, is). But other than the older characters looking too young, it was really great.
American Sligo - This is the new Adam Rapp play at Rattlestick Theatre. Rapp's plays are often ponderous and he seems somewhat allergic to telling a linear story and explaining to an audience what exactly his point is. Sometimes that fine, but this play goes way over to the dark side and I couldn't quite figure out what the point of any of it was. It's just a roomful of awful characters who do awful things for no really good reason. Didn't get it at all. Problem may be that Rapp directed it himself and there wasn't anyone pushing him to make the play more coherent and comprehensible. Writers should never direct their own work...it's almost always big trouble.
Dangerous Corner - Brilliant Play, Brilliant Production. Only issue: a dowdy set. Seriously, that's the only thing I didn't like. This whole thing was superlative. That's Boomerang Theatre Company and directed by Philip Emeott. Remember both those names.
The Kids Left, The Dog Died, Now What? - This is a new musical revue at NYMF about the lives of people in their 50's and 60's who have raised their families and are now embarking on a new chapter in life. Didn't care for it. The songs and sketches just weren't good enough.
The Family Fiorelli - This is a terrific new musical presented at NYMF about a Long Island family that goes through Hell when one of their members does something really really horrible. Such a great show about real people dealing with issues that could face any of us. Go see it.
Hair - This was a 40th anniversary "concert" at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. I'd never seen a production before and really enjoyed this one. The show is almost a vaudville with little plot and just songs and sketches loosely held together by the characters. Great cast. This was a really good time. So glad that Tim and I camped out for tickets.
Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening - I'd never seen a FB show before and this one was a hilarious introduction. Basically this is a SNL-style revue that parodies the Broadway scene. The first act is current stuff and the second act is some of their "classic" material. All very funny.
Austentatious - Another NYMF show. Musical about a community theatre doing an original adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Fun stuff, but it does take a while to get going. Also, all the songs are interior monologues and that also takes some getting used to in the context of the show. But a great cast takes this show a long way. The one exception is an actor who plays his supposedly straight character as such a flamer that it made the character incomprehensible. Check it out if you have a chance.
Like Love - Yet another NYMF show, the one a three character one-act musical about what happens when two people meet randomly, have a series of one night stands, and realize that their feelings for each other may be stronger than they thought. This was an amazing little show that should be paired with another one-act to form a full evening. Loved it.
King Lear - Yes, this is the acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production starring Ian McKellen. Great production. Really long play. Shakespeare really needed an editor on this one. Great cast. Loved it. Really Long. Really great though.
The Fantastiks - This is the reletively new revival of the classic off-Broadway musical. It was good. It was exactly same as every other production you've ever seen. Glad to see co-author Tom Jones as the Old Actor, a part he originated more than 40 years ago in the original production. That's theatre history, that is. Glad to see it.
Okay, gotta get some things done...more later.
Just in from a new musical at the New York Musical Theatre Festival called The Family Fiorelli. It was terrific and I recommend going to check it out.
It's about an extended Long Island family and what happens to them one of their members does something bad that nearly rips them apart.
Go see it.
I don't have a lot of time for a real post right now, but I just wanted to let everyone know that there is a simply extrordinary production of the J.B. Priestley play Dangerous Corner at Boomerang Theatre Company right now.
If you don't know this play, on the surface, it's a standard 1930's British drawing room melodrama/mystery about a close knit group of friends, family, and business associates who gather for a party. A chance comment leads the pretty group down a road of ever more unraveling lies and deceptions until worlds are shattered and lives are destroyed.
It was a thrilling roller coaster ride of a production. Perfect cast, dazzling direction.
Change your plans for the next few days and do whatever it takes to go see this. There's only a couple of performances left. You'll thank me.
It's been an absolutely nutty day in a crazy couple of weeks around here. Earlier this morning, I was losing it in a serious way, but it's better now...I'm calming down and trying to focus on everything in my world that requires my attention and presence right now. Not easy, let me tell you.
I have a crazy life right now that I do not have time to live, because I'm always running off somewhere to do something that absolutely requires my attention. Somewhere along the way, it seems that I ceded control of my own life and I'm working on getting some of that back. A friend said to me today that sometimes it good when you lose control now and then, but I'm just not sure I agree. It's a good theory, but, in practice, it's stressing me out. I told another friend that all I want to do is go to McDonald's and eat everything I can find and then go home, get in bed, and pull the covers over my head.
It's partially, if not mostly, due to the temp job. I spend eight hours a day doing other people's work when I have way too much of my own to handle. Of course, the temping is the only thing that pays anything right now, so it too MUST be done. I haven't done a very good job lately of trying to find a balance between the temping and my real life, which makes me even crazier.
So that's what's been up with me lately. Every time I post here, I resolve to post more often, but life gets in the way. I'm sure you understand.
More later...maybe...
Well, Sunday really.
At the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market in Times Square, I spotted both actor/director Roger Rees, director Jerry Mitchell (behind the table sponsered by his show Legally Blonde) and actress Marian Seldes amongst the throng.
Also spotted actor Bryan Batt working the crowd from the dais during the auction, but that doesn't really count. By the way, have you see the new AMC show Mad Men that's Batt's on? It's really terrific...high drama in the 1960 New York advertising world. Fascinating.
I passed Broadway star Hunter Foster on Ninth Avenue tonight. He was heading uptown and chatting on his cell phone, whilst I was heading downtown.
Off the top of my head, I've seen him in Urinetown, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Producers.
This fall he's doing a new musical version of Frankenstein (not the Mel Brooks one, his sister is in that) off-Broadway. Can't remember which role he's playing. I think Christiane Noll is in it too.
On my way to the temp job this morning, I put the Ipod on shuffle and listened to a random playlist while I wandered over to the east side to work.
Weirdly, two different versions of Richard Rodgers' and Oscar Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone," possibly the most inspirational song EVER, came up in the shuffle, one sung by Bernadette Peters and the other by Laurie Beechman.
I love both of these ladies, but I really think the Peters version is better. Beechman had a wonderful voice, but the arrangement, from her album No One Is Alone, is unbelieveably cheesy and seriously detracts from not only Beechman's voice, but the song itself. Pretty distracting and whomever produced the track needs to be taken out back with a switch.
By the way, Bernadette Peters' take on the song is from her Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers and Hammerstein album.
No idea if I have any other versions of that song in the Ipod. I don't remember half the stuff that's on there.
Another surprise that came up on the shuffle today was Mary Cleere Haran singing the Rodgers and Hart ditty "Way Out West." I totally love that song.
I saw actor Bill Irwin in my local installation of The Vitamin Shoppe. Didn't see what he was buying. I loved him on Broadway in the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Goat. He was toting what looked like musical instruments. Didn't say anything to him. One of those New York things.
Well, here I am. I've been incredibly busy over the past couple of weeks and it seems that, whenever I am home, the very last thing I feel like doing is blogging.
So this is just a quick catch up...
I've seen some theatre and I'll write about it as soon as I can dig up the Playbills from the mess of my living room.
What else?
I had purposely decided to not write anything about the sixth anniversary of what happened on September 11, 2001, and instead write about my new resolve to give up regular soda. I've been drinking only diet sodas for a few weeks now, and I feel like it's a good step.
Of course, I got distracted by something shiny and never actually got around to writing about this on the 11th or any other day.
For those of you care, I am back temping on a regular basis. I decided to take a gig that will last most likely through the end of the year. It's been challenging, thus far, to go back to trying working auditions around eight and half hours behind a desk, but these things take time. But I need the money, so I need to work it out.
Hey, have you seen Torchwood? Great show! I'm really very much in a BBC America phase at the moment. Besides Torchwood and Doctor Who, I'm also quite fond of Hotel Babylon and Jekyll, although the latter was a very short series and concluded after only four episodes. Both Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon feature actresses I saw in plays in the West End in March, which is cool. Jekyll features both an actress from Coupling (whom I can't stop thinking of as Jane, even though that's not her real name) and the actress who is playing the lead in the new Bionic Woman series on NBC. And, of course, Torchwood stars the gorgeous John Barrowman, who I saw on Broadway three times in Putting It Together. I also still catch episodes of Coupling now and then, even though I have them all on DVD already.
Caught the Emmy Awards last night...what a mess! That show was worse than any Tony broadcast. Here's one tip...if you don't hire a comedian to host, drop the opening monologue and the comic bits. Didn't mind it being staged in the round, but I'm sure it wasn't as pleasant from the hall as it was at home.
It's turned cool here in New York...sigh. Here we go again...yet another winter on the way.
Anyway, back with more frequent updates soon (I hope).
Hope everyone had a great long Labor Day weekend. I didn't do much, for reasons that I'll get into later, but that was fine with me because BBC America was running a Doctor Who marathon in preparation for both the new season of the show and also the US debut of its spin-off Torchwood. They started with the first of the Christopher Eccleston (the Ninth Doctor) episodes from when the show was relauched a few years ago after about a decade of hiatus.
I've recently gotten into this show, so I was really excited to see a bunch of episodes at one time. And, of course, I'm also going back to read old recaps on Television Without Pity from when these episodes originally were shown on the Sci-Fi Channel.
I saw Billie Piper, who plays the Doctor's companion, Rose, in these episodes in the Christopher Hampton play Treats in the West End, when I was in London in March. She was quite good in this play, her theatrical debut, I think, and I was probably the only one in the theatre who didn't know who she was (other than seeing her face on the front pages of numerous tabloids whilst I was there...she's quite the hot gossip property in the UK).
Also, I think John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack, the character who gets spun off into Torchwood, is absolutely dreamy. Saw him on Broadway three times in a musical revue called Putting It Together. And he looks a lot like Justin Kirk, who plays Andy on Showtime's Weeds.
Anyway, so I stayed in much of the weekend watching and reading about Doctor Who, although I did get into the park for a few hours on Monday to enjoy the perfect weather. That was fine because it's been a bit intense around here financially these days. The temp agency seems to have lost my last paycheck and some other money that I was expecting has not come through either. So...
The rent hasn't been paid yet and I also can't afford to get my new headshots reproduced. Also, there's been another large expense that I'm not ready to talk about yet, but that looked fine a couple of weeks ago, but that now is creating some issues.
So I'm fighting a bit of depression over money issues at the moment. And my reaction to that has been to basically cut out all expenses. No grocery shopping, no movies, no drinks, nothing.
It's tough you know. Because I grew up in a family with very little money, I've always had some fairly deep-seated issues relating to money, or rather the lack thereof. Earlier today, I amused myself when I found I was comparing myself to a Jane Austen heroine...needing money for the security in the world that it implies. My friend was pretty adamently in the "money doesn't buy happiness" camp, but I know myself. And, while the money itself wouldn't equal happiness, the security it would buy would very much alleviate my stessors, which are mainly questions like how to pay the rent and how to pay for groceries, and other such questions of necessity. I certainly would never turn into an alcoholic or a drug abuser, simply because I have too much else going on in my life and am perfectly capable of filling my life with activity...there'd be no getting bored with my fabulous life and no time to become a cokehead or a drunk.
But here's the thing...I don't need a fabulous fortune. I wouldn't know what to do with ten million dollars if it dropped into my lap tomorrow. I just need enough to live my basic little life. And therein lies the issue. There's just never quite...enough. At least right now. Do you know what I mean?
Anyhow, I've been terribly busy with auditions lately, even though nothing seems to be working out lately. Hopefully, something will soon. I'm getting itchy to be doing something.
So that's it for now. Gotta run...off to yet another audition.
I spent much of today doing laundry.
On one of my trips down to the basement to collect my socks, underwear, and towels, I somehow managed to lock myself out of my apartment. Ugh. I had no phone, no wallet, no identification, and no money.
My first thought was to go to my super. He was, of course, not around. His daughter gave me a key she thought might work. And, of course, it did not.
Then I had a brainstorm.
I went up to the roof and climbed down the fire escape to my living room window. It doesn't fit in its frame correctly, so I was able to open it. Then I was able to open the security gate and, basically, climb into one of my living room windows.
Yep, broke into my own apartment.
At least, my laundry got done.
Tonight in the audience of 100 Saints You Should Know at Playwrights Horizons, I saw Dylan Baker, a very blonde Linda Lavin (who left at intermission), Jeff Blumenkrantz (I think), and, most excitedly, theatre royalty Marian Seldes!!!!
I was volunteer ushering and had the honor of helping Ms. Seldes find her seat. I told her how much I loved her work and how I had seen her in so many things. She took my hand and touched it to her cheek and thanked me. And she said I must call her "Marian" (I had opted for "ma'am"). She said that she was very lucky to have gotten some good plays.
She attended alone and really seemed to enjoy the play. In fact, the lady really seems to enjoy the theatre.
I love her. I thought about inviting her to lunch one day, but wasn't that ballsy. I bet she has million stories to tell and I adore hearing people's stories.
If you don't frequent New York theatre, you're really missing a treat not getting to see this lady perform. What an amazing woman.