Once

We had a random Tuesday night open, so I got tickets for Once, a show based on a 2006 indie low budget film. Aaron was a little apprehensive about it since the music was sort of folksy and "Irish" but we went anyway. What a good story, and such talent on stage. All the actors play their own instruments, or even more than one(though not at the same time) Some of the songs were absolutely beautiful and Aaron left the theater mentioning that we should get the soundtrack! I think the lead girl will get nominated for a Tony as well as the show itself for best new musical. Not sure if either will win, but they'll probably be against Ghost and Nice Work if you Can Get It!

 We sat in the mezzanine, row G off to the left. It was behind the aisle but we had no obstructions. we definitely could've been closer, but I had a great seat. I looked at what the price normally is for these seats and on Tuesdays they're about $80, while we paid $40, so thank you TDF!

Previously at this theater we saw the Mountaintop and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson!

Newsies!

OMG I have been waiting to see this for forever! I tried to see it when it was at the Paper Mill Playhouse but they were sold out! I took my sister Kat to see it. Jack Kelly (Jeremy Jordan) was so hot! And he practically sang right to us! I have to see it again! I feel like I missed a lot! There was so much dancing and jumping. In fact, Kat said that every dance had at least 10 jumps, all being about 5 feet off the ground! And we fell in love with some of the ensemble dancers! Kinda stole the show in fact. We're big Newsies cult fans! (We didn't even know that Newsies was a cult movie, we just thought it was the best movie growing up)

I do have to say that I was a little upset about my seat. I paid full price to sit center section of the mezzanine, front row....and when we sat down there was a huge box (I'm sure it was a monitor for the actors, so that tells you for sure that Jeremy was singing to us and only us!) blocking the lower half of all actors downstage! Mother F***er! The box office guy should be required to tell you that it has a slight obstructed view. We made do anyway. There was no way I was skipping the show. So I didn't see pirouettes on newspapers. But I did see some hot dancing guys singing their hearts out. Would I buy those seats again?! No effin' way! I'd want to sit a little off center. I'm going to try and win lottery!

Book of Mormon

I guess I like this show, no? I took my folks to see this on Easter Sunday! Whole family loved it. Dad was laughing so hard he was crying....I saw him remove his glasses to wipe his eyes! Mom was laughing the whole time.....AND they left the theater singing songs. Later in the week, I put the soundtrack on in the car and they were repeating everything. 

I was nervous about our seats. I bought partial view seats in a box. We sat in seats 1-4 of box 2 on the right side. The only thing we missed was 1 Darth Vadar joke and a couple of reactions....hardly partial view. The lottery winners who sat in front of us had a much harder time seeing anything.

 I was a little disappointed that BOTH leads called out (it was a holiday after all) but both understudies did a great job. I think Price has a much harder job....C'mon Josh Gad, you're Jewish. You don't take Easter off!

Seminar

What a fresh breath of air, seeing this show. Witty, funny, and sharp. We went because Aaron wanted to see Alan Rickman (he's leaving the show and being replaced by Jeff Goldblum). He was flawless. I can't imagine seeing it with anyone else. The show is about 4 writers who pay a professional writer for a 10 week seminar in hopes of becoming better writers. One is played by Jerry O'Connell. I was impressed with him, seeing as I didn't know it was him until after the show at dinner. It's nice to see a movie/tv actor not relying on his fame to push through a show. Definitely check this one out!
We sat in the last row of the orchestra, but it was not an issue as it was a play and there was absolutely nothing in the fly space. Previously, I've seen The Normal Heart and Avenue Q here. It's a much smaller house!

The Road to Mecca

Holy shitballs, was this play ever boring. I got an email from hiptix saying that they were giving us a discount (on top of my already huge discount mind you) and giving us all 2 tickets for the price of one....tickets were $20 BEFORE the sale, so Aaron and I saw the show for $24 total! Is that even possible?! A broadway show for $10 each?!? Something is wrong here....what is it? Oh yeah, the show sucks. It was so tired and was about nothing. The man next to Aaron fell asleep around the 15 minute mark, and he truly was the lucky one. The house was empty, so were told BEFORE the curtain rose that we could move up....we sat 3rd row mezzanine. Didn't seem to matter though, as I couldn't even figure out what the show was even about. I was so tempted to leave at intermission, but stayed because "hey, why not?"

I think the actors involved were talented but it didn't make a difference because the writing was boring. After seeing the show, Aaron turned to me and said that we weren't allowed to see anymore plays unless they were comedic or had great buzz around them. Guess we're going to be seeing more musicals.

Previous to this show, we saw Importance of Being Earnest here. Nice theater!

Venus in Fur

This show has been getting a lot of buzz around town. Newspapers and magazines alike are claiming that it's the sexiest show of the season (even Vogue, though why would I care what Vogue says about a broadway show?!) I am a huge fan of Nina Arianda, she being an alum of AMDA and even went to school there at the same time I was attending. I am also a humungous David Ives fan, having performed one of his short plays in high school (edited for content of course, but funny nonetheless). This play just didn't scream anything to me. Sure it was funny. It was also sexy. But was it the sexiest or the funniest? Hardly. I felt that Ives has written so much better stuff and Arianda shone more in Born Yesterday. I am sure she'll get some sort of nomination for this performance, however. I thought Hugh Dancy was fine. I don't have much of a history of him....so yeah. Would I send someone to this show? Maybe. Is it awful? No. Aaron was quoted "This is what Spring Awakening would have been without any music."

We were in row G in the mezz. The theater is really small so it's one of the more intimate settings for theater. (It's also the last theater I needed for "theater bingo". I have been in EVERY SINGLE theater on broadway at some point in my life!) They have a balcony, so maybe it's less intimate feeling up there. This theater is in a DIRE need of a renovation though. The minute you walk into the lobby, you see the old moldings, pictures hanging of actors long gone, etc. The seats were SO uncomfortable. Oh, and they might be the most uncoordinated and clueless ushers I've seen in some time.
The play is nice and short and has a couple of surprises, but it's not a MUST see. Well, if you like Nina Arianda in leather and lingerie, it IS a must see.

Sister Act

This show was enjoyable. A great one to catch on a Saturday matinee. I had been skeptical about this one too. For ages. But after many friends telling me "It's so good" or "it's a great time, you'll be dancing the whole time", I thought, "why not?" And it was pretty fun. I was smiling most of the show which is nice since I was in the front row. I wanted to dance with them (and I could've as the dances were not hard at all). Patina Miller sang her heart out (except for one song where me and my friend could definitely tell that she was lip synching). I found the best part of the show was the ensemble, aka the 10-15 nuns that don't really have any lines. They were fierce with their harmonies and jesus, these girls were mixing SO high. That, and the 4 villains. They were funny as shit!

My seat was in the front row pretty much almost dead center. You can't beat the seat for the price of $25! I couldn't even really miss anything. No excuses not to get these seats as opposed to full price.I've never seen so many sequined habits before! There wasn't any tap dancing which made me a little sad, but this show is totally a singing show, not a dancing one. And the script was very funny, having witty moments in every scene.