Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

OMG I loved this show. Audra McDonald can do nothing bad on stage, I swear! The minute she uttered a word, it sounded like Billie Holiday. No joke! She was magnificent. The show takes place a couple of months before Billie actually died in real life. The show is 90 minutes long and in just 90 minutes you see how she drank herself to death. She was a mess. Audra deserved the tony for this play. 

There was even a dog actor in the show. (The dog has even been on tour and on broadway in Legally Blonde, so it has a better resume than me, headdesk!) The 3 piece band was phenomenal. The theater is so intimate that I really felt like we were there, watching Billie. We were so close to her as well.

Our seats were rush, so they cost us $40 and were on the left side, 5th row from the front and adjacent to the stage, so we got side views, but she spent way more time looking our direction because the pianist was seated near us. If we had been on the house right side, the show would've looked very different.

I really felt like I saw Billie Holiday in concert. I was inspired after the show to listen to her actual recordings and they are VERY similar in sound. To hear Audra change her voice so much,....I'm speechless.

Just Jim Dale

 We decided to see the last of the Roundabout Theater's offerings for HipTix, Just Jim Dale! It was a one man show starring Jim Dale of course, who before coming, I had no idea was a pop singer from the 50's in the UK, and the Doctor character in Pete's Dragon. Squee! Feeling like a kid. The show was fun because we don't really have shows like it anymore. BUT after an hour, we were feeling a little bored with it all. It was nice to hear what he had to say about show business and the struggles he had in getting to where he was, but show business doesn't sound the same anymore.

It was very sweet to see how he grew up, and to see his photographs of himself in ballet class at 10 years old. Poor guy! I loved hearing about his story of his absent cousin and a performance of his pas de deux. He actually already had comedic timing as a kid. Very impressed.

Our seats were great. As a gold member, I was given a choice of 3 different spots. I sat in the front row of the mezzanine. They were filming the night we went. It was a short show at 90 minutes but a good length for a one man performance.

Violet

 Ouch this show sucked. I wanted to like it. I know a couple of songs from the show from both the Broadway channel and AMDA. We went because Hiptix offered $25 and Aaron had never seen Sutton Foster perform. I wish he had seen Anything Goes or Millie to really see how she shines and commands a stage.

The cast, though small, was incredibly talented. No one was slacking off. The problem was the material. The story is of Violet, a woman with an axe wound across her face (not shown in the show).  She takes a bus across the states to meet with a televangelist to "cure" her. Along the way, she meets other bus riders, including 2 soldiers who fight over her. (Aaron found this to be a bad show based off the fact that she's so ugly that everyone back home makes fun of her, but 2 soldiers that just met her fight over her like hungry wolves.)

We had great seats and the theater wasn't full. It's closing in a week, so I am assuming it wasn't popular. The American Airlines theater always plays older friendly shows. We sat on the right side, row H.

Cabaret

 Wilkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! I'd never seen Cabaret on stage. I had a chance in 2000 to see it but decided instead to see The Producers. I'm still happy with the choice because I think the impact on the seriousness of this show would've been lost on me a bit. Alan Cumming returned to the show that won him the tony all those years ago and man, did he sell it!

We were both underwhelmed with Michelle Williams. She did all right for a film star, but she definitely didn't have the chops that we expected in this role. Granted, Sally Bowles is supposed to be annoying and slightly talentless, but Michelle couldn't act that well. I was very impressed with Danny Burstien's portrayal of Herr Shultz. Both the ending of act 1 and the finale made me feel eerie, sad, and uncomfortable. The show does such a good job of showing how the Nazi occupation started to affect the normal everyday German life and then bouncing into a fun ditty about having sex with lots of women, or living it up. 

 We had great seats at a cabaret table (thank you hip tix gold) sitting in the second to last row, and all the way to the side. The seating itself is a little odd (Aaron had to sit BEHIND me) but the sight lines were pretty good and the lighting with the table lights was so cool. We felt like we were in a real club.

 It was so nice to see it live. As a teenager I actually borrowed this cast recording (2000) from the library and I remember thinking it was so "cool" and "dangerous", but now seeing and hearing it as an adult had a different impact on me.

All The Way

The tony awards have just been announced this last week and so all of Broadway is abuzz about this show. My mother in law was visiting, and the best thing about visitors is that it's the best excuse to go to the theater. For 1, it's culture; 2, it's Broadway so it's super touristy and everyone expects you to see something; and 3, since you're seeing something with me, it's a better chance that it's good and it's at half off!

 Everyone loved this show. It was all about LBJ (Cranston is amazing and should win the tony this year for this role) and I don't really remember much about him except that he became president after Kennedy died. The show took place the minute Kennedy died to the 1 year mark, so pretty much LBJ's campaigning year to become president on his own, and the whole backstory of civil rights for black people, Martin Luther King Jr. being one of the main characters in this show.

 I had a hard time staying away but not because it was boring. I was exhausted, but I knew the show was special so after some candy and refreshments I was good. I learned a lot though I can't give you names as I've forgotten many of them. How sad that black people were being beaten up to register to vote. All in all, the show is a little too long, but the material is great and the acting is superb.

We had perfect seats. Row K center section of the mezz. Dead smack in the middle. The seats aren't sloped enough so people have bad sight lines and the seats are very narrow but I wasn't too large for them (I can't say the same for my neighbor who was using part of my seat and was annoyed when I would bump her)

Bullets Over Broadway

What a nice change of pace this show was. Well produced and enjoyable music. Susan Stroman is the director and choreographer, so you know it's going to be fun. I went with Aaron and my friend Voon. Being swing dancers, we were a little disappointed only in that the choreography for the Charleston was a little bland. Other than that, I loved it. I can never be in this show because I'm so short and not leggy….so sad.

The men's chorus and even the guy playing Cheech were HOT! Great voices and even better, amazing tap. I'm getting better at tap because I could do every step except the solos. The only weak link in this cast was Zach Braff but even he did a good job of playing the character that is obviously Woody Allen in a musical.

 We sat in row Q on the sides of the mezzanine, so pretty much the second to last row in the whole place. They were too far back to see facial expressions but since it's a funny and big musical, the facial expressions are large and over the top.

 There was a song all about wanting someone's hot dog which was a big crowd pleaser, and I loved the men coming out in their garters wearing hot dog outfits.

Heathers the Musical

 We ventured back to Off Broadway to check out what all the hype is surrounding Heathers the Musical. While I've seen the movie at least twice, both Aaron and Jaime had never seen it. I had forgotten it was all about teenage suicide and a toxic relationship.

 The show was refreshing and great. I had a wonderful time, laughing at all the iconic lines. The audience was definitely a cult movie group, wooting the actors. The girl playing Veronica became a little flat for me towards the end because she cried throughout the entire show rather than having another emotion. BUT I was happy to see a great new Asian role for me; Heather Duke. None of us particularly liked the actress as she overacted everything. The guy playing JD was HOT HOT HOT! And even hotter up close when people could take pictures with him. This musical has some great numbers, like Candy Store and Blue. I laughed very hard. Also, the guy playing Ram is from SLO apparently! Go Central Coast!

We had great seats (row E off to the side). Since it's off broadway, every seat is good. Nothing was partial view and the actresses could practically spit on us. We could see all emotion! I'd recommend it to people who love the movie or those who want a good laugh and to see the original Mean Girls!