Pageant the Musical

I won 2 free tickets to Pageant the Musical which had great reviews from people I know, as well as Seth Rudetsky. (Actually, I paid $20 and won 3 sets of 2 tickets for shows, so technically, these seats were $3 each) I knew I wanted to laugh, and I did a great deal. Some of it was a little flat, and I think the fact that an understudy was on stage, plus two swings made a big difference in the performance. 

 They sang and dance, showed us talent, bathing suit and fitness, and even gave spokesmodel ad bits. (We laughed a lot when the beauty queen literally threw a bunch of baby powder on her face and shouted 'whoopsidoodle') Towards the beginning of the show, they select judges from the audience and towards the end of the show, said judges must vote on who should win Miss Glamouresse. I thought it was hilarious that these "Miss" titles were so varied and out there, but that there was a "Miss Texas" on stage. Very beauty pageant!

 We arrived for our free tickets which were very difficult to secure(the voucher people were not the easiest to get response from) and when I showed up with my confirmation email in hand, I was treated a little rudely. Finally, they "dealt" with me by giving me 2 tickets in the last row of the mezzanine which was standing room. They had chairs and I was able to move mine forward. The Davenport theater is super narrow so there aren't bad sight lines. All in all, it was definitely worth what I paid and it was a short show so if you didn't like it, it was only an hour and a half of your life.

Motown the Musical

The last show I went to with my mom this week was Motown, which I've been wanting to see for over a year. Tickets are never on sale, they're expensive, and the only rush policy they offer is standing room only. I love motown music and especially Michael Jackson, so I knew I'd be dancing in my seat. 

 I learned some new things about motown and the struggles of black performers in the 50-80's, but since Barry Gordy was the writer of the show and the main character, it was squeaky clean. He was a little bit of a cookie cutter character, unrealistic even. I didn't find his romance with Diana Ross all that interesting, but it was a part of history. I did feel like the show felt like I was watching Dreamgirls, only NOT Dreamgirls.

When The Jackson 5 came out to do ABC, I got a little teary eyed. I felt like I was watching them live, the first time. Whenever the actors would talk about writing new songs and how they were sure to be hits, and then sing a famous song I knew, it was magical.

We sat in row W of the orchestra which were great seats. The mezzanine overhangs so far forward. The theater itself is HUGE and always has big audiences for many tourists that don't speak English, like Addams Family or Beauty and the Beast. 

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

I went with mom to see this lovely show tonight. I waited in the rush line starting at 8 AM (2 hours of sitting on the pavement) but since it was a 2 show day, I was definitely getting tickets (there were only 11 people in front of me) It was still funny this time, though I knew all the jokes this time, so it wasn't AS funny as the first time. BUT mom did laugh. She said that it was hard to just watch the show because she already knew about the movie it was based on, and she was comparing Alec Guinness to Jefferson Mays. She really enjoyed the dinner scene where the spitting happens.

 Mom also really enjoyed the Major. His outfit is absolutely ridiculous! My dad would've enjoyed his short scene.

 As always, the "I've Decided to Marry You" song was very popular. The audience loved it, and it really is the perfect choreographed acting song. I believe the scene completely. Even from the box, I could see pretty much everything.

We were seated in the house right box, so the only thing I missed continuously was Monty's desk scenes. Everything else was pretty easy to see. The seats cost $42, so again, it was another cheap way to see a great show! Definitely worth the cost. The effects of the projections was a little off for us because we weren't in the center, but that's ok.

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.