Nice Work if You Can Get It

How on earth did this get nominated for best musical?! I don't get it. Sure, it was cute, but BEST?! This is far from best in my opinion. First off, it's an old soul musical. Even though it's filled with Gershwin's songs, it's a new story....but hey, wait a minute, I feel like I've watched it before....that's because it's a kooky show of mistaken identities, lies, and quick costume changes. I shouldn't bag on it though, as it was entertaining. I didn't leave at intermission. Kelli O'Hara was wonderful and the guy who played Cookie was great. I didn't even know he was nominated until intermission, but I knew he was the best.

I feel as though Matthew might have been the weak link here. He's a crowd pleaser. Everyone wants to see Ferris Buehler on stage....and you'll get him, that's for sure....because Matthew isn't really acting. 

The chorus girls might have also been a weak link for me. The jokes were just too corny and not delivered with an oomph. My grandparents would've loved it though, so I guess I'm not the target audience.

I sat WAY far back....row E of the rear mezz. At intermission, I moved up to front row of the rear mezz....still pretty far back, but a little closer. Previous to this show, I've seen August Osage County, The Boy From Oz, Billy Elliot, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels...(my first "date" with my now husband!)

Porgy and Bess

Check! Finally say Audra McDonald perform! She's one of the greats! What I worried about most in this production is that whomever she was set against, they wouldn't measure up! But Norm Lewis did a great job. So good that Aaron said he's going to win the Tony for best male in a lead role! We'll see how that goes. We don't really see a lot of opera, so this was a change of pace!

 The vocals were very powerful, like a baptist church! Everyone on stage was hard at work. The dance scenes (though not many) were very entertaining.

 We sat row E in the mezzanine and while we could've been closer to see Audra better, we still had excellent seats. The last shows I saw here were Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and In the Heights!

Peter and the Starcatcher

 Wow, what an amazing show. Such creativity! Everyone on stage pulled their own weight! It's nominated for 10 tonys this year! Great job, PatSC! I went with Todd and he won lottery tickets ($27) to sit in the orchestra row L! They were off to the side, but really we didn't miss a thing! This show made me laugh out loud, ooh and aah over what "junk" they were using to build the scene, and cry over what was happening in their world. I sure hope it wins best play. It's like nothing else on Broadway right how.

 As I said, we sat in row L, house left. It was great! I'd definitely try to win lottery again as the deal you're making it unbeatable!

Christian Borle is in this as Black Stache, later known as Captain Hook....(not even in this show might I add) and he was FABULOUS! I think he has a great chance of winning. Seriously, all around great performances!

Leap of Faith

I was super excited to see this because the Tony nominees were just released and it got a nom for best new musical. However, after purchasing the tickets, I heard from a lot of friends that they felt it was a waste of a nomination. I found out that it opened on the last day for Tony noms to be valid. (cutting it kind of close I think) When asked by Aaron of how long the show would be I found out that it was already closing. WHAT?! That means it will be a nominee and only have had 24 preview performances and 20 regular performances. Something does sound right there. To me, it DOES sound like a waste of a nomination. It won't win due to the fact that no one can see it as it will be closed.

 We had great seats, row F in the orchestra off to the side. Nothing was partial view. Previous to this show, we saw American Idiot, Gypsy (Patti LuPone) and The Producers (7 times!) I love this theater!

The gospel singers really brought it. They had so much passion and the songs were dynamite. The parts of the show that lagged were the musical theater portions. Raul Esparza was phenomenal! The little boy in the show may very well be the worst actor I've seen in some time!

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!