After Midnight

I went with my friend Voon to see After Midnight, a revue of the 1930's in Harlem. We went specifically on this night because K.D. Lang was starting her 39 performance run and he's obsessed. The show was fun and hot, filled with great jazz songs, many of which I knew. Pat on the back! There was virtually no story line though a few characters came on and reprised their roles from previous skits. The dancing, specifically tap, was bomb! The lindy was a little "fake" and choreographed. All in all, a 90 minute show that was fun and family appropriate. 

 I loved many of the numbers including this one where all the men tried to stay in a line for the whole song.

 We were sitting in row E all the way off to the right and while we missed sight lines for entrances, we didn't miss anything else. Perfect! They were rush so I paid $37! Not bad! Also, Rosie O'Donnell was in the audience!

The show was electric and fun. My only issue would be is that there wasn't a story line and I prefer my shows to actually go somewhere, and to take me with them.

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

OMG what a treat this show was! I haven't laughed at such silly things in a long time, perhaps since seeing Peter and the Starcatcher. It's a British humor type show so if you don't like Spamalot/Monty Python you might want to skip this one. It's all about a man who finds out he's 9th in line to be Earl of a huge fortune, and realizes that if he "offs" the other 8 family members, he'll be rich. The kicker for this show is that all 8 family members are played by the same actor. What a feat this actor does in 2.5 hours! I was thoroughly impressed and he did the changes SO quickly.

The costuming was superb! Swoon! I loved Sibella's song about being dressed in pink. A character I'd love to play. She had so much sass and she was all about herself.

 Aunt Nancy and myself kept reenacting this ice skating scene, laughing the next day even. What a good time.

 And Aaron loved this charity woman that the multi actor portrayed. This was a hilarious scene.

I couldn't have asked for better seats. We were in row M, exactly center, and other than a tall man sitting slightly in front of me and Aunt Nancy, these felt like producer seats. I'd see this show again in a heartbeat and I think it's the front runner for best new musical so far!

Bridges of Madison County

This new Jason Robert Brown musical I had never heard of. I knew it was a movie and a book and the theater made sure you knew that too, pushing both products at the souvenir stands. I didn't know what to expect, only that the playbill had an article saying that this show was about an "affair to remember" so I had a feeling that the main characters were going to have an affair. Kelly O'hara played Francesca and I was happy to see her on stage again, this time not as an ingenue but as the adultress. The scenes were sexy and I remember saying to my friend at intermission "wow, now I want to go home and bone my husband." The show was slow, but the music WAS beautiful. My only real complaints were the people hired to play the children. I say people because the son kept saying he was 16 and he was clearly 36! lol

 I loved seeing Hunter Foster in a show again. He sounded great, looked sexy, and I felt bad for his character. The scenery was nice, but we both mentioned that the chorus has very little to do in this show. Not a bad gig, right?

We had perfect seats, sitting in row M of the orchestra. Nothing was blocked, we were in the center section, and other than the fidget monster in front of me, the people talking near us, and the fat woman eating candy and taking up a 1/4 of my seat, it was nice.

ABT's The Tempest

 Aaron asked out of the blue if I wanted to attend the ballet; my answer is always yes. We went to see The Tempest which was a 3 piece ballet, the last being The Tempest. Tempest happens to be my least favorite Shakespeare play but I've never seen it live so I was willing to give it a chance. Maybe it's the way I've always read it, that it doesn't come off the page in a realistic way. The ballet was enjoyable and it was easy to follow since I knew the premise, but Aaron didn't know it and was therefore in the dark. The choreography for the corps was by far the best of the night, absolutely beautiful chaos as wind and the sea's waves.

We also got to see a 4 person ballet of sections based on Othello. I loved it but Aaron didn't really like it. There was no pointe work. The only thing about it that bothered me was that the man playing Othello wasn't black. Normally I wouldn't care about race, especially in a ballet, but Othello is the moor of Venice, a character that is always black.

We sat in the 4th ring, row G. The seats were far, but ballet is something you can see from afar. I brought my binoculars and I was fine. The best part of the night was that since it wasn't the Nutcracker or Swan Lake, only hard core ballet fans went. There wasn't any phone conversations, texting, and even coughing was kept to a minimum. We also saw it on a friday night....pretty nerdy of us on a Friday, no?

First Date

 Man, I wanted to like this show so bad. The whole idea sounded like fun, though I was a little concerned that the show was only about 1 first date and not multiple couples. But no, it was only 1 couple, played by Krista Rodriguez (Smash) and Zachary Levi (whom I recognize as the voice of Flynn Rider in Tangled). I can say that honestly I did not even LIKE Krista, both in her acting choices and character, or her singing. After listening to her, I recognize the sound and she also did The Addams Family. Whenever I've heard the songs, I always thought she sounded weak then...so I guess it's her voice that I don't like.

We had great seats. Center section, last row....it was great because literally there were only 3 seats and we were 3 people, so we had our own private entrance. 

This was the whole show, thankfully only an hour and a half. The supporting cast was decent, but one of the guys was terrible. He was obviously hired because he can rap, but he can NOT sing. And he had 3 solos doing the "Bail Out" song. Ugh, someone should've told the writers in workshop that they didn't need that many Bail Outs. There were definite problems in the show, but it wasn't terrible....but I'd skip it.

Big Fish

I went to France for 2 months so I haven't seen a lot of theater. Dommage! When I got back to America, I tried to get back into the swing of things by hitting up Broadway. Broadway 2 for 1 week was upon us, and everyone has been talking up Big Fish, so I got us some nice seats during preview week. We sat in row M of the orchestra, off to the right. We could see everything. The last time I saw something in the Neil Simon theater.....who knows. I saw Hairspray and Catch Me if You Can.

Sigh, the costuming I loved. Norbert Leo Butz was magic and for sure, he'll be nominated for a tony. Kate Baldwin has a gorgeous voice as always. Aaron and I actually liked the same songs. Susan Stroman shows are always a good bet. She thinks about the show as a whole since she's both director and choreographer.

 Look at this witch scene. All the chorus girls were wearing large costumes with poles to have leaf like sleeves. (They're holding them up right in the shot)

 This last scene in Act 1 was perfection. Just look at the colors! Kate Baldwin's wig is LIVING in this spotlight. The song daffodils was gorgeous and this is definitely a moment on stage worth remembering.

Cinderella

Once again I found myself at the Broadway theater (by the way, can I just get it off my chest how much I HATE the name of this theater?! Not even remotely original.) to see Cinderella. I made sure that this time around, I would pay a LOT of attention to the costume changes! Laura Osnes was once again gorgeous and charming, and I really enjoyed Santino Fontana's Prince Topher. I enjoyed him last time, and he was very consistent. Victoria Clark once again was amazing as the Fairy Godmother, warming the entire room with her oozing vocals. I loved Ann Harada again. She has great delivery in her lines even if I knew what was coming next. 

The choreography is so fun in this show. It's like the choreographer (Josh Rhodes) knew what everyone wanted to see; big show stopping numbers, lots of turns, double kicks, tricks, lifts, and all while wearing ball gowns. The costume changes were once again AMAZING, and I made sure to see how it happened. Laura is so smooth in her "choreography" to change her dresses. Everything is thin and fits nicely into her bosum of her dresses. When she unties the top, it all falls down to reveal her "under" dress, the beautiful ball gown. I still stand by my thoughts of Laura and Victoria getting nominated for tonys, though I am not sure if Ann Harada will get a nomination. 

 It's a fun show and we even saw a proposal happen the night we went. How does one go about doing that anyway? Do you just approach an usher?!