6/27/2011 Getting My Act Together

Gretchen Cryer (top) Nancy Ford (bottom)

We attended the two production of I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road/Still Getting My Act Together last night at York Theatre. Getting My Act Together was one of the first shows I saw in New York when it was performed on Bleeker Street at Circle in the Square downtown starring Gretchen Cryer, who wrote the show with Nancy Ford. I was so impressed with Gretchen's performance that I waited for her to come out and greeted her. Thirty years later York revived Getting My Act Together starring Jenn Colella this time. I liked her performance, but Bill was not taken with it. In Still Getting My Act Together, Gretchen came out as the same character 30 years later, and we discover what she had been going through in those 30 years. I really enjoyed the show. It needs a little cutting here and there, but it was a lot of fun.

While waiting for Still Getting to take our seats, I spotted Karen Ziemba. I attended Akron University in the theatre department when Karen was dancing with the Ohio Ballet. I have seen most of Karen's shows here in New York and have been a fan of hers. I went over to her and told her that I was at Akron U at the same time that she was there, and she may have seen the set and lighting I did for Dames at Sea. She was extremely gracious and mentioned that she had just completed a workshop for a musical written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (two of my favorite lyricists and composers) and Susan Stroman the choreographer. The plotline was about Degas and the ballerinas he painted. She said it was a wonderful experience. I then congratulated her on all her success. In the theatre, she was sitting across from me, and when a joke was made about moving back to Ohio, she glanced over at me and smiled. We both knew that we would never do that in a million years!

So it turned out to be an interesting evening, finally getting to say hello to Karen after all these years, and seeing Gretchen Cryer perform again on stage.

6/15/2011 Follies to Broadway

I am totally thrilled that the announcement was made today that the Kennedy Center production of Follies is going to move to the Minskoff Theatre in New York. I loved this production and look forward to seeing it a second time. One can only hope that Bernadette Peters,  Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, and Ron Raines repeat their roles. It appears that Linda Lavin will be out of the show. No word on Elaine Paige or others that may be recast. I was hoping that this would happen since I felt this was the most satisfying production of the show that I have seen.

(The photo collage is a compilation of photos from the Kennedy Center production from their website.)

6/15/2011 Javier Colon

I just saw the most amazing performance I have seen in a long time. Javier Colon on The Voice just stole the whole show with his rendition of Angel. If he doesn't win the whole thing I will be very surprised. All I can say is WOW!

And the winner is ... Javier Colon. (posted after the results of the shows finale!)  Yet another prediction that was right on!

6/15/2011 Tony Awards Recap

I predicted that The Book of Morman would win for best musical. I'm not sure that it should have won for best music however. There were so many good musicals on Broadway this year. I loved Sister Act, Catch Me If You Can, and The Scottboro Boys. I really loved Patina Miller's performance in Sister Act, but haven't seen Sutton Foster's performance in Anything Goes yet. Sutton's performance on the Tony's was really good, as was Patina's.  I also thought that Tony Sheldon was fabulous in Priscilla, but also liked Norbert Leo Butz's performance in Catch Me If You Can. It's a little difficult  to choose because Tony is a friend of our friend Peter Eyres from Sydney. We had a chance to meet Tony after the show in the bowels of the Palace Theatre. Talk about an experience. Tony was extremely nice and it was such a pleasure meeting him. I thought the Tony Award show was really a lot of fun. Neil Patrick Harris was a wonderful host and has an amazing ability to ad lib, or at least to rap without much practice. His last number was priceless. As was the opening number about how Broadway is no longer just for gay men! And then there is War Horse. I loved it more in New York than I did in London. This is a wonderful, heartwrenching play, and must be seen. I am glad it received the awards it got. They were deserved. It's a shame the Scottsboro Boys did not get more recognition. It is a exciting, passionate show with many amazing performances. They're supposed to do a tour, and if they do and it comes to your town, down miss it. I have to say, this was a wonderful year for Broadway. Even the musical shows that didn't make it had some great music, sets, and performers. And the variety of plays are some of the best we've seen in years.  I think the awards were pretty just, and pretty close to what I would have voted on.

6/11/2011 Judy's Birthday

Yesterday was Judy Garland's 89th birthday. Along with my friends Andrea, Armand, and John, we took a drive from NY to Ferncliff to visit her grave site. Andrea, John and I had done this 14 years ago on Judy's 75th birthday. Andrea has visited her site almost every year since then. There were a few bouquets of flowers there, but for a while we were the only ones there. We later found another Judy fan named Carol, who is a regular visitor there. Carol knows Ferncliff quite well and directed us to the sections where Ed Sullivan, Sigmund Romberg, Joan Crawford, Max Gordon (who produced My Sister Eileen), and Jerome Kern are laid to rest. Harold Arlen is also buried there, but outside of the mausoleum. It was a beautiful day and I took great joy in paying homage to one of America's greatest stars.

6/11/2011 Follies at Kennedy Center

Last weekend we journeyed to Washington to see the latest incarnation of Follies by Stephen Sondheim. This is my favorite musical and I have seen the past three major productions: Encores, Broadway Revival, and Papermill production. By far, up to this point I really liked the Encores production, the others I had problems with the casting. The Kennedy Center production was the most satisfying overall. From the set and lighting designs, to the exquisite costumes, to the wonderful casting, this production worked on all levels for me. Bernadette is a revelation, as she usually is. Jan Maxwell was a marvelous Phyllis. Ron Raines sang Ben beautifully, but I felt that because of his stature, his was a little miscast. Danny Burstein blew me away as Buddy! He sang and danced the role amazingly well. What a couple of years he has had, first as Billis in South Pacific and then his role in Women on the Verge. I had a chance to greet him after the show and congratulate him on his performance. He was very gracious. The other cast members were also memorable including Linda Lavin, Terry White, Elaine Elias, and Elaine Paige. Our friend David got Elaine's biography signed for us, and gave us a copy of Everything Was Possible (the book about the making of the original show in 1971) that was signed by Ted Chapin.  My only complaints were Regine's performance was pretty weak, and the ghosts of showgirls that were constantly present, got in the way of the action in a couple of scenes. Eric Schaeffer did an impressive job in directing Follies and we can only hope that producers will bring this $7 million dollar production to Broadway.

On this same trip we also saw the Cuban National Ballet perform Don Quixote at the Kennedy Center. I enjoyed the performance, but did not get to see their prima ballerina since she danced the show the night before. We journeyed to the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va. to see the latest incarnation of Side by Side by Sondheim. It was a disappointment to me, except for the performance of  Nancy Anderson. We recently saw her in both productions of Yank (at Gallery Players in Brooklyn and York Theatre in Manhattan.) The other production was at the Studio Theatre. The play was Venus in Fur by David Ives. When this play was done in New York, Nina Arianda did the lead role and went on to do Born Yesterday and gain a Tony nomination. The cast at Studio was excellent and I enjoyed the give and take of the play very much.

We did see one major art exhibit also. It was the Gaughin exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Most of the art works were from his time spent in Polynesia. I was impressed that not only was he a great artist, but a sculptor doing work in wood and ceramic. I am glad we saw the exhibit.

The other interesting event that happened while we were in Washington involves our friend David Tannous. Bill had met David about a year ago when he attended Giant at Signature Theatre for the second time. David was sitting next to Bill and they started talking. David is like us, he is an avid theatre goer. But he knows not only theatre, but art and all other aspects of the performing arts. He has become our liaison to the theatre scene in Washington. A local group decided to sponsor once a year an award to go to a deserving audience member in the D.C. area. David was nominated by two different theatre groups and won. We are very pleased for him, and since we do travel to Washington on somewhat of a regular basis, are glad to have made friends with him. He keeps us well informed about the Washington scene. Congratulations, David.