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amethyst73Wow. This has been quite the few weeks for theater.
Back on April 18th, we saw a production of Joanna McClelland Glass play Trying, about the relationship between FDR's attorney general Francis Biddle in the last year of his life and his young secretary. It was a drama that focused more on life, growing old, and the particular personality of Biddle than in his illustrious career.
Then on April 1, we went to see the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. It's a classic of modern musical theater, and the huz and I are very glad that we've now seen it live. (Our previous experience with the show was watching the DVD of it at my parents' some years ago. I was just starting to recover from a particularly nasty stomach flu, and the huz was starting to feel the symptoms of the same flu. Not recommended.) We had the additional luck that the cast was mostly made of relatively young folks for whom this was their first big break, so there was huge amounts of energy and obvious enjoyment in the performers. Good stuff.
That said, having seen it the once, I don't feel a particular need to go see it multiple times.
On Easter we saw a performance of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. The only disappointment here was that the theater company producing it had originally programmed Sondheim's Follies, which neither of us had ever seen. (Prior to this performance, the huz had seen Merrily once before and I'd seen it twice.) But the performance this time was at the usual level of excellence that this particular company always brings to its musical productions. So that was all right!
Last Friday, we saw a production of a little-known Andrew Lippa musical The Wild Party, put on by a student group that tends to do very good musicals. It's based on a book-length poem written in the late 1920s about the edges of the party culture of the time. Both the huz and I weren't certain after the first two numbers whether it would be a good musical - these numbers establish (1) lots and lots of sex, and (2) pretty good dance choreography, but while I could see how these aspects would appeal strongly to the college crowd, they by themselves do not a good musical make. Once the party of the title got going, though, the show did too. It reminded me - only a little! - of Cats, in that a chunk of its focus is in introducing several of the party guests, each with a different song-and-dance, revue-style. The characters and their numbers are complex and interesting, as is the plot that gradually works its way through the show.
Hopefully this Friday, we'll get to see a show that's still being worked on: a comedy about Shakespeare working on King Lear. If we aren't able to get tickets to that, we'll likely go see a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Grand Duke, the last show that the famous pair created together. Then there's a production of Jeckyll and Hyde going up in late April/early May...
... aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnndddddddd......
I just bought tickets to Avenue Q, which is coming to our area in August!!!! Squeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
Back on April 18th, we saw a production of Joanna McClelland Glass play Trying, about the relationship between FDR's attorney general Francis Biddle in the last year of his life and his young secretary. It was a drama that focused more on life, growing old, and the particular personality of Biddle than in his illustrious career.
Then on April 1, we went to see the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. It's a classic of modern musical theater, and the huz and I are very glad that we've now seen it live. (Our previous experience with the show was watching the DVD of it at my parents' some years ago. I was just starting to recover from a particularly nasty stomach flu, and the huz was starting to feel the symptoms of the same flu. Not recommended.) We had the additional luck that the cast was mostly made of relatively young folks for whom this was their first big break, so there was huge amounts of energy and obvious enjoyment in the performers. Good stuff.
That said, having seen it the once, I don't feel a particular need to go see it multiple times.
On Easter we saw a performance of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. The only disappointment here was that the theater company producing it had originally programmed Sondheim's Follies, which neither of us had ever seen. (Prior to this performance, the huz had seen Merrily once before and I'd seen it twice.) But the performance this time was at the usual level of excellence that this particular company always brings to its musical productions. So that was all right!
Last Friday, we saw a production of a little-known Andrew Lippa musical The Wild Party, put on by a student group that tends to do very good musicals. It's based on a book-length poem written in the late 1920s about the edges of the party culture of the time. Both the huz and I weren't certain after the first two numbers whether it would be a good musical - these numbers establish (1) lots and lots of sex, and (2) pretty good dance choreography, but while I could see how these aspects would appeal strongly to the college crowd, they by themselves do not a good musical make. Once the party of the title got going, though, the show did too. It reminded me - only a little! - of Cats, in that a chunk of its focus is in introducing several of the party guests, each with a different song-and-dance, revue-style. The characters and their numbers are complex and interesting, as is the plot that gradually works its way through the show.
Hopefully this Friday, we'll get to see a show that's still being worked on: a comedy about Shakespeare working on King Lear. If we aren't able to get tickets to that, we'll likely go see a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Grand Duke, the last show that the famous pair created together. Then there's a production of Jeckyll and Hyde going up in late April/early May...
... aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnndddddddd......
I just bought tickets to Avenue Q, which is coming to our area in August!!!! Squeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
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Date: 2007-04-16 08:49 pm (UTC)I feel the same about CATS. I saw it in Chicago during college and was not mega excited by it. We had expensive tickets and were in the front row of the balcony, but in the very last two seats on the left. The set design compounded the extreme angle and my friend could only see about half the stage. She complained to the theater afterward and they gave her two free tickets. I was back at school, so she took a poor single mom friend of hers to see it.
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Date: 2007-04-16 08:58 pm (UTC)Ow, way over to the left? Yeah, that wouldn't work very well with the set design for CATS. Yech. I'm glad the theater gave her free tickets in response to her complaint. We were in the front row balcony, but center, so the seats were fine in terms of centeredness, albeit a little far away.