I’m way behind on blogging, so I’ll get to the whatcha been doing soon enough.
But I’m on a road trip, and on the drive from Baltimore to Charlottesville today, random playlist served up Jim Croce’s New York’s Not My Home. And, while I like the song and I get it, it got me thinking about how New York is my home, in a way that no other place has ever been. And I drove by the exit off 495 to McLean, where I grew up, and though, “want to stop in? Naw”. I haven’t had family there in over 30 years. And as I headed into a town that is very much about Virginia history and American history, I was thinking that even though I grew up in Virginia, if you asked me to reel off the highlights of Virginia history from, say, the founding of Jamestown to the Civil War, I’d be at a total loss. This says more about me than my education – I’ve never found history interesting. Shameful enough that I went to college in Williamsburg, the second-oldest college in the country (I think Harvard is first?), and never gave a flip for the history surrounding me. But I’ve always felt guilty and like I was supposed to care and I really didn’t. Anyway, despite my first 20 years of life spent there, I never felt Virginia had anything for me, in the way New York (City) absolutely has. So there’s that.
I’ll go into the details of the road trip later. Suffice it to say it’s nice to get out of town and be able to wander around some new environments.
I have to go through my FB wall to see what I’ve been up to. A lot of May brainpower was prepping for a Mikado concert at the NY G&S Society that went up (very successfully) last Monday. I’ll cover that later as well.
I saw a couple of shows! I was delighted to finally see the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors that’s been playing for a couple of years now, with some really great famous leads going in and out. I love the show, and have seen it in quite a few incarnations, but what finally got me to go to this one was when they cast Jinkx Monsoon as Audrey. Most of you know who she is, but anyway, she’s an amazingly talented drag queen (and, now, transgender woman) who won RuPaul’s Drag Race twice! She’s lately been taking theater by storm, appearing as Matron Mama Morton in Chicago (I saw her) and now in one of her dream roles. This is what I posted on FB (and going to grab it to copy it here, I laughed because the screen displayed half of it with a prompt at the bottom, See More):
Little Shop! Very good production, very much worth seeing. Corbin Bleu was Seymour – I know who he is, but have never seen “High School Musical” or anything of his on stage. He’s VERY good and has a beautiful voice, actually unnecessarily pretty for Seymour. (Kind of in a Josh Groban direction.) I was there to see Jinkx Monsoon’s Audrey (as were all the other queens in the house, which were numerous). She really made it her own, so she was not the teeny little waif with the helmet hair we know and love. (She towered over Bleu, which made the kiss and dip after “Suddenly Seymour” one of the best bits in the show.) But it was a beautiful performance, well thought out, and nicely sung. (They had to drop some keys for her). She’s going back into Chicago soon, and is clearly headed towards originating a role at some point, I hope. She certainly has the goods. Orin etc. was the understudy and he was fine, although sometimes underpowered and sloppy diction. Stephen DeRosa (a name Sondheim people will know) was Mushnick, and he was fine. (It’s a thankless role). We had an understudy Ronette, but all three urchins were delightful. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the conceit of a Greek chorus of Supremes is never not hilarious to me.) We had an understudy Voice of Audrey II, who was a woman. There’s no reason that role CAN’T be a woman, but I think it takes the fun out of having a creature named Audrey II voiced by a big basso. Anyway, she was Just Fine. So, if you haven’t seen the production yet, you should – but wait until a lead is someone you’d really like to see. They’re hinting that Andrew Barth Feldman is going in next as Seymour, which would be excellent casting. (I saw his Evan Hansen.)
So that was great, and I may go back to see it again. It’s a really good production, just the right size.
The Tony nominations came out and nominated a bunch of new stuff that I’d not had a big desire to see, but I’m hearing good things. This past Wednesday, I got a ticket to Lempicka, which closed this weekend- way too early, according to the chattering classes. This is what I had to say about that:
So, Lempicka. Disclaimers: first, I hadn’t particular been drawn to going to it, but I’d heard it was good and it was closing, so… Also, I was very uncomfortable last night, for reasons having nothing to do with the show, and left at intermission, something I almost never do. Anyway, I thought it was well-performed and Edin Espinosa was wonderful! I also really liked the male artist she studies with. I didn’t get to see Beth Leavel’s big number, but of course she’s always great. I didn’t find the story particularly engaging. The score was through-composed pop-y style, which is, while not awful, not at all my kind of thing. And the set was fun to look at, but I don’t think it served the story well. So… better luck next time. For the record, I’m equally not-drawn to a lot of the new stuff that’s opened (Notebook, Outsiders, Water for Elephants, etc), but will probably see as much as possible before the Tonys. Shows I really DO want to see: Stereophonic, Oh, Mary!, The Wiz, MJ, Suffs and The Heart of Rock and Roll.
Oh, and I got my picture taken with the giant hot dog in Times Square!
More soon, including Gilbert & Sullivan adventures and this road trip currently happening.
The Toast Point Page 