NYC
Okay, it's Wednesday, and I'm almost awake enough to be coherant enough to talk about NY this weekend.
We saw Julia! We saw Julia! Oh, and other stuff.
After an excruciatingly long bus trip I arrived at port authority only half an hour late, located ainsleyaisling right where she said she'd be, and we went off to find lunch and hostel. It wasn't a terrible place, and location was pretty good. Then we went for a walk around 5th ave to kill time. There was sushi. Sushi is good. Then there was Wicked! When we picked up the tickets earlier, we checked the boards to make sure no one was out, there was, but only Chistery, so that was fine.
I managed to get passed the concession stand without buying any Wicked related merch, go me! I don't need anything, I don't need anything, I especially don't need the pretty music boxes that I know I'll end up buying at some piont, but maybe when I have a little more money, or, you know, some.
We had very nice restricted view seats in row BB and CC audience-left. We've both sat there before, and were fine with missing the little bit of action in the corner in exchange for being that close to Julia. Have I mentioned how very much she rocks lately? She was ill, her voice was a bit rough, especially on the final note of Wizard and I, and I was so nervous she was going to sub out, but she didn't! She was very very there and very very awesome and very very close to me! Squee! Kendra was slightly off as well, possibly they have the same cold. Sebastian (who I haven't seen before, he was off in May) was fabulous. Definitely the best Fiyero I've seen. He was so present and aware and had some amount of chemistry with Julia (a nice change from other Fiyeros) and he sings well and is pretty. Well done boy! I loved Lenny Wolpe. He's very much like the movie Wizard and I thought he was great.
Overall show was excellent, because it always is, and even the slight vocal twinges were only noticable because I'm so extremely familiar with Julia's voice. Most of the audience had no idea she was ill, I'm sure. There were a couple of little line-flubs, but nothing very huge.
Stage door was mostly empty. We didn't rush to get out, and were still directly in front of the door. Awesome, it's so much nicer there without screwaming 14 year olds. Kendra was out faster than almost anyone. I'm betting she was all the way home before Julia even came out. But she seemed happy, signed our books and took a photo with me. Sebastian did as well. Lenny Wolpe was really nice. Carole never came out, that I could see, nor Cristy, or if they did, they were gone while I was diestracted. I did notice when Julia came out, strangely enough. I asked her about the musical apology song that she sang at Birdland, and she was telling me about Christine Lavin, who wrote it, and how funny she was. Must buy many cds. New goal. But Julia took a photo with me as well as signing my big Wicked book. And she was still talking about Christine as she moved down the line, for her it was like gushing. Very cute. Will post pictures when I can get them uploaded. Soon I hope.
Saturday we had all these plans. We had our mat tickets and were going to get seats to something else for the evening. Apparently, planning is overrated. ainsley gets a call from the Roundabout, where we're supposed to see The Ritz, saying an actress had to pull out (it was supposed to start previewing the night before) and they were cancelling the day's performance. Damn. So we decide to try for the show we wanted to see that evening, 100 Saints You Should Know, for the mat. Except they're sold out. We get on a waiting list, and run around trying to find something else just in case. Well, there was only 1 seat for that so we ended up at My Father is Jewish, My Mother's Italian, and I'm in Therapy. It was a one-man show about all the crap family pus you through. It was amusing. It was also only $20, so all good. Then, for the evening, we attempted and failed at Rent lotto, so went for balcony seats at Legally Blonde. It was very very pink. Amuisng enough, in its way. Both Laura Bell Bundy and Kate Shindle were out. ainsley said Laura's understudy was maybe better, Kate's not so much. But we saw Annaleigh, who is adorable and very Glinda-like.
Sunday we got up quite early to get space for Broadway on Broadway. We were far enough back that photos were unlikely, though I tried audio recording, which sort of worked. You can hear most of the singing, but there's a lot of background noise, gotta see if I can do anything with that. Anyone any good at audio-editing? All the current shows, except Xanadu, sent people. No great surprises, except that on all of Broadway, Julia, two chorus boys, and some of the cast of Hairspray are the only ones with enough brains to put a long-sleeve shirt under their tees when it's cold out. Julia did an absolutely fabulous Wizard and I, though, smart girl, she took the final note down a third so she wasn't straining on it. Well done. And she got an excellent reception. The cast of Grease looked bored and tired, everyone groaned when Phantom was announced. Lea Salonga was fabulous, now I've seen her and have no need to go watch a pathetic revival of Les Mis. The number from Curtains was funny. Laura Bell Bundy still didn't show, her understudy did, but it was mostly Orfeh's number. Adam and Anthony didn't come from Rent, they sent Tamyra, who did a not terrible, though not wonderful Out Tonight. Neither Young Frankenstein nor Little Mermaid sent anyone, not bright, especially not with LM's poor reviews and lousy pre-ticket sales. Publicity is a good thing, folks. Over all the concert was lots of fun, almsot 2 hours of free Broadway music.
Then we went on an Odyssey to try to find soup, which apparently doesn't exist on Sundays in Manhattan except at one play where it was $7 for a bowl. Silly. We found a Chinese place and had soup there. Then there was Forbidden Broadway. Always funny, and ainsley and I figured out that, between us, we'd seen all but maybe 3 of the shows they roasted. It's the 25th anniversary show, so they brought out a few favourite numbers from the past, as well as the new stuff, and Wicked's is n there, along with Boy From Oz and a bunch of older stuff.
After this, we ran back to our hostel, picked up our bags, and went to Birdland for the Amanda Green concert. The food there is excellent, but the portions are gigantic. I was nibbling for more than an hour and had to give up halfway through my plate. And I wasn't hungry all of Monday. Amanda was hilarious. Tom Kitt played for her, and she brought a bunch of people from High Fidelity to sing her songs from there. All were excellent, though I can't remember any names at the moment. There was this church group from Atlanta that left partway thoguh one of the songs, and she couldnt' stop laughing for the rest of the number. I wish they'd stayed one more, because the next song was much raunchier! Hee! And she sang a song about being thirty-eleven, so I've decided to be twenty-ten next month instead of thirty. ainsley and I debated kidnapping Tom and making him tell Julia she needs to have a concert, but he ran away really quickly.
ainsley had to run off to catch her train, which she made with minutes to spare, about 2 of them. I had forever before my bus, so I stopped to chat with this musician outside of Birdland for 15 minutse and he tried to get me to come in for his set, but I had no more money so I couoldn't. Waited a couple of hours in the bus station, got on the bus, didnt' sleep for most of 12 hours, and arrived at work only 45 minutes late for my day. It was a long long day. But I now know I can do a 3-day weekend, bracketed by 2 bus trips and not die. This is a much cheaper way of doing NY so maybe I can do more frequent trips this way (cuz the 3 this year aren't enough apparently). But I'm all set for whenever Julia annouces a concert. Which I hope is soon.
We saw Julia! We saw Julia! Oh, and other stuff.
After an excruciatingly long bus trip I arrived at port authority only half an hour late, located ainsleyaisling right where she said she'd be, and we went off to find lunch and hostel. It wasn't a terrible place, and location was pretty good. Then we went for a walk around 5th ave to kill time. There was sushi. Sushi is good. Then there was Wicked! When we picked up the tickets earlier, we checked the boards to make sure no one was out, there was, but only Chistery, so that was fine.
I managed to get passed the concession stand without buying any Wicked related merch, go me! I don't need anything, I don't need anything, I especially don't need the pretty music boxes that I know I'll end up buying at some piont, but maybe when I have a little more money, or, you know, some.
We had very nice restricted view seats in row BB and CC audience-left. We've both sat there before, and were fine with missing the little bit of action in the corner in exchange for being that close to Julia. Have I mentioned how very much she rocks lately? She was ill, her voice was a bit rough, especially on the final note of Wizard and I, and I was so nervous she was going to sub out, but she didn't! She was very very there and very very awesome and very very close to me! Squee! Kendra was slightly off as well, possibly they have the same cold. Sebastian (who I haven't seen before, he was off in May) was fabulous. Definitely the best Fiyero I've seen. He was so present and aware and had some amount of chemistry with Julia (a nice change from other Fiyeros) and he sings well and is pretty. Well done boy! I loved Lenny Wolpe. He's very much like the movie Wizard and I thought he was great.
Overall show was excellent, because it always is, and even the slight vocal twinges were only noticable because I'm so extremely familiar with Julia's voice. Most of the audience had no idea she was ill, I'm sure. There were a couple of little line-flubs, but nothing very huge.
Stage door was mostly empty. We didn't rush to get out, and were still directly in front of the door. Awesome, it's so much nicer there without screwaming 14 year olds. Kendra was out faster than almost anyone. I'm betting she was all the way home before Julia even came out. But she seemed happy, signed our books and took a photo with me. Sebastian did as well. Lenny Wolpe was really nice. Carole never came out, that I could see, nor Cristy, or if they did, they were gone while I was diestracted. I did notice when Julia came out, strangely enough. I asked her about the musical apology song that she sang at Birdland, and she was telling me about Christine Lavin, who wrote it, and how funny she was. Must buy many cds. New goal. But Julia took a photo with me as well as signing my big Wicked book. And she was still talking about Christine as she moved down the line, for her it was like gushing. Very cute. Will post pictures when I can get them uploaded. Soon I hope.
Saturday we had all these plans. We had our mat tickets and were going to get seats to something else for the evening. Apparently, planning is overrated. ainsley gets a call from the Roundabout, where we're supposed to see The Ritz, saying an actress had to pull out (it was supposed to start previewing the night before) and they were cancelling the day's performance. Damn. So we decide to try for the show we wanted to see that evening, 100 Saints You Should Know, for the mat. Except they're sold out. We get on a waiting list, and run around trying to find something else just in case. Well, there was only 1 seat for that so we ended up at My Father is Jewish, My Mother's Italian, and I'm in Therapy. It was a one-man show about all the crap family pus you through. It was amusing. It was also only $20, so all good. Then, for the evening, we attempted and failed at Rent lotto, so went for balcony seats at Legally Blonde. It was very very pink. Amuisng enough, in its way. Both Laura Bell Bundy and Kate Shindle were out. ainsley said Laura's understudy was maybe better, Kate's not so much. But we saw Annaleigh, who is adorable and very Glinda-like.
Sunday we got up quite early to get space for Broadway on Broadway. We were far enough back that photos were unlikely, though I tried audio recording, which sort of worked. You can hear most of the singing, but there's a lot of background noise, gotta see if I can do anything with that. Anyone any good at audio-editing? All the current shows, except Xanadu, sent people. No great surprises, except that on all of Broadway, Julia, two chorus boys, and some of the cast of Hairspray are the only ones with enough brains to put a long-sleeve shirt under their tees when it's cold out. Julia did an absolutely fabulous Wizard and I, though, smart girl, she took the final note down a third so she wasn't straining on it. Well done. And she got an excellent reception. The cast of Grease looked bored and tired, everyone groaned when Phantom was announced. Lea Salonga was fabulous, now I've seen her and have no need to go watch a pathetic revival of Les Mis. The number from Curtains was funny. Laura Bell Bundy still didn't show, her understudy did, but it was mostly Orfeh's number. Adam and Anthony didn't come from Rent, they sent Tamyra, who did a not terrible, though not wonderful Out Tonight. Neither Young Frankenstein nor Little Mermaid sent anyone, not bright, especially not with LM's poor reviews and lousy pre-ticket sales. Publicity is a good thing, folks. Over all the concert was lots of fun, almsot 2 hours of free Broadway music.
Then we went on an Odyssey to try to find soup, which apparently doesn't exist on Sundays in Manhattan except at one play where it was $7 for a bowl. Silly. We found a Chinese place and had soup there. Then there was Forbidden Broadway. Always funny, and ainsley and I figured out that, between us, we'd seen all but maybe 3 of the shows they roasted. It's the 25th anniversary show, so they brought out a few favourite numbers from the past, as well as the new stuff, and Wicked's is n there, along with Boy From Oz and a bunch of older stuff.
After this, we ran back to our hostel, picked up our bags, and went to Birdland for the Amanda Green concert. The food there is excellent, but the portions are gigantic. I was nibbling for more than an hour and had to give up halfway through my plate. And I wasn't hungry all of Monday. Amanda was hilarious. Tom Kitt played for her, and she brought a bunch of people from High Fidelity to sing her songs from there. All were excellent, though I can't remember any names at the moment. There was this church group from Atlanta that left partway thoguh one of the songs, and she couldnt' stop laughing for the rest of the number. I wish they'd stayed one more, because the next song was much raunchier! Hee! And she sang a song about being thirty-eleven, so I've decided to be twenty-ten next month instead of thirty. ainsley and I debated kidnapping Tom and making him tell Julia she needs to have a concert, but he ran away really quickly.
ainsley had to run off to catch her train, which she made with minutes to spare, about 2 of them. I had forever before my bus, so I stopped to chat with this musician outside of Birdland for 15 minutse and he tried to get me to come in for his set, but I had no more money so I couoldn't. Waited a couple of hours in the bus station, got on the bus, didnt' sleep for most of 12 hours, and arrived at work only 45 minutes late for my day. It was a long long day. But I now know I can do a 3-day weekend, bracketed by 2 bus trips and not die. This is a much cheaper way of doing NY so maybe I can do more frequent trips this way (cuz the 3 this year aren't enough apparently). But I'm all set for whenever Julia annouces a concert. Which I hope is soon.