boeing-boeing, 6-22-08 2pm
Okay, so let's write about my AWESOME DAY yesterday. I was supposed to meet Steven around 12:30 so we could get tickets to August: Osage County. Steven was running a little late, so I ended up waiting for him at the theatre until after one. By the time he got there, we tragically learned that August was sold out, so we schlepped over to TDF and then to Boeing-Boeing to see if they had anything. They don't have student tickets over there, but they did have $20 obstructed view. Steven treated for my ~*birthday*~, but when we got outside, we discovered they had given us tickets for the 8pm show, not the 2pm show.
Before I get to this part of the story, let me describe the lobby of Boeing-Boeing to you: A FREAKING MAD HOUSE. Um, I think that's the politically correct term. ANARCHY. It was supposed to be one line for current sales/will call and one line for future sales, but no one knew what they were doing and people were just piling inside. Eventually both windows turned to current sales/will call and people were still lost and confused and belligerant. It is a SHOW. You have THIRTY MINUTES. Chill out, guys. They're not going to open the doors until twenty-of anyway! The guy behind us seemed convinced that they'd have to start the show late. I wanted to turn to him and say, "Dude, they do this for a living, you think they're not going to be done in time?" I was vindictively pleased when the show DID start on time.
Anyway. We were table to switch tickets with a minimum of fuss, and even better, they let us exchange them (paying the difference, of course) for Balcony seats. So I was pretty psyched. We went across the street to get Jamba Juice and were assaulted with free bags of popcorn, which I debated immediately consuming because I hadn't actually eaten all day. Whoops! Instead I put it in my purse and we walked back to the theatre.
The set was very 60s--it's Barnard's apartment and it's styled entirely with the three "colors" of his three fiancées.
We meet Bernard, an American architect living in Paris, and Gloria, an American stewardess with TWA. Bretha, his AWESOME housekeeper seems a little agitated and Bernard is shooing Gloria out of the apartment to catch her flight. Robert, a friend of Barnard's from school, shows up and Barnard introduces him to Gloria. Once Gloria leaves, Robert congratulates Barnard on getting married. Barnard assures Robert he's NOT getting married. He's engaged, yes, but in reality he's engaged to three different women. All three of his fiancées are stewardesses with different airlines and are thus in Paris at different times. They all think they're the only woman in his life and since they're on three different timetables, they never see each other.
Robert is dubious and asks what he would do if one of them got delayed and there were two in town at once. This, of course, sets up the premise for the show. Gabrielle, the Italian fiancée, has her flight canceled while Gretchen, the German fiancée, is supposed to be in town. The same storm causes Gloria's flight to turn around, and then all three of them are in the apartment, just missing each other, slamming doors, and driving Bernard and Robert mad as they try to keep everything and everyone straight.
To be honest, the show starts off a little slow. The first fifteen to twenty minutes are devoted to setting up the premise, with Bernard explaining everything to Robert and a lengthy opening breakfast scene with Gloria and Bernard. Once Gretchen arrives, the action picks up and really doesn't stop until the end. The end of the first act and start of the second act were especially zany and fun. Overall, the show was really fun. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and laughed my ass off and had a great time. It was kind of hilariously opposite to the way I thought the afternoon was going to go, seeing as how we were intended to see a four-hour, Pulitzer-Prize winning drama, but once I got myself into the right mindset it was awesome.
Brad Whitford plays Bernard, obviously, and he's fantastic. Off-the-wall when he has to be, great physical humor, and he was hilarious when he was going crazy.
Mark Rylance is Robert and oh my GOD, he totally deserved that Tony. He is AMAZING. He plays the straight man in a lot of scenes, but then sort of explodes and is just as crazy in others. Very versatile, great deadpan, great physicality, great facial expressions. He was just fabulous. I'm still a LITTLE bitter that he won it over Rufus Sewell, but, you know, I guess he deserved it XD
Christine Baranski is a goddess. Um, also, Bertha. But she was just fabulous, hilariously funny, great comic timing, amazing facial expressions. She was WONDERFUL.
Mary McCormack was my favourite of the three fiancées. She plays Gretchen, the German girl, and is OVER THE TOP. Completely over the top. It's AMAZING. I barely stopped laughing when she was on stage.
Kathryn Hahn played Gloria and was also very funny. Great facial expressions and physical gestures.
Gina Gershon played Gabriella and was sort of the straight-playing character. She had fewer completely insane scenes, but she played the part really well.
Yeah, so basically everyone was top-notch. Great, great performance all around.
After the show I sort of begged Steven to let us linger at stage door, something I haven't done without a purpose in awhile. I honestly didn't think anyone was going to come out. It was a matinee, which meant they had another show in just a few hours time. Imagine my SHOCK when Mary came out! I flailed a little and dragged Steven all the way down the barricade so we could get a picture. I was telling her about how much I liked IPS and S7 of TWW when Steven took a picture for me. PRETTY AWESOME. Um, wow. Pretty awesome, internet.
So, as I beat the shit out of Steven, tried to throw him into traffic, and broke up with him three times over the state of that picture, either Gina or Kathryn came out. I wasn't quite paying attention. BUT THEN BRADLEY CAME OUT. I pulled Steven down the barricade again (activity of the afternoon? Physically dragging Steven all over Manhattan.) and after Steven took a NICE picture, I talked to Brad briefly and basically told him that I grew up with TWW, that the first season aired my freshman year of high school and it ended right around the time I was about to graduate high school. The Sorkin years WERE my high school years and it was my touchstone and influenced my life incredibly and that it was really cool to get to meet him. And he was SO sweet and called ME sweet and thanked me and shook my hand and it was AWESOME OH MY GOD.
OH MAN, GUYS.
So, um, I basically freaked out and grabbed onto Steven and wouldn't let go for about three blocks. Eventually I calmed down enough for dinner, which was down on 9th and good, but a little skimpy on the portions. I really wanted to go to Batch, so Steven used his ~*iPhone Magic*~ to look up the location and we schlepped downtown. We both picked out some cupcakes and took them down to the pier to eat, where the gays were out in full force. If you look through my Facebook photos, you can see some of Steven's sparkling commentary on our location XD
After cupcakes and conversation we went back uptown and headed out separate ways. Overall, it was basically the best birthday present ever. THANK YOU STEVEN I LOVE YOU. Um, not that he'll probably be reading this, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Okay, now I have to go jump in the pool or take a cold shower. It's over 80 degrees in here again D:
Before I get to this part of the story, let me describe the lobby of Boeing-Boeing to you: A FREAKING MAD HOUSE. Um, I think that's the politically correct term. ANARCHY. It was supposed to be one line for current sales/will call and one line for future sales, but no one knew what they were doing and people were just piling inside. Eventually both windows turned to current sales/will call and people were still lost and confused and belligerant. It is a SHOW. You have THIRTY MINUTES. Chill out, guys. They're not going to open the doors until twenty-of anyway! The guy behind us seemed convinced that they'd have to start the show late. I wanted to turn to him and say, "Dude, they do this for a living, you think they're not going to be done in time?" I was vindictively pleased when the show DID start on time.
Anyway. We were table to switch tickets with a minimum of fuss, and even better, they let us exchange them (paying the difference, of course) for Balcony seats. So I was pretty psyched. We went across the street to get Jamba Juice and were assaulted with free bags of popcorn, which I debated immediately consuming because I hadn't actually eaten all day. Whoops! Instead I put it in my purse and we walked back to the theatre.
The set was very 60s--it's Barnard's apartment and it's styled entirely with the three "colors" of his three fiancées.
We meet Bernard, an American architect living in Paris, and Gloria, an American stewardess with TWA. Bretha, his AWESOME housekeeper seems a little agitated and Bernard is shooing Gloria out of the apartment to catch her flight. Robert, a friend of Barnard's from school, shows up and Barnard introduces him to Gloria. Once Gloria leaves, Robert congratulates Barnard on getting married. Barnard assures Robert he's NOT getting married. He's engaged, yes, but in reality he's engaged to three different women. All three of his fiancées are stewardesses with different airlines and are thus in Paris at different times. They all think they're the only woman in his life and since they're on three different timetables, they never see each other.
Robert is dubious and asks what he would do if one of them got delayed and there were two in town at once. This, of course, sets up the premise for the show. Gabrielle, the Italian fiancée, has her flight canceled while Gretchen, the German fiancée, is supposed to be in town. The same storm causes Gloria's flight to turn around, and then all three of them are in the apartment, just missing each other, slamming doors, and driving Bernard and Robert mad as they try to keep everything and everyone straight.
To be honest, the show starts off a little slow. The first fifteen to twenty minutes are devoted to setting up the premise, with Bernard explaining everything to Robert and a lengthy opening breakfast scene with Gloria and Bernard. Once Gretchen arrives, the action picks up and really doesn't stop until the end. The end of the first act and start of the second act were especially zany and fun. Overall, the show was really fun. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and laughed my ass off and had a great time. It was kind of hilariously opposite to the way I thought the afternoon was going to go, seeing as how we were intended to see a four-hour, Pulitzer-Prize winning drama, but once I got myself into the right mindset it was awesome.
Brad Whitford plays Bernard, obviously, and he's fantastic. Off-the-wall when he has to be, great physical humor, and he was hilarious when he was going crazy.
Mark Rylance is Robert and oh my GOD, he totally deserved that Tony. He is AMAZING. He plays the straight man in a lot of scenes, but then sort of explodes and is just as crazy in others. Very versatile, great deadpan, great physicality, great facial expressions. He was just fabulous. I'm still a LITTLE bitter that he won it over Rufus Sewell, but, you know, I guess he deserved it XD
Christine Baranski is a goddess. Um, also, Bertha. But she was just fabulous, hilariously funny, great comic timing, amazing facial expressions. She was WONDERFUL.
Mary McCormack was my favourite of the three fiancées. She plays Gretchen, the German girl, and is OVER THE TOP. Completely over the top. It's AMAZING. I barely stopped laughing when she was on stage.
Kathryn Hahn played Gloria and was also very funny. Great facial expressions and physical gestures.
Gina Gershon played Gabriella and was sort of the straight-playing character. She had fewer completely insane scenes, but she played the part really well.
Yeah, so basically everyone was top-notch. Great, great performance all around.
After the show I sort of begged Steven to let us linger at stage door, something I haven't done without a purpose in awhile. I honestly didn't think anyone was going to come out. It was a matinee, which meant they had another show in just a few hours time. Imagine my SHOCK when Mary came out! I flailed a little and dragged Steven all the way down the barricade so we could get a picture. I was telling her about how much I liked IPS and S7 of TWW when Steven took a picture for me. PRETTY AWESOME. Um, wow. Pretty awesome, internet.
So, as I beat the shit out of Steven, tried to throw him into traffic, and broke up with him three times over the state of that picture, either Gina or Kathryn came out. I wasn't quite paying attention. BUT THEN BRADLEY CAME OUT. I pulled Steven down the barricade again (activity of the afternoon? Physically dragging Steven all over Manhattan.) and after Steven took a NICE picture, I talked to Brad briefly and basically told him that I grew up with TWW, that the first season aired my freshman year of high school and it ended right around the time I was about to graduate high school. The Sorkin years WERE my high school years and it was my touchstone and influenced my life incredibly and that it was really cool to get to meet him. And he was SO sweet and called ME sweet and thanked me and shook my hand and it was AWESOME OH MY GOD.
OH MAN, GUYS.
So, um, I basically freaked out and grabbed onto Steven and wouldn't let go for about three blocks. Eventually I calmed down enough for dinner, which was down on 9th and good, but a little skimpy on the portions. I really wanted to go to Batch, so Steven used his ~*iPhone Magic*~ to look up the location and we schlepped downtown. We both picked out some cupcakes and took them down to the pier to eat, where the gays were out in full force. If you look through my Facebook photos, you can see some of Steven's sparkling commentary on our location XD
After cupcakes and conversation we went back uptown and headed out separate ways. Overall, it was basically the best birthday present ever. THANK YOU STEVEN I LOVE YOU. Um, not that he'll probably be reading this, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Okay, now I have to go jump in the pool or take a cold shower. It's over 80 degrees in here again D: