Spamalot, Rent, Antony & Cleopatra... and fabulous friends!
I am home! Well, that was an exciting adventure... and one I absolutely cannot wait to repeat.
As usual with my trip reports, this one is long and detailed and much of that detail is probably of interest only to me. Quite a few pics (though none of Randy, in case that's what you're here for. Heh.)
Thursday April 10 & Friday April 11 -- Bus Ride from Hell, touristy stuff, and....Spamalot! Wheee!
I got to the bus terminal VERY early to sort out my "no travel on Sunday" ticket, right? So the (very rude) clerk gives me an upgrade and all should be fine. Right? Riiiight. I spent the next hour (since the bus was late) chatting to a slightly delusional gentleman who was certain that he was the first Ti-Cats mascot, the inventor of computer programming, and a traveling member of some Canadian world-class poker group for 7 years. Of course, he told me he had also spent 7 years living on the street and panhandling. I always enjoy someone with an active imagination.
When I got to Toronto, I had to switch buses. And the bus driver took one look at my ticket and told me it was wrong. I was all... [squeaky voice]...Okay?[/squeaky voice]. So I had to RUN inside to customer service... which was closed. I'm BANGING on the door and finally the woman appears behind me. I'm frantic that my bus is leaving and it's the last bus of the night, aaaand she's taking her time, lalala, "oh, it's okay, you have 7 minutes." GRRRRRR. End result: she gave me a hand-written re-issued ticket, done properly... but by then I was the last one to board and had to squish in beside someone. No window seat. *sigh* Luckily, a couple got off at the next stop and I grabbed their seat. I then spent the first 3 hours worried that I hadn't gotten my return ticket back, before realizing that she'd stapled it to the back of the other ticket. Oh.My.God.
Sleeping on a bus = not fun. I managed it a little... at one point at a rest stop I was SO out of it that the bus was loading with new passengers and I didn't even realize it. I had to sit up and share my seat. Poor people, waiting for me to wake up!
I was soooooo tired (14 hours on the bus) that I planned to go immediately to my hotel and (if my room was ready) go straight to a nap. But... it's NEW YORK CITY. I got outside and it's loud and vibrant and bright and people and OMG NEW YORK CITY. So yeah. I dropped my stuff in my room, got washed up and headed out!
I went first to Times Square (which is like, one block from my hotel) to buy some kitschy souvenirs for the family and friends. I actually had requests. LOL
Above: I walked around for a bit, then took the requisite random Times Square shot.
Above: And I saw the Naked Cowboy! I was very excited. :D
Above: A closer view of the Naked Cowboy.
Oh, and I stopped in to the McDonalds to get something to eat. I know, allll the restaurants there and I chose McDonalds. But you have to remember that I'd been on that bus longer than some of you have been alive, and all I'd had since 4pm the day before was a banana. STARVING I TELL YOU. McDonalds was fast.
After lunch I went over to the M&M store. It wasn't open when I was there in November 2006 for Gale. I was disappointed in the store. Do people actually buy M&M apparel? But the signage was VERY cool.
Above: M&M Store sign. It was animated and there were some times that it was quite psychedelic!
Above: Inside, Disco M&M!
So I wanted to do two things on this trip: go to Nirvana (aka "Bath and Body Works") and visit the Manhattan Mall. Well, despite washing up in the hotel I still felt like a giant sweatball -- it was GORGEOUS in New York on Friday, and even more so on Saturday -- so there was no way I was going to try on clothes. The Mall was out. But I had to go to Bath and Body Works.
Now, before I left home I had printed out a map on a piece of paper and I had marked on it where all the main things were that I needed to know (ie. hotel, Port Authority, B&BW, mall). Because I am SEVERELY geographically challenged, I figured I could just whip out my little paper and I'd be fine. Great plan.
Except that I left the paper in my hotel room.
*facepalm*
So I remembered that B&BW is on Lexington, and I knew it was by Grand Central Station, which I thought was on E42nd. So I figured, I'll just go to W42nd and walk. *nods* So I'm walking, checking out the sights, being a gawky tourist... and I realize I've passed 8th and am heading towards 9th. Yes, I walked in the wrong direction.
*facepalm*
I finally corrected myself and got to the store. YAY BATH AND BODY WORKS.
On the way there I passed Bryant Park, which was just lovely. I stopped for pics.
Above: Bryant Park
Above: Flowers in the park.
I wandered around Fifth Ave and that area before realizing that I was about to collapse from exhaustion. A nap was definitely required if I was going to be awake for Spamalot. So I headed back to the room and napped for 2 hours.
Above: This is me right before my nap. Hanging on to the doorjamb to stop from falling down? ;)
Spamalot
Above: Me heading out the door to Spamalot. And my hair co-operated. I love good hair days!
Above: Spam Signage. Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. *ahem*
So. The show is BRILLIANT.
The fun starts before the curtain even rises... because the programme is HILARIOUS. Then the show. The songs are great, the actors are amazing, their voices are fabulous. You spend at least 85% of the time just laughing so much. This show does exactly what "Dirty Dancing" didn't do! It takes the best parts of a very funny movie, adds in new bits, updates some of the music to make it relevant, and spoofs not only the King Arthur tale but the "broadway musical" story as well.
Highlights: "The Song That Goes Like This" which is a parody of that moment in every musical when the two star-crossed lovers sing to each other. Actually, every moment that the Lady of the Lake is on stage is just perfect. Hannah Waddingham is the name of the actress, and I am so overflowing with love for her. She's gorgeous, she's got an amazing voice, she clearly get the fun of the performance, and she had great comic timing. Her "Diva's Lament (What Happened to My Part?" in ACT II, when she comes onstage out of character and sings about how she loved the play in ACT I but now she's got nothing to do and is going to call her agent? Spectacular.
You know who else is spectacular? CLAY AIKEN. I am so excited and happy and proud that he does well in this, because so many people are all sneer-y when it comes to Clay, and the boy is GOOD. His voice sounds great (especially in his big number near the end when he really sings out, baby) but what impressed the hell out of me was his timing. There is one part where he is playing a guard (if you've seen the movie, it's when Prince Herbert's father is talking to the guards), and the laughs went on for so long that they kind of had to wait for it to die down. So while people are laughing Clay is totally in character and he's kind of staring into space and playing with the ribbons that hang from his weapon and because of that, people just kept laughing. It was SO GOOD. So proud of him!
I won't reveal the end of the play, but it's completely awesome and involves some audience participation. And then huge confetti bombs go off and the audience is showered in confetti. Wow, just great.
I had confetti all over me, so I picked some off and then... stopped to get some more off the floor. For scrapbooking. Um yes, people were looking at me funny, why do you ask?
(By the by, I picked a ton of confetti out of my hair when I got back to the hotel, then had a shower. Then I had another shower when I got up on Saturday morning. And when I met up with the girls on Saturday afternoon, I was still finding confetti!)
I made a quick stop at the little souvenir booth to get the Original Cast Recording and then I went outside. So I was inside the theatre for maybe 3 minutes after the show ended. And by the time I got outside, there were already about 100 people at the stage door.
I now know that I am definitely not a Claymate. I have seen the Claymates, and... wow. They make Randy fans look bored and apathetic. They clapped when the other actors came out, and believe me, these actors were AMAZING, each and every one. But not a single person asked for an autograph. They were all there for Clay. (The actor who played Prince Herbert/Not Dead Fred/The Historian walked right by me and I squeeed inside.) When Clay came out (heh), the place went ballistic and the flashbulbs went crazy. He went down the row and signed autographs for the people in the first row, but there were just too many to do more than that. People on the street were stopping to gawk at the fans, that is how loud and crazy they are. Seriously, Randy, be happy your fans are not Randymates. ;)
It had been a long day, so I took one final shot of the sign...
Above: Best Musical. Seriously.
...and then grabbed some pizza and pasta... okay, and chocolate cake!... to eat in my room. Finally got to bed at 1am. Whew!
Saturday April 12th: meeting the girls, Antony & Cleopatra, and RENT
I was soooo lucky on this trip to meet up with a bunch of fabulous women for lunch and an afternoon of theatre. Thank you shadownyc (Carolyn); pepino21786 (Cristina); mai_ling134 (Maureen); fansee (Nancy) and Sabina (sorry hon, I don't know your LJ name)... for enriching my trip and spending time with me. It was so wonderful to see old friends again and to meet up with some new ones. Thank you especially to Carolyn for organizing a lovely afternoon!
Carolyn met me outside the restaurant and we had spent ten minutes just chatting when her phone rang. It was Sabina -- who was standing 10 feet away from us the whole time but didn't know who we were! LOL When the rest of the ladies arrived we went inside to Juniors and had a great time eating and chatting up a storm.
Above: This was taken by the waiter using Maureen's camera, and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it here (I didn't have one taken with my camera). From the left: Cris, Nancy, Sabina, Maureen, me, and Carolyn. The waiter cleaned the table first, so that Juniors would have a good impression on film. LOL
After two hours of non-stop gabbing we headed over to the theatre for Antony & Cleopatra.
Above: I love signage.
Antony & Cleopatra
Really, this is a world of Not Good.
Afterward, I thought that maybe I Just Don't Like Shakespeare. Which I realize is almost blasphemy to some people. But I've seen one other Shakespeare play ("The Taming of the Shrew") and I loved it. Like "Antony & Cleopatra", it was a modernized version.
So. Maybe part of the problem was just the play itself. Melodrama. Heightened outrageous melodrama. Not my cup of tea, perhaps? The other problem was that I simply didn't think the two main male actors were very good. I think it takes incredible skill to deliver this language in a way that makes it credible and accessible to a modern audience. They -- Jeffrey Carlson, who played Octavius Caesar to a much lesser degree, but mostly Martin Csokas, who played Antony -- were simply not up to the task. At times in his longer monologues Csokas had an almost Captain-Kirk-like cadence. What was interesting is that the minor characters were quite good. I was particularly impressed with Christen Simon, who played Charmian and who delivered every line so naturally, and John Douglas Thompson, whose Enobarbus was captivating whenever he was onstage.
Unfortunately, whenever Antony came onstage the interest that I'd attained while watching the rest of the cast faltered, and I found myself getting bored or even worse, going places that the play did not intend for me to go. I mean, there's a BIG problem when it's Antony's big death scene and he's going "not dead... not dead..." and I flash back to the previous night's Spamalot -- "I am not yet dead, I can dance and I can sing..." *ahem*
Randy? Is on stage through a lot of the play, reacting to the action, but isn't really a factor in the plot. He gets to shimmy his shoulders and attempt to crawl on stage after a dancing girl, which was fun.
More Randy... and Enobarbus!
After the play, we were standing around in the hallway talking and waiting for Maureen to get out of the bathroom. And then... there is Randy. Two feet away, chatting to someone.
I got giddy. I'm sorry, it's what I do. Cris was talking to me, and I honestly have no idea what she was saying. RANDY WAS RIGHT THERE. Carolyn asked if I wanted an autograph, and I couldn't get my hands to work to actually hand over my Playbill (which was in my pocket), nor could I get my mouth to actually get out an entire sentence, because I'm sorry, that's what I do. I'm sorry if I embarassed anyone. Hopefully I was quiet. I have no idea. I don't want to be a fangirl, I JUST AM.
So anyway, Carolyn took her own program over to Randy and got his autograph for me. I LOVE CAROLYN.
Above: Randy Harrison.
Above: RANDY.HARRISON.
We eventually found Maureen out front of the theatre, where she'd gone to wait for us. She was chatting to a friend. :) While standing around trying to decide what to do, Enobarbus came out! So we got to chat with him, and I shook his hand, and I was totally fine and didn't embarrass myself even a little bit. He was super nice and so thankful that we stopped him to thank him for his wonderful performance. That was neat.
Then Cris, Carolyn, Sabina and I headed to the Marriott Hotel's fancy schmancy 8th floor lounge to chill for a while, and chat some more. What a lovely afternoon!
RENT
I left the girls and headed down the street to the Nederlander Theatre to see RENT.
Ahhh RENT. I was excited.
Above: RENT signage.
I... wasn't overly thrilled with it. I'M SORRY, RENTHEADS. I wanted to love it. I love the music. I love the film. I just thought on stage that it was entirely too frantic. There were times when the actors are singing different lines at the same time (Finale B, for example) where the whole thing was just garbled and loud and you couldn't actually hear any lyrics.
Mark and Mimi (who was played by the understudy that night) were phenomenal. Angel was good and sweet (and had a lovely voice) but he was no Wilson Jermaine Heredia. The guy playing Collins just didn't have much stage presence, and there wasn't any chemistry between him and Angel. Maureen was just horrible -- almost a non-presence. And Roger. Oh Roger. I think Declan Bennett has a really good voice. But he seemed to make the acting choice that Roger was just ANGRY. ALL THE TIME. Occasionally he SCREAMED his lyrics. There was just no nuance to his performance. As an example, when "One Song Glory" ended -- no one clapped, and that should be a show-stopper IMO. So I don't think I am alone in my assessment of him. Usually I find Mimi a very unsympathetic character, but seeing this Roger I really felt for Mimi (just probably not in the way I was supposed to.)
After the show they were selling tons of neat things to benefit "Broadway Cares". You could get your photo taken with Mark and Roger, autographed with a little frame, for $20. I briefly considered getting one of the candles/matches tied with ribbon, but that would just gather dust somewhere. So I made my donation in the bin (to one of the ensemble cast) and left.
Oh, but for those that have LOTS of money, they are having a silent auction with some very cool items. One of them is a walk-on part during the Life Support scene, which includes costume fitting and rehearsal, and four seats for family. How cool is that? Bidding for that one starts at $2500. I have the silent auction sheet and the info for all the other items, so if anybody is interested, let me know and I'll type it up.
Dinner that night was deli sandwich. Mmmmm. I finally got to bed around 1:30am and couldn't sleep. Too much excitement!
The bus ride home on Sunday was quite pleasant. I much prefer traveling during the day! We did have some excitement in Rochester when the Border Patrol came on to check the bus and found two illegal Mexicans (traveling separately). The lady was very upset and kept insisting that her husband was an American citizen and they "can't do this". The man only spoke Spanish so I don't know what he and the Border Guard were saying, but his little smile and his body language said "Ah well, I got caught, but I tried."
There did end up being another problem with my ticket. They had me going about 1.5 hours out of my way in order to get home! I ended up getting off the bus early and just took a cab the rest of the way. Well worth it to get home 2 hours earlier!
Thank you again to all the wonderful women who shared lunch and a theatre date with me. You all are fabulous! (ETA: And thank you to everyone who wished me a happy trip on my last post!)
... Now, to start planning the next trip...
As usual with my trip reports, this one is long and detailed and much of that detail is probably of interest only to me. Quite a few pics (though none of Randy, in case that's what you're here for. Heh.)
Thursday April 10 & Friday April 11 -- Bus Ride from Hell, touristy stuff, and....Spamalot! Wheee!
I got to the bus terminal VERY early to sort out my "no travel on Sunday" ticket, right? So the (very rude) clerk gives me an upgrade and all should be fine. Right? Riiiight. I spent the next hour (since the bus was late) chatting to a slightly delusional gentleman who was certain that he was the first Ti-Cats mascot, the inventor of computer programming, and a traveling member of some Canadian world-class poker group for 7 years. Of course, he told me he had also spent 7 years living on the street and panhandling. I always enjoy someone with an active imagination.
When I got to Toronto, I had to switch buses. And the bus driver took one look at my ticket and told me it was wrong. I was all... [squeaky voice]...Okay?[/squeaky voice]. So I had to RUN inside to customer service... which was closed. I'm BANGING on the door and finally the woman appears behind me. I'm frantic that my bus is leaving and it's the last bus of the night, aaaand she's taking her time, lalala, "oh, it's okay, you have 7 minutes." GRRRRRR. End result: she gave me a hand-written re-issued ticket, done properly... but by then I was the last one to board and had to squish in beside someone. No window seat. *sigh* Luckily, a couple got off at the next stop and I grabbed their seat. I then spent the first 3 hours worried that I hadn't gotten my return ticket back, before realizing that she'd stapled it to the back of the other ticket. Oh.My.God.
Sleeping on a bus = not fun. I managed it a little... at one point at a rest stop I was SO out of it that the bus was loading with new passengers and I didn't even realize it. I had to sit up and share my seat. Poor people, waiting for me to wake up!
I was soooooo tired (14 hours on the bus) that I planned to go immediately to my hotel and (if my room was ready) go straight to a nap. But... it's NEW YORK CITY. I got outside and it's loud and vibrant and bright and people and OMG NEW YORK CITY. So yeah. I dropped my stuff in my room, got washed up and headed out!
I went first to Times Square (which is like, one block from my hotel) to buy some kitschy souvenirs for the family and friends. I actually had requests. LOL
Above: I walked around for a bit, then took the requisite random Times Square shot.
Above: And I saw the Naked Cowboy! I was very excited. :D
Above: A closer view of the Naked Cowboy.
Oh, and I stopped in to the McDonalds to get something to eat. I know, allll the restaurants there and I chose McDonalds. But you have to remember that I'd been on that bus longer than some of you have been alive, and all I'd had since 4pm the day before was a banana. STARVING I TELL YOU. McDonalds was fast.
After lunch I went over to the M&M store. It wasn't open when I was there in November 2006 for Gale. I was disappointed in the store. Do people actually buy M&M apparel? But the signage was VERY cool.
Above: M&M Store sign. It was animated and there were some times that it was quite psychedelic!
Above: Inside, Disco M&M!
So I wanted to do two things on this trip: go to Nirvana (aka "Bath and Body Works") and visit the Manhattan Mall. Well, despite washing up in the hotel I still felt like a giant sweatball -- it was GORGEOUS in New York on Friday, and even more so on Saturday -- so there was no way I was going to try on clothes. The Mall was out. But I had to go to Bath and Body Works.
Now, before I left home I had printed out a map on a piece of paper and I had marked on it where all the main things were that I needed to know (ie. hotel, Port Authority, B&BW, mall). Because I am SEVERELY geographically challenged, I figured I could just whip out my little paper and I'd be fine. Great plan.
Except that I left the paper in my hotel room.
*facepalm*
So I remembered that B&BW is on Lexington, and I knew it was by Grand Central Station, which I thought was on E42nd. So I figured, I'll just go to W42nd and walk. *nods* So I'm walking, checking out the sights, being a gawky tourist... and I realize I've passed 8th and am heading towards 9th. Yes, I walked in the wrong direction.
*facepalm*
I finally corrected myself and got to the store. YAY BATH AND BODY WORKS.
On the way there I passed Bryant Park, which was just lovely. I stopped for pics.
Above: Bryant Park
Above: Flowers in the park.
I wandered around Fifth Ave and that area before realizing that I was about to collapse from exhaustion. A nap was definitely required if I was going to be awake for Spamalot. So I headed back to the room and napped for 2 hours.
Above: This is me right before my nap. Hanging on to the doorjamb to stop from falling down? ;)
Spamalot
Above: Me heading out the door to Spamalot. And my hair co-operated. I love good hair days!
Above: Spam Signage. Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. *ahem*
So. The show is BRILLIANT.
The fun starts before the curtain even rises... because the programme is HILARIOUS. Then the show. The songs are great, the actors are amazing, their voices are fabulous. You spend at least 85% of the time just laughing so much. This show does exactly what "Dirty Dancing" didn't do! It takes the best parts of a very funny movie, adds in new bits, updates some of the music to make it relevant, and spoofs not only the King Arthur tale but the "broadway musical" story as well.
Highlights: "The Song That Goes Like This" which is a parody of that moment in every musical when the two star-crossed lovers sing to each other. Actually, every moment that the Lady of the Lake is on stage is just perfect. Hannah Waddingham is the name of the actress, and I am so overflowing with love for her. She's gorgeous, she's got an amazing voice, she clearly get the fun of the performance, and she had great comic timing. Her "Diva's Lament (What Happened to My Part?" in ACT II, when she comes onstage out of character and sings about how she loved the play in ACT I but now she's got nothing to do and is going to call her agent? Spectacular.
You know who else is spectacular? CLAY AIKEN. I am so excited and happy and proud that he does well in this, because so many people are all sneer-y when it comes to Clay, and the boy is GOOD. His voice sounds great (especially in his big number near the end when he really sings out, baby) but what impressed the hell out of me was his timing. There is one part where he is playing a guard (if you've seen the movie, it's when Prince Herbert's father is talking to the guards), and the laughs went on for so long that they kind of had to wait for it to die down. So while people are laughing Clay is totally in character and he's kind of staring into space and playing with the ribbons that hang from his weapon and because of that, people just kept laughing. It was SO GOOD. So proud of him!
I won't reveal the end of the play, but it's completely awesome and involves some audience participation. And then huge confetti bombs go off and the audience is showered in confetti. Wow, just great.
I had confetti all over me, so I picked some off and then... stopped to get some more off the floor. For scrapbooking. Um yes, people were looking at me funny, why do you ask?
(By the by, I picked a ton of confetti out of my hair when I got back to the hotel, then had a shower. Then I had another shower when I got up on Saturday morning. And when I met up with the girls on Saturday afternoon, I was still finding confetti!)
I made a quick stop at the little souvenir booth to get the Original Cast Recording and then I went outside. So I was inside the theatre for maybe 3 minutes after the show ended. And by the time I got outside, there were already about 100 people at the stage door.
I now know that I am definitely not a Claymate. I have seen the Claymates, and... wow. They make Randy fans look bored and apathetic. They clapped when the other actors came out, and believe me, these actors were AMAZING, each and every one. But not a single person asked for an autograph. They were all there for Clay. (The actor who played Prince Herbert/Not Dead Fred/The Historian walked right by me and I squeeed inside.) When Clay came out (heh), the place went ballistic and the flashbulbs went crazy. He went down the row and signed autographs for the people in the first row, but there were just too many to do more than that. People on the street were stopping to gawk at the fans, that is how loud and crazy they are. Seriously, Randy, be happy your fans are not Randymates. ;)
It had been a long day, so I took one final shot of the sign...
Above: Best Musical. Seriously.
...and then grabbed some pizza and pasta... okay, and chocolate cake!... to eat in my room. Finally got to bed at 1am. Whew!
Saturday April 12th: meeting the girls, Antony & Cleopatra, and RENT
I was soooo lucky on this trip to meet up with a bunch of fabulous women for lunch and an afternoon of theatre. Thank you shadownyc (Carolyn); pepino21786 (Cristina); mai_ling134 (Maureen); fansee (Nancy) and Sabina (sorry hon, I don't know your LJ name)... for enriching my trip and spending time with me. It was so wonderful to see old friends again and to meet up with some new ones. Thank you especially to Carolyn for organizing a lovely afternoon!
Carolyn met me outside the restaurant and we had spent ten minutes just chatting when her phone rang. It was Sabina -- who was standing 10 feet away from us the whole time but didn't know who we were! LOL When the rest of the ladies arrived we went inside to Juniors and had a great time eating and chatting up a storm.
Above: This was taken by the waiter using Maureen's camera, and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it here (I didn't have one taken with my camera). From the left: Cris, Nancy, Sabina, Maureen, me, and Carolyn. The waiter cleaned the table first, so that Juniors would have a good impression on film. LOL
After two hours of non-stop gabbing we headed over to the theatre for Antony & Cleopatra.
Above: I love signage.
Antony & Cleopatra
Really, this is a world of Not Good.
Afterward, I thought that maybe I Just Don't Like Shakespeare. Which I realize is almost blasphemy to some people. But I've seen one other Shakespeare play ("The Taming of the Shrew") and I loved it. Like "Antony & Cleopatra", it was a modernized version.
So. Maybe part of the problem was just the play itself. Melodrama. Heightened outrageous melodrama. Not my cup of tea, perhaps? The other problem was that I simply didn't think the two main male actors were very good. I think it takes incredible skill to deliver this language in a way that makes it credible and accessible to a modern audience. They -- Jeffrey Carlson, who played Octavius Caesar to a much lesser degree, but mostly Martin Csokas, who played Antony -- were simply not up to the task. At times in his longer monologues Csokas had an almost Captain-Kirk-like cadence. What was interesting is that the minor characters were quite good. I was particularly impressed with Christen Simon, who played Charmian and who delivered every line so naturally, and John Douglas Thompson, whose Enobarbus was captivating whenever he was onstage.
Unfortunately, whenever Antony came onstage the interest that I'd attained while watching the rest of the cast faltered, and I found myself getting bored or even worse, going places that the play did not intend for me to go. I mean, there's a BIG problem when it's Antony's big death scene and he's going "not dead... not dead..." and I flash back to the previous night's Spamalot -- "I am not yet dead, I can dance and I can sing..." *ahem*
Randy? Is on stage through a lot of the play, reacting to the action, but isn't really a factor in the plot. He gets to shimmy his shoulders and attempt to crawl on stage after a dancing girl, which was fun.
More Randy... and Enobarbus!
After the play, we were standing around in the hallway talking and waiting for Maureen to get out of the bathroom. And then... there is Randy. Two feet away, chatting to someone.
I got giddy. I'm sorry, it's what I do. Cris was talking to me, and I honestly have no idea what she was saying. RANDY WAS RIGHT THERE. Carolyn asked if I wanted an autograph, and I couldn't get my hands to work to actually hand over my Playbill (which was in my pocket), nor could I get my mouth to actually get out an entire sentence, because I'm sorry, that's what I do. I'm sorry if I embarassed anyone. Hopefully I was quiet. I have no idea. I don't want to be a fangirl, I JUST AM.
So anyway, Carolyn took her own program over to Randy and got his autograph for me. I LOVE CAROLYN.
Above: Randy Harrison.
Above: RANDY.HARRISON.
We eventually found Maureen out front of the theatre, where she'd gone to wait for us. She was chatting to a friend. :) While standing around trying to decide what to do, Enobarbus came out! So we got to chat with him, and I shook his hand, and I was totally fine and didn't embarrass myself even a little bit. He was super nice and so thankful that we stopped him to thank him for his wonderful performance. That was neat.
Then Cris, Carolyn, Sabina and I headed to the Marriott Hotel's fancy schmancy 8th floor lounge to chill for a while, and chat some more. What a lovely afternoon!
RENT
I left the girls and headed down the street to the Nederlander Theatre to see RENT.
Ahhh RENT. I was excited.
Above: RENT signage.
I... wasn't overly thrilled with it. I'M SORRY, RENTHEADS. I wanted to love it. I love the music. I love the film. I just thought on stage that it was entirely too frantic. There were times when the actors are singing different lines at the same time (Finale B, for example) where the whole thing was just garbled and loud and you couldn't actually hear any lyrics.
Mark and Mimi (who was played by the understudy that night) were phenomenal. Angel was good and sweet (and had a lovely voice) but he was no Wilson Jermaine Heredia. The guy playing Collins just didn't have much stage presence, and there wasn't any chemistry between him and Angel. Maureen was just horrible -- almost a non-presence. And Roger. Oh Roger. I think Declan Bennett has a really good voice. But he seemed to make the acting choice that Roger was just ANGRY. ALL THE TIME. Occasionally he SCREAMED his lyrics. There was just no nuance to his performance. As an example, when "One Song Glory" ended -- no one clapped, and that should be a show-stopper IMO. So I don't think I am alone in my assessment of him. Usually I find Mimi a very unsympathetic character, but seeing this Roger I really felt for Mimi (just probably not in the way I was supposed to.)
After the show they were selling tons of neat things to benefit "Broadway Cares". You could get your photo taken with Mark and Roger, autographed with a little frame, for $20. I briefly considered getting one of the candles/matches tied with ribbon, but that would just gather dust somewhere. So I made my donation in the bin (to one of the ensemble cast) and left.
Oh, but for those that have LOTS of money, they are having a silent auction with some very cool items. One of them is a walk-on part during the Life Support scene, which includes costume fitting and rehearsal, and four seats for family. How cool is that? Bidding for that one starts at $2500. I have the silent auction sheet and the info for all the other items, so if anybody is interested, let me know and I'll type it up.
Dinner that night was deli sandwich. Mmmmm. I finally got to bed around 1:30am and couldn't sleep. Too much excitement!
The bus ride home on Sunday was quite pleasant. I much prefer traveling during the day! We did have some excitement in Rochester when the Border Patrol came on to check the bus and found two illegal Mexicans (traveling separately). The lady was very upset and kept insisting that her husband was an American citizen and they "can't do this". The man only spoke Spanish so I don't know what he and the Border Guard were saying, but his little smile and his body language said "Ah well, I got caught, but I tried."
There did end up being another problem with my ticket. They had me going about 1.5 hours out of my way in order to get home! I ended up getting off the bus early and just took a cab the rest of the way. Well worth it to get home 2 hours earlier!
Thank you again to all the wonderful women who shared lunch and a theatre date with me. You all are fabulous! (ETA: And thank you to everyone who wished me a happy trip on my last post!)
... Now, to start planning the next trip...