Profile for mike_ant

Didn't see a post on this, so I made one. Thoughts??

 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Uma-Thurman-to-Make-Broadway-Debut-in-HOUSE-OF-CARDS-Creators-THE-PARISIAN-WOMAN-20170712

Is it the first time that the highest gross is more than double the second highest gross? I don't think I've ever seen that much differences before.

A little anecdote. As I was leaving my seat, I overheard two ladies behind me complained, saying that "too much chatter ... who cares about her family" and "too much modern music"!!! I was this close to make snarky remarks back, but since I was in cloud nine and full of gratittude, I decided to let it go. It's just so disheartening to hear that. Kelli gave so much that night, and yet it was still not enough to some.

I usually manage to find even the slightest redeeming value of any productions, so out of respect to everyone performing, I never walk out of any productions during intermission. EXCEPT a single performance, SF Opera's "La Traviata" in 2014. The production was dull beyond belief, the singers was barely audible, the music dragged, and I was tired and not feeling well. The singers subsequently go to my black-list. 

I didn't see this reported before.

 

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/186049/the-illusionists-including-americas-got-talent-runners-up-the-clairvoyants-moves-to-the-palace-theatre/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/tonys-actor-roundtable-hamilton-star-898512

(That's the link for the full video for the actors. I can't seem to upload the video unfortunately)

Just had my tickets. I was #476 in the waiting room. Tickets were gone super quickly. Three times I had to select and reselect seats since someone else claimed them. I got Mezz Right second to last row for 125 each, plus 5 bucks facility fee and 13 bucks service fee. Orchestra all gone by now. Excited!!!

I bought a ticket for 4/17 performance yesterday, and the member price is indeed 80 bucks.

Intermission. Soooo good. It's extremely well done for a first preview. The cast is awesome! I got my doubts about Zachary Levy, but he sings very well. I love the staging and the dance scene  for "A Romantic Atmosphere" was a hoot!! Very charming show! I've never heard it or seen it before, so I can't make any comparison with previous cast/production. But I have so much fun so far! :)

I just saw it tonight, and I agree with you. I LOVE the first half, and can't help feeling that the play disintegrated towards the end. What was that all about? It's almost like the play has been re-written TWICE by two sets of different writers the second half, which I know certainly that was NOT the case. 

I'm still glad I saw it, for the two leads were AMAZING!! I just wish I knew how to interpret the second half.

I would produce my own play starring Meryl Streep and my own musical starring Hugh Jackman, both based on my own original ideas. (I can dream, can't I?)

You're in for a treat! I travel cross-country just to see performances at the Met, in fact, I was just there last weekend for "Lulu". It's one if the greatest opera houses in the world! 

As mentioned by others, try to get there early and soak in the ambience. There's always interesting exhibition at the lowest level. Yes, unfortunately the chandelier pre-show thing isn't done this season. 

For intermission, yes, get the (overpriced) champagne and mingle with the elites I actually quite like their sandwiches too. My favorite is the grilled chicken on croissant. 

A lot of people recommended the restaurant on the grand tier level, although I never tried it myself. I think the concession at the grand tier level sells coffee, but the one on orchestra level doesn't.

Anyway, have a great time!! I'll be back there in January myself! :)

Well, I love Audience Rewards program. Granted that I don't live in NYC, so my opportunity of using them is pretty limited to the weekend trips every other month. My rule of thumbs is that if the bonus points are 3000 or greater, then it's worthwhile to pay full price to get the bonus points. Otherwise, I just peruse the discount codes from BroadwayBox/TheaterMania/Playbill Club. 

I saw Musicals Tonight! Production of Gershwin’s “Oh, Kay!” yesterday afternoon at Theater Row, as part of my long weekend here in NYC. As I haven’t seen it mentioned at all here, I thought to put in a good word for it.

I came in with no expectation, thinking that it’ll be a poor man’s version of NYCC Encores! Boy, I couldn’t be more wrong! I came to see this as I read that this musical was re-packaged as “Nice Work If You Can Have It”, which I saw on Broadway few years ago. This turned out to be fully and beautifully staged, with multiple costume changes, sensible lighting, simple staging and awesome choreography. I was pleasantly surprised. It was theater at its best, where everything just seemed right. What a wonderful fun performance!

First of all, I was completely surprised but the extensive costume changes for this performance, much more than NYCC Encores! Performances (or 42nd Street Moon in SF). Like NYCC Encores, everyone held script folders (and one character was practically reading from it), but nobody used them while singing and dancing. The choreography was pretty extensive, and very nicely done. Another thing that surprised me was for such a tiny stage, the cast were huge! They were great ensemble. I didn’t see any mics at all, and from my second row seat, they sounded fine.

I was surprised with the score too. Yes, “Someone to Watch Over Me” was famous, but the rest of the score was pretty strong too. I may like it more than “Nice Work” score, actually.

All in all, it was amazing performance and I had such a great time. If you love Gershwin, run don’t walk to catch this. You only have 1 more week to see this!

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to spend a day at Williamstown Theatre Festival, watching "A Moon for the Misbegotten" for matinee and "Unknown Soldier" in the evening. Since I didn't see many discussions about the recent festival, I thought to share with you some of my impressions of both shows. With a prologue. 

Traveling to WTF

Since this was my first trip to Williamstown, I didn't really know what to expect. Well, I got quite a trip from hell, unfortunately. I booked Amtrak from Penn Station, leaving 10.20am and scheduled to reach Albany-Rensellaer 12.45pm, which I thought should be enough time to pick up my rental car from Albany airport and leisurely drove to WTF for a 3.30pm matinee. Unfortunately the train stopped for a long time in the woods, and the whole train was 1 hour late. Furthermore, the cab from the train station was a shared cab, although luckily I got dropped to airport first. So you could imagine how fast I drove to WTF. I got there, collected the ticket, and got seated in right before the door closed. 

"A Moon for the Misbegotten"




I've never seen this play. Audra's name basically sold me this show. But before I went there, the first thing that caught my attention when I sat was the beautiful stage. A perfect recreation of the country house, with a working well in front and a tree next to it and beautiful sky as backdrop. Glorious! The play began with Audra as Josie, bare-footed, in a rag clothes, bantering with her brother. From that moment on, this is definitely Audra's show. She was so captivating as Josie, brazen, bold, confident, sassy, and yes, Carmen-like slutty. There is no doubt that she isn't innocent (spoiler alert: to those that read the play, is she really supposed to be virgin?). I love the guy who played her father (I didn't have the cast list right now), perfectly cast as a crook that loved his daughter a lot. I think the interaction between him and Josie was dynamite, and the actors had great chemistry. The scene where father & daughter mocked the neighbor was absolutely funny and awesome! The other 2 actors were great in their parts. I left the one thing that I thought was a drawback in this performance: Will Swenson as Jim. I feel like it really needed a great character actor to bring out the role; he had to be a charming "asshole". Will acted well, but he was too much of a gentleman. In a play where everybody played a game of deceive and be deceived, you can't be too earnest. When he said that he wouldn't sell the ranch, you'd believe him right away. He's much improved in the 2nd act, where the chemistry with Audra made the romantic scenes very touching. All in all, still a great production that I was glad to catch it.

"Unknown Soldier"

I saw this pretty much blindly, just because I quite like Michael Friedman's work in "Fortress of Solitude" and Trip Cullman's direction of "Choir Boy". I didn't even look at the cast for it. I thought this is a story about lost soldier. Boy, how I was wrong. This was a super dense story about relationships, spanned over various decades. In fact, the soldier story IMO wasn't even the most interesting parts of the story. In 90 mins without intermission, this super intense musical felt kinda like a torrent of flood drowning your emotions. In that aspect, the awesome cast did an absolutely wonderful job navigating through the gigantic story. Yes, it did feel like too much at times. Michael Friedman's score was melancholy, with a number of memorable tunes, although my biggest problem with him was that IMO he tended to cut all his songs short, they almost felt unfinished songs and he already moved on to the next one. Personally, I found that was pretty annoying for my brain. It's like just right before my brain completely processed the songs (or when it starts to tell "hmmm this is a nice tune"), it abruptly moved to the next. I love Lauren Worsham's in Gentleman Guide, and I was pleasantly surprised to find her as Lucy here, down to the similar costumes. Although, she got more showier songs here, and she excelled. This is an ensemble cast, and pretty much everybody did great. The stage was pretty simple, a tad busy, but pretty effective. Derek Klena did well as the soldier, although he was kinda wasted here, didn't even have a full song (worse, he didn't even have a full sentence verses!). When all is said and done, I still think it's an achievement to mount this gigantic little musical, and I was glad to see it. I hope it'll find a life somewhere else after WTF, and I think Public Theater would be perfect for this!

Thank you all for the recommendations. I went with the majority and bought ticket for Significant Other. The fact that there is discount code for it sweetened the deal! Hopefully I'll enjoy it.

Susanswerphone, thanks for the best wishes!

Thanks again for all your help! :)

Hello All,

I loved both operas and musicals, and I travel far and away places to see both. One key distinction that hasn't been mentioned before is that in opera houses, the singers are singing unamplified, therefore they have to project their voice so they can be heard all the way to the back and the top of opera house. I believe this is what is often being referred to as "opera voices", and also the reason why the opera singers can't do 8 shows a week. For musicals, the singers are mostly amplified (or miked), so they don't have to project as far, and they can somehow "save" their voices for 8 shows a week. Of course, there are many examples of singers that can do both, Paulo Szot, for example. And there are many exception to that as well (for example, a singer that the voice is way too small for an opera house that he/she has to be (discretely) miked )

Well, for my next trip, I managed to score a ticket using Audience Rewards points + cash. 1000 points, plus $36 bucks, and I got center Orchestra seat. Not bad at all! They offer quite a number of days there... more than the usual Tue-Thu only.