Profile for Allen S Bishop

I was in town over the weekend for three shows, somewhat ironically, all previously movies: Moulin Rouge, Mean Girls, and Tootsie. Media and reviews determine expectations these days for most people and I admit I am not immune. So I had the lowest expectations for Tootsie even though I knew I was seeing a Tony award winning actor (whose star is on the rise). And it blew me away. Santino Fontana was EXCELLENT but the supporting cast was every bit as good. I haven't seen anything as funny since...

Saw MFL Saturday matinee on OCT 6th. Thought Lauren was wonderful. What a beautiful portrayal, strong, yet so much subtlety and restraint. I saw Katrina Lenk in TBV before the Tony's and was so mesmerized by that performance that I was rooting for her, but after seeing Lauren Saturday I would not have been surprised or disappointed if she had won. You could sense the entire audience falling in love with her. And I heard there was a "moment" at the end but I avoided spoilers. Wow, powerful, an...

I think it will be the opposite. I went because my son is a King Kong fan and it seemed there were a lot of folks similarly minded. People were MOST excited about the puppet and I think curiosity will drive attendance until the reviews come out. And they will be bad. They might be ALL-TIME bad. Then folks will realize that no matter how cool the puppet is, it's not worth the $. Tourists may keep it afloat until June and that will be it, mercifully. To each his own, but I think encouraging fol...

The show is about 2.5 hours. Hopefully, they will cut it down to 1.5, rewrite all the music, extract the uncomfortable Lumpy scenes, re-block the snake fight, change all the weird unnecessary dancing, drain the swamp people and cut out all the forced #metoo melodrama. Then, they'll have something.Maybe they should also think about giving Kong a song to "sing". I mean, it can't get any worse in my book. Or maybe just an hour and half of Kong running through the streets--that was neat.People we...

All I can say is YIKES, this one's an all-time stinker. Here are thoughts out of order:There is only one song in the entire show, Ann's second act solo, that's barely worthy of a Broadway stage. Can't remember the name, can't hum it even now. The song score is awful.The symphonic score is average, no better than bland action movie music.Carl climbed from SR to SL on some bungees as he sang a song in Act 1 for no reason. Lumpy climbed below him, for no apparent reason It was weird, and I felt ...

I am at Saturday night's intermission. Dumpster fire. It's not good, but people are loving it. The puppet reveal is pretty neat. All projection sets, but some of the projections are terrible. Music is unimaginative and messy. First act, One hour and 5 minutes and probably two songs too long. Don't see this show if you get seasick easily. I will share more after the show.

Pippin?

As I've mentioned before in other threads, I'm taking my 14 year old son on a weekend trip in just a few weeks. Our plan is to see all the shows we can (culture!) and fill in the gaps with sightseeing and food. We're in town from Friday to Monday which theoretically means we can see five shows, a theatrical marathon. We already have tickets to King Kong and Phantom of the Opera, his choices. This will be his first time in NYC.So for the other three slots I'm thinking Hamilton lottery and fail...

What's the in-person lottery looking like these days? My son wants to try on our upcoming trip in October. I figure if we don't win we could just head over to TKTS and pick up TPTGW or something else he will surely like.I won 10ish years ago when I was in Chicago for a business trip. I was by myself and just happened upon the theatre and walked in to inquire about a ticket for that night and they were 5 minutes away from the drawing so I entered. Maybe 75 people there, drew 10 names. Front ro...

Two years ago I took my oldest son, then an 8th grader, to NYC on a whim. Bought airline tickets the day before, hotwired a hotel, and showed up in the city without a plan hoping to experience as much theatre and history as possible. We bought all our tickets from TKTS--saw Phantom, Groundhog Day, The Play that Goes Wrong and School of Rock. Also, the Empire State Building, Central Park, 30 Rock and Radio City and a few other cool experiences-All in just over 48 hours. It was an awesome weeke...