I'm sure most of you know the setlist by now, so I'll just focus on the general experience. The theater was crawling with lots of young teenagers, and surprisingly enough, a lot of really young kids. There are a few funny stories about these kids and their parents, but those are Jenna's to tell. Anyway, my theory is that some of these parents have season tickets to this theater (I noticed they were putting on a family-friendly Narnia show in a few weeks) and bring their families to pretty much anything that comes to town.
Vocally, Adam sounded absolutely great - his voice was very clear-sounding and soared all night. I thought he would have benefited from them turning up his microphone a bit; he could definitely be heard well, but I didn't feel like his voice filled the theater like it could have. The show was completely sold out, save for maybe a few seats in the balcony section (not even sure if those were for sale, though). He wore that long-sleeve black shirt with a pattern (it sparkles in person!) and tight jeans. Yes, Emcee and I noticed.
He started with Beautiful Song and then went into See Me Shining, after doing his usual "how I met Larry" story. Said that he wanted to write a song for his wife for years and Larry helped him make it so it wasn't "cheesy." He also went on this slight tangent about how "heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, any sex" in steam rooms is awful... way to beg the question if you've had gay sex in a steam room at some point, Adam, but okay. Considering how flamboyant he acted at certain points during the show, I wouldn't be too surprised, but moving on...
Maybe This Time and Maria followed, with him telling the stories about how he truly enjoyed his work with Cabaret ("I got to stand in this beautiful pool of blue light...") and talking about his dislike of West Side Story (and mentioned that caused some anger in one particular audience member in the fall).
He then played A Single Drop of You and The World Cannot Wait. They've apparently added bass to the latter, which sounded great. When he announced the title of The World Cannot Wait, someone shouted "for what?" which caused everyone, including Adam, to chuckle a bit. Speaking of the crowd... they were certainly, uh, unique. I wouldn't even say obnoxiously screamy; there were a lot of people there yelling "I love you!" constantly between every song. First, he joked around by saying, "okay, so who loves me more?", but he eventually playfully told everyone to shut up so he could talk. At some point, some girl said "I'll give you another child!", and he said something like, "Are you twelve?" He then said he has two kids and doesn't want more, because they're a pain in the ass.
When Larry was getting ready to play Love Will Always Come Back, there were a lot of "I love you" screams for him as well. Adam was like, "aw, he's blushing!", and Larry actually did have to take another drink of water before he started the song. At some point, someone said that she loved Larry more than Adam, to which Adam said, "Well, I love Larry more than I love you!" After the song, someone yelled "we want Roger!", and Adam kindly informed her that Roger wasn't exactly real.
They then played Just Like (As?) I Am, which Adam said is about finding someone to put up with your bullsh*t and finding someone to accept you the way you are - "would you want to be with you?" After that, he played Book of Endings, prefacing it with the story about how "less stable" fans thought they had some sort of friendship with him after seeing him in a show various times. He then introduced I'm With You, mentioning that his kids actually aren't a pain in the ass - "they're the best." Aw.
This Life (a new song) closed the set. I thought it was gorgeous musically - recordings don't really do it justice because Adam and Larry harmonize on the chorus, and it's hard to pick up on that on a video. Adam started the song a few steps away from the microphone and stepped closer to it by the end of the song. The chorus was hard to understand even live, but it included something like, "each time we walk hand in hand in this life, this is the song I'll be singing when I'm a part of you." I don't know if it's technically considered a part of This Life, but Larry then segued into Moonlight Sonata, and eventually they played Eclipse by Pink Floyd. The entire performance of This Life had an epic feel to it.
There wasn't a set Q&A or meet and greet after the show, and the theater people eventually kicked us out of the theater and even the lobby. Honestly, it was absolutely freezing outside - I didn't mind too much because I was there with friends, but I literally could not feel my toes after a few minutes. As a woman was locking up the theater, I asked her if Adam was still there ("you're waiting in vain," - "no, you're lying" - "okay, he's inside changing"), and she finally told me where the stagedoor was. We headed over there after realizing that we'd be waiting on the wrong side of the building for about an hour. I talked to the stagedoor attendant for a bit saying that it wouldn't kill him to sign autographs for the small crowd that was there (of course, as I said it, quite a few more people arrived), to which the attendant replied, "would you want to deal with this every night?" No, I wouldn't, but I also would never choose to be an entertainer. At any rate, Adam eventually came out and was very sweet to everyone. He said that it was cold and if people could take pictures of him rather than with him that would be great but of course some people (Emcee and me included) managed to get pictures with him anyway. He FINALLY signed our Chess posters, so we can stop carrying those everywhere.
I don't think there was a lot of interesting stagedoor conversation, mainly because he was trying to sign autographs for as many people as possible and was distracted. Someone said something like, "I've noticed many of your roles require cross-dressing, like the Emcee in Cabaret, and you mentioned that you wanted to be in Hedwig. Do you have a little secret you want to share with us?" I personally don't think that having one role that required cross-dressing really qualifies as "many roles," but okay. Anyway, Adam seemed fine with the question... I don't remember exactly what he said (does anyone else?), but I do remember him seeming really firm in saying that he doesn't have a "little secret." Someone asked him what shows he'd come back to Broadway for (out of the shows that are currently playing), and he said Chicago. I can't imagine they'd exactly turn him down for the role of Billy Flynn if he were to approach them asking for it, but I also wonder if he'd really uproot his entire family again. Perhaps he'd do a limited engagement sometime in the future. When he was singing our Chess posters, he mentioned really enthusiastically that he'd definitely come back to Broadway to be in Chess, should it ever be revived. He said he loved it and had a lot of fun in the concert.
If anyone has any questions, let me know. Most of my pictures didn't turn out because my flash isn't very strong and I wasn't sitting extremely close to the stage, but I'll try to post some soon anyway.
Updated On: 8/26/07 at 10:36 AM
Props to all of you who had the stamina. 
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