Monday is the first day of the Annual Easter Bonnet Competition.
It is at 4:30 at the Minskoff Theater. Anybody else going? I am going on my own and was wondering if anyone wanted to meet up. I am going to sit in the $20 seats. Let me know if you want to go by replying here or sending me a PM.
This is the first time of any Gypsy of the Year or Easter Bonnet Competition that I'm able to actually go to the Tuesday show and see the winners! That's exciting, for some reason, my schedule in the past has only permitted me to go to the Monday shows.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
Bah, I would be going to this but someone else where I work already has the day off so I can't leave early as well. I went to the Gypsy of the Year last year and that was a lot of fun!
Haven't missed one since the basement of the Original in the basement of the PALACE during LA CAGE This is one of the great days of the years to see all your friends and co-Workers of shows you have worked on.
I thought the highlights included pieces by In the Heights ("Tradition"), Company (A Chorus Line), Mamma Mia! (in memory of Daniel McDonald), The Lion King (The End Starts Here), and Beauty and the Beast (a brief history of a closing show). I also thought that Ann Runolfsson (from Phantom) and her daughter (Little Cosette from Les Miz) singing "Anything You Can Do" was fun and classy and adorable, and Hairspray's "Small House of Edna Turnblad" was very well done. The opening number was not a great song, but the performances were great, featuring two of the cast members from Title of Show and Carla Hargrove singing.
The Hairspray skit was based on the skit performed in the show "King and I"...in "King and I", it was the story of Uncle Tom's cabin Thai-style.
I looooved the Journey's End skit; "Journey Boys". "We are the best reviewed play on Broadway...we have also the emptiest audience. It's very intimate, the 11 of us on stage, with 11 people in the audience. We have the same gross as Jersey Boys, who is listed above our show...the only difference is a 1 in the millions spot."
Then they did a hilarious rendition of Jersey Boys songs, with changed lyrics. Stark sang "Frankie's" part. "We are a straight play...with STRAIGHT actors!" Hilarious. The song also mentioned something about how maybe the play would sell better if Hugh Dancy did a shower scene, and we see Hugh Dancy rush out on stage wearing a towel around his waist & a shower cap on, and rushes off.
The Journey's End cast really had a great attitude. Loved loved their skit!!
Other faves; Color Purple "PRetty Ladies Who Lunch", "Company" (did a parody of Chorus Line), and "In the Heights", who did a rap version of Fiddler on the Roof "Tradition".
The Hairspray skit was basically a spoof of the Uncle Tom's Cabin bit from the King and I. Tracy's family and Penny were the "very happy people", Velma was the evil person, etc. They spiced it up though, it was pretty funny. The highlights for for me were the exact same ones as dancinfan said. Although, my two TOP favorites on the list were Company (A Chorus Line) and In the Heights (Tradition). I think Company will probably win best skit...it was absolutely hysterical! -BJH
The cast members are all in a line (aka Chorus Line), wearing 70's workout clothes, leg warmers, short shorts, etc. There’s a voice over the speakers, we presume he’s the casting director.
They start singing, I remember the cast members singing lines of “I hope I get it”. One by one, cast members step out of the line and say something. One of the girls step out and sing an adapted version of “???(I completely forgot what instrument was in her hand) and brass! T___ and brass!" Switching in between the two instruments, her last line was “I want to be a John Doyle’s *hore!”
The whole joke was “How many instruments do I have to play in order to get a role in John Doyle’s Company”…."He's not only looking for a triple threat, he's looking for a quadruple threat"
Angel Desai sang something about “Why must every Asian girl play the violin”. Another male cast member (I think he’s an understudy?) stepped out and said, “At band camp…I stuck my clarinet up my…”
Barbara Walsh steps out of the line and says “I’m leaving. I don’t play any instruments.” She dings the triangle (as only she can do!), as she makes her exit.
At the end of the skit…Barbara Walsh comes out with the Easter bonnet on her head (it was in the shape of an upside down tuba…is it a nod to Patti Lupone’s skills in Sweeney?) and ended the skit by facing the audience and saying, “Does anyone still wear a hat?”
