Theatre
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Theatre
Hey, who else likes to go see lots and lots of plays?
My mom was in town this weekend, so we saw three shows in two days. (Plus a concert of mostly showtunes the night before.) It was awesome!
Saturday afternoon we saw Follies with Bernadette Peters, and it was basically the greatest thing I've ever seen. Bernadette Peters gave exactly the performance you'd expect--she did the whole crying-while-singing thing she does so well--and it was awesome. But of course the musical is brilliant and the whole production was just phenomenal.
Saturday night we saw Private Lives, with the very handsome Paul Gross and the surprisingly effective Kim Catrall. I loved it, but there wasn't anything all that remarkable about it, it was just Noel Coward done very well.
This afternoon, on the recommendation of the TKTS staff, we saw Stick Fly. It was really good. I personally thought the text could have used another workshop or two to tighten it up, but everyone else loved it. Our only big complaint: Dule Hill was fully clothed for the entire thing, and that was a damn shame.
My mom was in town this weekend, so we saw three shows in two days. (Plus a concert of mostly showtunes the night before.) It was awesome!
Saturday afternoon we saw Follies with Bernadette Peters, and it was basically the greatest thing I've ever seen. Bernadette Peters gave exactly the performance you'd expect--she did the whole crying-while-singing thing she does so well--and it was awesome. But of course the musical is brilliant and the whole production was just phenomenal.
Saturday night we saw Private Lives, with the very handsome Paul Gross and the surprisingly effective Kim Catrall. I loved it, but there wasn't anything all that remarkable about it, it was just Noel Coward done very well.
This afternoon, on the recommendation of the TKTS staff, we saw Stick Fly. It was really good. I personally thought the text could have used another workshop or two to tighten it up, but everyone else loved it. Our only big complaint: Dule Hill was fully clothed for the entire thing, and that was a damn shame.
harvey the penguin- Posts : 123
Join date : 2011-10-21
Re: Theatre
I recently saw David Mamet's Race, which opened in SF a few weeks ago (and just wrapped up, it seems). I really don't like Mamet, but thought Race was well done. The ending was abrupt and unearned, in my opinion, but otherwise the writing was pretty amazing and Anthony Fusco (an ACT company actor, I think) was phenomenal. Chris Butler was great too.
I don't go to the theater often, but I've generally had good experiences. I don't know why I don't go more!
I don't go to the theater often, but I've generally had good experiences. I don't know why I don't go more!
Auroura76- Posts : 118
Join date : 2011-10-24
Re: Theatre
Auroura76 wrote:I recently saw David Mamet's Race, which opened in SF a few weeks ago (and just wrapped up, it seems). I really don't like Mamet, but thought Race was well done. The ending was abrupt and unearned, in my opinion, but otherwise the writing was pretty amazing and Anthony Fusco (an ACT company actor, I think) was phenomenal. Chris Butler was great too.
I don't go to the theater often, but I've generally had good experiences. I don't know why I don't go more!
What did you think of Kevin O'Rourke's performance in Race?
maxell131313- Posts : 599
Join date : 2011-10-21
Re: Theatre
Should I buy house, or spend all the money seeing these guys on stage over the next year?
epudom- Posts : 222
Join date : 2011-10-22
Re: Theatre
epudom wrote:Should I buy house, or spend all the money seeing these guys on stage over the next year?
Wow, what a lineup of actors and plays. It's worth spending for it.
Morning Angel- Posts : 477
Join date : 2011-10-24
Re: Theatre
Guys. Guys, guys, guys.
LOOK AT THIS.
It is a bunch of productions of Shakespeare's plays, free, from around the world.
The website itself has a lot of artistic work in general, and it's all free. According to their about page it all might only be up until the end of October, but it's a really cool collection of performances.
LOOK AT THIS.
It is a bunch of productions of Shakespeare's plays, free, from around the world.
The website itself has a lot of artistic work in general, and it's all free. According to their about page it all might only be up until the end of October, but it's a really cool collection of performances.
Rhilin- Posts : 124
Join date : 2011-10-22
Re: Theatre
So, The Book Of Mormon has finally made it to the London stage, and I saw it last night on the second night of previews. I laughed, I snorted, I giggled and left the theatre having thoroughly enjoyed myself. Considering how popular it is proving to be, I'm mostly smug that I didn't faff around, and got a ticket as soon as I could.
Next month, I'll be seeing Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw on stage together. It's going to take some willpower to not rush the stage.
Next month, I'll be seeing Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw on stage together. It's going to take some willpower to not rush the stage.
epudom- Posts : 222
Join date : 2011-10-22
Re: Theatre
We saw The Book of Mormon last weekend too (the US tour stop in Minneapolis) - it was as awesome as I hoped it would be. Since then, I've been watching all sorts of Youtube clips from the Tonys and other live performances to tide me over until the soundtrack arrives, because I keep finding myself thinking, "Hmm, maybe I'll just pop in the DVD!" And then being sad that I can't see it again anytime soon.
Carrie Ann- Posts : 1232
Join date : 2011-10-23
Age : 43
Location : Minneapolis, MN
Re: Theatre
Luckily I could buy the CD at the theatre (which I did before I even got to my seat) and as soon as I got in last night, I put it on my phone, so have been listening to it on a loop for about 10 hours.
epudom- Posts : 222
Join date : 2011-10-22
Re: Theatre
So Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are doing Waiting for Godot on Broadway this fall. They are also doing No Man's Land (which I don't know).
!!!
!!!
Matinee- Posts : 523
Join date : 2011-10-25
Re: Theatre
Matinee!!! Thank you for posting this! Just scored tickets and am a hero to both my son (Godot fan) and husband (Picard/Gandalf fan).
naughty zoot- Posts : 1103
Join date : 2011-10-21
Location : Western Mass
Re: Theatre
Yay!!
I'm planning on Godot myself - just have to figure out a day we can reasonably make it work!
I'm planning on Godot myself - just have to figure out a day we can reasonably make it work!
Matinee- Posts : 523
Join date : 2011-10-25
Re: Theatre
We went to see All the Way today in Boston, with Bryan Cranston as LBJ*. It was really, really wonderful. The whole cast is really good - the guy they got to play MLK sounded JUST like him. It was uncanny. I think the whole run is sold out, but if anyone local can track down tickets, I highly recommend it.
(*Bonus - Michael McKean as J. Edgar Hoover!)
(*Bonus - Michael McKean as J. Edgar Hoover!)
mokey75- Posts : 1289
Join date : 2011-10-21
Re: Theatre
I LOVE going to the theater. One of the best vacations I can remember was my mom and I getting a room in NYC (we're from Jersey) for a few days, hitting the half price ticket line and seeing a show or two a day.
The last show I was was the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. I took my mom as a graduation present for her and my sister, aunt, and cousins all came, too. It was amazing! The transformations of the costumes (from her Cinderella dress to the ball gown and back again) were wonderful to watch and Harriet Harris was hilarious as the wicked stepmother.
I saw The Book of Mormon about a year ago in New York and I still randomly giggle when I think of "I am Africa! Just like Bono, I am Africa!"
I've been thinking about going to see the new production of The Glass Menagerie, but I'm not sure. I'm finding Quinto a little irritating at the moment, and I don't know if that would change the way I saw the play.
The last show I was was the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. I took my mom as a graduation present for her and my sister, aunt, and cousins all came, too. It was amazing! The transformations of the costumes (from her Cinderella dress to the ball gown and back again) were wonderful to watch and Harriet Harris was hilarious as the wicked stepmother.
I saw The Book of Mormon about a year ago in New York and I still randomly giggle when I think of "I am Africa! Just like Bono, I am Africa!"
I've been thinking about going to see the new production of The Glass Menagerie, but I'm not sure. I'm finding Quinto a little irritating at the moment, and I don't know if that would change the way I saw the play.
BrightEyes- Posts : 262
Join date : 2011-10-23
Re: Theatre
Alcide's playing Stanley Kowalski in New Haven. Wish I'd known earlier because I totally would rather have gone to see that instead of shopping at IKEA to kill time while my son was at a concert.
naughty zoot- Posts : 1103
Join date : 2011-10-21
Location : Western Mass
Re: Theatre
I saw All the Way last night and I actually thought it was pretty disappointing, though I was glad I saw it and only partly because Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt were in the audience.
choubetcha- Posts : 338
Join date : 2011-10-25
Re: Theatre
Hey, I saw it too! You mean in Cambridge? JON HAMM WAS THERE??!? Damn it! I was idiotically looking for Bryan Cranston EVEN THOUGH BRYAN CRANSTON WAS OBVIOUSLY NOT IN THE AUDIENCE BECAUSE HE WAS IN THE PLAY.
I liked it! I don't see a ton of theater, though. I was trying to remember the last play I saw that wasn't a musical and I truly cannot remember. I did get a little sleepy by the end, but I mostly chalked that up to me not being a big politics person. It held my interest longer than I would have expected. I thought B-Cranst was pretty fabulous. And I was happy to have the opportunity to give him a standing ovation, which I suspect was at least as much for Breaking Bad as for the play.
I liked it! I don't see a ton of theater, though. I was trying to remember the last play I saw that wasn't a musical and I truly cannot remember. I did get a little sleepy by the end, but I mostly chalked that up to me not being a big politics person. It held my interest longer than I would have expected. I thought B-Cranst was pretty fabulous. And I was happy to have the opportunity to give him a standing ovation, which I suspect was at least as much for Breaking Bad as for the play.
Instant Monkeys- Posts : 1783
Join date : 2011-10-21
Re: Theatre
Yes! You were there last night, too? So funny! He was the last person in before the play started and he ducked out right at the start of intermission so I figured he was trying to avoid being seen but then he and his girlfriend actually came back and sat down with some time to go before the second half started. I'm surprised I even noticed him but I saw someone pass by down front right before it started who was all beard and scally cap and then realized who he was.
I really wanted to love the play but I thought it seemed kind of like a very long, disjointed recitation of Stuff that Happened. I did think Cranston was great in what seemed like a really demanding role, but I never felt like all the parts came together. Maybe I had impossible standards since I am a total history nerd plus Cranston plus the ART. I was glad, like you (and most of the audience probably!), that I got to applaud Cranston on the night before the BB finale.
Reading back a page, I wonder what the total percentage of Boston-area snarkers who attend this play will be! 90%?
I really wanted to love the play but I thought it seemed kind of like a very long, disjointed recitation of Stuff that Happened. I did think Cranston was great in what seemed like a really demanding role, but I never felt like all the parts came together. Maybe I had impossible standards since I am a total history nerd plus Cranston plus the ART. I was glad, like you (and most of the audience probably!), that I got to applaud Cranston on the night before the BB finale.
Reading back a page, I wonder what the total percentage of Boston-area snarkers who attend this play will be! 90%?
choubetcha- Posts : 338
Join date : 2011-10-25
Re: Theatre
I was! I am way too disorganized to get tickets, but my sister and her boyfriend did, but then my sister had some kind of dance retreat so I went instead. (Woo-hoo!)
I have to admit, after the excitement had worn off, I DID have a similar thought: that it was basically just What Happened without any particular angle. It did literally end with "And then I became president, yay!" *fade to black* I also had a bit of an eight-year-old-boy-esque fascination with the set and (look, I told you I haven't seen a lot of non-musical theater) how all the parts went up and down. IT WAS COOL. And I perhaps was more impressed by that than I should have been. Anyway, I completely see what you mean, and I probably have the opposite perspective in that I never see theater and have great holes in my history knowledge (I knew the basics of that period of history but seeing it dramatized certainly gave me a much deeper level of understanding of it and all the compromises, deals, heartbreak etc.) (as well as reaffirming my belief that politics is stupid and there's got to be a better way and humans are too dumb and petty to govern themselves and we need some benevolent alien overlords). But I still enjoyed it a lot. But it really was very long. And, in that part near the end where the beds were on stage, I really could not stop looking at the beds because I was very tired.
I also enjoyed getting to say to my sister's BF: "You know that first-season episode of Star Trek: TNG where there was this big conspiracy where a bunch of Starfleet people got taken over by these mind-controlling bug things and Riker had to eat some worms out of a bowl and there was this one guy and he turned out to be like the mothership of all the bugs and a bunch of them all crawled up and went into his mouth and they were crawling all over him and he said "we seek peaceful coexistence" and then Picard and Riker shot him and his head exploded and this monster alien came out of his torso? Well, that guy wrote this play."
I have to admit, after the excitement had worn off, I DID have a similar thought: that it was basically just What Happened without any particular angle. It did literally end with "And then I became president, yay!" *fade to black* I also had a bit of an eight-year-old-boy-esque fascination with the set and (look, I told you I haven't seen a lot of non-musical theater) how all the parts went up and down. IT WAS COOL. And I perhaps was more impressed by that than I should have been. Anyway, I completely see what you mean, and I probably have the opposite perspective in that I never see theater and have great holes in my history knowledge (I knew the basics of that period of history but seeing it dramatized certainly gave me a much deeper level of understanding of it and all the compromises, deals, heartbreak etc.) (as well as reaffirming my belief that politics is stupid and there's got to be a better way and humans are too dumb and petty to govern themselves and we need some benevolent alien overlords). But I still enjoyed it a lot. But it really was very long. And, in that part near the end where the beds were on stage, I really could not stop looking at the beds because I was very tired.
I also enjoyed getting to say to my sister's BF: "You know that first-season episode of Star Trek: TNG where there was this big conspiracy where a bunch of Starfleet people got taken over by these mind-controlling bug things and Riker had to eat some worms out of a bowl and there was this one guy and he turned out to be like the mothership of all the bugs and a bunch of them all crawled up and went into his mouth and they were crawling all over him and he said "we seek peaceful coexistence" and then Picard and Riker shot him and his head exploded and this monster alien came out of his torso? Well, that guy wrote this play."
Instant Monkeys- Posts : 1783
Join date : 2011-10-21
Re: Theatre
Coneycat wrote:That's a good point: it will be interesting to see Richard played by an actor who's close to the age of the historical figure. It's sometimes hard to remember he was only thirty-two when he died.
I read "A Sunne in Spendour" and a bunch of other War of the Roses novels before I read Shakespeare and saw a lot of the adaptations, so it's been really weird for me to see Edward and Richard not only played older, but like way way older, especially in the case of Edward. But yeah, that's a good point, that Cumberbatch will be closer to Richard's actual age.
I'm also looking forward to next tetraology, mostly because out of the four plays, the only one I have any experience with is Richard III which I've seen a couple of times. I know people complain about casting Benedict Cumberbatch because they feel he's overexposed, but he is REALLY good actor. It's not really his fault that he sort of exploded all at once and started getting offered a lot of parts. He's an interesting choice for Richard if only because he's on the younger side.
Well, that's good, although to be honest I hope he dyes his hair darker cause I think his natural sandy hair color looks so bad on him. :/ I'm shallow! I honestly haven't seen the guy in much . . . I saw him in an episode of Sherlock and some other thriller mini series he was in before that. I didn't see enough of him to get an impression.
Honestly, so far, my favorite performance of Richard has been the guy who reads it on the LibriVox recording, heh. He's great!
ulkis- Posts : 763
Join date : 2011-11-05
Re: Theatre
I go on Ricardian kicks every four or five years and reread A Sunne in Splendour and the biography by Paul Kendall. He's just such an interesting historical figure. I was all excited to see his portrait when I visited London last year! (I lost my copy of The Daughter of Time some years ago, and should look for another.)
I think Cumberbatch is going to be killer, because he is a terrific actor and also because he has a sly humour about him that should work for the character. That was what I loved about Ron Cook, in the 1983 BBC version created for television: he was so subtle, and he played up the black humour of the character so well. Before there was Loki... before The Joker... there was Richard III!
I think Cumberbatch is going to be killer, because he is a terrific actor and also because he has a sly humour about him that should work for the character. That was what I loved about Ron Cook, in the 1983 BBC version created for television: he was so subtle, and he played up the black humour of the character so well. Before there was Loki... before The Joker... there was Richard III!
Coneycat- Posts : 546
Join date : 2011-10-24
Re: Theatre
I took Mama Wolf to see Beautiful (AKA the Carole King show) on Broadway last night and it was amazing. I knew we'd love the music but the story was also really, really good and funny. It focused on both King and Goffen and another songwriting duo named Mann and Weil that was in the Kirshner factory with them. Throughout the play song after song after song would come on and you'd think "OMG they wrote that too?!?" Plus it was a hoot when the first few notes of a song would start and the audience would OOOOOOOOO in excitement.
My favorite thing was that they didn't play I Feel the Earth Move until after the cast did their bows, so everyone was on their feet already applauding and the entire audience just boogied out.
My favorite thing was that they didn't play I Feel the Earth Move until after the cast did their bows, so everyone was on their feet already applauding and the entire audience just boogied out.
Raised by wolves- Posts : 526
Join date : 2011-11-01
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