Tag: stephen sondheim

Playbills For Sale

I have a handful of Playbills that I found while cleaning out some storage in my apartment and I’m selling them to make some extra $$ while I’m doing yoga teacher training. They are as follows…

  • The Cripple of Inishmaan (1x with Daniel Radcliffe!)
  • Hedwig & the Angry Inch (3x OBRC with Neil Patrick Harris)
  • Closer (1x from The Lyric Theatre in London)
  • Chicago (1x Broadway, 2002)
  • Rent (1x Angel Tour, September 2000 at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts)
  • Rent (1x Broadway, January 2000, 1x November 2004)
  • Rent (1x Broadway, 4000th performance with sticker!)
  • Merrily We Roll Along (1x City Center’s Encores – feat. Lin Manuel Miranda!)
  • American Idiot (2x tour in Boston, January 2012)
  • Waiting For Godot (1x Broadway feat. Patrick Stewart, November 2013)
  • Fences (1x Broadway revival feat. Denzel Washington, May 2010)
  • Murder Ballad (1x off-Broadway, June 2013)
  • The Pirate Queen (1x Broadway, April 2007)
  • Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang (1x Broadway, August 2005, 1x April 2005)
  • Evita (1x Broadway Revival, April 2012)
  • The Boy From Oz (1x OBC with Hugh Jackman November 2003)
  • The Crucible (1x 2016 Broadway Revival)
  • AIDA (1x Broadway 2003)

I’m selling these for $10 each, including shipping. Send me a message if you’re interested! 

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My Top 13 Theatre Moments (or Shows!) of 2012

I was going through my theatre-related posts of this year and I couldn’t pick just 10. Since this is my blog and I make the rules, I decided to do 13. 

1. Bring It On: I had my doubts and reservations about this musical, and maybe I’m a little biased after working on it for a few months, but I loved this show. It was visually stunning, fun, and not totally void of meaning. It had a good meaning overall: Life goes on after high school. I love this show, I’m sad it closed yesterday, and I will definitely miss it.

2. Merrily We Roll Along @ Encores: I went to the final performance and it was my first time having seen it – though I’d heard the music before. The cast was fantastic, as was the material. The atmosphere was also electric. Everyone was so excited to be there.

3. The Other Josh Cohen: This was just a gem of a show. I’m so glad I got to see it.

4. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? revival: I had reservations about this too, having seen the last revival with Kathleen Turner, but upon being offered a free ticket, who was I to turn it down? It ended up being pretty incredible. It was probably one of the best things to open on Broadway this fall.

5. Harvey @ Studio 54: A supposed allegory for homosexuality in the mid-20th century, Jim Parsons killed his roll and this show. Loved it.

6. The Bad and the Better (by The Amoralists): I love The Amoralists. This show was a complex story with many layers and a huge cast. It was pretty epic. I don’t know how they afforded to do it, but they definitely did.

7. James Corden in One Man, Two Guv’nors: I loved this play and I probably loved it because James Corden was so goddamn funny. He absolutely killed onstage. He deserved his TONY Award.

8. The Lyons: I saw this play off-Broadway and loved, and saw it twice more on Broadway. I loved it every single time. Probably because Linda Lavin reminded me of my late Jewish grandmother. And… Michael Esper.

9. Once’s Transfer to Broadway: I think the producers transfered this show well. Not much got lost in the bigger space in the Jacobs Theatre and the spirit of the show remained intact. I loved it off-Broadway and it made me cry (twice) on Broadway. I wasn’t sure whether transferring this show was the right thing to do, but I’m happy that they’re doing well ($1 million+/week).  

10. Tribes: This was an off-Broadway show not to be missed. It deserved every bit of praise it received. I loved it a lot possibly because the lead was hearing-impaired so it made it that much more believable, but who knows. It had a healthy run at The Barrow Group and is now going to LA. 

11. Carrie: A cult classic that only existed in bootleg form before MCC revived it. It was cheesy and the music wasn’t so stellar, and I wished there’d been more blood, but it was an experience to be had and seen. I’m definitely glad I paid $20 to sit in the second row. 

12. Jesus Christ Superstar‘s Resurrection: The revival in 2000 wasn’t so good – except for Tony Vincent, duh – but I loved, loved, loved this one, which transferred from the Stratford Theatre Festival. It felt like a digital update, but the incredible rock score was still the intact and the cast was incredible. I don’t care what anyone says, Josh Young was an incredible Judas. I saw this revival twice and my only regret is that I wished I’d seen it again!

13. Assistance: I was an assistant when I saw this so I definitely related. It was hysterical, vulgar, and exaggerated (though I’m sure it’s not so exaggerated for some people). The ending also wins for ‘most unrelated and random ending ever.’ Also: Michael Esper.

That’s my run-down for 2012. There were a dozen or more shows that I saw and didn’t write about (because I suck sometimes), but I’ll try to be better about writing about EVERYTHING in 2013. What were your top theatre moments in 2012? Happy new year!

The Encores productions at City Centers have done loads to open me up to new theatre. In 2001 I saw HAIR, starring the likes of a pre-Wicked famed Idina Menzel, and also Luther Creek and Kevin Cahoon. I was also exposed to the likes of Kismet in 2006 and Follies in 2007.  Suffice it to say, I owe a great deal to Encores’ producers.

I had purchased a $26 balcony ticket for the final performance of Merrily We Roll Along just to be in the house, hear the music, and feel the energy. When I arrived with my friend (who’d just gotten off a 15 hour flight from India), he realized he’d been given an extra ticket so I was upgraded to row H in the orchestra. I was thrilled. We also happened to be sitting next to Joe Mantello, which I was more stoked about because of his performance in last seasons heart-wrenching production of The Normal Heart.

The lights eventually dimmed and the audience cheered from the moment the curtain rose and revealed the minimalistic set with the orchestra on top.  I’d only heard a few songs from Merrily before (whatever was in Side by Side by Sondheim) but I knew it was about three writers and I liked the premise alone with that minimal knowledge.

Sondheim shows are happy.. but only when they start at the end and work their way backwards chronologically, which is exactly how Merrily went. We followed the story of three friends whose friendship had deteriorated over the course of a couple of decades backwards to see exactly how they met.  It was truly heart breaking to see how they ended up, but even more so when you witnessed what a happy and hopeful beginning that they had.

My favorite in the company was Celia Keenan-Bolger, who was perfectly cast as novelist Mary Flynn. Colin Donnell sang exquisitely as Franklin Shepard, and Lin-Manuel Miranda surprised a lot of us by handling the role of Charley Kringas with expertise and humor. Not being a singer by nature, a Sondheim score could have been the end of him but he pulled off the difficult score. My favorite number that he sang was Franklin Shepard Inc.  The audience errupted when he sat down in his studio seat in exasperation for the final beat. Rounding out the six leads were Adam Grupper (as Joe Josephson, Franklin’s producer), Elizabeth Stanley (as Gussie Carnegie, Franklin’s second wife), and Betsey Wolfe (as Beth Spencer, Franklin’s first wife), each of whom were exceptional vocally and performance-wise.  The ensemble, which was quite large, were each and every one entertaining.

We had a few drinks after at the after party and congratulated the cast members that we saw. Stephen Sondheim himself even made it to the party, but only at the very beginning and only to sign something and then he disappeared.  Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Rebecca Luker, Danny Burstein, and Kevin Cahoon, among others were also in attendance.  

The low-key party was fun, but the highlight of the night was certainly the show itself. I wouldn’t be surprised if Merrily transferred but honestly, the show as touching as it is, is very insider-y and only very specific groups of people would appreciate it (probably most of those in attendance last night). Maybe Roundabout will pick it up sometimes. Until then, we will all just have to roll along.

Last Wednesday night I ushered at Studio 54 and saw Sondheim on Sondheim for free in addition.  I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Sondheim’s music and how many memories his shows invoke for me.   I had always assumed that my prior exposure to Sondheim was limited, but in reality it’s not.  I’ve seen revivals of Into the Woods, Company, Sweeney Todd, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Assassins, Sunday in the Park With George, West Side Story, and Gypsy, as well as a production of Follies at Encores.  Although I like a majority of Sondheim’s scores, a lot of these productions were lack luster or poorly executed, in my opinion, mainly Sweeney Todd and Company (oh, John Doyle, what a mistake you were).

The show consisted of video footage of Sondheim talking about his life interspersed with songs from his shows sung by an all-star (by any means) cast which included Vanessa Williams, Tom Wopat, Barbara Cook, Leslie Kritzer, Norm Lewis, Euan Morton, Erin Mackey, and Matthew Scott.  

I enjoyed the show immensely and remembered how much I enjoy his scores, and also introduced me to shows I should know but didn’t like Merrily We Roll Along, Bounce, and Passion.  Clocking in at almost three hours, I almost would’ve preferred watched a documentary about Sondheim instead.

If you’re a theatre person though, this show is a must-see.  

(photo via)