Revisiting

So this past week I was luckily enough to pay repeat visits to two of my favorite shows running, the Hair revival and 9 to 5 the Musical.

Hair: Tuesday 9/1/09

The understudies were Paris Remillard on for Woof (this week Bryce Ryness's daughter was born), Katie Kiyan for Crissy, and Matt DeAngelis on for Josh Lamon (aka Theo Stockman's roles). Also, Krystal Joy Brown was new to me, since Saycon has since left the show for Fela! (The last time I was at Hair was, I believe, May 5th).

I was thrilled to see that the show was still as energetic and smooth and tight as it was in the spring, pre Tonys. I think a lot of the energy is due to the new faces (swings etc) in the Tribe who are keeping the show fresh and exciting. Gavin Creel and Caissie Levy give consistently passionate yet everchanging performances and I have endless respect for the work they do on stage. Will Swenson was crazy on Tuesday- his opening monologue to the audience was extra long and insane, as well as continued outbursts in the middle of Gavin's lines.

What a beautiful beautiful show, and I have yet to see a bad understudy/tribe member. (Also, I have seen all the Crissy covers now: Allison, Briana and Katie, and they are all great, although Allison is still probably my favorite).

9 to 5: Saturday matinee 9/5/09

I have been meaning to revisit 9 to 5 , as I enjoyed it a lot the first time I saw it in June, so I figured closing weekend was the time to do it. (No understudies!!)

What energy! Everyone was so thrilled and into everything that they were doing, it made me appreciate the show even more. While I thought the fantasy sequence of Dance of Death/Cowgirl's Revenge/Potion Notion was silly and unnecessary the first time through, I really had a great time watching it last night. Stephanie J. Block's emotions were cranked up through the roof, which I could tell as soon as she began to cry during the beginning of "I Just Might". Allison Janney has grown even more into her Drama Desk winning role, as proven with her second act monologue to Tinsworthy about the sacrifices women make in terms of work and career. I wish it was posted word for word online somewhere (as soon as I post this I'm going to look) because I find it so moving and inspiring. Megan Hilty performs a beautiful Doralee. Yes, she copies Dolly. Yes, it's SPOT ON, and also a developed character. I hope Megan moves on to something other than Wicked after this. Also, I found Kathy Fitzgerald slightly annoying the first time, but enjoyed her character more the second time.

Got tickets to the Public's production of Othello at the Skirball Center! Psyched. Thanks NYU for $14 tickets.

8/18/09

On a day trip we went up to NYC to see Population 8 at the Fringe Festival. (http://www.theprocessgroup.org/)

The first act was pretty terrible, I was lost and wanted to get out of there because there was too much projection (like, video on a screen) used, no character development. The only thing that was keeping me there was Spring Awakening alumnus Gideon Glick who was fantastic and well cast. It was clear that it was playwright Nicholas Gray's first play (now my friend insisted that he was a famous critic and I told my friend that I own Frank Rich's book of criticism yet I had never heard of him).

However, the second act was great. The writing found its groove, the characters were real, and the storyline was attention grabbing. It was like a Jekyll/Hyde storyline- it was hard to believe the acts were written by the same person! I would recommend it to Gideon Glick fans, it's only $15, I would recommend it more if you're an Equity member and it's free.

I also happened to win the virtual line for the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Euripides's The Bacchae starring one of my favoriteeee actors (no, seriously) Jonathan Groff. The production was, overall, okay. Jonathan Groff was excellent. Maybe I'm biased, but I thoroughly enjoyed his Dionysus. I thought it was fresh, funny, and surprising. Anthony Mackie was also good as Pentheus but the rest of the production was a complete bore. The direction was a mess, the costumes were terrible, and actors who weren't in scenes at hand were wandering around the stage. It's free, so if you're a Groff fan it's worth it, if you can sit through classical theater. It's only 90 minutes so you won't die of boredom. ;)

Edit- This article/blog from Newsweek perfectly describes how I felt about Groff's Dionysus. Give it a read:

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/popvox/archive/2009/08/21/why-jonathan-groff-is-our-best-stage-ingenue.aspx

Shows I Want to See

• Bye Bye Birdie (Matt Doyle, Allie Trimm, John Stamos!!)
• I will probably see the Neil Simon plays (Brighton Beach Memoirs/Broadway Bound) if the reviews are good and/or tickets are cheap
• God of Carnage (They have standing room and I've heard nothing but good!)
• Hamlet (Shakespeare, Jude Law, $25. Done.)
• Ordinary Days
• Othello (with my NYU discount obvs)
• Our Town
• Toxic Avenger (Diana DeGarmo!)

Best of What's Running

all right so before i start with new shows as i see them, here's the best of what I saw last semester and prior:

• next to normal and the revival of hair are the two best shows on broadway, hands down. moving, brilliant, original pieces of theater. i will probably spend most of my time at the booth and hirschfeld theatres this year.
• west side story is great, if you can be sure to see tony award winner karen olivo and josefina scaglione. i hear the show's not worth it without them.
• 9 to 5 is great fun! but by the time anyone reads this (ever?) it will be closed.
• billy elliot was excellent, as the awards say (although i find next to normal superior). i saw kiril kulish as billy and enjoyed him very much.
• in the heights is a great show, although i haven't seen it without lin-manuel miranda, original writer and star. south pacific is great if you can get tickets, although i'd recommend waiting for kelli o'hara to return. wicked is great the first time if you haven't seen it.

Why?

Why blog? I'm a journalism major who lives in Manhattan and sees a ridiculous amount of shows. Also, I have lots of opinions. Why not share my opinions?

-Sarah