My 9 Show/5Day Broadway Trip

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 10:53pm

I was in town for the Broadway Teachers Workshop, which was a pretty good deal. Felt like I learned a lot and it was great to be around my peers for a few days. Some of the shows were part of the workshop and some were on my own. On to the shows:

Of Mice and Men
I had never read this book until the week before I saw the show, so it was very fresh in my mind. It was great to hear so many memorable phrases from the book spoken live on stage. When Chris O'Dowd started the show, I was immediately taken out of the story because I was too aware that he was "acting" like Lennie, as opposed to making me believe that he really is Lennie. Suspension of disbelief issue. But his depiction of Lennie did grow on me. The real stars of this show are the supporting cast. They were all believable as their characters.

The Phantom of the Opera
First time seeing Sierra as Christine. Obviously I am huge Phantom fan. Most people on this board who have seen Sierra and Norm find it necessary to apologize to us for the sin of seeing Phantom, but I will do no such thing : )
I have seen Phantom countless times, but this performance was the first time that I actually got misty-eyed for the Phantom. When Norm did the "Masquerade" reprise at the end of the show, ouch. He made it such a sad moment. It was great to see Norm so shockingly excited and into this role. He seemed to love every last second of it. Sierra was just a decent Christine, nothing special. At times she was too quiet.

Bullets over Broadway
I got yelled at by an elderly man before the show started but that's another long story for another thread. Someone please start a thread about getting yelled at by elderly people in Broadway theaters. I enjoyed this show quite a bit. It was flashy and fun and fast-paced. It reminded me of Anything Goes in terms of the screwball comedy and the choreography. Well, the recent Anything Goes choregraphy was loads better, but the Bullets choreography had the same vibe to it. I would see this show again. Laughed out loud a few times; was looking forward to seeing how the various subplots would unfold. It was an enjoyable night of theater.

Book of Mormon
The workshop had us scheduled for several hours of hearing MTI brag about new musicals. I opted to get a ticket to BOM and I scored a $99 seat in the rear mezz the day before the show. Not too bad. I felt bad for the super tall man sitting next to me because there was a loud woman behind him who threw a big fit when he sat down and whined about it so much that he finally whispered to his friend that they should switch. The loud woman behind him finally shut up. There was an understudy on for Elder Price. I was nervous for him the whole time, but I only noticed a couple minor line flubs.
BOM was still a fun, satirical show, but it will never be as funny as it was when I first saw it in previews back in early 2011. The theater roared with shocked and laughter back then. It is clear every time I see it that people are expecting to be shocked beyond belief and laugh like they've never laughed before so it seems as if people aren't as enamored by it. Don't get me wrong. I still love BOM and I'll be seeing 400 zillion times in the future. But we, as theater lunatics, need to start telling our friends "BOM? Yeah it's ok" so that people won't be expecting too much from this show.

Rocky
I was pretty bored through this show, especially the first act. It was sad to see the theater so empty, too. The sets are the reason to see this show, but even that got to be enough after a while. Of course the final fight scene was incredibly-staged. I'm not sure what can be done to fix this show, other than perhaps some trims in book scenes and the songs as well. I feel like the focused more on how they are going to get each set piece on and off the stage and less on telling the story.
Cabaret
The only experience I've had with Cabaret before this was seeing snippets of the movie at various "Musical Monday" nights at bars through the years. I am a big fan of CHICAGO, though so that Kander & Ebb score stayed in my head for days. What a gorgeous score. I love how K/E use instrumentation. Alan was a hoot and a natural for the MC role. Michelle Williams got better and better as the show went on. And Studio 54? Wow what a beautiful house.

Heathers
The audience adored every second of this show. The set was the main problem for this show. I know people are whispering about a Broadway transfer but my oh my I sure hope they jazz up the set somehow before that. Heathers certainly is a period piece, what with how common school violence is these days. Seeing the show made me want to go back to the movie and think about what it was saying about 1980's teenagers. I would think it was commenting on the lack of morals in the Reagan era, but now it serves as more of a cautionary tale about the dangers of bullying, which was not yet a buzzword in the 1980's. The songs were funny and dirty. I could see myself giving this show another chance in a year or so if it is still around, somewhere.

Sex with Strangers
Two hours that went by in about 5 minutes. Oddest thing was before the show. I sat there in my seat, waiting for the show to start, shoveling M&M's in my mouth like a common whore, with an usher a few feet away from me. My friend decides to get his own bag, comes back, starts eating them, and the same usher tells him he has to put them away because food isn't allowed in the theater. There I was still sitting like a fatty with my M&Ms yet the usher says nothing to me. My friend and I just laughed about it.

*****Minor spoiler alert******
I don't want to give away any plot points, but Act I ends on a cliffhanger, and all through intermission we theorized about what could possibly happen in Act II. The cool thing was that NONE of our hypotheses was right! Gotta love an unpredictable show
*****end minor spoiler/sort of*****

I highly recommend Sex with Strangers. And no I will not acknowledge the joke I just left myself open for.

Avenue Q
It has been 4 years since I've seen Avenue Q in New York and boy was it good to be back. Another usher story: before the show started, the ushers made three people take their cameras back out and made them delete pictures they took of the set while the ushers stood there and waited for confirmation evidence of the delete. Looooove ushers who are dead serious.

The show is in great shape. I know everyone wants to know what the current line is for "George Bush" and Sunday night they used "Justin Bieber". Another interesting note: when Christmas Eve said that Rod's friend should stay in the closet if he is a Republican investment banker, there were audible boo's and a general bristling from the crowd. Normally everybody loves that line. Another cool thing is that Brian came back onstage during the Money song with an empty bag of Twizzlers. Never saw that before.

On another note: audience behavior:
I saw 9 shows, 6 Broadway 3 off-broadway, and the audiences were great. Not a single cellphone, very very minimal talking (one or two "what did she say??"), no loud food, no smelly food, no crinkling wrappers, no ice banging around a cup. Bravo, New York City audiences, and ushers!!

Updated On: 7/21/14 at 10:53 PM

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 10:57pm

9 shows and not a bad one in the bunch, good job. I didn't feel the same about O'Dowd, but O'Well...

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:00pm

I did end up liking him, and I did start to believe his Lennie, especially with his mannerisms. But it was just jarring at first.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:00pm

This is your thread about your theater experiences, so it's totally appropriate to dish about the old man yelling at you. Please?

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:23pm

Ok ok ok Sutton talked me into it lol.

I got to my seat for Bullets at around 6:40. I like to be in my seat and waiting and reading the playbill leisurely.

So at about 6:56 or so, this guy comes and sits in the empty seat next to me. He explains that his partner is ahead of us about 7 rows in the center front orchestra. He asked if I would switch seats so the two of them could sit together. I said of course. So I'm making my way down the row, and the old man a couple seats over and his wife also start to get up (not sure why). So there we are, shuffling along, squeezing past person after person, when suddenly the old man just stops. Since the show was about to start in 20 seconds, I was a bit nervous about getting to my new seat in time. The old man, his wife and I were moving to the end of the row at a steady clip when he just stopped, and it surprised me and before I knew it, I bumped him. I guess I didn't think he would just stop for no clear reason. So he turned around said "would you relax buddy! You act like you got somewhere to go or something!" I just looked down and hoped that he would start moving again. So he does, and wouldn't you know it--when we reached the end of the row, he stopped again. Just stopped. Like stood there and stopped. And yes, I was not able to stop in time again and I bumped him. Now when I say bumped I do not mean that I hit him, or made him lose his balance. I just kind of brushed against his back. So he turned around again and said "you know you got a real problem! You need to slow down! We are in no hurry here!" So I said "I'm sorry that I upset you" because I do believe in respecting elders even if they are nonsensical. So I ran down the aisle and met the other guy and we switched tickets and seats. I warned him about the old man standing at his row. He just gave me a funny look and ran back. And the show started as soon as I sat down.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:42pm

It sounds like all in all you had a wonderful time!

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:45pm

It really was a dream trip. The shows were great. The constant pizza and Italian food was great. And the bars were friendly and fun. I certainly love New York City

[Cupid Boy2]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:50pm

Thanks for sharing your reviews! I always enjoy hearing about people's trips. Sorry to hear you ran into a difficult theater goer, but on the bright side, it makes for a funny story now. Haha he sounds like he was a real treat.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:52pm

just curious, but how'd you get a $99 ticket to Mormon??

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:55pm

I never saw one, but $99 is the cheapest listed price for Mormon mezzanine on Telecharge.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:55pm

I went to the O'Neill box office the day before and asked what was left for the next day. It was 3 rows from the back of the rear mezz. And there were some billion dollar tickets in the orchestra left.