The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Last Friday, I was invited by Chad (the junior agent in the office) to Ragtime, my favorite musical of all time. I graciously obliged with out hesitation (more like hyperventilated from excitement) and didn't realize I had double booked my Friday. The RA's were planning a Halloween party in the house complete with pumpkin carving, costume contest and "Doughnuts on a String." I was sad I would have to miss the festivities, but could you blame me? Front Mezz comp'ed, plus going backstage. I did my part in setting and cleaning up though (I baked 50+ cupcakes!) The show exceeded my expectations. I was afraid that since I loved the PCPA's production so much, that I would be disappointed by this one. But the score is hauntingly beautiful, and paired with a complex, precisely crafted script that it can't help but be great. There were major differences, but also some similarities, and neither were bad. New things stood out for me seeing it this time, and through out the show I would be reminded of happy memories of the last summer I spent in CA. So it was a joyous experience over all. I had goosebumps almost the entire show--and I wasn't cold! There was not one element that I didn't like (but as I said before, I am biased..so I can only hope the critics feel the same.)
After the show, Chad checked his phone and found he had been notified of Brighton Beach Memior's close that Sunday and the cancelation of it's sucessor, Broadway Bound . Chad was immensely disappointed as he had seen the show twice in previews and thought it was one of the best shows he'd ever seen. It just wasn't fair for Neil Simon's finely crafted play to close exactly one week after opening. Ironically, we happened to be sitting next to the casting director of the show, who shared Chad's grief and exclaimed she spent a year trying to cast the role of Eugene. I enjoyed reading the play, and heard good reviews, so I decided to make it a point to see it that weekend.
Saturday night was Halloween. There is a huge annual parade down in Greenwich that anyone could walk in. About 15 of us left the house and headed down. After a subway ride with Bruno, the characters from Mario Kart, a slew of creative costumes we found that just about the entire city of New York was walking in the parade. I wondered who was left to watch it.

Half of our group got recruited as puppeteers, and the rest of us waited in line for 2 hours the parade to start. Just as the parade was about to get going, it started raining. Due to traffic, our group got cut in half again, and I was left with Fallon, Lisa, Matt and Bryce.

After five or six blocks of walking in the pouring rain, we decided this wasn't as fun as intended and ducked out to regroup. And by "regroup" I mean, the boys ditched us. All that was left was Fallon, Lisa and me lost in Greenwich looking like drowned hookers, (because who isn't scantly clad on Halloween?)
By the time we found a subway station, we were already 3/4 of the way home, so we figured we'd just walk. In the meantime, I got a text saying the other half of the non-puppeteering group were meeting at Chelsea Square Restaurant. Fallon and I met them there and had a delicious meal. Every time I go there, I can't decide between dinner and breakfast, but since I had the waffles last time I was there (last visit to CSR) I went with the Veggie Cheeseburger Deluxe. It was amazing. I also had a bite of Kelly's french toast, and it was the best French Toast I'd ever had (and I don't like French Toast) I'm getting it next time! After filling our bellies and feeling quite satisfied, we headed home for some classic Halloween movies; Direct TV was seriously lacking in the department, but I think we were all too tired to care. I had to retire for the night, and was asleep by 11:30 pm...EPIC FAIL!!
Ok, enough about Halloween. On to the good stuff: double show day! Nick and I were getting up at 10am on Sunday to rush Brighton Beach Memoirs which might have sucked, except that it was the day after Day Light Savings Time, so we got an extra hour to sleep in. While we waited in line, we befriended a woman who worked in the costuming industry. She was hemming pants in line since she was going to be late to her show to see the closing performance. While waiting for the box office to open, we sat across the street from the Mary Poppins stage door and saw Laura Michelle Kelly (title role) and the children arrive for their matinee. I really had no interest in seeing the show, until Christian Borle took over the role of Bert, so I decided to catch the evening performance of that as well. But first, Brighton Beach: OHMYGOD! SO GOOD!! It is a witty coming-of-age story intertwined in a drama about a Jewish family struggling to stay together and make ends meet in the 1940's. It was brilliantly directed and beautifully acted and had me sucked in the entire time. Our costuming friend informed us that a play on Broadway needs to make $100,000 a week in ticket sales to survive, and this show just wasn't selling. Which is a crime. It was better than A Steady Rain, or God Of Carnage both of which I loved, but they have big names to sell tickets. Other than Laurie Metcalf (whom I didn't even know was in until she stepped out on stage) the cast was all fresh-faces. Maybe that is something to be said of the marketing department. Regardless, it makes me ashamed of my culture when a show like Finian's Rainbow which has no substance, no plot, a dated score, an obvious lack of dramaturgical research can get rave reviews from the NY Times. But a show in which every relationship between each character is clearly defined; and each character's story line makes you laugh and makes you cry; with a script that is witty, and sweet, and heavy and light all at the same time, takes you on a journey and lets you into the lives of these characters and doesn't let you doubt for one second that this world actually exists, closes after a week not because it was bad, but because of politics and money, makes my blood boil. I hope that everyone involved in this production knows they had a great show. Maybe we just have to chalk it up to bad timing, but I hope regardless of how big a hit they took, they are proud of this show and I thank them for supporting such a beautiful piece of art and I'm thankful I got to see it.
We waited almost an hour at the stage door, but it was well worth it: I met NEIL SIMON (!!!) along with Noah Robbins, Santino Fontana, and Laurie Metcalf. Then I met up with Ricardo and Julie and hoofed it over to Mary Poppins, which was good...I mean, it's Disney: she flew, Bert tap danced on the ceiling, the set was larger than life, and it was fun. Not bad, nor thought provoking, but entertaining nonetheless.


early demise of Neil Simon's chronicle