Hi-Ho, The Glamorous Life!

The Broadway cast of A Little Night Music has arrived! They started rehearsals earlier this week at The Creative Center at MTC, just one floor below where I work. Of course, I am starting to eat my lunch downstairs in the lobby with increasing frequency. Today, I did just that, and sat at a table just a few feet away from one occupied by none other than...Catherine Zeta-Jones. Unfortunately, I am yet to spot Angela Lansbury. Nonetheless, I did listen in on a some music rehearsals, and I am pleased to report that the cast sounds amahzing. I am super excited to see the show...and of course to creepily stalk the entire cast whilst I can.

In other news, the New York Arts theatre kids saw Finian's Rainbow on Tuesday. The entire group uniformly hated it. I didn't think it was so bad - once I reconciled myself to the fact that the play itself is extremely dated, bizarre, and altogether kind of terrible. I enjoyed a few of the performances, the dancing was nice (although it hit a little too close to home in its similarity to Li'l Abner), and the rainbow at the end was gorgeous. Not to mention that it steadily rained paper at the end of the first act...and we all know I'm a sucker for any kind of precipitation onstage. All in all, I would classify this play as a notch or two above a really good high school theatre production. Thank gawd for free tickets!

And in other amazing news, I finally won a Broadway ticket lottery! On Wednesday, I put my name in for the West Side Story lottery and they picked it...although the man pronounced my name "Libban" - a variation I have ne'er heard before. The seats were lovely - front row just off center. The stage was a little bit above our heads so we couldn't see the dancing feet, but I think we got the point(e). Jerome Robbins' choreography from the original production (and movie) has been reproduced here and it is absolutely explosive and brilliant. Tony and Maria were kind of lame, but Karen Olivo was terrific (and a little bit saucy) as Anita. She alone was worth the price of admission.

And finally, tonight a whole bunch of us (5 to be exact) saw "Where the Wild Things Are" in IMAX - which is kind of funny, because the kid's name in the movie is Max. But anyway, it was very cute and funny and I even cried a little bit at the end. Dare I even say it was better than "Fame"?! Yes, yes I do.

So in closing, I leave you with a selection from Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music:
Bring up the curtain, la la la
Bring down the curtain, la la la
Bring up the curtain, la la la
Hi-ho, the glamorous life!

I Am Steadily Aging

I have a pretty mean record going: 11 shows in the last 12 days. It started with Circle Mirror Transformation and ended this past Sunday with Nightingale. Please consult the list to your left for more information on the shows in between, for I will not elaborate on all (or even most) of them.

One of the highlights was In Therapy With Celine, which was a part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival - a three-week event that premieres 30 new musicals. We unforunately did not take full advantage of this event, but this show was still great. It sets the songs of Celine Dion to the therapy session of a sad, lonely girl (aptly named Celine). The idea itself is absolutely hysterical, and the show lived up to its promise for the most part. My absolutely favorite song was "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" - which twisted the songs lyrics to be about food obsession. During the line, "There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light", Celine accented the word "gold" by holding up a bottle of mustard and the word "light" by holding up a bottle of light mayonnaise. It was absolutely hilarious. I stood. I cheered.

Oh yeah, and it was my 20th birthday on Saturday. How does one celebrate a birthday in New York, you ask? Well...by going to a show, of course. Kelly and I got standing room for Jersey Boys. We stage was cut off by the mezzanine from just under halfway up, but it doesn't matter. We crouched if need be, and more importantly, we danced around! Not to mention that the woman next to us was from Detroit and was celebrating her wedding anniversary on the same day as my birthday - crazy small world. But anyway, the show was phenomenal, and moved so so fast - it was roughly 2 1/2 hours and felt like 30 minutes.

My birthday was sprinkled with some other lovely highlights. Kelly made some peanut butter cup brownies, and a modest size crowd gathered in the backyard to sing Happy Birthday to me. I also received an amahzing gift from Kelly - a picture of all our friends, made up of a collage of loads of photos. And finally, I picked up some Jamba Juice and made it a very happy birthday indeed.

The Gang's All Here

I apologize for the incredibly lengthy delay in post time - I have most certainly set a new record. I know all of you out there are have been pining for more news of the city. Although, let's be honest, more than half of the people who read this blog were in the city with me last weekend anyway. As such, there is lots (and lots and lots) to report.

It all started last Thursday. I picked up mom and Scott at the airport around 2:00. We arrived at the "305" around 3:30, got settled in, and went to eat lunch at my favorite place in town: Dinersty! This is cheap, disgusting Chinese food at it's best - they have the most exquisite Sesame Chicken in town. I go to this place so often, they just see me and know to give me Sesaly Elliot, The Royal Family, Nightingale opening, Central Park, God of Carnage, Staten Island Ferry, La Mela, Empire State Building, Jamba Juice, Shrek, Today Show, Chicago, parade, Columbus Dayme Chicken. (Although I once ordered General Tso's instead and they disregarded my order and gave me the Sesame - not that I'm complaining). Anyway, mom and Scott enjoyed their meals immensely - unless they were just being nice, but I sincerely doubt it.

We took it easy for a few hours before heading out to "dinner" in Times Square (wink wink). I strategically took them to Times Square through a Subway that would give them a good view right upon exiting - I remember my first Times Square experience well, and I try far too hard to replicate it for others. We wandered around the area for a while before heading down 45th Street. We told Scott we were going to dinner at a restaurant called Charley O's - which is conveniently located kitty-corner to the Imperial Theatre, home to Billy Elliot. Mom and I had been putting all our effort into averting suspicion - although there was a frightening moment in which Scott almost read my last blog post. Luckily, I put a stop to that...Anyway, we arrived in front of the theatre, right across the street from the fabled Charley O's, and I turned around and proclaimed, "You know, is anyone really that hungry? Because I do have three tickets to Billy Elliot here..." This is where Scott went crazy - he had absolutely no idea. We entered the theatre, took our seats, and the curtain went up. The show was amazing - a little different than expected, but still great. Phenomenal dancing of course, inspired performances (we got a Tony Award-winning Billy, thank goodness), and wonderful direction. Surprise!

Friday: incredibly eventful. It all started with the Today Show - I could unfortunately only stay for a few minutes, but I hear that Scott and Diane enjoyed it very much - they even stayed for Kathie Lee and Hoda (but who wouldn't, really?). After I got out of work at MTC - it was a very eventful day, what with The Royal Family reviews coming out and all - we headed to Central Park. We went to the wondrous Belvedere Castly, saw some crazy street performers, and stumbled upon Strawberry Fields - and get this: it was John Lennon's birthday! There were a good 150 people or so packed in and singing along to a whole bunch of Lennon songs - what an amazing coincidence. That night, we ate dinner at Monetti's - so they could get their first taste of New York pizza - and then got standing room for God of Carnage. Everyone loved the play of course, because it is amazing. We even got to chat with Jeff Daniels (who did not seem to care that we are from Michigan), James Gandolfini (who does not pose well for pictures), and Marcia Gay Harden (who unfortunately had to hurry out because she had some sick children). A grand time was had by all.

Saturday: Beka arrived in town! We started the day off by heading to the Staten Island Fairy and taking lots of unnecessary Statue of Liberty pictures. We then checked out the 9/11 memorial before heading to Greenwich Village to check out some beautiful apartments we could never afford. After this, we decided Chinatown would be a lovely place to visit...it is not. It smells stank nasty and is dirty as all hell. So we wandered around for a while (led by my misguided direction) before finally finding Little Italy. We stopped in for a delicious dinner at La Mela Ristorante. We were taken down a dark, scary hallway before emerging into a lovely dining room. The food was delicious and there was even a wonderful two-man band that played some lovely Italian songs, my favorite of which was "That's Amore" by the incomparable Harry Warren. Penultimately, we made a visit to the Empire State Building - a la "Sleepless in Seattle". We all felt just like Meg Ryan waiting for Tom Hanks, and we even got in some lovely sightseeing in the process. New York is gorgeous at night. To cap it all off, we stopped by Times Square (Beka's first visit - she was astounded) for some more sights and sounds, and some delicious Jamba Juice (this was Scott, Diane, and Beka's firsts - they were all astounded). Wow, we did a lot.

Sunday: Mom and Scott had to head out in the early afternoon, so we walked around the town a little more before heading to the airport. We said our goodbyes, and I headed back to meet up with Beka and Kelly. We headed to Beka's first Broadway show: Shrek. It was a riotous good time, and clearly warranted a Stage Door visit. Beka got some lovely photos with some cast members, although we were unfortunately stood up by Sutton Foster once again (this also happened when Kelly and I saw it in May) - but we are determined to meet her at some point. We headed to Jamba Juice once more, and then layed down for a good night's rest.

Monday: We woke up bright and early to check out the Today Show. We got there around 8:00 to find a mob of screaming little girls. We couldn't get within 200 feet of Matt and Meredith. "Why?", we asked. Well, it was apparently all because 15-year-old singing sensation Justin Bieber was performing - he is now all of our nemesis. Luckily, the screaming girl crowd cleared out around 9, after Justin Bieber left, and we were free to enjoy the Today Show as we pleased. Kelly had to go to work, so Beka and I hung around for Kathie Lee and Hoda (again, who wouldn't?), and we may have even managed to get on TV. Soon after, we stumbled upon a Columbus Day Parade - apparently, in New York, this day is an excuse for Italian Americans to celebrate their heritage. The parade was overall pretty lame, with the possible exception of a crazy winged girl on roller skates and a man we met dressed up in Italian garb, complete with glasses with windshield wipers. Beka enjoyed her first NYC pizza, and Kelly rejoined us for dinner at Applebee's and Beka's second Broadway show: Chicago. As always, the show was phenomenal - this was the best cast of the three times I have seen it. And of course, we stopped by Jamba Juice after for a perfect ending - our new best friend is now Jesus, the man who works the register there.

On Tuesday, I dropped Beka off at the airport bright and early...well, "dropped off" isn't really the right phrase. There was all kinds of drama because they thought Beka owed $25 for her luggage from Detroit, and they were not at all hasty about solving this problem, even though her flight would leave in 40 minutes or so. We waited around for a while, and Beka was finally able to get in line (where I understand there was even more drama), and finally onto the plane. I took a lovely bus/subway ride to work and my normal routine began again.

So that's the amazing weekend. I know what you're thinking - there is another week to cover! Well, I'm exhausted, and I will give you the rest of the update tomorrow (hopefully...). So everybody calm down and I'll be with you shortly. I hope you can forgive me for the delay, and will all stay the faithful followers I know you to be.