Ragtime - 12.03.09

Hello faithful reader(s)! I bring to you the second theatre review of our blog. It’s a little late, but with impending finals and other various assignments piling up at the end of the semester, things have been a little hectic. The video portion of the review will be up soon too! That entry will also feature other pictures, so check back early next week!

On Friday December 4, 2009, Grace and I saw the revival of Ragtime. It was a rather adventurous journey into the city, as we were separated for half of the train ride. Luckily, I had my iPod to entertain me during those 20 minutes.

After our arrival, our first stop was the Booth Theatre, where we purchased tickets for our next show, which will be the first official show of our 12 Months 12 Musicals Project. We will be seeing Next to Normal and it’ll be the fourth time for each of us. We saw it together twice last semester (once in April about a week after opening, and then again at the end of May). Then, we both saw it separately in July a week apart (I went the day before my birthday with my friend Nicole, she went on her birthday with her family). So, since it has been nearly 6 months since either of us has seen this truly amazing show, we thought it was time to go back. Also, we’re bringing a special guest with us. My sister, Katie, hates musicals, BUT she saw the Next to Normal Tony performance and thought it actually looked kind of good. So, she mentioned that she’d like to see it with us, as long as she didn’t have to pay for her ticket (thanks Mom & Dad!). We’re very excited to bring her to her first Broadway show. Even she’s excited about it.

After we secured our place in Row H for January 3 (we were both baffled that our tickets said 2010 – already?) we walked across Shubert Alley to Junior’s, one of our favorite restaurants. We were seated in almost the same table as last time, and even had the same waiter (and the same so-so service). We split an amazing piece of chocolate cake for dessert. It was worth every calorie!

Also, I got a little bit clever with the check and put the coins in the credit card slot. I couldn’t help but laugh when the waiter said “change” upon picking it up. Heheh.

We had quite a bit of time to kill before our show, so we wandered around the little theatre stores in Times Square. We even had an actor sighting! Sort of. We were standing by the store between Next to Normal and Memphis and I just happened to look up at the right time to see Adam Chanler-Berat (Henry) enter the Next to Normal stagedoor. I’m counting it.

When we eventually headed to the theatre, we walked past a random woman sobbing in the middle of the sidewalk. Gotta love New York City.

THE SHOW



Our seats were in the mid-mezzanine, on the right side of the center, which was a pretty good view of the stage. The entire three rows in front of us were completely empty, so I had a nice foot rest for the first act and then we had even closer seats for act two!

As for Ragtime, Grace and I both enjoyed it. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be “beautiful.” I was in love from beginning.

The show was very visually pleasing, with gorgeous costumes and a really nice backdrop to a very cool, multi-level set.

I was completely unfamiliar to the music (and pretty much everything) before seeing the show, but it had a great score. My favorite songs included the opening number of “Ragtime,” “Back to Before,” and “Sarah Brown Eyes” (although I might have a slight bias with that last one).

The talent of the cast was incredible, from the leads to the ensemble. My favorite performances were from Christiane Noll (Mother), Valisia Lekae (Sarah – understudy), and Bobby Steggert (Mother’s Younger Brother). They each had exceptional acting and singing skills, although the entire cast was fabulous. I also really enjoyed the performance of Christopher Cox as The Little Boy. He was my favorite character. I also loved the Grandfather. He was very funny.

Another thing I really enjoyed about the show was the way it was told. I thought the third person narration from the characters was really interesting and really added something to the show.

Perhaps our favorite part of the show was when little Coalhouse Walker III runs out at the end. He was quite possibly the cutest little boy ever. We wanted to adopt him because he was just that adorable.

Overall, I thought the production was excellent. I definitely recommend it.

STAGE DOOR

After the show, we headed to the stagedoor and were next to the most obnoxious woman EVER. Grace does a fabulous impersonation on the video, as you’ll see when she puts that up. But, anyway, there was this woman there with an awful chain-smoker voice who obnoxiously stopped everyone who walked out the door. And she didn’t even know who they were. She stopped everyone with an annoying “WILL YOU SIGN” but some of the orchestra members shrugged her off saying that they were just in the orchestra. And when she had people sign, she was like “Who did you play?” and “what was your name?” and “Sign near your picture. NO not on your picture.” It was very entertaining, but she was still kind of annoying.

Anyway, I was VERY excited for the stagedoor. I’m not sure how many people know who he is, but Benjamin Schrader was in the ensemble. For those of you who aren’t familiar, he played Gabriel in the old workshops of Feeling Electric (Next to Normal) in 2002 and 2005.

When he came out, I stopped him to sign my playbill and tell him how awesome he was on the Feeling Electric bootlegs. We had a really nice little conversation about how awesome the older workshops of the show were. He seemed shocked to hear that I still listen to the bootlegs. All the time. There’s just something about Norbert Leo Butz singing “I’ve Been”… wait, this is supposed to be about Ragtime.

Anyway, he was super nice and said it was cool that I was an older fan since a ton of the Next to Normal fans are just getting into the picture (I was told to consider myself a mega-fan, and that I will do haha). So then I got a picture and was quite happy with the way things played out.



I’m wonder how my 16 year old self would have handled knowing that this was going to happen. Probably not well. I’m glad I’m not 16 anymore haha.

The entire cast was super nice and genuine. That’s always fun.

I got a picture with Bobby Steggert because he’s super adorable! And very talented.



The other stagedoor moment that sticks out in my mind was with Valisia Lekae, who was the understudy on for Sarah that night. She had a gorgeous voice and I loved her performance. She was, like the rest of the cast, very friendly. When she got to us, she asked our names, so of course I tell her my name is Sarah. She was really excited that I had the same name as her character, but it gets better. She looks up from signing and goes “YOU HAVE BROWN EYES!” Haha, yes I do! Which might be why I liked that song so much. She said she’d always remember that. Pretty cool. Then she told Grace that her name was just as beautiful as mine. She was so sweet.

Quentin Earl Darrington, who played Coalhouse, was also very sweet and thanked us numerous times for coming to see the show. He was great.



Overall, a very pleasant stagedoor. Although nothing can beat the epicness that was Bye Bye Birdie (I mean, John Stamos… come on!), I think this is one of my favorites.

In conclusion, the show was fabulous. I know there are closing rumors everywhere, but I really hope they end up not being true. The production was incredible and I really enjoyed it. I’d love to go back and see it again. I just hope it stays open long enough for me to get the chance!

In the mean time, check back in a few days for the video blog and a review of Memphis (I rushed it for the second time last night). Next on the list for Grace and I is Next to Normal on January 3. That should be a good one. In the meantime, go see Ragtime. You won’t regret it.

West Side Story - 11.20.09

Hi readers and other random people of the internet! This is the first written review of our theatre blog. Grace has left me in charge of writing up the reviews, so here goes!

On Friday, November 20, 2009, Grace and I saw West Side Story at the Palace Theatre. If you’ve watched the video, Grace mentioned that it was our first show. To clarify, we meant our first show that we’re blogging about. We’ve seen a ton more than this. But it’s our first blogging show. Anyway.

The whole day was quite an adventure. We arrived at the train station to catch the LIRR train into Penn Station just in the nick of time. We were running down the steps as it was pulling in, but luckily, we made it and were able to get a seat. Otherwise, the train ride in was uneventful and long since we were both hungry.

Upon arriving in the city, we decided to walk down 5th Avenue so Grace could take pictures of random New York things for a school project. While she took pictures, I kept my eyes open for random actor sightings (they happen, trust me) and a Starbucks. Unlike 7th Ave and Broadway, Starbuckses (is that even the proper plural form) are not on every corner and it was several blocks before we were able to locate one – and we even had to cross the street. However, we were able to curb our hunger with pumpkin bread (for me because I’m obsessed with it) and a double iced cinnamon twirl for Grace.

We continued to Rockefeller Center, where Grace finished taking her pictures. We saw people already lined up for SNL. At first, we weren’t sure why they were there. My initial guess was SNL, but I quickly dismissed the notion since it was only Friday. But someone had a sign saying what they were all waiting for. You couldn’t pay me enough. I looked up the host a few minutes ago and I have no idea who he is. However, Dave Matthews Band is performing, so I guess that’s why everyone is there.

Our next stop on our WSS adventure was to purchase tickets for our next show: Ragtime. Our chosen date was December 4, two weeks from the date, and we were able to get tickets in the middle of the mezzanine. I’m incredibly excited to see this show, and those reasons will be revealed in the recap of that. You’re all dying from anticipation now, aren’t you?

As you saw in the video, I was getting hungry, so we headed down to Junior’s for dinner. I’d like to point out that a random kid (I guess he was like 11) was walking by and was laughing at me during the video. I was amused by that. So, we went inside and were seated at the same exact table where we ate for Bye Bye Birdie a few weeks ago. Our waiter seemed to forget about us for most of the dinner because I was very thirsty and it took him forever to get around to coming over so I could ask for a refill of my water (by the way, did you all catch my accent in the video?). But, as always, the grilled cheese and fries were delicious.

Throughout the dinner, Grace, who was seated next to the window, observed Stalker Man. I find the idea of stagedooring a show BEFORE the show a little strange. I mean, if you’re going to stagedoor a show that you didn’t even see that night, at least do it afterwards. Then nobody even knows you didn’t see the show. Since we had time to kill, we waited around so I could see Aaron Tveit’s haircut. It wasn’t exciting because it wasn’t drastically changed. I’m just glad he doesn’t have those blond highlights anymore.



Afterwards, we killed our remaining pre-show time in the Mariott, a giant American Eagle, and then finally the theatre lobby. We saw that there was an understudy board, but it didn’t appear that any of the principles were out.



When the doors opened, we climbed up an endless amount of steps to the balcony where our seats were. Although we were so far away and the people looked very small, our location was great to watch the dancing.

When I added the little West Side Story playbill to my Stagedoor application, I gave it two stars out of five. I definitely enjoyed the show and it was nice to see something I’d never seen before and knew almost nothing about. A friend gave me the music, so I’d listened to most of the cast recording before, but none of it jumped out at me. The music itself was very pretty, but the songs as wholes (like with the lyrics) were just okay. I know it’s like theatre blasphemy, but I just don’t like Sondheim that much. I liked the Officer Krupke song though.

The dancing was definitely the best part. It was amazingly choreographed and well performed. I really loved watching them all run around and dance. As I said in the video, it was neat to see all these tough boy gang members ballet fighting. How manly and intimidating.

Although every cast member had magnificent dancing skills, the vocals were not as awesome as I expected them to be. Matt Cavenaugh was good, but not as great as I thought he would be. Same for Josefina Scaglione, who was good, but not what I expected. However, for 21 years old, she’s still pretty talented.

Karen Olivo, in my opinion, did not disappoint. We both missed seeing her in In the Heights by about a week, so this was the first time seeing her live. I thought her dancing, singing, and acting were all wonderful, but I might be a little biased because I think she’s awesome anyway.

I thought John Arthur Greene as Riff was pretty good, and, if I had to pick a favorite character, I’d probably go with Riff.

As for the show itself, I liked the story. I’d never seen the movie, so all I knew was that it was similar to Romeo & Juliet (which I didn’t like either of the times I read it in 8th and 9th grade). But I liked the idea of it. It was rather tragic, and I felt bad for Maria at the end. She lost her brother and her boyfriend. However, the whole love story was a little crazy. Like, they look at each other from across the room, walk up to one another, and start making out. Then like two songs later they’re in love and want to get married. Really? That was more than a little bit unbelievable, but otherwise it was a good, yet heartbreaking love story. And, unlike in Romeo & Juliet, Maria has to live with it.

When the show ended, we went to the stagedoor. There weren’t a lot of people there. But we were the first in the line. The barricades were in a weird spot. I thought I was going to fall and die because there was a teeny tiny piece of cement for me to stand on and there were steps right behind me. But luckily, I didn’t fall and die.

We got most of the principles, except Tony. He walked out and went the other way, so after that we left.

Riff was very nice and funny at the stagedoor and I think the pictures we got are relatively amusing. I always get a kick out of the actors who don’t exactly smile.





Karen Olivo also came out. I told her she was incredible (because she was) and got a picture. She was very nice too!



I also got a picture with Josefina Scaglione. She looks like she’s taller than me in the picture, but she’s definitely a lot shorter.




So, after we left, we decided to stop and get a big cookie with M&Ms in it. It was disappointing and not soft and good. Tragic. But I ate my half anyway while we sat in a Starbucks in Penn Station waiting for our train.



The train ride was uneventful, but when we got back to our dorm, we did run into some random drunk guys in the elevator who asked us where we partied. Then one of them tried to help me carry the case of water I was carrying (it had been sitting in Grace’s car for a week) and seemed rather offended that I can, in fact, carry a case of water by myself. So, after that ordeal, we retreated to our room and made our first video blog.

Sadly, we didn’t have any random actor sightings, apart from seeing Aaron Tveit and other Next to Normal cast members going into the show. But those don’t really count since it’s almost like a stagedoor. We did, however, see two guys in tuxedos. And they weren’t even together. One was walking through Shubert Alley and the other I think was in Times Square. I think random guys walking around in tuxedos are just as noteworthy and almost as exciting as random actors. Right?

Anyway, that’s a recap of our first blogging show adventure. We might be posting other random things in the meantime, but check back in two weeks for our review of Ragtime. Hopefully it’ll be even more exciting than this one!

Thanks for reading,
Sarah

West Side Story 11/20

West Side Story Video

Written Review will be up soon...check back.