I arrived in New York a couple of days before Heather so I had a chance to see shows and hang out with friends. I had intended to make my first visit to The Metropolitan Opera on Monday night. They premiered a production of Lucia di Lammermoor last season directed by one of my favorite directors, Mary Zimmerman. (Incidentally her adaptation of The Arabian Nights will always be my favorite theatrical production, and Lookingglass is reviving it this summer!!) Lucia had a performance that night so I rounded up Brian to try for a $20 rush ticket. I arrived at the Met 2 hours before the rush seats went on sale, and there was already a huge line. I got into the line and put my fate into the hands of the theatre gods. Unfortunately they do not usually smile down on me when it comes to rush tickets or lotteries, and we were denied. So Brian and I switched to Plan B. Since it was Monday night and most Broadway shows do not play on Monday, Brian brought up 20@20. I had never seen the musical Altar Boyz, and since it was on the list and Brian loves it we decided to see that.
Altar Boyz has been around for a few years, and has now played just about everywhere. I had intended to see it in Chicago, but well that never happened. I was not in a rush to see it although I knew that when I did eventually see it I would find it to be enjoyable. And it was enjoyable, but nothing more. The story, which is about a Christian Boy Band, is a bit dumb. The jokes are somewhat obvious, and the songs are not really something that I would want to listen to more than just once. At least I can check it off of the list.
Just for the record, Altar Boyz played in the New York Musical Festival in the same year as Eric's Caligula and lost the Audience Favorite award to Caligula! Oh and don't give up on Caligula just yet. I have read the new script, and things are really sounding promising!
In years past, I have prided myself on having seen many of the shows that were nominated for awards at The Tony Awards. In fact I am pretty sure that I won the "pick the most winners" game at our annual Tony Party graciously hosted by Jimmy every year! Sadly I have been seeing fewer shows, and that goes for last year's winner for Best Musical, In The Heights. Well until now that is!
In The Heights is a show that I might have just passed over, but Brian is a big fan so I decided to give it a shot. Hip hop is not a style of music that I would just sit down and listen to under normal circumstances. Thankfully I trusted Brian and also took advantage of his natural disposition to win ticket lotteries. In The Heights was very enjoyable even though it is sort of like viewing life in Washington Heights through the eyes of EPCOT.
On Wednesday Heather arrived and we checked into our hotel in Times Square. She had a somewhat stressful trip to New York so she decided to stay in and not see a show. As fun as it would have been to have Heather along, it worked to my advantage to be by myself that night.
I had been hoping to see a show called The Cripple of Inishmaan during this week. Since it was included in the 20@20 promotion, I thought I would go that route to get a ticket. I arrived at the theatre more than an hour early, to find a few people hanging out in the lobby. I asked at the box office if there would be $20 tickets available that night, and they all but laughed at me. The Atlantic Theater Company makes a list for tickets as opposed to the more widely employed ticket line used elsewhere. Apparently there were quite a few names on the list ahead of mine, but I decided to stick it out. At about 5 minutes before the curtain time, I had given up hope just as they called my name. There was one seat left!
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So how was the show? Well if you don't know Martin McDonagh's work than you would be in for a surprise. His plays are extremely dark, violent, and usually include several horrifying plot twists. The Cripple of Inishmaan did not disappoint!
And now for the feature presentation...
Was Equus worthy of all of the hype? Yes! I had never seen Equus before although I knew the basics of the story. It is certainly not a show that every person is going to enjoy. It is really dark and somewhat disturbing (although compared to The Cripple of Inishmaan, Equus is like watching Sesame Street!) Daniel Radcliffe was excellent in his role as was Richard Griffiths with only one reservation. Richard Griffiths is such a large man that it is really unsettling and distracting. One would hope that for his own well being, he might lose some weight. Oh and the nudity? It is essential to the plot so it really does not come across as sensational or gratuitous. And I don't think that I will have any problems watching the Harry Potter movies either.
After the show Heather and I had our post show analysis at John's Pizzeria. She loved it, and was glad that she made the trip. As we were talking, it was obvious to me that she would really enjoy seeing Equus again so on Friday we froze ourselves in the TKTS line to get half price tickets.
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On Saturday Heather and I got up early so that I could go to the M&M Store. Why you might ask? Well Shrek the Musical has a lottery for $25 tickets that takes place there. Since I had already been lucky with Cripple, I fully expected to not win, but I did. So I got to see Shrek on Saturday. Well I saw some of Shrek. These cheap lottery tickets often come with a catch, and the catch for Shrek was that they were limited view seats in the front row. Because the height of the raised stage was above eye level for me, I missed a lot of the show. I wasn't really upset. Shrek is really a pretty disappointing paint by numbers stage version of the movie. I do feel like I will end up playing the show at some point in my career so I am glad that I got to see it (especially for just $25).
Whereas the movie playfully mocks Disney movies, the musical has fun at the expense of other musicals.
To end my week, I attended my first They Might Be Giants concert in New York, and I brought Eric along to attend his very first TMBG concert. I have seen the Giants play a few times, and it seems like each time they play one song that make the concert worth it for me. Since they were using their horn section, this time is was Cowtown!
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