West Side Spirit

As shocking as it may seem, I limited myself to seeing just three shows during my second NYC week when I could have seen four. On Tuesday night, I had dinner at the Chat 'n' Chew with the Jose family. They had actually just returned from Emma's first trip to Disney World. So despite the fact that Emma still seems a bit scared of me, the power of talking about Disney World won out over my scariness. From the sound of it, they had a great trip, and Emma really enjoyed herself.

West Side Story represents one of the low points in my professional career. I have played West Side Story once before at the Round Barn, but fate had it out for us on that one. Well when I say fate, I really mean Jeff Dorsey. Because of his inaction and refusal to actually pay outstanding royalty bills with MTI, we did not get the orchestra parts for West Side until the Saturday before our Tuesday night opening. Now if this was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat that would be no problem, but West Side Story is usually cited as the most difficult orchestration in the musical theatre world. It took a week of performances before the show sounded like anything more than a Hanover Central production! And if you did not go to my high school, then trust me that is the lowest of the low!

So I have been waiting for the opportunity to see a big professional production of West Side to help get over the Round Barn debacle. The revival currently playing on Broadway come as close to this as possible. The production was great, the orchestra sounded amazing, and in an attempt to make the show more realistic they have translated much of the dialogue for the Sharks into Spanish. As gimmicky as that sounds, I bought into it. Especially since I did not have to listen to the English lyrics to I Feel Pretty!

After seeing West Side Story on Wednesday afternoon, I had a big debate as to what other show I would see. I had left Wednesday night open because that was the night I was hoping to sit in the pit for The Little Mermaid. Since that did not happen, it left me open to actually see a show. I had narrowed my choice down to Hair or Blithe Spirit. I was torn because I wanted to see Blithe Spirit, but felt like I should see Hair. I think that I hate Hair, but I have never actually seen the show. I learned a long time ago to not judge a show until I have actually seen it, and this production of Hair just opened to really great reviews. Ultimately that is what made up my mind. Hair will most likely be in New York the next time I visit, but Blithe Spirit was a limited run.

To quote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "I chose wisely." I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Blithe Spirit. If memory serves (and these days it does less and less), I was in the backstage crew for a production of Blithe Spirit in high school. Thankfully I did not remember much of the story though so it was completely fresh. The entire reason that this production exists is to be a star vehicle for Angela Lansbury, and deservedly so. Admittedly Ms. Lansbury is getting up there in years and is obviously stumbling around her lines after weeks of performances, none of that mattered because she was fabulous. Once again though, everyone in the cast was fantastic and Jayne Atkinson in particular.

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In a move that once again proves that I really only have bad luck 99.9% of the time, I had a pleasant surprise before the show. In an attempt to be money conscience, I had purchased a nose bleed top of the balcony ticket. Right before the performance started, an usher moved us poor people from the balcony to the orchestra level. So I ended up in a fantastic seat for only $36.50! I'll take it! Oh and the third show that week was viewing number two of Next to Normal.