mclaurie

To PineappleGirl. The only Wed. matinee is Wicked? You must be mistaken. Every show on and off Broadway has matinees on Wednesday. Mary Poppins, South Pacific and Mama Mia all have matinees and would be perfectly appropriate. These are all usually discounted on the left column of broadwaybox.com so you can even buy in advance and avoid wasting time in lines only to be disappointed that what you wanted isn't available.

More importantly, I have no idea what "going casual" has to do with not going to the theater at night. People don't dress up any more (unfortunately) and you can wear the same thing to an evening performance that you would to a matinee. Leave the cut off and t shirts at home though.

There are also plenty of off Broadway shows that would be appropriate.

NeoPatrick

I totally missed that "going casual so we can't do an evening performance" but yes, that makes no sense at all. Unless you only have cut off shorts and dirty shirts, there is NO reason not to go to theatre at night. Coats and ties or dressy dresses are certainly not required and (sadly) are almost out of place.

anna_roz

So, I am thinking Looped and A Little Night of Music for our April four-day stay. With an 8:00p.m. show (A Little Night..), what would you suggest as far as an early dinner or a super late lunch and an after-show light meal? Also, I see that Behanding in Spokane is liked. Would three shows in four days be too much? Probably depends on an individual..
BTW - mcl, we are going with The Elysee. It just really appeals to us. Thank you for this suggestion.
NeoPatrick - for our trip two years ago, we pretty much followed your and escargot's restaurant recommends. Should I start a new thread on that or can you, dear people, throw in a few good ones in the area. Is Roberto Passon still good?
Many thanks!

mclaurie

anna, I think the intent of this thread was to discuss shows, not provide dining advice. Why not start a new thread? Btw, if you love theater, there is no such thing as too many shows.

doug_stallings

I saw The Glass Menagerie on Friday, and it was really superb. I'm not a really big Tennessee Williams fan production-wise because I think his plays tend to read well and play horribly (I remember a particularly ill-famed production of Streetcar a few years ago with Natasha Richardson). But this was great. Judith Ivey was remarkable.

I've also seen Next Fall. Very funny, very sad. It was a great show.

And this afternoon I saw The Pride with excellent performances by Ben Wishaw and Hugh Dancy. Unfortunately, it's closing today.

I see the new production of La Cage Aux Folles in a couple of weeks.

There are a lot of great shows right now for all kinds of people ... especially if you can pry yourself away from Phantom, Wicked, and Jersey Boys.

HowardR

Sorry to report that we saw Sondheim on Sondheim this afternoon and it was a big, big disappointment. We really didn't like the show's concept of showing so many large-screen clips of Sondheim talking. We would have much preferred less talk and a lot more singing by the outstanding cast. Also the flow wasn't organized in any logical pattern, and we question the overall selection the songs to be performed. Another downer was that Barbara Cook, one of our all-time favorites, was not used to her best advantage. However, her rendition of Send in the Clowns made up for a lot of the bad vibes! Vanessa Williams was outstanding.
All in all, a big disappointment, as we are big fans of his.

Centralparkgirl

>

AMEN!

I saw 'Behanding' this week and although I enjoyed it, I was slightly disappointed. I think perhaps it didn't live up to all that I had heard about it. But, Christopher Walken's performance is wonderful!

'The Miracle Worker' is closing - not a big surprise.

Centralparkgirl

Howard - I heard that the performance was three hours; I don't think my husband will be too happy. We have tix soon.

HowardR

cpg, it's actually 2 3/4 hours long.

NeoPatrick

Howard, I have yet to hear from anyone who really liked the song selection. People say there are so many songs that weren't used in shows basically because they just weren't that good.

Rhea58

Guess everone knows that "Lips Together..due to Meg
Mullaley pulling out will not open. Waiting for credit on
extra ticket I bought for friend.
Not for everyone, but I laughed for a solid 45 minutes
at "The Irish Curse".

HowardR

Exactly, Patrick! That was the type of comment my wife and I made after the rendition of some of the songs that were cut from shows. What made it all the more frustrating was the realization that most of his best songs were not included. We're starting to think that the Studio 54 Theater is a jinx! The only show we've seen there recently that we liked was Waiting for Godot. And, overall, we've not had many good experiences with Roundabout Theater Productions in the past few years.

starrs

We saw a couple of shows this weekend.

Promises, Promises - I'm a huge Kristen Chenoweth fan so this was a given. Excited to see it on first night of previews. We bought tix early and had great seats - Row L, center stage. She was as delightful as expected, but this really isn't a great vehicle for her. Glad they added "Say a Little Prayer for You" because it gave her more of a chance to show her stuff. Sean hayes ("Jack, just Jack!") was great in his role. This is his Broadway debut and he was wonderful - but then again, the part was perfect for him. Loved the staging and especially the choreography and the chair/coat rack number. Good show all around. I'm just wondering how well it's going to do when Kristen and Sean move on. Katie Finneran was great in the opening number of Act 2. Waited at stage door and got Katie's, Tony Goldwyn's and Kristen's autographs (Sean bailed on the line early) and Kristen was just a delight. I told her I adored her...and then corrected myself and said "Well, EVERYONE adores you!". She laughed and said "Not everyONE". She was just delightful as she went down the line on both sides. No wonder "everyone" loves her.

We also went to see A Little Night Music - yes, because of Angela Lansbury. I'm glad I saw Angela Lansbury from three rows from the stage, but we were less than thrilled with the show. The first act really dragged and several around us were fighting sleep on a Sunday afternoon. Catherine Zeta Jones did a better job than I expected - and she IS absolutely lovely. The second act was better but I would not go back to see the show again.

Mixed feelings on both shows this weekend, although we MUCh preferred Promises to Night Music.

A bit of a tangent, but our hosts gave us tickets to the Radio City Music hall backstage tour and we REALLY enjoyed it. Seeing the backside/ underneath of the stage was fascinating, especially the then state of the art hydraulics used to create the three part stage. The entire tour was interesting and our guide Shannon did a great job.

yk

Is anyone going to see Lend me a Tenor soon, which opens this weekend?

starrs

Loved Sondheim on Sondheim. Loved it!

Am thrilled that I got to see Barbara Cook on Broadway - and she was wonderful. I really enjoyed Vanessa Williams too. Beautiful voice, great enunciation. She's a stunner and can't believe this mother of four ended up in a teddy during one number. I've very impressed Tom Wopat and the rest of the cast were very good. I loved the format and am SO glad I decided to see it. It may be my favorite show this week. Great seat (front row mezzanine) with a Broadway Box discount

Liked "Love, Loss and What I Word". Very funny. I bought the itty bitty book when it came out and it translated well to the stage. I was expecting Fran Drescher and Didi Conn, but the cast changed. Shirley Knight was luminous. Melissa Joan hart was cute as a button. Lucy De Vito was hilarious! I'd go see her again in anything. I didn't know Jayne houdyshell at all but she was great as was Judy Gold. The show was light, fun froth. The tix were 1/2 price at TKTS and I'm very glad I went.

Centralparkgirl

'Red' got a nice review.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/ur...&sq=red&st=cse

yk - I've been looking for tix for 'Tenor,' but not yet.

starrs - glad to hear someone liked 'Sondheim.'

HowardR

Ooops, Starrs, once again we disagree about the overall production, though I do concur with your sentiments about Barbara Cook and Vanessa Williams. There just was too much talk by Sondheim on video and not enough, by far, of singing by the two ladies.

LowCountryIslander

I saw Lend Me a Tenor last weekend and LOVED it.

Tony Shalhoub was wonderful, Anthony LaPaglia was great as the Italian opera singer...has a good voice too. And Justin Bartha, who I knew nothing about, was very good.

The show was very funny, I'd got see it a second time! We saw a Saturday matinee and the house was packed.

HowardR

PS: Viewing the Sondheim show was like watched a PBS special.
One thing I'm sure we agree on, Starrs, was the very funny Ethel Merman anecdote he told! (Sorry, forks, it can't be repeated on Fodors!)

HowardR

Ooops, that should be "Sorry FOLKS"!