This may be a little off the main thrust of this thread, but I want strongly recommend Stephen Sondheim's book "Finishing the Hat" to Broadway devotees, especially to those who have seen at least some of his shows. The book includes the lyrics to the songs (including those cut) in his shows through 1981. That includes West Side Story, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Company, Follies, A Little Night Musi and others. His comments are fascinating reading, as he provides details on the development of each show.

Local NYers, is there lots of buzz about War Horse in Lincoln Center? I see that previews start mid-March. I'll be in NYC in mid-April, and wondering how soon I should get my ticket. Since it's at LCT, I doubt there will be discounts (except for the Lincoln Center Atrium discount booth, which may or may not offer discounted tickets).

in case american idiot or driving miss daisy are on anyone's thoughts - my teeny tiny report

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...miss-daisy.cfm

YK, I bought my June tickets for War Horse already. Seating was quite picked over. I would suggest doing it now if you are sure of dates.

Spent last weekend in NY. As many know, my tickets for Spiderman and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown were both refunded do to cancellations or missed openings. Here's what we did see:

Merchant of Venice: Outstanding. One of the best Shakespeare productions I've seen in a long, long time. Set was very innovative. Cast was strong -- although Pacino didn't dominate like one might expect. Great ensemble work.

In the Heights: We saw it two nights before it closed and many original cast members had returned. The house was filled with family and fans, so it was a high spirited performance. I really enjoyed this even though it was the second time around for me. DH's first time and he loved it.

The Addams Family: I laughed out loud even though I'd just seen the show mid-December. First time for DH and he thought it was a hoot. I'm still not sure why this one was so badly handled by the press.

La Bete: Saw this one on closing night. If Mark Rylance doesn't win a Tony for this performance there is no justice. It was AMAZING! His first act monologue was beyond belief. I'm really sorry this one has closed as I would see it a second time.

Did a bit of shopping, saw the butterflies at Museum of Natural History, tried to stay warm! All in all, a great weekend.

We are going to NYC for 5 days to get my show fix. So far want to do: Driving Miss Daisy, Billy Elliot. Will see what we can get at TKTS.
Thanks for the thread CPG.

HowardR, just read this. No, didn't see it. I'll go read it from the other thread.

LOL! That WAS the post on the other thread
Glad you liked it!

It was good to read about La Cage on that thread. I think that's going to be at the top of my list when I come back. I was talking via Facebook today with my NYC friend about heading back up that way. I think I'll wait until your upcoming blizzard is over though. Good luck and stay warm!

starrs, I was wondering why you hadn't responded. I was sure you'd be pleased to learn that we agreed on a show!!!
Try to catch La Cage Aux Folles soon, at least before Mark Rylance and Kelsey Grammar leave the show sometime in February. It's really an outstanding production.

Yay! We've agreed!

Thanks to the storm Wicked tickets are available for today's shows.

I'm not there

I'm sure someone has pointed this out but Ticketmaster now has interactive maps. You can now see the seats available for sale and click on the seats that you want. A very nice change/improvement!

Starrs, I've noticed that only some shows have the interactive maps on Ticketmaster.....not all. I wonder if the show has to pay something extra to TM for the mapping option. I sure love it and wish that all the shows were offered that way.

""Other Desert Cities" the most richly enjoyable new play for grown-ups that NY has known in many a season."

From today's review. Finally, a new play that I am really looking forward to.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/01/1...4other.html?hp

TC - so glad you had a great time.

I've just bought a subscription to this UWS off off Broadway version of Encores for reasons described in my post. I sent away for 1st Wed Eve of each run. If any of you decide to explore with me on the same day, let me know!

http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/expl...-28-41011.html

Does anyone have a connection at The Palace Theater or Priscilla - Queen of the Desert? I'm trying to buy tickets for our June trip. This show is one of a very few that will have Sunday evening and Monday performances. For some reason, the Ticketmaster site will not let me buy tickets for June 5, 8PM or June 6, evening. I can find plenty of tickets for any other Sunday or Monday evening, but not those dates. I called Ticketmaster and even spoke with a supervisor, but they don't know anything. They see the same screen I see on-line. It simply says there are no tickets available. I find it very hard to believe that only those two shows are completely sold out when every other performance has a ton of tickets available.

Anyone have a clue?

It could be a very simple solution, i.e., it's very possible that some organization(s) has "bought out" the house for those performances.

Thanks, Howard. Do you really suppose that someone has taken two entire days -- 3 shows? The Palace is huge. That's a lot of people. How can I find out? I thought it might have something to do with the Tony's, but that isn't until the 12th.

TC, I'll admit that it would be unusual, but I can't think of any other reason that only those performances would have nothing available, while there are "tons of tickets available" for other performances around that time.

Call the box office, they may be dark for a reason we have know idea about.

I've sent off an email to the Nederlander Group customer rep. I hope they reply.

Hi, I'm coming to NYC from Sydney in May, can anyone recommend a good website for us to be able to choose a play or two to see. We don't particularly want musicals, well I do, but one of the girls in our group hates them! Centralparkgirl, this is a good thread, I can see myself spending quite a bit of time on it in the next few months.