New York, New York

The best part about last week, aside from the new digs at work, was leaving for a short trip to New York City Thursday morning! Since my friend Sean's been in rehearsal and we were playing phone tag, I went ahead and made plans to stay with my friend Lisa's parents up in Rye Brook, NY- about 20 miles north of Manhattan. Lisa's family were extremely welcoming and I feel like they spoiled me just a little (only in the best way) by taking me out to lunch and then curbside service to and from the train station as well as making a wonderfully filling breakfast the next morning.

The first thing I saw Thursday night was a Seth's Broadway Chatterbox interview with Rachel York, who shared plenty of good, juicy stories about working with Julie Andrews and Liza Minnelli in "Victor/Victoria" and a couple funny ones from her stint in "Les Mis." While there, I ran into an old friend who used to work at Signature and I just lost touch with over 5 years ago. She helps Seth with the Chatterbox site and it was good catching up with her. Hopefully it won't be as long the next time we speak. After the C-Box, there was enough time to snarf a slice of Pizza and then go see the new production of "Sweeney Todd," featuring Michael Cerveris and (my own personal Diva) Patti LuPone. Now, while I think Sweeney is a near-flawless show, this scaled-down (by choice) conceptualised production- which garnered near-unanimous raves- didn't really do it for me. While reducing the cast to 10 and having them play their own instruments in a neat idea, the staging of them delivering their lines presentationally and not to each other killed any chemistry they may have had. The only time the show came alive when when people would interact with each other. Although, I do think that the sight of Ms. LuPone playing the tuba was worth the price of admission alone, I don't think the concept really worked in this case. Granted, the people around me were captivated by the show, so maybe I was just too jaded by this...
The other thing that bothered me that night was this guy in the row in front of me, right before the show began, took out his leftover dinner and started chowing down. I mean, really! How uncouth. Thankfully, some other patrons in his row made a stink about it (no pun intended). But is this what a Broadway audience has been reduced to?

The next day, I met up with my friend Patrick and we went to the Met, where we caught the Robert Rauschenberg: Combines exhibit (he was a big influence on me in College) and Hatshepsut the Pharoah exhibit, which was fascinating because she was one of the few (if not only) women who ever became Pharoah and as such, she had to be depicted as a man in Egyptian artwork. The tour brought back all the memories from being in college and being obsessed with all things Egyptian- very beautiful work, indeed. It never continues to impress me how these peices have survived through the ages.

After the museum, we tried to go to Serendipity 3 for an early dinner, but the wait was over an hour long, so we ended up at Outback Steakhouse and then I booked it over to BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) to see The Sydney Theatre Company Production of "Hedda Gabler" with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. The LOTR geek in me was in heaven. The theatre was covered in teethmarks from Ms. Blanchett's scene-chewing performance. Her Hedda was frantic, bored, manipulative, cruel and lonely. She also had some of the most gorgeous 19th century outfits to wear. Mr. Weaving's Judge had much presence and truly captivated especially when his motives were revealed at the end. It was at least 8 years since I'd seen a production of this play, and all I remember from that was Hedda burning a manuscript. The distance, I think, provided a fresh perspective for me to soak in this enduring piece of literature. I totally forgot how ultimately tragic the show is.

I mentioned my friend Sean who's in "Lestat" and we hooked up Thursday night after Sweeney for a drinkie-poo with Joe Dellgar (From our production of Follies), who's in Lestat as well, and a few other cast members from the show and it was very interesting hearing how the whole rehearsal procees has been for this show since it's changed so much from the workshop in San Francisco.

Sean was kind enough to let me stay with him and his GF in Astoria Friday night, so I met up with him after Hedda Gabler, we had a couple drinks and Taxi'd over to his place and talked until 3 AM. I had such a great time catching up with him and just spending quality time with him and Lesley. The next morning, I took them both in to work in Manhattan and then I stopped, got a bite to eat and then headed home. I actually had to drink a Red Bull to stay awake- eek (& I thought of Stephen Gregory the whole time I drank it). I was able to take a nap before heading to the Cabaret at my theatre.