My Kinda Town

I know, I know- it’s been a heckuva long time since I’ve posted, but recently things have been so hectic at work and outside of it, it seemed like there was hardly time to breathe much less update this here little ol’ blog. But, I’m trying to post a summary of what I’ve been up to over the past couple weeks.
Some highlights from my trip to Chi-town:
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We left Chicago the morning of that whole terrorist plot in London, so we had to scramble to figure out what was "check-in"-able and what wasn't and we had thought that all electronics weren't, so I placed all of my electro-doodads (Laptop, PDA, cellphone, etc.) in my bag. When we checked in, it turned out that electronics were okay to carry on, so I took out my iPod so I could listen to something on the plane (while I read). Well, when I got to the hotel, I took out my laptop and found one of the hinges broke. Thank you, American Airlines.

Luckily, there is an Apple Store on Chicago's Magnificent Mile & one of my My Gay Dads^TM works for MD Public Schools, so we took a nice walk there and found out that it would've cost me approximately $1,000 to fix the laptop so I used my Gay Dad's education discount to buy me a nice, new, pretty MacBook. It was a cinch to transfer my files from the old laptop (thankfully the HD still worked) and now I can rest easy. Granted I wanted to hang onto the laptop for at least a year, but maybe it was just time. Epilogue: I was able to sell my laptop to a co-worker who's going to use it as a server.

In a word: ELECTRIC. The Ravinia Festival resembles Our own Wolf Trap here in Vienna, with an open-air Pavilion and Lawn Seating. In November of 2005, when this was first announced, I leapt at the chance and V&T were interested as well, so I was a little skeptical where these seats were located.

We needn't have worried, since they were slightly off-center and only about 16 row back.
The production itself was much more than a staged reading. Full Choreography, tons of costumes and the semblance ot a set, construed of four doorways, a couple of steamer trunks and one very large trunk. Beginning with a very "Funny Girl"-esque framing device (during the Overture, having Gypsy appear in a fur, back to audience as Baby June and young Louise appear out of the large trunk), sort of works and gave the performance an explanation for it being so bare-bones. From her entrance, Patti LuPone sparkled. She was at turns, manipulative, forceful, loving, and sexy- very human - not the monster Betty Buckley was at Papermill Playhouse in 1998 nor the miscast vamp that Bernadette Peters was in the Sam Mendes revival. Jessica Boevers, as the grown-up Louise, was much better than I had anticipated and really gave her change from "plain girl" to stripper much humanity.

Jack Willis played Herbie as more than just a doormat who's taken with Rose. His Herbie is a lion in sheep's clothing and he lets it out occasionally but he also lets his heartbreak be very palpable when he realises that Rose changes for no-one.
This leads me to the most cathartic moment in the show- “Rose’s Turn." When Patti lets out her anger and hurt, the entire pavilion was listening. As she sings her final "For Me!" we all jumped to our feet, giving her a justly deserved standing ovation, thereby becoming part of Rose's final fantasy. I don't recall another production of Gypsy that I'd seen that had garnered such a reaction.

The moment between Rose and Gypsy right afterwards was as moving as Rose walks offstage with her daughter yet stares back longingly at what could have been. I was so enraptured by this performance, that I did something bad- I took a picture during the bows with my cellphone.
Waiting for the Train to pick us up afterwards, I took a little self-portrait, just cause of the rare mood I was in, it was almost like being in love. LOL.

One of our other stops was the King Tutankhamun exhibit at the Field Museum. I vaguely remember seeing the exhibit 29 years ago when I was a mere 6, but this was enlightening and thrilling at the same time, seeing all these beautiful treasures that have been around for so many centuries and remembering the Egyptian History course I took in college.
We also hit the Art Institute of Chicago and the Shedd Aquarium as well as the Bailiwick Theatre, which is a regional theatre company that produces many Gay & Lesbian works. I saw "The Tricky Part" and was thought it was a touching one-man play (Grade:B-)and The Dads saw a new dance interpretation of Dorian Gray and then we both saw "Barenaked Lads In The Great Outdoors," which was recommended by Time Out Chicago and we heartily don't recommend it. There were a couple of funny skits and cutesy songs, but all over the place and they needed some sharper direction.(Grade:C-)