November 15, 2000

Finally, another show to report!

Actually, it hasn't been much more than a week since I last talked about shows, so I guess it's not really a big deal that I'm talking about another. I'm very, very lucky to get to go to shows so often.

But tonight I went to a show on a weeknight! Which happens somewhat less.

The show in question was The Vagina Monologues, which I have wanted to see for quite some time.

And it was great.

The show (which is pretty much what the title says) had what I found to be a great combination of depth, humor and spontaneity. The monologues themselves were usually touching but also often quite funny, and the three women doing the show tonight -- Lauren Velez, Erica Jon and Angelica Torn -- had a good rapport with one anothe and with the audience.

It was neat seeing Lauren Velez because I have seen her (twin, I'm pretty sure) sister Loraine in Rent more than once -- so she looks very familiar, even though I have never seen her live before. And Erica Jong's name is familiar to me, but I've never read any of her stuff (I might now, though). And Angelica Torn was totally unfamiliar to me, though she did Side Man, which I would have liked to have seen. But they were all wonderful.

And all in all, it was a great show (have I gushed enough yet?!). I really got into the show (which I find generally harder to do on weeknights, and I was pretty worn out tonight), and found what was said interesting.

So all in all I really lucked out -- I had rushed to TKTS from work on the off chance that there might still be tickets, and ended up with a great single. After not being able to get tickets at all a while ago when we were trying. A great result!

And then I went to my wonderful new-ish supermarket, where I seem to have left my favorite umbrella behind:-(

But I'm still happy, because I saw a great show tonight. How's that for a yucky, overly sweet ending? :-)

Sue

November 14, 2000

This is going to be one of those more contemplative entries with less "action." But I guess that that has its benefits too. And I really don't have that boring a life, I don't think.

I'm just a bit moody, again, but I'll try to deal with that well here.

Anyhow, what is there to tell?

I guess I have done two remarkable and exciting (by some characterizations) things since the last entry. First of all, on Friday, I went to a CD launch party!

Actually, that was a pretty cool experience because it was my first time going to such an event (at least I can't think of any others) -- and it was at a real club, on the Upper West Side (which remains largely a mystery to me, since I pretty much never make it to that part of the city). But the bigger mystery was what the CD was going to be: a friend had had me put on the guest list (thanks!), and I knew whose party it was (at least from our perspective), but I didn't really know anything about the CD, or his overall role in it, or even what kind of music it was!

Anyhow, he turned out to be singing lead vocals, and the CD is in fact self-titled. And the performance was really good -- I hope that the CD does really well.

After the whole party, we came back to Midtown and hung out for a while longer at "the restaurant." All in all, it was a nice, fun evening.

But unfortunately there was lots of cigarette smoke at the club where the party was, and my allergies were pretty bad for the rest of the weekend. So I tried to stay home or in the fresh air.

And speaking of staying home, after doing some shopping on Saturday afternoon, I actually spent Saturday night watching a movie at home!!! A movie! Which just never happens in my life, it seems... I got American Beauty (which I should have seen a long time ago along with everyone else) and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that I then watched the whole thing over again in commentary track form (I LOVE DVDs!).

So now I think I've seen 5 or so new movies this year: Boys Don't Cry and Erin Brockovich (did I spell her name right?) on the "big screen" and American Beauty, Ferris Bueller's Day off and SLC Punk on the small screen.

And of course I saw some other stuff (including The Sound of Music and The Rocky Horror Picture Show not for the first time this year....

But even when I didn't have much access to live theatre, I still saw very few movies, so I guess not much has changed.

But this can't be very interesting to read.

So what else is new. It's getting rather wintry here in NYC. I'm enjoying the brisk walks, and I don't dislike winter, but the lack of sunshine sometimes isn't much fun.

And I'm eager to do seasonal shopping, but I'm trying to hold off a little. Nevertheless, it's niece-and-nephew birthday season, so I have a good reason to do some shopping.

Not to mention that I'm still trying hard to assemble a more chic wardrobe. But being unable to wear wool really causes problems -- especially this season, when it seems that everything has some wool in it. I guess I'm going to be less-than-cool a while longer...

And while I'm still ranting about shopping, I still haven't managed to find the shoes of my dreams (I know what they look like, but can't find the perfect pair in an iteration in which I can reasonably walk). Oh well.

Since when did I care this much about shoes?! And is it a good thing or a bad thing? All I know is that I still spend my weekends wearing my big, heavy, beautiful Roots oxfords, which are just right for long walks in NYC. No big change there...

Anyhow, there wasn't much talk about emotions here, but I nevertheless think that it's time to wrap things up for now. I'll try to add more soon.

Thanks for bearing with me!

Sue

November 7, 2000

Here we go again.

It's been a pretty exciting week. With a theme, I guess, of TV stars. Or something like that.

Z. came to stay with me for the weekend, which is great, because we don't get to see each other often enough these days. And it was fun planning her visit, but different, because she's a very good friend who was never really a theatre friend, so the focus was less on theatre than usual. But, that being said, we ended up seeing 3 shows in under 48 hours!

I met her in on Sat., and then we had some lunch (outdoors, which was nice) and some dessert at Veniero's (lovely), and then (after a spot of shopping) headed to Cabaret.

I was really excited about seeing Cabaret because it's been a while since I last saw it (and I've been wanting to see it again for a while). But I also knew that it would feel strange because (a) the last time that I saw it was Alan Cumming's last show, and I was very, very fond of Alan Cumming, and (b) I saw Matt McGrath as Hedwig several times, so it was bound to be strange now seeing him as the emcee.

But the whole experience was really great. We had nice seats at a "fabulous" table (as the guy on the phone described it), and the show was really great.

It has, however, changed quite a bit. Most of the cast has changed since I last saw it (though Michael O'Donnell and Vance Avery were there -- but more about that in a moment), and some of the new actors are quite different from those I have seen before in the roles. But I really enjoyed the show.

Matt McGrath is not an Alan clone by any means, but I thought it was a great performance, and he really seemed to be enjoying himself and really giving the show his full energy. And he is much more limber than I ever would have thought!

There were a few moments, though, when he said something that really reminded me of Hedwig. Which is not a bad thing, but which was an odd thing for me.

I really enjoyed Lea Thompson's performance too -- quite a change from Caroline in the City.

But what was also most exciting for me was seeing Michael O'Donnell (Bobby) as Cliff. He was great! He might have been my favorite Cliff. So sad that he doesn't get to do it all the time (though he's a great Bobby).

Meanwhile, during the day, it had come up that we could always try to get rush tickets for Chicago for the Sunday matinee, so indeed we did, and succeeded, and thus saw Chicago.

Chicago currently stars Jasmine Guy and Charlotte d'Amboise. And it was a really enjoyable show. Jasmine Guy (whom I still associate with A Different World more than anything, is a great singer and actress, and dancer. And Charlotte d'Amboise sings well but really puts a lot into the characterization of Roxie. All in all, the performances were quite different from those that I saw last time, but really great.

And in the evening, we saw NBS! From the front row. That part was not intentional. I had, in fact, tried to ensure that that would not happen. But it did.

NBS! was once again a really fun show. The performers are just so talented and enthusiastic. It was a fun idea, and it is executed very well.

So we had a fun, big theatre weekend.

But we also (somehow) fit in some shopping and other stuff.

And speaking of TV stars (which I was, earlier in this entry!), at one point, we (figuratively) ran into Richard Grieco, who was very special to me in 21 Jump Street and Booker. I was really quite excited to see him.

And I feel as though I have all sorts of other news that I have overlooked right now, but I think I had better stop here.

More soon,

Sue