This Saturday was super busy for me. After I recouped from my situation several days. I woke at 4:30am due to lack of sleep and played a few video games and surfed the net. Then I got some more sleep. I'm happy to say my chest pain is going down, which means I can sleep better, so that's nice.
I went to the doctor, and I'm getting an X-Ray tomorrow. He thinks it's stomach acid, so I'm taking some pills twice a day. The X-Ray he says won't show anything, but just to see. So why not? Okay, now onto real items of business.
I saw two shows yesterday. The new (and final) musical by Kander and Ebb called Curtains. I paid full price for this ticket with my tax return cause I really wanted to see it. It had an amazing start studded cast. David Hyde Pierce, Deborah Monk, Karen Ziemba, Edward Hibbert and many more made up the suspects in this murder mystery musical.
The show opened on March 22, 2007 and got mixed reviews and suddenly one of the most waited for shows seemed to be a teetering commodity. the NY Times review by Ben Brantley was was to harsh. I expected to be bored to tears from the way he made the show sound.
Well upon seeing the show, I can happily say that I LOVED Curtains. It was a terrific show in my opinion. Now take into notice that I didn't go into this show expecting to be challenged, to find a new style of musical. I knew it would be a fun, talented and comical time. I was happily satisfied and much more. I enjoyed the cute dancing, the fun songs, which got stuck in my head and the corny jokes.
I think there is something appropo about Kander and Ebb's final musical (since Ebb died in 2004) being about a out of town show that needs help. What I found pleasing was even though this was a murder mystery, the show didn't focus on that aspect. The show is really just about a troubled musical that needs work, so while the cast and crew isn't allowed to leave the theater, they improve the show so it doesn't have to close. There are no scenes where the detective interviews the cast members, or they talk about why they hated the victim. They are focused on the show and it is interesting to see them try hard to make it grow.
Granted the fictional show they are fixing is rather campy and I sat there thinking, "Is it REALLY worth saving?" But it's the idea of that matters.
Since this is such a star filled show, they all probably demanded to have a song. Which with an idea like this, tends to lack a certain number that is the BIG number of the evening. I agree that none of the songs are really showstoppers, I can say each song has a special energy that makes it engaging to sit through. Two notables are Karen Zeimba's "Thataway!" A song for the show they are working on. This woman has got a great stage presence, a beautifully pleasing voice, and wonderful energy. I knew she was a great singer, but I loved her attitude on stage.
Second is, Deborah Monk's "It's A Business". Now in message boards people were saying how her number stopped the show and got a standing ovation. Now the song was great, amazingly sung and lyrics were hilarious because they were so true in their simple way. Plus Deb did an amazing job performing it. Though I was surprised that people said that number stopped the show. It never had a build up to even stop a show. I love Deb Monk like the next theater fag, so I'm gonna say regardless, I love her more after this number!!
When leaving this show I wondered why I was nervous and then I thought, what are critic's problems. Granted the show is far from perfect, but it's more entertaining than most shows on Broadway right now. It was a musical about musicals, without being as obnoxious as The Producers or Spamalot in my opinion. It was able to make fun of itself subtly and still maintain it's integrity. So yea I loved the show.
As for other parts of life. As I said, getting better! Hurrah to be able to sleep again!! I have been relaxing all day, which is nice. Tomorrow I definitely return to the gym, mark my words!! If i don't...
well then I guess that means I didn't.
So two older musicals I am in love with that I bought on whims. 1776 and Zorba. WOW. I mean I've listened to 1776 a couple times, and a the entire show is amazing. And the highlight of the show for me, a young Betty Buckley singing He Plays the Violin.
Zorba is probably the least known Kander and Ebb musical by most people (in my opinion) and I was always very cautious to buy it. Finally I threw discretion to the wind and picked it up.
Holy-Debbie-Shapiro-Minus-The-Gravitte
This show is beautiful musicall!!! I'm not 100% sure what the story of the show is, it's just fun on the ears. Nice to hear something different every now and then.
That's all for tonight.
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