Sunday in the Park with George

Sunday in the Park with George was the last show I watched on this trip.

The story is a fictionalized story of George Seurat, a painter and his painting called A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

The show is simply beautiful. I loved it. I'm familiar with the score since I picked up a copy of the London cast recording when I was going through my Sondheim phase sometime last year. It was a matter of me trying to fill in the blanks with what I know about the story based on listening to the recording. The songs are beautiful. This is actually my favorite out of all the Sondheim musicals.

The cast was very talented. The principal characters (Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell) were the ones who sang on the Original London Cast Recording so I was thrilled about it.

The show made extensive use of CGI animation for its set which I thought was pretty cool. It was tastefully done and worked very well.

Here's a video of It's Hot up Here (Act II). This is probably from the original production. This isn't from the Broadway revival that I saw.



I'm really pleased with the shows that I have seen on this trip. I really don't have anything else that I want to watch right now that I haven't seen yet on Broadway. I guess I will just have to wait until new shows open up before making my way back to New York. ;)

Wicked

Yes you read it right. Wicked. hehehehe.....

This was my Thursday show. My friend, Karen and I decided to do our usual Carmila is in town routine -- Wicked lottery and then if we don't win, we head to TKTS to get me a ticket to whatever is available and then we go out to dinner.

This time we skipped TKTS since we actually won the lottery! Woooohooooo!!!! After trying for the gazillionth time, my name finally got picked! We got front row seats for $26.25. Yay! I tell you once you have sat up close in the show, you don't want to sit elsewhere. I honestly cannot tell you how the show looks from a afar. The farthest I've sat on this show is the 14th row and I have no intentions of sitting further than that.

It's my 8th time watching Wicked. If you have not figured it out yet, let me spell it out to you. Yes, I am obsessed with Wicked. I am a member of the Wicked Addicts club and I have gone through the 12 step program but it never works. hehehe... I just love this show.

The Broadway production is in a pretty good shape right now. The cast is pretty good although my favorite duo is still Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty. It's the first time watching the show that I actually liked Glinda more than Elphaba. The actress playing Glinda (Annaleigh Ashford) was very young but she was pretty good. She added her own nuances to the character which I liked a lot.

Annaleigh's version of Popular:


In case you are wondering, yes I intend to watch the show again in the future. ;)

Young Frankenstein

Wednesday was a 2 show day for me. I had tickets to Young Frankenstein (oh excuse me.. Frahn-ken-steen) Wednesday night.

I don't recall ever seeing the movie so I didn't really know anything about the show. Its got mixed reviews but I really didn't care. I like forming my own opinions (well, most of the time).

The show was fun. Lots of jokes. Definitely has lost of talent. Roger Bart was great. It was a plus seeing Megan Mullally live -- she's Karen in Will & Grace. I had no idea that she could sing!

The songs were forgettable. Nothing really that struck my fancy and I'm not too compelled to get the cast recording for it although it was still worth seeing. I had lots of laughs during the show and I enjoyed the show and the performances which is what matters the most to me whenever I watch any of the shows.

The Little Mermaid

I had one heck of a travel day last Tuesday and when I was at the office on Wednesday, after a while, I was getting cross-eyed looking at the documents that I needed to go through so I asked my boss if I can leave early and he said yes.

I went to catch the matinée performance of The Little Mermaid. I just went to the box office and asked if they had any available tickets. I managed to get 9th row center orchestra seats. Yup, great seats! This is the reason why I love going to theater by myself. I get really good seats. Yeah, I know, I am spoiled. ;)

I loooooovvvvveee The Little Mermaid! It's now my favorite Disney musical. The set is spectacular. Lots of Disney magic. Definitely high production value. The cast is pretty good. Sierra Boggess is the little mermaid in the flesh! She looks like the little mermaid and her voice is amazing. I love the Broadway Cast Recording better than the animated movie soundtrack. I got suckered into buying the CD of the musical at the theater since I could not get enough of her singing and I could not wait for it to be released on iTunes.

Check out this video of "Part of Your World".



Definitely a must see. For me it's a must see again show. ;)

New York in February

Yes I am in New York again that's why I have time to blog. ;)

I've been here since Tuesday night after one heck of a day traveling.

I left SF Monday night to take a red eye flight to Washington, DC for a site walk through of our data center. I only stayed for a few hours in that area before heading back to the airport to catch my 3:39pm flight to NY. I was at the airport since 1:30 pm and we didn't take off till past 8pm that night. Once I got to La Guardia airport in NY, the line for the taxi was so long that it took an hour an a half before I was able to get in on a cab and take me to the airport. Thanks to the crappy weather in NY -- it was snowing.

I've seen 3 shows so far -- The Little Mermaid, Young Frankenstein and Wicked (yes Wicked!). I still have to watch Sunday in the Park with George. I'll blog separately regarding these show.

Crappy weather but gotta love going to NY at this time of the year for getting tickets to Broadway shows. You can get tickets to just about any show! I love it! I just love it althought I am running out of shows to watch so I guess I do have to go back home on Saturday morning.

Company

Day 7 of my musical theatre marathon... I really wanted to watch this show. I love Sondheim's music and wanted to add more of his work to the list of musicals that I've seen. This was also highly recommended by one of my friends who loves musical theatre like me.

I really didn't know much about this show. All I knew is Raul Esparza was in it and the show was directed by John Doyle -- the same guy who directed Sweeney Todd, another Sondheim musical that I saw last year.

I loved the story and the score. I'm looking forward to getting the cast album for this show. The orchestrations were wonderful. Sondheim's musicals are known to be very difficult to sing. Raul Esperza ripped through the score especially in the last song of the show entitled "Being Alive". I absolutely loved it. He has the markings of getting nominated or even possibly winning the Tonys this year.

As for the staging of the show, I'm not really too thrilled about it. I'm not a big fan of John Doyle's style which is having the performers double as the musicians. It's difficult to connect with the chracters when you see them marching around acting and holding instruments at the same time. Sure it's unique and some may call it revolutionary however, I still prefer the "traditional" staging wherein the performers act and sing and the playing of instruments are left to the orchestra. The set is minimalistic. No moving parts. The lighting is absolutely gorgeous. To get the best effect of the show, the mezzanine seats are actually the best seats for a John Doyle production.

I think this show is worth seeing. I enjoyed it.

The Apple Tree

Day six of my musical theatre marathon. I was supposed to meet up with a friend for dinner. We had to change our plans so I was left with no plans by 6 PM tonight. Off I went to TKTS. I was planning on watching Company however the only remaining seats were partial view seats so I decided on watching The Apple Tree instead.

I've heard mixed reviews about this show and didn't really know what to expect. At the beginning of my trip, I was thinking that the only reason why I would actually go and watch this show is to see Kristin Chenowith perform on stage. She's the original Glinda for Wicked and deemed as one of the musical theatre superstars of this generation.

They really should just rename the show as The Kristin Chenoweth show. She totally stole the show. She has one of the most amazing voices that I have heard in musical theatre. Very good actress and excellent comedic timing. Her co-performers were wonderful as well.

There's nothing sophosticated about the set. It was pretty plain. Nothing in the set really had the wow factor in it. So what really carried the show were the performances of the 3 leads. It's a funny show. Music is quite good. It's divided into 3 different parts -- different stories for each part. The first part was set in the Garden of Eden. The second part was about the justice system -- the lady or the lion and the 3rd part was about Passionella the Chimney sweep.

The show was at Studio 54 on 54th Street. The theatre looks a little bit run down now. It probably looked a lot better when it was a club.

Grey Gardens

Since my friends and I didn't win the Wicked lottery tonight, off I went to TKTS to just wing it and see what shows were available. Yes, I tried the lottery again. I've lost count of how many times I've tried and I have never won the Wicked lottery yet. One of these days, I will win! I can feel it! ;)

I decided to go watch Grey Gardens since I've heard people talk about Christine Ebersole's performance in the show. I had very little knowledge of the show and what it was all about. Anyways, I took the leap and decided to watch it tonight.

It's about the disfuctional relationship between a mother and a daughter living in Grey Gardens who were pretty much loons. The musical is based on a documentary of the same title.

The Act I was a little bit slow for me. A lot of the character building was happening in this part of the show so it kind of dragged a little bit. Act II was definitely so much better compared to Act I. I enjoyed Act II a lot more than the first act.

Christine Ebersole is magnificent in her role. I can see why people are saying that she is a front runner for the best actress award at the Tonys. Her acting and singing is wonderful. I definitely loved her performance.

The score is pretty decent however there are not a lot of hummable songs in the show. It's worth seeing at least once even just to see Christine Ebersole perform.

I sat right next to a very nice lady and was talking to her before the show and during intermission. She's also been trying to squeeze as much theatre as she could on her trip here in the Big Apple. I had several CD samplers that a friend of mine gave me so I gave her 2 of them and she was quite happy about it. Yep, I recommended that she watch Wicked.... hehehe....

Mary Poppins

I saw the most amazing set that I have ever seen on stage! It's in Mary Poppins the musical currently playing at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street. It was just wonderful. All the set transformations were seamless regrdless of how big the set was. It's the most beautiful set that I have ever seen in a Broadway musical.

The show had a lot of magic in it. The effects that they have done in the show were very impressive. The endless bag was present. Mary Poppins took out a lot of stuff from her bag! She slid up the banister. Bert walked up one wall on stage, dancing upside down on the ceiling and down the other wall in Steps in Time. Mary Poppins flew several times during the show which was wonderful to see but the best part for me was seeing Mary Poppins flying away at the end of the show. It was just amazing!!! I've never seen anything like it on live theatre.

Wonderful performances tonight by the cast. The "Banks" kids were very cute. The best perfomance for me was by Gavin Lee who played the part of Bert. He's brilliant in the role. Each time he was on stage, you just can't help but focus on him. Ashley Brown was wonderful as Mary Poppins. She sounded great, good onstage presence and she's a good actress. Although, I felt that there was something missing in her performance. I can't put my finger on what's missing. I knew that she was playing the role of Mary Poppins however, it did not feel like she was Mary Poppins for me. I kind of had a hard time connecting with her character. Nonetheless, I still thought she did pretty well.

A co-worker of mine went with me tonight. Our seats were wonderful! We were on the 10th row of the orchestra, right at the center. The sight lines were great from where we were sitting. This is the only show so far this trip that I actually paid full price. I wished it was at TKTS however, I don't see it happening for a while.

Mary Poppins is definitely worth watching. It's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Just a spoonful of sugar... ;)

Hairspray

I've been feeling tired and sleepy almost all day today. I was telling a friend that if I went and watched Les Miserables tonight, I would be sleeping in the theater and probably even snoring. I needed to go watch an upbeat musical. Yeah, I could've probably gone back to my hotel room and went to bed but that's no fun and I'm in New York city. So, off I went to the Neil Simon Theatre on 52nd Street.

Hairspray has a lottery on the day of performance. The start taking names 3 hours before the curtain rises and pick the winners 30 minutes later. I got to the Neil Simon 5 minutes before they drew out the names. Luckily enough, there were enough tickets for everyone who put their names in the lottery so we all won!

I was at the front row. Sight lines weren't that great because the stage is kind of high so you're pretty much looking up most of the time however, can't beat getting front row seats for $25!

The music was quite good. Not that memorable but there were definitely hummable songs. The performers were wonderful. It was a cutesy feel good musical and it kept me awake.

The big plus for me was seeing Diana DeGarmo from American Idol. She didn't really have any big solo numbers in the show but when she sang, she CAN sing! She definitely hit a lot of money notes tonight.

Monty Python's Spamalot

Tonight's show was Monty Python's Spamalot. I wasn't really planning on watching this show on this trip. However, it was at TKTS when I went there after work. This is a popular show on Broadway and in my past trips, tickets for this show has been kind of hard to come by so when I saw it on the TKTS board at 50% off, naturally, I decided to watch it.

I had a wonderful seat. It was dead center on the first row of the Mezzanine. There were no heads blocking my view at all. I would call them god seats! The stage was close enough to see the facial expression of the performers. Gotta love going to shows alone. I always, always manage to get really good seats (yeah, I forgot to mention that at SA last night, I was sitting on the 4th row. Close enough to see the facial expressions and far enough to not have spit landing on me but yeah, I was seeing spit flying all over the place!).

Spamalot is an enjoyable show. Lots of laughs -- lots of good jokes. It is a silly show. I was laughing during the show. However, after the show, I kind of felt a little bit disappointed and wished that I had picked something else. The performers were good. However, I love musicals that have good musical scores. Spamalot came up short in this area for me. I don't really feel compelled to go buy the soundtrack. There was one hummable song in the entire score -- Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. I thought it had more of a variety show feel to it than theatre. They're opening up in Las Vegas and I can see that it probably would appeal to people visiting there.

Well, at least I know what it's all about. If I had to rank it on the list of musicals that I've seen, it'll be towards the bottom. Not really my type of musical and seeing it once is enough for me. It left me wanting more -- a LOT more than it could offer.

Spring Awakening

I love Spring Awakening!

I went to watch it last night. I had very high expectations for this show since I'm familiar with the songs and love the sound track (I bought the soundtrack when it came out since it had good reviews plus I wasn't too sure if I could make a trip to NY before it closes). It was very interesting hearing the songs in the context of the story. I really knew nothing about the story.

The show did not disappoint. From the moment Lea Michele stepped on stage, the show had my attention. The cast was wonderful -- especially Jonathan Groff, John Gallagher and Lea Michele. The cast in this show is very young but very talented and each of them deserved to be on Broadway.

The set was very minimalistic. Pretty much there was no special effects that would distract your attention from the story. The story kind of lacked some type of cohesiveness. There were several concurrent tracks based on the characters of the show. It pretty much was about teen angst and growing up in an era where free thinking was being frowned upon. SA was very different from the typical musicals wherein the characters would be having a conversation and then all of a sudden, they would bust out into a song and a dance. The songs were more of the inner monologues of the characters and what they thought about the situation at hand. It had a little bit of similarity with Dead Poets Society. Notable songs for me were the following: B*itch of a Living, My Junk, Totally F*ucked, Left Behind.

Check out the "Bitch of a Living" video below from the show.



More clips and sample music on the SA myspace page.

It might not be the kind of musical that you would take a prude to. There is onstage nudity however it was done very tastefully and pretty much in the context of the story.

Legally Blonde The Musical

I didn't have any high expectations for this show since it's on previews and it's one of those movie to musical adaptations which I'm not really a big fan of.

I have to admit, I actually enjoyed watching the show. It was cute. :) Laura Bell Bundy's singing and acting was pretty good in my opinion. There were some scenes which were a little bit long which I'm assuming would be cut a bit shorter once it gets to Broadway. I love the overture -- it was loud, catchy and the length was enough to quiet down the audience. The song Omigod You Guys is now stuck in my head.

I should've bought that pink omigod! t-shirt!

Musicals (On this trip)

It's not a perfect show but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world and it gives you a little tune to carry along in your head for when you're feeling blue. --Man in Chair, The Drowsy Chaperone

Every time I am in NYC, I always, always make it a point to watch a musical. It’s something that I always do. I don’t think I have been to NYC and didn’t watch a show at all. It’s always on my to do list. I love going to a show. Watching a musical takes me to my happy place.

For this trip I went to 4 shows. I know, I know, I’m still here so it’s still possible for me to go to 1 more show but I doubt it since I have plans tomorrow and on Tuesday. Anyways, I went to watch Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, Altar Boyz and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I really enjoyed these 4 shows.


Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (8/15/2006)

I flew in on Tuesday and got into the city at around 5:30PM. Checked into the hotel and ran to TKTS since I wanted to squeeze in a show that night. DRS was on the board and at 50% off so I got a ticket for it. My seats were pretty good. 3rd row stage left. There was an overhang that blocked some parts of the scenery but it wasn’t that bad.

I love, love, love, love Sherie Rene Scott! I didn’t even know she was still in the show. It was a very nice surprise. I’ve never seen her live but I keep on listening to the cast recording of The Last 5 Years where she sings the part of Kathy. I love, love, love her voice! It has this distinct sound and is so full of emotion. I’m so happy that I actually got to see her perform live!

The show started a little bit slow for me. I had a hard time understanding some of the characters in the beginning because of the accent they used (British and French). After a while you get used to it. When Sherie Rene Scott came out, I was blown away by her voice!

It was a fun show. I really liked it. Lots of catchy tunes and it was pretty funny. I was laughing throughout the entire show. Too bad it’s closing in 2 weeks.

It was a ball… It was a blast…


Wicked (8/18/2006)

Umm… need I say more? I blogged and entire blog just for this. Scroll down below. ;) Yes you can do it.... Keep pressing the arrow key down. You'll eventually get there!


Altar Boyz (8/19/2006)

I got my ticket off TKTS for this one. I actually passed by the box office to see if they still had the rush seats for the matinee performance. They didn’t but TKTS had it for 50% off as well. My seat was on the second row, stage left.
This show was HILARIOUS! It was like a boy band rock concert. I was laughing my ass off during the entire show.

Jason Celaya is a hottie! :D

I normally don’t go watch Off Broadway shows. Since I seem to be running out of shows to watch, I’m slowly venturing towards Off Broadway shows.



25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (8/20/2006)

I didn’t have anything better to do today. I decided to go try my luck at the Wicked lottery. I can’t remember how many times I’ve tried the Wicked lottery and so far I have not won. (Anyways, last Friday is probably the last time I’ll watch Wicked for a while unless I can get my butt back to NYC to see Eden’s last show in October.) The Spelling Bee’s lottery happens right after the Wicked lottery so I put my name in. I was thinking that if I still didn’t win, I’d head to the Drowsy Chaperone lottery and try my luck there. So they picked out the names and my name was the last one that got picked! So I got front row seats.

I’ve seen the San Francisco production of the show a while back and I liked it. I’m familiar with the songs. It was nice to actually see this show on Broadway. No offense to the SF cast but I liked the Broadway cast a lot better. I really enjoyed the show. The big plus for me was I got to see Barrett Foa again! He’s such a cutie! :D I saw him in Avenue Q when I went to see it 2 months ago.


I really can’t wait for the new theatre season to start. I’m running out of shows to watch. Well, there are still shows I haven’t watched but for the reason that I just do not have the desire to watch them. Oh please… I don’t need jukebox musicals or musicals that have been adopted from movies (ok, DRS was from a movie but I never saw the movie).

NYC Trip

I was in New York City all of last week. I have been meaning to blog something about my trip but my schedule was really hectic when I was there. The main purpose of my visit was for a training class. Class pretty much took up my time during the day. My nights were dedicated to Broadway shows.

Speaking of Broadway shows, I had a 4 show quota I wanted to meet for that week. That pretty much meant a show each night except for Monday night when most of the theatres were dark. Well, there were some shows that were playing on Monday night but I didn't have the desire to see them.

Tuesday (6/13/06):

A friend and I tried to get tickets for Wicked however we struck out on both the lottery and the cancellation line. It's almost impossible to get tickets for Wicked at this time of the year when tourists start flocking to New York city. We met up with 2 other friends from JMBB (Judith McNaught message board) and they suggested that we try The Drowsy Chaperone lottery. I won us 2 tickets to TDC! We got front row center orchestra seats for TDC. Not bad for $25.

I didn't know anything about the show. It pretty much started off with the theatre completely pitch black and you hear someone saying: "I hate theatre!". After that line, I knew I was going to enjoy that show. I loved The Drowsy Chaperone! I saw a lot of myself in the Man in the Chair character in the show. Bob Martin rocks! It was pretty hilarious. I was laughing throughout the show. The music wasn't that great however, the cast was wonderful and the story was original and very unique.

Wednesday (6/14/06):

I had tickets for Avenue Q. I liked this show. It's pretty much an adult Sesame street. I wish I didn't listen to the soundtrack beforehand. I think I would've been a lot more shocked that they used certain kind of language and showed "adult" scenes. It's very humorous and un-PC. So if you're a prude, this isn't the show for you. Barrett Foa is such a hottie!

Thursday (6/15/06):

I was pretty much undecided on what to watch for this night. I decided to try the Wicked lottery (again!) and struck out (again!). There were around 300 people who tried out for the lottery that night.

I headed off to the TKTS booth to get half priced ticket for either the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or Sweeney Todd. My first choice was DRS since I was not too sure if I really wanted to watch Sweeney Todd since the story is kind of dark and gruesome. By the time I got to TKTS, there were no more tickets for DRS so I bought tickets for Sweeney Todd.

I am so glad that I actually got to see Sweeney Todd with the current cast. The show was amazing! The cast was so talented. It just blew me away. I felt so lucky that I got to see Patti Lupone, Michael Cerveris and Manoel Felciano on stage. Michael was freaky as Sweeney Todd. He actually looked scary when he was on stage. The staging was quite interesting. The cast doubled as the orchestra. At times, it was kind of distracting that they were acting and had musical instruments with them.

Friday (6/16/06):

Did you think that I would visit New York City and not watch Wicked? My co-workers and I managed to get tickets for Wicked. They were second row left orchestra seats. The seats were alright. There were times that the ensemble would be blocking some of the scenes but it wasn't too bad. The big plus sitting this close was actually seeing Eden Espinosa's facial expressions. She has wonderful facial expressions! She's just so full of emotion whenever she's on stage. This is the third time I've seen Eden perform in Wicked. She just gets better and better each time I see her. She totally blew me away with her performance. Magnificent voice! Such a wonderful singer and actress. This was the first time I saw Kate Reinders as Glinda. she was great in her role. She played Glinda a little bit more ditzier than Megan Hilty. Kate has great vocal control and she was pretty funny. I still liked Megan Hilty as Glinda although my co-workers who saw Wicked for the first time liked Kate's performance.

My week just flew too fast. After the last show for that week, I just wanted to go back to the hotel, pack my clothes and I was ready to go back home to the Bay Area.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

We went to watch the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee last night. The premise of the show is these adults who play the role of kids competing in a spelling bee. The performers were wonderful. The show was hilarious! I was laughing a lot during the show. I've never heard of most of the words that they were asked to spell like for instance: syzygy, yeoman, crepuscule, chimerical.

The show had a lot of funny lines. My favorite was when Marcy Park (one of the participants in the contest) shouted out: Jesus, I always knew you were asian! LOL!

Lot's of catchy tunes and truly an enjoyable show.

Rent (The movie)

I picked up a copy of the Rent DVD. I missed it when it came out on the big screen few months back.

They did a good job making the movie and keeping it in its musical format. The actors and actresses were great. Such wonderful voices! I felt something was missing from the movie though. I still like the stage version a lot better. Nothing compares to watching it live on Broadway. It's an experience in itself. I love feeling the energy and enthusiasm radiating from both the performers and audience in the theatre and sadly enough, this is something that could not be captured on film.

It's been a while since I last watched Rent on Broadway. It's one of my favorite musicals. I was singing along while watching the movie. Gotta love having subtitles on the DVD. I was actually singing the correct lyrics instead of butchering the song! I already butcher it enough with my singing.


I know almost all of the songs in the show. I've overdosed on Seasons of Love long time ago. This is my favorite song from the show:

Finale B

There is no future
There is no past

Thank God this
Moment's not the last

There's only us
There's only this
Forget regret or
Life is yours to miss

No other road no other way
No day but today

Wicked

I have a new favorite Broadway show! It's called Wicked! :) So move over Lea Salonga and Miss Saigon...

I was planning to watch maybe 2 shows during my trip. I wasn't too sure what to watch plus I didn't really keep up with what's on Broadway ever since I moved out to SF several years ago. I watch shows once in a while here in SF but the experience is just different. I get a different feeling when I'm watching it on Broadway compared to when it's on tour. I never regretted moving west but if there is one thing I miss by moving out to SF, it's Broadway!

My short list consisted of the following: The Light in the Piazza, Avenue Q, and Mamma Mia. Wicked was not even on my list. Thanks to my fellow Dreadnaughts on the Judith McNaught Bulletin Board, they recommended that I watch Wicked. A lot of them chimed in that they love it so much and tickets are hard to come by, blah blah blah... Well, I was easily convinced and I decided to get a ticket for Wicked based on their recommendation and someone mentioned that there will be a new actress taking over the role of Elphaba and that she is fantastic. I had no idea who she was. Nor did I care much about it. All I really wanted was to watch a show. This was about 2 weeks before my trip.

Fast forward to 1/17/2005 (or is it rewind from this day?). OMG! OMG! The show was amazing. Eden Espinosa who is playing Elphaba is SENSATIONAL! She's pretty darn good. Eden IS Elphaba for me. She had my attention from the moment that she walked on stage. Even when the spotlight was not on her and she was on stage, you could feel her presence. Very good actress. Very powerful voice. She gave me the chills when she sang Defying Gravity. It felt like she was trying to blow the top off the Gershwin Theatre. After listening to her sing that song, I knew I just had to watch it again. I went back to the hotel and looked on Ticketmaster to see if I could get tickets before Saturday. I also bought the Wicked Original Soundtrack off iTunes and just kept listening to it. Up to this day, it's still playing in a loop on my iPod. I also found the libretto for Wicked online and read it.

Now for Thursday (1/19/05) night's performance. I had a great seat! 4th row center orchestra, towards the righthand side of the stage. I was so happy about the seat. Elphaba stays at the right side of the stage most of the time. It was great that I was able to see the facial expressions. Eden's facial expressions where amazing. She brings out so much emotion to the role and makes Elphaba seem so real -- so HUMAN. She's so convincing in that role that she made me believe that she (Eden) IS Elphaba. She just blew me away. Her voice is so powerful and it was such a joy listening to her sing. I really enjoyed watching her a lot. It was worth every penny getting the tickets for the second time just to hear sing and watch her act. Megan Hilty (Glinda) played her role to perfection as well. She has the best lines in the show! Such a versatile actress with a lot of personality. She just cracked me up. I love both of them! I never knew who they were until I watched the show but they sure have made a fan out of me. I will definitely watch both Eden and Megan on any show!

I did the stagedoor after the show. Eden and Megan signed my stuff. They were both very nice. Eden is such a sweatheart. She seems very down to earth. Megan was, well, Glinda personified. It felt like you were still talking to Glinda. Well of course my camera decided not to work. I would've had a picture with both of them. Oh well... maybe next time. I guess I will just have to watch it again! :)

I wish I can go back to NYC in the next few months. I definitely will watch it again if Eden and Megan are still on the show.

NYC Trip - 01/21/2006

Ahhh.... There is nothing like the Big Apple!

I've been here for 10 days now. Went here for business -- I actually had to attend a class for a solution we're putting in place at my company. My flight back to San Francisco leaves in a few hours. I haven't really been sleeping that well ever since I got here. I always have a problem going East. It's always hard on me. EST sucks for me. My hubby is in PST and my work is in PST so I end up waking at an ungodly hour to get to class and I have to stay up late since I end up doing some work after class and when I am back at the hotel.

Speaking of hotel accomodations. I feel that I have been cursed! I may have angered a hotel clerk in my previous lifetime. The hotel I stayed with during my first night here was disgusting. There were exposed pipes in the room. The AC sounded like it was broken and no cold air was coming out of it. The AC vent looked like it has seen better days. I could hear everything on Lexington Avenue. I just had to move out of there. Good thing our EA was able to transfer me to the Royalton. Very nice hotel. Very chic. During the second night, steam started shooting out of the AC vent. They moved me to a smaller room so I sweet talked the night manager into upgrading me to a bigger and nicer room which he did. :) Soooo, I've decided that on my next trip, I'm going to play it safe. No staying at hotels I've never stayed before so it's either going to be the Palace or the Royalton.

I seem to have gotten in contact with a lot of my old friends on this trip. Too bad I didn't have time to go to Jersey. Ok, scrap that... I was too lazy to go to Jersey and they were busy. Sounds a lot better.

I finally met up with a friend of mine whom I haven't seen in about 15 years. That was something! Ok, this was on the same night as the second part of the season premiere of 24. We went back to the hotel after dinner and I was soooooo tempted to turn on the TV and watch 24. The better part of me prevailed and we just kept on talking instead and tried to catch up with all the things that have happened in the past up to now.

I got to watch The Light in the Piazza. Such a lovely love story. I also watched Wicked -- TWICE! Oy! I'll have to create a new blog for Wicked. I have 30 minutes before the car service shows up outside the hotel and I have not completely packed my stuff.