It's been a while

It's been a while since I last posted. Much has happened.

Follies in Concert rocked my world. The Coast of Utopia bored me beyond belief (besides for the riveting performance of Jennifer Ehle as Natalie Herzen in part two, entitled Shipwreck, featured at right with Brian F O'Byrne).

King Hedley II at Signature Theatre Company was similarly impressive. It's been a particularly good season for August Wilson, and I've still yet to see Radio Golf, which will be coming soon to the Cort Theatre on Broadway with Tonya Pinkins.

I've been hopelessly addicted to the comforts of Joni Mitchell lately as well. I got a few more of her albums, each of which is growing on me. She's such a wonderful and varied artist.

I've also been to a few poetry readings, and a freelance "family style" rapper rapped to me about heterosexual anal sex ("the pole and the hole") in the middle of Union Square, filling in my name and clothing in order to impress me. It didn't work.

The Follies concert at City Center, featuring Victoria Clark and Victor Garber (older couple shown above), as well as Michael McGrath and Donna Murphy, was absolutely spectacular. The show, with a score by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman, tells the interweaving stories of characters' present and past selves at a reunion for follies girls as their theatre is about to be razed and turned into a parking lot. I hadn't been fully aware of the integration of the device of having characters' older and younger selves playing out scenes concurrently, and I have to say it really rocked my world. Very fascinating and emotionally volatile!

Otherwise, up to my same quick-witted tricks.

Much to catch y'all up on

So last Thursday, I saw the final dress rehearsal of Howard Katz at Roundabout with Emma. It starred Alfred Molina and is by the writer of Closer and the screenplay for Notes on a Scandal, Patrick Marber. It was quite good -- Molina is a powerhouse. The play was about a man going through a midlife crisis, and the writing, particularly at the end, saved the play from going down the slippery slope of triteness.

Last Saturday, I saw the first part of The Coast of Utopia, a trilogy of plays by Tom Stoppard about Russian philosophers. The first part was called Voyage, and it certainly left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, a lot of the ideas brought up in the play were interesting and well-written. On the other, the characters came and went so fleetingly, that it was hard to follow who people were and to genuinely care about them as individuals rather than as talking heads. Besides for that, time jumped around and flew by so sporadically that it felt more like a movie than a play. I still have two parts left to see, so I'll be able to pass judgment more accurately later, but I just thought it was a pain that I had to read a three-page synopsis to understand what was going on by intermission. The man next to me fell asleep.

Time has generally been flying. I finished my first short story for Creative Writing class, and I think it's pretty good. On Tuesday, it'll be workshopped by my class, so I'm both excited and nervous.

Tonight, I'm going to see Follies in concert at City Center with Victoria Clark, Victor Garber, and Donna Murphy, so I'm sure I'll be posting soon enough with my reactions to that.