"Spamalot," work, other stuff

So last night (Thursday), I used my night off from work to see Monty Python's Spamalot on Broadway. Some of the original leads have already left the show; Simon Russell Beale replaced Tim Curry and Lauren Kennedy had replaced Sara Ramirez (both are pictured at left), so I was hoping that they would be worty replacements.

By all means, Spamalot was the hyped show of last season, so I had high expectations for it, having heard how brilliant it was. This kind of hype definitely diminished my enjoyment of The Producers when I first saw that on tour in Philadelphia, and it definitely also diminished my enjoyment of Spamalot.

It was by no means a bad show, but it was also by no means one of my favorites. I have yet to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail (though I borrowed it from Ally and will watch it soon), but it seems that if you liked the movie, you probably will like the show, or so was the concensus of the other people from Hayden who went to see the show.

I thought the performances of everyone were excellent, particularly Simon Russell Beale and Hank Azaria, but I just didn't feel as if the material was very good. The songs seemed like bad jokes drawn out to such lengths as to kill the humor -- they weren't so much songs as something resembling those odd interludes in cartoons that seem to have no obvious point, sort of like Animaniacs.

Lauren Kennedy was really good, and I like her voice a lot, particularly on her solo album, Songs of Jason Robert Brown. I'm told she wasn't as good as Sara Ramirez, who is definitely the standout of the cast recording, but she seemed like a suitable replacement.

Anyway, some parts were funny, as with the banter between Arthur and Patsy, particularly in the second act, but other parts were strained and too silly. I suppose that's just how Monty Python is. Anyway, I'd recommend the show to someone who has a real appreciation of Python humor. It seemed as if most people enjoyed the show very much. Personally, it was hard for me to sit in the Shubert Theatre and not think of the breathtaking performance by Bernadette Peters in Gypsy that I saw there just a few years ago. No contest.

I find it hard to believe that Spamalot won Best Musical in a year with The Light in the Piazza. What a crime! Piazza exudes elegance and craft of storytelling and character development the likes of which Spamalot should stand in awe of. On its own however, it was an entertaining enough evening at the theatre, and it got better in the second act than it was in the first.

Afterwards, I also got Hank Azaria, David Hyde Pierce, and Simon Russell Beale, to sign a playbill (and one for Ally, who had so wanted to see Spamalot). I felt almost as if I was betraying her, having said so many times I had little desire to see the show and ending up seeing it when she was completely unable to come (as she went home this weekend). Hopefully, she'll accept the playbill at least as a token that I would have rather seen it with her (though I'm not sure I'd eagerly go again).

Anyway, I've bought quite a few plays in the past few days, including:

The Emigrants by Slawomir Mrozek
Art by Yasmina Reza
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee
The Zoo Story and The Sandbox by Edward Albee
Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill
Love Letters to Stalin by Juan Mayorga
and
Hamletmachine by Heiner Muller

I also bought Anthony Rapp's new memoir, Without You at $12.50, because I bought a review copy at Strand Books. I love that place! I'm going to his signing a little later in the month, so I wanted to buy the book at as cheap a price as I could find so as to avoid paying the Barnes and Noble price at the signing. I'm quite excited for the signing, and I kind of regret missing his signing at Hayden. I hope to finish his book before the signing so I know what he's talking about at the event.

I've been working a lot this week, putting in extra hours to qualify for my $50 bonus, and I'm thinking of putting in some time this weekend to add to my next paycheck. I'm at a point now where I'm beginning to enjoy my job, so it's beginning to feel less like work than a challenging game with goals that must be met. Since a lot of the veteran callers are gone, I've been entrusted with some better calling pools, includying lybunts and sybunts (gave last year but unfortunately not this year/some year but unfortunately not this year). Those people, who have given in the past and are usually inclined to continue giving, are so much nicer to talk to. I feel less like a shyster attempting to rip off working class people and more of an extension of NYU's hand to its willing contributors. (Heh, that was quite cheesy).

I have a new list of shows that I really want to see. I got tickets to Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center, so I have that one already planned out. I also want to see (in order of how much I want to see them/priority due to time restraint):

1. Chita Rivera: A Dancer's Life - It's in its last weeks, and, though I previously had no desire to see the show, I now feel it'd be worth the rush price to see this legend, perhaps for the last time. She was spectacular in Nine, and she performs a lot of great songs in this show ("All That Jazz," "Nowadays," "America")

2. Three Days of Rain - This play, a revival of Richard Greenberg's play, stars Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd, two of my favorite actors, so I really hope that the show as standing room so I can get a chance to see it.

3. The Drowsy Chaperone - It was just announced that The Woman in the White will soon be closing, and the next tenant at the Marquis Theatre is a new show with Sutton Foster called The Drowsy Chaperone. The show is about a musical theatre enthusiast who listens to one of his favorite cast recordings and allows the show to play itself out in his mind (and integrate itself into his life, if I've read the synopses correctly). Anyway, I saw some models of the sets, and it looks like a really charming show that's a little bit nostalgia and different from most of the shows currently on Broadway.

4. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Now that Jonathan Pryce, Rachel York, and Norbert Leo Butz are the three leads (and Joanna Gleason continues in her supporting role), I really want to see this show. It's one of the shows I should have seen by now but just haven't. I tried the lottery once before but lost.

5. Threepenny Opera - Starring Cyndi Lauper, Jim Dale, Alan Cumming, and Ana Gasteyer, this is the one revival of a musical I most want to see (that I haven't yet -- Sweeney Todd was amazing and will be hard to live up to). I don't know much at all about the show, but I hear it's spectacular.

6. The Pajama Game - Starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara, another show I don't know much about but just looks like a charming, light good time. I love Kelli, though. She was fabulous in The Light in the Piazza.

7. Lestat - What can I say? I love Elton John and his theatrical scores, so this one intrigues me. Plus, what I've read of The Interview with the Vampire was very interesting, and this show stars Hugh Panaro and Carolee Carmello. Despite the fact that this show has been plagued by backstage rumors, it still looks compelling.

8. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - I've done the lottery twice for this show and lost, but it seems really funny, and I love the score. It's not quite as urgent I see this show though, simply because the cast isn't as important to me.

Money permitting, I hope to see most of these shows by the time summer comes. I doubt I'll see them all, but we'll see.