I Need A Little More Time...

My schedule is complete madness right now. Of course, those of you who know me well know that my schedule is always madness. But sometimes there is a little more insanity than usual. This is one of those times.

Yesterday I had a wonderful, albeit brief, dinner with friends and then joined another group of friends downtown to see NYU's production of Violet. That would have been, of course, the optimal time to take in the matinee of [title of show] before it shutters on October 12th but my bank account, unfortunately, disagrees. I am hoping that Hunter, Jeff, Heidi and Susan's current campaign to save [tos] keeps it on the boards a little bit longer. If you haven't already done so, please sign the petition to get them on Ellen. You never know... If Ellen tells 999,000 people and those 999,000 tell 9 people...

Well, you do the math.

You Can't See Everything

OK everyone, this economy is beginning to piss me off! Why? Because I can't afford to go to the theatre.

It angers and saddens me to hear and say these words. But it's true.

Despite the fact that all but one of the Broadway and Off-Broadway shows I've seen this year have been either heavily discounted, inexpensive (under $20), a gift or free, it is still a costly venture. When you figure in the price of getting into the City, parking and food, it can end up costing in the neighborhood of $100. Multiply that by a dozen shows and we're talking a significant chunk of change. Factor that in with the rising costs of gas, utilities and food and it's just not pretty.

Alicia's world with no theatre. Not pretty.

The other distressing effect this economy has is on the shows themselves. Several shows planned for the 2008-2009 season have been postponed or canceled, primarily due to issues of the money sort. Running shows have been taking the hit at the box office. This is the reason Rent closed. This is the reason I was not able to see Passing Strange before it closed. This is probably why I will not get to see [title of show] before it closes.

My bemoaning the fact that I had heard that [title of show] is papering heavily and is rumored to close very soon was met with this response from my husband: "You can't see everything."

So not pretty. I really wanted to tell Susan Blackwell that she is my hero.

Good thing we received an early anniversary gift from my father and will be seeing Equus in October. Because if I missed that it would get downright ugly.

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A Mamma Mia Oscar for Streep Is Doubtful

For those of you who belong to the faction that feels Meryl Streep should receive an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Donna Sheridan in the summer blockbuster Mamma Mia, I implore you to watch this.

Meryl Streep will assuredly garner a 2008 Oscar nod for her portayal of Sister Aloysius, the role for which Cherry Jones won the 2005 Best Actress Tony Award. While I would have preferred to see Cherry go head-to-head with Philip Seymour Hoffman, I am intrigued to see Streep's interpretation of the role.

And if Streep's portrayal of the flaky Donna Sheridan wins out over hard-nosed nun Sister Aloysius, you can expect to hear some loud protestations. And I mean loud!

Broadway's 2009 Season Continues to Beckon

The ridiculousness of my schedule right now has me literally standing in a room, spinning in circles before pointing myself in the direction of the next project that needs my attention. Very frustrating. Because I have a LOT to write about but no time to do it in.

That said, I had to stop in for a minute because I could not let these two litle tidbits pass my ever-faithful readers by:

TIDBIT #1.

First, there has recently been a lot of hoopla about the closing night of Rent. This hoopla is justified because Rent has, in my opinion, valiantly earned its place in musical theatre history for so many reasons. You can pretty much Google "Rent closing night" and read any of the aforementioned hoopla but I was struck by a paragraph with Playbill.com's hoopla that made me quite happy:

[Kevin McCollum] opens West Side Story Dec. 16 in Washington D.C.'s National Theatre, where it was originally launched in 1957, and will open on Broadway "at a theatre we're going to name in about three weeks. When Arthur called and said, 'I think it should also be bilingual,' I said, 'Okay, I'm in.' Even though it's a revival, it's a fresh take. I'm excited about that. We're talking to Lin-Manuel Miranda about translating Sondheim into Spanish. He has met with Arthur. He's going to meet with Stephen. It's just a consult right now. We're just asking him to contribute ideas, and we'll see what happens.

I just saw In The Heights on Saturday night and, while West Side Story was already very much on my radar, it is now an even brighter beeping beacon with the involvement of the infectiously charming and talented Lin-Manuel Miranda.

(SIDENOTE: I really hope that I can spend a few minutes to do a review of In The Heights but if you reference Paragraph #1 you will see that it is not coming any time soon.)

TIDBIT #2.

It has been officially announced that The Public's production of Hair is officially making the move to Broadway in 2009. Given the play's subject matter, I find it quite ironic and telling that this announcement was officially made on September 11th. I've seen this production evolve from its concert version in September 2007 and the Central Park staging in August 2008 and I am very much looking forward to the Broadway revival.

Beads. Flowers. Freedom. Happiness.

Much happiness.

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