Show Week

A lot has happened in the past week!  As mentioned in my previous post I saw Aladdin and Of Mice and Men recently.  Well in the days following that I would go on to see 3 more shows!  It was an exhausting week but so, so much fun.  A good friend of my dad's was in town for a theatre conference and she ended up having an extra ticket to the shows she was seeing so very kindly asked if I would like to join her.  My answer was, of course, an immediate and resounding YES!

The first show we saw was Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.  To tell the truth, this is not a show that had been on my radar much.  I had heard about it, had heard nothing but good things, but I didn't particularly know anything about Carole King.  When I found out I'd be seeing this musical I watched the promo online for it and, it turns out, I knew every single song in the show!

It was actually a fascinating story about this woman who I had no idea had such influence over the music scene of the 60's and 70's.  I hope it does well in the Tonys this year!



The second show was If/Then.  Yes I already saw it, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it just as much the second time!  I've already talked about it in a previous post so let's move on.

The third show I saw was A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.  This was one I had been wanting to see for a while.  I had heard great things about it.  The main plot is about a guy who finds out he's 8 people away from being an Earl.  So...he decides to kill all of the people in his way.  But it's a comedy!  And all of the victims are played by the same actor!  Fun times all around :)

Of Mice and Men in the time of Aladdin

Sometimes when it rains it pours, but in this case the rain drops are made of Broadway shows so I'm not complaining!

On Friday my coworker and I did the student rush for Of Mice and Men.  Surprisingly, I had never read the play before, but knowing it was a classic and knowing the cast, I really wanted to see it.  James Franco and Chris O'Dowd were both in the show, though the whole cast was wonderful.

Chris O'Dowd has been in a lot of BBC shows and he does one show I really love called Moone Boy that we're currently distributing on Hulu.  It's about an 11 year old boy in Ireland and his imaginary friend (who is a grown man with the most common name in Ireland, aka Chris O'Dowd).  It's really cute and my coworker and I kept singing the theme song, even though it doesn't quite match the tone of the play we were seeing.

Somehow I've made it this far in my life without knowing much about the show, so I was definitely surprised by everything that happened.  It's kind of a depressing play, though I was definitely expecting it to be so.  I enjoyed it immensely though!

Sadly, I've got no video for Of Mice and Men because none of the videos I could find really give you a sense of the show.  So you'll just have to take my word for it :)

Before the show we also wandered into the Tony Awards pop up shop.  I found lots of expensive things I wanted to buy, surprise surprise.

Then, yesterday I had walking adventures with my roommates.  We walked the entire length of the Highline and also just wandered around.  After our wandering adventures we put our names in for the lottery for Aladdin, and my name was the first name called!  So Monica and I went to see Aladdin, which was so much fun.

Aladdin was such a fun musical.  It was a tad different than the original animated movie but I can see why they made the changes that they did and it was just so full of joy that I couldn't have asked for anything more.  The entire cast was really great, but the genie definitely stole the show.

Oh, and our tickets ended up being in the first row!  So we were right up close to all the action.

I was able to find a good video for Aladdin so here it is for your viewing pleasure :)

Williamsburg is Weird

Kari and I went on an adventure to Williamsburg today!  (That's in Brooklyn).  Williamsburg is where all the hipsters live.  We walked A LOT and saw some crazy things.  So here's a little photo journaling of our adventures.

We had lunch at this Mexican restaurant. Good enchiladas, but spicy!

A flower shop that according to the sign also is a pizzeria, diner
and has both steak and sushi.  Eclectic I suppose?

A burger place completely themed around comic books.
Even the menu is separated into "heroes" and "villains"

Unfortunately Denim Hut was closed

The water and the NY skyline!

Also met up with my coworker.  This is him being silly

This bar called "Surf Bar" actually has sand on the floor

What a crazy gold car!

Taco truck...in the middle of a bar that used to be a
swimming pool

Rhode Island

Monica took me to Rhode Island this weekend!  It was a pretty whirlwind trip, but so much fun!

We went so that I could finally meet her friend from college (who is awesome!).  Her and her fiancé picked us up Friday night and we went out to a local pub called Bar Louie for dinner and drinks.

Train Buddies!

The Rhode Island skyline at night

Then on Saturday we went with Emily to her wedding dress fitting but before we did that we got to have breakfast at her family's Guatemalan restaurant.  It was so yummy!  I don't think I've ever actually eaten Guatemalan food before, and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

The dress came from a store called Vows in Boston.  It's actually featured in a show on TLC called I Found the Gown.  Though I've been told by my reality TV guru (aka Kari) that Say Yes to the Dress is better.  The seamstress the company works with and recommends is also featured in the show and she's the woman who the dress fitting was with.  She was very no nonsense but definitely seemed extremely competent and was fun to watch her with all the different brides (she was running late).

Saturday night Monica and I had a low key evening playing games and eating pizza.  But we did go for a walk around the neighborhood (I have to get my steps in after all).  All in all it was a fun trip!

Look at this cool treehouse!

If/Then

If a show comes to Broadway and especially if it has an amazing cast, Then I will want to see it!

The show If/Then is a new show starring Idina Menzel and Anthony Rapp (of Rent fame) and I saw it last night.  The quick summary is that I really loved the show.  Basically it's about a a woman at a crossroads in her life.  If she goes one way, one story happens, and if she goes a different way her life is completely different.  So throughout the show she's living two different lives (in one she's Liz, in the other Beth).  It was really fascinating how they switched between one timeline to the other, yet always keeping the consistency of the story flowing.

The music was really amazing, and of course the acting and singing was also amazing.  It was just really different than your standard musical in the execution.  The set was fairly bare, but set pieces moved in and out quickly and the ceiling was also a mirror that would come down and show you what was on the floor of the stage.  For example, during one song you see a map of the NYC subway system in lights on the floor.  That was the other fun thing, a majority of the songs were about NY and it was fun to be able to understand all of the references.

Here's a look at the show!

Bridges of Madison County and Easter!

Happy Easter!

My easter weekend has been relatively low key, but still quite enjoyable.  Work was pretty slow on Friday because both the Canadian and UK offices were closed.  Then on Saturday I met up with Seth and we went wandering around Brooklyn.  The weather was actually starting to warm up, so we were able to take a long walk around Prospect Park.  We walked close to 3 miles!

Entrance to the park

Somebody lost their kite in the trees

After walking around all day I was tired!  So when Sunday rolled around I wanted to take it pretty easy.  Kari made hot cross buns for breakfast, which was quite yummy.  It was my idea to dye the frosting green!

After relaxing some more, we headed out to see a show.  Kari and I had been wanting to see Bridges of Madison County before it closes (we think the end must be near for this show).  It had Kelli O'Hara and Hunter Foster in it, who are two actors I really like and who are super talented.  Plus, the music was done by the same guy who did The Last Five Years (which I really enjoyed).

The show was pretty interesting.  The music in it was really pretty, but I'm not sure what I thought about the plot.  Now, I've never read the book or seen the movie so I really can't compare, but I just thought the plot left a lot to be desired.  I still don't really know how to describe the plot except that a woman has an affair with a passing by photographer (there to photograph the covered bridges) and then has to decide whether or not to leave her family to go with him.



After the show we came back to make dinner!  A good end to a good weekend :)

Upright Citizens Brigade

Wednesday night I was able to experience my very first every show at the Upright Citizens Brigade!  UCB is a comedy club where they do a lot of improv and sketch shows and they also hold classes.  A lot of famous actors (particularly SNL alums) got their start performing at UCB so you never know who's going to show up.

In this particular case, my coworker knew there was a good show coming up so some of us from work went!  The show is hosted by Mike Birbiglia (a comedian I've actually heard of!) He's generally a stand up comedian but I guess he likes to dabble in improv.  The format of the show is he talks to the audience about their day, then might tell a short story of his own, and then his back up improvers and him improv a little scene that's related to whatever they were just talking about.  The other fun surprise was that one of the improvers was Cristin Miloti!  She was the actress who played the mother on How I Met your Mother as well as starring in the original broadway cast of Once.

We were even sitting in the front row so I could see everything and was inches away from the performers!

We then stayed to see another short 1/2 hour sketch show called Billy Joel, Sketches from an Italian Restaurant.  It was a sketch show all based on the music of Billy Joel and was really funny and silly.

I've just realized it's much harder to write about improv than it is about a musical!  Far less pictures and video exist :)