Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas this year is for the producers of A Christmas Carol on Broadway to promise me they will bring back this same exact production with the same exact cast with the same exact gratifying snowy and sparkly panache each and every holiday season until forever…
While in the audience at The Lehman Trilogy I learned, among a zillion other things, that I am a middle man for providing experiences. I have no hand in the creation of the experiences. I am but a fellow experience seeker and I take groups with me to share in the experience. I LOVE IT! So I will continue to embrace this role of cultural middle man for a good long time. And an experience is exactly what was proffered when almost 70 of us met at the Park Avenue Armory to view the staggeringly stark, but supremely powerful The Lehman Trilogy.
The idea for this theater group, Grab Your Group and Go, that I spend hours on end managing was born while sitting in the audience at the musical Once some 5 years ago. I sat there in awe of the raw singing and emotion on display and thought to myself – OMG, EVERYONE needs to see this show! While in the audience at Superhero I felt that way again….
I have trouble imagining a more daunting endeavor than taking the beloved, vaunted, prescient words of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and putting them into the form of a play. Then to have to cast these iconic and besotted characters presents a whole other hairball of a challenge. Well, thank goodness there are brave people in this world, because seeing To Kill a Mockingbird on stage was a dream come true – a dream I didn’t even know I had…
This is a play that needs to be experienced. It is a play that teaches, inspires, and satisfies. It would be impossible to sit in that cozy circle in the round theater perched on your deliberately inviting, colorful and dare I say, highly feminine, seat cushion with matching back pillow (custom ordered for this show) and not experience a flurry of emotions and life introspection…
Don’t tell the husband, but I have a massive crush on a giant gorilla. My crush is 20 feet tall and weighs 2,000 pounds. He has soft brown eyes that can make you melt and a roar that can set you back, but leave you wanting more…
I am often asked to add friends to my email “list.” Then I ask the follow up question: do you mean the blog or the theater newsletter? This question gets a bit of head tilt and then the inevitable follow up question. What’s the difference? Here is my answer…
The group on stage at the Iceman Cometh led me to contemplate what it means when I say “Grab Your Group and GO”. The characters in this Eugene O’Neill play represent the antithesis of grabbing your group and going. This is a group that gathers and stays and waits…
Regina George (aka Taylor Louderman) can sing. And rock a fat suit. And command a stage. And she can be really, really mean, which was her job as head Plastic. I loved her. I loved her honesty, her fearless nature and her confidence. And when her sound system went kaput towards the end of the show I loved her even more…
Carousel landed firmly on my radar when I learned that Jessie Mueller and Renee Fleming were headlining the show. This is the third time the theater group has gathered to see the always enchanting Jessie Mueller. We saw her first in Beautiful in February of 2015 and again in Waitress in April 2016 where she handily debuted both roles. Once Ms. Mueller was coupled with the serious singing chops of opera phenom Renee Fleming, I knew the show was a safe bet. While these outsize talents did not disappoint it is the dancing and the lighting that are my two reasons for highly recommending this show….
Not sure what I was thinking by scheduling three Broadway shows directly on the heels of a long trip to Japan, but I am certain I must have thought it was a good idea at the time. In fact it was a very good idea…
Thank you to all those involved in the production of Farinelli and the King for a perfectly satisfying and sumptuous evening on Broadway….
There was a lot of love flying around on stage last night at the Hudson Theater. Loathing also figured prominently. And lying, lots and lots of lying…
When I think of what a night on Broadway includes, I think of colorful sets, booming musical numbers and powerful characters interacting. The Band’s Visit is the opposite of this. It was quiet, it took it’s time, it was monochromatic; still it was one of the best nights I’ve had on Broadway. My heart ached for these characters. There are so many reasons to grab your group and go see this show, here are just a few of them…
I am not sure what exactly was going through Steve Martin’s brain when he wrote Meteor Shower. But I do know, the end result was a fun night on Broadway that was filled with laughter….