Ahhhh! Review Catch Up May-October 2009

May:

Caberetnoir - Act Theater

Teatro Zin Zani - Our first Gala

Sunday in the Park with George - 5th Ave

Marriage of Figaro - Seattle Opera

Greese - 5th Ace

June:

Below the Belt - ACT

Alaska Cruise! Barely managed to resist buying a fur coat that looked like it was made for me. Mini-suite was a wise choice, we'll be doing that again.

July:

Bought a House! Built in 1957, it was a very retro feel. We knew it was for us the moment we walked in.

7/7/09 NKOTB and got house keys :)

Lake Ozette/No Doubt Ninja Weekend

August:

Catch Me If You Can - 5th Ave : Saw Norbert Leo Butts, AMAZING!

Das bar-B-Que - ACT : Wonderful! Best way to understand the Ring Cycle

Tim Noah! - Library Program : I danced the "Wow Wow Wibble Wobble Wazzy Wooddle Woo!"

September:

Pink - Key Arena : Awesome....

Wicked - 5th Ave : More acting, they made some plot adjustments.

No Disneyworld trip for Congaloosh! because we, ya know, bought a house....

October:

Rock 'n Roll - ACT

Joseph - 5th Ave

La Traviata - Seattle Opera

Cats!

To quote Chandler Bing - it's people, dressed like cats, acting like people!

I have always wanted to see Cats and I was not let down. Interestingly, it was very much like an opera and not very much like a musical at all. The costumes were spectacular but it was the dancing that was mind bending. How the ensemble managed to dance like that and sing defies the limits of the human body.

The singing itself was ok, but not stellar. The CD is still the mark to measure against. Both Ryan and I wondered if they just turned the volume up for Grizabella's song "Memory". I think seeing it once will be fine, not like Wicked that I can see over and over again, but I'm so glad that I did see it.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This was our first show at the ACT and wow! We were totally blown away by this production and our first thought was geesh- why did we waste a season at the Rep? (Sorry Rep but it's true). The ACT is our kind of theater.

While there was no set as the theater is in the round, and the minimal set pieces were unobtrusive but it was the acting and staging that stole the show. With four different actors playing Mr. Hyde (including a woman) the performance was just mesmerizing. I don't want to give anything away, but this is a must see. With simple yet effective costume techniques Mr. Hyde comes out with a flip of a cape to revel the bright orange lining underneath, and a rotation of cast members that somehow keep all the parts clear. We can't wait for the next show.

Our 8th Anniversary & The Rat Pack Live at the Sands

We finally got to Portland to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We stayed at this great hotel called the Benson within walking distance to Powell's and Voodoo Doughnuts.

But the highlight of our trip was to seeing The Rat Pack Live at the Sands.

"With a talented cast and 15-piece orchestra, take a trip back to the glamorous, hot, glitzy nights of Las Vegas. Experience Frank, Sammy & Dean’s world famous classic recordings and more in this sensationally staged production that brings the music and lives of these legendary characters together again."

This show was amazing! It was like going back in time and watching Frank, Dean and Sammie vamping with the crowd and drinking their way through a show! These guys had the mannerisms and voices to match the icons they portrayed. The actor playing Sammie Davies Jr. could do the dancing and physical comedy as well.

We would highly recommend this show to anyone who is a fan of the Rat Pack. The only negative to the show was the auditorium itself. Portland is a much mellower audience (it turned out for the best that Ryan forgot his cuff links for his tux) but they were selling peanuts in bags to take into the theater!!! What is it, the circus????

After the show we went to a steak house which was incredible, but dear god the portions were huge! Everything was so supersized that the 16oz steak was considered small and we shared it.

All and all it was a lovely celebration of our wedding anniversary.

Wishful Drinking

This was our last show at the Rep, and very good. Carrie Fisher did a one woman monologue for two hours and was highly entertaining. I think my favorite part was "Hollywood Inbreeding 101" where Carrie goes through the twisted branches of her family tree. The analogy of her father Eddie Fisher = Brad Pitt, her mother Debbie Reynolds = Jennifer Aniston and Elizabeth Taylor = Angelina Jolie. That makes things crystal clear!

Her frank talk about mental illness, family dysfunction and living in Hollywood was enlightening.

The story about how her mother was locked in the closet at age 6 by her grandmother and after a few hours asked for a glass of water. Her mother asked her why. Debbie Reynolds responded that she had used up all her spit spitting on her mother's dresses and she wanted to spit on her mother's shoes! Carrie asked her about this one time, and her grandmother replied that they didn't know about parenting back then.

There were fun Star Wars facts (like George Lucus doesn't allow underwear in space) and how disconcerting it is to have your likeness used for everything from a pez dispenser and screw off head shampoo bottle.

Hello, Dolly!

We were excited to see Hello, Dolly for two reasons. 1. Pat Cashman (that high fiven' white guy!) 2. WALL-E.

Costumes: 5 stars

Actors/Actresses: 5 stars (we especially were impressed with Suzanne Bouchard)

Sets: 5 stars

Dancing: 5+ stars!

Music: 5 stars

Why didn't we like it more? The plot! It was pretty meh...neither of us felt that Dolly and Horace should end up getting hitched. But It Only Takes a Moment between the widowed hat maker and the feed clerk did. But they at least spent all day together! Which is more than Dolly ever did with her new husband to be! 

Verdict, I think snuggling up with the Michael Crawford movie version would serve just as well. Plus you can turn it off if the plot isn't doing it for you either.

Through the Looking Glass: The Burlesque Alice in Wonderland

The awesome friends that invited us to Moisturefest also invited us to the Triple Door to see Through the Looking Glass: The Burlesque Alice in Wonderland for Jenn's birthday. It was amazing! We had mirror Aliceses (one blond, one black haired) with opposite black and white costumes. Once both Aliceses are through the looking glass they end up at the White Rabbit's club where we are entertained. By the end when we pretty much saw everything and it was surprising just how identical the two artists were! 

We felt like we were at the Sands in the 50s or 60s which was loads of fun. Not all the acts took it all off, and those were just as mesmerizing. Our favorites were:

• The Caterpillar had the TriBellas underneath who also had these amazing mushroom costumes. 
  
• The Cheshire Cat who started out in a buff man thong and slowly got dressed
  
• The Red and White Queens battling
  
• The waitress EatMe who sounded like Dr. Girlfriend 
• The Flamingos (the TriBellas again)
• The Tigerlily (who made her pasties go in opposite directions at the same time!)

The Seafarer

The Seafarer was dark, depressing and drunk. Very Irish. The main characher was very hard to like once we found out he beat someone to death.

But he beat the Devil in a game of cards on Christmas Eve and was conveniently let out of jail scott free. 20 years have passed and the Devil is back to collect his soul.

Lots of drinking, arguing and cards are played and in the end the Devil slinks off. But it was a heck of a ride getting there. 

The husband enjoyed this far more than I did, (a little to dark and drunk for the Disney Princess loving gal that I am) but I will admit the the set was great. The artistic director managed to create a house, yard and street for all the action to take place on. 

Birthday's and Burlesque

Fiyero had his first birthday on March 10th. So, of course we had to have a party to celebrate! We invited our friends and their puppy dogs over for a fun day of BBQ and watching the doggies play. On Sunday, we celebrate our friend's 29th birthday by watching Gremlin's at the Cinerama. 

To make the weekend even more fun, we went to the Moisturefest Burlesque shows on Friday and Saturday night with friends.

Friday Night:
Host: Rob Williams
Show band: Zebra Kings
Aerialistas, Belle Cozette, Bellini Twins, Ben DeLaCreme, Fuchsia Foxxx, Heavenly Spies, Inga Ingenue, Nanda, The Shanghai Pearl, Sydni Deveraux, Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey, Buxom

Saturday Night:
Host: Madame X
Show band: Zebra Kings
Belle Cozette, Ben DeLaCreme, Jonathan Rose, Nanda, Rob Williams, Shanghai Pearl, Swedish Housewife, Tamara the Trapeze Lady, TriBellas Belly Dance, The Von Foxies, Buxom, Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey

Our favorites were the Aerialistas, the Bellini Twins (where was the bowling ball hiding?), Bed DeLa Creme (Eve and the snake in the Garden of Eden), Fuchsia Foxx (great belly dancing), Nanda (action fantasy), the Shanghai Pearl (she starts out in a pink monkey costume), Sydni Deveraux (I will never look at a photo of Barack Obama the same way again), Trixie and the Evil Hate Monkey, Buxom (bawdy songs!)

Rob Williams made a sandwich with his feel which was both compelling and disgusting. Burlesque was lots of fun!

Bluebeard's Castle & Erwartung

The husband and I have been debating the pros and cons of attending Opera previews. We went to the Elektra preview together and he felt that it ruined the surprise of the experience. I liked the extra information so I went to the preview for Bluebeard & Erwartung alone. I have to admit that he was right...

I think it might be a generational thing, because the opera guy told us that we should resist the urge to leave Erwartung because the atonal composition was so grating- but Ryan and I both loved it!

The staging for both one act operas was amazing as the stage itself became a character. Bluebeard was first, and there was a band of water and the front of the stage. At first you couldn't even see it, it only became visible as Judith opened the doors to the horrors of Bluebeard's castle. At first I thought, oh, that's neat, it's probably a few inches deep. But at the climatic moment I nearly jumped out of my chair when Bluebeard's previous three wives slowly emerged from the lake! They were going so slowly that I don't know how they held their breath that long.

After the intermission it was Erwartung. Now, the preview guy was correct, this piece is atonal, but it's grabbing. There is only one singer, the woman whose psycocis we're watching. According to the preview guy the opera is set in the woods, but it makes more sense the way we saw it staged in a mental institution. I jumped out of my seat again, when the body of the man she was in love with rolled down the stage, into the lake face down and was ripped off stage.

Lion King and Lucy

This was the second time seeing the Lion King for us, and we had a nice group of 8 attending the show. Overall it was an amazing show, I think everyone should see the Lion King at least once in their lifetime.

I was sad to see that there had been some tinkering done since the last time it was in town and not for the better. There were some new ballet moments and what my friends and I jokingly referred to as the "naked butt cheek". Really, that didn't need to be there! The aerial ballet was lovely and had it been in another show would have been completely appropriate. My last complaint is that they added the ensemble to a few songs in African inspired outfits...ummm...hello! The show is about ANIMALS, it completely broke the mood have people. They worked so hard on the costumes that this just doesn't make any sense.

The following day we headed off to the Science Center to see the Lucy exhibit. The place was crazy and there were lines going out to Wazu. We got snapped at twice trying to figure out which line was for the ticket booth and which for the kiosks. So we went to the other side and used the completely empty kiosk. People seriously need to embrace kiosks! And be nicer. We killed some time before our entry time at the Laser Dome watching the 80s Show which was loads of fun!

As to the Lucy exhibit, we were glad that we saw the bones but we both felt that it had been mis-marketed. It should have been called Ethiopia, with Lucy. The majority was on the history, culture and religion of Ethiopia which was very interesting and I would have gone to see regardless. But by putting the focus on Lucy we were expecting a paleontology based exhibit. But it was only the last bit.

Memphis

Memphis tells the story of a disc jokey who gets "race music" on the radio. Or, Rock n'Roll. It also doesn't hurt that the music was composed by David Bryan (the drummer for Bon Jovi)!

The husband and I had to laugh when during act 1 the main character makes fun of Perry Como. Our first dance at our wedding was to Perry Como (but we know we skew older).

Living in the Pacific Northwest, one can be blissfully unaware of the discrimination that has happened in other areas of the country. I was unpleasantly reminded of my own racist southern grandmother (that we stopped talking to when I was a tween). I don't think she would have like this production. Memphis brings an unfortunate era in American history out into the open and ready for discussion. This would be an excellent show for older elementary and middle school students to attend as part of a social studies unit.

Kudos to the cast and crew for a job well done. I sincerely hope this show does make it to Broadway- it deserves it. Our only complaint was the soundboard was off. Perhaps the opera is spoiling us, but there was a tinniness at times, even though we could hear that it wasn't coming from the singer...and occasionally the ensemble overpowered the main characters.

Interestingly, we both felt that Memphis was a much stronger show then Shrek and the audience response seemed to agree with us. Good luck Memphis!

The Pearl Fishers

This was the opera where we decided if we would renew our subscription. I am pleased to report that YES! we will be renewing our tickets.

The Pearl Fishers was overwhelming- the staging, singing and music were just beautiful. They used some wire harnesses to have it appear that men were actually diving to the bottom of the ocean looking for pearls. At one point Ryan just closed his eyes and listed to the music. I gave up on the super titles and just absorbed what I was experiencing.

The Pearl Fishers tells the story of a love triangle, two best friends in love with the same girl. But to save their friendship they both forsake the girl and go their separate ways. Coincidentally the friends reunite on the same night that their lady love is brought to pray over the pearl harvest. Passions reignite between the friend that had gone off into the woods and the priestess and then things start to go badly.

At the end, the couple runs off and the remaining friend is left to be killed by the angry villagers.
Not the happiest of endings but incredibly powerful!

Sing-a-Long Sound of Music

The dear husband and I went to one of these on our honeymoon in Vancouver almost eight years ago. And we've been meaning to get tickets again over the years. But I finally got my act together and we went to the 5th Ave to bring in the New Year on January 3rd.

This is such a fun event, I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the movie. It starts with a costume contest and there are always so many great ideas. The top two was a large guy in a yellow jumpsuit with "Ray" on the front. He was a "ray of golden sun". The winners were these clever tweens who a plastic guitar - they were "tea with jammin' bread". This clever kid pulled off some rock star moves complete with air strumming and a slide on to the stage. Add in all the adorable children and it was loads of fun. We ran into one of the dear husbands co-workers whose family had dressed up as adelvise.

Now, this is a participatory event. The audience sings along with the movie, and a la Rocky Horror there are certain things to do. For instance, we need to call for Maria as we wait for the credits to finish and her to appear. When we sing Doe-a-Deer there are all motions for each note. Whenever the Baroness comes onscreen one must boo or hiss like a mad cat. And when that bad boy Raulf appears one must bark like a dog because that is what he is. We got poppers to pop when Maria and the Captain finally kiss (there was some pre-mature popping in the audience) and we had little pieces of fake adelvise to wave.

I hope the 5th Ave gets this every year because we are thinking this is the kind of event we'd like to make our New Years tradition.

You Can't Take it With You

Ironically, we were supposed to see this before all the weather hit. We got downtown and parked only to be turned away at the door (and you know how I hate paying for parking!). The leading lady was ill and the option was to see Boom (which we had already seen), so we just turned around and came home.

But on the30th we headed back to the Rep, and finally got to see this show. Now, going in we knew that Seven Brides had set the bar pretty high and that whatever we saw afterwards had a high chance of disappointing, and I have to report that our conclusion was meh. The sets were great and the acting was good, but the play itself wasn't enought to keep our minds from going a-wandering as the play progressed. I think part of the problem was that the segregation portion hadn't transfered well, and the over exageration while proably considered amusing at the time it was written felt jarring. But then of course, we're liberals who live in Seattle!

At this point we're three shows in (3 Musketeers, Boom, and You Can't Take it With You) but at this point we're not thinking that we'll be renewing this subscription.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

With all the crazy winter weather we had this December we ended up moving several of our shows around. But we finally managed to get downtown to the 5th Ave on the 27th.

This was one of those shows that we didn't know anything about or have any expectations. We were so pleasantly surprised! The dear husband has even included it in his list of top 5 musicals ever. The songs were great, the costumes and sets supurb and the dancing was quite literally amazing. At one point the women were being lifted over the mens' heads in waves. It was visually stunning.

The lead who played Adam has also sung the roles of Gaston and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Ryan and I both commented that he had the ability to bring some depth to Gaston's role that isn't always there. (Can you guess what is one of my favorite shows?)

We still need to pick up the DVD of the original movie, but songs like "We've Got to Make it Through the Winter" are still running through my head.

My 30th Birthday

The husband and two friends did a quick Disneyland run to celebrate my 30th. I had pageant sashes made that said "30th Birthday Princess" on the front and "Princess Angela" on the back. The dear husband was a sport and wore one that said "It's My Wife's Birthday" on the front and "Prince Ryan" on the back. To finish off my ensemble, I also got a new tiara.

Highlights of the trip include being upgraded to first class on the way down (we got fed breakfast!), the Princess Dinner where I got my picture taken with Belle, Arial, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. And I even got seated at the first table they visited. All the other little girls had to wait! Belle let me ask her a question, and I asked her what her favorite book is. She gave the best answer! Ever since the Beast gave her that giant library she's had so many books to read that she couldn't pick just one. But her favorites are romances and adventures. I was soooo satisfied with this answer!

We rode the recently reopened Submarines (now themed to Finding Nemo) and it was even better than I remembered.

I got wished happy birthday by hundreds of people, it was loads of fun. And one of the main street conductors announced my birthday to the passerbys.

But the best part was being told I didn't look close to 30 at all by most of them! I had one lady recommend that now I should change my haircut and start wearing more makeup. The dear husband told me to ignore that advice :)

We had lots of fun and I would highly reccommend Disneyland for anyone's birthday.