Back from London.

Lady in White was a big downer. Great voices. Boring.

Tried to get late tickets for several shows, but no luck, so went to see FAME. It was fun.

The biggest buzz right now in London appears to be -- believe it or not -- Mama Mia.

Too bad I've seen it twice.

Did you get to see Woman in White? I've herd great buzz about that one.

Sorry, it was Woman in White that we saw -- wrote the above shortly after a nine-plus hour direct flight London/Denver. How do you spell "T-I-R-E-D."

It's really more of an opera than a musical.

They attemped some interesting stuff -- particularly tech -- lots of projection instead of physical set, but nothing really worked well for me.

Still, some great voices and orchestration -- but pretty lame plot.

Mama Mia was all the rage 5 years ago in London the last time we were there!!! I cannot believe it's still THAT popular...it isn't even that great?!

Yeah. I've seen it twice I think (NY/Dinver). I like ABBA and enjoyed the music, but it's nothing to really write home about.

I guess, from what I can glean, they just have a great cast right now that is really exciting and brings more to the show than usual(?)

Have anyone see "The Light in Piazza?" I've herd great thing about it. It's unfortunate that I will not be able to see it. It's playing until early September.

Just saw Spamalot. It was really funny.

Going to see Avenue Q with son on Tuesday.

He's seeing Light on the Piazza while he's here and I want to see it before I head back to Denver.

Mrs. DA says our tickets to Wicked in Denver came. Looking forward to seeing it again.

DeltAlum...saw Avenue Q in March...It's hysterical!! You'll never look at muppets the same way again!!

We're seeing WICKED again this Friday night in Los Angeles...hopefully it'll be just as good a 2nd time around!

I'm looking forward to Avenue Q.

I saw Wicked the first time here in NY with Kristin and Idina. The touring company will have to be pretty good to top that, but I'm still looking forward to seeing it again.

I also have this yearning to see Rent again here prior to the movie release, but can't justify the money. I've seen it twice -- NY and Denver.

My husband saw WICKED with Idina and Kristin the first time, then he saw it a second time with the current cast. However, we had just flown in that day and had done a walking tour with 38 high school kids and seen a show earlier that day!! I was so exhausted I didn't remember much of it!! LOL My DH said though that the 2nd cast was just as good...

So we're seeing it again so I can remember what I saw in NYC (my DH's 3rd time!!)...

Let us know what you thought about Avenue Q!! We plan to see it again when it comes to Las Vegas in September!!

My mom saw Light in the Piazza a lil bit before the Tony's, and she loved it. She was ranting and raving about it for days.

Okay, so I'm going to NY soon, what should I get tix for ? is Ave Q worth it ? I'm seeing Wicked in San Fran. when I get home, so that's out, I've seen Aida, 42nd street, Mama Mia, and Hairspray. I'm thinking it's between Producers, Rent (for a third time) or Ave Q.

Avenue Q...hands down!! No contest!! Producers is good, but usually touring companies come around to the bigger cities...you've already seen RENT...and Avenue Q won't travel...it IS coming to Las Vegas in September, so if you go to LV a lot, you COULD do that, but most of the original cast is still performing in NYC, so I think it would be more worth it to see Avenue Q there..

JMHO...

Avenue Q is by far one of the most interesting and HILARIOUS peices of theatre out there right now. The show kind of has a life of its own, and its amazing. You will not be disappointed with Avenue Q

As that never went anywhere, I assume it wasn't very good?


Speaking of Avenue Q, I'm so disappointed that's not doing a national tour. I might have to go back to Vegas in the fall just to see it!

It did come to Broadway a few weeks ago. For about a week.

It had about one decent song.

It was, at best, OK.

You haven't lived until you've heard British actors doing a SW US accent.

More recently, I saw the newest Lloyd-Webber effort, Lady in White, in London. It wasn't too good either in my opinion.

Andrew Lloyd Weber needs to stop.

You mean Woman in White. :p :p

Yeah, I do. And I also mean "Whistle" came to Broadway a few "years" ago. Don't know what I was doing when I wrote that mess.

Sorry.

Just back from Light in the Piazza. Outstanding.

Ok so I've listened to the Wicked soundtrack - the one from the Broadway original - but I just saw it today in Chicago with Ana Gasteyer and Kate Reinders...and I must say, I think they sounded MUCH better. The reviews have also said that the Chicago cast was much better than the broadway cast. I'm already looking for tix again it was so good!

the music is wonderful....
i'm glad to hear chicago is working well.

I'd love to see it on stage.....I saw the preview of it on the Tony's and it looked great...

While what you say could be true, it's hardly fair to compare a live performance to a soundtrack. Don't know if the current Chicago cast is the one that will be in Denver next month -- but I'll let you know how they compare to the original NY show.

From what I've herd, the touring company is the best Cast right now.

I saw the WICKED cast in NYC in April 2005 and we "just" saw the touring cast in Los Angeles this past weekend. The touring cast does a great job!! There's a few special effects that have been eliminated, but nothing that impacts the feel of the show overall...they did add a few special effects that positively enhance the show using GOBOs...

I love the soundtrack with Idina and Kristin and the current Elphaba, Stephanie J. Block, does a wonderful job, but you can definitely hear her classical training when she has to hit those high notes...Kendra Casselbaum (Glinda) also does a great job, but she does this "kick" thing that started to dwell on my husband's nerves...especially in the "Popular" scene...it was almost like she was manic or something...LOL...but she does a good job as well...

I agree you can't compare the soundtrack to a live performance...there's much more sensory stimulation during a live show so it's easier to pull towards the live performance...not to say that the Chicago cast may/may not be better...don't know...but to compare is very difficult...JMHO

Well I agree it is much different seeing it live than listening to the soundtrack, but I just thought the inflections and the personality that comes through in the voices of the chicago performers was more, I don't know how to explain it, captivating? Awesome awesome show though...can't wait to see it again!

Huey Lewis will be Billy Flynn in Chicago. He will start on Nov. 1. Looks like Chicago will have Huey Lewis as Billy Flynn and Brooke Shields as Roxie Hart. Brooke Shields starts on September 9th and Huey Lewis on November 1.

Oh Good...I love theatre - I've never been to NYC (until next week) so I've never seen a show on Broadway, but I hit most of the shows and we used to always get season tickets for the shows that came through Louisville. As you'll see these aren't all musicals...but I just love it all.

I've seen:
in louisville
Les Mis,
Phantom (3x),
The Sound of Music.
Scarlet Pimpernel,
Stomp,
Rent,
Joseph & the Amazing TEchnicolor Dreamcoat,
Mama Mia,
McBeth,
Hamlet
Tha Pavillion - the BEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN BY A LANDSLIDE
Proof
Dracula
Christmas Story
The Graduate
Little Shop of Horrors
and God knows how many other smaller shows at Actors THeatre of Louisville (15-20 more?) - I miss that place - it puts on amazing shows.
Also, Shakespeare in the Park puts shows on every year so from that I've seen most of Shakespeare's worked reproduced.

I wish I could have seen Jesus Christ Superstar when Sebastian Bach was playing Jesus...the former front to skid row

in DC
Jesus Christ Superstar


In London
Blood Brothers,
Oleanna (With Julia Stiles),
Sweetest Swing in Baseball (with Gillian Anderson),
Phantom,
Bombay Dreams,
The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged
THe Complete Bible
Thoroughly Modern Millie

You didn't miss anything.

Saw Avenue Q with son last night.

Had dinner with some of his college and summer theater friends who are here before the show.

One of them has just been cast as an understudy for the "white women" in the show, and the poor boy just had to go backstage with her after the show and meet the cast.

So, for me, it's been a great month:

Brooklyn, the Musical
The Light in the Piazza
Spamalot
Avenue Q

going to see my first real broadway performance in new york this weekend - Rent, with Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs and Jesse Martin all in it - i think they were all original cast

My first Broadway show: The Original Broadway Cast of Les Miserables (1986). Dang, that was way back in the days.

i was misinformed - they weren't in it

but it didn't matter - it's kind of distracting when famous people are in performances

i was in the 3rd row though - that was nice.

Taye Diggs (that's where he met his wive, Idina "the gasper" Menzel) and Jesse Martin were part of the original cast.
Link
Rosario Dawson was never part of the cast.

Just found out that a guy who was in HS with our daughters has been cast in Mama Mia in New York.

He's the second one from the same high school to get a Broadway part. One other guy is on a national tour (Grease, I think) and one young woman has done a lot of Disney stuff.

Maybe the son has a chance.

Maybe...

I JUST saw Wicked here in San Fran yesterday it was AMAZING... I know EXACTLY what you mean about the kick thing, but I dunno.. I thought it was funny, didn't bother me too much. Eden Espinosa is playing Elphaba here and she is AMAZING... gave me goosebumps. She is my new idol, she has the best voice I've heard in a LONG LONG time... OMG I can't say enough good things about her.

I also saw the producers in NYC... VERY VERY FUNNY and the cast was very good, although DolphinChicaDDD says that Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were better and the two we saw were both just imitating them.

Now you know why I went to see one of the final performances of Brooklyn, The Musical in NY after seeing it's premiere in Denver.

She really is spectacular.

My sister and I saw Wicked on Broadway at the end of July and it was absolutely amazing. All of the cast was excellent; I didn't recognize most of them, but Rue MacCalahan from Golden Girls played Madame Morrible and Ben Vereen played the Wizard. That was really cool.

When I saw Wicked in NY, Joel Gray (Grey?) played the wizzard.

Yawn! Unfortunately, I thought he added nothing to the show.