JCC Amph What was the last play you attended?

I saw Hamilton in Boston last year. I liked it a lot. Had never seen it or heard the music. I watched the D+ shortly after that.

 

Shakespeare in the park for Romeo and Juliet, perhaps the most Shakespeare in the parkiest of all his plays.

 

I went to see the final show of The Who's Tommy today on Broadway (I was on line for the show when news of Biden's announcement was first made public).

I went with my brother, who'd attended the show during its run in Chicago. He'd learned that Pete Townsend had gone on stage to thank everyone during the final show in Chicago; so he contemplated on the possibility that he'd show up today. Well Townsend wasn't there (apparently he's across the pond now), but the show's director came on after the full company came out for ovations. I thought the show was pretty good overall. The Broadway run only lasted about four months (opened in April). My brother and I waited outside with many other people and the cast came out to sign autographs and take pictures. I had my Playbill signed (it's mostly scribbles on the cover and on the title page); my brother had a poster of the show signed.

 

The Producers
I'm not sure if I should describe it as hilariously outrageous, or outrageously hilarious. Maybe it's because I was watching it live on stage, but I liked it better than the 2005 movie. I still haven't seen the 1967 original.

 

Another year, another fireside play in the countryside. This year was Chased by the Bear, a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night. Pretty fun show.
First time in four years there were no barking dogs in the distance, but there were geese nearby covering the path to the show with poop.

 

The stage version definitely fits the musical better than the 2005 film. The insanity of it just works better on stage. I saw it starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans during its London run. Fantastic.

 

For my birthday next weekend, I've been gifted tickets to go see the touring production of Come From Away with my mom.

Been wanting to see this show for a while!

 

That was available on Apple a few years ago. I loved it. Growing up in eastern Canada, those accents were so familiar. And I spent a week in Gander, October 2004, when our C-130 broke down and stranded us for a week. We had time to go out and see the town, meet the locals, and hear their stories about 9 11. I could totally buy into all the incidents of the play after talking to people who were there.

 

Well we only made it halfway through the play because it was an outdoor theatre and a thunderstorm started.

However we finished the story by watching the proshot of the Broadway cast on Apple TV+

That play is truly awesome.

 

The Sound of Music
Local production with very high production values. Never saw the movie or the play and didn't realize how much Nazis were in it. Very well done and enjoyable, but a little too on the nose for now.

 

Yeah I mean, it's a literal true story about escaping Nazi territory sooooo

 

Not really. IRL, the von Trapps had a fairly mundane emigration experience. There was no dramatic escape from under Nazi noses.

 

I just mean there being a lot of Nazis is accurate for something that takes place in a Nazi occupied land

 

Dark Side of Somewhere
Maybe it's not really a play, but we don't have a thread for live onstage dance performance set to Pink Floyd. It was pretty trippy, with lots of bizarre costumes, whirling glowing light sticks and hula hoops, interpretive/experimental dance, and a bit of gymnastics. For an old fuddy-duddy like me, it was pretty out there, but it kept me interested.

 

Did not attend, but saw the first half of Wicked from Broadway on youtube. I liked it a lot. I heard the movie will be broken into 2 parts, so part one will end with Defying Gravity.

 

I didn't even know you could see the show on YouTube. Was it like a crude recording off of someone's Smartphone?

I think the show itself was around two and a half hours. All I hear is that they're expanding certain scenes and character storylines where they just couldn't fit it all into a single film, so they split it into two parts. I know it's strange; considering something like hasn't been done before with an adapted musical (at least not that I'm aware of). I don't count the "Mama Mia" sequel, since that really had nothing to do with the stage production.

 

Dr. Strangelove is coming to the London stage.
Steve Coogan will play all the Peter Sellers parts, plus the one he 'bailed' on Major Kong.

 

It seemed legit. Maybe not Broadway. There was one shot on a cell phone that I didn't watch. Maybe not youtube, I think I googled "Wicked full play." I thought Glinda was very funny, although I guess act 2 will be more serious. Some of the songs were kind of unremarkable, but popular and Defying Gravity were standouts.

 

oh you've got to see it, it's brilliant. Gene Wilder's neurotic is so good, I don't think anyone had played a role like that before. And Dick Shawn as Hitler ! - you just can't top that.

 

Even the most popular shows have unremarkable songs. I saw Wicked twice on Broadway, and I don't remember a portion of the songs that haven't been replayed in YouTube videos over and over again.

 

Going to see JM Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K - adapted as a puppet show as part the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival

 

A couple of notes: the production featured the best staged and choreographed goat drowning in the history of puppetry.

so crossing the invisible boundary between performer and audience is called breaking the fourth wall, but what is the term for breaking the wall between puppet and puppeteer? I thought the rule was that this was only allowed in ventriloquist acts.

 

I left this in the movies thread and figure I can add it in here too.

I saw the stage production of Sunset Boulevard on Broadway this past Wednesday. I'd actually seen the movie back in the last 90s during college. It was a great show. It was a revival; but a bare-bones production with virtually no props and no major costumes. It only focused on the performance itself; and the two leads, especially Norma Desmond's actress, were phenomenal. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did.

A few days later, my brother, who's staying in the City this week, staked outside late after last night's show to get the actress, Nicole Scherzinger, to sign his Playbill.

Spoiler