Nerd Weekend

Well...what a weekend! I think I'm gonna have to do two blog posts one to cover everything Tonys and one for the rest of my weekend!

Let's see, Friday I went to an off-broadway musical called The Burnt Part Boys. I got $5 tickets so I figured, why not? I really enjoyed it. It follows the journey of 3 kids who are trying to visit the "Burnt Part" of the town where their fathers died in a mine collapse 10 years previous. It's set in West Virginia so the music was really bluegrassy and the harmonies were just gorgeous! It was all male voices (well, there was one girl, but mostly men) and the music was just soulful or something.

I was disappointed with the ending though. I won't spoil it, but the way the story was set up, neither possible ending would have satisfied me. I would recommend the show though (although it closed Sunday...) and Off-Broadway is a cheaper (and sometimes better) alternative to an expensive Broadway show. The houses are much more intimate and they are presenting something new. It's fun to be a part of a new show taking form.

Saturday morning I got up and went to the NY Public Library! Nerdfest! It's a really cool place. The building alone is gorgeous marble which was from the same quarry as the marble from the Parthenon. They have tons of reading rooms and special collections. The best part is that it is a public library. Anybody can use it. I mean anybody. It's not a lending library so you can't take the books with you, but you can request (almost) any of the books they have to read while you're there.

I took a free tour and learned more than I ever wanted to know about the place, but I spent most of my time in the US History reading room. Confession: I trace my family's genealogy. But come on, with a name like "Overcast" can you really blame me? Basically I've gotten as far back as the early 1780s but somewhere in there my idiot ancestors changed their name. One guy can be found in 3 different places as George Overcast, George Overcash, and George Overcarsh. So I'm stuck. Luckily the NY Public Library has access to all kinds of records and all of the censuses, so I'm going to have to spend a Saturday there exploring.

Saturday night I went to see the revival of A Little Night Music starring Angela Lansbury (!) and Catherin Zeta-Jones. I got to the box office at 8 and waited 2 hours to get standing room tickets for this show. Well, I'm glad I didn't spend anymore money than I did on it. I don't know if it's because I was standing or what, but I didn't like it. The production itself was dark and I was confused for the majority of the 1st Act.

Also, I am a snob. I get a little upset when producers put in movie stars just to sell tickets. Zeta Jones has never been on Broadway and she's headlining the show. I was prejudiced against her coming in. However, her entrance was the first thing to grab my attention. It was like there was finally a spark of life on that stage. Now do I think she should have won the Tony Award, absolutely not. Her voice isn't great, but it was fine since Desire doesn't need to have much of a range anyways. She over acted the role but at least she was alive up there as opposed to the rest of the cast. Excepting Angela Lansbury who shone through the entire performance. What a lady. And she's 84 years old. COME ON!

I think one of the big problems with the show besides the bland acting was the orchestra/orchestrations. The entire score of A Little Night Music (composed by Sondheim) was written in the form of a waltz. After listening to the original cast album I could finally hear the beautiful music Sondheim had composed. However, in the revival I felt like the orchestra being suffocated by a pillow or something. The orchestrations were flat. I found out later that they only used a 10 piece orchestra (as opposed to a 26 piece) and that really makes a huge difference for me. I'm very musically driven, so I would have liked to hear a fuller sound in the theater. Not that that would have made up for the other faults in the production but what they did didn't do justice to Sondheim's score. But hey, producers will do anything to save money.

But in about 3 weeks Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch will be replacing Angela and Catherine! Crap, I'll have to go back. I'm hoping maybe this cast switch will give this show the energy and new direction that it needs. Maybe they'll work out some of the problems when they're back in rehearsal. All in all, it was still worth it to see legendary Angela Lansbury on stage. She is an amazing woman and performer.