I've done a number of gay things in my life - in some particular order:
1. Seen Madonna in concert.
2. Swung by to see a playground in NYC that was used in West Side Story.
3. Had sex with men.
4. Seen Patti LuPone on Broadway. TWICE.
You can rank them as you deem appropriate, but I think #3 is really lower on the rung. #4 might really be #1.
We were in NYC part of last week and managed to see three Broadway shows.
THREE!
I can barely get to one and I try for that one not to be a musical, if it can be avoided.
But this is 710's time away too, so it can't be all about me - believe it or not. Though, in the past, he has gone to plays - singing ones - without me. I think it worked well for both of us.
As we planned our getaway, he axed if there was anything I wanted to see. I rattled off two, thinking I'd be happy with whichever he picked. He was good with either of my selections, but he bought the tickets to one and then offered a second option - another night option, and his selection - and I acquiesced.
I'm NOT doing three entries here. I could milk it, but that just seems more torture for me than you. But we have them all in one: Comedy. Musical. Dramedy.
Gay. Gayer. Gayest.
This was my choice. A comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln. Everything in advance had me loving it. Mary is played by Cole Escola, whom I've seen some video shorts, where yes, he always plays a woman.
As you know from history (or should), MTL was cast as mad or moody or depressive or crazy or drunk. Or any combo for those. Abe, of course, was rumoured to have homosexual tendencies. All are played with fun and tongue in cheek.
The men who played Lincoln and Booth were just great. Escola was good too, of course. For me, more of the laughs came from Abe though.
The problem with the play? It was very good, but there is no way it could live up to the hype that has surrounded it. It was funny but never over the top hilarity (though it had close to moments) so, though a number of audience members seemed to guffaw at everything, like they tried too hard, or had never heard any jokes before. I thought it was just me to think this, but 710 brought it up independently.
I actually didn't know it would be "on Broadway". I assumed it was an off Broadway production. I was wrong.
This was 710's doing. And I know he picked it because he thought I'd really like it, as I had been a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac
While producers of the show and reviewers (probs due to production pr) will say that is all fictionalized and is not meant to resemble Fleetwood Mac and the recording of Rumours, it's kind of a big fat lie.
The band in the play has two romantic couples on the outs and three brits and two Americans - just Fleetwood Mac. The recording of the album is set in the same year and town where Fleetwood Mac recorded their seminal album. Scenes - and sometimes actual dialog - are taken almost exactly from a book called Making Rumours, written by a producer of that album (he's now suing the makers of the play). They even made the lead guitarist's cousin an olympian in swimming. In reality, Lindsey Buckingham's brother was a silver medalist in water polo.
But yes, the entire play was just a coincidence. <eye roll emoji would go here>
As processes goes, it's an ok play. A bit tedious, though I think that is part of the point. The play band (and Fleetwood Mac) holed up for a year making the album doing take after take after take of each song. The play is over three hours long + intermission (ugh for me!) but it makes you feel like you've been holed up for a year too.
When you think about 'musicals', you think about, oh, music. While there are portions of songs here, I think (?) there are only 2-3 songs actually played all the way through. There are snippets of others, as you might assume as a band tries out ideas to assemble a disk. That said, the songs are not bad (written by former Arcade Fire member, Will Butler) and well performed by the cast. They do have that late '70s feel.
The beginning of the show it was tough to hear any dialog. I'm not sure if it was a sound guy thing or actor thing but eventually it came around. The guy who played the drummer / manager was just amazing. All the actors played their own instruments, so I would think understudies would be an issue if one ever was out ill. The guy was an excellent drummer.
Overall, it was good, but l o n g.
This was my other pick, though I didn't expect to see three shows, or even two.
Kathy Griffin was also in town this night, but you can see her just about any year in a lot of cities. How often does one have the opportunity to see Mia Farrow (oh, and yeah yeah....LuPone) on stage? It's like getting a McRib and Shamrock Shake at the same time.
Part of the premise of this play was good and plausible. The other part was forced and pretty far-fetched. This is not Farrow's or LuPone's fault. This goes to the writer directly and possibly the director. There were a lot of ways it could have been played better. Farrow is fun to watch, but the character's transition from naïveté to schemer is just hard to swallow. LuPone? Meh, she's LuPone. If you've seen her in any non-singing role, you've seen Patti LuPone.
I'd like to say better about the Roommate, but it's tough. Lots of unfulfilled potential. Still, I was glad to be able to see Farrow.
All said for all of these - none sucked. None were total out of the parks either. Still my husband did the impossible - getting me to see three plays in a year. No, correction: me seeing three plays in three consecutive evenings. Yeah - someone called us 'FUCKING FAGGOTS" on the way back to our hotel. I mean, geeze, it's Broadway. Duh.
Song by: Genesis