Kinky Boots

So Jim, Goeff, Sam, Michael Marie, Mr. Adam & I all went to go see Kinky Boots on Broadway.  It was good.  Not great ryan charisma?  No, not great.  And let me ‘splain to you why…

The musical follows the movie very closely right down to the line “the sex is in the heal”.  The show has some great high points.  I found the book by Harvey Fierstein well done and not heavy handed with the whole gay/drag queen theme.  Cyndi Lauper’s music worked well with the show.  Sadly (and I love you Cyndi!), I didn’t notice anyone leaving the theater tapping their toes to any of the songs.  I even made a point of asking Mr. Adam (on our way home post show) if he was humming any of the songs from the show.  “No, I don’t remember any of them” was the answer.  There you have it.  Moving along…  I don’t usually mention performances but I feel as though I should since the Tony nominations were announced and I have to say – I don’t get it.  Billy Porter was only ok.  There I said it.  Now you know.  He wasn’t bad, he just wasn’t good.  He was mediocre.  In fact, he had several songs that screamed for a big, black, diva voice and that voice never came.  I was waiting.  The audience was waiting.  And we waited.  And waited.  And waited…  And then there was the whole scene in the men’s room where Billy’s character Lola tells us (Charlie) about Lola’s relationship with his father.  Ugh.  I kept thinking “Really? This is a Broadway performance?”  This is my humble opinion, but I think if they recast Lola with someone else – who has that “umph” – the show can only be even better

Now don’t get me wrong, I adored other performances in the show.  Specifically Stark Sands & Anneleigh Ashford.  So gorgeous were their performances.  We loved both of them.  But overall, I’d say the show is good.  Yes good – not great.  Go see Lola’s understudy or better yet… go see Pippin!

Odd Thomas

Another book down.  I really enjoyed this book.  It was a quick read and easy to get through.  This was my first Dean Koontz book.  It came recommended to me by Vinny Armone.  The book is written in short chapters that can be read quickly in one sitting and the story gets going quickly.  What’s it about ryan charisma?  Well, let’s dish:

The story is about Odd Thomas.  And “odd” is his name, not an adjective to describe him.  Odd is a short-order cook who happens to be able to see dead people.  Right up my alley.  I love all that supernatural shit.  The problem is he can see and touch the dead people, but they can’t speak to him.  In this first installment of the series of Odd Thomas books we meet Odd & his girlfriend Stormy (that is her nickname).  I won’t go too much into Stormy because she’s a big part of the book and I don’t want to give the ending away.  But overall, this is a thriller type of story.  I wish I could tell you more, but I feel like I would give away so much of the story.  I really, really enjoyed it.  And the best part is there’s several more to go.  Why yes, yes I already have started the second book “Forever Odd”.  Should you read it?  Sure, especially if supernatural, thriller type stories are your type of thing.

PIPPIN

So Easter weekend I took Mr. Adam to go see the new Broadway production of Pippin!  Let’s dish ‘cause we got magic to do…

Forty years have passed since the first Broadway production of Pippin and I have to say this new Pippin... it’s bold, it’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s naughty and it’s great.  I loved it.  I first went into the show very hesitant about Patina Miller taking on the “leading player” role made famous by BenVereen.  But I have to admit – that trepidation went away as the show began.  She played the part exceptionally.  The choreography of the show should have had its own bow.  The recreation of Bob Fosse’s original choreography was stellar.  It really was one of the characters in the show.  The director tied in both choreography & this “cirque de soleil” type of acrobatics that enhanced the show perfectly.  It didn’t take over the show but complimented it without overshadowing Fosse’s original choreography. 

I could go on & on all day about how much I really  liked this show, but bottom line – run don’t walk to see this brilliantly shining piece of Broadway.  Hurry – Patina is waiting.

Hands On A Hard Body

So Michael Marie took me to see Hands on a Hard Body last week.  The tag line for the show should read “the score is awful, but the lyrics are worse!”  Yes my friend, that is the sad truth about this show that is fortified with many talented Broadway performers yet was possibly one of the worst shows Broadway has belched forth since Lysistrata Jones.  But let’s kiki:

This musical is based on the documentary of the same name, which coincidentally, some late night I happened to have seen.  So I knew all about the storyline WAY before I knew it was made into a “ahem” Broadway Musical.  The general story is that of a car dealership that hosts an annual “Hands on a Hard Body Contest”.  Each contestant is the selected through a lottery.  Then each contestant is given a pair of cotton gloves (so as not to mark up the vehicle with hand prints) and then they have to keep one hand on a pick-up truck until there’s only one man left standing.  That’s the storyline. 

Now I have to be honest and say there were some damn good performances and quite a lot of talent on that stage.  But this show was so bad, that even the talented cast couldn’t save it.  Yes, it really was two hours of my life that I’ll never get back.  I will say, that the truck was pretty cool as it moved all around the stage.  And the director did some awesome blocking of this show.  I really thought the director did a great job.  And there really wasn’t so much choreography, so much as musical staging.  Then again, how can one dance while consistently having to have one hand on a truck?  The musical staging was extremely creative and was unique and never repeated.  Yet, this show sucked so bad I could hear the sucking noise continue as we exited the theater.

Should you see this show?  Oh hell to the no.

The Art of Racing In The Rain

OK, I’ve gone ahead and read another book.  Go me!  This little gem was suggested to me by my mother-in-law.  I have to say, I really did enjoy this book.  It was upsetting at times, but isn’t that what a book that pulls you in should be able to do?  So I was pulled into it.  Let’s dish:

The story is about a dog named Enzo and his owner Denny Swift.  The book starts off with Enzo knowing his days alive are dwindling and he is looking forward to moving on to his next life as a human.  As the book moves on, we discover that Enzo is obsessed with becoming a human.  He longs for opposable thumbs and a life of thinking and speaking.  He knows race car driving because his owner Denny, is a race car driver.  Enzo takes us all the way back to the beginning of his life when Denny picked him up from a farm and took him home.  We move along from there to Denny having a girlfriend, to their marriage and then their having a little girl.  The dog is filled with both accurate observations of humanity as well as some pretty funny misinterpretations of events and situations.

“So much of language is unspoken. So much of language is compromised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words. People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.”

I really enjoyed this book.  It deals with several really ugly human topics like cancer, statutory rape and child custody but, therein lies the humanity of the story.  I really, really liked this story.  At times, I was horrified by the series of events.  But then again, humans can be terrible to each other, and in this book the lines of who is your alley and who isn’t is not drawn along family lines.  And not only the bad guys die.  This book was a keen observation of humanity told through the eyes of a dog – a good, faithful & loyal dog.

Do I recommend this book to you?  Yes, by all means – but if you cry a little, keep reading – I promise, you’ll appreciate the end.  Go Enzo!

SCANDALOUS

I’m back my petite buckets of love!  Last Tuesday Michael Marie took me to see Scandalouson Broadway.  Oh ryan charisma, isn’tthat the show Kathie Lee Gifford wrote?  Whyyes, yes it is...  Let’s dish.

Let me start off with that Scandalous is 2.5 hours of mylife I’ll never get back.  The musical isbased on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson. A famous Los Angeles evangelist who used media to get her messageout.  As a matter of fact, she was thesecond woman ever to have a radio broadcasting license.  The show had some major stars.  Carolee Carmello was working her ass off asAimee, George Hearn played dual roles as Aimee’s father & later as KennethOrmiston, a rival pastor that was trying to bring Sister Aimee down.  Rounding out the extremely talented cast wasRoz Ryan as the evangelized whorehouse madam who later works for SisterAimee.  But no matter how hard the castworked, this show was so bad it actually made a sucking sound!  SO BAD. 

The biggest drawback of this show?  The lyrics. They were so bad that you would have thought a middle school kid wrotethem.  So bad, so very, very bad.  I’m sorry Kathie Lee, but you failed as a lyricist.  I don’t know if all those stars owed youfavors, but now you owe them.  The otherpart of the show that I felt detracted was the choreography.  The cast was great in performing it, staying synchronized,and pretending that they wanted to be there. But it was bad.  The lyrics wereawful.  The show was a disaster.  

Should you go see this atrocity?  Absolutely not.  Unless you want to punish whomever you’regoing with.  I give the show what - 6 weeks?