I decided to take a quick trip to St. Louis to see Mary in the closing weekend of Titanic @ the Muny. After seeing Annie with Abbie, et al, for her birthday on Friday night, I flew to St. Louis on Saturday morning. We didn’t do much other than hang out, go to dinner and head for the show. I saved any seeing of the sights for when Paul and I go back in August to see her in Show Boat. I started the trek home on Sunday after breakfast.

The production was wonderful! Most of the cast had come back from the original Broadway show for this production and it was the first show since the tour ended. I really enjoyed getting reacquainted with the music as I had wrongfully given it the brush off years before. Cool tilting set, very talented cast, excellent dancing (Mary did the only real dance bit in the show) , and I got a quick backstage tour after the show. All that and getting to spend a little much needed sister time = great little trip!

Next she has Sound of Music and her last show will be Show Boat.

Ol’ Man River

Mary’s house… they managed to get the same house as last summer!
It is conveniently located just north of Forest Park.

Dinner @ the Boat House in Forest Park

brute?

I went to see their tour last night here in Austin @ the Long Center. It was aMAZING! I have always been a huge fan of Patinkin in everything from Princess Bride to The Secret Garden to Evita. He has such a booming voice and also such delicate falsetto. Patti LuPone is in a lot of musicals that I love, but I don’t think it is because of her that I enjoy them. She has a really unique, versatile voice that is perfect for musical theatre.

LuPone is known for being very saucy. If she thinks you are taking her picture or recording her performance, she will quit and walk off stage. (Maybe she got that from Sondheim? )I have never seen ushers plead with people to turn off their phones and not take pictures during the performance until last night. They were also holding signs. One usher made an announcement up in the balcony (but not to everyone, just a section of ppl which was kind of odd). I was actually nervous that someone was going to screw it up for the rest of us. Not long into the performance, someone’s cellphone rang and I held my breath until it was clear she was going to continue.

They were accompanied by only a pianist and an upright bass. Whoever put the song list together is fantastic. First of all, 12 of the 38 songs they performed were by Sondheim. They swung from song to song seamlessly with hardly a beat in between, yet it was very obvious when they would change character. Sometimes they would do some dialogue around a piece from a show just to lead into it. I think my favorite transition was as they finished “I Won’t Dance” they danced around the stage together and the musicians stuck in a few notes of “Shall We Dance” from the King and I before they went into “April in Paris”. Brilliant!

They didn’t really interact with the audience much. In fact, the only time they did was when Patinkin addressed the audience after they sang “Old Friends” and “Like it Was” by Sondheim from Merrily We Roll Along. He told the story of how they met doing the Evita tour in  1979. He said one night in her dressing room they reached out to each other with their “hearts in their mouths” and have been the best of friends ever since.

Mary and a few of her senior musical theatre classmates got to meet up with LuPone recently in New York for lunch and she told me a story from that meeting that gave me a little insight. Apparently LuPone hated doing Evita. They were overworking her in a role that involved a lot of belting and making big changes on her at the last minute. I think the ALW attitude was “do it or you will be replaced”. (Hope I am getting this story right! Mary, correct me if I am not.) Apparently their friendship with  each other was what got her through it.

Right after this they did some “surprise” numbers from Evita. Patinkin did “Oh What a Circus” and LuPone did (shockingly) “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”. These weren’t in the program so it was a nice surprise and the audience went WILD.

LuPone was very emotional crying during several numbers. There were very dramatic numbers (an entire series of songs and scenes from Carousel!) to very comical numbers like “Getting Married Today” from Company. But their chemistry was amazing. You could tell they were having fun with each other.

Two thumbs up!

I had a very interesting variety of events this weekend! It was the first in a series of busy, holiday weekends!

Friday I went to see Dionysus in 69 at the Off Center… that was quite an experience. It is a very interactive show based on Euripides’ The Bacchae. It was first performed in 1968 and directed by Richard Schechner. Schechner also directed this production, was there and gave a talk.

There is a portion of the show in which the actors play instruments, dance around and encourage audience members to get up and dance about all crazy. It was interesting to watch people slowly feel comfortable enough to do it. It was fascinating how the actors’ freedom carried over to the audience so easily! I wanted to get up and dance, but I purposefully did not get involved in the action so I could watch the audience react. There was one corner of the audience that started laying on one another and massaging each other by the end of the show. There is such a thin line between “decorum” and acting like the animals that we are…

This, of course, was the whole point! In The Bacchae, a woman is so aroused in a frenzy by Dionysus that she actually helps dismember her son’s body and carries his head home to show everyone because she thinks it is the head of a lion.  When she gets home, she realizes what she has done and tragedy ensues.

On Saturday we drove out to Elgin and cut down our Christmas tree!

We came home and decorated the house and the tree before heading downtown for the Capitol tree lighting, caroling and the annual Slackers show.

On Sunday we went to the Blanton to see a Baroque concert and check out the art.

We grabbed some Tom’s Tabooley, got the weekly groceries and got home just in time for Sunday movie! We watched Mr. Leonard’s pick of The Thin Man, ate dinner and I busted out the guitar to practice some Christmas carols. Great weekend!

We have been hard at work putting our house together. We had a Labor Day party to break it in that was lots of fun! We rushed to make it presentable for that. Now we are starting to get stuff organized and really put away. Here are some pictures (scroll to the right).

I hung these after dinner post Sunday movie

PS: Happy Roald Dahl Day!

A parody on West Side Story… very funny stuff

Tonight we went to see an Austin Shakespeare “Young Shakespeare” production of Comedy of Errors at Richard Garriott’s Curtain Theatre, a sized-down replica of the Globe on his property in West Austin.

The theatre was amazing. I have been wanting to go see something there for awhile.

And the show was good too! The “Young Shakespeare” program is for students age 11 to 18. Actually two of Christina’s students that we recently saw in Twelfth Night were in this show!

OMG I am so very excited to watch this! I have never seen this musical because it isn’t done much. But the music is amazing. I sang “I Know Him So Well” for a talent show once in high school. “The Anthem” will stir even the faintest patriotic strings of your heart… And who doesn’t like “One Night in Bangkok”??

Everyone got so crazy about Mamma Mia which was fine and all… but this is their good musical!

June 4th, 2009
Chess in Concert
Preview of Chess in Concert