RENT!!!

[Blogger's Note: I can't believe I've waited so long to publish this... I must be slipping...]

Today's Special: WINE AND BEER!!

First off, let's flash back to Winter Quarter 2006. Five college students all live in the same dorm, all hang out constantly, and are all obsessed with the songs from the musical Rent. They sing those songs when they're out walking at night, when they're sitting together in the lounge, when they're having their girls' nights... basically, all the time.

Now, flash forward to a week ago, when three of those obsessed Rent-heads got a chance to see the BROADWAY TOURING SHOW LIVE AT THE PARAMOUNT, starring ANTHONY RAPP AND ADAM PASCAL.

(For those not in the know, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal originated the roles of Mark and Roger, respectively, on Broadway and starred in the movie version of the musical. Short of seeing the entire original cast, watching these two actors play the roles they originated is the Holy Grail for true Rent fans.)

Before I get into the show itself, let me tell you a bit about the Paramount. It is, by far, the MOST AWESOME theatre I have ever been in. Besides being HUGE, the theatre is incredibly ornate; it seemed that there were chandeliers and decorations everywhere I looked. For the first five minutes I was there, all I could do was look around me in awe.

The show itself was awesome as well. The musical uses a lot more symbolism and theatricality than the movie did. The sets were suggestive more than specific, and any one set piece could be used for many different things and places. The lighting was inventive too: in "One Song Glory," spotlights cast giant shadows of Adam Pascal on the back wall.

In terms of the cast, I thought they were all pretty good. My favorite was Anthony Rapp's Mark, of course, but I also liked Angel. Benny was more of an ass than the Taye Diggs version, but that suited the character; as much as I love Taye Diggs, I think he's too nice to play Benny.

All in all, I absolutely LOVED seeing the show live. There's something different and special about live theatre; it affects you in a very direct, very present, very real way. Things I loved experiencing live: "Moo-ing" with Maureen, La Vie Boheme, Light My Candle, and Life Support.

Actually, being green ain't that bad...

Today's Special: Weed rat - rotisserie style (also try some weed rat stew)

In my perfect world, theatre (as in professional stage productions) would be just as popular as movies and TV, and everyone would know (and care) that the Tony nominations were announced yesterday.

Of course, this isn't my perfect world... which is why chocolate is still fattening, Star Trek is still considered geeky, and pale is still not considered cool (no matter how hard Twilight tries to make it so).

So I'm the only one among my circle of friends who is really, really excited about the Tonys. Usually, even I don't care much about these particular awards, but this year I actually know one of the shows that is up for awards: Shrek the Musical.

Now, I haven't actually seen the show. I'm still kicking myself for not attending one of the performances here in Seattle, especially since I could have seen the awesome Brian d'Arcy James (Shrek) and Sutton Foster (Princess Fiona). But I have listened to the soundtrack MANY times, and I am in love with the music (not to mention Brian's voice... *sigh*), so I'll be rooting for Shrek the Musical when the Tony's are awarded on June 7th.

Among the eight nominations that the show earned are nominations for Best Musical (!), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Brian), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Sutton), and Best Actor in a Featured Role (Christopher Sieber - Lord Farquaad).

By the way, here's an interesting bit of trivia. Apparently, the committee that nominates people/shows for Tonys seems to like green-skinned characters. In the past several years actors playing three different greenified characters - Elphaba from Wicked, Frankenstein's Monster from Young Frankenstein, and now Shrek - have been nominated for Tony awards. Actually, make that FOUR greenified characters, since Princess Fiona is an ogre too... at least part time. So yeah, being green ain't that bad- on Broadway, at least.

In celebration of all the nominations, here are a few of my favorite songs from Shrek the Musical.

First, here's "Who I'd Be." This song was the first one I heard from this musical, and that was all it took to set off the obsession.



And here's "I Know it's Today," one of Fiona's songs:



And finally, "More to the Story," a Fiona song that was, unfortunately, cut from the show. I don't know why... it's actually one of my favorite songs from this musical.