Tune in Tuesday: Heathers the Musical

Last month Jon and I went to New York for a few days. The impetus for the trip was the impeding end of the Colbert Report, for which Jon secured tickets after news broke that Stephen Colbert would be taking over for Letterman. In addition to that taping, I talked him into seeing Heathers: The Musical. I first heard about this potential disaster over a year ago, and I did not have high hopes. If you haven't seen the movie from the 80's, check it out on YouTube. It's one of my favorite black comedies and an inspiration for other films, such as Mean Girls and Jawbreaker.

The musical is nothing short of brilliant. I didn't have high expectations going in (especially given how cheap tickets turned out to be), but both Jon and I were completely blown away by the cast and the songs. I'm still singing them now, weeks later, and we've even ordered the soundtrack. (Fair warning: this musical is VERY MUCH NSFW.)

Here's a medley of a few songs being performed on stage (so you can get an idea of the set and costumes):


This is "Candy Store," one of Jon's favorites:


And "Dead Girl Walking" (my favorite):


If you have a chance to see this musical, DO IT!

The Cheese Danish

Matt and I ended upleaving the con early to go to a production of Hamlet at Matt's theater in Princeton. OMFG, that campus is amazing. It looks like a castle just plopped down in the middle (ok, south) of NJ or something.


The McCarter Theater


"The Arch"


Statue of St. George slaying the dragon


Cute statues of Princeton's mascot, the tiger

The play itself was rather...interesting. I was expecting a lot worse, to be honest. There were a lot of people who left during intermission, and even in the middle of scenes, which I thought was incredibly rude. The director definitely had an interesting take on it. Things I liked:

* Polonius standing between the audience and the half-drawn curtain as he listens in on Hamlet and Gertrude. This was really cool, because we saw the scene from Polonius's point of view. And when Hamlet shot him through the curtain, we could see the blood appear on the back of his white robe, which I thought was an awesome visual.
* The same actor playing Claudius and the ghost. This was a bit confusing at first, and I'm sure it drove first-time Hamlet-viewers crazy, but it turned out really well.

Things I didn't like:

* Hamlet didn't die at the end. You knew he was going to, but at curtain he was still alive. Also? HE SHOT HORATIO! That really pissed me off. Apparently, the director wanted everyone dead, so "the audience would be the only witness to the tragedy" or whatever, but still.
* The implied incest between Ophelia and Laertes. WTF? The Ophelia character had a lot of flaws, actually, but doing this cheapened her relationship with Hamlet and undermined her madness, imo. Plus, it was kinda gross and unnecessary.
There were other things, but I can't think of them right now. For the most part, it was just a really strange retelling. Not bad, but not fabulous, either.

What, no "Piano Man"?

Went to "Movin' Out" tonight with Rob and Erin. It was spectacularly disappointing. Which is not to say that it was bad, just not what I was expecting. Not what a lot of patrons were expecting, if the grumbling on the smoker's porch during intermission was any indicator. I had wanted to see it, and now I have, so I guess that counts for something. For anyone who hasn't seen/heard about it, "Movin' Out" is basically two hours of interpretive dance set to Billy Joel songs. There was a plot, of sorts, but no dialogue (except for marching orders during the Vietnam scene) and the dancers didn't sing. But there was a live band above the stage, and the choreography was awesome. The only thing that really annoyed me: in one scene, one of the characters was dancing and the stage lights were shining right into the upper-level seats, blinding us to what was going on on stage. I'm sure it looked cool for the people at floor level, but those of us with crappy seats missed it and had to deal with bright lights burning into our retinas.

"Amber VonTussle, you have acne of the soul!"

I cannot express how utterly fabulous the musical Hairspray! was. I've never seen the movie version, but after tonight's performance I'm definitely going to rent it. Even the pre-show announcements were funny: "The musical Hairspray! takes place in the 1960's. Since there were no cell phones during that time, we don't expect to hear any during tonight's performance." Hee. I also liked that the protagonist is a chubby little girl who helps to end segregation in Baltimore and shows the world that fat girls can be popular and get the boy. It was definitely one of the best (comedic) musicals that I've ever seen. During the standing ovation, Liz and I started clapping and dancing to the music. Luckily, we were sitting in the back row, so I don't think anyone saw us.

Broadway in America, which is the program we got our season tickets through, has also released the lineup for next year's season, if anyone's interested: Phantom; Tuesdays with Morrie; Little Women; Bye, Bye, Birdie; Wicked; and one more TBA. Four out of the five are based on novels, which I think is pretty cool.

I also finished Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk. I have to say, it was one of the strangest books I've ever read, but I really enjoyed it. The narrator was an artist, so it dealt a lot with the idea of putting yourself into your work and using pain to create great art. Very interesting. I've already started reading my next book, The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. I think it was an Oprah book a while ago, so I'm a little behind the times, but I found it for $4 at Borders and figured, why not?