A Full Weekend to Start the Year...
A packed weekend has ended. After a crazy New Year's beginning and a nice relaxing dinner the next day with friends on New Years at a place called "Lasagna" (the portabella mushroom lasagna was primo), the weekend was eventful as well. I started out Friday during the day pretty low key. Phil had brought over some extra things he had in the apartment after moving everything out of it for the kitchen and such. More dishes, pots, pans, and art. Goodie. Now I can feel more at home. The cupboards are now full as I type. Almost overloaded from the Bed, Bath, and Beyond excursions to unloading storage and extras. My room is coming together as I have put things on the wall and put things away. Some things are still out and awaiting their trip to the Salvation Army. That evening I started my work-study position at Bikram Yoga NYC. Once a week I will donate about 5 hours of my time to get 5 free classes for the next week. Sounds like a fair trade to me. Better than losing $135/month when I can work it off AND meet people at the same time with the same interest. I would've used every possible moment each week to take class if I were paying the amount, but that also involved a minimum 6-month commitment, which made me nervous if anything popped up and I had to leave. Now I can just go guilt free if I need to without losing any money. The hours flew by that night since it was a 5pm-10pm shift and it is one of the busier shifts for classes. Tons of people. Also all the regulars in addition to those trying to fulfill their new resolutions after the holiday binge. My regular slot will now be on Friday at that time. Sounds good to me. That ended and I went to bed.
Saturday was filled with gift card shopping, lessons, and errands as well as small organizing projects by day and then a farewell to Forest Hills party at night. A group of us got together to say goodbye to the said residence in Forest Hills. It was strange to walk into the apartment and see the place almost entirely bare. It was very reminiscent of the way Phil and I found it 5 years ago only without the fabulous kitchen and the color on the walls. A new group of friends helped close out the place with one oldie from the beginnings. We had a blast as we toasted many times and ate pizza on the floor. The night went into 1:00am as we chatted and just enjoyed the company. It was louder in the rooms with no furniture and stuff to absorb everything. We took pictures in every room, but the most memorable was when we stuffed ourselves in the closet. I thought I came out years ago, but apparently I was back in last night.
Today I had a fabulous time as well. On a whim I decided to see "Boeing Boeing" at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Today was closing day. A lot of shows are closing today on Broadway because of our suffering economy. A lot of new ones are coming in this year as well. I hope they stay strong. This was a delightful surprise though. I had seen this show listed on the TDF (Theatre Development Fund) website all during December and had chances to get $40 seats for a normally $110 seat. I just never found the time. Well, it had been taken off the list. Fortunately in my subway ride home last night a friend at the party recommended a site called Broadwaybox.com. I checked it out and lo and behold there were promotional seats for today's show. Thank you Bogdan!!
I got a seat for slightly more and slightly higher in the air, but when I arrived the place was packed full. It was the first closing I've been to. Starring in the show was Christine Boranski (Mamma Mia, Chicago, and countless Broadway Plays), Mark Rylance hailing from the West End in London, and Greg Germann. The three fabulous flight attendants were Paige Davis, Rebecca Gayheart (from horror movie fame of Scream 2 and Urban Legend), and newcomer to Broadway Missi Pyle (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory [Violet's mom], Soccer Mom, and 50 First Dates). I was thrilled at the cast list. I had heard mixed reviews so I was interested at what I would see. I was overwhelmingly happy with the show. The timing was near perfect. The physicality was hilarious. The 3 leads had such chemistry on stage it caused a snowball of laughter throughout the entire show. All 3 stewardesses played their roles so fabulously each one just stood out in their own way. Particularly Missi Pyle with her German interpretation. I could not believe the sounds coming out of her mouth and how Amazon she looked on stage as this boisterously masculine German blond. I was peeing my pants with laughter and guffawing at every wrong turn these 2 guys made. Christine's character (Berthe) was so outrageously funny I laughed at some mere entrances and exits. She was so delightfully 1960s French!!! I love the farce and this group of people played it so well. I loved laughing as hard as I did today. I wish I could have discovered this earlier and took some friends to it to share in the moments. The only downer of the whole show was this lady behind me. She was just too particular to be sitting where she was sitting. I fidget and sometimes lean forward for comfort. Evidently she had trouble seeing because of that. She tapped my shoulder and expressed her urgent request for me to sit back. It wasn't a kind request, but a very New Yorker catty request. Okay, so some people can't see when the others in front of them lean forward. We were in the balcony at a steep angle so I obliged, but was just very annoyed with her attitude. I just avoided her during intermission. The show was SO phenomenal; I arose to my feet at curtain call to give the respectful standing ovation to a job well well done. As a fellow actor, this is giving respect in my opinion. I was shouting praises and applauding their efforts. Well, it was a long and choreographed curtain call and that same lady I guess felt she did not want to stand. The tap came again with the overly rude request for me to sit down because she could not see. I barely heard her because of the rousing applause and shouts of praise in the house. I reluctantly sat down and held my tongue. I wanted to turn to her and comment on her rudeness for not showing respect for standing up. After all, if she stood up she'd be able to see whatever she wanted. However, I must be too nice because one never knows what her situation is. She walked out of the theatre fine I noticed, but it would have been horrible to unload my frustration to find out she couldn't stand up for medical reasons or something. Oy!! People sometimes. Maybe if she was nicer about it I wouldn't have gotten so aggravated, but she just got to me. These New Yorkers sometimes.
Saturday was filled with gift card shopping, lessons, and errands as well as small organizing projects by day and then a farewell to Forest Hills party at night. A group of us got together to say goodbye to the said residence in Forest Hills. It was strange to walk into the apartment and see the place almost entirely bare. It was very reminiscent of the way Phil and I found it 5 years ago only without the fabulous kitchen and the color on the walls. A new group of friends helped close out the place with one oldie from the beginnings. We had a blast as we toasted many times and ate pizza on the floor. The night went into 1:00am as we chatted and just enjoyed the company. It was louder in the rooms with no furniture and stuff to absorb everything. We took pictures in every room, but the most memorable was when we stuffed ourselves in the closet. I thought I came out years ago, but apparently I was back in last night. Today I had a fabulous time as well. On a whim I decided to see "Boeing Boeing" at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Today was closing day. A lot of shows are closing today on Broadway because of our suffering economy. A lot of new ones are coming in this year as well. I hope they stay strong. This was a delightful surprise though. I had seen this show listed on the TDF (Theatre Development Fund) website all during December and had chances to get $40 seats for a normally $110 seat. I just never found the time. Well, it had been taken off the list. Fortunately in my subway ride home last night a friend at the party recommended a site called Broadwaybox.com. I checked it out and lo and behold there were promotional seats for today's show. Thank you Bogdan!!
I got a seat for slightly more and slightly higher in the air, but when I arrived the place was packed full. It was the first closing I've been to. Starring in the show was Christine Boranski (Mamma Mia, Chicago, and countless Broadway Plays), Mark Rylance hailing from the West End in London, and Greg Germann. The three fabulous flight attendants were Paige Davis, Rebecca Gayheart (from horror movie fame of Scream 2 and Urban Legend), and newcomer to Broadway Missi Pyle (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory [Violet's mom], Soccer Mom, and 50 First Dates). I was thrilled at the cast list. I had heard mixed reviews so I was interested at what I would see. I was overwhelmingly happy with the show. The timing was near perfect. The physicality was hilarious. The 3 leads had such chemistry on stage it caused a snowball of laughter throughout the entire show. All 3 stewardesses played their roles so fabulously each one just stood out in their own way. Particularly Missi Pyle with her German interpretation. I could not believe the sounds coming out of her mouth and how Amazon she looked on stage as this boisterously masculine German blond. I was peeing my pants with laughter and guffawing at every wrong turn these 2 guys made. Christine's character (Berthe) was so outrageously funny I laughed at some mere entrances and exits. She was so delightfully 1960s French!!! I love the farce and this group of people played it so well. I loved laughing as hard as I did today. I wish I could have discovered this earlier and took some friends to it to share in the moments. The only downer of the whole show was this lady behind me. She was just too particular to be sitting where she was sitting. I fidget and sometimes lean forward for comfort. Evidently she had trouble seeing because of that. She tapped my shoulder and expressed her urgent request for me to sit back. It wasn't a kind request, but a very New Yorker catty request. Okay, so some people can't see when the others in front of them lean forward. We were in the balcony at a steep angle so I obliged, but was just very annoyed with her attitude. I just avoided her during intermission. The show was SO phenomenal; I arose to my feet at curtain call to give the respectful standing ovation to a job well well done. As a fellow actor, this is giving respect in my opinion. I was shouting praises and applauding their efforts. Well, it was a long and choreographed curtain call and that same lady I guess felt she did not want to stand. The tap came again with the overly rude request for me to sit down because she could not see. I barely heard her because of the rousing applause and shouts of praise in the house. I reluctantly sat down and held my tongue. I wanted to turn to her and comment on her rudeness for not showing respect for standing up. After all, if she stood up she'd be able to see whatever she wanted. However, I must be too nice because one never knows what her situation is. She walked out of the theatre fine I noticed, but it would have been horrible to unload my frustration to find out she couldn't stand up for medical reasons or something. Oy!! People sometimes. Maybe if she was nicer about it I wouldn't have gotten so aggravated, but she just got to me. These New Yorkers sometimes.
posted by Chris | 10:00 PM
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