Unfortunately, the Tony Awards are as close as I get to Broadway these days. Sigh. I want to see plays again. All of them. Even the dogs.
The revivals of Sweeney Todd and Threepenny Opera look phenomenal.
The Catmage Chronicles
Andy thought he was going crazy when a talking cat showed up at his front door. He couldn’t have been more wrong.Goldeneyes is a Catmage – a cat with human intelligence and magical abilities. Andy is an eighth grader who is smart, impulsive, and trying to avoid the school bully at all costs. A prophecy threw them together. There’s just one problem: Goldeneyes can’t stand humans.The Catmage world is heading toward war. Goldeneyes and Andy must try to stop the enemy from getting stronger. And they must save a powerful Catmage who’s been kidnapped. For Goldeneyes, it’s personal. That Catmage is her grandmother.Andy and Goldeneyes must try to put aside their differences. If they can’t, the enemy will soon be too powerful to defeat…
I wish Nellie McKay had been allowed to get on TV.
I saw Sweeney Todd on Broadway. I’d love to get a DVD.
I got to see a lot of great plays when I was in college. I got to see My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison and Othello with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. That version also “introduced” Diane Wiest as Desdemona.
I’ll see your Rex Harrison and raise you a Zero Mostel in the revival of Fiddler on the Roof.
Third row orchestra.
Frank Langella in Dracula, Richard Chamberlain in Night of the Iguana (theatre in the round, and I had such a crush on him back then…), and in later years, Debbie Gibson as Eponine in Les Miz (she was great, and she’s Deborah Gibson now), Sondheim’s “Passions” in previews (didn’t like it; too much crazy-stalker stuff, not enough love), and damn, it’s been too long since I saw a play on or off-Broadway.
Must change that this summer.
In regional theater news, “Follies” is being done at Dogwood Dell, an outdoor amphitheater in Richmond. We bring a picnic dinner and watch a show. It’s great fun, and it’s free. They did a nice job with “Into the Woods” a few years ago.
We go up on a theater package to NYC every coupla years; it’s really much more affordable than we expected.
I do warn you with six words to strike terror in the hearts of any Broadway devotee: “And costarring Rosie O’Donald as Golda!”
I forgot about Dracula. (I actually saw a number of plays right before they closed.) That was one. But the lead was Jean Le Clerc who succeeded Frank Langella and Raul Julia.
(I love dropping names!)
I saw Chapter Two (I used to love Neil Simon) with Laurence Luckinbill and his then wife Robin Strasser. I think that the show closed and the couple separated the next week.
And I saw Deathtrap with John Cullum.
I haven’t seen a play in years.
Oh, that’s right. I saw Raul Julia in Dracula. I was disappointed that I’d missed Frank Langella.
I saw A Chorus Line, but don’t remember exactly when, or who was in it.
My absolute favorite Broadway experience was seeing the revival of 1776 with Paul Michael Valley as Thomas Jefferson.
He played Ryan on Another World, the now-defunct soap, and of course, I stayed afterwards to chat with him. Soap opera stars are remarkably affable to their fans, for the most part.
Thanks for letting me relive a long ago part of my life!