BroadwayDave

Bought a ticket for this as the last of the shows I’ll be seeing this summer in NYC. Snagged a front row center Loge seat. So now it’s: 1) “Hello, Dolly!” twice (with Bernadette and Bette), 2) “The Band’s Visit”, and now 3) “My Fair Lady”. Wish I had more time and money!

In the ones I looked at it wasn’t. I also checked the websites of several of the hotels to get an idea how much extra those taxes and fees would be. Some were just plain crazy.

Great! Thank you! Just have to decide now which timeframe and price works best.

Thanks! Really looking forward to it! Still trying to decide whether to add a second show for my return trip in August to see Bette Midler in “Hello, Dolly!” The only one that fits time-wise is “Once On This Island”. Not overly fascinated with it, but it seems to get great reviews.

Wasn’t sure which forum to post this in, so I apologize if this is the wrong one. So I’m already coming to NYC at the end of May for two days, seeing a couple of shows, and doing some sightseeing. Pretty much covering a lot of what I want to do while I’m there. For my mid-August trip to see Bette Midler in “Hello, Dolly!” I’ll be arriving at 6:30am on a red-eye Megabus and leaving the same day around 11pm. Anyone ever use a day-room website like DayUse.com or similar? The rates are quite good for what I need - a place to get off my feet and relax for an hour or two intermittently during the day, and maybe a shower or a place to freshen up.

Snagged me another ticket to see “Hello, Dolly!”. Now I’ll get to see Bernadette Peters (end of May) and Bette Midler (mid-August). Very, VERY excited!

From today:

Bought my ticket for “The Band’s Visit” showing at the Barrymore Theater. Very excited! Love the Original Broadway Cast Recording, have been listening to it for a week now. Will be seeing the show May 30th along with “Hello, Dolly!” on my first ever trip to Broadway.

Now looking forward to my first-ever on Broadway show! Since “Hello, Dolly!” isnt coming to Pittsburgh for the 2018/2019 touring season, looks like I’m going to NYC to see this. Bought my ticket for the May 30th 8pm show - snagged a front row Center Mezzanine seat Row A. It’s funny because I had been looking the past couple of days and that seat wasn’t there. Saw it last night and bought it!

For me it’s this one. Surround yourself in peace and quiet, push play, close your eyes, then think of the one you love...

Saw the Sunday matinee this past weekend. Absolutely loved, loved LOVED this show! Tons and tons of humor (some of it quite adult-rated), lots of great songs (soul-jarring heartbreak evident in one of them), and a cast that was superb. Jim Hogan was on as Ogie all week while Jeremy Morse was off on vacation and he stole the show, and did a great job at it! And Nick Bailey as Earl did a real good job of making you NOT like him. It was funny at the end of the show how he came out with a “don’t throw anything at me” look on his face, putting his hands up, and the audience laughed. Having listened to the Original Broadway Cast album off-and-on for the past seven weeks the vocals were all very strong and spot on during this show. There was one point during Act Two in the reprise of “Bad Idea” where the on-stage band got quite loud and literally drowned out the lyrics in the last half of the song. Favorite songs, from a very strong list of musical numbers, but I’ll narrow it down to a few: “Opening Up” (one of those toe-tapping catchy tunes and lyrics, and a great beat); “Never Ever Getting Rid Of Me” (Ogie was all over the stage on this and soooo funny); “Take It From An Old Man” (just adorable on stage, amazing him passing life’s lessons to Jenna, loved this song and its lyrics, and when he tells Jenna “...and if you lack the strength of your own, honey hold out your hands, and take it from old man.); and rendered so very heartbreakingly, the short seconds of “Dear Baby”, and “She Use To Be Mine”, which I sat there listening to with a huge, huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, her amazing vocals soaring over the entire theater, and you could feel the pain. The audience so quiet you could her a pin drop. The ending is so cute, fantastic, and everyone leaves with a HUGE smile on their face LOVING this show. If you haven’t seen this, and it’s coming to your town, do not miss this.

“Shape of Water” is now on Vudu streaming service as an Early Access rental if anyone wants to check it out.

For anyone who hasn’t seen this, myself included, the movie is listed as Early Access and available for rent on Vudu streaming service now.

Watched four movies this weekend nominated or that had nominees, my personal opinions: 1) Lady Bird - enjoyed this quite a bit. IMHO no real standout performances though. Also has a role played by Timothée Chalamet. Not a must-see, but if you have some extra time on a rainy day. 2) The Florida Project - this whole movie just made me mad. Sure there were some cute bits, but overall. It was disturbing, maddening, and rendered so many emotions. Weird ending after all that. Recommended. 3) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - powerful performances by Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. This was my favorite of the four I watched. 4) Darkest Hour - amazing performance by Gary Oldman. Great movie. A few guesses (favorites) for tonight: BEST PICTURE Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri BEST ACTOR Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour BEST ACTRESS Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM Loving Vincent I’d already seen Dunkirk in the theaters. Enjoyed the movie and the parts in Darkest Hour that described what was involved in saving those men off of the beachhead.

So, what I’ve seen at the National Gallery in London, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Louvre, Rijksmuseum (pre-Van Gogh Museum), Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA in NYC, Musee D’Orsay, National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, The Met in NYC, Getty Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Vatican Museums, The Nelson-Atkins, and The Prado, etc., among countless other small museums in the United States like the aforementioned Butler Institite of American Art, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the tiny Kennedy Museum of Art, etc. was not all actual art of all kinds and style, but just copies and gimmicks. Right. “Loving Vincent” is a gorgeous film. And the uniqueness of how it was made, what it took to make it, and the painstaking process that brought it to the screens should earn it the Oscar. But it’ll instead go to another computer animated movie by Disney or Pixar.

I’ve seen his work. I’ve been to some of the greatest museums in Europe (I lived there for two years) and in the US during my extensive travels from coast to coast. The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, which I visit often, has his work gracing their walls. Once the Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC (it no longer exists) had a wonderful exhibit taking famous paintings and turning them into huge 3-dimensional displays. Three of my favorites were: “Rainy Day” by Caillebotte; “Christina’s World” by Andrew Wyeth; and “Bedroom in Arles” by Van Gogh. And last year I visited the magnificent Butler Museum of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. I have this enormous coffee table book that was given to me as a birthday gift by the museum director. I can still appreciate all of the stunning pieces of work that I saw that day: from Homer to Audubon, Bierstadt to Vonnoh, and Rockwell to Sargent. I also have a textbook from a college-level art course that was given to me by a friend. It’s fantastic to browse through and see all of the gorgeous works. I can appreciate art and paintings no matter the medium its in: film, two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or book. It’s a shame you can’t.

Saw this in the theaters last October. Absolutely mesmerizing! And such a gorgeous film to watch, the entire movie done in the style of the artist. It is also available for rent or purchase on iTunes, Amazon Video, Fandango Now, and Google Play. Watch it if you can! Highly recommended!!!

It’s why people would rather see “The Phantom of the Opera”, or “The Lion King”, “Waitress”, Disney’s “Aladdin”, “Beautiful”, “The Book of Mormon”, “Come From Away”, “Hamilton”, “Kinky Boots”, “Wicked”, “Dear Evan Hansen”, or even “Escape to Margaritaville”. It was the show they picked. It was the show they wanted to see. Not the one you picked, or the one you think is a better choice. We all have different interests, like different things. It’s what fills the 25+ theaters on Broadway with patrons. Personal tastes. And choices.

THANK YOU for this!!! I’ve been dying to see “Hello, Dolly!” and missed it with Bette Midler, and now that the show will be touring in the 2018/2019 season debuting in Cleveland I’ll probably not make it to Broadway to check it out there. And I’ve heard Charlie Stemp was a show stealer! Once I get to NYC I’ll still probably see the show, along with “Frozen” and a few others (“Anastasia”, “The Band’s Visit”, “My Fair Lady”, etc.) that are of personal interest. Some of the others just look boring to me. We all don’t like the same thing!

Every show I’ve seen - 17 of them since November 2015 (that was my very first) - were for the show itself. They were all National Tours, and since I was, and am still, new to this, the names of the cast leads were/are unfamiliar and mattered not. It was all about the show. And I truly enjoyed every single one of them. On other websites people wring their hands and gnash teeth over “seeing 'names' just for the sake of seeing names”, and shows like “Hello, Dolly” (with Bette, and premium tickets selling for $599 and higher), or “Dear Evan Hansen” with Ben Platt and ONLY Ben, come to mind. However, in small town WV we never get the opportunity to see big name stars, so seeing Bette Midler, Jake Gyllenhaal, or even Clive Owen would have been a real treat despite their Broadway cred, or lack thereof. I’ll go see Betty Buckley, even having never heard of her before this National Tour, and will still enjoy the show.

I’ve heard that about Betty Buckley. I’m just hoping she pulls a rabbit out of her acting hat and does this role proud. As far as Bette Midler, it was more for bragging rights to have seen the entertainment icon in person, in a role everyone is familiar with. Apparently those who saw both Bette and Donna preferred the latter. Bernadette has some big shoes to fill. NYC is 7hrs, Cleveland 4hrs, and Pittsburgh just under 2hrs drive. It’s easier for me to see the tour than to get to Broadway, even though I could have probably knocked out another show while I was there. I just found out way, way too late it was showing, and by then ticket prices were astronomical for the dates I could get away when adding in all the other extras. It would have been a nice way to wrap up 2017.

Wow!!! Quite the impressive list! I wish I lived a LOT closer to NYC, because I would have LOVED to have seen “Sunday in the Park with George”...BIG Jake Gyllenhaal fan. On another note: now that “Hello, Dolly” is touring in 2018/2019 I’ll catch it one way or another, if it’s announced as part of the Pittsburgh season or at the National Launch in Cleveland in October. Would loved to have seen it with Bette Midler.

Definitely check it out, then form you’re own opinion. Don’t let it pass you by!

I thought it was the funniest thing I have ever seen, but as you can see above in Post 2 opinions differ widely: I also LOVED “Fun Home” which that person hated, and “An American in Paris” which was just OK to them. This won’t ruin any part of it for you, but one of the continuing funny parts in “The Book of Mormon” is how the Arnold Cunningham can’t seem to remember Nabulungi’s name. Just follow along on that one. And the scene where the mismatched pair meet their Uganda counterparts for the first time. Priceless. Yes it’s blasphemy gone wild, obnoxious, and vulgar. And I for one loved it.

Saw the Saturday matineee on January 27,2018. This show was absolutely amazing! Lots and lots of subtle humor thrown into the mix with wonderful singing on most everyone’s part across the board, and the orchestra was great this time, at no point drowning out the performance as in my last visit here during “Love Never Dies”. Great costumes, enjoyed all of the wonderful visuals (i.e. Oz and The Wizard scenes), the flying monkeys, and from start to finish I was never let down. Favorite songs include: “I’m Not That Girl” (utterly magnificent, sublime, and tragically sad); “Popular”, which was just so giggly because Glinda (Ginna Claire Mason) was so over the top giggly - it was too cute; and for obvious reasons (if you’ve already seen the show) “Defying Gravity”, which ended Act 1 with the largest applause I’ve ever heard at the Benedum Center. While listening to the Original Cast Album in preparation for the show I also loved “Dancing Through Life”, but in the performance I attended the actor playing Fiyero (Michael Campano) was sort of “too cool for school” and it was hard understanding him slumping through the lyrics. This wasn’t the case during any of his other songs, just this one. Ginna Claire Mason (Glinda) and Mary Kate Morrissey (Elphaba) were nothing short of brilliant. Stunning. Incredible. Amazing. I couldn’t have asked to have witnessed better. Robin de Jesus (Boc) was probably my next favorite. Superb performance. All others were wonderful as well, but I thought these three were best. Near the end, where Elphaba draws the curtain so that Glinda won’t see what comes next, and Glinda’s response, was just heartbreaking. This was only the fourth show of this run in Pittsburgh, and it runs from January 24th - February 11th. Overall I’d give this a perfect 10, even with the difficulty of understanding the “Dancing Through Life” lyrics. The show is simply a marvel, and a definite must see.