Bring It On in Los Angeles

[jackhammer91406]

I almost always enjoy what I see at the theater. I seldom have a bad time. I really didn't have a bad time tonight but seeing this show came at the end of one of the worst days for me in some time.

 

You know the kind of day I am talking about. You set the clock the night before to give you plenty of time to get ready and out the door the next day, but then forget to flip the button to turn the alarm on and end up waking late. Now you have 15 minutes to freshen, dress, walk out the door and down a flight of stairs to drive 4 miles across town in rush hour so that you can get your partner to his doctor. The traffic is evil and a ten minute trip takes an hour. After that, the trip to my own doctor takes another hour in bumper to bumper traffic. When I get there the elevator is out and I must take the stairs. I am still pretty jittery with the whole walking thing (haven't gotten all my strength back yet) but I haul it up the stairs one at a time and back down when we're done.

 

Finally finish and back on the freeway. Packed. All day long traffic everywhere seems to be at a standstill when in fact what I needed was for time to stand still so I could make these appointments. Back to the house,climb the stairs to change clothes. Back outside and down the stairs. Run to the Pharmacy to pick up new expensive meds my doctor has just phoned in, But at the front of the line...oopps, left my wallet in the other pants I just changed out of. Gotta drive back climb the stairs and get the wallet. Then back outside , down the stairs .Back to the pharmacy, pay up and drive home. Climb the stairs. Back home getting ready to go into town with the partner to see a show. Change clothes again, go down the stairs to the car get in, drive out and remember the tickets are on my desk. Drive back, go back up the stairs (see a pattern here?) Get the tickets and now we're off.

But traffic is a standstill. It takes an hour to get to the restaurant where our reservations are. During the stop and go trip, the partner calls the restaurant to tell them we're running late . We end up being 20 minutes late and are seated. We have eaten at this restaurant many times and never had a bad meal...til tonight when ordered the the lobster and angel hair pasta. The sauce was so spicy I ate the lobster and left the rest. They comped me a dessert to make up for the meal and I ordered ice cream (Ithought) No..it was some concoction which we left in the bowl.

 

Now if you're still with me, this started out as a theater review.

But I had a really bad day so I wanted you to know how bad my day was so that when I don't praise this show to high heaven , you might understand why and maybe also rightly assume you might have a better time than I (especially if you had a better day).

 

Here's the deal with this show..I never saw the movie or the sequel I hear it spawned. I cannot find flaw with the casting or the energy.

Book is thin but apparently follows the movie so those who have seen it seemed fine with it. Songs are mostly “in the moment” songs (which I would describe as fine when I am hearing them and completely forgettable when they stop.)

 

The things that stand out in my mind are the big numbers with the cheers. Man, they are tossing some of these women up like they were rags dolls and I mean they look like they are going to hit the light beams.

In short this is a piece of fluff. I am guessing that if I had not had the worst day in the history of man, I probably would have had a better time.

 

Some funny gags which I won't spoil and some nice male eye candy.

But I will know better than to try to see a show after a day like this. Next week is Fela and not sure at all what kind of day to have in order to enjoy that show.

[+ Lucky]

One might think that an upbeat show would bring you out of your bad mood, but if the show is truly awful it could only worsen it. I have not heard anything good about Bring It On. Perhaps George Bush damaged the term.

Fela is not a show for everyone either. It's high energy, and definitely has its fans, but many think it doesn't have a coherent center and is something of limited interest. I'll be interested to see what you think.

Any news on the replacement show for Funny Girl?

 

Just minutes later I found the answer to that last question:

 

From the NY Times.com:

The “Beautiful Girls” are headed west: the Center Theater Group announced on Tuesday that it will transfer the acclaimed Broadway revival of “Follies” to the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles for a six-week run beginning May 3, 2012. The Broadway production, which opened in September, will continue its run at the Marquis Theater through Jan. 22, as scheduled.

The “Follies” production, which originated at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, features Bernadette Peters as Sally, Jan Maxwell as Phyllis, Danny Burstein as Buddy, Ron Raines as Ben and Elaine Paige as Carlotta. Details on the Los Angeles cast were not announced.

The move fills a gap in Center Theater Group’s spring schedule. Plans for a “Funny Girl” revival, which would have originated at the Ahmanson before transferring to Broadway, were canceled last month after a group of investors backed out. Michael Ritchie, the company’s artistic director, said in a statement that with “Funny Girl” out of the picture, and with a winter mounting of the musical “Fela!”, the “timing was perfect” for Center Theater to bring “Follies” to Los Angeles in the spring.

After a robust start, the Broadway box office for “Follies” has been flagging; last week the show earned $667,674, playing to 42 percent of its theater’s capacity in the Marquis.

[+ Lucky]

The LA Times reports, in other news:

"The Book of Mormon" -- the hit Broadway musical from the creators of "South Park" -- will make its Los Angeles debut in September at the Pantages Theatre. The 12-week engagement, which is part of a national tour, is scheduled to run Sept. 5-Nov. 25.

The national tour of "The Book of Mormon" will kick off in Denver on Aug. 14. The L.A. engagement will be the second stop on the tour and will be the first production of the Pantages' 2012-13 season. The Tony-winning show is currently playing to packed houses at New York's Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it debuted earlier this year.