(no subject)

What a day. Quick notes before bed while it's fresh in my mind.

introverte and I started off at a yarn store, then to the Morgan Library (across the street from the yarn store :-). WOW. Highlights: the Declaration of Independence and one of their three Gutenberg Bibles. I'll write more about it later, but once more: WOW. Then we split up; she did some more shopping and I swung by the NYPL to see their Gutenberg Bible. After lunch we saw Deuce --- performances were ok, but the mechanisms of the playwriting were too visible; it didn't feel like a finished work. Walked around Rockefeller Center, admiring the architecture. Dinner at Le Marais --- food was wonderful, service was great, but the fire alarm went off during dessert. After dinner we killed time admiring the elevators and lobby of the Marriot Marquis. Then off to Curtains --- well performed, and Rupert Holmes did a great job with the book, but the songs were mostly lackluster. One day I'd love to sit in the pit for a B'way musical; the mechanics of the performance were fascinating. It appeared that the conductor had "holding lights" on his music stand.

(no subject)

What a day. Quick notes before bed while it's fresh in my mind.

introverte and I started off at a yarn store, then to the Morgan Library (across the street from the yarn store :-). WOW. Highlights: the Declaration of Independence and one of their three Gutenberg Bibles. I'll write more about it later, but once more: WOW. Then we split up; she did some more shopping and I swung by the NYPL to see their Gutenberg Bible. After lunch we saw Deuce --- performances were ok, but the mechanisms of the playwriting were too visible; it didn't feel like a finished work. Walked around Rockefeller Center, admiring the architecture. Dinner at Le Marais --- food was wonderful, service was great, but the fire alarm went off during dessert. After dinner we killed time admiring the elevators and lobby of the Marriot Marquis. Then off to Curtains --- well performed, and Rupert Holmes did a great job with the book, but the songs were mostly lackluster. One day I'd love to sit in the pit for a B'way musical; the mechanics of the performance were fascinating. It appeared that the conductor had "holding lights" on his music stand.

(no subject)

More details on yesterday. The kids stayed home with my parents while introverte and I thrilled to the city.

Our first major stop of the day was the Morgan Library. It's one of those priceless New York gems that you don't often think of when planning your day, but I'm glad it came to mind. ( Details )

Tani's up, so we're going to look at the tree that blew down next door now. I'll come back later to serve up my reviews of Deuce and Curtains.

(no subject)

More details on yesterday. The kids stayed home with my parents while introverte and I thrilled to the city.

Our first major stop of the day was the Morgan Library. It's one of those priceless New York gems that you don't often think of when planning your day, but I'm glad it came to mind. ( Details )

Tani's up, so we're going to look at the tree that blew down next door now. I'll come back later to serve up my reviews of Deuce and Curtains.

Deuce

Deuce is not one of Terrence McNally's best works, I'm afraid. It's of the class of play in which the characters, through discussing events of the past, slowly reveal more and more detail.

The two tennis players have dialog that occasionally sparkles with McNally's verbal wit, but those sparks are not enough to illuminate the true subject of the play, which is how we age, how we live, and how we die.

The sportscasters are not characters, they're parodies of a caricature. The less said about them....

The most three-dimensional character, and the only one to move around the stage, is the "admirer". I think that Michael Blakemore made a mistake by having the other four characters spend (almost) the entire play in their seats. It reinforced the static (or at least molasses-slow) nature of the script.

( Detailed gripes )

Deuce

Deuce is not one of Terrence McNally's best works, I'm afraid. It's of the class of play in which the characters, through discussing events of the past, slowly reveal more and more detail.

The two tennis players have dialog that occasionally sparkles with McNally's verbal wit, but those sparks are not enough to illuminate the true subject of the play, which is how we age, how we live, and how we die.

The sportscasters are not characters, they're parodies of a caricature. The less said about them....

The most three-dimensional character, and the only one to move around the stage, is the "admirer". I think that Michael Blakemore made a mistake by having the other four characters spend (almost) the entire play in their seats. It reinforced the static (or at least molasses-slow) nature of the script.

( Detailed gripes )

Curtains

Curtains was an enjoyable enough evening. It benefits from a superb cast putting in all they've got to sell a show that, well, doesn't deserve it. David Hyde Pierce certainly demonstrates his Tony-worthy talent -- he sings and dances wonderfully; he so thoroughly inhabits his role that at no point did I feel like I was watching Niles Crane. (Dick van Dyke, maybe, but not Niles Crane.) Edward Hibbert, on the other hand, was Edward Hibbert.

The show-within-the-show is supposed to start off bad, but it doesn't actually get much better as the evening progresses. The music and lyrics are adequate, barely. The book is quite funny and the plot pacing is well done, although I was reminded throughout of Accomplice.

Gripe: Near the opening scene, four characters are purportedly reading four different newspapers. And the fronts have the appropriate nameplates. But the backs of the four newspapers are identically laid out.

I noticed a red light on the conductor's podium at the start of the show. It wasn't until the curtain call that I realized what it was --- when the curtain is down but the conductor needs to know when the folks onstage are ready, they turn the red light on to tell him to wait. (Like the holding lights in the subway that tell the conductor not to close the doors because there's a connecting train arriving.) Clever.

Curtains

Curtains was an enjoyable enough evening. It benefits from a superb cast putting in all they've got to sell a show that, well, doesn't deserve it. David Hyde Pierce certainly demonstrates his Tony-worthy talent -- he sings and dances wonderfully; he so thoroughly inhabits his role that at no point did I feel like I was watching Niles Crane. (Dick van Dyke, maybe, but not Niles Crane.) Edward Hibbert, on the other hand, was Edward Hibbert.

The show-within-the-show is supposed to start off bad, but it doesn't actually get much better as the evening progresses. The music and lyrics are adequate, barely. The book is quite funny and the plot pacing is well done, although I was reminded throughout of Accomplice.

Gripe: Near the opening scene, four characters are purportedly reading four different newspapers. And the fronts have the appropriate nameplates. But the backs of the four newspapers are identically laid out.

I noticed a red light on the conductor's podium at the start of the show. It wasn't until the curtain call that I realized what it was --- when the curtain is down but the conductor needs to know when the folks onstage are ready, they turn the red light on to tell him to wait. (Like the holding lights in the subway that tell the conductor not to close the doors because there's a connecting train arriving.) Clever.