Updates From Broadway

It is said that the popular musical, White Christmas, which debuted at the Marriott Marquis Theatre in the winter of 2008, will most likely appear on Broadway again this Christmas. Now personally, I think this classic Irving Berlin piece is a very good musical and from what I've heard, the Broadway show has excellent choreography and some really great songs too. And supposedly, if White Christmas comes back, it will start its second consecutive season on Broadway on November 13. My opinion, however, is that White Christmas should have won at least one Tony this year because this amazing show really deserves it because it only comes around for the Christmas season alone, which isn't very long. And the performers who are in White Christmas probably have to rehearse even when it's not very white outside (so pretty much all year). Well, if it does come back, I sure hope grosses go up from last year.

Updates From Broadway

For the very first time, the musical, Bye Bye Birdie, is reviving on Broadway. The original production, which appeared on Broadway 48 years ago, was popular but didn't succeed (only lasting a little over a year) on Broadway. Now, I wonder if the revival will appear dated and very 60's (Having seen the original movie, I know how dated the musical is...at least in the movie). The cast will include John Stamos starring as Albert Peterson and Allie Trimm as Kim MacAfee and, although I've never heard of them, I really hope they can carry a great show and perform it well. Hopefully the rest of the cast, of which I've also never heard of any one of them, can give a stellar performance. But then again, I'm really not the one to ask about any Broadway actors from the history of it all. Well, you never know; maybe a year from now, we will have found out that Bye Bye Birdie won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.

Actress with ENERGY!

So as my job as an actress (not quite professional), I audition any chance I get. And, this may seem a little bit odd for readers who know me well, I auditioned for a dramatic play (not a comedy or even a musical. That's already a huge problem!) called "Our Town". Some of you may be familiar with this piece; which is about Emily who grows up with a guy named George and at the end, Emily dies; but when I auditioned for it, I knew almost nothing about the play at all. Well, I get into my audition at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant and the director tells me to sit down for my audition piece. Now for this audition we did a cold reading and in this particular case, I was reading for Rebecca, George's little sister. So I sat down and did the reading with a lot of energy because I researched this character and it said she's very energetic so that's how I did it. When I got done, the director simply said, "Nice. Good energy." To tell you the truth, I wasn't full expecting that answer. I mean sure, I'm thankful for that compliment but that's it? That's all they could say? We'll just have to wait and see...

A Little Bit Chenoweth

Every Broadway fan, either young or old, had heard of the popular musical, Wicked. This musical, with music and lyrics by the incredible Stephen Schwartz, debuted on Broadway in October 2003. The original Glinda was of course played by the lovable and peppy Kristin Chenoweth, who we all know from Pushing Up Daisies. As her fame became larger, Chenoweth decided to write an autobiography (well, sort of. Author Joni Rodgers wrote it all done while Kristin did the talking.) In this novel, Kristin talks about all the ups and downs of her life on Broadway and even back when she was just a small-town-Oklahoma girl. Well, of course, I am currently reading this book (as I am a HUGE fan of Kristin Chenoweth) and absolutely love it! So if you are a big fan of Wicked or at all part of this magical show, I recommend this fantastic novel to all of you.

What Really Happened at the Tony's

Yes, yes I know; the Tony's were last weekend, but hey! I didn't even see them until this past Saturday and realistically, I did make some pretty good guesses on the musical awards; with the Broadway plays, I have never heard of half of them. But anyway, I'm really not all that shocked that Billy Elliot won almost every award it was nominated for. However, I had never heard much about Next to Normal and I was surprised that it was even nominated. Its story line doesn't sound too interesting and the songs are intense based on Alice Ripley's characterization at the Tony's. Of course, Ripley did win the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical and in the background, Sutton Foster sat in all her grumpiness ad disbelief. But then again, it's pretty rare for anyone to win 2 Tony's, let alone even be nominated for one. So I do congratulate Ripley on her chance to win and overall with the Tony's, I was quite content with the results.

Updates From Broadway

I am told that at the 2009 Tony Awards coming to you this Sunday, Wall-E, a popular animated character (by the way, Wall-E is one of my favorite movies of all time!) will be participating in a telecast tribute to composer Jerry Herman. The rumor is that Wall-E will be introducing the "Hello, Dolly!" part of the tribute. The tribute for Herman will be followed by a special lifetime achievement award. Now if you ask me, I think this is a rather experimental idea as I have never heard of an animated character be a part of the Tony's, let alone a life tribute. But I think that it's worth a shot and like I said, Wall-E is an amazing movie, so I think the fact that this sweet little robot will be part of the Tony's might actually attract viewers other than the usual New Yorkers and Broadway fans.

America, America

Everything that has ever happened to me in the theatre is a story worth telling, and this story has not yet been told. During the run of The Music Man, back behind all the scenery and such was the orchestra pit and every show, the Wa Tan Ye girls would hang out by the orchestra right before our cue for Wa Tan Ye. The song before this Native American number is "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean", a very patriotic song sung by the townspeople on the Fourth of July. Well, in honor of this patriotic song, during one show, the trombone player decided to bring an American flag without any of the Wa Tan Ye girls knowing it. So when we got to that song, our trombone player stood up and raised the flag. This totally surprised us, so we laughed while we sung (of course the audience didn't know about and they never will). As usual, the rest of the orchestra just put their hands over their hearts and laughed with us. On the last weekend of the run, all the members of the orchestra decided to bring American flags. So we got to that song and on the first note, again without us knowing, the whole orchestra raised their flags. This time, we cracked up because we weren't expecting any of this. But this was a true joy for the Wa Tan Ye girls and this will stay in my memory for as long as I am an actress.