The Book of Mormon!!

Trey Parker & Matt Stone have done it again!

As we're not allowed photos, this is all I've got.

Two nights ago I saw The Book of Mormon, a new Broadway show created by the South Park guys, Trey Parker & Matt Stone. To say I really liked this show would be an understatement. This was one of the best Broadway shows I've ever seen. It was as funny as you'd expect something by these guys to be and man, they really know how to make funny songs actually GOOD. It's no easy feat, but they've managed it time and again on South Park and this show is no exception. I'll be singing "Tomorrow is a Latter Day" and "Scary Hell Dream" for awhile to come. (And I'll be buying that soundtrack the MINUTE it's available!)

I don't want to give any of it away, but they do a good job of giving a condensed version of what Mormons believe (it's ridiculous, to say the least), with a narrative and without being TOO mean. (To be honest, I would've liked it to be a LITTLE meaner. haha) The cast is fantastic and likable and boy do they work hard. There is a LOT going on in this play. The sets are simply amazing as well. There really isn't anything bad I can say about this! There's also been many, MANY blogs about this, so I don't want to get repetitive, but I just wanted to make it known that I LOVE THIS SHOW! (I even read a blog by a Mormon who loved it and encourages other Mormons to go see it!) Honestly, there's a VERY good chance I will be seeing this again soon.

The only pic I dared to sneak before it started.

Tonight is opening night (I went to see it during previews month...it's cheaper. haha), and I have a feeling it's going to be sold out nightly, so I'd look into getting tickets as soon as possible. I PROMISE you will not regret it!!


The End. Tomorrow is a latter day.

PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE!

So I saw the Pee-wee play!!! Yes. Just add that to the incredibly long list of reasons to love living in New York City! Now let me start by saying something that you'll probably get mad at me for: I wasn't really a huge Pee-wee fan. I know, I know. I just didn't remember ever being REALLY into it. I knew I watched it as a kid, but I would've called myself a fan. That's all changed now. :)

First, let me just tell you HOW I got to see this show. Frakkin' FOURSQUARE, that's how! As you may have known if you follow my twitter, I'm a little addicted to foursquare badges. They do absolutely nothing and I can't even get stickers of them like you can from GetGlue. But I still need to get as many as I can. I will just walk around the city to check into places to get badges. ANYWAY, a few months back, when the Pee-wee show on Broadway first opened, Pee-wee started a little campaign with fourquare, in which one could earn a Pee-wee badge by first being his friend on foursquare, and then checking into 2 or 3 places Pee-wee checked in to. There were plenty right near my office, so I got this fairly easily. It's a great badge, it looks like his suit. I was happy. I did not know anything else would come of it.

THEN, a couple months after that, I get an email that basically says: "Dear Foursquare Badge-holder, We're having a drawing for free tickets to see Pee-wee on Broadway for a special taping of the show to air on HBO. To enter, blah blah blah." So I entered. AND I WON! 'Twas VERY exciting. Luckily I had nothing planned for that day, so I went.


And it WAS GREAT! I realised once the show started that I knew A LOT more than I thought I did about Pee-wee. I remembered SO much! I completely forgot about Penny, which was my favourite bit on that show. Not to mention Ptery and Globey! Of course there was Chairy, but I never forgot her. It was a GREAT show. Funny and fun and very nostalgic. If I hadn't been watching the last ever production, I would've been telling EVERYONE to go see it. So I'm super glad I got the chance and I thank you very much, foursquare!

But it gets better! More fourquare awesomeness! SO, at the end of the show, Pee-wee mentions that in a couple days there will be a foursquare PARTY at the new Bowlmor Lanes in Times Square (the original is in Union Square) for a select few of the badge-holders who ask to participate. I get ANOTHER email asking about this and I RSVP and the next day I'm told I can go! WOOT! Now, while this was a bowling party, I really didn't feel like bowling, so I just sat at the bar with my friend and tried some of their food. About an hour in, Pee-wee shows up and makes his way around the entire party saying hello to everyone that came. SUCH a sweetheart. He even actually OFFERED to take pictures without me even asking! I absolutely adore him now. He won me over. Too bad it's at the end of the Pee-wee train... I don't know how much more he can do with the character, but I'm considering buying the DVD set of the show... :-P

So meeting Pee-wee was definitely the highlight, but the whole experience was really cool and I only have foursquare to thank. So no longer can I be made fun of for my badge addiction! :-) (Side note: I also got $5 admission to the Whitney with my Whitney badge the other day — that's a $13 savings people!!!)

Anyway, last thing I want to tell you peeps, is that the HBO taping I went to IS AIRING THIS WEEKEND! March 19th, to be exact! Set your DVRs and watch this! I will admit, if you know NOTHING of Pee-wee, you might not enjoy it quite as much, but it's still a good time. Check it out: Pee-wee on HBO!

Trailer

The End.

Busy Bee Part 1

Holy crap! October has turned out to be the busiest month for me! The last two weeks have completely drained me (to the point of just sitting in my room knitting and watching TV this weekend)! And I've still got more to come!!!

OK, first, last Tuesday I went to see Sam Harris talk about his new book, "The Moral Landscape" at The Great Hall at Cooper Union. It was really interesting and I bought the book and had him sign it. His book is basically about the idea that morals CAN be determined by science. Obviously there's more to it than that, but you can just read the book. haha (I've only just started.)



(After the talk I walked over to Luke's Lobster again...holy jeez that shit is DELICIOUS!)

The next night, my super cool awesome pal, Brian Bendis took me to see "A Life in the Theater" by David Mamet, starring Patrick Stewart & T.R. Knight.


This play was great! Patrick Stewart was so great!! So adorable and funny! Funny thing about this play was that it was running in London when I was there in 2005. I really wanted to see it but the people I as traveling with didn't want to, so we didn't go. So it's really cool that I finally got to see it. Only problem is, instead of T.R., it was JOSHUA JACKSON! Whom I love. (WATCH FRINGE!!!) Ah well. If you like going to the theatre, I recommend this highly! This was also sort of the first night of comicon partying, so I went out after this to hang out with some of the creators that already made it to NYC. I tried to make it home at a semi-reasonable hour and left at around 12:30. However, what would normally have been a 40 minute trip home turned into a nightmare with the Q only going to 57th St. (after waiting 15 minutes for it), then waiting 10 more minutes for the N, which then only went to Queensboro Plaza (first stop in Queens) because of an investigation at the next stop. So then I had to take a shuttle bus home. Ugh! Took an hour and a half. Blerg. (Although I was very annoyed by this, I have to say, the MTA was crazy quick with getting those shuttle buses there, so I was very pleased about that.)

Anyway, the next night I went to City Winery to see Fran Healy (the lead singer from Travis) perform. Oh man, I love that guy!!

City Winery is a really cool place. I had a fancy cheese plate. Soooo gooood.

He was just so cute the entire time. He's awesome. And his new album is great. I'm hoping for a new Travis album too. They're definitely one of my favourite bands!!

I actually got to meet him last year (along with Andy Dunlop from the band) when they did this AWESOME show that was just the two of them going through their catalogue of songs throughout the years, talking about where they were as a band at the time and stories behind how some of the songs came about. It was one of the best shows I'd ever seen. And they hung around after to sell CDs & t-shirts and meet anyone who wanted to! They were total sweethearts and Fran actually took the picture of us with my phone:


Anyway, after that excellent performance, I booked it over to The Village Pourhouse (on Restaurant Row) for the CBLDF Comicon party. I had an awesome time there (helped by all my drinks being bought FOR me! hehe) hanging with all the comic peeps visiting, good friends new and old! As I had taken the day off on Friday, I had no problem staying out all night, I think I headed home around 3:30. I love walking through Time Sq. that late because it's the only time you see it empty. Freaks me out in a good way every time!

The big M&M screen is one of my favourite things in Times Square. :-P So awesome!


While I DID take off from the office on Friday, I actually had a 5-hour shift at the Marvel booth at the con. This ended up being the most time I spent at the actual convention (spent about 2 hours in artists' alley the next day, and that's it). I had a good time at the booth, the best part being the pictures with the Cap shield! :-)



After the con, my super cool awesome pal Joe took me to see the GORILLAZ!!!!! First we stopped over at 5 Guys Burgers & Fries for some delicious burgers (seriously, GO HERE). They have a little tack board where you can write/draw stuff and post it. This was my favourite one (only funny if you know about the terrible interenet sensation "Two Girls, One Cup" which I have never actually seen but have had described to me. I don't want to throw up...):

Anyway, the Gorillaz KICKED ASS!!!! They are touring with Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash! And they had special appearances by Mos Def & LOU FRIGGEN REED!!!

Snoop wasn't there, but they had a pre-recorded video of him on screen.


That's Lou Reed up front in the spotlight. I love the drawing of him they came up with.


So they basically had their videos playing up on that screen the whole time. It was pretty great. They were seriously amazing.

More good times drinking with Comicon peeps that night at The Irish Rogue. Ended up getting home probably around 4AM again, which meant I wasn't getting up until AT LEAST 12PM...


To be continued...

Mr. & Mrs. Fitch!

I am lucky enough to have a friend who works at Second Stage Theater who can sometimes hook me up with comp tickets for plays they run there. (Last time I saw Becky Shaw — mainly because I loved Kelly Bishop in Gilmore Girls!) Which is a good thing because A) I'm broke & B) it gets me to see things I wouldn't normally see.

While I do like John Lithgow, I'm not what you would consider a fan, so I probably wouldn't have bothered to see Mr. & Mrs. Fitch. But luckily my friend offered up a couple of tickets on a night I happened to be free, and am I glad he did!

I LOVED it! I was REALLY great!! So funny, so clever. Lithgow was FANTASTIC. And so was his co-star, Jennifer Ehle! It's basically about two gossip columnists who run out of juicy celebrity gossip and what they do to get back in the gossip game! It's just a two-person play, but they bounce off each other so well, that's all you need. And did I mention it was funny? Oh and I HAVE to mention the FANTASTIC set!!! It all takes place in their apartment in Manhattan and WOW. I would kill for an apartment like that. GORGEOUS. And not to mention they had a copy of The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel (P.S.) by Michael Chabon on their table! hehe I love recognising book covers from far away... :-P

Oh and speaking of far away, if you haven't been to Second Stage, it's a great little theater. And because it's little, there are no bad seats. I highly recommend seeing a performance there. They tend to have good shows too.

Unfortunately, it's last performance was yesterday, but I think shows like this travel around, so keep a look-out in case it shows up where you live!


The End.

PS While waiting around for my friend, Lithgow came out and signed some people's stuff. I didn't really have anything to say so I let him be. I was surprised to see him take the subway, though! :-)