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Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
I got a decent deal on Hamilton tickets on Broadway in May. Now all I need is to nail down a hotel for a few nights and a flight. We're going up there to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, and we haven't been back to NYC since our honeymoon in '09. We've seen a few Broadway shows on previous trips: Les Miserables (I went in completely cold and unspoiled, and it blew me away), Rent (starring Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, the original Mark and Roger), Spring Awakening, and West Side Story.

My wife was a child actress who did community theater, and she's the one who really got me to appreciate live theater. I'm grateful to her for it. Back home, I've also taken her to see touring productions of Les Mis, Rent, and West Side Story, plus Wicked, Lion King, Avenue Q (didn't like it as much as I expected to), Book of Mormon (same), Chorus Line (hated this one), Pippin (hated it too -- maybe I just don't like '70s musicals), Fun Home (a concert performance with the original Broadway cast as well as a local production), and local productions of Assassins and Little Shop of Horrors (which I've loved ever since I was a kid in the '80s, watching the VHS tape over and over and memorizing all the songs). I'm probably forgetting one or two other shows we've seen.

But anyway, I've been obsessed with the Hamilton original cast recording since early 2016, and I'm psyched to finally be seeing it live next year, "in the greatest city in the world." I can understand why some people might find it corny or cheesy, but I think it's brilliant. I love musical theater, hip hop, and American history, so it feels like it was tailor-made for me. I think Lin-Manuel totally deserves his certified genius designation and every accolade he's earned, and Daveed Diggs (the original Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson) is a multi-talented superstar in the making. I got to see him live with his noise-rap group clipping. in 2017, and he was an amazing live performer at that tiny venue. I just know the current Hamilton cast will feel like a "cover band" to me, no matter how great they are, based on how much I've listened to that original cast recording.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Dec 30, 2018

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Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006

EL BROMANCE posted:

Sounds like you'll have a great trip, how difficult was getting tickets now it's been touring a while? I was able to secure my bro/sis in laws ones fairly easily, but I know other cities still queue like crazy.

Ave Q is another one of those ones that I've just not been into from what I've seen, but everyone I know whose seen it absolutely loved it. I think I just have weird tastes!

Hamilton is coming on tour to my Southern city at the end of January, and as you might guess, everyone wanted tickets and they were almost impossible to get. The online ticketing system for the venue was a shitshow, and it took some people 6, 7, 8 hours of attempts to get through, for the lucky few who got through at all.

But earlier that same week, I got word they were opening up a whole new block of tickets for sale on Broadway, from May through November. I signed up online to get a chance for "first dibs" and was alerted that I got randomly selected for the presale. I chose a date in late May and was in and out in just a few minutes. After that, I didn't even bother with the aggravation of trying to score local tickets.

But you can bet I'm gonna enter the $10 ticket lottery every day it plays in my own city in January just in case, and if I win, I'm going to scalp the hell out of our NYC tickets to bankroll more of our May trip.

I have to agree on Avenue Q. Thought I would love it, wanted to love it, but it didn't do much for me. My favorite part was when the cardboard boxes came to life, with faces, and started to sing. That was the high point.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Dec 31, 2018

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
The live production of Rent is airing on Fox tonight, from 8 to 11 PM, EST.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
It's very dated, and I'm mostly over it, despite having seen it live three times. But Brandon Victor Dixon is in it, and he was so amazing as Judas in the live Jesus Christ Superstar, and was supposed to have been even more amazing as Burr in Hamilton on Broadway.

So while people in my city as seeing Hamilton for real tonight, at least I'll get some free live theater.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006

garthoneeye posted:

I like the filmed live on broadway version because it has the whole show and keeps the best part of the movie (Thoms’s Joanne).

We have that DVD, and I just realized that Renee Elise Goldsberry (the original Angelica Schuyler from Hamilton) plays Mimi in that 2008 performance! I had no idea who she was when I bought it for my wife a decade ago. Now I need to watch it again.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
Last night's new episode of Documentary Now on IFC was a parody/homage to the Company: Original Cast Recording documentary, which I've never seen, but is apparently beloved by musical theater fans. It was written by John Mulaney and Seth Meyers, and it featured a tense, behind-the-scenes look at recording the cast album for the fictional Co-Op musical. Even not knowing Company, it was clearly a spot-on Sondheim parody, with Mulaney playing the Sondheim stand-in character. Renee Elise Goldsberry from Hamilton, Tina Fey collaborator Paula Pell, Richard Kind, and James Urbaniak (Dr. Venture himself) were also in it.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006

CaveGrinch posted:

The current RENT tour is a lovely non-Eq production with a completely different set, direction and a bunch of cast that look like they just got out of high school.

Don’t ruin it. Just get the DVD of the final Broadway cast and watch that.

Plus future Hamil-Tony winner Renee Elise Goldsberry as Mimi!

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
Fosse/Vernon premiered on FX last night, and it was fascinating, with stellar editing (and of course choreography). Everyone posting in this thread should check it out.

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Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
We've been in New York since Wednesday, celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary a few months early. This was our first trip back since our October 2009 honeymoon. We saw Hamilton on Thursday night with excellent orchestra seats in row O, and it not only lived up to all the hype, but surpassed it. I was psyched to recognize our Lafayette/Jefferson, James Monroe Iglehart, as Titus' Broadway rival Coriolanus Burt, from The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

We just came back from seeing Chicago, a brilliant idea we had yesterday, after scoring even better orchestra seats in row E. That was particularly well-timed, seeing it just a few days after this week's excellent Fosse/Verdon episode about the making of Chicago. My wife and I agreed we still like the movie better, but the girl who played Roxie Hart is a superstar in the making, and far better than Renee Zellwegger.

We have to leave tomorrow, which is a bummer, except it has been super-expensive. We've also been eating like kings, though.

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