Ignoring Politics -- The Theatre

[silverscreenselect]

Last weekend, Mrs. SSS and I saw something unusual. It was called Guys and Dolls in Concert, and it was a performance of what appeared to me (I've seen the show a couple of times but I can't swear that nothing was cut out) to be the entire show (including the non-musical dialogue) in a concert format. The full orchestra was on stage and the performers were in front of them. There were no sets but a video screen in the background had paintings of where the scenes were supposed to be set. The actors dressed in gangsterish suits for the guys and dresses for the women. The only props they had were a couple of benches they brought out for "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat." And some of the actors carried oversized script books, although most of them didn't appear to refer to them much.

One big difference between this and other local performances is that the high end local theater companies usually put on shows for two or three weeks with 3-4 shows a weekend. This was just one performance on Saturday night. The cast included mostly people who play regularly at these high-end companies, so the quality was about as good as it gets for theater in Atlanta. They also managed to do several dance routines in a somewhat restricted space (although these might have been shortened).

Apart from the novelty aspect, the performance was pretty good overall, although I have to admit that the sets and individual scene costuming add something to the show. It was a professional production and not just a staged reading, and I was most impressed that the cast and orchestra put this much time and effort into something that was only going to have one performance. The same producers will be putting on three more shows later this year in the same one-performance format: La Cage Aux Folles, Chess, and Funny Girl.

[Bob Juch]

It seems there's a trend nowadays for very non-traditional staging.

My high school did a musical each year. "Guys and Dolls" was the one we did our senior year. I was the photographer and got some great shots that were given a full page in our yearbook.

[mrkelley23]

Concert versions of musicals have been around for a long time, but they do seem to be getting more popular. Some may not know that the famous musical Les Miserables started out on stage as a concert version., based on a concept album of music. As the concert version progressed, with more and more movement being added, someone had the bright idea to turn it into a fully-realized and choreographed show. Alfie Boe sang Valjean for a 25th anniversary concert version that is going to be showing up in movie theaters again this year.

I have seen concert versions of other musicals as well, but never Guys and Dolls. I bet I would like it.

[Vandal]

The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise, is currently playing on broadway starring Nick Fradiani. Here is Nick performing I Am… I Said. It’s amazing how well he captures the tonal qualities of the real Neil.




We will see this if it ever comes to Providence.

[Vandal]

We got tickets to see Hamilton in Providence in December. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

I hear it is festive.

[BackInTex]

We got tickets to see Hamilton in Providence in December. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

I hear it is festive.

I'd like to see that one.


Since moving into our new home, Mrs. BiT and have have enjoyed our season tickets to Broadway on the Brazos. It's a local theater group that performs a mix of Broadway musicals and plays. They perform in the historic Granbury Opera House which seats about 270 per show. We usually can get our seats in one of the first four rows. They do nine shows a year, spread out pretty evenly so it gives us (forces us) the opportunity for a date night, which we have always been bad about ensuring we do. The performances are surprisingly good given the small town nature of the company. And the prices are reasonable...about $30 show each. And the theater is only 20 minutes from the house.

The Opera House also hosts various tribute bands, maybe one every other month. Tonight we are going to see The Long Run (Eagles tribute).

Small town living is great.

The last show we went to, a few weeks ago was The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was probably the best show we've seen there so far, but in the present, most shows seem to be the best (other than Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last year).
Last Year:
Steel Magnolias
Hello Dolly!
Matilda
Treasure Island
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
The Music Man
9 to 5
And Then There Was None
White Christmas

This year:
Anne of Green Gables
My Fair Lady
A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder
Diary of Anne Frank
Newsies
Oklahoma!
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Noise Off
Annie

Next year:
12 Angry Jurors
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Bonnie and Clyde
Pride and Prejudice
Hairspray
Singin' in the Rain
Arsenic and Old Lace
Young Frankenstein
A Christmas Carol

[silverscreenselect]

They perform in the historic Granbury Opera House which seats about 270 per show. We usually can get our seats in one of the first four rows. They do nine shows a year, spread out pretty evenly so it gives us (forces us) the opportunity for a date night, which we have always been bad about ensuring we do. The performances are surprisingly good given the small town nature of the company. And the prices are reasonable...about $30 show each. And the theater is only 20 minutes from the house.

Nine shows is a very ambitious schedule for a small theater company. Most of the similar companies in the Atlanta area (even those that play in larger venues) schedule four or five shows a year. Plus, the musicals you have listed have some big casts. I hope you enjoy the shows.

[BackInTex]

They perform in the historic Granbury Opera House which seats about 270 per show. We usually can get our seats in one of the first four rows. They do nine shows a year, spread out pretty evenly so it gives us (forces us) the opportunity for a date night, which we have always been bad about ensuring we do. The performances are surprisingly good given the small town nature of the company. And the prices are reasonable...about $30 show each. And the theater is only 20 minutes from the house.

Nine shows is a very ambitious schedule for a small theater company. Most of the similar companies in the Atlanta area (even those that play in larger venues) schedule four or five shows a year. Plus, the musicals you have listed have some big casts. I hope you enjoy the shows.

I agree. I don't know how the do it. Each show usually runs for 3 weeks, Friday, Saturday matinee and Evening, and Sunday matinee, so 12 performances, but the larger productions may run up to 5 weeks.

[Bob78164]

We got tickets to see Hamilton in Providence in December. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

I hear it is festive.

I heard it reached number one with a bullet. --Bob

[silverscreenselect]

Since moving into our new home, Mrs. BiT and have have enjoyed our season tickets to Broadway on the Brazos. It's a local theater group that performs a mix of Broadway musicals and plays.

I just purchased a ticket to see my first live show since the COVID shutdown. We went to live theater almost on a weekly basis before the shutdown. However, by the time I felt comfortable going back to the theater, Mrs. SSS's behavior was too erratic for me to risk taking her to a crowded theater. And even now, I feel guilty about going without her.

But the show should be a lot of fun. It's Welcome to Margaritaville at one of the better local theater companies. As you might guess, it's like Mamma Mia, a show in which they stitched together a romantic comedy around a whole bunch of Jimmy Buffett songs. The main character is a lounge singer in a Caribbean bar called Margaritaville who gets involved with a visiting tourist. In addition to the show, there will be a pre-show concert by a Jimmy Buffett tribute band.

I'm going on a Saturday afternoon in November on a week that Georgia Tech isn't playing. After watching the Giants get pounded today and Tech lose to Notre Dame yesterday, I needed something to cheer me up.

I'll be frank; BiT's post gave me the nudge I needed to buy a ticket. If this goes wrong, I'm blaming him.

[Beebs52]

Yay you! Have fun.

[Bob Juch]

Since moving into our new home, Mrs. BiT and have have enjoyed our season tickets to Broadway on the Brazos. It's a local theater group that performs a mix of Broadway musicals and plays.

I just purchased a ticket to see my first live show since the COVID shutdown. We went to live theater almost on a weekly basis before the shutdown. However, by the time I felt comfortable going back to the theater, Mrs. SSS's behavior was too erratic for me to risk taking her to a crowded theater. And even now, I feel guilty about going without her.

But the show should be a lot of fun. It's Welcome to Margaritaville at one of the better local theater companies. As you might guess, it's like Mamma Mia, a show in which they stitched together a romantic comedy around a whole bunch of Jimmy Buffett songs. The main character is a lounge singer in a Caribbean bar called Margaritaville who gets involved with a visiting tourist. In addition to the show, there will be a pre-show concert by a Jimmy Buffett tribute band.

I'm going on a Saturday afternoon in November on a week that Georgia Tech isn't playing. After watching the Giants get pounded today and Tech lose to Notre Dame yesterday, I needed something to cheer me up.

I'll be frank; BiT's post gave me the nudge I needed to buy a ticket. If this goes wrong, I'm blaming him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvCYESSDHgg

[silverscreenselect]

This isn't technically about the theatre, but I felt it was a good fit for this thread.

I watched the season-opening episode of Elspeth on CBS. Most episodes, including this one, are open form mysteries, meaning that you see the crime committed in the first few minutes (like Columbo) and then watch the detective match wits with the killer.

In this episode, the killer was Nathan Lane, who was a huge opera buff, who attended every season. The elderly woman who sat in the row in front of him for many years died and her much taller grandson inherited her tickets. He thought bringing women to see the opera was a good way to score with them. During the productions, he talked on his phone, texted, talked to his girlfriend, ate noisily and passed food around, and made out with her, all while Lane stewed in the row behind him. Finally, Lane followed him home after a performance one night and killed him. They arrested Lane at the end, but if I'd been on the jury, I would have ruled it justifiable homicide.

[BackInTex]

This isn't technically about the theatre, but I felt it was a good fit for this thread.

I watched the season-opening episode of Elspeth on CBS. Most episodes, including this one, are open form mysteries, meaning that you see the crime committed in the first few minutes (like Columbo) and then watch the detective match wits with the killer.

In this episode, the killer was Nathan Lane, who was a huge opera buff, who attended every season. The elderly woman who sat in the row in front of him for many years died and her much taller grandson inherited her tickets. He thought bringing women to see the opera was a good way to score with them. During the productions, he talked on his phone, texted, talked to his girlfriend, ate noisily and passed food around, and made out with her, all while Lane stewed in the row behind him. Finally, Lane followed him home after a performance one night and killed him. They arrested Lane at the end, but if I'd been on the jury, I would have ruled it justifiable homicide.

LOL, no doubt. So would I.

I'll be frank; BiT's post gave me the nudge I needed to buy a ticket. If this goes wrong, I'm blaming him.

Glad I was somehow influencing you to be good to yourself. You deserve it.

Oh, and we still are to blame Rexer for all things needing blame.

[Beebs52]

This isn't technically about the theatre, but I felt it was a good fit for this thread.

I watched the season-opening episode of Elspeth on CBS. Most episodes, including this one, are open form mysteries, meaning that you see the crime committed in the first few minutes (like Columbo) and then watch the detective match wits with the killer.

In this episode, the killer was Nathan Lane, who was a huge opera buff, who attended every season. The elderly woman who sat in the row in front of him for many years died and her much taller grandson inherited her tickets. He thought bringing women to see the opera was a good way to score with them. During the productions, he talked on his phone, texted, talked to his girlfriend, ate noisily and passed food around, and made out with her, all while Lane stewed in the row behind him. Finally, Lane followed him home after a performance one night and killed him. They arrested Lane at the end, but if I'd been on the jury, I would have ruled it justifiable homicide.

LOL, no doubt. So would I.

I'll be frank; BiT's post gave me the nudge I needed to buy a ticket. If this goes wrong, I'm blaming him.

Glad I was somehow influencing you to be good to yourself. You deserve it.

Oh, and we still are to blame Rexer for all things needing blame.

This is all so great!

[silverscreenselect]

I'll be frank; BiT's post gave me the nudge I needed to buy a ticket. If this goes wrong, I'm blaming him.

Glad I was somehow influencing you to be good to yourself. You deserve it.

I went Saturday, and it was a nice show, about what I would have guessed. The lounge singer and the bartender get involved with two visiting tourists to the Margaritaville Hotel on a Caribbean island. One tourist has a jerk of a boyfriend, and the other is a "dedicated" scientist with no time for fun. By the end of the show, both the jerk boyfriend and the dedication are gone. The jokes were occasionally funny but the music was consistently good, plus they were actually able to work the song lyrics into the storyline. For example, just before intermission, the volcano on the island starts erupting, which allows the whole cast to sing Volcano when the curtain rises again (I don't know... where I'm gonna go when the volcano blow.") The quality was above average local theater, with most of the cast having a good bit of college and local theater experience. The female lead (the dedicated scientist) had training as an opera singer.

The theater was only about half full for the matinee, so I was able to move down a few rows for a better seat, but there were no bad seats in the place (only 12 rows of seats and I was in Row 11 originally). And as an added bonus, a local butcher had an ad in the program so I was able to go there after the show and get two free steakburgers, which will be tonight's dinner.

I did got choked up once during the show thinking about Mrs. SSS not being there, but overall, I had a very good time. Thanks, BiT.

[kroxquo]

FWIW, I am currently portraying Horace Vandergelder in our local theater's production of Hello Dolly (Played by Walter Matthau in the film version). In 40 years (off and on) of doing school and community theatre, this is my first singing part and nobody seems to mind too much. If anyone happens to be in in Kinston NC this week-end, come see it! One of our patrons this past week-end was the wife of the electrician who rewired Jerry Herman's apartment (the composer of Dolly) in New york and she gave the show a rousing endorsement.

[Vandal]

Backlit me at Hamilton in Providence:



And a view from our seats:




The show was spectacular, even though I had a hard time deciphering some of the rapid fire lyrics. I read a synopsis of the play earlier in the day, so that helped.

It was truly a diverse cast, with George Washington being played by a very large, bearded black actor. What a set of pipes!

I highly recommend to those who haven’t seen it.