After seeing Memphis for the first time, I did not recommend it to friends. But now, after seeing it a second time, I will actually recommend it. The main reason for the change? Adam Pascal is now playing Huey Calhoun. But there might be a secondary reason. Due to some mess up by the theater last time, we missed the first few minutes of the show and had to stand for part of the opening. Which may have colored my feelings of the show, but I think I was trying to give it a fair shake even so. I don't want to spend this time contrasting Chad Kimball, the original Huey, to the new one, so I'll just try and review today's show on it's own merits. Memphis tells the story of Huey Calhoun, a man ... read more

David Henry Hwang is a playwright whose exploration of Chinese (and the intersection of Chinese and other countries's) culture I found fascinating in both the plays of his I have seen. In Golden Child, a Chinese-American man explores his family's past. In Chinglish, an American business man travels to China to try and sell signs to a new cultural center. But things turn complicated pretty quickly. The play is told in flashback form, starting with businessman Daniel Cavanaugh (Gary Wilmes) addressing an Ohio business group. As he tells them that the most important thing for them to remember is to bring their own translator, we are transported to China, where Cavanaugh hires Peter Timms, a British born English teacher as a business consultant and translator. Unknown to Cavanaugh, Timms has an agenda of his own, as ... read more

This was a fun Sondheim theater weekend. Saturday night was a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum performed by The Blue Hill Troupe. Blue Hill is a theater group of talented people who put on two shows a year, a Gilbert and Sullivan show in the spring and a non G-S musical in the fall. I've been attending their shows for a few years now (though I missed last year's Little Shop) and every year have been throughly entertained. Forum is a show I'd seen on Broadway, with both Nathan Lane and Whoppi Goldberg. Alan J. Abrams seems to be chanelling Nathan Lane's Pseudolus a bit, but it works. Michael Macaione as Hysterium was also quite enjoyable. All of the courtesans were fun, and the choreography for them and for ... read more

If New York is the city that never sleeps, Las Vegas is the city that has insomnia because it's drunk 6 Red Bulls and a couple of Five Hour Energy shots. My first impressions of Vegas were "too loud, too garish and too crowded." Granted, after spending 2 weeks in some beautiful countryside I might have found any city off-putting, but somehow I don't think that I will ever like Vegas. Walking through the various casinos, all I wanted to do was get out again. Get away from the flashing lights and the too loud music. And walking along the strip I was reminded how wonderful it had been being with a small group of people who respected each other and didn't walk in front of each other when someone was taking a picture. We had ... read more

as you know, i try to do a blog entry daily (or as often as possible when on vacation). oddly enough, on this trip, even though I was in the US, it became difficult. No internet access in the National Parks makes sense, I guess, but the amount that the hotels at the end of the tour wanted for internet access was ridiculous. I'm home and hopefully will be able to actually detail my experiences over the weekend. ... read more