As most of you know, I am not a morning person. So why did I book myself on an 11 am flight from NY to Miami out of Newark? Honestly, I don't know. But I do know that I got myself out of bed at 3 am to head into the city to catch the NJ transit train to the airport. Since it was a 11 am flight, I wanted to be at the airport by 7:30. Well, since the transit gods like me, I got there at 5:45. Hung out at the airport for a while (note to my sister, [View Full Entry]

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Itinerary Day 1 Arrival in Lima, Peru (Saturday October 10th ) Your flight to South America arrives early this morning and will be met by your Tour Director. Transfer to your hotel for time to relax and refresh before an afternoon city tour. Your Local Guide focuses on the city’s colonial heritage during a walking tour. Start at the Plaza de Armas to see the Government Palace and the Cathedral. From here, stroll to the venerable San Francisco Monastery in Lima, Peru with its splendid 17th-century cloister murals. This evening, meet your Tour Director and enjoy a welcome dinner with you [View Full Entry]

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While I still desire to see everything playing on Broadway, I have reached the point where I don't rush out to see everything as early as possible. West Side Story was one of the musicals that were on my radar, but out of my price range. However, I suddenly got a discount for it and was able to snag two pretty decent seats in the right Mezzanine for a Sunday matinee, so off we went.... The show starts in an odd fashion, with the Jets all coming on stage and staring at the audience for a long time before the first [View Full Entry]

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Zyra Zanr is a woman on a mission. As a bounty hunter, her livelihood depends on her skills in tracking and capturing the worst felons the Three Galaxies has to offer. However, that's just the job she does to keep food in her belly and her ship repaired, and things haven't been going too well on that front. Zyra's real passion is to hunt down the criminal syndicate, Zaragos, that killed her father. It's a passion that will take her on an adventure through space and time. And an adventure that I had a great time sharing with her. I had [View Full Entry]

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Happy Birthday to me! My friend Jamie bought me an incredible present, a ticket to the Paul McCartney concert on the actual date of my birthday. So I spent tonight with some thirty thousand strangers all screaming his name. I have to admit that I think the hardest musician gig right now is the one of opening band for Paul McCartney. A nice Irish band called, I believe, the Scripts did a 45 minute set at CitiField tonight and no one paid attention. We were all there to see Sir Paul. And see him we did. He took the stage at [View Full Entry]

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This was actually my second time seeing Billy Elliott. The first time was Christmas 2008, but I wasn't using the travelblog account to keep my reviews, so I decided to post this time. I actually enjoyed the show more this time then the first time. Since I knew when the long dance numbers were, I was able to just sit back and ride them out. Billy this time was Kiril Kulish and he looked like he fit in well with the family of Gregory Jbara as the father, Carole Shelley as Gram and Will Chase as Tony. I was happy to [View Full Entry]

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I've never seen the movie version of 9 to 5, and all I really know is that it starred Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman, and had a title song by Parton. In the musical version, the roles are now played by Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty and Marc Kudish, and the title song starts off the show and sets up the women's stories. And that's part of my problem with the show, too much set up. Half of the first act is spent showing the women meeting and how bad things are under the reign [View Full Entry]

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Over the course of 1776, John Adams is often referred to as "obnoxious and disliked." It is this facet of his character that Don Stephenson seems to have chosen to bring to the forefront of his portrayal of Adams at the Papermill Playhouse. I had been a bit concerned when I read the casting notice of Stephenson as Adams. I enjoyed him in Titanic and loved him as Renfield in Dracula, but didn't think he'd be a good fit for Adams. And in the last analysis, he wasn't. As I said, he emphasized the obnoxious part of Adams' personality, often overplaying [View Full Entry]

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"People who think they're happy, probably haven't thought about it enough." I was afraid that a show about a bipolar woman and her family would be depressing. Also, I'd read a lot of rave reviews of the show on various sites, but usually, when other people rave about something as much as they were about this one, I was not impressed. But this time, I actually agree with the majority. I loved this show. Alice Ripley stars as Diana Goodman, a woman with a 16 year history of bipolar disorder and delusions. She does a remarkable job portraying the gamut of [View Full Entry]

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Disclaimer: I am a prude. I don't enjoy nudity on stage, think that sex should be enjoyed in private and have never seen the allure of drugs. So, going into Hair I knew it was not going to be my sort of thing, but I love the songs, and figured I'd take a chance. Well, let me just say that my lack of expectations were met. The show itself didn't move me, I found the story-line disjointed and not compelling, but loved the songs and the lighting. And was incredibly glad that so many talented people have jobs in this economy. [View Full Entry]

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