THEATER

One of my biggest temptations, in the category of 'how to overspend your allowance in New York City' is theater. I love competent live performances of any variety--music, dance, lectures, or drama. In Vancouver we had two theatre subscriptions and a pass to all the offerings at the Fringe Festival, in addition to purchasing individual tickets to other plays. But living in New York pumps up the breadth, the depth, the cost, and the quality of the possibilities.

There are several possiblities for seeing theater without breaking the bank. One of these is 'rush tickets' offered the day of the performance. Some venues, such as Lincoln Center, offer day of the performance tickets for $20 a few hours prior to curtain. There is also the familiar TKTS booths on Times Square (or at least they USED to be--during construction they are located on 46th just west of Broadway by the Marriott), where tickets discounted 25 to 50% for that day's performances are sold (cash only). And finally, there's 'Wicked...'

Wicked has been, and is, sold out for a long, long time past, present, and future. We have not found this play listed in the TKTS offerings either (demand is such, even with 4 touring companies out there in America, that they evidently don't need to). What they do, however, is to have a nightly lottery for the first row of the orchestra section. If you come between 4 pm and 4:50 you can stand in line to write your name on a piece of paper in the lobby and then go back and wait outside (in the cold). Around 5 pm the 3X5 index cards with all the names on them are put in a tumbler, spun around, and around 20 are chosen. Shortly after 5 a theater employee comes out and reads the names of those selected, each of whom can then purchase up to two $26 cash tickets for that night's front row. To date, Barb and I are zero-for-three at the Wicked lottery....

After this evening's Wicked disappointment we bought TKTS seats in the 5th row of the mezzanine for the last night of previews of 'November,' a new play by David Mamet staring Nathan Lane. While not as intelligent as most of his works, I did manage to laugh myself silly all during the show, which concerns an incompetent and much hated U.S. President (how do they make this stuff up?!) facing re-election. The show featured a lot of crude language and jokes ranging from the simple and predictable to the outrageous and creative, all delivered by a consummate and experienced stage performer.

Which is a lot more than I can say for Caroline's Comedy Club, where the humor, while equally crude, was not nearly as well written or funny. We saw 12 new comedians in the show and since the audience was small we were seated right up against the stage, which meant we were fodder for their jokes, used at our expense for their material. I was mocked by better in the halls of junior high school--and THAT venue didn't have a two-drink minimum....

Dan

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