student blog

My Purpose / Steven

If you like Broadway musicals, puppets, racism, porn, and wearing no underwear, continue reading.

Avenue Q is a Tony Award winning musical that kicked Wicked all the way to Neverland in 2004 to win Best Musical.  I’m not sure if it was the marketing people not advertising this or me being the only loser to watch the Tony Award’s every year, but people were shocked when I enlightened them of this fact!

With that being said, it should come as no surprise that this musical was everything I expected and more.  The cast was fantastic after a somewhat slow start (who can blame them after having arrived with no time off between performance venues).  The instrumentalists were fantastic up front.  I was worried with such a large venue that there would be phasing issues, but they performed with great balance and clarity.

I’ll keep this review short, but I feel it is “My Purpose” to add something incredibly important.  I have now seen, let me count, 5 Broadway shows live.  Including the multiple shows attended I have seen 10 (yes, I am the guy that has seen Rent 3 times and driven 2 hours to meet Anthony Rapp).  Obsessive traits aside, I urge you to see as many Broadway shows live as you can.  If you have not seen a show live, please go to one.  This amazing art is something that cannot be portrayed over a CD or YouTube video.  Forget the movie, forget the baseball game, and forget the porn on the internet for one night.  If there is a Broadway show in town, go see it and you will realize how fantastic these shows and people are!

And as quickly as Princeton’s night with Kate Monster was over, so is my review.

Steven

(No) Thank You, Gregory / Steven

I am no dancer.  I am no singer.  I am certainly no actor.  But I am a musician, an avid fan of Broadway musicals and, if I do say so myself, a mighty fine shower singer.  This being the case, I would never pass up an opportunity to see my first ever tap dance show with live music.  Whoops…scratch the live music thing and insert one pianist, recorded music, mediocre singing, weird videos and cheesy audience interaction.

I must admit, I was a little less than enthused when I found out right before the show that the live musicians I had been promised (and seen in the promo video) were non-existent.  Being a percussionist, I understand loud things disrupting your ability to hear.  So you can see why I felt the lone piano man’s pain when I saw him leaning over and straining to hear the recorded music from a speaker.  This coupled with an ensemble of tap dancers, live singers, and an auditorium full of people make for one great big musician’s nightmare.  However, I applaud Mr. Theo Hill for keeping it together as best he could.

I’m going to keep rolling with this music thing, but on a good “note” (Bad joke, Steven).  The rhythms tap dancers create with their feet are astonishing!  I was blown away at the abilities of these performers.  However, Joseph Webb set himself apart in my eyes.  I thoroughly enjoyed every time he was on stage.  His presence was so overwhelming that I could barely take my eyes off of him, even when the entire ensemble was on stage.  This is not to say the other dancers were not great as well.  One of my favorite pieces was “Breezing Along With the Breeze,” in which two guys provided some comedic relief while tap dancing in roller skates!

In retrospect, I must say that this show fell quite short of my expectations.  Although I found the tap dancing extraordinary, I feel there are much more explosive shows out there.  These dancers were great when 2-3 people were on stage, but when they performed together it was impossible to discern what their feet were doing.  Overall, I understand what they were going for and I appreciate the historical lesson and tribute to tap legends like Gregory Hines, Fred Astaire, and Peg Legs Bates.

However, if I were offered a ticket to see this show again by Gregory himself, I would I have to politely shake my head and respond, “No Thank You, Gregory.”