Broadway

I saw my third and final broadway show, Mamma Mia!, in New York for the summer, this Sunday afternoon with Geralyn and her two roomates, Kristina and Megan. Overall, I enjoyed aspects of all three of them.



Mamma Mia! is definitely the "chick flick" of Broadway shows. Taking place in Italy, it involves the wedding of a young girl who wants her father to walk her down the aisle. Raised by a single mother her whole life, she finds her mother's diary shortly before the wedding and discovers from several journal entries that there are three possible men who could be her father. Without her mother knowning, she invites all three, and the comedy begins as she sets about finding her real dad. Ultimately this play had some funny and heartfelt moments, but overall fell a little short because of its constant reliance upon strictly songs from the musical group Abba and various sexual references. Ultimately the theme meanders amongst such topics as fond remembrance of youthful revelry, the independence of women, and the responsibility of fatherhood. Though carried out through somewhat sloppily contrived dialogue, these themes are surprisingly heartfelt and, at times, even teary-eyed, with plenty of of time left over for giggles. The strength of the show is in its efficient yet attractive set transitions and props, as well as glamorous blue, purple, and bluish-green lighting effects. It has its moments, but don't go alone or with less than 50% of your group being female. 5/10



Les Miserables is said to be the longest running broadway show, and it's obvious why. It is brilliant. Based on the classic novel by French author Victor Hugo, the play, like the book, stays true to the various intertwining plot lines of many characters during the era of the Napoleonic wars and shortly thereafter. Jean Valjean is the convict who redeems himself by acts of charity. Fantine is the terminated factory employee who becomes a prostitute to survive and bears a child later rasied by Valjean. This child, Cosette, later marries a revolutionary college student in arms, who is also saved from death by Cosette's guardian, Valjean. And so on and so forth, the plot lines weave to create a masterful piece of storytelling that grips at the heartstrings. I cannot stress how much this play was profoundly emotional. One thing that impressed me is that every character has a different method of singing and a recurring musical theme that correlates directly with his or her personality. There is only one line in the whole play that is not sung, so this is definitely your traditional through-and-through musical. It was a little long, at almost 3 hours, but definitely worth the time. The dull lighting of this often dreary (though at just the right moments sparsely lighthearted) show is not dulling to the senses, for the set pieces constantly change. Such simple creativity as having the stage turn in a circle while a character runs, bringing in new scenery, gives the impression of travel to new scenes. The play has it all: history, tragedy, a bit of comedy, romance, awe-inspiring vocal performances, lifelike props, and a marvelous orchestra. I definitely recommend this play to anyone: the family, the girlfriend, the guys from work, whoever! 9/10



Monty Python's Spamalot is, as the tagline says, "A new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The plot includes.....Well, let's just say, "What does the plot not include?!" The opening scene involves Norwegian woodspeople slapping each other with fish, only to have the "director" run in and say they are acting out the wrong play. As you can imagine, from there, the plot line and much verbatim dialogue from the movie creates the hilarity that Python fans (such as myself) are expecting. As the characters take up their God-given quest to find the grail, the recurring theme seems to be poking fun at Broadway, including my favorite, "The Song That Goes Like This." Be warned that this "esoteric class" humour pokes a bit of fun at many "untouchable" topics. For example, God (just as in the movie) tells King Arthur to stop grovelling just like in "those depressing Psalms"; Lancelot, in saving the girlish singing prince, discovers his own attraction to men; the dead and dying souls during the Black Plague are the object of humour; and Brave (cowardly) Sir Robin (who soils his pants upon seeing the killer white rabbit) sings an extended sequence of melodies stating that, in a Broadway, "You haven't got a thing unless you've got a Jew." This was my favourite of the 3 plays I saw. You just leave the theater feeling happy. It's very random and ridiculous, but thankfully so very random and ridiculous, that it affords the audience a complete eclipse of reality and a gratitude that our lives are not nearly as false as these fools parading around on stage with oversized cans of spam and Camelot casino chips. The dialogue is downright hilarious, and the acting is very, very talented. The stage designs are lavishly bright and beautiful, intentionally overdone to complete the surreal aura. The designs are also very witty, and there are lots of "ooh" and "ahh" moments, as when God's feet drop from the ceiling so He can have a chat with Arthur, and when the illustrious Lady of the Lake comes from beneath the watery habitat in a cloud of fog to give Arthur a sword. Also: there is crowd participation. To avoid giving away the surprise, I'll leave it at that. It isn't really family friendly, but it doesn't go further than a "PG-13." Might be offensive on several levels, the least of which being serious Broadway fans will feel they are the object of ridicule. 8/10

I Bid Thee Farewell

As I saunter across your concrete in the burning hot
I think of all the times we have shared and all the times we have not
Thank you for the time but I’m about to say goodbye
Within seven days I’ll leave
And break your heart just like you broke mine
I’d leave you with a handkerchief with which to dry your eyes
But I know you have not got the heart to heave a sob and cry
Many the time I wanted to spend the night with you
But you would rather be with 10 million other people than with me
You’ve got grace, you’ve got charm, you’ve got godlike qualities
And yet you feed upon the misery of the oppressed and disenchanted
Though I will miss you, truth to be told
All the things we could have done
Some days I’ve hated you, others I’ve loved you
It’s undeniable you’ve always captured my imagination
Leaving me wanting you more and more but never satisfied
Your adrenaline is everything I crave and nothing I want to be
Your actions compose the lines to my amateur verse
Photographs of us together demonstrate
How much I really wanted to be with someone else
My dear, what’s going to happen next?
I’ll always be waiting for my train to come in
But it won’t break my heart to say goodbye.
In conclusion, fare well. I hope to see you again.

The Far East and Other Things

[Composed yesterday]

The day began 30 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. Don’t you hate that? Oh well. It turned out to be a great day.

I went to church, as usual, and then I decided to go to Starbuck’s Coffee, for the second week in a row after church. As I sipped a raspberry mocha frap, I decided to finish off The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the fifth of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. Just as I thought I remembered from childhood, this is my favorite of the seven books. My favorite part is the end of the book. In the story, it’s also the end of the world…and it’s so beautiful.

As the travelers come to a strange island with a “ginormous” table spread out with a king’s feast, an old man with a beard and silver hair down to his feet comes out and tells them the guests will be arriving shortly. They stand in awe, as the sun rises, for thousands of birds fly from the east, with the sun on their wings. They are sent daily to this, Aslan’s Table, to feast, as they sing an ethereal song, after which they fly back to Aslan’s land, the land beyond the sun, beyond the edge of the world. The travelers continue sailing eastward and as they do, the bottom of the sea becomes visible because the water is almost completely transparent. They can see an entire world under the sea, full of castles and roads where the mermaids and sea kings live. Reepicheep, the fighting mouse, gets rather excited when he has a draught of seawater and it tastes sweet. He remembers the prophecy given to him, “Where the waves grow sweet, doubt not Reepicheep, there is the utter east.” As they journey further, the water at the world’s end gets not deeper, but shallower and shallower, and the current pulls them ahead at light speed. The sun is so big that they are constantly bathed in white light. The utter end of the ocean is a vast sea of white lilies, “very hard to describe—sweet, yes, but not at all sleepy or overpowering, a fresh, wild, lonely smell that seemed to get into your brain and make you feel that you could go up mountains at a run or wrestle with an elephant. She and Caspian said to one another, ‘I feel that I can’t stand much more of this, yet I don’t want it to stop.’ “ What the book is attempting to depict is what I think it depicts so wonderfully, crossing into eternity.

I was interrupted from my reading by my party of friends, who had arrived. I joined them for brunch at a restaurant, and then left to go to the lower west side, south of Houston Street. I went to a place on the Hudson River that my roommate, Brian Quimby, had told me about. Floating the Apple is a volunteer group of water enthusiasts who let people use their kayaks to paddle around in the Hudson for free on weekends. I did that for about a half hour, and it was delicious fun.

After that I headed to the Financial District, to mail some letters at the post office, followed by a journey to the 2 subway stops down at Wall Street. I walked past the New York Stock Exchange, strangely silent compared to the chaos that will ensue tomorrow. And Trinity Church caught my eye. It’s such a big beautiful building, I figured I’d have a look inside.

Of course, once inside, I was awestruck by the beauty of the cathedral. I wondered out of the main chapel into its several halls and then…something happened that I did not expect. I saw a side room with a few chairs and hymnals, and a lavish altar, with a burning candle hanging above. I went to sit down, thinking I would flip through a hymnal. As I picked one up, the desire to pray came over me. I checked my emotion at first, not wanting to be pseudo-religious just because I’m being a tourist in some church building that, “No less,” I thought, “tread by common tourists all day.” But the feeling persisted. An urge to pray at that moment, and not put it off. I began to pray in the Holy Spirit and then…my prayers were turned to this nation, to my marriage, to my purpose on earth, to Amanda’s…I began to read silently aloud some of the old hymns and prayers and was rejoicing. A half-hour later when I left, I looked at one of the carvings on the door. It was glorious! It was the scene from Revelation where all the saints are casting down their crowns before Christ on the throne, with a great lion in the foreground.

I went to the Whitehall yellow line subway and rode it Times Square, where I returned to the Virgin Records megastore and looked through some music. Chevelle’s Wonder What’s Next for only $12.99 became irresistible once I let the opening track’s rift dance in my head for a while. So after purchasing it, I began looking for a plate for Amanda, who is collecting plates from various places she travels to. I did not find a satisfactory one and will have to try again elsewhere.

I just now finished up my 16-page paper, am e-mailing it. Thank goodness that won’t keep me up nights this week any more.

A Hot Dog From Hallowed Antiquity

Today my friend Geralyn and I journeyed into Brooklyn. Here's a few pictures from Prospect Park and Coney Island.