Wicked on Broadway

Outside the Gershwin Theatre in New York City.

While I was in New York City I was able to see seven shows in five days!  I included a few new shows that I had not seen before and a few of my old favorites that I can see again and again.  Wicked is a show that I never get tired of because I absolutely love the music and I can definitely relate to the story about a girl who doesn't quite fit in.  The Broadway production was one of the best I have seen (maybe even better than the London production).  I tend to think that whoever is playing Elphaba in the production I am currently seeing is the best one but Rachel Tucker was simply amazing!  She just about blew the roof off the Gershwin Theatre during "Defying Gravity" and "No Good Deed."  I also really liked Carrie St. Louis as Glinda, especially when she tossed her hair.  She added her own hilarious touches to "Popular" by stretching and throwing punches.  I laughed and laughed.  St. Louis and Tucker had great chemistry in "What Is This Feeling" (they had the best facial expressions) and they sang "For Good" beautifully (I had a tear in my eye).  Jonah Platt (Fiyero) was not the best dancer I have seen in the role but he had an incredible voice and I loved his song "As Long As You're Mine" with Tucker.  When the Wizard sang "A Sentimental Man" at the end of the first act, I kept thinking that I recognized him so I looked him up in the program during intermission.  It turns out that the Wizard was played by Peter Scolari, a veteran of several TV shows and movies, most notably Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.  I have to admit that I was a bit star-struck by his performance!  I thought Madame Morrible (Judy Kaye) was the best I've seen and the ensemble was great in all of the big song and dance numbers, especially "No One Mourns the Wicked" and "March of the Witch Hunters."  I really enjoyed myself at this production because several people in our group had never seen it before and it was fun experiencing it through their eyes.

Paul Simon at the Maverik Center

I love the music of Paul Simon.  I grew up listening to Simon & Garfunkel but I came to love Simon as a solo artist when the album Graceland was released the summer after I graduated from high school.  This album literally blew my mind (and prompted me to protest against apartheid).  I think Simon is an absolutely brilliant and innovative songwriter and I love his fusion of sounds from all over the world.  I predicted that his concert last night at the Maverik Center would be an evening of spectacular music.  It was!  Simon was joined on stage by an unbelievably talented band, all of whom played multiple instruments, and he played hit after hit for over two hours to the delight of the crowd.  He did play some new songs from his forthcoming album Stranger to Stranger, including the sultry title track "Stranger to Stranger" as well as "The Werewolf" and "Wristband."  He also played some old Simon & Garfunkel songs such as "Homeward Bound" and "El Condor Pasa."  However, much of the evening was devoted to his solo greatest hits like "Boy in the Bubble," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," "Dazzling Blue," "That Was Your Mother," "Rewrite," "Slip Slidin' Away," "Mother and Child Reunion," "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" (which got everybody dancing), "Spirit Voices," "The Obvious Child," "Duncan," "The Cool, Cool River," and a rowdy rendition of "You Can Call Me Al" to end the set.  One of my favorite moments of the evening came near the end of the set when he played my favorite song, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes."  For the first encore he played "Graceland" and "Still Crazy After All of These Years."  For the second encore, Simon came out alone with just an acoustic guitar and played a lovely rendition of "The Boxer."  He usually only plays one song during the second encore but last night he said that he would play one more because it looked like we didn't want him to leave (I found him to be so charismatic which surprised me a bit).  This was the best moment of the evening because he played "The Sound of Silence" which is one of my all-time favorite songs.  I had goosebumps through the whole thing!  It was an incredible performance to end one of the best concerts I have ever seen!

9/11 Memorial

One of the things I really wanted to do while I was in New York was visit the 9/11 Memorial.  It is located at the site of the former World Trade Center towers and includes two giant waterfalls and reflecting pools set in the exact footprints of the towers.

The names of every person who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks, as well as the six people who died in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, are inscribed into bronze panels edging the pools.  If you look directly through the letters you can see the water.

It is an incredibly somber place and it was unusually quiet.  In a city as cacophonous as New York City, it was noticeable that the only sound I could hear was the falling water.  It was so peaceful.  Many of the people around me were silently crying but I managed to keep my emotions in check until I asked one of the many docents the significance of the white roses place in some of the names.  

A white rose is placed in each name on that person's birthday.  For some reason that touched me so much and the tears just started falling (I am crying now as I type this).

It was an incredible experience to visit the 9/11 Memorial.  I highly recommend a visit if you are ever in New York City.  Go here for more information.

Money Monster

Thursday night I went with my Mom and Marilyn to see the movie Money Monster.  George Clooney plays Lee Gates, the flamboyant host of a slick investment advice television show (also called Money Monster), and Julia Roberts plays Patty Fenn, his exasperated producer.  Walt Camby (Dominic West), the CEO of Ibis, is scheduled to be a guest on the program to explain why the company's stock inexplicably crashed losing investors over $800 million.  Just as the show is about to go live, Gates learns that Camby is believed to be in Geneva and that Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe), CCO of Ibis, will be taking his place via a live feed from their corporate office.  As the show gets under way, a man named Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) storms on set with a gun and places a vest, with enough Semtex to blow up the entire building, on Gates holding him hostage on live TV.  Budwell invested his entire nest egg in Ibis stock, on a recommendation from Gates, and wants answers about why it crashed.  As Gates tries to keep Budwell calm, Fenn, trapped in the control room, and Lester, from the IBIS corporate office, work to uncover a conspiracy that stretches from Johannesburg to Seoul to Reykjavik.  It is a taut and entertaining thriller with highly nuanced performances by both Clooney and Roberts, as well as a riveting performance by O'Connell.  It is incredibly suspenseful because the characters are trying to find answers in real-time in the claustrophobia of the set and the control room while the cameras are rolling.  Director Jodie Foster uses the perspectives of the various cameras on the floor quite effectively.  The script is very intelligent, making complicated stock manipulation understandable for a lay audience, and it is often quite funny, especially when a low-level producer is sent running from place to place multiple times.  It seems that indictments of Wall Street have become de rigeur in Hollywood lately and, while this installment isn't quite as scathing as The Big Short, it does, however, show the human cost of corporate greed.  I really enjoyed this movie but both my Mom and sister found all of the profanity to be a bit off-putting.

Three Medals

This week Tashena competed for the final time at the District Track & Field Championships.  She entered three events (discus, long jump, and shot put) and won medals in all three of them!

In the discus she broke a district record that has stood for thirty years!

Discus Champion (Look at those guns!).  She has won the discus championship for three years in a row!

Long jump champion.

Third place in shot put.  I am so proud of this girl!  I can't wait to see what she does next year in high school!