See, there’s this show….

It’s name is Once.

Oh guys. This show. It is just so beautfiul. I know I know. Everyone’s talking about it because it just opened (to rave reviews!!!) and everyone who’s seeing it is raving about it and I’m just another harmony in the noise that Once is causing. Oh, to be a part of that noise.

I sound all gushy and silly but there is something so completely refreshing, enchanting, and entrancing about this show. I could go on and on so I’ll stop while this post is still short;)

Have you seen it? What did you think?

Things I’ve Seen

I just want to update so much and yet when I have time, I get lazy. I think it’s the idea of posting photos to my blog. Not like it’s exactly complicated but it’s a process and I wish they could just appear on here. See? Laziness. Anyway…

The title of this post sounds kind of like it could be intellectual and perceptive, but it’s mostly referring to movies and plays.

Okay, so I saw Green Lantern. It was a midnight showing. I am not sure it was worth the sleep I lost to be honest. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it wasn’t exactly the best comic book super hero turned movie I have seen. It needed more suspense. Ah well. Ryan Reynolds made up for what the movie lacked. His acting was fine but mostly I mean, he is gorgeous! And of course I love my friends!

I also saw Bridesmaids which was a lot of fun. It was funny, entertaining, and endearing. Not the best movie ever but worth checking out. Anyway, who doesn’t love Kristin Wiig?

Then I saw Bad Teacher. It was fun. See it at a discount theater.

Okay, plays. Recently, one of my good friends was nice enough to offer me a comp to a new play by Zach Braff called All New People. I really enjoyed it. It was funny, touching, and sincere.

Last month, my friends and I saw (that’s the wrong word, experienced is more like it) Sleep No More. It is an interactive, immersive theatre experience that uses the storyline and characters from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and throws in a few characters from Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Immersive? Interactive? Yup! I followed characters around and ran up and down countless flights of stairs to keep up. It was amazing and not like anything else. It is located in an old hotel in Chelsea and set in 1930′s (not sure I have the time period right?) England. I saw so much but I also missed so much so I definitely want to go back. I also need to brush up on my Macbeth so I can really know who is who but even if you don’t know the story it’s still an amazing experience that I highly recommend going!

So, that’s what I’ve seen. Hoping to get up in time for an early showing of Midnight in Paris tomorrow!

Love love love!

Smorgasbord Post

Just a little update on what I have been up  to.

Seeing shows.

Shows seen recently:
-Driving Miss Daisy
-Priscilla Queen of the Desert
-The People in the Picture
-Sister Act
-Baby It’s You
-Wonderland
-The Normal Heart

Thought: Who hires the book writers for Broadway musicals? While I have enjoyed all of these shows in one way or another, there is a lot of not-so-great-book-writing-for-musicals/music-is-way-better-than-the-book musicals out there.  I know what to do to fix so many shows’ problems. Someone should hire me. It really couldn’t hurt.  Also, there are a few directors that could use pointers. That sounds very “I’m full of myself and know better than anyone.” Not the intention. It is just frustrating to watch a show sink when you know how to keep it afloat (or at least think you do. And I mean afloat artistically, not financially). Don’t get me wrong there are some great books for musicals out there, too. And I always try to find the good in every production. This isn’t directed at one specific production, just a general though

In other news, Pep and I went to the Harry Potter exhibit in Times Square. I saw it almost 2 years ago in Chicago but wanted to go  again. Pep wanted to go. I had comps. The end.

Pep performing "expelliarmus" before entering the exhibit.

And that's me just generally excited. I blanked out on the HP spell front.

It was a fun time. The only down side is I picked the first Monday NYC’s public school Spring Break. That means we waited in line to wait in another line to wait in another line to wait in another line finally go into the exhibit. But it was free for us so I’m not complaining. It’s just a fact. Lots of lines.

I recently changed around my work schedule at my second job to work 2 days each week as opposed to 3. It means a tad less money for me but I have been super busy so having another afternoon free has been completely worth it. I am so grateful to have a job that offers me such flexibility.

I am working Book of Mormon tonight and am also hoping to work House of Blue Leaves before the Tony’s. I took a night off work this week so I am hoping to see Jerusalem and I also want to book tickets for Anything Goes. There are many more shows I would love to see but let’s be honest, I’m poor and there’s only so much time in the day. I also REALLY want to see War Horse but that will have to wait until after the Tony’s. It’s my full-price show for this season. I NEVER pay full price for theatre tickets.

And last but certainly not least……HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY! I am beyond blessed to have such a wonderful mom in my life and am so grateful for her. Love you, mom!

My mom and I when I went back South for Christmas last year:)

Opening Night

I have a list of posts that I have been meaning to write (I’ll eventually get around to all of them) but I thought I would start by talking about opening night of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

The show itself was great (although the audience was kind of subdued for an opening night crowd) but let’s be honest, as much as I love the show and love opening nights, it’s the parties that I tend to really look forward to. And this party was at the Plaza Hotel! Can you say classy?

There were a lot of rumors floating around about whether or not we would be invited to the party but (thanks to the lovely producers) everyone from the front of house staff was invited:)

The party was 2 (count ‘em: 1, 2) floors and included fantastic food, flowing champagne, live music, black ties, party dresses, celebrity sightings, a VIP room (that the ushers may or may not have crashed once John and Daniel left), and plenty of class!

I didn’t get to meet Daniel unfortunately but to be fair, there were tons of people there so after doing press for an hour, eating in the VIP room and I assume saying hi to a few folks, he bolted. I am sure he was exhausted and doesn’t strike me as a huge partier. I have heard only the nicest things about him so I can’t wait to meet him and be best friends;) John Laroquette stopped (because we sorta made him) and let us ushers throw a few compliments his way before leaving. He also seems lovely.

A few photos from the evening:

I'm with Tammy Blanchard who is in the show. She has done several movies too and is just the sweetest!

Crashing the VIP room!

Jenn and I. Fellow ushers!

Stealing centerpieces! Actually, they told us to take them. Yes, that's Anthony Rapp. Most random photo of my life.

And a breif list of celebrities encountered aside from John, Tammy, Anthony, and Dan (because we all know I’m a sucker for a good celebrity sighting!):

-Victor Garber
-Angelica Houston
-Bernadette Peters
-David Hyde Pierce (maybe the nicest man alive)
-Liza Minelli
-John Stamos (He looks just as good in person. And yes, I though of uncle Jesse and giggled at one point.)
-Megan Hilty (Broadway name)

Thanks for indulging me on the celebrity front. I am really enjoying working this show. Please come see it if you can!:)

She updates

Long time, no blog! As much as I love to blog, when I get busy it ends up on the back burner. Apologies for the lack of posts.

So, I just thought I would give everyone a general update on my life.

Here we go…

I am apparently the only person in the world that liked this year’s Oscars (Ok, most people agree that Anne was good) but I liked a lot of other stuff too and I now love Anne Hathaway even more than before.

I ended up seeing quite a few of the movies.
Movies I saw:

1. Black Swan
2. Blue Valentine
3. Inception
4. Toy Story 3
5. The Social Network
6. Rabbit Hole
7. The Kings Speech
8. The Fighter
9. The Kids Are All Right

I think the only major films I didn’t see that were players at the Oscars were True Grit (I’m just not a Western person. I’ve tried and it just doesn’t work for me), Winter’s Bone (I know nothing about this movie but I’m receiving it from Netflix today), and 127 Hours (I wanted to see this but there’s wasn’t much in the way of time). By far, my favorite film was The Kings Speech. I love a good period film, I love Colin Firth, and I love British accents so you can imagine that if you combine all 3 of those elements it’s like the film was made for me.

On Valentine’s Day (when I last posted) I ended up going out to dinner with some friends at a bar in midtown called Vintage. It was a fun night filled with chocolate martini’s and pasta:)

Kristy, me, and one of those delish chocolate martinis!:)

I have also been working hard on submitting myself for acting roles online and last week I had a ridiculous amount of auditions. Unfortunately, I was so tired from being so busy that they were not all my best, but it was a good experience and the fact that I had so many auditions made me feel like my plan to re-focus is a good one and the right one for me.

I also got cast in and filmed 2 student films a few weeks ago (in one weekend). They are both short films, and I have small parts but it was a great experience, and I am excited to be able to start building a reel. This week I randomly got cast in a scene from Proof that an NYU student was filming and I have to say it went really well. Everyone was super nice and it was a 3 camera set-up so that was  great experience. Also, the set was kind of awesome for a student film. NYU is legit, ya’ll!;)

I took a commercial class this week as well which was very informative. Sadly, my improv class I am taking is coming to an end this Monday. I took improv because it scared me and now I’m kind of obsessed. I am definitely going to take level 2. Although, I will probably not take for a couple of months but I am excited to actually enjoy improv now!

My theatre (the Al Hirshfeld) opened back up on Saturday and I am so happy to be back. I enjoy floating around to different theatres and seeing different shows but there is something very comforting about the stability of being in my theatre with my fellow co-workers.

Come see a fun, classic Broadway show and support theatre! And, if you're seeing this show, come say hi to me, too!

Speaking of Broadway, there are so many shows that either just started previews or are about to start previews that I want to see!

Shows to see:
1. Priscilla Queen of the Desert
2. That Championship Season (kind of on the fence with this one, but if  I have time to see it, I think it could be interesting)
3. Lombardi (Ok, this didn’t just start previews and it wasn’t on my list to begin with but I’ve only heard raves about it)
4.  Driving Ms. Daisy (Again, didn’t just open but I must see it!)
5.  War Horse (I’ve posted about this one before. I need to see it at least for the puppetry.)
6.  Catch Me If You Can
7.  Wonderland
8. Anything Goes
9. Sister Act (So freaking excited for this one!)

Wow, that’s a lot of shows to see…..I should probably get cracking on that. And, I am pretty sure others will pop up along the way that I “must” see.

Well, that should be enough updating to last you a while. I promise to blog more frequently. It seems that time management is not my thing. I’m gonna work on that. Have a great day, kiddos!

Shows I’ve seen

During the last few months I have been able to see some shows (which I obviously forgot to blog about) so below is a little photo summary of the shows I’ve seen captioned with my less than 10 word review of each. Of course, all shows have flaws and strong points, but my brief snippets below sum up essentially how I felt about each piece. If you want more specifics, feel free to ask:)

Lovley

Life changing!

Unexpected

"Gruesome Playground Injuries" ~wonderfully realistic

Second time, second cast, still beautifully heart wrenching

Bold and better than expected

War Horse

This sounds like one of those shows that I desprately want to see and want to completely avoid seeing because I feel like it might be heart wrenching. I knew nothing about this show but a couple weeks ago I saw a picture of some of the puppetry (see image below) and it immediately caught my eye. Here is the summary of the show from broadway.com:

War Horse uses puppetry to tell the story of young Albert and his beloved horse, Joey. At the outbreak of World War I, Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France, where he’s soon caught up in enemy fire and on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself in no man’s land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a mission to find him and bring him home.

Stunning, right?

Despite the potential wrenching of the heart I think this will be on my “must-see” list for this season.

There are so many great theatre pieces coming to Broadway this Spring. I will post a list of my “must-sees” soon:)

New Year, New Post

Hello lovelies!

It has been far too long since I wrote an actual blog post. I don’t count the WordPress year 2010 bog review thing. First, let me wish you a very Happy (although much belated) New Year! I hope it has treated you well so far.

As you can tell it snowed (a lot) in NYC. I kind of loved it. That occurred the day after Christmas which made me grateful a thousand times over that I scheduled my flight from SC–>NYC for Christmas day. While being stuck in SC wouldn’t have been bad by any means it’s hard to say how long I would have been there for and I also didn’t want to miss too much work.

So, onto the important stuff: Christmas and New Years!

I had a lovely time in SC with family and friends. I had dinner with some friends from high school and former movie theater co-workers. My mom made lasagna on Christmas Eve (my favorite food) and we drove around looking at the Christmas lights. Santa was good to me and I got many lovely things from my wish list.

For New Years I went to a friends apartment and then we all went to a bar on the Upper East Side. It was crowded but not too crazy (thankfully). It was just the right balance of having an excuse to dress up and feel like you’re celebrating without going crazy or spending tons of money. Actually, I don’t think New Years cost me a dime aside from my 2011 glasses and sequined shrug:)

So here we are in 2011. Madness! I must say that every year I have lived in NYC has been progressively better. 2009 was better than 2008, 2010 was better than 2009, so I can only have high hopes for 2011!

Since the New Year began:
-I chopped off all my hair. I love drastic hair style changes. I find it liberating.
-I saw Next to Normal for the second and last time. I actually, finally won a Broadway ticket lottery! If you haven’t seen this show I highly recommend it. And hurry! It closes Sunday but there’s also a national tour.
-I registered for an improv class (doesn’t start until next week but I’m pretty pumped)
-Saw a few more Christmas window displays before they all disappeared
-Took down the Christmas decorations
- Remembered it’s almost tax season and got prematurely excited about the money I’m hoping to get back
-Saw The Fighter (excellent movee….highly recommend!) I have oh so many more films to see before the Oscars. I like to be film educated for such events. haha!
-Elf closed:( Luckily, the break between shows this time is only 7ish weeks as opposed to the previous 4 months. I was ready for the change. But, I must say that everyone involved with Elf was ridiculously nice and I loved ushering it. I got to talk to a lot of cast members at the closing party and they were just the sweetest. Especially Beth Leavel. She is absolutely one of my new role models. Can’t wait to see her on stage again!

Resolutions you ask?

Well, I prefer to think of them as goals for the year. Seems more feasible as opposed to resolving to immediately do something. This way if it doesn’t happen right away, I still have time and don’t have to call it an immediate failure.

I want to:
Take more acting classes (in progress)
Go to church regularly (I know where, I just have to get my butt out of bed on Sundays!)
Learn/relearn some ASL. I took 4 semesters in college and am greatly out of practice but I truly miss it. I may take a class once I get through improv
Be more active i.e. hit the gym, take yoga, dance, something. Even just once a week. I gotta get my butt in gear!
Pay off my credit card
Be more creative i.e. write more, sing more, practice guitar more

I may be missing a couple things but I think the above list keeps my plate pretty full without being totally overwhelming. And, since I am already starting, I figure by the end of the year, I will be able to reach all of these goals plus some!

So, long post. I will wrap it up now. I hope you enjoyed. Have a wonderful 2011!

Love love love

Elf

I am finally back at my theatre ushering the Christmas musical Elf. I just have to say how excited I am to be back in my space with my people working such a fun show. I really missed my little ushering routines while I was floating around for four months at other theatres. I like having my shifts guaranteed and knowing my schedule ahead of time.

And honestly, this show is super cute and fun. If you are a Holiday person, an Elf person, or just looking for a light-hearted feel good musical, please check it out! It is playing at the Al Hirshfled Theatre through January 2nd.

This was also my first time ushering opening night of a show. I have to say how amazing the producers for the show are. We received a very nice opening night gift and the party after was classy, Christmasy, and loaded with candy….my kind of party:) And of course, the show was great. Lots of energy and excitement and so nice witness an audience that was so enthusiastic for the show and appreciated all the little things.

I also have to say how nice the cast and crew are as well. I mean, I expected as much but Sebastian Arcelus who plays Buddy the Elf wrote the front of house staff a card and gave us cookies. How sweet! (no pun intended but it works!)

I posted photos on Facebook but here are a few other random happenings from the evening:

Elf the Musical at the Hirshfeld theatre!

So excited about the desert table! Actually, it was a whole room devoted to desert!

Hershey Kisses!

My shoes!

My feather. I love that feather and love excuses to wear it:)

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe!

So excited for this show!!!!! I can’t wait to work it:)