Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I'll take "Things that are moving" for $200, Alex...

Let me get one thing out on the table right now. I love the theatre. I especially love being front-row center at a show. And the best part is that that's where our season tickets for Broadway in Saginaw are. Wow. Last night, amid all the chaos that is my life this week, my friend Shelly and I took two and a half hours out to go see Rent as part of the Broadway in Saginaw series. On the way to the theatre, we were talking about what is quite possibly the most powerful and moving theatre experience in my lifetime, which is when we went to Toronto and had box seats for Lion King. In the beginning of the show, performers were scattered throughout the theatre for the African chant part (if you've seen the movie, you probably know what I'm talking about; if not, I can't describe it), and one of them was right next to us! The sheer power and emotion of it brought me to tears, which, if you know me, you'll know is not an easy thing to do. I've never been accused of being overly emotional, if you know what I mean. So anyway, while we were talking about it, I mentioned to Shelly that I thought that was the only show that had ever made me cry. Flash forward to the second act of Rent - the scene where Angel dies. I had completely forgotten that this show, too, was very moving, had also brought me to tears when I first saw it, and did it again last night. Comparitively speaking, I think I liked the first cast better - last night's Joanne had a lisp or weird accent of some kind, and her voice was kind of annoying to me, and I don't know how anyone could ever top the Angel that I originally saw, but the cast last night did an extremely good job. I also see that Anwar from American Idol was playing Collins, so if you know who that is and it impresses you, so be it. I have no clue who he is/was, but the lady next to us was very excited about it, and he did a wonderful job playing Collins, so there you have it.

2 comments:

Jayne said...

WOW! sounds like a great show!

Nancy said...

sounds like a great show....the last time I went was to see stomp, and that was long ago