Is it too late to recap my weekend? On Saturday night I saw Movin' Out, the production which connects Billy Joel songs into a narrative thread of love, life and loss in the Viet Nam War years. There is an elevated platform with the narrator (who sings all the songs and plays the piano) and a full band. All the characters are dancers who don't sing. Or speak. When I say that B.J.'s songs connect into a narrative, it's only by the most tenuous of threads. Anthony (works in a grocery store), Brenda and Eddie (were still going steady), and others interact strictly via costumes, sets and the balletic, acrobatic choreography of Twila Tharp. It's interesting. It's ambitious. It's an ambition not altogether realized. But you couldn't tell by the box office. It ran on Broadway for a long time and it sold out in our lil' burg for 12 days. In its defense, after the intermission things really pick up and the dancing is acrobatic and they really showcase the fact that these dancers are incredibly fit and gorgeous. Seriously, you walk out of there feeling slightly entertained and egregiously schlubby.Would you believe I had a date to this show? With a woman? Me either. I think that's what it was, though the Magic 8 Ball says, "Reply hazy, ask again later." I went with my best friend's ex-wife after she laid a guilt trip on me worthy of a Jewish grandmother....or a Chinese divorcee, apparently. Divorcee. Hee. So retro. Anyway, here's the skinny: Drinks and Appetizers: $60 Theater Tickets: $140 Nightcap: $30 Spending over $200 and no one touches my whanger: Huh?! Wha?! She knows I don't date that way (anymore), so I was played, right? This makes me sound cheap, but she's one of those people who I have NEVER seen pay for cab fare, so it grates after a while.
7 comments:
Ok, it's only the last paragraph I'm commenting on here. GURL, I hear you cluckin'! Somehow I have been the master at dropping cash and not getting laid. I mean come on, we all say we don't expect that because we pay for shit but after you do that for a while you'd think you'd get a little play. Dayum.
So if we go out, Charlie, no matter who pays, whangs will be touched. Just another thing to love about you, mon petite frere.
May I interject? I mean this in the most kind and loving fashion: I saw the show last summer here. Or maybe it was the summer before. Regardless--I prayed I'd go blind and deaf. The show had a lot of rough transitions in my short-attention span opinion. Plus: we were front frow balcony and I had only 10" of leg room. Cramped the entire show. Hated it! But not as much as when I went to see "CATS" and watched our taxi drive over my glasses as we exited. I can only remember balls of fuzzy fur on the stage.
Leave it to you to bring the blunt. You speak the truth. They use a strobe to ill effect, don't they? And as I said, the narrative thread is tenuous at best. Plus modern dance was never my thing. Oh fine. He's right. "Movin' Out" can eat me.
You lost me at the words "Billy" and "Joel". ::gurp:: Sorry, just threw up in my mouth a little.
Oh Michael, leave no doubt...I put out. Wait a minute! I see a t-shirt in my future! Leave no doubt, I put out! Sweet. Guess we know what I'm wearing all weekend. :)
Andrew, he's not high on my current list, but back in the day I used to love "The Stranger" album, especially "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant". That song is now forever changed for me, and not necessarily for the good.
Charlie, as I suspected, you're a man after my own heart, but the tshirt idea is, dare I say, BRILL! Best not to leave any doubt. You should seriously do that t-shirt, Translucence Boy.
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