Posted in Music, My Geeky Life
Musical Geek
Tapping into my yesterday’s blog, there is a growing population that likes to attach the word geek to hobbies or passions. I am certainly no different. I am just amused it has become so acceptable. With that in mind I am about to blow my indie music street cred right out of the water. I am a musical geek.
No snickering either. I do have indie music street cred. Take a look at my LastFM page and you will see it busting out of the seams with indie music. I have written before that I absolutely love finding new music to listen to (this week I have been drooling over Lashes For Bats).
I have written in previous blogs my enthusiasm for all types of music. This includes musicals. I have friends who get no end of amusement over the fact I love Cold War Kids and think Stephen Sondheim is a genius. Now I cheated a little by pulling Sondheim out of the hat so early because many people think he is a genius. The truth is I am a sucker for musicals even when they are wrapped up in a fluffy little touristy ball (as long as I am seeing it live. Recordings have to be good or I won’t listen to them).
Now that doesn’t mean I like all musicals, but I have to say I enjoy seeing live theater even when it is not at the top of the artistic food chain. For example, I was not a big fan of Beauty and the Beast. It was a little to saccharine for me (in its defense I was definitely not its target audience.). I, however, liked Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It wasn’t the greatest show on earth. It was written for kids but we saw it in New York and we came out smiling. I have never listened to it again but for that one night I was a fan.
Which brings me to New York. We have season tickets to see musicals (and plays) in both Sacramento and San Francisco. We love going and enjoy the days out of our culturally stifling town. It doesn’t change the fact that everything is better in New York (and for me, my one trip to London). New York certainly has an unfair advantage because it has the built-in excitement of something completely different. It also has the advantage of being able to pull big stars to their shows, which adds to the experience.
We haven’t been to New York in three years. This is after going three times in four years. When our London trip fell through the cracks we adapted in a heart beat and it was suddenly New York here we come. I admit one of the main draws was to see my friend Kim Boekbinder play but it took me all of a couple hours to pick which shows we were going to be seeing this time.
We bought tickets for three and left open two slots just in case a few shows we are interested in get extended. I will not lie, every show we picked this time was because it had someone in it we wanted to see. Promises, Promises was an easy choice because it had Kristin Chenoweth in it (my wife’s favorite musical actress). The Adams Family was picked because I wasn’t passing up a chance to see Nathan Lane & Bebe Neuwirth. I love the Adams Family and hope it will be funny. Our final pick was also a wife no brainer. Lend Me a Tenor has Tony Shalhoub in it. My wife had to be one of the biggest Monk fans on the planet.
We can’t wait to leave. This year is going to be our best visit yet. We get to see a few musicals. Watch Kim play (with a little luck Kim will drag Molly Crabapple to the performance. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.) Meet up with a few Twitter friends and eat copious amounts of food (which will lead to jogging in Central Park). See you in June New York.
P.S.- In case you are interested my 5 favorite musicals (ones I have seen) of all time are:
1. Chicago
2. Sweeney Todd
3. Rent
4. Cabaret
5. Assassins
>I am sad you don't like my favorite musical A Chorus Line. 🙁
>oh I love Chorus Line. It was just not in my top 5.
>I hated chitty chitty bang bang. My cousin made me watch it when she was little, and I couldn’t even get through the whole thing, it nauseated me. I did like beauty and the beast, which I never got to see as the musical but I had the soundtrack which had some really beautiful songs on it. I also like sondheim. I am not generally a musical type person, just some types I do like a lot. Out of your five fav musicals, I liked the chicago movie, I loved sweeny todd (well I didn’t like the movie but loved the play), hated rent (the movie but I hated it so much I def wouldn’t like the play either) cabaret movie wasn’t too great so prob wouldn’t like the play, and never heard of assasins. What I have seen and enjoyed are: into the woods (loved loved it!), lion king play, phantom of the opera (I love andrew lloyd webber music though not all the plays themselves), jeckyll and hyde (saw it twice). I saw send in the clowns but I tend to like just the one song better than the whole play altho it wasn’t bad. I like musicals where the music is like being in a club, very all consuming and powerful through your whole self. I HATE stuff like rogers and hamerstein ew.