Rock of Ages on Broadway

One of Vicky's illegal shots of the stage

Rock of Ages, now showing at the
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
256 W. 47th St.
New York, NY 10036

Rock. Of. Ages. Is. The Best. Musical. EVER.

Rock of Age is now my FAVORITE musical, and I’m taking Tim to see it with me when he visits in a few weeks.

The show is about a small-town girl (yeah, it’s like that) who moves to L.A. to become an actress, sometime in the mid- to late-80s. She stumbles upon a totally awesome rock ‘n’ roll club (“The Bourbon Room,” L.A.’s most famous) where

Me with Constantine after the show

Constantine Maroulis of American Idol fame is working. Meanwhile, a German entrepreneur is working to develop the land to build a more profitable, more tourism-attractive strip mall.

The show is about the struggle of not selling out financially and musically and all in all it’s about life and love on the Sunset Strip.

With T-shirts that say “Hooray for Boobies” and “Strippers, not Strip Malls!” the show is absolutely crazy and so entertaining.

James Carpiniello ("Stacee Jaxx"), Me, Wesley Taylor ("Franz")

Featuring the music of Styx, Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Night Ranger, Poison, Twisted Sister, Asia, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake … it is undoubtedly one of the best soundtracks ever. So I bought it, and got it signed by almost the entire cast!

The show is so hot, sexy and rockin’. There is real stripping onstage and it feels like a real concert a lot of the time. And a real strip club, with two permanent poles on the outer sides of the stage. The people sitting in the front row were basically in the mosh pit. I love this show and can’t WAIT until it tours! I’m for sure going to make my mom and dad go see it.

Overall theme of the show: Don’t Stop Believin’!

Rock of Ages: 186 out of 5 stars.

NY Skyride

The New York Skyride, on the 2nd floor of the Empire State Building,
350 5th Ave.
New York, NY 10018

The Skyride is a true tourist attraction — just an IMAX-type 3D adventure in the Empire State Building. There are hawkers outside trying to get you to do it, but it came with the pass Vicky and I bought so we went to it.

Kevin Bacon narrates a crazy video ride through all five boroughs of New York City while you sit in a seat that like moves and bounces around. It’s pretty cool, but it kind of gives you a headache or makes you dizzy… Kevin Bacon’s voice is the best part of it, though.

He makes all sorts of insider-Kevin Bacon jokes (“Keep your foot loose”) and does six degrees of himself haha. It was cool, but definitely not worth what normal people pay for it — $36! It was worth it for how it was included on our pass, but probably not worth the wait. A one-time deal.

FAO Shwarz and 5th Avenue

FAO Shwarz is just the most amazing toy store in the world. I wish it still existed in Chicago. It was several floors of fun with really extravagant lego creatures and modeled creatures.

The Muppet Factory

Vicky, Joanne and I had a great time running around the store playing with all the toys. We wanted to create our own Muppets, but it would have been $145. Sad. And you could create your own Barbie, too, but that was $55. Alas, we were too poor to do this stuff.

In the section with babydolls there was a “nurse” tending to them haha.

We had a good time walking all down 5th Avenue and taking pictures by famous landmarks. We took a break at Trump Tower to eat in Trump’s Ice Cream Shoppe, too.

Central Park

Hans Christian Anderson

Vicky, me, Allison (Becky’s friend from home) and Joanne (Vicky’s friend from Guam) had a great time exploring park. We were able to find the castle which was unfortunately closed, Strawberry Fields, Balto, Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Anderson among some other cool treasures.

Basically all of Central Park is a hidden treasure. It’s so spectacularly enormous that any day you can find something new and wonderful.

I’ll add some photos to this post soon.

9 to 5: The Musical on Broadway

9 to 5 curtain — telephone cords

9 to 5, now showing at the
Marquis Theatre
1535 Broadway
New York, NY 10046

After losing the lottery for the second time at In the Heights, I decided to try my luck in the lottery for 9 to 5 (from Dolly Parton). They were raffling 38 tickets at the lotto price, and there were about 40 people there. Thank GOD I did not lose this one. I felt really awesome for winning, though!

And the show, was HILARIOUS. If I wasn’t alone and didn’t think I’d look like a creep, I would have literally fallen out of my seat laughing. EVERYBODY in the theatre was ROLLING. I will definitely say this was THE funniest show I’ve ever seen! I wish my mom could have been there because it takes place in the mid-1970s workplace and I think she would have been able to understand or relate a little bit more to it. I was really able to relate because all summer I’ve been working in the office environment.

The show is hilarious and has GREAT music, and the three stars: Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty, were SPECTACULAR.

Notice when I enjoy shows I use a lot of caps?

Anyways, it has great underlying themes of equality in the workplace, women’s rights, etc. and I just absolutely loved it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

The Wiz on Off-Broadway

The Wiz, starring Ashanti
Limited engagement June 18 to July 5 at
The New York City Center,
130 W. 56th St.
New York, NY 10019

We saw The Wiz just a few days after the untimely death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. MJ was the original scarecrow in the movie of the Wiz starring Diana Ross, so I think it was pretty special to remember him like this.

Photo from The Wiz (found online)

Ashanti, the semi-popstar from the earlier this decade, was really great as Dorothy…she has a beautiful voice. The tornado scene was one of the coolest parts, the way they did it, and they had some really great dancers that basically doubled as physical narrators. Their bodies and costumes told the story, and they created a lot of the scenery.

The show was good, but our seats were sort of limited view…I’d rate the show a 3.5 out of 5, but the crowd — which does not deserve to be called an audience — gets a zero.

The crowd was obnoxious. They continued to take flash photos throughout the show — one woman was warned by security and even the head of security came up, but she kept taking photos. This woman’s cell phone also rang in the middle of the second act. She silence it, but texted at her seat (think bright lights in a dark auditorium).

People stood up and continued to converse loudly even after the show had begun and shouted or applauded at the wrong times. There were crying babies that were not tended to. It was pretty much horrible.

The Ratings System

Since I tend to like a lot more than I dislike, the ratings system is basically based on degrees of how much I like something. Zero is really the only one where I don’t like it. Five is perfection, one is still OK but I wouldn’t seek it out.

0: I didn’t like it, and I’d never do it again. It was bad.
1: It was not very good. Slightly below average.
2: It was good, average, maybe slightly above average.
3: It was above average, but still not the best.
4: It was great, and I liked it a LOT.
5: Perfect, the BEST. I loved it so much I can hardly explain.

South Pacific on Broadway

South Pacific, now showing at the
Vivian Beaumont Theater
150 West 65th Street
New York, NY 10023

After failing to win the lottery for tickets to In the Heights, I hightailed it uptown to catch South Pacific at the Lincoln Center. I wandered around before the show and stumbled upon Central Park and a nice little mall on 8th Avenue.

The theatre was small and they used the stage really well with stagehands obviously moving props during the show, but it worked and they drew enough attention away from it that it didn’t matter.

The stage rolled backward several times during the show to reveal the orchestra, which played from beneath the stage. It was really cool and a great way to honor them at curtain call — they were all 100 percent visible to the audience and were able to stand and take their own bows.

South Pacific at Lincoln Center

The show takes  place during World War II in the South Pacific and centers around love, trust and racism. It was obviously well done, but not my kind of show.

There was a lot of 1940s-esque dancing and costumes, which made it really fun, but the forbidden love thing felt like it was trying too hard. In a day and age where racism is intolerable and difficult to understand, the show assumed too much that we’d be able to relate directly with the feelings the characters were expressing…when all I could really relate to was love, and didn’t get what their problem was.

South Pacific gets a 3 out of 5 because it wasn’t my type, but the stage was really cool. I felt like there should have been a swimming pool beneath it, too.

Chicago on Broadway

Chicago - Broadway's Sure Thing

Chicago, now showing at
The Ambassador Theatre
219 W. 49th St.
New York, NY 10019

Though I usually see shows on “Broadway In Chicago” it was amazing to finally see Chicago ON Broadway. I’d never seen Chicago live before, and it obviously did not disappoint me (what does?!).

The show was very minimalist — the set, the costumes, the everything.

The cool thing about this show was that the orchestra is onstage the entire time. There’s really no set, just some chairs and two swing-out ladders they use a few times. Everything is staged in front of the orchestra, whose role as a part of the action is integral throughout the show.

I feel it’s almost presented as if the entire production is a trial and the audience is the jury. We see some evidence, hear some testimony (and it’s true testimony, spoken/performed directly to the audience) and though we don’t decide the outcome, we do get what we want.

The show was sexy, sexy, SEXY. The all-black, simple costumes were very scandalous and sparkly, and the choreography was very fitting to the theme. I was in standing room, and I found myself starting to move/sway along with the hypnotic beats almost constantly. It was extremely well-done, especially for being so basic and bare AND has been showing since 1996! I didn’t even mind that I was by myself.

Chandra Wilson (Dr. Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy) was ‘Mama’ Morton, and she was perfect. I think Queen Latifah did great in the movie version, but Chandra has an amazing voice and played the role perfectly.

Chicago: 4 out of 5 stars

Famous Original Ray’s Pizza

Ray’s Pizza
736 7th Ave. (49th St.)
New York, NY 10024

Famous Original Ray’s is a chain, and we found this one right around the corner from the Ambassador, and it was pretty good.

I would probably say it was the best so far, surprisingly. It actually had sauce you could taste and the crust wasn’t too rubbery — it was a little thicker too.

It wasn’t as crunchy as it should have been, but the cheese was good and overall I really enjoyed my slice.

Ray’s: 3 out of 5 stars.