Whee! Just got home from seeing the out-of-town previews for the new "Young Frankenstein" Broadway show, and I gotta get my thoughts down while it's still fresh in my mind! No real big spoilers here, unless you consider song titles a spoiler.

( Young Frankenstein review! )

OMG WICKED AGAIN!!!

( Review-age and squee-age under the cut )

All in all? AWESOME. And I really, really need to see this one again. Badly. :P (Because apparently three times in two months just isn't enough...)

muldy and I just spent the evening watching Lion King, Lion King 2, and Aladdin... and tomorrow, it's off to Vancouver!! EEEE!

ZOMG I SAW WICKED AGAIN!!! *squees and runs in circles* And OMG, Kendra Kassebaum is totally my hero. She's so freakin' awesome. Again. :P

Headed up to Orange County early, and pit-stopped at Disneyland for awhile! I got there just as Parade of Dreams was hitting Main Street, so I stopped to tape that. Yaaaay, Lion King show stop! Afterwards, I decided to go get my Jack Sparrow love, so I joined the long-ass Pirates line. After half an hour of waiting, just as I'm getting past the parrot/map part inside, the line stops moving... and never restarted. We got the dreaded about-face command from the CMs. *cries* After hearing some of the crap coming out of the mouths of the family behind me (your child is obnoxious because YOU are obnoxious, asshat) directed at the CM, I stopped to tell the CM thanks for doing his job well, and good luck in dealing with the stupid people. Seriously, I get so sick of the crap people give CMs when a ride breaks down, as if it's their fault. They deserve major kudos for dealing with that all the time. Anyways, I ended up just wandering around for awhile after that. Got some food, and watched the watch artist on Main Street for awhile. God, their artwork makes me so jealous. He was doing a watercolor of Lady, and it was AWESOME. If I had his mad art skillz, I could die happy. Also stopped at World of Disney and window shopped for a bit - I figure that if there's anything I really want from the parks, I should get it now! But in the end... yes, I went to Disneyland and didn't go on a single ride. :P

Then it was over to meet roguecows to go see Wicked!!! EEEEE! OMG, it was SO AWESOME again!! The audience there was even more receptive than the one in San Diego. They REALLY got into it! Hell, people were screaming and cheering as soon as Julia Murney hit that last note in "The Wizard and I" and cheered through the whole duration of it! Kendra Kassebaum was once again TEH AWESOME. She is the bestest best Glinda EVAR. "SPARKLES!!!!" XD Since the Kendra "Popular" vid I linked to last time on YouTube has since been removed (YouTube taking down good bootlegs makes baby jeebus cry!) here's a new one I found on there (although she totally bifs up one line :P)! I also really loved when the Tin Man's hat totally fell off in the middle of "March of the Witch Hunters" and he couldn't get it back on. Ah, the bane of live theater! :P Dammit, why can't this show be around all the time?! :P

OMFG WICKED SQUEEEEEEEE!!

( More squeeing and semi-coherent thoughts under the cut... )

OMG, I can't WAIT to see this one again!!! XD

Having an anti-social week... I'm in manic phase right now, working on a sewing project. Seriously, when I get hooked on a project, I obsess over it, to the point where I can't sleep because my mind is frantically thinking about it. And then I end up getting up and working on it all night. And then the next day. Such is my creative muse.

Anyways, that's not the point of this entry. The point is... RENT!!!!

Just got back from seeing Rent for the first time on stage. SO amazing! It was opening night here in San Diego, and the house was packed. I, being broke, was up in the cheap seats, but I could care less. :P

I gotta hand it to the cast, they were all spectacular! LOVED Mark (Jed Resnick). Suitably geeky, and gave a performance that was very reminiscent of Anthony Rapp. Roger's (Bryce Ryness) "Rent" was a bit underwhelming, so I was worried for a bit. But once he got to "One Song" he really let it all out! I gotta hand it to him, too - there was some trouble with his mike sounding scratchy in the beginning of Act I. Somewhere during "Light My Candle," a regular, hand-held mike appeared in his hand. However they did it, it was so smooth that I didn't even realize for a long time that he even had it! He ended up having to use that for the better part of the first act. Tom (Warren G. Nolan, Jr.) has, quite possibly, one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. I was swooning just about as much over his voice as I do over Jesse Martin's. Benny (Michael Ifill) was a bit hard to understand at times - he seemed to sing a bit softer and with less enunciation than the others, and it made it difficult to hear what he was saying. Joanne (Chante Carmel Frierson) had a great, powerful voice. Angel (Ano Okera) was cute as ever! Mimi (Arianda Fernandez) I was kinda so-so on. Her sort of lisp got a bit overpowering at times. And I feel bad saying this, but it made Mimi look a bit retarded. Her "Light My Candle" and "Without You" were awesome, though. :P Maureen (Tracy McDowell) was AWESOME. In "Over the Moon," she really drew out those "gotta gotta gotta"s for EVER. :D But seriously, one of the scene-stealers was one of the ensemble members. I think it was Altamiece Carolyn Ballard? OMG, she had the most POWERFUL, clear voice. In "Seasons of Love," she just blew me away. MAD props to her for that!

"Take Me or Leave Me" was SO hot. The audience was howling through the whole thing! Very nicely done! "Contact" was a bit annoying for me (and everyone sitting around me). The light behind Angel points RIGHT at the upper balcony, so we were all totally blinded for most of the song.

And yes, I mooed. Loudly. XD

Because I'm a little chicken, I didn't go to the stage door afterwards. Maybe for Wicked I will! (TWO WEEKS FROM TOMORROW!)

HONEST LIVING! :P

Wow. The Lion King is just as amazing on stage the second time as it is the first! The things that they can pull off in that show are stunning. The fact that they can pull the stampede alone off blows my mind. Once again, incredible acting jobs. I think I recognized some of the actors from the last time I saw it, but I'd have to go back and double-check. The only one I didn't care for as much this time around was Rafiki, and that was only because I felt like the actress's voice wasn't quite powerful enough to pull off Rafiki. But I also decided that the end of "He Lives in You" (when Simba decides to go back) is one of my favorite moments, and I don't know why. Just beautiful, powerful music, I think. :)

I got my errands run finally! And my SWF CDs finally came! Mystify is kinda eh, but I really love the music from Blue Horizons (and have since I first saw video of the show). The finale music is soooo pretty! That's really my favorite style of grand finale music. Love it! Now if only they could get some sort of educational message in there. From a purely theatrical standpoint, I think the show is spectacular from what I've seen, but IMHO it's best suited to a night show to allow daytime shows to have some kind of an education or conservation message. *curses SeaWorld for wasting the captivity of those dolphins on sheer human entertainment* BTW, for the other SeaWorld/WhaleWeb folks, the CDs are available on eBay here: Mystify and Blue Horizons. The seller's reliable, but slow. If it tells you anything, I won the auction in November. It'll get there in good condition, just be prepared to wait for it.

New SG-1 tomorrow! YAY! I'm so psyched for that! "New" SGA, too, but it's one I've seen (but a good one!). Oh, and I got WAY sidetracked by Photoshop last night, working on a new LJ header, Sparky manip, and icon. Of the three, I finished only the icon. :P So here it is! The line is from "Remember the Magic" for those not in the utter WDW geekdom. One of the most beautiful songs ever written for a Disney theme park, second I think only to "Remember When." But I digress. Long live teh Sparky! :P I really feel like writing a Sparky fanfic, but I haven't been able to finish a fanfic for any fandom in five years. Extra cyber-cookies to anyone who can inspire my muse to finish something! :P

( Major survey thingy )

WOO! Check out the latest Fark Photoshop Contest! (Dial-up beware!)

Hoooly crizap. The Lion King TOTALLY rocked my pants. It was incredible! Such a huge spectacle. The effects absolutely blew me away! The people playing Scar, Adult Nala, and Rafiki were AWESOME. I didn't much care for the guy playing Adult Simba (it was an understudy tonight) cause his voice was just way too high, and quite frankly, he seemed really gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's just not Simba. The show was just amazing, though! I have to see it again when it comes to San Diego in the fall!!