NSO @ Wolf Trap, Saturday 21 July

OMG. Best birthday present in the history of ever. I am still flailing helplessly from everything. Just... guh, Aaron. djkasl;dkf♥

Okay, so here's my best attempt at making this coherent and comprehensive. XD

I left my house around 1:45, after Deathly Hallows got here, of course. I didn't make any stops and I didn't really have any traffic, so yay. I did however get slightly lost because Mapquest's directions were slightly stupid. Oh well. Even going the wrong way I still made it to Jessica's house at 4pm. We were supposed to meet Kristin, so we sat and talked a bit. After Kristin arrived we went to have adventures. Namely we went to Whole Foods to find something to eat for dinner. Let me say, I'm glad we don't have these here; holy lord. XD Yuppie-Mart indeed. Their egg salad was infused with celery which really ruint it, however their rolls and cheesecake were quite good. We spent quite a bit of time in there, they even had free samples of some really yummy brownies, and then we took our food to go to Wolf Trap and eat it out on the lawn.

Wolf Trap is actually a giant park. With a lot of huge hills. I have to mention this because I had to hoof my sad out of shape self up and down quite a few large hills. XD I hate hills. Just like Pittsburgh all over again! We wandered around and finally found a nice little picnic table in the shade of some trees (I ended up running about without my shoes on for awhile. Hee) to eat our dinner. We spent most of it giggling over various Les Mis and/or Harry Potter type things. There was an older couple (and by that I mean senior citizen; the average age of the Wolf Trap patron that night) sitting at a table near us and kept staring at us. Oy. XD

Around 7:30 we decided we'd had enough sitting around and went to walk around the back of the Filene Center, where the performance was being held, to get to our seats. The stage door was well-marked, it had a nice big red sign on it. And our timing was impeccable: we walked past just in time to watch Aaron come out of his car and go inside. With his sunglasses on. ♥

The Filene Center is a large open-air stage. In fact if you have ever been to the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ, it's pretty much the same layout. The Filene Center is a lot prettier, it's all wood-paneled stage, very nice. But it's got a whole lot of auditorium seats mostly under cover with some lawn space in the back. Row G was an extremely nice view. The rows of seats were spaced pretty wide, so there was plenty of leg room -- enough so that you didn't have to stand every time someone walked past you to get to their own seat. I said to Jessica who sat behind me and a few seats down, "The Broadhurst would be squeezing two rows where here there's just one!"

The concert started at 8:15. The concert was absolutely fantastic. It also emphasised the NSO far more than our guest singers. This is quite all right, I had a great time as it is. Emil de Cou, the Festival Conductor from Wolf Trap, gave an introductory speech with a few Harry Potter jokes involved, so that will tell you just how much Potter has infused itself into our daily lives. Heh.

Marvin Hamlisch, really great. I mean really great. He's a fantastic musician and conductor, and he made me laugh quite a bit. Definitely made the experience so much better.

The concert was split up into two parts, intermission of fifteen minutes in the middle. The first part -- far and away the best. During the first part, the NSO-only bits were the Overture to Gypsy, a medley from My Fair Lady, and Marvin Hamlisch's own adaptation of Scott Joplin's the Entertainer. Anne Runolfsson sang "Johnny One-Note" from Babes in Arms as the opening number to the show, and then after that she brought her daughter, Tess Adams, onstage to sing a duet -- "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" from Annie Get Your Gun. As the final bit before intermission? Phantom of the Opera. Aaron didn't appear at all before this bit. And... oh. They decided to do both "Phantom of the Opera" and "Music of the Night" so Anne and Aaron could have the duet in the former. Anne sang the first verse, and then Aaron came up the side aisle near where I was sitting as he sang the second verse. The song was beautifully sung and beautifully played by the orchestra and Aaron was being, well, teh_sex. He made the sexy hand gestures that are an essential part of any good Phantom's performance all throughout the bit. And then, oh, and then we were treated to "Music of the Night." Five minutes of pure sex. I mean. Pure sex. Hugh Panaro? Howard McGillin? Anthony Warlow? Matt Cammelle? Psht. Aaron is sexier than all of them. Combined. For seriously. Who needs Hugh when you've got Aaron?! ♥ I cannot coherently and intelligently describe how he did this. Just... yum. Sex. SEX. After "Let your soul take you where you long to be!", there were some fangirls squeeing in the back, but I was too overwhelmed with happy to do anything there. Just... whoa. Some seriously amazing stuff there. Aaron, for god's sake, are you trying to kill your fangirls?! XD I think the most coherent thing I can say in response to it is what I got to say to Aaron afterwards: "After Music of the Night, I think I just forgot where I was." ♥
Jessica and I spent nearly the entire intermission flailing and squeeing at Aaron and his pure vocal sex. "Aaron should take over for Howard," I said, and she replied, "Yes, but that would really kill our bank accounts, because the cheap seats at Phantom really suck." Oh, Aaron. That would be teh awesome if it could be so, but somehow I just don't think it will happen. At least, probably not right now, not at this stage in his career. ;) Perhaps a few years down the line, I can hope for it.

The second part contained Aaron singing, "The Way You Look Tonight," and after that Aaron talked a bit about himself and his upcoming project. Aaron tells us he's going to be in "not a boy band, it's a man-band" in London. And the CD will be coming out in NOVEMBER. NOVEMBER. YES! It also featured Anne singing "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic. Instrumental bits included the unused Overture to A Chorus Line, the Theme from Schindler's List, and a few things of Marvin Hamlisch's.

... Yes, I'm aware my discussion of the second part is much sparser than the first part. But after Aaron's Music of the Night... well, really. What can compare to that?!


So afterwards we tried to make our way to the stage door. This was ... really quite interesting. I have never seen a stage door guarded like that before in my life. Metal barricades to hold back the barrage of fans, yes. "I'm sorry, but you're not allowed back unless you're on the list, that's production company rules, not mine." New one by me. The people on the list included family and close friends of Anne, Aaron, and Mr. Hamlisch. Most people were disappointed but took it well. We stood off to one side by the fence, deciding to wait around and see if we could get a glimpse of Aaron as he left. One group of people decided they were just not going to take no for an answer. They asked the poor woman who was guarding the exit towards the stage door what would happen if they "crossed the line", and she told them very seriously that she would then have to call for security to escort them off the premises. So they hung out right there before the "line" and waited for Marvin Hamlisch, and when he appeared, they shouted really loudly, "HEY MARVIN! IT'S MERVIN, YOUR COUSIN!" just as a way to grab his attention. ...wow. Um. Creepy, much? A few people who were near us joked a bit about joining the Lazar family as they went back -- because there were fifteen or eighteen members of the Lazar family there that night, including Grandma and Grandpa Lazar. Awww. XD But no one actually did what these people did. Holy crap, I'd've been highly embarrassed to have been part of that group. Oy. But eventually the crazies left too, and soon we were the only ones. The lady guarding the line asked us if she could help us, and I responded, "No, I'm sorry, you probably can't, since we're not allowed to cross the line there -- we were really hoping to get the chance to talk to Aaron." She told us that he had a lot of family so it would be a long time. We stood around and chatted a bit more -- there was a nice young lady who was standing there with us, who was basically hoping for the same thing, as she'd done stagedooring before. We said to ourselves, watching the line of cars of Marvin Hamlisch and the orchestra attempting to leave, "Hey, we can just hang out here until everyone's left the parking lot, I mean we'd have to wait in traffic anyway, right? May as well wait outside here since the weather's so nice." This paid off. Because while we were doing this, a bunch of people were walking back and forth between the stage door and the guarded exit, and the usher doing the guarding came up to us and said, "How would you like to go backstage?" HELL YES. We had to wait by the door because of Aaron's massive family, but eventually they let us in. :D

"Hey, look who it is!" ♥ Oh, Aaron. He was still in the suit he wore for the performance only he had the top two buttons undone. The man is utterly beautiful. Seriously, in that suit and the way he had his hair done up, he looked so much younger. Yum. We got hugs! Really glad to see us, I said to him that I told him I'd be there, and he was like, "I didn't believe you until I saw you ... you're not coming to LA, are you?!" and I said, "I was going to! but I can't, I'm sorry," and he was like "Aah! Yeah, that's too far." And too expensive. Sorry, Aaron. You're worth it, but my poor bank account! Jessica asked him about his band, and he definitely insists on calling it a man-band. She tried to get some names but he was all evasive, which I guess makes sense because the CD hasn't been released yet and you never know if things are going to change or whatever. Although he did say he'd try to leak us unofficial fan copies of it. Oh, Aaron, ♥. I told him, "After Music of the Night, I think I just forgot where I was," and he was all, "Awwww! Thanks!" ♥ and went on to say, "Yeah, I had such a great view of the sunset during that piece," and Jessica said, "But we didn't have that view!" Aaron responded, "What are you talking about," holding his arms out to indicate himself, "you had a view!" Oh yes, we had a view, Aaron. ♥ I LOVE THAT MAN. We were all able to introduce ourselves. I said to him, "I'm not sure I ever told you my name..." and he was like, "I should know it, you sent me e-mails, uh...." ♥ I don't think he'll forget now. Hee. :D I really don't want to be, in his mind, just "that crazy fan who comes to all my shows", you know. (So he has read my e-mails. Har. Not going to say anything more about them but at least this means I can send him another one. I have to send him one about how much I enjoyed and appreciated that night.) And then it was time to leave and I got another hug and he wished me a safe drive home and oh my god I love that man.

We stopped at Plato's, a nice little diner in College Park, and chatted awhile about fanfic and Aaron and stuff, and I had a really messy but really yummy chocolate milk shake. XD Score. I am such a kid.

Drive home was really uneventful, I didn't get lost or take any wrong ways home, so that was nice. When I got home, around 3:30, I was too full of "omgAaron" to really sleep, so I stayed up, screwed around awhile online, and finally managed to get to sleep around seven-thirty.

Truly excellent birthday present, on the whole. Really can't think of any way to improve upon it. (Okay, I can; nothing that is likely to happen, anyway.)

Photos from the day:
Meadow at the Wolf Trap Park.
This was the view from our picnic table; that wooden structure at the top left of the photo is the Filene Center.

#27, Friday 20 July

I really hate to say this, but that night's show wasn't really that spectacular, as they go. Granted the last time I was there not only was the show phenomenal but I had front row seats, which rather heightens the experience. There were a few things that stood out Friday night (both good and not so good), but as a whole I felt rather blah about it -- and found myself wishing several previous cast members were there instead of the current ones. Aaron instead of Max, who wasn't having his best night; Ben instead of Rob, because I really miss Ben; Jenny instead of Ann, who I just don't like much at all.

Lea was out as well, and is it awful of me that I inwardly heaved a sigh of relief? I am liking Lea less and less as time goes by. It's not that she's not good, I just find that I don't really like her much. I think this is the same situation as Celia, who I also decidedly disliked. I like Nikki a lot as Fantine, actually. (Also, the stage door is LOTS more manageable without Asian people shoving you out of the way for a glimpse of her.)

Couple other cast changes I should note: Doug Kreeger and Soara-Joye Ross are both gone, with Jeremy Hays and Christy Faber taking their places. I ended up calling Jessica five minutes before showtime just to go, "OMG- Jeremy Hays took over for Doug Kreeger! He's in the playbill!" XD

There was, however, one cast member that I just heart. Oh my god. MICHAEL MINARIK. SO AWESOME. Drew? Who needs Drew when you have MICHAEL. Michael is a rambly drunk in Master of the House -- after other!Chip tossed him out of the way so Dan could sit down, Michael just rambled at Chip and Marya until other!Chip tossed him out of the way again. He didn't molest the girl bending over or Chip like Drew did, which is so much more awesome. And then in Red and Black, he pranced around at "and here he comes like DON JU-AN!" making me giggle helplessly. He was being gay without being, well, Drew!gay. Soawesome. Minor molesting of Adam, and Nehal smacked him after he spilled the bottle. XD Drink With Me, fantastic. He has such a forlorn face while he's singing his lines, and then when Max grabs him, he's really got the kicked puppy look down, and his whole thing with trying to protest to Max that he doesn't really mean any harm, honest! is so damn adorable, I want to squish him. (Also, Max grabbed him by the face after his Drink With Me 'lecture' and literally STROKED HIS CHEEK WITH HIS THUMB. Can we say SLASH EXPLOSION OMG ADORABLE.) And during "Let others rise to take our place..." Michael made me cry. He picked up Gavroche's little flag--AND WAVED IT ABOUT. ENTHUSIASTICALLY. Waaah. ♥ I LOVE MICHAEL MINARIK'S GRANTAIRE SO MUCH OH MY GOD.

Umm... oh yeah, and Alex screwed up the letter. "Can it be only a week ... since... uh... canitbeonlyadaysincewemet and the world was reborn." OOPS. Way to make the flub obvious, there, Alex. Thank god this was the last time I'd be seeing him. Twenty seven times is more than enough anyway. XD

Now I was seriously hoping for Nehal to be on again Friday night, since Max was out earlier in the week. Not so, alas (and obviously if you've read the previous few paragraphs). I didn't really want to hang around the stage door because if I run I can make the 11:20 train rather than waiting for the 11:50 train. (Is it sad or what that I know the PATH train schedules by heart?) But, y'know, I had to talk to Nehal, even if I didn't talk to anyone else. He never takes too long, anyway. Nehal is going to make me blow off work. XD And by that I mean he was FINALLY able to give me a definite date when he'd be on. He said that Max has a wedding or something on Monday 30 July. "B-b-b-ut, MONDAY," I spluttered at him, starting a conversation on work and why weekdays suck for shows. So now Nehal kind of knows where I work. XD I don't remember telling him my name, either, but I must've at some point in the past few weeks, 'cause I got a "See you later, Jenn!" before he left. *g* Hoo dear. Another thing to add to the list of "You know you've gone way too much when..." Dammit, I'm not even sure Aaron knows my name yet.

So, off I went. I stopped at Starbucks, then headed for the train. Train was waiting. And now it's time for an adventure. Never in all my times riding PATH have I ever gone on the wrong train. Before that night. On my 80208346th time on the fucking trains I got headed the wrong direction. This isn't entirely my fault as the train I was on clearly indicated HOB JSQ which is the train I'm supposed to get on. Except it merrily went to Pavonia/Newport without stopping at Hoboken at all, so I had to ride to Journal Square and then switch to the waiting HOB 33 train. >___< Thankfully it was only an extra ten or fifteen minutes, but that's still bloody aggravating. The tip off should have been that the train was in Track 3 and not Track 4 like usual. ...Okay, yeah, I'm definitely too familiar with the PATH lines.

And then I got back to the parking garage where they overcharged me and didn't want to (or couldn't) fix it. I was charged $25 but I was only there for less than 6 hours, which according to their sign should only be $11. And the attendant said, "Oh it's probably because you went from Friday night into Saturday morning." Keep in mind the rates are the same, weekday or weekend. FUCKERS. That's $14 I could have used at Wawa! Three days' worth of breakfast! *bitch bitch bitch*

So yes. Next entry: Aaron at Wolf Trap! :D

#26 (+ Frost/Nixon!)

Well, I left at 9:10 on Saturday morning. Twenty minutes later than I wanted to, but okay. Stopped at Wawa in Wescosville, waited in the line, gas for $2.52/gallon. We shall revisit this gas station before the day is done. I got to NYC at about 12:30 and stopped at the Manhattan Mall for the bathroom. Nothing like holding it in for twenty minutes leaning on a pole in the midst of an overcrowded train, let me tell you. XD

Made it up to 44th Street around one, stood there talking a bit in the sun, and since Jessica said she got a cheapass seat for Frost/Nixon, I decided to go along. What the hell, I'd meant to see it anyway, right? So I got the last row of the mezzanine for $36.50, but since the mezzanine wasn't what you call full, I got to move down to the front row of the rear mezzanine. XD The show was about two hours long, maybe a little less, so no intermission. It was amusing and engaging and I liked it. Given that the subject matter is something I knew nothing about, not having experienced Nixon for myself -- I was born during the Reagan administration -- I was pleasantly surprised. Frank Langella is excellent.

Having some trouble finding shows I want to see. I mean, most of the shows fall into one of the following categories:
-Les Mis
-Seen it, don't care to see it again.
-Don't care to see it at all.
-Closed or soon closing.
The only exceptions I can think of now are Curtains, Spring Awakening, and Jersey Boys. And, uh, Spring Awakening I might be avoiding for a while just 'cause its fans are so utterly insane and scary.

Frost/Nixon only being two hours long, we were able to stand outside the Broadhurst in the hot sun for about forty-five minutes before Les Mis even ended, so we baked and talked about random stuff. We said hello to a few people, I squeed about my front-row seat because yeah, I'm spastic about that stuff. And and and we saw ROB. :D Rob is taller than I remember, haha. It had been exactly three months since I saw him last (last time I saw him was April 7, his last weekend in the first go-round), and he remembers me! (Okay, to be fair, it might be partially because I was there with Jessica) He gave us both hugs. ♥ Saying something like, "Ew, but I'm all sweaty and stuff," and Jessica just said, "that's okay, we are too!" Oh, Rob. I am glad he's back in the cast. Not glad about the reason he's back in the cast, but Rob is just awesome, so it doesn't make everything suck completely.

Lulu called at some point during this and said she'd meet us around 5:30, perhaps a little later. So we stood around and waited. And killed time by listening to Aaron. ♥ We had dinner at Galaxy Diner, and talked about fanfiction, and magically made the window next to our table open and close untouched. Plenty of fun times. XD

And of course now you want to hear about the show. :D

I had Orchestra Row A, Seat 2. This is on house right; for those of you who have been in the Broadhurst, on orchestra level on the sides there are exactly two seats in the front row, directly in front of the stage. I sat right in front of the platform where Nehal and Haviland get their thing on in Lovely Ladies. Oh, man. I LOVE FRONT ROW. Seriously, like I said afterwards, I have not had that much fun at LM since Aaron's last weekend, which, coincidentally, was the last time I had front row. *g* This might have even been more fun due to the amount of different folks doing really awesome/amusing stuff, but Aaron makes everything better just by being there, so yeah. Also, pre-show, it sounded as though there was quite the hack game going on, since there was lots of hooting and noise from behind the curtain. *g*

Notes by performer:

Alex - Less spitty than usual although still pretty impressive at times. *g*

Rob - Oh my god. Where to even begin. He doesn't have sideburns so he's like the youngest Javert ever. XD He has a good voice -- not to match either of the Bens, but very good. It's the way he acts the part that totally wins. If Rob had a voice like either of the Bens I'd be the happiest Javert fangirl ever. He does the thing with the baton. ♥ The way he ties his tricolour sash. ♥ STARS. ♥ AND THE BARRICADE SCENE. OMG. Those little "You idiot, how could you miss!" faces at the sniper! *ded* And that stupid little scene with Valjean after the First Attack, oh yay. I heart Rob's Javert and I wanna see more. Can't wait to see him again.

Lea - She's a good actress, but the fact that her performance is almost exactly the same every time I see her prevents me from calling her great. Sorry Lea. Nice voice, good acting, but you're boring me.

Megan - Oh, I'm finally enjoying Eponine. I never have before. Celia didn't do it for me and I wanted to spork Mandy. And I don't remember the girls I saw in Hershey or Toronto that well. I've never been an Eponine fan.

Adam - I only cringed once at his awful "eeee" tonight, and that was during Drink With Me. Either he's improving or I'm just getting used to that horrible noise he makes. ;) He is so entertaining during DWM, his "wtf" actions during "I am agog..."etc. are awesome. "The man's a court jester!" he said after "It's better than an opera!" Also, I know Adam's trying to be all emotional in the Finale but I just think he looked constipated. I mean. Sorry, Adam, but .... yeah. XD Is it bad of me to say I'd rather see Dan more often?

Ali - Is so cute and pretty and sweet, I just can't complain, but she suffers from same-thing-every-night syndrome too.

Max - Damn. Just... damn. (Did I say that last time, too?) He's... really damn good. And wow does he look good, too. I really like. No one compares to Aaron but Max has gotten so much better in the last two months. I am honestly very, very pleased with his performance, especially last night's. His "Look Down" was never as convincing as Aaron's, but the rest of the show he's been nailing night after night. I approve wholeheartedly. ALSO. He was bent over on the barricade after Gavroche's Death. Not quite as dramatically as Aaron, but there was definite bendage and a view of his rear end. Oh yes. Oh, and no, I will never be capable of discussing Max's Enjolras without bringing up Aaron. Aaron is the standard to which every subsequent Enjolras shall be compared. ♥

Ann - There are nights when I actively cannot stand her. There are nights when I'm just sort of meh about her. Saturday was the latter. I'd like to see an understudy Madame again. Haha.

Other!Chip - It's so nice to have a Thenardier who doesn't suck. I don't think he flubbed any lines, either! Yay. He just looks so Thenardier-ish, I love him. :D

Michael Minarik - YAY. YAY. YAY. I miss Drew -- but only during Master of the House, because he was so amusing, small parts of Red and Black because he was so effective at molesting Adam, and Bring Him Home because of the longing looks he used to shoot at Aaron (and Max too). Michael, however, just... wins. He has a nice voice, he's not over the top gay, he doesn't hump Jeff Kready (Jeff must be really glad), he is SO ADORABLE with Gavroche, I could hear him trying to tell him he wasn't going to fight while he was helping him tie the little red flag. and WAVED THE LITTLE RED FLAG AROUND!. And carrying Gavroche off the stage, not just dragging him. And again with the flag after Gavroche's death scene, awww. He needs to work on his death, because he just sort of sits down on the barricade, but I HEART. The kicker was Drink With Me when Max grabs him and he's all, "but that's not what I meant!" with the kicked-puppy look, and just before Max walks away again, "I'm sorry!" ♥! I am so looking forward to seeing him some more. Also, my front row seat often afforded me a view of his ass. He's got a nice one. *g* Oh, and as the innkeeper, he messed up and said, "We're god-fearing people...thanks be to God." awwww.

Jeremy Hays - Did I mention last time that I don't miss Blake Ginther and I want Jeremy to stay? He's such an awesome Feuilly. He is really effective in DYHTPS and I don't think he cracked on the A in "We'll be there!" either. He sounds really good and he looks really good. ♥

Nehal Joshi - Oh, my, what to say. Most hilarious member of the cast, hands down. Bored prison guard in the prologue, very pleased sailor in Lovely Ladies (inches from my face that night, oh man. XD), CHICKEN DANCE and "I love bosoms!" and "Did he lose a tooth?!" (at Michael) in Master of the House, and his Lesgles plays well off of Grantaire in Red and Black. And Saturday night, I finally got to watch him in Beggars at the Feast. KILLED ME DEAD. Oh, Nehal. Slashiness with Chip. Win all around. And he waved at me during curtain call! Nehal has way too much fun during that show, and it's just awesome. I hope he never leaves. XD (Okay, at least not before I get to see him as Enjolras. 26 times and still haven't! :P)

Dan Bogart - I want to see him more as Marius. Except then I'd have to see Trafton as Bamatabois and Combeferre and The Traveler, and, well, Dan just pwns them all so masterfully. No one can beat Dan's facial expressions, ever. So emotive. His WTF faces in Master of the House kill me, his Bamatabois is so deliciously evil it makes me cackle, and his Combeferre is SO DAMN ADORABLE. I love that boy. And and and and he had the guitar during Drink With Me, which... YAY! ♥ Also, I kinda feel sorry for him during Dog Eat Dog, being hauled around like that. XD

Chip - I do not think I have ever been at a show and he wasn't there. His Bishop is a little too... intense for my liking, but honestly I'm not complaining, y'know. He waved at curtain call, too. His queer in Beggars at the Feast is utterly win, especially playing off of Nehal's awesomeness. ♥ And his drunken acting, hahaha, such win. :D

Ben Crawford: It seems really weird to see him as Brujon and not as Courfeyrac. Not that I don't like Don's Courfeyrac, I just... liked Ben's more. And while Ben has the body type for Brujon, I just connected him with Courfeyrac for the longest time. It's just that I have to get used to it, haha. His Foreman is totally the best, though. I heart his voice. And I wish he didn't have to have such a fierce mane of beard. He'd look better with just the 'burns, I swear. I will be very, very happy to see him as Javert again, though, if Rob has to take any time off.

Don Brewer - Is a really cute Courfeyrac. *g*. Also: "I wanna kill that bastard," as he's dragging Rob off the stage. Hahahahaaa. Pity he doesn't really get many lines, I wish I could hear more of him.

Kevin - Awww, Kevin, he's cute. *g* I enjoyed how he followed Ann around during Beggars at the Feast trying to keep her from stealing the silverware. And... yeah, he's just cute in general. :D

Christy Faber - Haviland was out so Christy was the Factory Girl. I liked her, but I'm just used to Haviland. *shrugs*

Kaylie Rubinaccio - Like I said last week, it is unfathomable to me that any Young Cosette could be worse than Carly, but Kaylie managed it. Ow, my eardrums. >__<

Zach Rand - This production has great Gavroches. Probably for the best, since the girls aren't terribly great. I still like Brian more than Zach, but Zach's pretty damn good either way.

...that's everyone, isn't it? I never have any comment on the female cast members, sorry. I likes my boys. :D

Curtain call was a blast. Jessica and I screamed for everyone and some of the boys waved at us. *g* Front row is so much fun, I love it. I'm going to have to call Telecharge one day and tell them to find me another front row seat. :D

And stage door. Oh dear GOD after the show just... wow. XD

As with the show -- notes by performer. Just to make it easier to remember it all.
Between shows, after the matinee... Mike Evariste ran into me on the way back with his food and apologised. We spent a few minutes trying to decide whether that was a 'voluntary' a la the Guilty Ones or not. I mean, it was an accident, but I didn't talk to him. *g* Crazy SA fans gave us lots of laughter. It's always vaguely amusing to watch people leave and come back a few minutes later with food.

Lea - Still haven't talked to her, but I distinctly heard her say to a fan, "It's getting late, I should get home..." Poor woman.

Rob - Said hi to Rob again, and talked to him about our upcoming schedule. Next week I'm at work and Jessica's in Sacramento, following week is the Aaron concert, and then after that we're back up in NYC again. XD He told us to say hello to people for him.

Michael Minarik - He was one of the last people we talked to, 'cause he had family there too. I stopped him so I could tell him that I adored him as Grantaire, and he took a few minutes, recognised Jessica, and then I got to introduce myself to Michael. :D We told him how much we love him as Grantaire, and he said something like, "Wow, it's great that I could impress you guys since you've been so many times...how many has it been?" XD Me, I'll hit 30 by the end of the month -- 28 revival and 2 tour. That just sounds wrong, doesn't it?

Max - I tried to tell Max good things. I have avoided this before because I was afraid I'd mention Aaron which would only turn out badly, because as mentioned before no one is as good as Aaron and... yeah, no one wants to be told they're not as good as someone else. I was getting really tired and I don't think I worded it well, but I hope I got across to Max that I am really enjoying his performance these days. He doesn't hang around much -- presumably because he's tired. *g* After the matinee we didn't see him at all and I'm guessing he snuck away very early while we were talking to someone and ran home for his nap, because around 7:25 he came back with his iPod on. XD I heart that boy, he's just adorable.

Dan - was with family, but he noticed us and waved so we chatted a bit about how much fun front row is. I can't say anything else about it. Front row is just a lot of fun, even if you can't take naps during the boring solo numbers anymore. XD I heart that boy.

Nehal - Nehal has taken the place of Aaron at the stage door in the capacity of entertainment. Jessica and I told him just how entertaining he is and how much we love it, and I asked him about the thing he has with Chip, because Chip walked over around that time. And Chip just says, "No, I'm his uncle!" Nehal goes, "Yeah, I'm the best man at the wedding." Oh, much love. Much love. And and and I got a photo! :D I heart that boy, oh yes I do. ♥

And I said hello to Ali, Adam, Ben Crawford, and a couple other folks. Jessica chatted with Jeremy Hays and got other!Chip to sign her insert of Into the Woods and stuff. I haven't been around as long, people don't know me too well. xD

Lulu also picked up a cute Asian boy at the show, haha.


After the stage door we walked over to Starbucks, and then Lulu left with Jessica and I walked back to the PATH station.

On the way home... well, it was horrid, I almost fell asleep more times than I can count, but obviously I made it. I've, uh, already bought D15 for 20 July. *sigh* Oh well, this way I can see something other than LM for the matinee on the 28th and still reach 30 performances that day. *g* And that will be a poll question regarding just what to see for matinee in due time, I'm sure.

...also, I just realised something disturbing: Rob Hunt reminds me of John the analyst at work. (Or should that be the other way around?) O_o

Photos from the day:
Me and Nehal Joshi.
Gas price in Wescosville

#24 and #25

I am really going to need to learn to leave for NYC sooner than 9:30am on two-show Saturdays. I got to the theatre at 1:45, dammit, and I ought to be there an hour earlier than that. It didn't affect my seating really, but I hate having to run so I'm not late. Of course part of the problem is my wacked-out sleep schedule which ended in me not getting to sleep before 4:30am. Argh. No staying up until ridiculous hours before NYC and no whacking at the snooze button. I'm going to have to train myself. XD

Drive to Hoboken was interesting. The good news is they have finished all the construction on I-78! Yay! The bad news is now they're doing construction on US-222 north and southbound around the interchange onto I-78 which caused some delays and weird traffic patterns. This being part of the reason I got to the theatre so damned late. I had to stop at the Subway a block away from the parking garage to pee, because there was no way in hell I was going to make it to the theatre without wetting myself. PATH from Hoboken to 33rd Street was uneventful other than the Matt Clemens look-a-like I saw on the train. This is getting weird. First I saw the Alex look-a-like one night on the way back to Hoboken, June 9th I saw someone who looked almost exactly like Aaron buying a new MetroCard in the Hoboken station, and June 30 I saw a Matt look-a-like.

Right then, the show. Matinee seat was D114 -- orchestra, four rows from the stage, directly behind the front row seat I had in April, on the aisle. Evening seat was Box C, the last box on House Right. Matinee was the better seat but I love sitting up in the boxes. Also, the cast has been pretty well shuffled around.

Cast members staying the same:
Alex Gemignani (Valjean); Lea Salonga (Fantine); Adam Jacobs (Marius); Ali Ewoldt (Cosette); Max von Essen (Enjolras); Ann Harada (Mme Thenardier); Drew Sarich (Grantaire); Dan Bogart (Bamatabois/Combeferre); Chip Leonard (Bishop/Claquesous); Nehal Joshi (Lesgles), Doug Kreeger (Prouvaire); Jeff Kready (Fauchelevent/Babet); Haviland Stillwell (Factory Girl); Nikki Renée Daniels (Madeleine); Becca Ayers, Marya Grandy, Soara-Joye Ross, Idara Victor (ensemble ladies); Kylie Liya Goldstein, Carly Rose Sonenclar and Kaylie Rubinaccio as Young Cosette and Eponine; Zach Rand and Brian D'Addario as Gavroche.
Understudies and new tracks:
Ben Crawford (u/s Javert); Megan McGinnis (Eponine); Stephen Trafton (u/s Foreman/Brujon); Jeremy Hays (u/s Feuilly)
Brand new cast members
Chip Zien (Thenardier); Don Brewer (Courfeyrac); Mike Evariste (Montparnasse); Kevin David Thomas (Major Domo); Lucia Spina (ensemble lady); Christy Faber (Swing).

Whew, think I got everyone. Let's have some details!

· Alex - Meh. I think it says a lot that "meh" is the only comment I can muster.
· Ben Crawford - :D! ♥ He was a little jerky in the matinee, less so in the evening. He looked odd because he's got the full facial hair, presumably because he's the Valjean understudy. Last I saw him he had pretty impressive sideburns of his own, heh. His voice is brilliant. Deep and, dare I say it, classical and heavy. Or, in other words: perfect. The role of Javert ought to be played by a man with a deep, classical voice (so fuck you Cameron Mackintosh). Ben does the little baton-twirl which made me squee. And his Suicide? Oh my god. In the matinee version, he was shouty and kept heaving loud deep breaths during the beginning of the Suicide, but the rest of it was utterly phenomenal: I have not cried at the Suicide since the first time I heard Quast's on the CSR ten years ago. Ben Crawford was appropriately emotional and it really worked. I loved Ben Davis' Suicide a lot but compared to Ben Crawford he seemed a bit unemotional. In short I really really wanna see Ben Crawford many more times as Javert (preferably without beard, haha, though I know that won't happen as long as he's understudying Valjean).
· Lea - I liked her better when she called Dan a "fucking bastard". She's good but I don't like her singing voice as much as her understudies'.
· Megan McGinnis - While I don't like her as much as I like Marissa, I do like her better than I like Celia's, and I definitely like her a lot better than Mandy's.
· Ali - Adorable, as always.
· Adam - Adorable, as always; and still needs to fix those long "ee"s, as usual. He managed quite a bit of laughs during AHFOL in the evening show.
· Max - Was having quite a good day. Vocally rather good. And I do not know what the hell happened in the last few weeks but damn he looked good in that costume. He left the black vest buttoned up during Red and Black which I don't think he used to do (and Aaron didn't); and good god those pants show off a rather nice butt; and ... yeah, Max is really looking good as Enjolras. Never going to be as good as Aaron (but then, who can), however I genuinely enjoy his performance the majority of the time. If he left I'd probably be rather sad (though not as sad as when Aaron left XD). Also! Max stole Aaron's thing during the matinee: bending over the table in Red and Black to 'lecture' Adam. He didn't do it in the evening but... MAX. THAT WAS AARON'S THING. EVEN IF YOU DO HAVE A NICE ASS. If Max'd bent over the barricade too I might've had to say something. XD
· Ann Harada - Why couldn't she have stayed fired?!
· Chip Zien - HO YAY I CAN FINALLY ENJOY MASTER OF THE HOUSE WITHOUT HAVING TO WATCH DREW AND NEHAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT. In other words, I heart Chip Zien and I think he is a great Thenardier: he really does look the part and he is seriously a refreshing change (much for the better) from Gary Beach. Looking forward to seeing him some more. Chip Leonard said it was his second day which explained why he screwed up a few lines during the day -- the best one being, "His watch is no longer ticking but his heart's going strong..and his watch is ticking yet!" in the evening Dog Eat Dog.
· Kaylie Rubinaccio - Finally got to see her and oh my god is it possible that a little Cosette can be worse than Carly?! Aie, mine ears. Her enunciation doesn't suck but her voice is awful and apparently they want the eight year olds to belt. X__X
· Kylie Liya Goldstein - She's pretty inoffensive, which is about all you can ask for it seems from a Young Cosette these days. I miss Tess, she was actually good.
· Brian D'Addario - I heart this kid. "Stop it! I'm here to fight! Let me go!"
· Zach Rand - Not as good as Brian but his deaths are more believable.
· Drew - Saturday was his last day as Grantaire/the drunk. And you could tell he was really having fun. He seemed to be having an on-stage thing with Jeff Kready: a snog during Master of the House, sitting on his lap at the beginning of Red and Black, humping him at the barricades... XD Drew also kissed Nehal in Red and Black, Adam in Red and Black as usual, and Chip during Master of the House in the evening show, oh and he acted like he was throwing up in Kevin's lap during the evening Master of the House. I didn't pay any attention to Drew during the matinee in Master of the House, too busy enjoying Chip Zien and Dan. Nuzzles with Max in the matinee during Drink With Me, but nothing other than a look in the evening. Drew is just so much fun to watch as Grantaire, I'm kind of going to miss him. Even if I do like Matt!R a whole lot more.
· Dan - I ♥ him. His facial expressions are just the best, completely cracking me up during Master of the House -- Chip Zien was being very grabby, and Dan's WTF faces are absolutely priceless -- and he is just so evil as Bamatabois and then just so adorable as Combeferre. ♥
· Stephen Trafton - Such a cute Foreman! I kinda wanted to ruffle his hair. XD
· Nehal - So. Entertaining. Hahaha. He still does the chicken dance on the table in Master of the House, but he added a little something-something: at Thenardier's line "Everybody's boon companion, everybody's bosom friend..." Nehal remarks, "I like bosoms!" I heard this during the matinee 'cause I was so close and just cracked the hell up. ♥ Oh, Nehal. I love that boy. And his Bossuet is almost as much as a drunk as Grantaire is: during the evening show he drank from his bottle more than Drew did in Red and Black, and I think it was Doug Kreeger who leaned over and told him to slow down a little. And I heart his loudhailer. Also, he is terribly amusing as the prison guard in the Prologue, he makes a great cop, hilarious as the sailor in Lovely Ladies, and... yeah, that boy just livens up the stage almost every single time he shows up. ♥
· Mike Evariste - The new JD. He is not JD. I want JD back. Mike doesn't suck, he's just sort of... there. Barely noticeable. Not bad, but not exactly good either.
· Don Brewer - :D I think he's cute and I like him. Still need to get used to him being there, same with Kevin David Thomas.
· Jeremy Hays - Cracked both shows on the high A in "Let them come if they dare -- we'll be there!" (nothing huge or awful, but I could tell) however he reinforced that I don't miss Blake Ginther when he's out. Heh. I really liked the way he took Feuilly's lines in Do You Hear the People Sing; i.e., not just standing there and singing to the audience, but interacting with the barricade boys during the four lines. Very nice.

Er, I can't really think of anything else right now. Will add if anything later. Between shows Jessica and I wandered around a few blocks restaurant hunting. There was a Turkish place that caught my eye a few weeks ago when I was meeting up with Katherine but I decided it was too expensive for food I'd never had before and couldn't be certain I'd eat. We ended up at Galaxy Diner. XD Note for future reference: Their Philly cheesesteaks are not Philly cheesesteaks. You do not put Philly cheesesteaks on a hero. Cheesesteaks are chopped up steak, melted cheese (not cheese-whiz!), and sauce/onions optional, on a sub. It wasn't particularly good, either. Hey, well, can't say I didn't try. During our wanderings we found the National Debt Clock on 6th and 44th so I stopped to take a photo (which I will import and upload later). I'm easily amused, what more can I say?

Stage door:
Max - After the matinee: "I'm exhausted, see you later, I'm going home to sleep" and practically runs home. Such a sweetie. I could hug him. After the evening: he chatted with me for a few seconds but then excused himself to talk to his girlfriend. So possibly the boy is not gay. XD I heart that boy.
Drew - He at least seemed to be very glad that I stuck around for both shows today and indicated that he is very excited to be Valjean -- to wit, I told him I would be there at the end of July when he starts as Valjean, and he went, "WOO!" Haha, oh Drew. He was wearing a lime-green shirt half-unbuttoned under an unbuttoned vest. Boy needs to shave some of that chest hair and grow some facial hair. XD I heart that boy.
Nehal - I did it, I had to: "So Nehal, I hear you like bosoms." He literally made an XD face and told me that he likes to change up his jokes every once in awhile since after Cameron's shake up he wasn't allowed to call Drew an ass anymore. ...and then he went and did the "You ass!" thing for the evening show 'cause it was Drew's last as R and I pointed that out, too. I heart that boy, seriously. He's adorable and so friendly.
Dan - Got to tell him again how much I adore his facial expressions and talk with him about how weird it was to be on vacation and hear about the cast changes. Also, Dan is the source of yet another "You know you've been to LM too many times when" ... when Dan automatically assumes after the Saturday matinee that you'll be there in the evening too. I heart that boy.
Ben Crawford - Stopped him after the matinee and told him that he was wonderful and that the matinee show was the first time I'd cried at Suicide in ten years. Look, the boy is that awesome, I am going to let him know just how much.
Chip Leonard - Missing after the matinee but he told me after the evening that he was just so tired he just fell asleep upstairs afterwards. Aww. But after the evening I got to talk to him for a few minutes about the show and stuff, especially about how great other!Chip was as Thenardier and the weird cast changes. He's so chatty, and as usual wished me a safe drive home. I heart him.

...it feels like I talked to other people but I can't think who. Matt talked to Jessica and not me. Possibly that is the entire list. Once my arms don't look like utter crap from the burn I'ma going to get myself a photo with Ben Crawford. And Nehal. Why have I not gotten a Nehal!pic yet?!

Also! I succeeded in my quest in getting a pedicab to drive me back from 44th to the PATH station on 6th and 33rd! :D $15, the driver was a friendly (and rather cute) Belarussian student. It's an experience, let me tell you. Don't do it with a skirt on, I spent the whole ride holding my skirt down so I wouldn't flash all and sundry on the streets of Manhattan. But it's really fun and I highly recommend giving it a try. I'm not going to do it every time, because hello $15 better spent on food.

Drive home? Made an awesome discovery. The Wawa in Wescosville I always stop at for gas and/or munchies and drinks had GAS AT $2.42/GALLON. WIN WIN WIN. Especially considering fifteen minutes beforehand was the place in Jersey for $2.85 and then twenty minutes later got to the Sheetz in Fleetwood for $2.79. I asked the clerk and he said it's the lowest in the Lehigh Valley (I am thinking $2.42 has to be the lowest in the country considering the national average last I looked a few days ago was $2.80-some.) and that it might go up quite a bit again soon since crude prices are going back up. I don't get how that place's $0.30 lower than any other place but I am so not complaining. Only $20 to fill my tank again! :D

New York again next Saturday. I know Jessica is going too, and possibly Kristin. I'm going to attempt leaving before 9am this time to get to NYC before noon. XD Anyone else who is going to be in the city or wants to come should drop me a line.

Carousel @ the Boston Pops, 13 June 2007

I'd intended to leave by 10, but as per usual I didn't get up right away and I blew fifteen minutes on lj. So I left around 10:30, 10:45. The way to Boston from my house is really rather straightforward. Only problem really was the $4 toll to cross the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River. I'm pretty sure that if I went up 95 there'd be a toll on some NYC tunnel or whatever, so meh. I don't think you can avoid paying tolls to go to Boston. Could be worse. With only one stop and a lot of going 80mph, I made it to the exit into Boston off 93 by 5pm. And then proceeded to sit in Boston traffic on Massachusetts Avenue for about half an hour. I parked at a garage on... not St. Stephen's Street, the one right next to it. Westland? Doesn't matter; it's the one that cost $19 for an under-10 hour stay. XD It was about a block, block and a half from Symphony Hall either way. So I spent awhile walking around Boston -- it was chilly and breezy and quite overcast, but it was good to walk in. The neighbourhood is excellent. It's mostly residential/student residential, looks like the area of Boston University. I surmised this by all the kids walking around with Boston University sweatshirts.

If you have never been to the Boston Pops, or any concert at Symphony Hall, I highly recommend it. It was a wonderful experience. The hall itself is absolutely beautiful, I have a few pictures which I may upload when I don't feel so lazy. If you buy orchestra-level seats, they will seat you in folding chairs at a table and feed you overpriced appetizers and wine from the bottle during the performance. So I sat and drank Coke and ate cheesecake and got to listen to Aaron sing. :D Whole new definition of having my cake and eating it too. xD

The performance was wonderful. I didn't know anything before about Carousel, but I really enjoyed the performance. Eve-Lyn de la Haye and Rebecca Eichenberger both have really beautiful voices (they were Julie and Carrie, respectively) which was lovely. Everyone was simply phenomenal -- a lot of times you go to a performance and there's one or two performers who just aren't as good as the others; well that was not the case here at all. Everyone was so talented and beautiful, I wished I could have stayed in Boston until tonight to see it again. But... alas.

Oh, Aaron. What to say that I haven't said before? The man is just fantastic. :D ♥ His voice was in fine form, and as for his clothes... well, er, his shirt was about two sizes too small, or in other words, might as well not have worn it at all. It was a veeeeeery nice sight, let me tell you, even as far back in the hall as I was.

Aaron gave me some really exciting news after the show: He was talking to some other fans who were standing next to me, who asked him what his next project was. So I sort of continued that conversation-
Me: Aaron, did I hear you say you're getting a record deal?
Aaron: Yeah.
Me: So does that mean you're finally doing a solo album?!
Aaron: Yes!
Me: Awesome! :D
Aaron: ...well, maybe.
So it sounds as though he's started on the project but the details have yet to be hammered out and finalised. :D HOYAY. I want a solo album of Aaron. I'm probably going to have to burn another copy of Masada soon anyway, the one in my car's already a bit skippy.

And I got two Aaronhugs. :D I ♥ him so much.

So then I drove home. Traffic out of Boston was horrendous, but otherwise it was a very uneventful drive home. I need to put more money on my EZ-Pass now, heh, I'm pretty sure I'm down to the last few dollars. If that. XD

#23, 09 June 2007

I ended up leaving at 12:45 to get to NYC, and I parked in Hoboken around 3:30. Had to make a few stops along the way, the bank and the gas station in town for cash and something to drink/eat on the way up, and the Wawa in Wescosville to fill up. Their gas is the cheapest around if you pay cash, they give you a discount if you do that.

Got into the city just after 4, but I had to stop in the Mall of Manhattan and use the restroom. And then I got distracted at 39th Street. For those of you who know that area of NYC-- Golda Meir Square, between 39th and 40th. There's this big area of sidewalk. On this area there were six guys and a boombox playing Michael Jackson's music. One of the guys was dressed in black pants, a fedora, and a silver-sequined coat, and there were five other guys all wearing the same outfit (doo-rags, long baggy shirts and shorts, black undershirts) and breakdancing. A crowd was gathering so I decided to stay and watch. They were breakdancing to Thriller and Beat It. The guy dressed like Michael Jackson could dance like Michael Jackson, and the breakdancing was something else. It was pretty impressive. I don't often pay attention to street performers, but this was fun to kill fifteen or so minutes on and I gave 'em a dollar.

It was 4:50 by the time I got to 44th, so I went over to hang out at the Broadhurst instead. Nehal stopped to chat for a few minutes. I asked him about Ben Crawford's absence a few weeks ago, and he said that Ben had hurt his ankle during rehearsal for Javert. Apparently Ben has also gone on for Javert, because Nehal asked me whether I'd seen him as Javert yet. Nehal said that Ben has an impressive voice. Oh man. I so want to see him as Javert. Really badly. Nehal also said, "There seems to be a gunk at the Broadhurst, because everyone has been getting sick from it. I've never seen that before, not even when I was at Studio 54!" and called Max a workhorse who never seems to take time off, when I asked Nehal again whether he had any idea when I could see him on for Enjolras. Ah well, I hope I'll get a chance in the future. Nehal also said that Cameron was at the show that day. As in, Cameron Mackintosh. So there was definitely a bit of a buzz around the theatre. (And explained the little girls running up to the stage door before the evening show going, "I want to see Cameron!" Those kids are so adorable.)

After saying hi to Max, it was time to meet up with Katherine. It took a little bit of time to meet up, but that's okay, I found a few new interesting things, to wit: a Turkish restaurant on 47th between 6th and 7th which looks like it might be a nice spot to eat some time. I've never had Turkish, so I'm quite curious. We walked around the city for a while. I stopped at TKTS to see if there were any seats for LM. Apparently there were but the line was fucking ginormous and there was no way I was going to wait an hour or two in it. Maybe another time. This is how I ended up back at the Broadhurst paying $111.25 for my Row P seat. I should have just taken F22 or the mezz seat that she offered me. So pissed off at Telecharge for that.

Either way, we had a lot of fun walking around and talking about Broadway and other random stuff, and then stopping at Starbucks and having some frappuccinos. Mmmm, frappuccino. Katherine left at 7 for dinner with her family, and I went to hang out at the Broadhurst before the show.

Best story of the night: I was standing by the stage door. Some Filipino ladies were standing by the street, and Lea snuck in with a shopping bag and her glasses on. They shouted her name as she walked in, and she seemed to ignore them. Then Max comes up to the stage door, and as he walks to the door, Lea comes out and says, Hey, was someone looking for me? She goes over to the fans, and I suddenly remember, "Hey, Max? Did they let you get rid of the wig yet?" He said yes and made a 'woot' gesture, and then Lea says, out of the blue, "Yes! I am the happiest person in the world now that the wig is gone!" Bahaha. That, incidentally, was the most conversation I have ever had with Lea. After that Max went in and Lea signed autographs, took pictures, and chatted in Pinoy with the fans. They were so happy to get to talk to her. She's a nice person, but I still feel bad for her being chased by all those fans. Half of the Philippines must have come to see her by now.

The show was great. Everyone was doing well. I've seen the show twenty-three times now, so there was that really stood out in my eyes, but I should make a few notes anyway.
Alex - Tangibly less cranky, although he still needs to lighten up a bit in the Valjean/Javert scene after the barricades.
Ben Davis - Just fantastic. ♥ His "Stars" always makes me a little wibbly inside, and his Suicide makes me a lot wibbly inside.
Lea - I don't really like her take on "I Dreamed a Dream", but she's a fantastic actress. Also, no swearing at Dan, I presume because of Cameron's presence.
Ann - I really hated her on Saturday, for some reason. I haven't hated her before, but that show I just kept wishing she would go away and put Jenny back in her place.
Gary - Eh. No real comment, his performance is exactly the same every time. He can go away now.
Mandy - Honestly, she was not annoying at all until ALFOR. I could stand her performance; didn't particularly like it, but it was tolerable. ALFOR, however, made me twitchy. Poor Adam.
Adam - Adorable, although he still needs to fix his long 'e' vowels. Aie.
Ali - She's so cute. She doesn't change much from performance to performance, though, so I never have anything to say about her. She's got a beautiful voice even if her high C's aren't very strong.
Max - See I never really know what to say. His voice is a lot lighter than Aaron's, and he's definitely a tenor and not a baritone. He looks ten times better without the godawful wig, too, and from my vantage point he looked a lot like Aaron dangling from the barricade. Still doesn't have enough charisma, but I can honestly say I like his Enjolras. I have to say I have a lot of respect for an Enjolras who topples like that over the barricade: headfirst, no hesitation. Haha. This is probably because Aaron wimped out on the toppling due to his back injury, so it's a nice thing to see.
Drew - Entertaining, as always-- he's always doing something different, like in Master of the House today when Gary threw him over to Chip and Marya's table, he acted like he was passed out for a few moments before snapping up and grabbing Chip for an almost!snog. He tries so hard to be entertaining and do something different every time in a cast where fully half the company do the same thing every damn performance, it's refreshing and really rather fun to watch. I don't think he's very Grantaire-ish, but his gay antics are entertaining.
Ben Crawford - IS AMAZING. He slightly changed up his lines as Foreman, and as Courfeyrac he had his hair slicked back, kind of like Doug Kreeger's hair. Also, that man has some pretty impressive sideburns of his own. WANT TO SEE HIS JAVERT SO BADLY.
Matt Clemens - Matt was JD on Saturday, and I really wish he had a regular role as someone, anyone, because Matt wins. He looks a lot better as Montparnasse than JD does, even though I do love JD.
The gay factor: Max and Drew do this differently every time. This is actually dependent on Max, not on Drew; Drew will go along with whatever Max does, haha, and even attempt some slashiness on his own. During Red and Black, "We strive towards a larger goal" he grabs Drew by the collar and forces him back into his chair, with Drew looking appropriately chastised. And in Drink With me, Max grabs him and nuzzles him, and Drew gives him the kicked puppy look. Also during Drink With Me, when Drew says, "Could it be your death means nothing at all," Victor Hawks makes towards him going, "You son of a bitch!" Max restrains him, and at the end of the song, Victor gives Max a pat on the ass as he climbs back up the barricade. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I was highly amused.

Nothing else really to mention, other than the people behind me whispering a lot and humming along to the Prologue music, some people on the other side of the audience laughing loudly at all the even-marginally-funny moments. I did get to chat with Max -- who told me he was just going home because he was feeling rather hoarse; he's so damn cute and I am really getting the gay vibes from him, especially on Saturday night -- and Dan and Ben at the stage door, but eh. Nothing outside of random chatter. I'm not the best conversationalist ever, really. Ben, though... he always asks me if I thought the show was "all right," and I always tell him how fantastic he was. XD He also skipped right through the crowd again because apparently no one recognises him. And there was quite a crowd, not just of Asians either. Didn't even see Lea at the stage door. Drew was there with his wife, Dan's wife was there too. And apparently there was a party after since Victor and Dan and Ben and Jeff Kready and a few of the girls were talking about it and asked Drew if he wanted to go along. Drew said no because they had a babysitter, and he was carrying a shopping bag with toys for his kid. XD So cute. But no real interesting stories from the actors, I guess I got enough of that from Nehal in the afternoon.

And then I headed home. Got to the train station pretty quickly, didn't have to wait for the train, so I managed to leave Hoboken by midnight and was home by 2:30, even stopping for a sandwich and tea to eat at home. Pretty excellent, on the whole, although I was pretty tired when I got home.

#22, 26 May 2007 (and Coram Boy, too!)

[originally written 27 May 2007, with some small edits]

Coram Boy was fantastic. The staging was beautiful and I am just in love with the way they incorporated Messiah into it, ESPECIALLY the way "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" was used. Holy crap it gave me such chills, the ending of Act One, with "For Unto Us..." all around it. ♥ It was a really good play. I don't like straight plays, I get bored with an hour and a half of straight dialogue regardless of how good it is, and I like my stage shows with music in them, so Coram Boy was a great compromise. The actors were excellent and the choir was great and the abridged "Hallelujah Chorus" at the end made me really happy. Also they were selling another version of Messiah at the souvenir table so I had to add that one to my collection too. *g*

After Coram Boy I ran across the street to the Majestic's stage door, where about five other fans were waiting. Man, such a difference from Les Mis! Maybe it's because none of the Phantom theatregoers can find the stage door? XD I saw Michael Shawn Lewis, but since I am an idiot and don't know what he looks like, I let him walk away without getting a picture -- although he did wave at me, because I kept staring at him trying to figure out who he was. So I will definitely be in New York on June 9, for his last day, so I can hopefully get a picture of him. Tentative plan for that day is Rent/LM, and after Rent it'll be up a few blocks to stagedoor Phantom and get MSL, and after that rushing over to the Broadhurst to talk to the boys. Rent will probably be the matinee, just because the evening show will be MSL's last and I really don't want to deal with a mob, haha. (I am kind of entertaining the idea of going up next Sunday just to stagedoor Phantom, but I shouldn't. That would not be wise. Also it would be a huge waste of $3/gallon gas.)

It's Jess' fault that I'm planning on seeing Rent. It's been more than eight years since I've seen the show, and I'm not even sure I still like it. I really liked the Rent movie, have the DVD in fact, but I'm just not as sure that I'll love the Broadway version. Hopefully this time I'll get a good seat where I can see what's going on. (When I saw Rent in 1999, I sat behind this really tall guy who obstructed about 85-90% of my view of the stage, and I was ridiculously disappointed at not really getting to see the show.) And yeah, I have a soft spot for Tim Howar: he was a cute Marius when I saw him in Toronto (and I had a tiny little crush on him. Hey, I was 13, and he was cute, don't laugh at me).

And of course, Les Mis in the evening. I had E21, which for you non-veterans of the Les Mis Broadway revival means fifth row orchestra, partial view all the way on the left. It was a lot more limited than I thought, but no real complaints. This is because I was sleepy and not really in the mood to pay attention to a lot of detals (and I nodded off during Who Am I/Come to Me). Ben was ♥; and I'm really warming up to Max a lot more now that he's warming up to the role a lot more; and Dan's facial expressions are simply the best; and Drew, oh Drew, slapping Adam's ass at the end of DYHTPS and giving Max this really overblown WTF face in Drink With Me. And speaking of Drew, he crossed himself after Eponine snuffed it. WTF? Nehal is still endlessly amusing and I really really really want to see his Enjolras. And Kevin (Ali's boyfriend Kevin, too lazy to dig up the playbill to find the rest of his name) took over for Justin Bohon and I'm getting used to him now, and there's a new female swing although I have absolutely no idea whether Q or Marissa left. Oh, and Ben Crawford was out again. I'm vaguely worried about him, this is the second straight weekend he's not been in, and I'm not completely sure that he's been out the entire preceding week, but it's a reasonable assumption. Stephen Trafton took over for Ben Crawford, and while he wasn't bad, I liked Matt as the Foreman/Courfeyrac a whole lot more. This may be because Matt is four kinds of win, but hey.

Stage door was interesting. Interesting as in we didn't see Drew or Chip at all, not after missing MSL, not before the evening show, and not after the evening show. Sneaky bastards. Didn't get to talk to Dan, as after the matinee he ran off while we were talking to Max and after the evening he was playing at being Rob Hunt or Ben Crawford and running away with his cellphone glued to his ear. Max and Ben are really fun to talk to, haha. Talked about Coram Boy to both Max and Ben, also after the evening show Max and Ben were gleefully comparing stories about running away before anyone caught them for autographs. XD That amused me way more than it should've. Also Max says the costume person is coming to the show next weekend and might let him get rid of the wig then. :D He made some comment about making sure to get "the good side of the 'fro" while I was trying to take a picture of him and Jess, and I told him his real hair is totally better than that wig. XD Max is fun; he's chatty and friendly, and he's terribly cute. I also rather like Kevin and I think it'll be fun to talk to him some more.

I still miss Aaron, though.

Oh yes. Speaking of Aaron. I brought my iPod shuffle along to NYC, and it's quite a nifty little thing. I did not, in fact, lose it. It clips quite well onto a belt loop or purse strap, so I am not as worried about dropping it somewhere. And there is nothing quite like walking down the streets of NYC at 11:45 at night listening to Aaron sing "Hail" from Masada. ♥

#21, 19 May 2007 (and Phantom, too!)

[originally written 20 May 2007, with a few edits]

So, yes, another day in New York.

Left around 9:30, and I made pretty good time so I got into my parking garage around 12:45. When I left home, it was the most perfect day: a few wispy clouds and nice warm sunshine. As I drove to New York, the cloud cover increased, and about fifteen minutes from Newark, the sky opened up. The rain just didn't stop all day. Granted, it was varying degrees of drizzle the whole time I was in NYC, but it was pretty much non-stop up until about 11:10pm or so. So not fun, let me tell you.

I went to see Phantom for the matinee show. Phantom was practically sold out. I decided to go cheap, so I got Rear Mezzanine row E. Up two flights of stairs and while you could see everything, you just sort of got the bird's eye view of everything (except the chandelier which I saw pretty damn well). So I don't think I'll be seeing Phantom any time soon, unless I can get a discount off broadwaybox.com or some such place. Gary Mauer was great; Jennifer Hope Wills is the best American Christine I've ever heard, her voice was lovely and clear and nice to listen to; and Michael Shawn Lewis was just adorable. I was sad, since apparently Anne Runolfsson has just left the cast -- her replacement is Kris Koop, and she got a full-page playbill insert indicating that she was taking over as Carlotta. I really wanted to see Anne so I could sort of get a preview of the concert in July, y'know? Kris wasn't bad: her voice was a little soft and thin at times, like she still hadn't quite got Carlotta down, and she missed a few notes here and there. I don't blame her, Carlotta is a really difficult part to sing, and this may have been one of her first shows as principal, so no real complaints here. Understudies also for Firmin and Lefevre. The show itself was largely uneventful, although many people around me were whispering, a bunch of people kept getting up and leaving to use the restroom or something during the performance, and the guy in front of me was on his Blackberry for half the show -- in the first act an usher even came by and admonished him loudly that recording wasn't allowed. Geez. If I go to Phantom again, I'm going to go to a Saturday evening show, because matinee theatregoers are just more obnoxious as a whole.

Walked around the block twice after the show, which let out almost exactly at 4:30pm, and finally located the stage door around 4:50 or so when I caught sight of fans clutching playbills. I waited there with a few other fans in the drizzle for the actors to come out. Absolutely no one showed. At all. I struck up a conversation with this middle-aged guy standing there, and he said that it was Gary Mauer's last show so the cast probably was doing something special for him backstage. ... Firstly, why the hell do you have a cast party after a Saturday matinee?! and secondly, if Howard was just on vacation for a month or so, why are all the pictures and posters on the front of the theatre changed to have Gary Mauer's name instead of Howard?! I mean, Simon Bailey's mug is still plastered all over the Broadhurst and he's not even in this production of Les Mis, yet the Phantom posters change when the principal goes on vacation? Totally weird. In any case, this guy I talked to was apparently a Phan, because I mentioned seeing LM for the 21st time that day and he said, "oh, you're like me and Phantom then!" 'cause I mentioned to him that this was my only chance to see Gary and MSL because LM was my plans for the evening. He also informed me that Phantom doesn't do Sunday matinees, which is weird. So by 5:20pm I'd left the Phantom stage door and then it was time for dinner.

One thing of note: you know you've seen Les Mis and stagedoored way too many times when Nehal Joshi stops you in the line for Phantom to say hi. Not that I am complaining, since I ♥ Nehal, but... yeah. XD That definitely says something about my habits.

I went to Virgin Megastore to kill half an hour before going back to the Broadhurst, and found they were having a big old sale: $10 DVDs and CDs. So I got the director's cut of Alexander and the Jersey Boys OBC for $10 each, then I picked up a 3-CD set of opera music for $14.99, and then I found that shiny recording of the Messiah I'd had my eye on for $24.99. Er. Oops. I don't think I was supposed to spend money. But yay actually buying music now and then. I listened to some of that Messiah on the way home and have concluded that it is definitely as shiny as it looked. :D

So then I met Jess and Kristin at the Broadhurst, and we chatted to Drew and Ben Davis before the show. Ben is rather fun. :D We got in the line early, 'cause of standing by the stage door under the awning so we didn't get rained on. I had managed to get Box D for this show -- yes, the front box on the right side, the most limited view in the theatre XD -- so I was all excited. I got to my seat to find a very friendly German girl sitting next to me. We chatted before the show about Broadway and New York City. She had come to the US for several weeks, was in NYC this week and then was heading off to Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and LA afterwards, and just trying to fit in as much as possible since she wasn't sure when she would come back here. She had never seen Les Mis before so it was definitely fun to tell her about it. At intermission I mentioned to her Max's wig (which, by the way, will come up again later), which was the cause of my groaning several times through the second half of Act One. Because that wig is just awful. Haha.

Performance notes:
- Ben Davis is just utterly fantastic and I love his Javert so very much. He is just so Javert and ♥. I love his vowels and I love his baritone and I love his acting and I love just everything and he is so amazing and YES. LOVE. Not since Quast has there been such an awesome Javert. For seriously.
- Lea Salonga was out sick, according to Doug Kreeger (okay, he didn't tell me, I eavesdropped on his conversation with another fan after the matinee), so we got Nikki on. I like Nikki's voice much better than Lea's, even if Lea's the better actress.
- Several of the boys were out -- Ben Crawford, Blake Ginther, and Justin Bohon -- so there was some changing up of the lines. Matt Clemens was on for Ben Crawford and ... dammit, I love Matt more every time I see him. He's fantastic as R, and he was great as the Foreman, and he was great as Courfeyrac. Stephen Trafton covered both Blake's and Justin's bits, and I have to say I like Stephen Trafton's Feuilly much better than Blake's. His "Let them come if they dare / We'll be there!" didn't sound as ... forced as Blake's usually does.
- Max... was really great for that show. Yes, that's right. He really was. This may partially be due to the fact I didn't see him half the time so I couldn't be distracted by the Wig or by his lack of charisma, but he was great. He didn't take that horrible breath in "Before we cut the fat ones down to size!" like he did two weeks ago, and his voice was definitely stronger than two weeks ago, so he is apparently over that illness he had. He seems to be warming up to the role of Enjolras, but he is still not Aaron. (Although he still does the Dawn of Anguish scene MUCH better than Aaron did, and I still like his take on "Certain as the eagle flies / The people too must rise.") However, he, er, forgot to come back on "Do we have the guns we need?" during the café scene, I'm not sure why. And, I guess because of the shortage of barricade boys, it was, "Combeferre, you take the watch..." during the barricade scenes. I don't like the way he pronounced Combeferre. Of course, it sounded like he started out with "Courfeyrac" and ended up with "Combeferre", so maybe he just forgot who he was talking to.
- DREW. Max doesn't seem to be as enthusiastic to the slashiness bit as Aaron was, but Drew tries anyway: for that show he put his hands on Max's face during, "Our little lives don't count at all!" in Red and Black. (The German girl stared at me for giggling hysterically at that) And they still nuzzle during Drink With Me (German girl gave me another stare then. XD) although it's very short, it's still adorable.
- I wasn't as bothered by Mandy today. Still do not like her, but not actively offended by her voice. She was definitely less annoying.


Stage door afterwards was fun. Briefly said hi to Nehal, he was with his significant other so I didn't bother him much. I got to meet Leanna and Shelley then, and most of the rest of the time at the stage door was spent chatting with Dan, Ben, and Matt. Okay, so I didn't really do much chatting. BUT! I did get to tell Matt how much I heart his R, and I got a photo. :D I tried to remove the red-eye, but it didn't work out so well, so I just left it as is. Normally I don't have a problem with it, so I wonder what was up with my camera that night. Oh, well.

Oh, and I said Max's wig featured. He came out early, before Ben and Dan and Matt, and before I met Leanna and Shelley. He definitely recognises me right away, haha. So ...

Me: Max, Max, I gotta ask you a question.
Max: Oh yeah, what's that?
Me: Whose idea was the wig?
Max: *cringe* It's awful, isn't it?
Me: Er, well...
Max: It's okay, you can say you hate it, I hate it too.

Cue a five minute discussion on how he absolutely hates the wig, and he doesn't get it either that they made him wear one when Aaron's hair wasn't much longer at all, and that he will probably only have to wear the wig for another month yet, and we told him just what is wrong with the wig, why we don't like it. He seemed really... not happy about the wig. I kinda felt bad afterwards about bringing it up, you know, because he really doesn't like the wig. I did tell him, though, that he was really great -- 'cause, y'know, he definitely was that day. I mean. I can definitely get used to Max being on, even if I do want to see Nehal really damn bad. And even if I do miss Aaron a lot.


We all decided to hang out afterwards. We brought up Starbucks on 8th, but I pointed out that that Starbucks rarely has seats, so we tried going to the Euro Diner instead. This didn't work out, because that whole block of 8th was cordoned off - POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS - and the cop standing there said he couldn't let anyone get past. Well, bugger. (I've noticed that just about every Saturday I'm in NYC there're five alarm fires or long lines of screaminng police sirens heading somewhere, and I've pretty much figured that this has to be a normal occurrence -- either that or I'm the new Harbinger of Doom.) Well, we went back to the Starbucks, and lo! found an empty table. Whereupon we sat down for an hour and told fun stories and had Starbucks beverages and giggled a lot until 12:30am when we decided that it was time to drive ourselves home before we fell asleep. XD

Anyway, by the end of this whole day, I pretty much decided that I had to go up again to see Coram Boy for matinee and then run across 45th to stagedoor Phantom, and then see Les Mis in the evening. Because I absolutely have to see Coram Boy and I really want to meet Michael Shawn Lewis.

Photos from the day:
Me and Matt Clemens.

#20, 6 May 2007

BEN. OMG. BEN. ♥ Yes, that's really all I have to say. How about I let my stage door photos tell the rest of the story? XD

Me and Max von Essen.
Yes, that's Max. Much shorter than Aaron, haha. Max also likes wearing tight jeans and shirts. He's also quite nice.

Me and Ben Davis.
Ben! :D He very nicely put up with me fangirling his Javert at him. Because he was teh awesome.

#19, 5 May 2007

[originally written 6 May 2007, with some small edits]

· Drew = excellent as Javert, holy crap. Would love to see him more often as Javert. Best part of today's matinee show, hands down.

· Max = not!Aaron. Sometimes this is okay (like in Dawn of Anguish, because that he does better than Aaron. He holds out the end of each line (fear, etc.)! ♥), sometimes this is not (like in Red and Black, where his expressions and gestures kept making me WTF). Also, his wig is so Simon Bailey-esque, wtf. And his real hair is not that much shorter than Aaron's, so I don't get WHY he even needs a wig.

· Matt = My favourite R, hands down. He is the picture-perfect image of the R in my head: quiet, sarcastic, and totally R. He's not flamingly gay, he doesn't molest the other barricade boys, but he's so quintessentially Grantaire in his words, voice, expressions, gestures, and body language, that I have to love him. I missed him at the stage door that day, so I saved it for a future show.

· Ann = not awful, but her wig doesn't look very realistic. I didn't particularly like her a lot, but she wasn't awful. The rest of the audience found her funny, so perhaps she's getting into her groove, as others have said she is emphatically dull/unfunny.

· Mandy = Well, she's not as bad as Vera Bolten. But she's pretty close. Holy crap make her stop. First time I have ever refused to applaud a song because it offended my ears so badly.

· Carly = best show she's had in awhile. Her enunciation didn't make me want to spork her tonight.

· Dan = SO ADORABLE AS MARIUS. ♥ I am so glad I got to see him twice that weekend. Adam may fit Hugo's description of Marius better, but Dan somehow fits the costume and the part better onstage. Dan's voice isn't as strong and heavy as Adam's is, but his vowels are a million times better. He may have been having mic problems, as I had trouble hearing him at times, and I was in orch row E center, so it's not like he was very far away. I don't think it was him, he's not usually quiet.

· Lea = Didn't swear at Stephen. Am not sure if it's because she only swears at Dan or if it's because Important People were there. Will see if she does it tomorrow. She also hawked a giant spit stream most of the way across the stage and all over Alex. Payback for him spitting all over her, perhaps? XD

· Brian = having a good show, not overly shouty.

· No comment on Alex or Ali or Gary.

· Ben Crawford = still vocal sex. Holy CRAP do I want to hear his Javert.

· The entire cast came out to wave at the audience after all the curtain calls. I haven't seen that before, not for this production, not even on April 22. Interesting.

· Audience = Very enthusiastic. Got applause for all the usual suspects, and a bunch of unusual places: Who Am I, The Confrontation, Waltz of Treachery, and Drink With Me. I have never, ever, EVER heard applause for Drink With Me. Not at any of the nineteen Broadway revival shows I've seen, not at the two tour shows I've seen, and not on any of the bootlegs I've listened to so far.

#18, 22 April 2007

[originally written 23 April 2007, with some small edits]

Two nights in the Newark Airport Best Western:	$202
Parking in Hoboken:	$17
PATH fares and MetroCard for two	$21
Band-Aids, because I wore brand-new uncomfortable shoes to NYC:	$7.50
Bouquet of flowers:	$6
Aaron Lazar raising the bouquet of flowers like the gun:	priceless

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard.



This is seriously the best picture ever taken. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all.



There's really not much to say about the show, though. I had front row mezzanine, the show was fantastic, and I am going to miss Aaronjolras and Aaron himself so much. Definitely looking forward to the various concerts Aaron'll be in this summer.

Now to see how the new cast members are.

Other photos from the day:
Me, Norm, and Marianne.
Aaron and me.

#15, #16, and #17, 20 and 21 April 2007

[originally written 22 April 2007, with some small edits]

The hotel was skeevy and run by a bunch of Patels. They are all really nice folks, I have to say. The wireless internet was free, just had to get an access code, which was not exactly that difficult to remember, heh. The hotel itself was fine, it was comfortable and the beds were bouncy-- why yes, I did jump on the bed to find out. :D

The hotel did have a shuttle service to Newark-Penn Station, thank gods, although it cost $25 round trip per room. So Marianne and I spent $25 for two days of the hotel shuttling us to Penn Station. On Sunday we decided to drive to Hoboken and take PATH from there, because we went into NYC after check-out and I didn't want to leave my car in the hotel parking lot after I'd technically ceased being their customer. Maybe I'm paranoid, but the last thing I'd need after a potentially emotional day in NYC is to back to find out where my car's been towed to. :p I'd rather have the safety and reliability of the Hoboken parking garage for the $15 that it costs for a Sunday show.

The shuttle took forever, then the driver didn't have the right keys, then Newark traffic was positively horrendous even for a Friday night, so we got to the train station around 7pm. We got into the city and to the Broadhurst with about five minutes to spare before the curtain went down.

Friday night, the show was great. I was up in Row K on house left, and I sat next to an ill Asian lady. Poor woman slept on her husband's shoulder half the show.

At the stage door, oh man, I wish I could post the entirety of this story publicly because... damn, it was great. I had a question for Aaron, see...
Me - Aaron, I've got a question for you.
Aaron - What, was I choking on the tart acid of a lime Starburst that I ate right before the ABC Café throughout the entire scene? Yes.
Me - Haha, no, I want to ask which is your favourite of the little ensemble roles you have throughout the show.
And his response was to tell us a highly amusing albeit possibly untrue story about his pants. Oh, Aaron. ♥ Although I think he did end up telling us that the judge was his favourite of the ensemble roles. Me, my favourite is the butler. XD


I had front row center orchestra for the Saturday matinee, and Row L Seat 14 on the right for the evening show tonight. Met up with Jess and Lulu that day also.


So, notes from Saturday's shows:
-FRONT ROW SEATS ARE THE BEST EVER OH MY GOD. ♥

-Aaron was so totally in the chain gang scene -- he was next to Dan, convict #26004. ♥ XD Yes, it took me until show #16 and my front row seat to catch it. Bite me.

-Train took long enough that we missed Aaron pre-show, but oh well.

-FRONT ROW SEATS. OH MY GOD. AWESOME. ♥

-While waiting for the shuttle service to take us to Penn Station, I noticed the hotel had a vending machine. With Starburst. You bet your ass I got some for Aaron. :D The vending machine had three different kinds, so I got him one of each. I am such a dork. Either way, I'm pretty sure he appreciated the Starbursts, and that was an awfully cute grin either way. ♥

-Aaron was wearing a different hat today. THAT MAN AND HIS HATS. ♥

-My front row seat was awesome. I was in the center on the aisle on house right, A114. Did not get a view of Aaron bent over the table in Red and Black, but during Master of the House, during Jenny's "Master of the house, isn't worth my shit..." spiel, Dan kept making the most hilarious and awesome expressions, and he caught my eye partway through. And then after the show Dan went, "You were close today!" So then I just had to tell him that it was his expressions that sent me off into gales of laughter. I don't usually laugh at that part anymore, 'cause I've seen it how many times now, but Dan's facial expressions just killed me, especially that close. ♥

-We asked JD about the story Aaron told us last night, which went something like this:
Me - Hey, JD, Aaron told us something last night, and we wanted you to corroborate it...
JD - Oh yeah?
Me - In the judges scene, on Friday nights, do you do anything different?
JD - Well, I can't reveal any secrets, though we do many different things...
Me - It's just that Aaron mentioned that you do something special, and I wanted to find out whether he was full of shit.
JD - Hahaha, he's full of shit a lot, and you can tell him I said that.
(You can bet your ass that I did tell Aaron he was full of shit, too. Heeeeeeeee.)
♥

-We went to the Galaxy Diner on 9th Street and...49th? 48th? Around there. It was quite nice, not too expensive, and the food quite good. Adam was there with his wife. We noticed this after at least half and hour of fangirling dorkily and mentioning names of people he might know. Oops. XD He didn't give any sign of having seen us, so... that's a good thing, right?

-Drew wore the shoes again, and I do believe Jess has a picture of them.

-I tried to get a picture with Norm, but he took too long after the matinee and after the evening show he went off with family/friends and didn't even notice us. Blast. So pictures got put off until the Sunday show.

-The evening show was eeexcellent. I mean, it's always really good, but there was some extra spark there. Aaron was even more awesome than usual. ♥ Also, the understudy board wasn't even up. I really liked the number of times in the past week that I've seen completely full cast for this production.

-From Row L on house right you can see the frenchboys getting up off the barricade while Aaron is dangling. This made me giggle so hard I forgot to try to rouse the audience into a round of applause.

-Noticed during the matinee that Drew's newspaper is Le Monde. This made me giggle. Also during the matinee I was able to identify every male cast member in every scene with the exception of Justin Bohon and Doug Kreeger, who I keep getting mixed up. They're shy at the stage door too which isn't exactly a help.

-Ben Crawford still taking after Rob Hunt a lot, running off briskly with his cell phone glued to his ear at the matinee. I did manage to grab him after the evening show for five seconds and tell him how much I loved his voice. Think he's a little shy, actually, because he just ran off really quickly after that. Oh well, maybe once he's seen me at the stage door three or four more times it'll be different.

-Aaron says he will be singing with Marvin Hamlisch at the National Orchestra in July. Which I absolutely will be seeing. Must go. And he only said this because Jess mentioned that tonight was her last time seeing him, and he said, "No, this won't be the last time." and mentioned that. Dude, whatever it is, if Aaron's in it, I'll be there.

-If you haven't quite gotten it by now... I love Aaron so much, he is such a sweetheart. He's getting to be terribly familiar with us, and walked over to us saying, "Man. I need a bed. Badly." ♥ Later while Marianne and I were waiting for the hotel shuttle to pick us up, I was lamenting my lack of a quick wit and thinking that should so have been turned into a pick up line. Except I get the feeling that even if I had been able to come up with one, I would have bitten my tongue. Haha. Aaron totally encourages his fangirls.

Up next: story about the final show before the cast change.

#13 and #14, 14 April 2007

[originally written on 15 April 2007, with some small edits]

Just a few notes, since I was far too tired at the time to write anything terribly detailed.

1) I finally discovered which of the Broadway actors is the butler offering drinks to the Thenardiers in the wedding scene. Took me a few weeks but I got it today. XD I am running out of things to figure out about this revival, heh.
2) There is a florist on 8th and 51st. Score. XD;
3) Dan, bless him, seemed extremely surprised that I went from 1998 to 2006 without having seen LM. "But I thought you followed the tour a long time!" ♥ This was after I'd mentioned that I was all excited to see him on May 6.
4) I am apparently approachable on the street, because some totally random girl stopped me on the corner of 8th and 47th and fangirled about Grey Gardens and Christine Ebersole for like half an hour. WTF.
5) Aaron is such a sweetheart. ♥ And I told him that I was going to be up for all four shows next weekend, and he gave me a high-five. XD And I got two hugs: one after the matinee, and one after the evening. I am going to miss that man so very much.
6) Also, what's-her-face who does the bobble-head drawings recognises me: she said hi to me after the matinee. This would be my fault for actually holding a conversation with her at the stage door after some Saturday matinee a few weeks ago.

#12, 12 April 2007

[originally written 13 April 2007, with some small edits]

- No less than five of the actors touched me. Nearly every male cast member recognises me on sight now, and four of them did that friendly shoulder-tap. Drew, Adam, Dan, and Nehal Joshi all did it. And then of course there's Aaron but he's... special. ;D
- Talked to Dan about wanting to see his Marius, and he said that Adam is taking that whole week off, April 28 through May 6, and that he is going to be on as Marius May 3, 4, 5, and 6. I am so totally going to see him May 5 or 6. Dan actually asked us that night about where we come from and how we get up to NYC. Heee. I ♥ him.
- Talked to Nehal about wanting to see his Enjolras, and he told us that, and I quote, "since Max is more delicate," we might have the opportunity in the future. Oh, I hope so. Lari, I told him that you really loved his Enjolras, and he thought that was terribly sweet. :D I ♥ him.
- Drew, by the way, noticed us standing by the stage door before the show and greeted us before we even saw him. I do not think Drew is ever going to forget us, haha. XD I ♥ him.
- Didn't get to talk to Norm, but that is because he was a bit overwhelmed with fans and may not have seen us. This was okay by me, honestly, because that was about the same time Aaron came by.
- BEN CRAWFORD HOLY GOD ♥. I rather miss Rob, but... Ben is so totally an acceptable replacement. (Shit. After the cast change, I won't be able to just say 'Ben' and have y'all know who I mean. Bah. XD)
- Aaron is the most wonderful man in the world and I love him so and I am seriously going to miss him a lot. ♥ I got two hugs tonight! :D And I fangirled at him again, attempting to be more coherent, y'know. I said that I'd seen him ten times now (yes, that's right. ten.) and he interrupted me to say, "Man, don't even say that this was the best one. I was okay tonight, it definitely wasn't my best one." ...well, okay, that can be debated, but he was definitely better tonight than Saturday, and he was DAMN GOOD tonight. Whoa, dude. And of course that was what I was going to say, and he just said to me, "You're full of shit!" Ahahahaha, I love him. ♥ I actually repeated to him what I posted in his blog back in December, about being really impressed with him, etc. and... he was so sweet about it, saying, "Thanks so much for being such great fans." ♥ There are not enough ♥s on the interweb to express how much I love him.
- Also. Aaron wore the blue wool coat. ♥ And the adorable hat. And that cute scarf. Also, the jeans he was wearing showed off his legs really nicely (even more so than the Enjypants, which you didn't think was possible did you?). Yum. They weren't Those Pants, but... they were nice. XD;;

#10 and #11, 7 April 2007

[originally written on 8 April 2007, with some small edits]

Before I left for NYC that day, I talked to my mom. It is pretty surprising for me to be up and about on a weekend before 11am, so when 9am comes and I'm heading out the door, my mom is all surprised and wants to know where I am going. She is totally disbelieving that I am seeing Les Mis again, and the following exchange takes place:

Mom - But are you seeing a new cast or something that you keep going up to see it?
Me - No, in fact I'm hoping to, er, see the same person a whole bunch of times... you know, Aaron.
Mom - Oh yeah? Who's he play?
Me - Oh, he plays Enjolras. Remember, he's the one I showed you a picture of before?
Mom - No you didn't!
Me - (so I show the picture to her and my sister)
Mom - Oh, yeah, you did show me this. So you're going up to see your boyfriend, then?
Me - Er, no, mom, he's not my boyfriend...
Mom - But he could be!
Me - Mom. He's married.
my sister - 'WHAT'S HIS WIFE'S NAME?!' (Kristina is five years old and in the stage of constantly shouting at the top of her lungs. >__<) Mom - Well, you know, people get divorced. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. XD; Then she tried to say that she was kidding, but still, dude. I wouldn't joke about that, and y'all know how much I love the man. Then I left, and I don't think anything interesting occurred while I was driving up to NYC, other than the fact that I have memorised the directions to and from Hoboken. I'm not sure yet whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. (Remember, Jenn's directionally challenged. So this is actually kind of a big deal.) La de da. Met Marianne and Jess at the stage door. We watched the actors going in. Aaron usually shows up around 1:20 for matinees. XD I noticed this last week, too. It's uncanny, really. He did actually seem genuinely excited to see us (again), exchanged some random chit-chat with us, and then went in. FYI, Saturday he wore the light-tan North Face coat, the cute little hat, and no sunglasses. Ahem. XD; I still like the dark blue wool coat better; like Jess said, it's classier. And people say I don't pay attention to detail. Oh, yes, and speaking of, they have a new stage-door buzzer. Only the obsessed would notice something like that. Dan, Chip, Adam, and a few others said hi to us as they were going in. After Dan went in, some lady came up to us.
Lady - So, are you guys Les Mis groupies or something?
Me - ...Uh, I guess you could call it that.
Jess - Not exactly groupies... that has a different connotation.
Me - We're Les Mis fans.
Lady - That guy who said hi to you, was he one of the actors? The one who played Marius.
Us - ...which guy? XD
Lady - Oh, I guess there were a few, haha. Was one of them the guy who plays Marius?
Marianne - Oh, Adam, he was the one with darker skin and short, curly hair.
Lady - I didn't see him say hi to you. Anyway, see, I want to talk to him because... (and she launched off on this story of how her kid played Marius and now she's completely obsessed with LM and visits fansites and stuff.)
Us - o_O well, you can always wait for him after the show. They'll have barricades set up here and everything.

And then it was time to get in line and go in; she asked us whether we spend full price everytime we go. Heh. Not every time...

So as you may or may not know, I had front row center mezzanine seat for this show. As in A106, right in the middle of the row. You honestly cannot get a better view than this. I love this seat and would get it every time and my bank account be damned. (er, and I do have a few other front row mezzanine seats in the future... la la la... heh.) I sat between two husbands who were dragged to the show along with their family. The guy on my left cheered half-heartedly for Norm at the curtain call and the guy on my right was quiet and cracked jokes about it being the best seat in the house.

There were a few understudies: Marissa McGowan on for Cosette and Nikki Renée Daniels on for Fantine, and a few of the female ensemble roles doubled up on swings. I liked Marissa's Cosette; her high Cs are much stronger than Ali's, although I wasn't as impressed with her acting. She kept wearing this open-mouthed expression of surprise that made her look, well, a little on the dim side. Nikki I like better than Lea (although Haviland I liked still better). Nikki has a really nice voice and has got the part down pretty well.

OKAY. I am going to do something shocking: criticise Aaron. I absolutely adore Aaron's Enjolras, utterly, without question. HOWEVER. During the Dawn of Anguish (the scene right after Bring Him Home), where he's singing, "The people have not stirred / We are abandoned by those who still live in fear / The people have not heard / We will not abandon those who cannot hear..." he makes the "stirred", "fear", "heard", and "hear" almost staccato, and it annoys me a little. I wish he would hold out the notes just a tiny bit longer, it sounds like he's running out of breath or something. He used to do this at other times, but it's most noticeable in this scene, and those lines should be... well, a little more drawn out. I mean they shouldn't be held forever, you know but ... quarter/half note speed rather than staccato. See- just because I adore Aaron doesn't mean I can't be objective about his performance. XD He's not perfect, obviously, but he's pretty much the best Enjolras ever in existence.

We got another round of applause for dangling!Aaron. Score!

Norm gave the BCEFA speech again, and he kept tripping up, and forgot the name of Al Hirschfeld. XD And since they're almost out of those souvenir posters signed by the cast, they upped the price to $100. I'm glad I got one last month, then.

So stage door afterwards, of course. We saw the Mariuslady there, and I pointed out Adam to her when he came out. XD He didn't look too traumatised when he came past us to say hello, so I assumed that she wasn't too crazy. Talked to Chip and Rob afterwards, and Dan came out and snuck past at the same time, so I didn't get to talk to him. Rob's great, and I'm going to miss him. He joined the crowd of actors asking us how many times we've seen the show and whether we're tired of it yet. And I got a picture.

Then, of course, we got to talk to Aaron. This was fun, because I finally asked him the question I've been hoarding since the end of February, once he'd assured me he'd be on for the evening show. It took me this long to both gather up the nerve and, you know, actually see him there (because I was all geared up to ask him Sunday March 18 and then he was off) so, yeah. Haha. By that I mean I asked him about the B-flat in the final battle on "until the earth is FREEEE!" Now, see, I wasn't entirely sure the reason for it not being there, whether it was personal preference or the direction of the production team, although I was leaning towards the latter. I feel I should point out that I had a lot of trouble actually asking the question, because Aaron was standing right in front of me, like inches from my face. How does anyone concentrate on stringing together complete coherent sentences under conditions like that!? But I managed it, and he... actually considered it seriously. The reason Aaron doesn't go to the B-flat is that he didn't even realise it was there. Stupid production team. Jess mentioned that sometimes stage managers don't want it to be done because of vocal strain/injury, etc, and I understand that, but that was exactly why I was asking about it -- I mean, if he'd said, "No, I can't do it because __", fair enough. But I brought it up, it was news to him, and I mentioned that I thought he'd make it sound quite good; and he is seriously considering it, said he'd look into possibly doing that "one of these times." :D! That would make me ridiculously happy. Now, I brought it up after the matinee with a tiny, tiny hope that he'd be able to do it for the evening show. He didn't, which I suppose isn't surprising, but... maybe by his final show. :D And then I get another hug (which I wasn't even expecting this time, wow), and he walked away. I love that man. ♥

Norm and Drew came out after that. Talked to Norm for a few minutes, then Drew. Marianne had wondered whether he's aware of slash, and we tried to prod her into asking him. She didn't manage to ask him after the matinee, though. One of his fans stopped to talk to him, and I happened to look down and... his shoes. WHITE PLATFORM SHOES. Jesus Christ, Drew. XDDD The man is already tall enough, without adding artificial height! I love him, but... honestly, now. We did get to tell him how much we enjoy his performance, because we totally do; he's really entertaining.

Speaking of Drew, one thing I noticed during the matinee is that he's the prison guard on the left during the Prologue. Drew as a serious cop is pretty hilarious. Even funnier than Marianne's proclamation of Nehal the perpetual policeman, since he seems to be a cop in every scene. Most of the boys actually get to be prison guards at one time or another. Adam and Aaron are the cops who carry off Fantine. I love watching for things like this. Also, I noticed Drew in the wedding scene for the first time, and he's wearing glasses, and... yeah, he looks funny like that. (Okay, so he looks funny a lot. I still love him.) Bah, how did I turn into a Drew fan?!

Heh, even after eleven times seeing the revival, I still notice new things each time. And Aaron thinks we're sick of the show . . . Never!

We went to Euro Diner again for dinner, and I think I'm not going to get the egg salad ever again, considering the effect it had on me at the end of the evening show. Ahem. It may have been the jell-o, too, but I had the egg salad last week and had nearly the same trouble, so yeah. It wasn't bad, just didn't really agree so well. We sat and chatted and had jell-o. Hahaha, red jell-o, we are such kids. XD The jell-o reminded me of stories from high school prom, which... oh yeah, so much fun. Only at my senior prom did they play "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" twice and serve green jell-o in plastic wineglasses. For seriously, folks. XD

For the evening show, oh, do I have a great story from that. Marianne and I got seats next to each other again. I should mention that we never buy the tickets ever at the same time, and yet this tends to happen occasionally anyway. We were D15 and D17, which was the partial-view orchestra on the left side, and we got some pretty nice views there. Of Aaron bent over in Act Two, and even some in Act One, and of Drew the drunk, and a few other nifty things.

Before the show, however... Marianne was in the bathroom, and I was gearing up to record. We had understudy night -- Fantine, Eponine, and Cosette; Nikki, Meg McGinnis, and Idara Victor, who is second u/s and it was her first time ever as Cosette. Also, Dan called off, so we saw Stephen Trafton on as Bamatabois and Combeferre. Oh, Dan. Stephen is cute as 'ferre, but ...he wasn't Dan. :( Anyway, the usher comes up and stands in the little space in front of our seats, looks out at the people around me, and says, "Just so you all know, recording is illegal in this theatre. If you get caught you will get in trouble. Okay?" Now, I just thought this was a general reminder, so just nodded. Two minutes later... he comes back and leans over to me, "Was that a recorder?" I replied that no of course it wasn't. "Well, it looked like one. I just wanted to let you know to put it away, and if the security guards catch you they won't be so nice." I replied that I wasn't doing anything, and he just said, "Okay, just put everything away in your pocketbook," and walked away again. Snork. And then a few minutes later he came back again, semi-apologetic at me saying, "Just so you know! I wasn't accusing you or anything like that!" I smiled and laughed at him, like, "oh, no that's no problem, I know you have to do that..." Bahaha, I'm a shitty liar but I apparently convinced him. XD I was paranoid through most of the show that security would come after me and search my bag. I did not get searched, though.

The audience was utter shit during the evening show, and while we tried to applaud dangling!Aaron again, no one joined in. Oh well. I'm not complaining, we got it two Saturday matinees in a row. :D But they didn't applaud Empty Chairs, some doofus in the matinee started applauding after all the frenchboys were dead on the barricade, and... yeah, whatever.

Aaron was the first out at the stage door afterwards. He didn't linger very long, signed a few autographs, took a few pictures, and then took off -- he acknowledged that we were there, but didn't say anything to any of us, other than the "Ciao, babe" and the shoulder-tap he gave me and that I mentioned in the just-got-home entry. Oh, Aaron. ♥ Of course his raging hurry explained why I got the hug after the matinee, but hey. I am so not complaining.

We talked to Rob and Chip again after the evening show, Rob thought it was excellent that we saw both, and ... yeah, I'm totally going to miss him, he's cute. Chip is ridiculously friendly and I heart him too, he told me again to drive home safe. Aww. I wonder who's taking over as Courfeyrac/Foreman.

And we saw Drew again, and we nudged Marianne into asking him The Question. Actually, Jess said, "Drew, Marianne has a question for you... :D" And she gave us the evil eye and tried to make it sound like it was half our idea to ask the question, and asks him, "Drew, do you read fanfiction?" Drew, oh god. Has not heard of fanfiction. "Fan....fiction? What's fanfiction?" With the most adorably bemused expression on his face. Hahahahaa, oh I can't stop laughing at the look on his face. We tried to play it off, saying, "No, you don't want to know, really." And he just said, "Okay! :D" Oh, Drew. We love you.

Norm is amazing. He's just really sweet. I think that was Idara's family standing near us, actually, and he was talking to them. They asked him to come hang out with them, and he looked at us, and said, "Oh, I have to talk to my fans first..." ♥ I definitely have to make sure to get a photo with him before he leaves, too.

And we got to talk to Alex, for like... the first time ever. We've seen him once or twice I think, but never really talk to him, so that was pretty nice. He said to another fan that he was going to be on vacation June 18-25, and I only remember that BECAUSE that's pretty much the same week I'm on vacation... 17-24 I'm in North Carolina. XD So yeah, if you want to see Valjean understudy, go that week.

Jess got fangirled at after that, and we stood there for awhile, and eventually Marianne and I couldn't stand the cold anymore so we went to sit in Starbucks awhile. We didn't do much in Starbucks other than warm up and entertain each other with our filthy imaginations. No, don't ask, it's best that you not know. XD While we were there, this lady came by soliciting donations for some Harlem kids group and gave us some really cute Christian literature. I still have it in my purse, it was a little coloring page, might give it to my sister. It preached on about Jesus' love, and it was such a nice change from the fundie blather that spews on about Hell and death. I gave her all the spare change in my pockets except for $1.50 for the PATH train, because I'm tired of losing change out of that pocket. XD There's still a bunch of it on the driver's seat anyway.

We left Starbucks at 12:45, when they started to call for closing, and Marianne went off to the bus station and I walked off to the PATH station. Way home was pretty much uneventful; I get to walk past some pretty happening clubs in Hoboken between the train station and the parking garage, and one smelled so strongly of alcohol that it just reeked onto the street. Most likely someone spilled beer all over the street, but... daaaamn. Drive home was uneventful save for two things: one, I finally stopped and got photographic evidence of the town named after Stephen Tewksbury:

And two, it started snowing as I got off of I-78 onto 222. WHAT THE SHIT. Snow in fucking April.

I got home at 4am, posted that entry, and laid around until quarter of five when I finally fell asleep. Man, I love going to NYC for Les Mis, and yes, it is totally possible to have too much fun, because I was so wiped out the next day I could barely function. XD

Photos from the day:
Me and Rob Hunt.
Tewksbury, NJ.