14 June 2007

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

11 June 2007

#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.

07 June 2007

#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.

06 June 2007

#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.

#8 and #9, 31 March 2007

[originally written 04 April 2007, with a few small edits]

Oh, New York. What to say, what to say. I love the city so much. I love walking the streets around Broadway. So busy, so full of everything, Starbuckses and McDonald's and theatre everywhere.

As you may know already from reading the story of the last NYC trip, I got there extremely late for the matinee of the 24th, due to congested roads at the interchange onto 78 and the goddamn PATH track maintenance. While the latter was not the case today, I did not want to take any chances. Also I had Things To Do beforehand.

So I set my alarm for 6:20 am. Aargh. I hit the snooze button for an hour and a half, got up a bit before 8, took a shower, made sure I had everything, and then left about 8:30am. I was seriously paranoid that by the time I got to the Cloisters for my oil change, there'd be a line and I'd be there forever. Not so. I was so impressed with my whole experience there that I have decided to never get an oil change anywhere else so long as I'm still living in the area. I rolled in around 8:50, 8:55. I was one of the only ones there. This place is the coolest place ever. They do lube work on your car, and they also do extensive detail work. You can get your car washed, waxed, vacuumed, the works, while you watch. They gave me a free car wash just for getting my oil changed, and I may take advantage of it at a later time. :D Anyway, as I said, I rolled in just a bit before nine. They took my info and my key, sent me off with a pager and let me know that they will page me to the review room once, and then the second time the pager goes off, I'm done and can go pay and leave. I got in, the manager greeted me and said there was free coffee and soda available -- ! -- and so I wandered around. I was barely in the place for ten minutes total. My pager went off much sooner than I was expecting, and I talked to my mechanic. In about FIVE minutes, and I'm seriously not joking here, they had changed my oil, checked my fluids, checked my air filter and said it was okay, topped off my windshield wiper fluid, and found that the ... wait, what the hell was it called? PVC cap? valve? something like that. *is completely useless when it comes to car parts* ... that thing needed replacing, and so they replaced that thing for me while they were at it. About five minutes later they parked my car and I was paged again and by 9:15 I was off to McDonald's for breakfast. I bought a New Jersey map while I was there, and then realised that my PA map's gone missing. Actually I think it's in the trunk of my car, but... so are a thousand other things. XD

The rest of the way into NYC was uneventful. I realised halfway down 222 that I was going to get to NYC pretty damn early, so I didn't really speed, and went a more leisurely 70-75 rather than the more usual 80 or so. One thing I suppose I should mention is the fact that halfway down 78 in North Jersey is a town called Tewksbury. I actually noticed this weeks ago, but kept forgetting about it. It makes me giggle. One day I will stop and pull off the road and take a picture of that sign, but I always forget about it until I'm going right past it. I got into NYC at about 12:40, which was nice. I got to take a nice leisurely walk down to the Broadhurst.

I got to the theatre a little bit before one o'clock. I picked up my tickets, talked to this guy who seemed really out of place there, he said he'd seen LM a bunch of times (unspecified number) while it was at the Imperial and Phantom ten times. He tried to tell me about the show as if I were a newbie, and I just said to him, "Dude, I've seen this revival... nine times today." and he backed off and I walked out of the box office and stood by the stagedoor awhile. I greeted some of the actors going in. Aaron and Adam showed up practically together, both wearing dark coats and sunglasses. ♥ I wish I'd had a picture of that, so adorable. Aaron wore a dark blue wool coat that day, different from the light tan one he normally wears. :D AND THOSE SUNGLASSES WERE HOT. Ahem.

Right ho. Marianne's bus was a bit on the late side, but she definitely still got there in time. And Jess got there right about the same time. Funnily enough, Jess and I had tickets right next to each other, the partial-view orchestra seats on house right. I, personally, love that seat. Holy crap the view. And Marianne had Mezzanine Row K on house left.

The understudy board said that Stephen Trafton was taking over for Drew. Drew wasn't on for either show, so we assumed he's out sick. Celia was also out and Meg McGinnis took over for both shows. However. Whoever was stuffing the playbills either wasn't informed correctly or else ran out of the proper u/s slips -- because both Jess's and my playbills had the insert that said Matt Clemens was on for Drew. We both wanted to see Matt instead -- I saw Matt the first time I saw Drewjolras and absolutely loved him -- but alas. It isn't that I don't like Stephen Trafton, but... he's not Matt (or Drew, come to that. heh). I spent most of the first half of the first act keeping a sharp lookout for Aaron, because really. It was either that or watch Alex spit everywhere. LOL holy crap Jess and I laughed and laughed over that. Jesus, it looked like a spray-nozzle bottle you use to water the flowers!

I really heart Dan as Bamatabois, by the way. Yesterday we got an extra treat, though. Lea really throws herself into this role, and I do like that a lot. She was so emotionally invested that when Bambi's telling Javert, "...when this prostitute attacked me!" she says, "fuck you!" to him. It wasn't actually very loud, and I'm not sure how universally audible it really was. But we heard it. XD

Of all of Aaron's tiny ensemble parts in Act One, the judge in Who Am I has to be the best. And not just because he's most visible, but because he's so damn adorable.

One thing I really would love to see a production do is have Javert walk onstage while Fantine is singing, "and tell Cosette I love her and I'll see her when I wake!" It would be more canon, and it's such a tiny thing really. Because honestly, Javert kills Fantine. That's how Victor Hugo wrote it. She didn't die peacefully in Madeleine's arms. She died of the shock of seeing Javert walk in the door. But eh.

Carly Rose Sonenclar is the worst little Cosette ever. Her enunciation is the most godawful thing I have ever heard in my entire life. Who told her it was okay to sing like that?! Her consonants are slurred and her vowels are overdone and terrible and her pitch isn't the best.

So, moving on to the fun part of the show. :D It always gives me a little thrill to see Aaron walking across the bridge in Look Down, and another thrill when he sings, "until the barricades arise!" because ...yes. So much yes. And the cafe scene is just oodles of fun. The way the barricade boys all interact with each other in that scene makes me haaappy. And... guh. Seriously, do yourself a favour, and when you go to NYC to see Les Mis, get a side orchestra seat, on house right, as close to the front of the stage as possible. My favourite seat is Orchestra Right, Row C Seat 14. If you search Telecharge you'll find that it often comes up. It's listed as partial view and thus is only $66.25 as opposed to the usual $111.25. However. One view that is definitely not limited is Aaron. Bending over the table. During the cafe scene. Damn, but those pants are well-tailored.

And moving on to the second act... oh, second act was fun. Aaron was awfully cuddly with Stephen during Drink With Me. So cute. We got a nice view of Aaron bent over the barricade, though not as nice as from the left side of the house (shall delve into that later). And ... we got a round of applause going for dangling!Aaron. HOORAY. It wasn't the whole audience, granted, but it was audible and not just us and ... eeeeexcellent. Definitely going to have to try that again. :D Third time's the charm, I suppose.

Norm gave the BCEFA speech. Still doing BCEFA, I guess, though apparently just not doing the speeches on Saturday nights.

Stage door was fun afterwards. Most of the actors were in a hurry to rush off, but it's getting more and more fun to have the actors recognise me after the show. The list is growing, haha. Found out that Rob's last weekend is this weekend coming up, which is sad as I wanted to see his Javert, and I don't think he had gone on at all. Maybe once, but not while I was there, of course. Aaron came out in that lovely dark blue wool coat but sans his sunglasses and hat. After Jess fangirled at him for a bit, I asked him if he was going to be on that night, and he said yes, and asked me if I was going to be there too, and I said yes, so he said, "Yeah! Great!" all excited, like. I love that man. ♥ And Norm, while not the best Javert ever, is totally a great guy, real nice to talk to.

So then dinner, at the Euro Diner again. It's cheap and diner-y and the staff are great. I like that place. XD The food isn't outstanding but then again, it's a diner: it's cheap and edible and they don't give us funny looks for staying there after we've eaten and paid. There's little posters on the walls, including one from Broadway signed by the cast, and based upon the signatures I managed to date it for 2002-2003. J Mark McVey, Catherine Brunell, Christopher Mark Petersen, Rob Varela, etc. Don't think it was the final cast, but probably pretty close. That's... sort of sad, I think. XD

And then to hang out at the stagedoor afterwards, where I managed to miss Aaron going in. I like watching the actors come up to the stage door, so I must learn to keep getting to NYC early. Haha. Will try to leave at 9:30 again on Saturday, for sure.

As for the evening show I don't have much to report. My ticket was for Row L, on house right, and I sat next to this pretty brown-haired boy who looked early twenties, probably not much older than me. He looked like a high-school/college jock, kinda. Except he was a fanboy. Oh yes. He asked me if I saw the show, and I said that show was my ninth, and he was like, "Oh, I'm jealous! This is my first time ever seeing the show, although I've heard all the recordings... Do you know if the Javert is any good?" JAVERT FANBOY. I DIE. So I told him, yes, that I wasn't the biggest fan of Norm's acting but his voice is pretty strong. XD

At intermission, Marianne came to me and said, 'COME WITH ME. SPARE BOX SEAT! :D' So I got to move for Act Two. Holy crap it's a nice view from there. I definitely want that seat again. We didn't try to repeat the applause for dangling!Aaron, though, because the audience was rather reserved. Saturday night audiences aren't usually enthusiastic -- little applause, no hooting and whistling. This is probably because most of the 'upscale' people do Saturday nights. Heh.

After the show, the stage door wasn't too crowded. There were a lot of Lea fans, though. (Right, like there hasn't been every show since the beginning of March...) Chatted with Chip a bit, he asked me whether we stay overnight or just drive, and was nice enough to wish me a safe drive home. (Saying "I drove to Hoboken and took the train in" seems to elicit concern, I wonder why...) And Dan has started to crack jokes about our presence... we talked to him a few minutes and then before he left he said, "Well... see you tomorrow, I guess!" I ♥ him. Rob said hi to us too, for the first time in pretty much forever he didn't have his cell phone glued to his ear.

When Aaron came out there was a giant cheer. Not that I'm surprised, haha. I always love standing back away from the metal barricades to watch the Aaron fans. Adam came out not long afterwards, and there was a point when they were standing right next to each other. I tried to get a picture of Aaron and Adam standing in the same shot, but Adam doesn't really stand still too much, so it didn't work out very well. I did get a very, very nice shot of Aaron in the blue coat. It came out rather dark, so I retouched it a tiny bit, but the effect is still there. Coat! ♥

Aaron chatted with us a bit, and I fangirled at him, which (believe it or not) I haven't actually done before, and tried to tell him how awesome he is and how I just love him more each time I see him. His response to the latter? "Bullshit!" Aaron! Not bullshit! XD And then Marianne asked him what's coming next. He told us that his next plans are "a big concert in Israel, and then something in LA." Vague, and interesting. Basically this means that after April 22 it might be quite a long time before I have any chance to see Aaron in anything. Though you Southern Californians will. Depending on what the "something in LA" is, I foresee a trip out west in my future . . . Anyway, he asked us which was better, matinee or evening, and I told him evening by a small bit. Haha, it was hard to choose. Going by the whole show experience, the matinee was a lot more fun, but stripping away the audience, the evening show had a better performance, so I went with that. Honestly, Aaron, hard to choose! Another Aaronhug, and he went on his way. ♥

We said hi to Norm again, talked with him a bit, managed to mention to him that I'm looking forward to seeing him in Little Mermaid. By this time Lea had left and so had all her fangirls, so the crowd was significantly thinned. Poor Alex, he doesn't ever come out very quickly so there aren't many fans awaiting him.

We went off to Starbucks after that. I was really out of it, haha.

I think I managed to leave NYC by 12:45, train ride wasn't too bad. The really fun part was the garage. The garage had a bit of a problem. It only has two pre-pay machines, and one wasn't working properly. Mine told me to pay $30, which was understandable, though it's usually been $25, except the Sunday matinee when I only had to pay $15. And then I got up to my car, almost forgot where I was parked, and when I tried to leave? There was a fucking traffic jam in the parking garage. God only knows what happened, but... it was exacerbated by the parking ticket validation machines. See, the way the garage works is, you pay for your ticket at the machine, and then you have to exit in fifteen minutes otherwise your ticket expires. The traffic jam caused me to be stuck in the garage about forty minutes, which only made the jam continue, because the attendants had to manually re-verify all our tickets and force the gates open. But then the rest of the drive home was a breeze. That reminds me, I should check my EZ-Pass balance, so I don't go over. I put $50 on a while back, and I might be coming down to the end of that.

And that was New York.

Photos from the day:
Aaron in the blue coat.

#6 and #7, 24 March 2007

[originally written on 26 March 2007, with a few small edits]

Two tickets to see Les Mis March 24: $186.50
11 hours parked in Hoboken: $25
Two PATH One-Way tickets: $3
One full tank of gas: $18.50
Aaron Lazar remembering my hug: priceless

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

I left a little bit after ten. Had this been a normal commute to NYC, I should have gotten to the theatre with about half an hour to spare. But not this time. Now, I have to mention that I'm not a very patient driver, especially with time constraints on my commute. So when traffic is going less than the speed I want to be driving at, I tend to yell and shout and scream. 222 up near the exchange onto 78 was ridiculously congested for mid-morning on Saturday, so I had about a ten-fifteen minute delay from there. 78 itself was uneventful, except for the bastard who tailgated me while I was doing 85. He later zoomed off at well over 90mph, and about five minutes later I saw him pulled over the side of the road with a cop. :D Ain't karma a bitch? So then when I was getting close I noticed my phone was getting calls, and while I picked up to answer it I accidentally took the wrong Rt 1-9. Here I'm going to stop -- for those of you who are unfamiliar with driving in North Jersey, I should explain this. North Jersey around NYC is basically 75% ridiculously complex highways, tunnels, bridges, and overpasses. In order to get to Hoboken from points west, one must take 78 Express, then take the exit 58B from that onto Rt 1-9 North. Rt 1-9 North splits off into the Express and Truck routes right before Jersey City and the bridges. They will both take you to the same place, but the Truck 1-9 N is about ten-fifteen minutes out of the way. I, as you may have guessed, took the Truck 1-9 North. Seriously, North Jersey roads are the spawn of Satan. So then I got into Hoboken and parked a little bit after 1pm. I was slightly miffed as I'd really wanted to be in NYC at that time, but figuring that if I rushed and got onto the train right away, it wouldn't be a big deal; I should've just gotten there right before the show, with enough time to get in and get settled in my seat and turn the audio recorder on before the lights dimmed. Except the Fates weren't done jerking me around. When I got down to the PATH train station, there was a train waiting there so packed full of people that I wasn't sure I could get on it, so I decided to wait for the next train. It was just departing, either way. PATH normally operates every 6-10 minutes in the afternoon, so I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Except I was wrong and I kicked myself for the next few hours for not sucking it up and packing onto that train. Because PATH decided that March 24 and 25 were good days to do rail maintenance, so the Hoboken<->33rd Street line was partially closed down, and running every twenty minutes instead, and doing a transfer at 9th Street. "Every twenty minutes" really equates to "every thirty minutes", because it needs a minute or two to dump off the departing passengers, and then it sits there for about five minutes or so while the incoming passengers get on. So, I missed the train that left at about 1:10, and got on the train that left about 1:30. The train ride from Hoboken to 33rd Street is about twenty minutes I got onto 33rd Street at 1:52. The walk from 33rd Street up to the Broadhurst Theatre on 44th street is about a ten minute walk if the crosswalks are good to you and there isn't much foot traffic and you run a bit. It took me fifteen minutes due to the massive crowds of people and the crosswalks not being particularly nice. I ran up to the theatre about 2:07, got my ticket, missed all of the Prologue, but was seated afterwards and the people I sat between weren't too annoyed by me disturbing them.

Laaa. Right after I got off the train I called Marianne to see what the understudy board was like and to let her know I was very late. The conversation went something like this,
Jenn: GAH DAMN PATH TRAIN I AM NOT HAPPY.
Marianne: Well, you're about to be even more unhappy...
Jenn: oh god NO. Please tell me it's not Drew.
Marianne: Yeah, it's Drew. And Megan for Celia.
Jenn: *faceplant*
I seriously almost turned around and went back home, but decided that since I was there in New York City already and went through THAT MUCH TROUBLE just to get there in the first place, I decided to run down Broadway and get there and see it anyway.

As for the understudies... Drew was slightly better than he was last week, but only vocally, as his acting is still atrocious. He's like, CAPSLOCK ENJOLRAS!111! Which is so, so, so wrong. He bounces with glee when little Gavroche brings the news that Lamarque is dead, and he screams and shouts through most of the barricade scenes. He's extremely impatient with Marius during his love-impassioned spiel during Red and Black to the point I wanted to smack him and tell him to sit down. He isn't a terribly good singer, he doesn't have much breath support, his vowels are almost painful to listen to, and he doesn't hit all his notes cleanly. He did do fairly well on "they will come when we call!" but his final battle, "until the earth is free!" was awful. THAT LINE IS NOT MEANT TO BE GROWLED, DREW. His American accent is still overdone, and he opens his mouth way too wide, he's way too hyperactive, and he moves his hands and arms and legs way too much. He's still a good dangling Enjolras, though: in fact as soon as he shut his mouth during the final battle, his performance improved about tenfold: waving the flag, fending off the National Guardsmen on the opposite side of the barricade, and dangling -- all of which he did quite well. Marianne later compared him to Simon Bailey. XD And Megan... Marianne didn't like her that much, but I don't like Celia that much, either. Megan's voice is better than Celia's, but Celia's a much better actress. *shrugs* I'm not an Eponine fan by any stretch, so it takes an extraordinary Eponine to get me to say more than a few words on the subject. Stephen Trafton was on as Grantaire, and I liked him well enough. I still liked Matt Clemens' R better, but Stephen was good. He wasn't nearly as entertaining as the drunk in Master of the House as Drew is, but he was pretty good about assaulting Marius during Red and Black. New Gavroche, replacing Jacob Levine is Zach Rand. I liked Zach, but then I liked Jacob too.

Also the guy I was sitting next to, he was an older gentleman, he reminded me a lot of Jerry Orbach actually. He didn't give me much personal space and kept using my leg as an armrest. :P

The matinee BCEFA speech, Lea gave it this time. Drew was one of the bucket-holders in the lobby, and I decided, on spur of the moment, to go up to him. This was actually sort of funny, in retrospect, and went something like this:
Jenn: DREW! *lays a hand on his shoulder*
Drew: ...Yeees?
Jenn: Are you going to be on as Enjolras tonight, too?!
Drew: No, sorry. I'm not.
Jenn: ....aaaw, darn. Thanks, though!
It's hard to appropriately convey the bubbly excitement via lj, but oh man. He was nice about it, though. So I ran out and told Marianne, and we decided that it would be a great idea to just hang out until the evening show.

Cast members are recognising us now. Ali says hi to us when she walks by; I think Adam recognises us even if he doesn't say anything; Dan was a bit excited when we said hi to him; and I have a feeling Drew remembers us now. XD This is not to mention Aaron but that's a story from the evening show, so that can wait until later. :D As for me, I'm getting better at recognising which people exiting the stage door are cast members, and who they actually are.

When Drew came back out the stage door, one girl asked me to take a picture of her with him, and Marianne quickly said, "Sure, but only if we get a picture next!" So we did, even if it is... not the most flattering picture of either of us. And he said to us that he would be "back on as the drunk" for the evening show, and Marianne made an aside, "Hahaha, yesss. Back as the slashy drunk," which we presume he heard. XD

After that, we decided enough with the stage door, since after Drew came out, we didn't think anyone interesting was left. So we went back into the theatre to buy tickets for the evening show. They gave us back orchestra on the left side, next to each other. Marianne found she'd left her wallet in the theatre, so we went through the stage door and backstage into the theatre to get it. I was tempted to take a left upstairs into the dressing rooms on our way back out, but restrained myself. ;) (Maybe next time.....)

So after that we went into this theatre/hotel near 8th Street so we could pee, and then to an ATM so Marianne could get money, and then we wandered around looking for a place to eat that was not McDonald's, pizza, burgers only, or Thai. We found this cute little diner, Euro Diner I think it was called, and I honestly wouldn't mind going back there, the food was cheap and it was a pleasant, relaxed, casual atmosphere. After eating we wandered around. Up and down 8th, and Broadway, and 7th. It must have been fundie day on Saturday, and we picked up some fundie brochures. One asked us if God loves us, another told us to avoid the 666. Highly amusing. I still have them. XD Also, we went into this porn store and giggled at the French and German porn DVDs for about ten minutes, and got weird looks from all the guys in the store. XD And then it was back to the Broadhurst for the evening show.

There were no understudies other than the fact that Stephen Trafton took over for Doug Kreeger. The seats we had for the evening show were orchestra, far left, Row O. We were basically on the far left aisle. It was an interesting view. I actually saw most of it; Marianne had a slightly obstructed view due to the people in front of us. Some things that were all the way in the back of stage right weren't visible to us, but most things that occurred on that side of the stage -- notably, Drew as the drunk in Master of the House -- were very, very visible. I tried to remember interesting things that occurred during the show, but the fact is I spent as much of it as possible squeeing over Aaron. (Damn, he's adorable in that judge's costume. ♥) Although... oh, Drew. He does some pretty wild things during Master of the House -- landing in people's laps, staggering all over the place, getting into brawls, but this time he completely outdid himself and grabbed Chip across the table for a full-on snog. At that point we just died, and were pretty sure that Drew heard the slashy remark and took it to heart. And moving on to Look Down, I have to say it was such an immense relief to see Aaron walking onto the bridge alongside Adam. (He's much nicer to look at than Drew is, at the very least.) Aaron is just better than Drew in every single way: Aaron is a better actor by far, a better singer by far, better looking by far -- and he wears the pants and the vest so much better.

I feel I have to note: Aaron sounded a little different on Saturday night than he usually does. Vocally, he's still excellent and capable of producing aurgasms, so don't think I'm challenging that. But he sounded different, a little more gruff at times, or like he needed to clear his throat. It's just something I noticed, not that I'm complaining in any way mind you because I think he was having a great night. Just a little different. I absolutely adore the way he changes his phrases and gestures subtly every single time. I absolutely adore how differently he and Drew interact every single time -- for example, during Drink With Me on Saturday night, Aaron just shoved the bottle back at the frenchboy who offered it to him, and went to cuddle and whisper with Drew for a few seconds before climbing back onto the barricade. Awww.

We were also 90% certain that Drew kissed Adam full on the lips while he's molesting him during Red and Black. Neither of us got a particularly clear view, but from what I saw and from what I know of Drew, it was probably the case. I saw Adam's O_o face afterwards, though. XD Drew plays off of all the other barricade boys really well, and they seem to enjoy or at least humour him when he's being slashy, so it's definitely really fun to watch. I don't have any problems with Drew whatsoever as long as he's not Enjolras. Really. Drew's really nice in person, and his R is excellent -- but as Enjolras? Argh. XD

The show was pretty damn good on Saturday night -- Marianne and I had wanted to applaud dangling!Aaron, but didn't manage it. The crowd may have been receptive to it, but... eh. Definitely going to do it on his final show, and perhaps one of the weekends in between. Because I am almost definitely going up every weekend until the 24th. Planning on next Saturday matinee again (in case of Drew doing another Saturday matinee, I can then stay and do evening for Aaron in the evening. Yay, backup plans. :D).

There was a pretty sizeable crowd at the stage door. Said hi briefly to Drew, and Dan greeted me warmly and wished me good night before running across the street. :D We said hi to some other cast members, there was a huge crowd for Lea, as usual. I elected to stand far down from the barricades to a) avoid the Lea crowd and to b) give Aaron's other fangirls a chance before appropriating him for a small chat. XD

Aaron came out near the end, and he definitely does have a lot of fangirls. He got a bunch of pictures, and almost left with his family/friends before talking to us. But then he noticed us and went, 'Oh, I'm sorry ladies, I didn't see you there.' And then he says, "So, wait. How many times have you seen the show, anyway?!" We both stammered out some answers. Me, I temporarily forgot how to count -- Aaron does that to me. Haha; when he's standing a foot away most of my higher brain function just ... disappears -- so I just said "...not enough! :D" And Marianne said, "Oh, we were here for the matinee, too -- but went, 'But where's Aaron and Celia?!' so we saw tonight's show too!" And then he says to me, "And I give you a hug every time, don't I?" AND JUST GAVE ME A HUG. I wasn't going to bring it up this time, since he seemed to be in a rush to be with his friends/family, but HE HUGGED ME. :D He's very sweet, really, and I told him so. :D He's terribly nice and quite huggable, I do assure you all. :D So we waved goodbye, he said goodnight and I said, "See you next weekend!"

And I just flailed for awhile after that. I'm still flaily. Just. Eeeee. :D

So then it was time to leave, sadly. Fortunately the train was not nearly as packed as it was this afternoon, since I got a seat. I only had to wait about five minutes for a train, got a seat, and did the transfer at 9th Street. At 9th Street I got onto another train for Hoboken -- the car number I was sitting in? 666. Oh, I snerked. It must have been the fundies; I sat on 666 for about ten whole minutes, rather than avoiding it!

Driving home wasn't a big deal. I finally followed the right route home, however the correct way home does involve the New Jersey Turnpike, so thank Zeus for my EZ Pass. I left the Hoboken parking garage at 12:35 and got home... about 3am. I would have gotten home about 30 or 45 minutes sooner, but not long after I got back into PA, I hit a lot of patchy and very dense fog. So dense I could hardly see where the lines were right in front of my car. Not a good time to be going above 45 mph, I can assure you. Stopped for gas at the Wawa in Wescosville -- only stopped there because I had to pee and didn't want to wait another half hour until I got to the Sheetz in Moselem Springs. The Wawa pissed me off. It was selling gas at 2.61 unless you prepaid in cash, which would get you the price of 2.55. Evil bastards! I have never seen that done before. I should've waited until I got to Sheetz, because its gas was 2.55 without any stupid gimmicks.

ASo that, my friends, was March 24th's NYC trip. Aye, I'd say it was the best one so far :D (despite Drewjolras. Ahem.)

Photos from the day:
Me, Drew Sarich, and Marianne.

#5, 18 March 2007

[originally written on 18 March 2007, with a few small edits]

The good news is, I had front row mezzanine, on the aisle, which is pretty much the best place in the theatre to sit and be able to see the whole show. The bad news is, Aaron called out. Drewjolras is something I never want to inflict on myself see again. >_<

Photos from the day:
Me and Dan Bogart.

#3 and #4, 24 February 2007

[originally written on 26 February 2007, with a few small edits]

I doubt this is going to be as long and as interesting as the last one, but hey.

So I was an idiot and left about a half hour late. It wasn't too bad, but it did mean I was rushing down the streets of NYC to make the show before it started. Luckily I did, and it wasn't too bad. The seats were nice -- right mezzanine, fourth row back and four seats off the aisle, and I pretty much saw everything.

The matinee show was nice, no understudies -- Nikki was listed as the principal Fantine until Lea starts -- and the cast was great, as usual. Alex cracked a little during an early note in Bring Him Home, but it was minor and forgivable, and he was less... cranky as Valjean than he was the first time I saw him. XD I particularly loved the interaction between Aaron and Drew during the matinee show. Drew was his hilariously slashy self, as usual, and during Drink With Me Aaron slams down that bottle and glares at him, then leans down to 'whisper something in his ear'. I giggled. XD

La la, so we went to the stage door afterwards, Marianne and I, and... holy shit. There was a throng. Seriously, a throng, people crowding around all the actors trying to get autographs. Marianne and I were smashed in almost past the point of going anywhere, and when Aaron came out, poor guy, he looked so bemused by all the people crowding around. We didn't get pictures this time around, but in the five seconds that we did get to talk to him after the matinee he indicated that he's feeling better after his injury, so definitely some good news in that quarter. :D We found out not long afterwards that the thronging crowd was due to a school field trip as well as a general group. Lotta people, yo.

Next up was dinner, we found this little Thai place called Pongsri and sat and chatted and fangirled over dinner. I ... tried some calamari dish, and really disliked the way they prepared it. Blah. I love calamari, I really do, but I couldn't stand this stuff that they made. I'm totally against spicy food, it makes my palate cry out in pain and horror, so I avoid spicy things like the plague, hence why I almost never eat Mexican food. Turns out that Thai food is pretty spicy too, and so I don't know. I didn't recognise a lot of the stuff on the menu, and most of what I did recognise was either spicy or vegetables, neither of which I eat. Next time I go to a Thai place, I'll try one of the duck dishes. I like duck. :D But I don't foresee Thai anytime soon, we don't have anything more exotic than Chinese around here. XD

So after dinner we wandered the streets awhile. We went into this little souvenir store, cornily named The Phantom of New York. The place was full of cheesy, clichéd New York City souvenirs, and a lot of heavily-male oriented posters. But the most hilarious thing in there was a pen holder, which was basically a guy on his hands and knees, arse in the air and drawers around his ankles, and if you pushed the pen into his buttcrack, he would... shout things. ...I just have no words. XDDD The store also had massively oversized pens, and I've always wanted one, but not nearly enough to pay $7.99 + 8% sales tax to have one.

And then it was time for the evening show. This is where I had my partial-view orchestra seats. They were indeed limited, couldn't see the back right of the stage, but.... uh. Some views weren't exactly limited. :D The lady who came in and sat next to me bitched about how horrible the seats were. And the girl who was in the seat in front of me told me about how she saw the 'old' Broadway production four times, and then mentioned that she lived in Bethlehem. Which is like an hour from where I live, nifty. So, the show. Haviland Stillwell understudied for Fantine, and I really liked her. Her voice sounded a bit modern for the role, but she has a nice voice and I wouldn't mind seeing her again. Definitely better than Daphne, but that doesn't say much as pretty much anyone is better than Daphne. In fact I liked Haviland better than I liked Nikki, so. *shrugs* Take that as you will.

As I said some things weren't quite limited view. Don't care if I come across as obsessed fangirl, but... damn. So these barricade boys are pretty damn affectionate, and this is rarely more apparent than in the ABC Café scene. This is mostly Drew's fault, but all the boys are touchy-feely with each other to some extent. Aaron bends over the table at one point, and uh... my brain pretty much short-circuited. Those pants are tight, and damn but he looks good in them. Like, whoa. o__o; And then there's Drew, who while singing "Give me brandy on my breath, and I'll breathe them all to death!" pulls Robert Hunt so close their lips are practically touching. And then there's Aaron and Adam. Aaron grabs Adam's head as they segue out of Red and Black and into Do You Hear the People Sing? and I swear they look like they're about to share some quality kissing time together. XD Of course there's other times, for example when Aaron and Drew hug during One Day More (just before the "One more day before the storm..." bit), which definitely was not there last time we went. And there's Drink With me, which Aaron changes subtly every time. Like in the matinee he didn't chug from the bottle but in the evening he did, but both times he gave Drew a Look. During the evening show I could see this pretty well -- Aaron bent down close enough so their heads were practically leaning together. And then there's Drew grabbing Bossuet(Nehal Joshi) and "demonstrating" the "screwing that they'll never forget". And the very close hug Aaron and Adam share after Eponine kicks the bucket, and... yeah, I could go on. XDD Oh, boys. ♥ (And Aaron still bends suggestively over the barricade.)

There was quite an amusing flub during the evening show: the gate broke. XD The two ends got shoved together so the gate doors kept flapping around, and all the actors kept trying to push it shut. Ahahaha. See, in days of yore Marius would trip over the gate; now he just breaks it. (Nah, it wasn't Adam's fault, it just didn't click right on stage or summat.)

During intermission the folks behind me bitched up a storm about how much the cast sucked and the show was shit and how Cats was better. Fucking hell, kids; go see Wicked or something if you hate LM that much. Or Spamalot, or Phantom, or the Producers -- hell all three of the shows were practically next door to LM, so it hardly would've been out of your way. :P

Marianne and I attempted, since the crowd seemed to be really enjoying the show, to get a round of applause for dangling!Aaron. It did not work, sadly. Apparently we need to get some more people to join in and help us. XD Look, dude. If people are going to applaud when Fantine and Gavroche and Javert snuff it, dammit, Enjolras hanging majestically upside down on the barricade deserves some plaudits too. They applauded for scenes that usually don't get them -- for example, after the Madame Thenardier and Cosette inn scene.

The stage door was much less crowded after the evening show. The police didn't bother to set up any barricades this time, which was nice. Marianne stopped Dan Bogart and we did have a nice short chat with him. We had a nice talk with Norm, as well: we asked him flat out about the whole rumour about him leaving, and he was awfully evasive. Wouldn't give any straight answers, so I'm going to assume no one's made any official decision on whether he or anyone else is going to be leaving in April. So I'm just going to continue treating it as a rumour until it's officially announced. Because of what Norm said (or rather, didn't say...) on the subject, I didn't ask Aaron about it. I may do that next time I go, though.

Aaron, actually, was one of the last people to leave the stage door; Adam mentioned that he had guests backstage so I was definitely prepared to wait. It was actually really nice, by the time he did come out all but a half dozen of the fans had dispersed, so Marianne and I patiently waited so we could talk to him afterwards. We had a nice little chat, and we got him to sign our souvenir programmes. Unfortunately all I had was a black ballpoint pen, no silver sharpie, so he ended up signing his arm. XD That's okay, it's nice that way, it doesn't overpower the page (like Jacob Levine's signature does on the front of it). Since we were the only fans left, he ended up talking to us for a few minutes, telling us that the injury was in fact a herniated disc in his back, but confirmed what he said after the matinee, that it's improved a lot by now. In any case, he was terribly sweet and wished us safe journey home ("especially drive safe," he said to me after I mentioned that I was parked in Hoboken) and I got another hug. :D I ♥ Aaron a lot, for seriously.

So then the fun part. Um. The only trouble I had in actually getting back to Hoboken was finding the entrance to the 33rd Street PATH station. It's actually across 6th Avenue on the corner of 32nd, because after 11pm the Mall of Manhattan entrance (which I came out of) closes. But I didn't have any trouble getting on the train itself, and then after I got into Hoboken had no troubles finding my garage. It was $25 for the day, which wasn't too bad considering I got to park myself there and everything. And I had no troubles leaving the garage and finding the correct route out of Hoboken towards I-78. The problem was in fact finding I-78. I followed my directions as well as all the road signs and ended up on I-80 anyway. I determined after I got home that I probably should have driven towards I-95/the NJ Turnpike to find I-78 again, rather than following I-1/9, because that just dumped me onto 280 and then I-80. It's not that I can't find my way back home from I-80, since I can (I actually, after this adventure, now know two ways of getting back to I-78 from I-80), it's just that it's an hour to an hour and a half out of the way. I could have been home by 3am rather than the 4am I ended up returning at. Oh well, North Jersey roads are seriously the spawn of Satan, so... yeah. I seriously almost fell asleep at the wheel during the last hour of the drive, from turning onto I-78 through the whole way down Route 222 to 422 to my house. I seriously stopped to get gas, not because I particularly needed to fuel up, but because I figured a blast of cold air and getting out of the car would wake me up. It helped, as did getting some munchies and eating the rest of the way home. XD Happy thoughts of Aaron and frenchboys helped a little, but not nearly enough.

And then I got home and collapsed, and damn it felt good to just fall in bed.


So that, my friends, was New York. Can't wait to go again. I'm hoping to go at least twice in March. :D