A Truly Theatrical January

My playbills from January.

January was a CRAZY month for theatre. My childhood friend came into town from Nevada and whenever she visits, we see ALL THE SHOWS! This time, we were actually heading across the pond for some West End yumminess, so it was an especially stacked month. Like…15 shows stacked. Let’s dig into it.

I started the month seeing Book of Mormon again. My Gayoncé’s mom and Grammy were in town, and they wanted to catch a show. We did TKTS and ended up with awesome last minute orchestra seats. This was my fourth time seeing it (twice before the pandemic and now twice after) and it was definitely good for the laughs, but my favourite part was watching Gayoncé, Mom, and Grammy’s reactions.

The next day was Back to the Future’s closing. I owe y’all a post on that and how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE that show. It’s a lot. You’ll read shortly just how much. That show is legit, my happy place. I can’t explain it, but it is.

Then middle school bestie got here and it was off to the races. We kicked off her trip at the Broadway Museum (that could be another post here….I’ve been so remiss Nusies), and then caught Maybe Happy Ending and A Wonderful World. This was my second viewing of MHE and I literally gush over that show! It’s so beautifully done. I love every single thing about it. A Wonderful World was messy bookwise, but the music was exquisite (yes, I’m a Louis Armstrong fan). Also, there were only two other people at the stage door, and Jame Monroe Iglehart spent twn minutes mentoring this young man who clearly wanted to be an actor…and let’s just say, faith in humanity restored.

We caught Death Becomes Her the next day, but were in the back of the mezze and the Lunt-Fontaine is so huge and cavernous that it was hard to enjoy the show. Also there was a person a few rows ahead of us who showed their appreciation by putting their hand up in the air every 10 seconds, blocking our view, so that wasn’t great either. That’s why, later that week, we rushed tickets and ended up with awesome orchestra seats and were able to fully enjoy the show. Jennifer Simard’s understudy (Natalie Charle Ellis) was on for her at the second viewing and full props to her.

In between the two Death Becomes Her showings, we also saw Hell’s Kitchen. It was a sweet story, and well acted. I was kind of bored throughout and the music isn’t my cup of tea, though it was very pretty for the most part. After the second DBH showing, we saw Titanique, cuz it’s one of my middle school BFF’s all-time faves (she actually saw it again while in London) and then it was off across the ocean.

I went to London to see the Lightning Thief. This is one of my favourite fun, scrappy shows (I saw it twice on tour and twice on Broadway) and when I heard it was getting a West End run, I just had to be there for it. And let me say, it’s awesome. The staging is smaller, which actually helps, and they increased the cast/ensemble. They also added the bonus track Try after intermission, and a reprise later in Act II. The fight scenes were very cool, the cast was awesome (though Annabeth struggled to keep an American accent…it was adorable) and just overall really impressed with the West End run. Kudos.

Also, since I was there, I went to see Back to the Future again. I’ve now seen it five times on Broadway, once on tour and once in London. Did I mention I love this show? The London production was great. I liked their Doc more, their George less and their Biff slightly less. Everyone else was simply fantastic.

The last show we saw in London was The Mousetrap. And now I know whodunnit. And I’m not sharing with you. Really enjoyed it overall, and I was half-right with my intermission guess about the mystery.

Bear with me, I’m almost nearing the end of the month. Just a few more shows to go.

After we got back, I saw A Guide to the Homesick, which I was very much not a fan of. The stakes felt too high for strangers, and I wasn’t convinced about the emotional impacts…it felt really overacted. I did like how the split roles were handled (each of the two actors played two parts).

The next couple of shows were a riot. I saw Gwyneth Goes Skiing at the Soho Playhouse (I lost half a day of skiing) and then Oh,Mary (loved the vignette style of storytelling). Both quality comedy. Though obv one is Broadway quality and the other is a scrappy laughfest on Gwyneth’s skiing trial.

My final show of January was Romeo+Juliet. I really enjoyed it much more than I was expecting to. I mostly wanted to see it cuz I think Kit and Rachel are both wildly talented young actors. And they didn’t disappoint. The whole show is like. a Gen Z fever dream (much like the 1996 Baz Luhrmann movie is a Millennial fever dream) but it really worked. They used Circle at the Square beautifully, including the catwalk, and Kit’s Shakespeare was stunning and rolled off the tongue. While Rachel struggled more with the Shakespeare, she was absolutely lovely, and he singing voice is spectacular (though I will say, the songs are probably the only thing that didn’t work for me, except the one at the party scene…the other songs felt out of place and forced). Anyway, really glad I caught that one.

And there you have it, 15 shows, some quick thoughts on them (instead of full reviews) and my January is complete. It was truly epic and I’m so grateful for the opportunities and friends who geek out over theatre with me!