New York has been full of adventures. I’ll tell about the good ones… and then I will tell you about the cats.
Spamalot was hilarious. If you love the movie you will love this. If you’ve never seen the movie you won’t get it, but you still might enjoy the hilarious musical. The Gazillion Bubble Showwas a bust. It was an interesting concept but more appropriate for a kid’s birthday party rather than a stage show. I am still trying to figure out just what a bubble show has to do with the Vietnam War, but hey this is theatre. I have heard enough about it to wonder if maybe I caught it on a bad day.
Last night I ended up at BB King’s watching Kevin Bacon with his band. Bacon was cooking and now I can say that there are zero degrees of separation between me and KB.
Today (Sunday) was full of surprises including the cats. We caught Chas Palminteri in A Bronx Tale at the Walter Kerr Theatre. It was some of the finest theatre I have seen. The man is a theatrical genius and we just have to get him to Austin. If we do, you must come to the show. Wow. Just wow.
After the show we headed down to the East Village to catch Ruben Studdard in what turned out to be the best surprise of the trip (not counting the cats). As you know, Ruben won the second season of American Idol – beating out Clay Aiken who is getting reading to debut on Broadway in Spamalot. I really am not a big fan of Idol and was never really a fan of Studdard. All that changed tonight. Ruben is getting ready to go out on the 30th anniversary tour of Ain’t Misbehavin which comes to the Paramount next season. Fellow Idol contestant Frenchie Davis will co-star. Ruben has an amazing voice and a personality not often found in this business. He had us in the palm of his hand all evening.
OK. Now for the cats… Someone needs to call PETA because I am pretty sure a cat died in today’s presentation of Moscow Cats Theatre. Billed as simply “35 cats, six clowns and one dog” this show proves that curiosity really can kill the cat. How do I even begin to explain this… at one point a cat was spinning from a moon 20 feet above the audience while a clown juggled, a dog danced and another cat drove a car. It was the worst piece of performance art I have ever seen…. and I laughed my ass off! I just can’t find the words so I will stop trying…
Tomorrow night we see Matt Dusk.
Off-Stage with Ken Stein 