New York Theater Trip: February 27, 2008

Tuesday in the city was very busy for the girls. After the Janet Jackson concert at 7:00 a.m. the exhausted girls went out for breakfast and then fell back to sleep for a couple of hours before heading to Brooklyn for Macbeth. Janet was all over town pushing her brand new CD, but we felt pretty cutting edge because we had seen her so early on the day of the release. One of the strangest things about being at the JJ concert was that the girls were sitting in the middle of all these beauty pageant females- about 25 women from the age of 2 to about 35. They were wearing tiaras and their sashes! A new fact that we learned is that there are plexiglass carrying cases for tiaras! The Culture Buddies watched in amazement as the beauties took off their coats, unlocked their tiara cases and spruced up for the cameras. Why, oh why, were the Culture Buddies seated in the middle of the beauty queens??!! Another example of life in the greatest city on earth!

Macbeth was an amazing production held at BAM- Brooklyn's very cool theater and starred Patrick Stewart who rates very high on the Culture Buddies list. We really love actors who have great Hollywood careers and tons of money who perform on Broadway anyway. This season's true stars to us- are people like Kevin Kline, Jennifer Garner, Claire Danes, Laura Linney and Patrick Stewart. The production of Macbeth was unlike anything imaginable. It is a Cold War version of the play with all kinds of groovy technical special effects going on. I was buying into the whole Cold War/ Fascist production until the witches - who were dressed as nurses - began doing their lines in rap. A little over the top for me! The good news is that the entire Brooklyn run is sold out and moving to Broadway for an 8 week run in a few weeks. YEAH good theater and smart audiences!

Today for the Wednesday matinee the Culture Buddies are breaking up and seeing different shows. I'm seeing August for the second time because one of the main roles was played by an understudy when we saw it in January. I had smoozed an usher about the difference between the performance of the understudy- who was great in our opinion- but the usher said the difference was between night and day. So I'm going back. Leslie somewhere along the line missed seeing Lion King so she is going this afternoon. Tonight we are seeing Sunday in the Park with George. It got a great review and the girls are always up for a little Sondheim.

The girls - over several drinks late last night - decided that we would skip GMA this morning. Seems a little too touristy to stand behind a line and watch Diane and Robin and the weatherman while holding our Culture Buddies sign! Two days in the city and the girls are shunning tourist traps!!

Love to all!

Ann and Leslie a.k.a. The Culture Buddies!!