We saw the matinee of Promises, Promises starring Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenowith. This show, based on the Jack Lemmon movie The Apartment, takes place during the carefree, sexist, cigarette-filled days of the 60's. The show is campy and fun and makes the most of its talented cast. Burt Bacharach's music is great, and Sean Hayes is adorable and funny as the lowly office worker who shares his apartment key with higher ups in the hopes of getting a promotion. He sings and dances with great skill and brings some fun physical comedy to the role. Kristen Chenowith plays his love interest (the Shirley MacLaine role in the movie), and she can sing like no one else. Saying that she has a great set of pipes is an understatement. The show's choreography is very creative, and the ensembles does a great job. The highlight of the show is a hilarious scene of Sean Hayes' character drunkenly picking up an equally drunk woman in a seedy bar. Katie Finneran is a blast in this role, and she definitely deserves her Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actress! Leslie and I had a great time at this good old-fashioned musical with some wonderful songs, awesome choreography, and many laughs. We recommend it!
After the show we took the subway to Union Square for some people-watching and relaxing before our evening show. We are great fans of John Douglas Thompson who we saw last season in Emperor Jones and whose career we follow closely. He and Diane Wiest are starring in the play The Forest at the Classic Stage Company on 13th Street. The play, written by
Alexander Ostrovsky in the mid-1800's, is an interesting Russian satire of a money-grubbing Russian aristocrat, played by Weiss, and a wandering tragedian actor (who also happens to be her nephew), played by Thompson, who exposes her hypocrisy. It had some good laughs and Thompson and Weiss got a chance to really show off their acting chops in such a small space. We waited to see John after the show and were greeted by this charming man as old friends. We walked to the subway with him and wished him luck during the upcoming awards season. He has already won the Obie (Off-Broadway's equivalent of a Tony) and is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor by the Drama Desk (which will be held next week). He is in some awesome company including Jude Law, Liev Shreiber, and Christopher Walken. We wish this fabulous actor the best of luck, and we look forward to seeing him this summer when he plays Richard III in the Berkshires.
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