Play Review: Departure Lounge

As I was leaving Twelfth Night I was chatting with some friends about the next play on my list, Departure Lounge with Jonathan B. Wright, of Spring Awakening fame. A man looked up from his blackberry at me as I gushed about my love of Johnny B Wright and all the Spring Awakening kids. He agrees, they are great. So I, thinking he wants to chat and is lonely, say, "I just love that show. My favorite." And he says, "Thank you." It dons on me. I've seen this guy before. It's Steven Sater!! The writer of Spring Awakening!!! Ok I just had to share that with you before I actually get on to my review.


Here's a nice little photo of him.


























I was pretty excited to see Jonathan B Wright in another musical. It looked like it was going to be a good time either way. I'm a huge admirer of the entire cast of Spring Awakening and try to support them when I can.



























The opening to this play I thought, oh well here's a silly musical about a bunch of guys. Oh well. But what I ended up getting was so much more. The entire cast was amazing! Nick Blaemire, Doug Kreeger, Kathleen Monteleone and Alex Tonetta were each talented actors and singers. The music was a blast, the story line engaging (thank you Christopher Gattelli), and the script was full of emotion and friendship, and beauty (thank you Dougal Irvine). Really, this was an amazing play.


There is one scene between Alex Tonetta and Jonathan B. Wright where they are singing a duet about the other. Jonathan is singing about how much he loves Alex, and Alex is singing about how much he hates Jonathan. It's so beautiful! I was tearing up a bit. The emotional depth of that song was by far the best part of the show.






























I'm so lucky that I was able to attend this nice little world of four boys on their way to becoming men. Well done everyone, well done!

Play Review The Bacchae

Be still my heart. Jonathan Groff in Central Park playing Dionysus. Singing. In a leather jacket. For free?? This is too good to be true.

Here, enjoy:


























And not to deprive you of the other yummy lead, here is Anthony Mackie:

















Ok, I'm sorry. Enough with the eye candy. Let's get into the thick of it. Euripides' The Bacchae is a dark and twisted tale of a Greek God with no true understanding of humanity. He desires worship and will stop at nothing to prove his point. He doesn't care if you die or suffer, you will bow to him. It's an interesting story. Jonathan Groff was perfect in his role and wasn't afraid to embrace the character. His psycho laughing and sassy banter with Anthony Mackie's Pentheus was perfect. Anthony Mackie's was able to go from strong and firm, manly; to pretty and feminine. Mind you this isn't a few days apart, he transformed himself emotionally (and physically) in minutes. Pretty amazing if you ask me. The chorus was good at times, but was too long and kept repeating plot lines. By the middle of the show I was ready for Dionysus to strike them down with thunder already. This was definitely a play of monologues, something that you need a very strong supporting cast to pull of, which Shakespeare in the Park definitely had. I realllllly enjoyed this show. Even coupled with an unbearably hot day and the obnoxious photographers sneaking a peak, flashing their light bulbs as we were trying to enjoy the show I still enjoyed myself.

I almost don't want to say this but...

Hey, Christopher Nolan, you looking for someone to at least do Heath Ledger's Joker justice? Well, no need to worry, I've found him. Look no further than Jonathan Groff. He will never be Heath's joker, but he'll do the part justice.


To see or not to see?
Hurry before it's too late! Last show is August 30th. Don't worry too much about the line. I got tickets on Sunday after noon after waiting for only 2 hours. There were still tickets left after all of us got ours.