Last night I had the great pleasure of seeing what is arguably William Shakespeare’s most famous play (with the most well known quotes), Hamlet, live on the Broadway stage … starring Jude Law. Hamlet is one of my favorite plays and I have seen many productions/incarnations of the tale. My two favorites are Kenneth Branaugh’s 4-hour epic movie and, if you can believe it, Ethan Hawke’s modern retelling set in NYC. Last year I saw and LOVED the Broadway production of MacBeth which starred Patrick Stewart so I had high hopes that Jude Law’s Hamlet would be just as good. I am happy to report that the this production of the play is fantastic:

Right off the bat, I loved the sparse staging of the show. The props are kept to a minimum and the set is one big, high-walled room in castle Elsinore … the starkness of the space with the effective use of light really made for an excellent setting for the play. Jude Law’s Hamlet was very emo … right down to the emo sweater he wore. The costuming was modern but the tone of the setting still had an old feeling to it. Jude really loses himself in the moody role of Hamlet … he paces around in mad fashion, pulling at his hair at odd times … wringing his hands in a minorly insane way — he really puts on a great performance. For much of the 2 1/2 hour play, the audience was held in rapt silence … the play is really very engrossing. There are many great scenes in Hamlet but in this production, I really enjoyed the burial of Ophelia scene … the one with the famous line, Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio. There is also an effective use of falling snow in the To be, or not to be scene that really captures the sad spirit of this tragic play. I am so happy I got to see this production of the play, it’s really not to be missed. Fans of Shakespeare should deffo see this production … I loved it!!

I have to give a shout-out to Pink reader Barrie who I met before the show last night … it was my pleasure meeting you :)

After the performance was finished, I met up with my good friend Tom Lenk for a late-night supper at Sardi’s. As I mentioned previously, Tom will be joining the Broadway cast of Rock of Ages this week and we met up to catch up and talk about how crazy his life has been for the past two weeks. Dinner was superb and it was really great seeing him look so well. He is so ready for his Broadway debut, I cannot WAIT to see him!! David and I will be attending Friday night’s performance of Rock of Ages — which will be the first for new castmembers Tom Lenk (as Franz) and Kerry Butler (as Sherrie). I LOOOOOOVE Kerry Butler, she was the lead in Xanadu and she will make an excellent lead for RoA. Sooooo excited for Friday!!

This afternoon, David and I are meeting up with our dear friends Sashie and Will so that we can meet their newborn baby boy Jasper. Of all the fun things I’ve scheduled for this NYC trip, meeting little Jasper is by far my fave. I hope to have pics to share soon!!

Bea Arthur, the legendary comedienne/actress who passed away this past April, was remembered and memorialized at a tribute event held in her honor at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway here in NYC last night. The raunchy affair paid tribute to Arthur’s ability to make us laugh in a way that would make the common person blush and would’ve made Bea Arthur explode in peals of laughter. Here are some deets from last night’s memorial event for Bea:

Golden, indeed: Heavyweights from the stage and TV gathered at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre Monday to pay tribute to the late Beatrice Arthur, mixing tears with loud laughs – and ribald recollections that would have been bleeped had the 2½ hour ceremony been broadcast on TV. Instead, speaking live before a near-capacity house, Rue McClanahan told of the time her Golden Girls costar opened in her own 2002 one-woman Broadway show and graciously invited McClanahan and her husband, Morrow Wilson, to the opening-night performance and party afterwards. Admitting Arthur – who died of cancer in April, at 86 – often wasn’t at her best when she was drinking, McClanahan said an intoxicated Bea told Wilson when he introduced himself to her, “Rue, I love.” But when McClanahan quoted Arthur’s description of another costar on Golden Girls (”Betty’s a cunt”), an audible gasp ricocheted through the crowd – before it erupted into the longest and heartiest laugh of the afternoon. “I am sure that’s because laughter lingers, and no one made me laugh like Bea Arthur,” said Arthur’s Maude producer, TV titan Norman Lear. “I have spent most of my life in the company of extraordinary laugh-makers, performers and writers, killers of the art, but Bea Arthur had me laughing in nooks and crannies of my body, places I didn’t even know existed.” A rep from PETA, extolling Arthur’s love of animals, affectionately remembered her emotional reaction to being told she would receive the organization’s lifetime achievement award – from no less than Alec Baldwin. After shedding a few tears, Arthur blurted out, “God, I want to fuck him” – a recollection that even had the afternoon’s dignified host, Angela Lansbury, in stitches. “She really taught me and every other woman my age how to be a feminist at a time when that was a dirty word,” said Rosie O’Donnell, whose introduction to Arthur came when O’Donnell assaulted the veteran TV star in an off Broadway theater and sang the entire title song to Maude, after which Arthur embraced her. “Without her,” said O’Donnell, “I think there would not be as many funny women on television today.” Arthur’s grown sons Matt and Daniel Saks painted a portrait of a warm and loving mother, while TV daughter Adrienne Barbeau recalled Arthur as generous enough to hand over punchlines to her Maude costars, yet brash enough not to keep her personal opinions to herself. Telling of the time she and Arthur both attended a small theater production in West Los Angeles, Barbeau said that at intermission Arthur announced in her booming baritone that the show they were witnessing was “the worst piece of shit I’ve ever seen,” but that she couldn’t leave the theater “because everyone in it is a friend of mine.”

It is still so very sad to realize that Bea Arthur is gone from this world. Her comic genius was such a gift, I think it is safe to say that many of us still miss her dearly. There has been so much death this year, so many wonderful people lost, but I still feel the pain of Arthur’s passing away. She was many things to many people but she will always be Dorothy Zbornak to me … that is the way she will stay in my heart forever. It’s wonderful to hear that her family, friends and colleagues had a wonderful time memorializing her on Broadway last night … I have no doubt she was eating up every second of last night’s raunchy affair.

[Source]

Amazing news for fans of the Buffyverse and Broadway … the best of both worlds are finally coming together! Tom Lenk, who portrayed the amazingly hilarious villain-turned-goodie Andrew Wells on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and briefly on Angel), is joining the cast of the rock musical Rock of Ages on Broadway! According to one of Tom’s latest tweets, today is his first day of rehearsals with the cast … he tweets:

I have my first rehearsal for Rock of Ages today! So excited! Moved into my new place on Saturday, I can’t believe I live in NYC now!

Tom had to keep this news tight-lipped (not even his friends knew about this) and was not, apparently, able to talk about this new gig until today … as Entertainment Weekly claims the scoopage on his move to Broadway:

Tom Lenk, who starred as Andrew on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, will make his Broadway debut as Franz in the Tony-nominated musical Rock of Ages on Sept. 14. Lenk originated the supporting role, the son of a German developer who wants to demolish the Sunset Strip (including LA’s favorite rock club), in Los Angeles and Las Vegas productions. He phoned EW to give us the scoop and the often hilarious backstory. A UCLA theater grad with formal voice training, Lenk went to college with Rock of Ages‘ Tony-nominated director Kristin Hanggi. They’ve worked together before — on a production of Ann E. Wrecksick, an Annie spoof about bulimic orphans, in the basement of a Mexican restaurant in Silver Lake, Calif. the summer after his first season on Buffy. She knew he was also friends with Rock of Ages writer Chris D’Arienzo, and phoned Lenk to tell him that D’Arienzo had a role that might suit him. “In Ann E. Wrecksick, I had done a character of a German fashion designer. I’d also been doing this sketch for years about a German character who’s obsessed with Star Trek and Melrose Place, based on my time having been invited to appear as a random Buffy person at a Star Trek convention in Germany and a friend’s Hungarian husband who was obsessed with Melrose Place,” he says. “So they knew I did this German thing, and it happened to be perfect for the show.” Franz’s big moment, the song “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” comes when he starts a relationship with Regina, who works in the Mayor’s office and protests his and his father’s plans. “I’m a little nervous. The way I performed it in LA and Vegas is not nearly as exhaustive as the version that’s happening now on stage. I would stand and sing, and then do some dancing. But now it’s dancing while I’m singing, so I have two weeks to become Beyoncé,” he says … He begins rehearsals today, but he won’t actually get to perform with the actors he’ll share the stage with until the afternoon before his evening debut. “Which makes me want to have a complete heart attack/throw up,” he admits. “I know I should be prepared for this. I do have a theater degree. I do theater all the time [at LA's Upright Cabaret]. I did a tour of Grease in Germany like 10 years ago, but I was an understudy for Doody and Eugene and I never went on. So I never got my big put-in rehearsal.” Clarification: He could have gone on once as Doody, but he’d booked a German Audi commercial that was coincidentally shooting in Austria on that same evening. During that commercial audition, Lenk, who speaks passable German and will use a thick accent in Rock of Ages, was asked if he skied. He lied and said yes. “I get to the set, and I’d missed something in the translation — it was ski-jumping. They let me freak out for awhile until they revealed that I had a stunt double,” he says. “I only booked the commercial because ski jumpers are like jockeys, they have to be tiny and lightweight. They already had the costume, and they needed somebody to fit it. I was too big even. It was crazy. I missed my big show, Grease das Musical, which is fine.”

This is ABSOLUTELY amazing news. Tom is one of my good friends and I couldn’t be more happy, more proud of him. I’ve seen his live performances a few times and I’m telling you, Broadway is in for a treat. I understand that Tom’s first performance with Rock of Ages is on September 14 and, as luck would have it, I will be in NYC that whole week. You can bet your buns I’m gonna be there. Altho I got to see the show earlier this year, I can’t wait to see it again … and with Tom Lenk in a featured role? All I can say is, Woot!!!!! Much, much love and congrats goes out to Tom on this amazing news today … I’m sure he’ll be working his ass off for the next couple of weeks … and I can’t wait to see the fruits of his labor.

[Source]

Last Sunday night, Britney Spears took her young sons Sean Preston and Jayden James to a performance of The Little Mermaid musical on Broadway in NYC, NY and last night she took them out for another show … this time Shrek the Musical. Here are pics of her happy little fam making their way into and out of the Broadway Theare last night:

Having lived in New York on and off since she was a child, Britney Spears in no stranger to the many sights the Big Apple has to offer. But since arriving in Manhattan for her Circus tour on Sunday, the singer has been hitting the tourist trail with aplomb. Last night the 27-year-old brought sons Jayden James, two, and Sean Preston, three, to see Shrek: The Musical – their second Broadway show this week. After flying in from Ottawa, Canada on Sunday, Britney took her young boys to see The Little Mermaid. Britney is the latest celebrity to bring their children to see the Little Mermaid, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt brougth their four oldest children to watch the production in February, Jennfer Garner brought daughter Violet in April and Katie Holmes checked it out with daughter Suri. Following three back-to-back gigs at Madison Square Garden, Britney was looking forward to the night off with her two favourite boys. Dressed down in a green striped long T-shirt and jeans, the pop star looked every inch the normal young mother as she carried Jayden in and out of the Broadway Theatre. Carrying a green plastic dinosaur, Jayden looked stylish in a pink Gap shirt, jeans and retro Nike trainers. While Britney carried her youngest son, she left a burly bouncer to carry Jayden’s big brother Sean, who looked smarter in a sky blue tank top, T-shirt and jeans.

So cute … and I love that Britney is instilling a love of Broadway in her young sons at such an early age. As some of you may know, Britney got her start in the music biz by performing in musical theater as an understudy in the 1991 off-Broadway show Ruthless! Clearly she has a soft spot for the Great White Way and she wants to ensure that her sons have that same appreciation. Britney wrapped her 3-night residency at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday and makes her way to Boston, MA for her next show tomorrow night. Britney may be always on the move but … she also always makes time for her children.

[Photo credit: X17, INFdaily, Splash News; Source]

Last night was a night off from Nine Inch Nails shows so I managed to get a ticket to see the musical Next to Normal at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. After it won a few big Tonys at the 2009 Tony Awards (Best Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations) it caught my attention and got on my list of shows to see. Broadway shows are traditionally dark on Mondays but Next to Normal is not your traditional show:

I’m hesitant to give away anything in my review of the show because I believe the show packs a better punch if you see it cold. I literally gasped out loud at least twice. Suffice to say, I loved the show. Honestly, tho, the first couple of songs worried me … it didn’t grab me initially and I feared it might turn out to be a stinker. But then, well — read on after the jump if you’re intrigued but IF YOU PLAN TO SEE THIS SHOW see it cold, trust me …

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Britney Spears made her way to NYC, NY this weekend ahead of her performance here of The Circus starring Britney Spears which just kicked off it’s second North American tour leg in Hamilton, Ontario Thursday night. Brit takes the stage at Madison Square Garden tonight but got into town a bit early to enjoy the city. Last night, she took her sons Sean Preston and Jayden James for a performance of The Little Mermaid musical on Broadway … here are a few pics:

Of course, Brit Brit causes a sensation everywhere she goes (and last night was no exception) but it’s nice that she managed to endure all of the gawking stares last night so she could treat her sons to a night on Broadway. I understand Papa Jamie Spears was also in attendance at last night’s performance of The Little Mermaid as well, one hopes he was able to enjoy the show as much as Sean P. and JJ presumably did.

Also, in other Britney news, Ms. Spears will PERSONALLY be giving away tickets to tonight’s concert at Madison Square Garden to the lucky person who is able to find a pair of tickets she has hidden somewhere here in Manhattan. If you follow Britney Spears on Twitter, you will be given clues to her hiding spot and if you find it, you will also get to meet Britney herself who will supposedly hand over the tix. Unfortch, I will not be in attendance at tonight’s show (I have tix to see Next To Normal on Broadway instead) but I’m sure her show will be fun for all.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

So … I am really enjoying my time here in NYC. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s the first time I’ve been to the Big Apple all by myself and I am really loving it. I spent part of my afternoon yesterday checkin’ out stuff on 5th Ave and then bummin’ around SoHo. It was hot as hell, y’all but I soldiered on. It started to rain a little bit so I snuck into Boqueria on Spring St. for some white sangria and tapas:

‘Twas very delish. I couldn’t stay out too long cuz I had to get home and changed for my night on Broadway. I managed to get a pretty great ticket for Hair, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival at the 2009 Tony Awards this year. After hearing so many good things about it, I had to check it out for myself:

After the jump, check out what I thought about the show, for those of you interested …

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