Tag Archives: musical

A Night Of Lena Hall (or Art Of The Audition)

Posted on May 22, 2018 | Comments Off on A Night Of Lena Hall (or Art Of The Audition)

I’m pretty open about the fact that I love musicals. I’m so lucky that I have a group of friends who love them too and they have become a regular part of my life. Musicals just make me so happy so I always love when I can have a night out enjoying a musical or seeing an incredible Broadway performer live!

And last week, I had the opportunity to see Lena Hall! I’ve actually seen Lena Hall perform live twice. She played both main roles in Hedwig during the run in LA and my friend Michelle and I went to see her play both (one way was in our season tickets and the other was something we bought on our own). So when I saw that Lena Hall was performing in LA, I immediately texted Michelle and we rushed to get tickets! Because we were purchasing them so early, we were able to do the cheap seats plus there was a discount code. So it ended up being a pretty affordable show for being such an amazing thing!

We knew going into the show that we were required to get at least dinner at the venue. I appreciated that they had the option to order dinner instead of having a drink minimum since I don’t really drink. Michelle and I got there early so we could eat and get our seats. We were seated at a high top table that was off to the side, but we were still pretty close to the stage. But we did realize that we were sitting right next to the dressing room so we knew Lena Hall would at least briefly be near us. We tried to order quickly so we wouldn’t be eating during the show and we both got their goat cheese pesto burger.

Michelle had read some not-so-good reviews about the food, but this burger was awesome! There was so much flavor and it was perfect! The fries weren’t as good (they were supposed to be garlic parmesan fries but neither of us tasted any garlic or parmesan), but it was still a pretty good meal. And we decided to splurge and got some dessert too. We couldn’t decide between the apple tart and the cheesecake, so we got both and we each took half.

After that, we were both so full but ready for the show to start! There was an opening act that played a couple of songs before Lena Hall came out. This was kind of like a one-woman show and it was called “Art of the Audition: From Falling Apart to Nailing the Part”. She told stories about various times that she auditioned starting when she was a child and sang the songs that she sang at those auditions. For example, when she was a teen and auditioned for Cats she sang “Dance 10, Looks 3” from A Chorus Line (which is a pretty hilarious choice).

Most of the songs that she sang as examples of what she auditioned with were songs that I was familiar with. And the stories she had were really funny. Many of them were similar to things I’ve experienced at auditions and were really relatable. She never tried to put on an act that she knew what she was doing or was better than others. She was just honest about how terrifying it can be to audition, especially when the part is one you really want.

She also discussed about how she struggled with trying to figure out what stereotype she could fit into since that is something that can be important to understand as an actor. She tried to fit different things and they never were right for her (which I totally get). But once she just was herself, she found the parts that were right for her or fit her type even if it didn’t seem that way on the page.

My favorite story of hers was when she discussed her audition for the Broadway company of Hedwig. She was at the final audition and was told to prepare a joke or a story in character. And she decided to create an entire backstory to her character to explain why she was at the audition and created a world where the character was there to get funding for a crowdfunding campaign. It was such a great story and a really good example of how you sometimes just have to go for it in the audition room. She had no idea if she made the right choice or not, but she made a choice and was memorable. And fortunately she booked the job too!

The show covered stories from when she was a child until recently and it was a pretty varied collection of stories (and the songs that went with the stories were pretty varied too). All of the stories were so funny and if there was no singing I would have still enjoyed the show.

But getting to hear Lena Hall sing was just wonderful. She is such a talented performer and I feel so lucky that I got to see this show since it only was happening for 1 night in LA. I would have loved to see it again but I guess I’ll just have to be on the lookout to see if she returns to LA again.

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAnother Night At Pantages (or Hedwig Take 2) Default ThumbnailAudition Horror Stories (or Sometimes I Like Things To Be Boring) Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailAnother Day Another Audition (or This Is The Life I Love) Default ThumbnailAudition Friends (or The Kindness Of My Competition) Default ThumbnailAudition Fairy (or The Tale Of Two Auditions)

Comments Off on A Night Of Lena Hall (or Art Of The Audition)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,

School Of Rock (or Just A Good Fun Musical)

Posted on May 8, 2018 | 2 comments

I’ve noticed that the musicals on my calendar are much closer together now (in the next year and a half, I’ve got 15 more musicals scheduled!). So even though it seems like I was just at the Pantages for my last musical, I was there again this weekend for another show! And this time, we were seeing “School of Rock”!

The musical is based on the movie and I’ve seen the movie a bunch of times. I was pretty excited to see how the musical adaptation would be since I was so familiar with the movie. And 2 of the other women in my group were in the same boat as me (1 member of the group has never seen the movie).

We had a quick dinner at Greenleaf before the show (we’ve done Shake Shack a lot lately and wanted to switch it up). I meant to take a photo of my dinner because it was really good but it totally just slipped my mind. But I highly recommend the turkey melt there because it was delicious. And yes, I ordered a turkey melt at a place that is known for salads. But it’s good to know that everything there is good!

We’ve gotten into such a routine with our musicals which I love. We all know what seats we sit in (we always have the same seats) and it just seems so normal and orderly to me. Even though we have season tickets and our shows are always the same time in a run of a show, it seems like we always have different people sitting around us. I thought maybe we’d be seeing the same people each show, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I think the couple sitting next to me has been there in the past, but because there isn’t really consistency with who sits there I could be wrong.

If you aren’t familiar with School of Rock, it’s about a guy who is kicked out of his band and pretends to be a substitute teacher at a fancy private school. He discovers the students in his class have musical talents and he creates a band to try to win a battle of the bands against the band that kicked him out. It’s not a complicated plot and that’s fine with me. I was saying to the group that we have had a lot of serious and heavy musicals and I really wanted something that was just fun and entertaining. And this fit that perfectly!

There were a lot of really great songs (some of which were stuck in our heads after the show) and the performers were great. But the most incredible performers were the kids in the show. There were amazing singers and the band members played their instruments live in the show. To play in front of a big crowd is tough for an adult, and these kids were just amazing! And watching them be so into playing and having fun with the songs was very entertaining! Since I can’t play a musical instrument, I’m always impressed with people who can. And these kids were more talented than most adults I know. I was just in awe watching.

The show is very similar to the movie and the songs from the movie are in the show (but the musical adds so many more songs). I was worried about the friend who hadn’t seen the movie because I didn’t know if I was enjoying the show so much because I love the movie. But she really enjoyed the show too which is a sign of a great show! If you can make people who are familiar with the original material and people who don’t know anything about the show both happy and enjoy it, that’s pretty special.

This was such a nice break from the serious shows we’ve had lately. And our next show will be another serious one. But to have a fun night out with my friends was exactly what I needed after feeling a bit low lately. I needed some laughing, fun, and entertainment to take my mind off of things that are bugging me. And even after leaving the show I continued to be in a better mood. I know I need to keep adding fun things in my life when I have low moments like I was having, and I’m just glad that I had this scheduled during a rough patch of my life.

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailThe Color Purple (or Such An Empowering Musical) Default ThumbnailAlmost The End Of The Musical Season (or Watching An Audience Fall In Love With An Actor) Default Thumbnail“An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical) Default ThumbnailA Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season) Default ThumbnailHocus Pocus (or Musical #3 For The Week!) Default ThumbnailBurgers And Broadway (or Another Musical)

2 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

A Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season)

Posted on April 11, 2018 | 1 comment

It had been a little while since my Pantages group had a musical, but we finally had our second show of this season this past weekend. Our shows for the rest of the season will be coming pretty quickly (about once a month) so I’m excited to get to have a bunch of shows to see soon.

Our group’s usual routine is to get dinner before the show at one of the places near the theater. A few of us were on a budget so we decided to go with Shake Shack and we planned when to leave accordingly. But once we got near the theater, we noticed a couple of helicopters and various emergency vehicles with sirens on. We didn’t think too much about it because we were able to get into the parking garage. But as soon as we were at the street level, we saw what was causing all the commotion.

There was a guy climbing a construction crane right across from Shake Shack. Dozens of people were watching him and he didn’t seem to be doing it as a stunt. We were nervous because it didn’t look like he had any safety equipment and none of us wanted to watch him fall. So after a few minutes we headed over to the restaurant to have dinner before the show. By the time we were walking over to the theater, the guy was still on the crane but it turns out that he was apprehended pretty soon after the show started. It was a pretty weird start to our evening, but we were excited to be going to a show and having a fun night.

The show this time was “Love Never Dies” which is the sequel to “Phantom Of The Opera”.

I’ve shared on here before that Phantom isn’t necessarily my favorite show. I did enjoy it when I saw it the last time, but it’s still not at the top of my list. So I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this show as much as I enjoy most of the shows. But I tried to have as open of a mind that I could and the excitement of the rest of the group helped me to be more excited.

Unfortunately, my concerns were pretty accurate. I thought the costumes and sets were amazing. And the performers were some of the best that we’ve seen. But the story wasn’t one that I connected with or loved and that was a bit frustrating. I really want to love every show that I see because I know how hard everyone works to put on a great performance. And this time I wanted to love it even more because I discovered that someone I worked with at Universal Studios about 10 years ago was in the cast. But I guess it just wasn’t meant to be for me.

The rest of my group felt a similar way about the show so I didn’t feel too bad that I wasn’t in love with it. And we all agreed that it had so many things going for it but we just weren’t connecting with the story. But that’s the risk you take when you see so many shows. There’s no way for us to love everything and sometimes a show we really wanted to like just isn’t our taste. But fortunately more often than not we are pleasantly surprised by how great a show is that we weren’t expecting to enjoy.

When the show was done we were glad to see the craziness outside the theater was done so we could easily get to our cars. And I think that even though we didn’t love the show we all still had a great time with our night out. A big part of our fun going to the shows is seeing the show, but we also love having time to hang out together!

We’ve already gotten our tickets for the next season, but our group will be changing then. One member of our group is going to switch what night she will be going to shows so she won’t be going with us. But we found another friend who wanted to join in so we will have a group of 4 next season as well. But this season still has several shows left so it’s not quite time to change things up. And I know that there are a bunch of shows this season that I am so excited to see!

Our next show is only about a month away and I can’t wait because it’s one that I’ve been looking forward to since the season was announced!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAnd Another Season Of Musicals (or The Next Season Will Be A Bit Different) Default ThumbnailAnother Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way) Default ThumbnailLast Musical Of The Season (or A Classic Pantages Night Out) Default ThumbnailAnother Musical Season (or Enjoying A Repeat Musical) Default ThumbnailKicking Off A Musical Season (or Seeing A Cartoon Brought To Life) Default ThumbnailThe End Of My Musical Season (or Finally Enjoying Phantom)

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

Surprising A Friend Headed To Broadway (or I Have More Motivation To Plan My NYC Trip)

Posted on January 30, 2018 | Comments Off on Surprising A Friend Headed To Broadway (or I Have More Motivation To Plan My NYC Trip)

I’m sure there are some people who get jealous when their friends have amazing accomplishments, but I’m not one of them. I love to get to celebrate people’s successes and it makes me more motivated to create successes myself! My friend Matt got a job as an understudy on Broadway and he’s about to move to New York! I’m so excited for him and I know he’s going to do amazing in NYC. And to celebrate the move and his job, Matt’s wife Carolina organized a surprise party for him!

I love surprise parties, but I haven’t had the chance to be at that many. So I was super excited to get to be at this one and I knew it would be a great party. We were all supposed to arrive at the party about 30 minutes before Matt and Carolina were going to arrive. I got there a bit earlier and was able to help with some of the set up. There were some really fun decorations to celebrate Matt and his job on Broadway and I helped with filling in some letters on the giant chalkboard.

Right before Matt and Carolina arrived, we were warned so we could get into place. We were all near the gate they would be walking in and we were crouched down so he wouldn’t see our heads peeking over the fence.  It was pretty funny waiting for the gate to open because we were all waiting toward one gate and then I guess the plan changed for them to walk in another gate. One of the hosts was singing and talking loudly so we would get that they would be coming in a different gate and we all turned around and repositioned ourselves.

The story Carolina told Matt about why there were coming over to the house where the party was being held was that they were dropping off a table there. So when we all surprised Matt, he was carrying a table inside. 

Surprising Matt from Jen Levin on Vimeo.

He had no clue this party was happening and it was so great to see how surprised he was! Carolina worked so hard to make this party happen and I am so happy that it went off exactly how she wanted it to be. I was just so excited to see how happy Matt was that we were all gathered to celebrate him!

There were a bunch of people I knew at the party so I spent a lot of time chatting with them. We were all catching each other up on life and other random things and we all did get a chance to talk to Matt a bit. But there were a lot of people there who wanted to talk to him and none of us wanted to dominate his time.

I know we are all going to miss Matt when he’s in New York. He’s one of the leaders of Union Working and his leadership at the meetings will be missed. But maybe he’ll have the opportunity to start a chapter of the group in NYC while he is there!

My sister-in-law and I have been talking about doing another NYC trip soon and we both know we need to do it! And now that I’ll have another friend living there it’s extra motivation to plan the trip! There’s no guarantee that when we do plan our trip that Matt will be performing (as the understudy he won’t necessarily know what nights he performs in advance), but it would be amazing if the timing worked out so we could see him in the show! But even if that doesn’t work out, I know it will be great to get to see him and Carolina again.

I wanted to stay at the party longer, but I was only able to stay a few hours because I had to get home for some work and errands (being a responsible adult stinks sometimes). But before I left, I needed a photo with Matt! And of course, other friends joined in because as actors we can’t resist a camera.

Congrats again Matt on your amazing gig in NYC! I know that everyone is so excited for you and can’t wait to see what other accomplishments you’ll have on your NYC adventure!

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For Next Month (or Broadway Here We Come!) Default ThumbnailBroadway Sings Disney (or A Fun Adventure With An Awesome Friend) Default ThumbnailHaving A Little NYC In LA (or Getting To See A Friend Again This Year) Default ThumbnailNon Stop NYC (or More Adventures On My Trip) Default ThumbnailBack To LA (or Reflections On The NYC Trip) Default ThumbnailTrying To Make A 5K Plan (or Maybe This Is The Motivation I’m Missing)

Comments Off on Surprising A Friend Headed To Broadway (or I Have More Motivation To Plan My NYC Trip)

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , ,

More Musicals (or Back To A Fun Routine)

Posted on January 17, 2018 | 2 comments

It’s crazy to think that my last show at the Pantages was 5 months ago! It doesn’t feel like it was that long but I guess it has been almost half a year since I was at a show there. But the new season of shows just started and my group went to the first show of the year for us!

My entire group has renewed our tickets for this season, so it’s me and my 3 friends at the shows (the next season is announced soon and we are all thinking of renewing again). Every time we go to a show, I realize how lucky I am to have friends who go to shows with me. I had so many years of not going to a show because I didn’t want to go alone and now I’ve had a few years of seeing a ton of shows each year!

Going to our shows have become a fun routine for us. We almost always will meet up for dinner before the show and I love that we make it a full night out instead of just going to a show and going home. There are a couple of places we seem to rotate through for dinner before the show. This time, we decided to go to Shake Shack. I’ve discovered that I enjoy Shake Shack a lot more when I don’t have the bun on the burger, so I get my burgers in a lettuce wrap. And I figured after my tough workout a few hours earlier that day, I earned a shake too.

It was a lot of food and I wasn’t able to finish it all, but it was a nice splurge to have. We did realize that it would be much better in the future if we order on the app than wait in line. Even if we used the app right when we got in line, the food would have been ready first from the app. I guess you live and learn.

We took our time eating (plus the line took about 30 minutes) and walked across the street to the Pantages about 15 minutes before the show was going to start. The first show of the season is Aladdin and we are all big Disney fans. Our only concerns were about how close this show would be to the one we used to see at Disneyland. But we also knew the Disneyland show was pretty short compared to this musical and they had different musical numbers.

I really enjoyed this show! I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorite musicals, but it’s good. There are a lot of classic Aladdin moments that are in the musical, but it’s also its own show. The cast was very talented and the leads were the actors who originated the roles on Broadway. We saw the understudy for Aladdin, but he was very good (I was a bit disappointed not to see the main actor as I was excited to watch him perform).

I think my favorite was the actor who played the Genie. That part is an actor’s dream because you do get to be fun and creative with it a bit. You can change things up with some of the joke and it is such a beloved character. And the actor was so talented and was just a joy to watch! Also, I think he is the funniest character in the show.

And not only were the actors great, we all agreed that the staging and costumes were incredible. The cave of wonders set was probably the best set I’ve ever seen with all the shows I have seen at the Pantages. And the costumes had so many sparkles and we were all mesmerized by them. It’s fun to see a show that is so detailed and elaborate because that’s not always how touring shows are.

It’s so nice to have a full year of musicals coming up. Our next musical isn’t for about 2 months (Aladdin is in LA for a while), but after that we pretty much have something every single month. And with the exception of seeing Cinderella again, every show this season will be a new show for me! And many of them have been shows I’ve been wanting to see. I have a feeling that this is going to be an amazing year of musicals and I’m so happy to get to do this!

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default Thumbnail“An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical) Default ThumbnailMamma Mia (or The Best Black Friday Deal Ever!) Default ThumbnailBurgers And Broadway (or Another Musical) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailHaving A Season Of Musicals (or Finally Enjoying Something I Haven’t Done Since I Moved To LA) Default ThumbnailWatching Musicals At Home (or Getting Antsy To Get Back To NYC)

2 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Spamilton (or A Between The Seasons Musical)

Posted on November 16, 2017 | Comments Off on Spamilton (or A Between The Seasons Musical)

It’s been a little while since my last show at the Pantages. And we do have tickets for next season, but our first show of that season is about 2 months away. My Pantages group didn’t really have any plans for shows between our two seasons, but when I was driving past the Kirk Douglas Theatre I noticed an ad for “Spamilton“. So I texted the group to see if anyone was interested in checking the show out and everyone said yes!

I have some friends who work at that theater so I contacted them to see if they knew of any deals, and my friend said that he could get us his employee comp tickets! We were going to have to buy the other 2, but that saved us 50% on the tickets so we were so happy about that. And since it’s a show that doesn’t have an intermission it wasn’t a big deal that we couldn’t sit together. We figured we’d hang out before the show and after the show.

We met up for dinner in downtown Culver City before the show and then headed to the theater. None of us knew too much about “Spamilton” except that it was a spoof musical about “Hamilton” and we were excited to see what it was all about.

As soon as we got into the lobby we noticed the drink specials that they were offering. We all loved the puns on the songs that the drinks were named after.

Dani and Michelle decided to have them spin the wheel so they could get the $5 drink of whatever it landed on. I don’t remember what they got, but they both enjoyed their drinks so it was a great deal for them.

Right before the show started, we split up to go to our seats. The two seats we bought were in the second to last and the last row in the center and the two seats we got from my friend ended up being in the 5th row! I thought they would be toward the back because that’s how many comp tickets go, but we lucked out!

And as soon as the show started, we didn’t stop laughing! This show was amazing! You have to know musical theater to get it, but you don’t have to know “Hamilton” super well to get the jokes. If you know the songs a bit and who the cast is, you’ll get the jokes about the show. But there were a lot of joked about other musicals, playwrights, and other people involved in the theater world that they sang about.

One of my favorite parts was when they sang about mashup musicals. It was just so clever and the mashups they created were perfect. I loved how they did “The Lion King” and “The King and I” together and “Avenue Q” and “The Crucible” together. The songs were really funny and I was almost crying I was laughing so hard.

At times we wondered if we were bugging the people sitting by us because we were laughing so loud and they weren’t laughing. I don’t know if they were quiet laughers or if they didn’t get what they were making fun of. But we were having an amazing time and hopefully everyone else in the audience was too.

The show is pretty short at only 80 minutes but it was a jammed packed 80 minutes. And the cast had so much energy from start to finish and it looked like they were having a great time. The main cast was 5 actors and they were accompanied by a piano, but it felt like a much fuller show than that. But I loved the simplicity of the set and music because the performances stood out so much!

After the show was done, we all agreed that it was a great show and very funny! I think it helped me to get my musical fix in between our seasons at Pantages. I am still entering the lottery every day to try to win tickets for “Hamilton”. I really want to see it for a second time before it leaves LA but I haven’t had any luck yet. But there’s still a bit of time left before it leaves so hopefully my luck will change (or one of my friends will win and bring me with them).

Or maybe I’ll go see “Spamilton” again because it was such a great night out!

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailDinner And Carole King (or The Best Musical Ever!) Default ThumbnailAlmost The End Of The Musical Season (or Watching An Audience Fall In Love With An Actor) Default Thumbnail“An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical) Default ThumbnailHocus Pocus (or Musical #3 For The Week!) Default ThumbnailGame Of Thrones The Musical (or A GOT Newbie) Default ThumbnailBurgers And Broadway (or Another Musical)

Comments Off on Spamilton (or A Between The Seasons Musical)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,

An Epic End To The Pantages Season (or We Aren’t Going To Throw Away Our Shot)

Posted on August 16, 2017 | 5 comments

This past Sunday was the final show for my group in our current season at the Pantages. While we are a bit sad our season is over, we already have bought our season tickets for next season and we are really excited for that. But what was even more exciting was that the final show for the season was Hamilton! Getting to see Hamilton was the reason many people got season tickets this season. But I think all of us in my group were just excited to see all of the shows. Hamilton was just going to be a super amazing addition to the season!

And as we have done with the past few shows, we went to dinner at Wood & Vine before the show. And Wood & Vine just introduced a new menu with their new chef so we were ready to try some amazing new food and to have some of our favorites! Everything on the menu looked incredible, but we had to try to limit ourselves to make sure we didn’t feel overstuffed while at the show.

We ordered some veggies because they sounded delicious and they were a lighter option. The squash had an amazing butter sauce with some cheese and they were perfectly cooked so they still had a bit of crunch to them. And the carrots reminded us all of eating Honey Nut Cheerios! It was so crazy how sweet they were without having the sweetness overpowering the flavor of the carrots.

And while we knew we’d be ordering the bone marrow again, everything else that we got was something that was new to the menu. We were also able to have the tuna tartare, pork belly tacos, and the branzino filet.

And as we expected, everything was just incredible. I only had a taste of the tuna as it had a chili sauce on it and I’m really sensitive to spicy food. But it was really good and everyone else loved it. The pork belly tacos were so tender and the sauce on it was really refreshing. And the branzino was flaky and so flavorful! And of course, the bone marrow was out of this world! We had 2 orders of it and between the 4 of us the bones looked like this within minutes of the plate being brought to us.

When the bones were empty, Dani and Michelle decided to order some shots to have with the bones. They were actually talking about doing this the night before at my party so it was pretty funny that they were getting to do this. Doing a bone luge is a thing, I just hadn’t heard of it before they were talking about it at my party. If I knew I could handle a drink, I think I would have joined in with them. But it was cool getting to watch them and they seemed to really like it (even if it was a bit messy).

We also got to try some of the new desserts! They have a buttermilk panna cotta now which had berries on top. But what was our favorite was the new Nutella bombshell (and yes, I loved that it had bombshell in the name)! It had chocolate cake that was light and fluffy topped with Nutella mousse that reminded us of the texture of ice cream but was room temperature. It was so good that I can’t even think of better ways to describe it! And we also were given the butterscotch that we’ve had in the past but now it comes with maple ice cream which was loved by all of us.

Then the chef, Jennifer O’Neill came out to the table. It was wonderful to meet her and we were so excited to tell her how much we loved the food! And we got to learn about some things that might be coming up at Wood & Vine that we can’t wait for. I can’t share that stuff yet, but trust me I will as soon as I can!

After dinner we headed across the street for the show. We couldn’t believe it was finally time to see Hamilton! We ordered our season tickets about a year and a half ago and it seemed like we would never get to this date. And we were all remembering how we realized at my birthday party last year that it marked one year until the show. And it was finally here!

The energy in the theater was electric. I think everyone was just so excited to see the show (it only opened 2 days before so it was still very new to LA). The 4 of us kept saying how we couldn’t wait for the show to start. Michelle and I both have listen to the music from the show (many, many times) and have seen videos as well. But Dani and Elisa both tried to avoid seeing stuff about the show ahead of time since that’s how they like to see shows. But we were all equally ready for the show to start.

And I’m happy to say that all the hype about the show is true and more! I don’t know how to explain how amazing this show was and how it really is an incredible piece of theater. I wish that more people could see it because it’s that great. I know that ticket prices are high and there aren’t enough seats for everyone to see it now who want to. But hopefully eventually with the tours more people can experience this show.

While it’s a pretty long show (almost 3 hours when you include the intermission), it doesn’t feel like that at all. It goes by so quickly even though it is a very full show. I could see how there could be so much more show that I’d want to see and now I’m even more motivated than ever to finish reading the book that the show is based on (I’m about 1/4 of the way through the book).

I think all of us agree that this was such a highlight of what ended up being a pretty amazing season at the Pantages. We are all hoping that we will win the Ham4Ham lottery so we can go see the show again. It’s in LA for a few months so there’s a chance that at least one of us will win. But no matter what, we are all so grateful that we were able to see it with our season tickets!

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailThe End Of My Musical Season (or Finally Enjoying Phantom) Default ThumbnailThe Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailSunsets and Songs (or Why Season Tickets To The Pantages Was The Best Decision Ever) Default ThumbnailBook Of Mormon and Marrow (or Another Night Out At The Pantages) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note)

5 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Book Of Mormon and Marrow (or Another Night Out At The Pantages)

Posted on June 27, 2017 | 2 comments

This past week was another show for our season at the Pantages. This time, we were seeing “Book of Mormon”!. Usually our shows are on Sundays, but because of some scheduling issues we had to move our show. So we went this past Thursday and it ended up being such an awesome night out!

It was a bit weird having the show on a Thursday because once I was done with work it almost felt like a Sunday to me. I had to keep telling myself that it was Thursday and tried to keep doing my usual Thursday stuff I have to get done. We knew that there would be traffic getting out to Hollywood so we ended up meeting a bit earlier than we probably needed to at my house to carpool out there. But one advantage of Thursday night shows is that we were able to park at a parking meter! We normally can’t because of the timing of Sunday evening shows, but it was nice to only have to spend $4 in parking at a meter instead of $16 to park in a garage.

As always, the 4 of us went to dinner before the show. And because we had such an amazing time at Wood & Vine last time, we knew we’d have to go back there! The last time, it was raining so everyone was seated inside. But this time, it was a really nice evening and we were seated outside on their patio.

Sitting inside was fun, but I think I might have liked the patio a bit more. It’s always nice getting to sit outside and it didn’t feel like we were in the middle of Hollywood. It was quiet and peaceful back there. And we were told that sometimes they screen movies back there! We were all saying that we would have to find out when they do that and go back for sure!

Ever since our first time at Wood & Vine, we have been dreaming about what food we were going to get the next time we were there. We decided to start with some things we’ve had before and some new things so we can see if we have some new favorites.

But of course, what we have been dreaming about the most and what we knew we’d be ordering for sure was the bone marrow!

This time, the bone marrow was served a bit differently but it was still as delicious as we remembered it. We got 2 orders since there were 4 of us (last time 3 of us shared 1 order and it almost wasn’t enough) and it was the perfect thing to share. It was so creamy and flavorful and I’m already craving it again! There’s something so decadent about getting bone marrow and it feels like a real luxury. But it’s actually not that expensive (at least not at Wood & Vine) so it’s nice to have an affordable treat.

After eating all that, we were all pretty full. But then the manager came over and was chatting with us and asked us about what we wanted for dessert. We said how we were debating if we had room for dessert and he said that he had already placed an order for our usual. And to our surprise, they had treated us to all 3 desserts from the menu again!

We were not expecting to be treated to dessert again and we didn’t really plan our dinner to be having dessert. But even though we were all so full, there is always room for delicious desserts! We dug into all 3 of them and agreed that they were all amazing and so worth feeling super full.

This meal was just as good (or maybe even better) than our first time to Wood & Vine and we already know that we will be back before our next show this season. And we are talking about very possibly going there before every show next season as well. I just can’t believe it took us this long to discover this amazing restaurant!

We had taken our time with dinner so we were walking over to the show with only a few minutes before curtain. Fortunately, it only takes a minute or two to cross the street and we were at our seats right before the show started.

Since this wasn’t our normal night for our season tickets, we weren’t in our normal seats. But these seats might have been a bit better. They were similar to our normal seats (2 seats in 2 rows one behind the other) but a bit further back than we were seated for the other shows. But because we were farther back we had less of an obstructed side view. But even with the slightly obstructed view, I was so excited to see the show this time because the last time I saw “Book of Mormon” it was from the very back of a theater. So being up close was a nice change.

When I saw the show in NYC, Ben Platt was in the cast. He’s an incredible actor who is now a Tony winner. I had said to my friends that I felt a bit bad for this cast because Ben Platt is a tough act to follow. But this cast didn’t disappoint at all! They were amazing and they had some really fun and different takes with the characters. It almost didn’t feel like the same show because they had so many unique things that made their characters their own. Also, I felt like the choreography was very different from the Broadway show and that adding to making it feel unique and different.

We were all laughing so hard at the show and it was so much fun seeing it again now that I knew what to expect. It was totally a perfect evening out at the theater. We’ve only got one more show in our season (finally seeing “Hamilton”!) and then we’ve got 5 months after that before our first show in our next season. It’s so crazy to think that this season is almost over. It felt like it wasn’t that long ago that we were thinking that we still had a year before seeing “Hamilton”. Now it’s just over a month away!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailAn Epic End To The Pantages Season (or We Aren’t Going To Throw Away Our Shot) Default ThumbnailAnother Night At Pantages (or Hedwig Take 2) Default ThumbnailBlowouts, The Book Of Mormon, and Buddakan (or The End Of Day 2) Default ThumbnailThe Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine)

2 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine)

Posted on May 10, 2017 | 5 comments

This past Sunday was another Pantages night out for me and my season ticket group. Normally I write about the dinner first and show second (as that’s the order that we do things), but I’m changing it up a bit. The show that we went to see was “The Bodyguard” and I’ll be honest that we were a bit unsure how we felt about this show before seeing it.

But this was such a fun show! It was explained to us as almost like a Whitney Houston concert with a bit of plot between the songs. And that’s a great description for the show! Deborah Cox is the lead and she was incredible! The songs were so much fun, the dancing was awesome, and everyone seemed to be dancing in their seats. And if you go to see the show, don’t leave during the curtain call. There is some fun after everyone takes a bow and I’m glad we stayed for it. Even though this was a show we were all unsure of before seeing it, I highly recommend getting tickets for it if you are looking for a fun night out at the theater!

Now, back to our dinner. Our group is always trying to figure out where to get dinner before our shows. We have gone to the same few places multiple times and when I was at the LA Times Festival of Books I went to the Pantages booth and grabbed one of their restaurant guides. I sent a photo of it to the group and we decided to check out Wood & Vine. Wood & Vine is right across from the theater and I have no clue why we hadn’t been there before. But trust me, we will be making many return trips there now!

Only 3 of us from the group could go to dinner, and since it is all shared plates we got a bunch of things for us to all share. We started with some olives which were perfect and then ordered a few things that sounded good to most of us. Michelle and Dani wanted the Brussels sprouts and I figured I’d try it. I hate them but I try to try foods that I think I hate at least twice a year. These were good, but there is still something about Brussels sprouts that I don’t think I will like (sorry Wood & Vine). But I think Michelle and Dani were happy I didn’t like them because they wanted them all to themselves!

Dani and I also split the mac and cheese which was so perfect! It was nice and creamy and the cracker crust on it was a nice crunch. And we also got the scallops and pork belly (scallops were something that I didn’t like until recently and started to like after forcing myself to try them) and I think we were all in heaven eating them.

But for us, even just looking at the menu, we were most looking forward to the bone marrow. My grandpa loved bone marrow and I actually had some at a Tone It Up dinner the night that he died. But I hadn’t really had an opportunity to order it since then. So to get it at Wood & Vine was exactly what I wanted. And when the plate came to our table, we were not disappointed. It looked incredible!

There are no words to describe how delicious this was. It was heaven on a plate and even just writing about it is making me crave it again!

The entire time that we were at Wood & Vine, the staff was just so nice to us. We got to chat a bit with the manager (he was the one who described the show as a Whitney Houston concert to us) and it was just wonderful and friendly there. And while we were eating we were looking so happy and they were telling us to save room for dessert. We figured they were talking about the bone marrow since that was the last thing that was coming to the table. We thought that was the perfect “dessert” for us and when we were done eating our table was full of empty plates where the amazing food had been.

But then, the chocolate pot de creme was brought over to our table. We thought it was a mistake but the staff let us know that they actually ordered dessert for us on the house! We were thanking them and then the other two desserts from the menu, butterscotch with bourbon ice cream and an apple fry pie, appeared on our table too! We couldn’t believe that they got us all 3 desserts from the menu on the house!

We were full, but of course there is a separate part of your stomach for dessert so we all dug in. And the desserts did not disappoint! They were all decadent and delicious and at that time the last member of our group, Elisa, got there and we offered to share the desserts with her too. We were not planning on dessert (we might have ordered a bit less if we knew we were getting it), but it was a fabulous end to an incredible meal. And to have the restaurant give us the desserts on the house to make sure we could try them is above and beyond what I would ever expect from a restaurant!

We’ve already decided as a group that when we go to see “Hamilton” in about 3 months that we will be returning to Wood & Vine. It is really one of the best restaurants that I’ve gone to and there are so many other things on the menu that I want to try now. And of course, we’ve joked that we are going to order at least 2 plates of bone marrow to split between the 4 of us. And I have a feeling that we will be going there for a lot of our pre-show dinners for our shows next season as well.

Usually my nights out at the Pantages are more about the show than our pre-show dinner. But because of how amazing the food and staff at Wood & Vine were, this time the food was totally the highlight of the evening and has raised the bar on what we expect out of our pre-show dinners! Thank you Wood & Vine for your hospitality, awesome Broadway show discussion, and the desserts you gave us!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAn Epic End To The Pantages Season (or We Aren’t Going To Throw Away Our Shot) Default ThumbnailA Culver City Dinner (or Meeting Some Tone It Up Ladies) Default ThumbnailA Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out) Default ThumbnailAn Amazing Dinner and Show (or The Food Might Have Been The Highlight Of The Night) Default ThumbnailBook Of Mormon and Marrow (or Another Night Out At The Pantages) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food)

5 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

“An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical)

Posted on March 30, 2017 | Comments Off on “An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical)

I’m past halfway through my current season of shows at the Pantages. It’s crazy to believe how quickly this season has gone by. When we got our tickets, we knew it would be more than a year before we would get to see “Hamilton” (which is the last show in our season). Now, we have about 4 1/2 months to go before “Hamilton”! And we’ve even already ordered our season tickets for the 2018 season at Pantages. We will get 6 shows next year and all 4 of us in the current group will be doing the season again.

I’ve said this pretty much each time I recap one of my Pantages outings, but I’m so grateful to have my group that I go to shows with. We always have fun going out and we all have pretty similar musical tastes. It seems that each show we all have similar reviews on what we liked and didn’t like. So it’s working out to be a really amazing group to have these musical adventures with.

The show that brought us beyond the halfway mark of the season was the past weekend when we saw “An American In Paris”. The musical is inspired by the film that starred Gene Kelly. I’ve seen clips of the movie, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the entire thing before. But I knew that the movie featured a lot of dancing and the music was by George Gershwin. I figured there would be a lot of dancing in the show, but I didn’t know much more about it. I’ve been very happy when I’ve been surprised by musicals in the past, so I was excited to see what this one was all about.

3 of the 4 of us in the group met up for dinner before the show. We went back to Shake Shack to try it again. I didn’t love it the first time I tried it, but I got a burger protein style this time (wrapped in lettuce instead of with a bun) and it was much tastier to me that way! So I think for my future Shake Shack meals I’ll probably do the same thing. I did get a shake again, but I skipped the fries so it didn’t feel like too much of a splurge meal for me.

This show wasn’t one that we had to change dates or anything for, so we were back in our normal seats. I love our seats because even though we have a slightly obstructed view, we are super close up to the front!

We all knew that this show would have a lot of dancing, but none of us knew exactly what the show was going to be like. And there was a lot of dancing for sure. I think that this show had more dancing than singing in it, which is a bit different for a musical. It’s not that it wasn’t good, it just wasn’t what we were expecting.

The dance numbers were really incredible. There is a ballet toward the end of the show that is over 10 minutes long that is really beautiful. But since there was no dialogue or singing during that time (and 10 minutes is a good chunk of time), it did feel less like a musical and more like a dance show. Besides the long ballet number, there were a bunch of other amazing dance numbers in the show. Some were just dance numbers and some had singing with them like what we are used to seeing in musicals.

This wasn’t my favorite show I’ve seen at the Pantages, but it was still a fun show to go to! Any night I get to go out and see a musical is a great night to me! And I do love getting to see new shows that I probably wouldn’t have seen if I didn’t have season tickets. I like the variety of shows that we have in our season this year and I know that the last 3 shows will be so much fun!

Our next show will be about 2 weeks after my surgery. I’m a bit nervous about how I’m going to feel going out that soon after, but I think that having something to look forward to is really going to help in my recovery. And my friends in my group are all more than willing to help me out with whatever I’ll need so that I can attend the show. I think that it might not be my most comfortable time at the theater, but it’s still going to be a great night out!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailKicking Off A Musical Season (or Seeing A Cartoon Brought To Life) Default ThumbnailFinding Neverland (or An Unexpected Musical Experience) Default ThumbnailAlmost The End Of The Musical Season (or Watching An Audience Fall In Love With An Actor) Default ThumbnailAnother Musical Season (or Enjoying A Repeat Musical) Default ThumbnailAnother Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way) Default ThumbnailA Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season)

Comments Off on “An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,