New York City: Nine Shows Reviewed and Ranked, A Guest Post by Marlo Berberian

A Guest Post by my beautiful niece Marlo Berberian

 

I guess I'm here to tell you about my amazing week with my mother. Oh, and mom, if you're reading this, THANK YOU!

Sunday: We met up with my cousin and aunt and had molecular engineered food (yum) at WD 50.

Monday: Spent the day in Central Park, row boated(got terrible blisters) and saw Hair. We got tickets last minute and I'm so glad we did. The cast was excellent, hilarious, and naked. Overall, I really enjoyed the show, my only problem was that for the first act the orchestra overpowered the actors, it was a shame. But for Act two the sound was much better and the show was very enjoyable. I kind of want to be a hippie now.

Tuesday: Went to the Strand bookstore (amazing Shakespeare collection and rare $900 copies of certain plays). Later that evening we saw Harry Potter himself in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Such a great show, and the work Daniel Radcliffe put into his role was incredible. There was no hint of an English accent and his dancing was spectacular, as good as the ensembles, which is impressive because he had never danced before the production. His singing was good, nothing special, but still impressive. Now, here's something I think some of you may disagree with: I thoroughly enjoyed this production and I completely enjoyed John Larroquette’s performance, but I think Joel Grey should have won the Tony for Anything Goes.

Wednesday: We saw the matinee of Anything Goes. Yes Sutton deserved best actress, and yes she belted for us(no words can describe). The cast was so on top of their game. Really an impressive show, although I have to agree with Mr. Becker, the swinging doors on the nationals set was a great idea and I actually wish this production had it as well. Later that night, my mother and I caught Catch Me if You Can, another fun show. Not my favorite, but a really great cast. Norbert Leo Butz also deserved his Tony and Aaron Tveit is just really frickin' hot. In fact this whole show is kind of a great big pile of hot, what with the showgirls and Aaron...need I say more?

Thursday: A nice simple day. My mother and I just kind of walked around all day in the Columbus Circle and Central Park West area. It was refreshing, and I had the best spicy edamame at Sushi-a Go Go. We went to this thrift store called Housing Works, and then in the evening we saw Sister Act. I was a little scared for this one. I hadn't really heard anything about it and I was afraid it wasn't going to be good, but it was. I mean, it took a little while to pick up, but once it did...WOW, it really picked up. The talent was incredible and I'm sure some of my enjoyment from this show came from being raised Catholic and having seen absurdly strict and stiff nuns and priests. Also, you'd be surprised by how much a costume designer can accomplish with simple nun habits.

Friday: Good day. My mother and I headed over to 40th to go to The Drama Book Shop. What a wonderful place. We were probably there for 2 hours looking for scenes and monologues for my intimidating junior year. We saw Harry Potter at the Ziegfeld Theatre (which used to be a Broadway theatre, but is now a movie theatre) and the house was practically empty. The movie was excellent, but there were like 900 empty seats, so when people clapped it felt kind of awkward. Later that night we saw the controversial Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark. Well.............it was..............something. Visually, it was amazing, so interesting to watch, the $65 million dollar set and the fly system blew my mind. WARNING: THE NEXT FEW THINGS I"M ABOUT TO SAY ARE GOING TO BE VERY BLUNT. The music was terrible, what the heck was Bono thinking? He should've been the one to get fired. The dancing was practically lifeless, there was no energy. The costumes were, in my opinion, distracting. They were creative, yes, and I liked about half of the sinister six's costumes. Peter Parker had no transition and transformation into spider man, there was no arch, it was like, "I'm not Spiderman, I am Spiderman." Both leads however had excellent voices. I'm not sure if I liked when they sang together, but individually they had great voices. This is just one girl’s opinion; some people actually really liked the show. The show has a good message and again, visually it's a masterpiece.

Saturday: We went to the matinee of Priscilla Queen of the Desert . Three drag queens road tripping through Australia. It was certainly entertaining and it won best costumes for a reason. The story was engaging in the beginning of the show, but not carried out very well. It was a flashy, glitzy, and glamorous production, but it's not one of those shows that you would want to see again. It was fun, but only fun. Later that night we went and saw War Horse at the Lincoln Center. All I have to say it that this was the most beautiful, engaging, inspiring, tear jerking show I have ever seen. Brilliant theatre, brilliant production, amazing show, it deserved best play. I wish I could share this production with everyone I know. This show is why I do theatre and it's this kind of show that gives me inspiration.

Sunday: Our last day in the city and my mother and I desperately wanted to see Book of Mormon, so like a week before we left we searched the internet everywhere for seats that weren't $800 each. Finally, we came across two seats, that weren't next to each other, and that had partially obstructed views. We figured, why not try our luck at the seat drawing lottery? We had to get to the theatre 2.5 hours before the performance, stand around with 300 other people trying to win tickets, and put our name into this huge basket. The first 14 seats drawn would be given the front row, and the next 8 would be given slightly obstructed box seats. Believe it or not my name was drawn 3rd and my mother and I received 2 tickets front row center! I never win anything, so this was a miracle to be sure! The show was crude, crass, hilarious, brilliant, and wonderful. It was everything I thought it would be and I'm so happy that I got to see it. Really a great show! It's the kind of show that just puts you in a good mood.

So, that was my trip. It was really lovely and I'm so glad that I can write about theatrical things here. I want to thank my mom again for such a fantastic time.

My show ranking in order of favorites:
1: War Horse
2: Book of Mormon
3: Anything Goes
4: How to Succeed
5: Sister Act
6: Hair
7: Catch Me if you Can
8: Priscilla
9: Spiderman
Nothing was bad at all, but if I had to order them, that's how I would rank them.
-Marlo :)