mike and i have had the privilege of attending a variety of shows over the past two weekends and since i know you are all coming to new york soon to see whatever we recommend (right??), here's a preview from an amateur theater critic. (um. me. you got that, right?)


1 - 101 dalmatians

who? saw this with our pastor, his wife, and their kids

why? got discount tickets

how it was: i was super disappointed that there weren't more actual dogs! most of the show was just people dressed up in dog costumes, but i know for a FACT (well, read it in the newspaper, you judge the merits of the "facts") that they had twenty dogs ready for the show. in the end, the dogs only crossed the stage three times in whole show. either have only people in costume or actually use the dogs - don't just tease us.

also, there was a weird moment where one of the "puppies" asked "what happens when mommy and daddy dogs go in the bushes?" and the show came to a grinding halt while the daddy dog tried to figure out what to say. no way that this could go by curious kids and parents were going to have a hard time brushing it off later. inappropriate.

survey says: if you get $4 tickets and you like kids' stuff... don't bother. go see something that's actually good. or go to a shelter and walk dogs. you'll see more of them there anyway.


2 - defending the caveman

who? we saw this one with several couples from our church

why? mike and i saw this one in chicago years ago and it was not only hilarious, we found it to be right on point with regards to the differences between men and women

how it was: we remember it being better in chicago (this particular actor - it's a one-man show - swallowed the comedy on some of our favorite lines), but still made several good points and we laughed and had a good time while it happened.

survey says? ticket prices are too steep for this particular show. had we paid a more reasonable fee, we would probably have enjoyed it more. this is $20 a person entertainment.


3 - weekend with a killer

who? mike and i saw this together

why? we got discount tickets and thought we would try it - we'd seen something last year at this particular theater that we have both liked and we figured it was worth the risk.

how it was: from the music at the beginning (they opened the house 10 minutes before the show was supposed to start and we still cycled through the terrible music tracks three times. really? you can only find three minutes worth of crappy music?) to the horrendous over-acting to the atrocious script.... we walked out during intermission. i felt a bit guilty about this because there were only 25 people in the small theater to begin with and nobody seemed to be having a good time. it would be devastating for the actors to learn that they were not going to complete the show that night because the entire audience had walked out. on the other hand, i just couldn't take any more.

mike suggested that we try to get tickets to go back one night and show up for the second act explaining that we wanted to know how it ended but we could only tolerate 45 minutes of the show at a time. we assumed that this would not go over well with the box office so we haven't tried it.

survey says: stay far far away. unless you want to go and tell me how it ends because i am mildly curious if they finally DIE already or if they just keep overacting till the curtain falls.


4 - la cage aux folles

who? a large group of people from our theater group went to see it because the director of "fiddler on the roof" which goes up in a month is assistant to the director of this broadway revival

why? we heard it was amazing and we wanted to support our director

how it was? amazing. the dancers were so good and so athletic and so all around fan-freaking-tastic and the principal actors really held up the show without turning in to caricatures of themselves. we laughed, we were moved, we woo-hooo-ed, we gave standing ovations...

survey says: go see this one. now.

and then come see "fiddler on the roof". we open may 8th!