Greasy Grandeur

My girlfriend and I were on the subject of musicals I hadn’t seen after she showed me the second “Mamma Mia” movie for the first time, and the one at the top of the list to watch was “Grease”. But then her mother, who’d been planning a trip across the country to visit her, caught wind of this plan, and she insisted on our waiting for her to watch it together.

And lo! That day came, and the younger brother and grandmother turned out to be there with us too. In addition to the things I already knew I’d absorbed about the film over the years through osmosis, there was even more I was familiar with in one way or another, regardless of its attribution in my head to the movie.

I did not know that it ended with a flying car though. That was a perfect ending, though the mother’s opinion was rather opposite.

Anyway. Worth the wait.

Spongebob Songpants

The last two live musicals I saw were things I only learned of through subway posters that instantly excited me enough to make my attendance certain.

In the case of this Spongebob musical, my friend heard about it in the same  fashion and passed the knowledge on to me, which was enough to convince me on the spot to get tickets.

And it delivered.

I will say that seeing Spongebob's portrayal by an eminently jaunty  human in a neatly pressed shirt and tie tempts me to draw a line of descent from Pee-Wee Herman, though this specific gingery actor brings to mind some extra genetic material jn the mix from Archie  Andrews. Specifically the "Riverdale" version. This sponge was cut.

The  whole thing was actually exquisitely cast. Even the voices. Especially the voices. The combination of that and the overall sound design captured the aural identity of the cartoon. Beyond that, the set dressing was aquatically gorgeous, and the music had that irrepressible Bikini Botttom energy. Definitely feeling ready for that third Spongebob movie, which is apparently coming out within a year. I think.

Bonus Question!

If you were given ownership of a gay bar, what would you call it?

Carpe Dude.

A Tale of Trains and Time Travel

I was riding the subway a few weeks ago with a friend when this poster caught my eye. Apparently, it’s a rock musical with time travel, trains, and bears. How could I not immediately decide to see it with no other information? The last play I saw was near the beginning of the year, and that was also inspired by a random subway poster for something I wasn’t previously aware of, but this new one, “Ghost Quartet”, also intrigued my brother enough to convince him to come along. And we had a time! Light on plot perhaps? But heavy on ambience. And some banging songs too. I really liked the one where the protagonist rattled off a list of different types of dead creatures and stated the one she’d like to be was a singing ghost.

Bonus Question!

What dead creature would you be?

Vampire’s the obvious choice. My brother went with mummy, and I could make that work too.