Before I begin, however, a few informative tidbits: Album recordings for all the shows mentioned in the following article are quite easily available; you can find them at pretty much any music retailer (iTunes, Amazon, etc.). In addition, all film versions mentioned should also be easily available for purchase or rent via the vendor of your choice. Visit Ticketmaster’s Broadway page to purchase tickets to the productions that are currently running on Broadway in New York City, or click here to use Ticketmaster to find a show near you. My fellow Chicagoland residents can also visit Broadway In Chicago to find out the latest information about any Broadway productions that are in town, as well as those coming up.

Image via Wikipedia.

Jesus Christ Superstar (composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice)

A chronicle of the last days of Jesus Christ, and the people around him. It particularly illustrates the conflict between Jesus and Judas, the disciple who betrayed him. This is a staple production for local churches and/or community theatre groups around the Easter holiday, so keep an eye out for performances in your area! (It’s a great way to have a fun night of theatre on the cheap and/or without the additional travel expense.) The show has also been adapted to film a few times, including the classic 1973 version starring Ted Neely and Yvonne Elliman, as well as an Australian film production from 2000 that gives the play somewhat of a modern touch.

Standout numbers: “I Don’t Know How To Love Him”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Hosanna”, “Gesthemane (I Only Want To Say)” , “Damned for All Time / Blood Money”

Image via Wikipedia.

The Phantom of the Opera (composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe)

This recently beat the record previously held by “Cats” as the longest running Broadway musical of all time; it premiered in London in 1986 and on Broadway in 1988. The story is based on the early 20th century novel written by Gaston Leroux; it involves a promising young opera singer, Christine Daaé, and her mysterious tutor, a musical genius who dwells below the famous Paris Opera House, ostracized by conventional society because of his disfigured face. The Phantom harbors a secret love for Christine, and when another potential suitor enters Christine’s life, havoc ensues upon the employees of the Opera House.

The original cast from 1988 featured Michael Crawford as the Phantom, and Sarah Brightman (who was Webber’s wife at the time) as Christine. The musical was also famously made into a film in 2004, starring Gerard Butler as the Phantom and Emmy Rossum as Christine. There is now even a spectacle based on the show at the Venetian in Las Vegas, and a theatrical sequel, “Love Never Dies”, is due to premiere on Broadway towards the end of 2010.

Standout numbers: “Think of Me”, “The Music of the Night”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “All I Ask of You”, “The Point of No Return”.

Image via Wikipedia.

Les Misérables (composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg, libretto by Alain Boublil, and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer)

A sung-through musical based on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name. Set in France as the country struggles to come out from under the thumb of Napoleon, it tells the tale of the life of Jean Valjean, and those people whose lives he touches. Jean Valjean is originally sent to prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister and her starving family. Upon his ultimate release, he finds himself still condemned by society, and spends the rest of the play evading police and trying to make a good name for himself. Along the way, he encounters many people who, like himself, are living in a constant fight to do what they believe is the right thing in life — and this is the main message of the work.

“Les Mis”, as it is colloquially known, has received particular notoriety lately due to the fact that UK singer Susan Boyle has been catapulted to fame through her performance of “I Dreamed A Dream”, one of this classic rock opera’s standout numbers.

Other standout numbers: “Castle on a Cloud”, “Master of the House”, “Lovely Ladies”, “Bring Him Home”, “Stars”, “On My Own”, “Do You Hear The People Sing”, “A Little Fall of Rain”.

Image via Wikipedia.

Rent (music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson)

A story of a group of young artist friends relying on one another to make ends meet in New York City. The story is actually a retelling of Puccini’s opera “La Bohème”, modernized to tackle the issues of sexuality, friendship, love, and gender identity – and in particular, the very real threat that is HIV.

“Rent” was Larson’s first major Broadway success, but unfortunately, he passed away (although not due to HIV) before he was able to witness the full extent of its success. In 2005, it was also made into a film that featured most of the original Broadway cast, including Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel, who originally met while performing together in this show, and are now married and recently had their first child.

Standout numbers: “Seasons of Love”, “One Song Glory”, “Today 4 U”, “Light My Candle”, “The Tango Maureen”, “La Vie Bohème”, “Out Tonight”, “Take Me or Leave Me”, “No Day But Today”.

This is just a short list to get you started. There are many others out there, including quite a few more composed by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, so explore and find out which ones you like the best for yourself!

I used to keep a blog on LiveJournal quite regularly in the past. I did it for years, in fact. But my purpose for blogging then was to serve as somewhat of a life stream, and of course, sites like Twitter and Facebook and MySpace have stepped in to fill that purpose.

I’ve thought of doing my own kind of fashion blog too, using shots of things from my own closet … but it kinda helps when you have a partner to take pics of you. hah.

I promise to keep this space more regularly updated, though, no matter what — so keep an eye out!

We have two more performances, this coming weekend, before we close. What is next for me after that? Well, I didn’t audition for any Holiday Season shows anywhere, because I think that a Holiday show — on top of the nasty winter weather we get here in Northwest Indiana (which has been especially nasty over the past three years, I might add) AND the generally stressful time that the Holiday season is to begin with — would NOT be a good idea. Besides, I have a lot of things that I need to straighten out in my real life at the moment. I’d like to find some work, plus I’ve been considering going back to school — and if I’m going to do that, I’ve got to DO IT. Now or never. *sigh*

But … auditions for CPCT’s “Schoolhouse Rock” are likely to take place sometime in February, and I’m hoping that I’ll be ready and rarin’ to go by that time. So I shall have to part from my friend The Stage until then. *sniff*

Come to think of it, though — I wish IUN would do “The Vagina Monologues” again … or perhaps I could talk CPCT into doing it? bwahahah!

I love to try out different browsers and see how they work in comparison with one another. I have long been a Mozilla Firefox girl, but I was tempted to try Apple’s Safari today.

Survey says?

I guess I’m still a Firefox girl. But that’s not to say that Safari does not have its good points. It is very speedy and slick, and I also like the Top Sites page on Safari, which shows screenshots of frequently visited pages à la Google Chrome, only much sleeker than Chrome’s, I thought.

What keeps me going back to Firefox? Firstly, the adblocking capabilities. I have yet to find anything for any browser that compares to the AdBlock Plus extension for Firefox. Secondly, the built-in search engine. It seems that Firefox’s search engine menu offers much wider options than others for searching, and is the best in terms of ease of use. Which brings me to the third reason why I stick to Firefox: its flexibility and ease of use. It’s fairly idiot proof, and it’s extremely easy to integrate Firefox, and to tailor it to do exactly what you want.

I’ll probably still keep Safari around to muck about with, though.

Cancan Dancer:

• Pro:  Sexy!
• Con: Need lots of accessories that could be a challenge to find (velvet black choker, feather headdress, garter stockings)
• Con: WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT A CANCAN DRESS?

Michael Jackson from “Smooth Criminal” video:

• Pro: Androgynous sexy!
• Con: Another challenge as far as finding the outfit.
• Con: I’m sure that MJ, in all his incarnations, will be ridiculously overdone this year.

Minister of Silly Walks:

• Pro: Androgynous sexy again!
• Either way: Somewhat easier to find the outfit? Yes? No? Except for maybe the bowler hat.
• Pro: Funny?
• Con: This one isn’t too overdone, is it?

So I made a poll about it. TAKE IT OR I KEEL J00!!! ahahaha!

Bandslam (Aly Michalka, Vanessa Hudgens, Gaelan Connell, Lisa Kudrow) Movie about a boy named Will (Connell) who moves to a new high school and befriends two girls, Charlotte (Michalka) and Sa5m (the "5" is silent — Hudgens). Charlotte ropes Will into becoming the manager for her new band, in the hopes of winning a record deal at Bandslam — the local Battle of the Bands. Love triangle ensues between Will, Sa5m, and Charlotte. Somewhat of a cute movie, unless you happen to be one of those pretentious indie types who is dismayed by the rising embrace of pretentious indieness by the mainstream. Features appearances by David Bowie (!) as himself, and Lisa Kudrow as Will’s mom.

Julie & Julia (Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina) Based on the novel written by Julie Powell (played by Adams in the film), which is based on Powell’s own experiences as well as those of famed chef Julia Child, this is a narrative of Powell’s decision to attempt to cook each and every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook within the span of a year — and, while so doing, writing a blog about her experiences in the project. At the same time, it illustrates parallels between Powell and the experiences of Julia Child (played with dead-on accuracy by Streep) during the early years of her culinary career. Another very cute story, that will definitely make foodies and wannabe foodies dust off that old cookbook.

What’s coming up in real life, as of late? Well … I’ve been really bummed since "Midsummer Night’s Dream" closed … but at least I can keep hold of my castmates friends via text, email, and Facebook. Next up are the auditions for CPCT’s "Money", which is due to open in October. Wish me luck!

INSTRUCTIONS
Once you’ve been tagged…
(1) Turn on your IPOD/MP3 player/iTunes
(2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
(3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up–song title and artist–NO editing/cheating, please.
(4) Choose 25 (or so) people to be tagged. It is generally considered to be in good taste to tag the person who tagged you.

If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about your musical tastes, or at least a random sampling thereof.

(To do this, go to “NOTES” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, enter your 15 Shuffle Songs, Click ‘Preview’ below to tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click Publish, the little blue box at the bottom of your screen)….

1)  Ani DiFranco – “Adam & Eve”
2)  The Beatles – “Twist and Shout”
3)  Nirvana – “Milk It”
4)  Tori Amos – “Cruel”
5)  The White Stripes – “Little Cream Soda”
6)  The Beatles – “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”
7)  1996 Broadway Revival Cast:  ‘Chicago’ – “Cell Block Tango”
8)  Billy Idol – “White Wedding”
9)  Beastie Boys – “Bodhisattva Vow”
10)  Matisyahu – “Shalom/Saalam”
11)  The Ramones – “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment”
12)  Radiohead – “Lucky”
13)  1972 Film Cast Recording:  ‘Cabaret’ – “Cabaret” (Liza Minelli)
14)  Les Cowboys Fringants – “Épilogue:  Si tu penses un peu comme ça”
15)  The Beatles – “Michelle”

I’m not tagging anybody … you can do it if y’ant to. 

NB:  This list is not entirely representative of my musical taste.  Note that The Beatles show up three times.  I own lots more music than that of The Beatles, really I do.  I just happen to own more Beatles albums than I do by any other artist.  Ahem.

Looking back to my initial audition, I think there are things that I could keep in mind to improve upon, because that’s what it’s all about, right?

I was very excited about the production when I found out about it. So when I went to the audition and read, I probably went through it a bit too fast — through equal parts of enthusiasm/eagerness and nervousness. It would probably help to figure out a way to prevent myself from getting overly caught up in all those emotions, and slow the pace down enough that the directors are actually able to see what I can do.

Personally, I think I could get better at taking direction with regards to blocking too. Other people were always pulling on my shirt and stuff, trying to get me where I was supposed to be. I wish I were better at knowing that stuff instinctively … or maybe I am just a flighty ol’ dim bulb. heh.

Those are just some notes to self for next time. I wonder what next year’s Summer Shakespeare will be — I will try to be there!

* singing to the tune of “Way Down Upon the Swanee River” * “You never talked to us in high school, why should we give a damn now?” (pause) “BITCH!”

– from “The Drew Carey Show”; the Barbershop Quartet from Drew & Kate’s high school at the reunion.

One of my followers on Plurk.com (*subliminal* why don’t YOU follow me? */subliminal*) brought forth the question, if someone you knew in high school who hated you found you on Facebook and requested to be friends, would you accept?

For the most part, I have tried to get past the “why should I give a damn now?” attitude. And for the most part, I feel I have succeeded. I have a lot of old HS acquaintances on Facebook, including those that were probably a bit more ‘popular’ than me and didn’t really give me much more than the time of day, and it’s nice to get back in touch with ‘em.

On the other hand, there were a lot of people who made fun of me too, and I don’t know if I’d have the heart to add them if they requested. heh. Also, there have been situations in the past where I have found the MySpace/Facebook/Twitter profiles of old crushes & stuff from high school, and agonized over the decision of whether or not to friend request/follow them. I keep thinking that they’d wonder Who The Hell That Idiot Is, and/or Why The Hell *She* Requested To Friend Me. *sheepish* So I dunno.

My 10-year reunion is coming up too. (yikes!) I still haven’t decided whether or not to go. But mroe on that later. Hell Week calls. ahaha!

Well, I don’t have a great video camera, otherwise I’d make this a video, but here’s something for those of us from Indiana …

COS I’M A HOOSIER!

• I live in a cornfield.
• Basketball and auto racing are the only two sports in the world that matter.
• The County Fair is the social event of the year in my town.
• Going to a university whose initials are P.U. doesn’t bother me.
• Neither does coming from a town called French Lick.

MELLENCAMP INTERLUDE

• I have never missed an episode of Letterman.
• I don’t know what time zone I’m in.

Anybody have any more to add?