South Pacific, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Princess and the Frog

South Pacific tour at the Winspear.

Winspear Review: I liked it much more than I thought I would. Seats are uncomfortable (though not as bad as the Wyly) and the space is SO much more functional than the Wyly. (OMG don't even get me started on that stupid building. Had the architect EVER stepped foot inside a theater before? There's no way.) You're in very close quarters with your neighbors, and that can be an issue. This is terribly cruel sounding, but everything really is bigger in Texas and these seats did not accomodate for that. My mother described my seated position as "suspended hovering" which is absolutely correct. So that was frustrating. Otherwise, it was fine. The space is absolutely b-e-a-utiful.

South Pacific Tour Review: Emile: sounds like Paulo Szot (not as pretty) but absolutely fabulous and dreamy and wonderful. Nellie was fine...just came back from playing Elphaba for 2 years and it absolutely showed. She had some very bizarre contemporary witchy things going on with her belt, and it seemed a bit anachonistic...(can you have vocal anachronisms? whatever..) but she had some really lovely moments and I enjoyed her performance overall. Bloody Mary and Billis were big big big disappointments. Ensemble was lovely, but the female dancers really weren't great dancers at all and the sailors (salivating over females) couldn't have been gayer. Lt. Cable was beaaaaaautiful and had a lovely voice, so that compensated for a bit. Wonderful set, wonderful staging. Gorgeous orchestra. Overall, I recommend it.

Also saw Fantastic Mr. Fox this evening. Really enjoyed it. Lovely voice work, kickass animation, and Roald Dahl. Doesn't get much better than that. I love Wes Anderson, but there always seems to be this underlying pretention in his stuff...that just oozes out. *cough* Tenenbaums. Anyway, the animation helped dilute that a bit.

Saw Princess and the Frog yesterday. (I made myself see these two before I revisited Up in the Air. But now I can see it again!! Yay!) It was aight. I was really hoping for this glorious Disney comeback, but it didn't happen. It's sweet, and Randy Newman's songs were fine, but they really, REALLY needed Alan Menken to pump out some power ballads and cheery upbeat tunes. I hope they continue doing 2D stuff and get back on track with the golden Disney stuff. It seems like they almost aren't capable of really having any faith in it...like the only way they can really do it is if they mock it (Enchanted.) But the reason those films were so glorious is because they were taken seriously. Le sigh.

And now, some more dramaturgy. Since I'm not auditioning and might not legit be AD, I figured I'd unnoficially dub myself as dramaturg for Rosensweig and do a bit more research this evening. I'm about to go through a Wendy Wasserstein book and basically write out all the shenanigans mentioning Rosensweig. Yee-haw.

Tomorrow, babysitting my favorite munchkin bright and early, SANDERS SHOW (last week...I really might cry. like really.), then callbacks. Yippee! I am hella excited! For realz! Legit! And all that jazz!