Kitten's Conan Adventure

TWO NOTES: This is a longer entry than usual, and full of tour spoilers, so if you haven't yet seen the show, you may wish to skip this. But I want to record as many details as I can as soon as I possibly can. There are also a couple of video clips from past shows. But for those of you who couldn't make it to the show, I wanted you all to see what went on. And if any YouTube clips from Mohegan Sun get posted, I will post them for you as well. And photos to come soon, too. :)

So last night was THE night. The night that Sister Kitten and I exchanged almost two dozen E-mails over the actual purchase of tickets. The night we both had been looking forward to for so long. Yes, kittens, Conan was at Mohegan Sun last night, and I, along with my lil' sis and BFF, were lucky enough to see him.

And the evening was worth every. Precious. Penny. Sister Kitten even stopped smarting over the $4 fee the casino ATM charged her, as well as the $25 she lost at the slots.

Anyhoo, first of all, about the arena itself. It's a small enough arena that there isn't a single bad seat in the house, but isn't large enough to feel like it's an arena, if you know what I mean. There are about 10,000 seats in the house. Conan said it was the largest room that they played on the tour, and the place was almost entirely sold out.

The show started promptly at 9:00 PM with the opening act, Reggie Watts. He was, in a word, bizarre. Lots of his riff between songs--if you could call them those--were nonsensical. Every third or fourth word he uttered was "shit". He opened his set with a really bizarre song about grandparents, then continued with a "tender" song about lovemaking, and closed with an interesting beatbox mix. I will admit that some parts were laugh-out-loud funny, but man, this guy was weird.

But we didn't come to the casino to see Reggie Watts, no!!! We came to see our favorite ginger!! There was a ten-minute break between the opening act and the main attraction. And then, Conan's band, the LPB Band, came onstage.

The LPB Band consists of almost all of the members of the old Tonight Show band, sans Max Weinberg. And they were tight. Awesome. Seriously, one of the best live bands I've ever seen. The horn section is particularly amazing.

The band opened with an amazing cover of "Move On Up." LaBamba had lead vocals! And the man can sing--more than just the falsetto he used in the "In the Year 2000/3000" skits. And then he, Jerry Vivino (on sax) and Mark Pender (on trumpet) went into the audience and played! It was wild! And then Pender blew his trumpet--and held the note--for what seemed like five minutes! Lots of people were chanting "Blow man blow!" It was a great opening to the show!

And then, the arena went dark and the screens filled with the words, "Two months ago..." (Note: the video clip says "One month ago..." because it's a clip from one of the Vancouver shows in May. Thank you, YouTube gods).



At that very moment, the lights start to flicker. Andy Richter makes his grand announcement. And then, he walked onto the stage, clad simply in a dark grey suit, purple shirt, and a full red pompadour and beard. The audience immediately was on its feet.

Conan immediately went into his monologue, and it didn't take him long to start riffing on the casino's location: “We’ve played a few casinos on this tour, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, but now the crown jewel – Uncasville. There’s a name that rolls off the tongue – Uncasville." (He's not the first performer to make fun of Uncasville's name, trust me. I saw Debbie Reynolds at the Cabaret several years back and about a third of her show was based on that).

There was a Connecticut Sun game in the arena hours before the show, and Conan quipped that when he entered the arena, people thought he was one of the players. That was just one of the many examples of self-deprecating humor during the show. At another point, he compared his legs to "a pair of ivory Slim Jims dusted with paprika." He also mentioned that someone told him he resembled the Brawny paper towel guy after a bone marrow transplant, upon which he quipped, "I'm not feeling very absorbent right now."

Conan also took lots of ample time to make fun of our fair state of Connecticut. He mentioned that there would be lots of raccoons on the drive home giving him the finger. He took time to riff on the robotic wolves that could be seen throughout the casino, wolves that cried out such things as "Your children will never go to college!" He said that he couldn't say, "Hello, Uncasville!" at the top of the show because not everyone was from Uncasville. He told the story of the guy he met who drove fifteen hours, from Maine, to see the show, and started doing an imitation of the man driving, pacing back and forth across the stage. At one point during this riff, a woman screamed out that she was pregnant, to which Conan responded, "That was one wild night in Uncasville!" One thing I love about Conan is how he plays off of the members of his audience so well, and tonight was certainly no exception.

Near the end of the monologue, which was about half an hour, he talked about how he "visited a therapist" and how she told him about the "eight stages of grief for a late-night talk show host who just lost his job." The eight stages started off with...well, rawther than me tell you about it, allow me to show you:



After the monologue, the fun continued when Conan picked up his guitar. There is just something so sexy about him playing guitar--and he can play! The band started playing, and his backup singers, the Coquettes, danced on stage. This is when Conan started to sing about his childhood, to the tune of the Elvis tune, "Polk Salad Annie". Following this very high-energy number, there was another video clip featuring a "generic network executive" (clip from one of the Seattle shows):



Speaking of Conan and women, he said that women have never liked it when he growls and hisses at him. Au contraire, mon frere! That's one of my favorite things about him, and many other women in the arena felt the same way! (And some men, too. At one point Conan asked, "Why do I always get the guys? At the hotel there's always a line of three or four guys waiting for me, wanting me to watch ESPN together.")

After this number, Conan introduced his old sidekick, Andy Richter, to the tune of "Trololo" (which sounded, to me, like something from The Muppet Show.) Andy and Conan riffed for a bit, then segued into a "commercial" for Mystic Seaport--a very raunchy commercial involving lots of "seamen" on the decks. (Please use your imagination on this one, kittens). This was one of the few weak parts of this show. This commercial was tightly scripted, and Andy flubbed his lines a couple of times. He would return a few minutes later, but only after...

...the ginormous, inflatable Bat Out of Hell from the Meatloaf. I will post pictures of it when I can. It has to be seen to be believed. It was one of the funniest sight gags I've ever seen.

The bat made a very brief appearance and was deflated very quickly. But not to fear, kittens, the laughs would continue with another old friend...

TRIUMPH!!! (clip from one of the Seattle shows) Oh, and be sure to check out Conan's outfit after Triumph's bit...



Following this clip, and this brilliant sight gag (God, I can't wait to post pictures), Andy came back on with a segment that told about "what he learned after leaving The Tonight Show." Again, it was, unfortunately, a weak segment where Andy flubbed his lines. I really felt bad for the guy, I really did. Andy can really get some funny moments every now and then.

There were no special guests at this particular show--no Dropkick Murphys like in Boston, and certainly now Stewart/Colbert/O'Brien dance-off like at Radio City. But that was okay. Deon Cole, one of the old Tonight Show writers, came out and did a hilarious set. He was even funnier on stage than he was on The Tonight Show, probably because he was free of network constraints. He played off of the audience brilliantly, and had a lot of jokes about the relationships between Caucasians and African-Americans. Very, very funny.

Conan came back after Deon Cole's set and went into a cover of "On the Road Again," with some changed lyrics about his situation about "wanting to have his own show again." When he came to the lyrics about thanking TBS for having his own show again, the arena erupted into applause.

Then out came the "Walker, Texas Ranger" lever. If anyone remembers from the old show, this was the handle that, when you pulled it, played random, bizarre, and unaltered clips from the old show Walker, Texas Ranger. However, because this bit was now owned by NBC, he had to change it to the "Chuck Norris Rural Policeman Handle." And I will say, these clips were extremely funny. I mean, really bizarre, the kind that made you think, "How the hell did these clips fit into the storyline?"

Finally, the closing number (sadly) arrived, where Conan thanked all of his fans, in a genuine, heartfelt way, for all of the support he received since leaving The Tonight Show, and ended with a cover of "I Will Survive," as performed by Cake:



Was there an encore, kittens? Not just one, but two!!! This following video is straight from the show I saw. The Coquettes each had a solo in the first encore, "The Weight", and then Conan ran into the audience for the second one, "Forty Days":



Unfortunately, this video clip didn't have the solos with the Coquettes, but it was still an amazing number.

As you could tell, I had an awesome time. Conan's amazing as a live performer, and I think he's even better without the network constraints. I can't wait to see what he does with his TBS show. I loved the fact that he was able to play music during his show; he can really shred that guitar. I really, really hope that the rumored documentary comes to fruition; I will certainly buy that DVD!

After I got home, at 1 AM, it took me two hours to fall asleep. I was that wound up from the excitement of the show. It was not a disappointment in any way. I had a GREAT time.

P.S. He DID do the string dance. That made me enormously happy. :)

More Hugh Jackman goodness

And here's Hugh's performance from the 2004 Tony Awards, when he performed in the musical "The Boy from Oz," in the title role of Peter Allen.

Drool...where's my bucket?

Bonus Clip of the Week

Hugh Jackman is hosting the 2009 Oscars! That alone is reason to watch! That is, if this clip doesn't give you a good enough reason to do so!

I'll be watching the Oscars with a bucket by my side. I need something to catch all the drool!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...sigh...

CD Review: Patti LuPone at Les Mouches

I was up late last night, since I had today off. Well, that was only one of the reasons why I was up late. I really wanted to see how quickly after midnight iTunes unloaded its latest releases. It turned out to be pretty quickly, since, when I logged on at 12:45 AM, the CD that I had been coveting for a while was available for purchase.

That CD? Patti LuPone at Les Mouches.

I was in college when I became fascinated by Patti. A good friend of mine introduced me to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Patti's version of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" was on the disc I borrowed. That was enough to make me fall in love with her voice ten times over.

That, and the fact that she was a fellow Sicilian-American girl, sealed the deal for me.

Anyhoo, that compilation CD led me to purchase a couple of Patti's solo CDs. I also have some songs from Evita on my iPod (not the whole soundtrack...yet), and her soundtrack to Gypsy (which, if I'm lucky, I'll see on Broadway if I can get a good price on tickets) is on my most-wanted list. I saw her perform "Everything's Coming Up Roses" on the Tonys this year and was absolutely blown away. I felt that if she didn't win this year, there was something wrong with democracy. Fortunately, our Patti won.

So last week, I found myself over at SarahB's blog, where she had uploaded a WNYC interview between Patti and Leonard Lopate. I took a listen, and it was an excellent conversation. Patti is a diva, and one who takes a great deal of pride in her craft. This is where I found out about her new CD. There was a sample of a track from the Les Mouches CD at the end of the interview, "Latin from Manhattan," and it sounded so good I knew I had to have it--and it's very rare that I really want to buy a whole CD.

So what's the big deal about Patti LuPone at Les Mouches? Well, back in her Evita days, Patti moonlighted in a Chelsea nightclub, Les Mouches (now closed), Saturday nights at midnight. This gig lasted 27 weeks. She'd come out of doing her 8 PM performance of Evita, get to Chelsea somehow, and perform her cabaret act.

The gig was filmed, the tracks recorded on audio, and the tapes were seemingly lost to the ages.

Until now.

So how did Patti's legendary performance at Les Mouches once again see the light of day?

Patti related the story to Leonard Lopate. A couple of years ago, Patti asked a friend to put all of her tapes from her performances on DVDs "before the tape disintegrates." Her friend found the video from Les Mouches, decided it should be a show, and then, as Patti was starting rehearsals for Gypsy, Joe's Pub had a show called Leslie Kritzer Is Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, where Leslie Kritzer sang the exact same songs and said the exact same dialogue that Patti did in the original gig. This led to renewed interest in Patti's nightclub performance.

According to Patti, they were about to release a recording of Leslie Kritzer's rendition of Patti's set from Les Mouches, when Patti stepped in and said, "Wait a minute here."

The result? The original tracks from the Les Mouches gig were digitally remastered and recently released onto CD.

And it's incredible.

You really feel as if you've traveled back to 1980, traveled back in time, to a nightclub in Chelsea, where a young Broadway ingenue is singing her little heart out. Patti's patter is so incredibly endearing in this set; she is so incredibly in awe of everything that's going on in her life, of everyone who has come to see her perform.

It's an interesting, wide-ranging set, and Patti really demonstrates her versatility well. In addition to "Rainbow High" and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," she sings some 60s standards like "Downtown" and "Mr. Tambourine Man," as well as a Bruce Springsteen tune, "Because the Night." (I think another Patti, Ms. Smith, also sang that one. I need to do a fact check).

My favorite track, however, is "Meadowlark." I've heard Patti sing this on a couple of her solo CDs, but this one is my absolute favorite rendition. It will send chills down your spine. It's unbelievable.

It's really neat to listen to this gem of a CD, and see how far our Patti has come.

Now to get the Gypsy soundtrack!

This has been a week of reviewing some favorites of mine from the entertainment industry: Patti, Carole and Paula, and Carol without an E. Which reminds me, I promised to review the other Carol Burnett Show DVD I received a couple of weeks ago.

That will have to wait, Kittens, since I have to go to bed.

After all, I have work tomorrow!

Toodles!

"The Matchmaker" at Edgerton Park

Thursday night I got a call from a friend whom I hadn't seen in a while. We had planned to get together Thursday, then our plans changed. We changed those plans to Friday, then they had to get changed again. So I suggested Saturday, and my friend had said that she had already made plans to see The Matchmaker in Edgerton Park Saturday night, but would I like to come along?

"What is The Matchmaker?" I asked.

"It's a play by Thornton Wilder. It's part of the Elm Shakespeare Company's summer series in New Haven."

Summer series?

Shakespeare in the park?

Need you ask me to come? I'm already there!

Now this play, The Matchmaker, was originally written by Thornton Wilder in 1938 under the title The Merchant of Yonkers. It was a grand, great, big flop on Broadway. How big? Twenty-eight performances big (though there have been bigger flops; I'm not sure how many are bigger, ask SarahB.) Anyhoo, here is a summary of the play, taken directly from the program, which took it from the footnote that you'll see at the end of this post:

"Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker is a farce in the old-fashioned sense. It uses such time-honored conventions as characters hidden under tables and in closets, men disguised as women, a complex conspiracy to bring young lovers together, and a happy ending in which three couples are united with plans to marry. The traditional aspects of the play should come as no surprise: Wilder himself was the first to acknowledge the sources that it was based upon. The character of Dolly Levi came from French playwright Moliere's comedy L'avare, or The Miser, from which Wilder lifted some scenes directly. A closer influence was Johann Nestroy's Einen Jux will er sich Machen, performed in Vienna in 1842. Wilder referred to his play as a "free adaptation" of Nestroy's, which itself was adapted from British playwright John Oxenham's 1835 comedy A Day Well Spent. Wilder's first adaptation was called The Merchant of Yonkers, which failed on Broadway in 1938, running for only twenty-eight performances. The Matchmaker was itself adapted as Hello, Dolly!, which began in 1963 and ran for years, ranking as one of Broadway's longest-running musicals."**

So here's how Wilder's version goes: Horace Vandergelder is a penny-pinching store owner living in Yonkers with his only relative, his whiny niece Ermengarde. Ermengarde is in love with a poor artist, Ambrose Kemper, and wants to marry him. Uncle Horace won't let this pair of star-crossed lovers take their vows, for he believes that Ambrose does not have the funds to "take care of her and support her." So he has his housekeeper, Gertrude, pack up a steamer trunk for Ermengarde and sends his niece to live in New York City with Miss Flora Van Huysen, a very old spinster. Ermengarde, naturally, whines about being sent away, and wishes there were something that she could do.

Not to worry, Ermengarde, here comes Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi! Mrs. Levi has a plan to have Ermengarde and Ambrose dine secretly at a restaurant, and while they are eating their meal, she is going to try and convince Horace to marry her. While Dolly schemes to become the next Mrs. Vandergelder, she hopes that this plan will convince him to allow Ermengarde and Ambrose to marry.

Meanwhile, Horace's clerk, Cornelius, just wants a day off from the excessive demands put upon him by his employer. He is 33 years old and has never been with a woman. He just wants "adventure!" So he and his assistant, Barnaby, come up with a plan to sneak out of the store while Horace is in New York, trying to woo Irene Molloy to be his bride. Cornelius and Barnaby carry out their plan and sneak out to New York--where the first person they see is their boss, sitting on a bench, waiting for Dolly Levi. They sneak into a boutique that specializes in hats, where Irene Molloy is the proprietor. Cornelius falls in love with Irene, and this is where the fun really begins.

After Cornelius and Irene's initial meeting, then come the scenes of characters hiding under tables and in closets, men disguised as women, a complex conspiracy to bring young lovers together, and a happy ending in which three couples are united with plans to marry.

And intertwined with all of this are the traditional Thornton Wilder soliloquies where the characters break the fourth wall, address the audience directly, and reveal their innermost feelings.

It was a really, really good night at the theatre. The sets were amazing, the costumes were fabulous, and the acting was superb. What made this play even more amazing was the fact that, every other night, this acting company alternates performances of The Matchmaker with Hamlet. I've done some acting myself, and it's difficult enough sometimes to get into character for one role. These actors have to alternate between two drastically different genres of theatre, and two completely different roles, every night. I won't be able to attend tomorrow's performance of Hamlet, the final one of the season, but am just awed at knowing what these professionals have to do to prepare.

With this performance comes the end to a fine, fine summer of outdoor theatre and music experiences. Oh, how I will miss those concerts on the Wadsworth Mansion lawn, the Art Farm Shakespeare at Middlesex Community College, and this new discovery, the Elm Shakespeare Company at Edgerton Park.

There were, and will be, many, many other opportunities for outdoor theatre and music next summer. There's the Greater Bridgeport Symphony's concert at Fairfield University, which unfortunately I had to miss this summer, more Shakespeare at Connecticut College, and lots of other outdoor concert opportunities in and around Middletown. I didn't really get into exploring these artistic adventures until this summer, and for as long as I live, I will never let another summer go by without exploring these opportunities.

To borrow something from the title of SarahB's blog, I did have a lot of "Adventures in the Endless Pursuits of Entertainment" this summer.

I hope to continue such adventures in the fall, the winter, the spring...I've got to tide myself over till next year!

*"The Matchmaker: Introduction." Drama for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 8 July 2008. .

Support Your Local Playwrights!

Last evening I had the pleasure of attending the opening night of the Little Theatre of Manchester's latest production, Sing, Virgie, Sing. It was also the Connecticut premiere of this play, which was written by Wethersfield native Anne Pie (accent aigu over the E; I still haven't figured out how to write accents with Blogger).

Anyhoo, the play takes place in 1945, during the ending days of World War II, and deals with the life of the Bellacastelvetti clan of Hartford. The title character, Virgilio, the Bellacastelvettis' son, suffered an electrocution on the Fourth of July, and no longer can talk, but communicates solely through song. His mother, Josie, is constantly saying novenas to Saint Jude, praying for a miracle. His sister, Raphaela, will not respond to her given name, but the Americanized version, Ella. Ella is embarrassed by her mother's constant praying and doesn't believe in miracles, but relies on the movie stars of the day to escape from her life.

Ella's parents want her to marry Ralph Scotstumato, who owns a produce store in the neighborhood. Ella wants nothing to do with Ralph. Her best friend Tootsie, however, has been in love with him since grade school, but complains that he never notices her. Ella's parents believe that it is destiny, or "il destino", that will lead her to marry Ralph. Ella's father, Frank, rescued Ralph's father from a well, and Ralph's father was so grateful that he promised Frank his firstborn.

Meanwhile, a subplot involves Virgie and his activities after the electrocution. After the doctor examined him and pronounced him OK, Virgie goes to all of the local offices of the four major branches of the Armed Forces and applies to become members of all of them. He receives notices from all of them, which require him to report for boot camp on September 1st.

The title of this play is very misleading. I was led to believe that Virgie was the center of the action, but he is not. He spends most of his time in front of the dining room table, looking around and occasionally breaking into song. He does not break into song that often, though, and when he does, he is sometimes escorted out of the room. The Ella/Ralph romance is the main focus, not Virgie and his performances.

As an Italian-American, I had to laugh at some of the references in the script, such as the Sunday dinners, going to Mass constantly, the overbearing mother, and the belief that Italians can only marry other Italians. However, I was disappointed that there weren't any further references to Hartford in 1945, except for one reference to working at Travelers. There were many references to the classic films of that era, though, but too many. Ella compared so many movie plots to her own life that the device, by the end of the play, had become cliched.

In spite of its flaws, Sing, Virgie, Sing proves to be an enjoyable night at the theatre. Marge Patefield's performance as Mama Bellacastelvetti will remind many of the classic Italian mother, with her constant praying to Saint Jude and mea culpa breast-beating. As Ella, Stacey Hartley displays good chemistry with Patefield in many mother-daughter conflicts that occur throughout the play, particularly when it comes to the issues of love and marriage. But Patricia Urso, in her role as Tootsie, almost steals the show with her portrayal. She is great comic relief, particularly when her character transforms from a mousy Plain Jane wallflower to Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce--which happens to be one of Tootsie's favorite films.

With all of this talk about buying local foods and local products, it's just as important to support local theatre. Sing, Virgie, Sing runs at Cheney Hall in Manchester each weekend until August 24th. Tickets are fairly inexpensive, and there's not a bad seat in the house. Go to http://www.cheneyhall.org/ for more information. And check out some of the other performances going on at Cheney Hall. It's one of the Connecticut theatre's best kept secrets!

Twelfth Night at Art Farm

Just when I was complaining about being bored, my E-mail box dinged. I had E-mail! And the E-mail was from a friend of mine: "Call me! Do you want to come to 'Twelfth Night' with us?"

Would I ever!

One of the things I like about Connecticut is our abundance of outdoor Shakespeare. Middletown is a fairly new entrant into the summer outdoor Shakespeare plays, with the wonderful organization Art Farm. Art Farm is a local theatre company, not only dedicated to quality performances, but to sustainable living and protecting our environment. You can find out more about them here.

For the past three years, Art Farm has produced and performed outdoor Shakespeare in the pine grove at Middlesex Community College. This year, their production was of the Shakespeare comedy "Twelfth Night," a comedy of mistaken identity, cross dressing, confusion, and love. Viola and Sebastian are twins separated after they are shipwrecked, and each believes the other to be dead. The play takes place in a time where it's dangerous for a woman to be alone, on her own, so Viola disguises herself as a man and is hired as a page by the Duke Orsino.

Viola, now known as Cesario, is sent by Orsino to the castle of Lady Olivia. Orsino tries to make Olivia fall in love with him, and uses Cesario as an intermediary. However, Olivia is not in love with Orsino--she's in love with Cesario, and has no idea that Cesario's a woman in disguise.

And that's just the beginning of the many plots involved in "Twelfth Night." You can find out more about them here.

It was a wonderful night for Shakespeare. There was a nice breeze, and we brought a picnic. We listened to a jazz duo before the show began. One of my friend's daughters is a cellist, and was psyched to see that one of the musicians was a double bassist. We ate our picnic dinner, listened to some jazz, and enjoyed the cool breeze in the pine grove. Then the show began, and we all sat on our blankets for two hours, riveted to the performances. We decided, after the show, that we liked it so much, we'd catch it again, or see more outdoor Shakespeare in the state.

Middlesex Community College is perched on a hill high enough that you can see the city of Middletown and its environs. On a clear day you can see all the way to Farmington and the UCONN Medical Center. Obviously, we didn't see that at 9:30 at night, but you know what we did see? Fireworks! Yes, I FINALLY SAW FIREWORKS!!! They weren't directly in town, but we could see them over towards Farmington, and closer to us, in either Portland or East Hampton. (We couldn't really tell). But we got a good, clear glimpse of fireworks going off, and while I did not get any pictures, it was truly exciting. We parked the car in an empty section of the parking lot, got out, and watched the fireworks for almost half an hour. What a perfect way to cap off a terrific evening!

I will have some "Twelfth Night" pictures up soon.

And to think I was complaining about boredom earlier today!