Hollywood on Broadway? {edited}

I think this season looks promising for Broadway, does it not? I expect attendance rates and ticket demands to sky rocket. Three {now six} of Hollywood's best on The Great White Way?

Also, added to the line up: Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman in Oleanna, and Laura Linney in Time Stands Still. (PS. Hugh and Daniel are in A Steady Rain {sounds quite realistic actually} and Jude is in Hamlet)

Is he going to sing like in The Boy from Oz? I sure hope so.

na na na na na, na na na, heeeey Jude...

Karene will be happy.

I have amazing friends.

Thanks for:

Singing show tunes with me.

Staying up and talking about nonsense for hours.

Familiarity. 

Art projects... and show tunes again. 

Getting up with me at 4AM to go see a performance we've seen at least twice before and indoors where there is no rain.

Dinner at a fun new place and words that make me brave(r).

Beach trips. And for not making fun of my sunburn even though I said at least on two occasions that I never burn.

Encouragement. 

Looking out for me. 

I am blessed. :) :) :) 

Beads. Flowers. Freedom. Happiness.

I haven't had a strong desire to blog lately mostly because the things I have on my mind are things people don't want to hear about... Well, after a long and ugly week (yes, ugly), I got to attend the HAIR performance they did for Good Morning America in Central Park. I am really glad I went... That show lifts my spirits like nothing else can.

This much I tell you for free: Getting up at 4AM was so hard but totally worth it. I crossed the park in my hippie gear and poster and definitely got some strange looks from early morning runners. I met up with Ash, Corey, Kayla, Lane, Marti and Jenny and we waited to be ushered into Rumsey Field. As VIPs, we all had the advantage of getting there later, but still being the ones who got to stand in the front. We had a great time. It was so cool to see Diane Paulus (the director of HAIR) doing her job. I want her job. Sound checks were awesome because the entire audience started singing along to Aquarius and were strangely in tune... 

The performance was amazing, of course. SO much energy. They performed a medley of HAIR and The Flesh Failures (AKA Let the Sun Shine In), Aquarius and they did a tribute to Michael Jackson. They sang "I'll be There" and it was quite a beautiful sight.  The rain held off until the last song when Gav sang "I Got Life." Sometimes I forget what an amazing singer he is. 

Michael Jackson Tribute. Sasha Allen leads the tribe. Beautiful. I want that blue shirt that kid is wearing.

HAIR and Let the Sun Shine In

I Got Life. Not Televised. He's a rockstar. 

Aquarius (I can't find a good version on YouTube so follow the link)

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7937343

A thought:

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it! 

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Copywriting EPIC Fail

Really, DiamondIdeals.com? You need to fire your copywriter. The end. 

TONYs Day

Well... The TONYs came and went and it makes me wish everyday was TONYs day. It was really an amazing experience. It started with the dress rehearsal. Ash and I met up at Radio City at 8:30AM and lined up with fellow theater lovers and waited to go inside.

We had amazing seats for the rehearsal. They had an opening number comprised of all the shows that were nominated, but the best part was definitely how many legends were a part of it: Dolly, Liza, Elton, and ok, not so much a legend: Brett Michaels. I think my favorite part was the egg from Shrek the Musical dancing and singing along to "Let the Sun Shine In." The video cuts out at the end, but to watch all but the last few seconds, click here.

They ran through the show, including the awards and had people come up and make fake speeches. It was a long rehearsal, but we were entertained... New goal: win a fake TONY. One thing that we were so confused about: Neil Patrick Harris sang a song at the end that basically told us who won? I don't get why they included that in the dress rehearsal. You can watch that here.

After the rehearsal, Ash and I walked through the street fair along 6th Ave and then went home to get ready. At 6PM, Meghan, Anna and I met up with Ashley again and lined up to go inside. Once inside, we split up as Anna and Meghan had seats on a different level. Ash and I found out that we had orchestra seats the night before and we about died. Thanks to Jill and the Roundabout Theatre Co., we got to sit in their section, right behind the cute boys from Waiting for Godot who were playing Nintendo DS and eating string cheese.

The show went on with amazing performances by Rock of Ages, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, HAIR, Next to Normal, Billy Elliot, Shrek the Musical, and the traveling casts of Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys and Legally Blonde. Billy Elliot won so many awards, it was ridiculous. I'm excited that Karen Olivo won a TONY for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. I was also thrilled that The Norman Conquests won Best Revival of a Play and HAIR won Best Revival of a Musical. Well deserved. Alice Ripley made a WEIRD acceptance speech after receiving her award for Best Actress in a Musical, for her performance in Next to Normal.

After the awards, Meghan, Anna and I headed to Applebee's to kill some time because it's the classy thing to do, apparently. Then we headed up to the HAIR afterparty at Tavern on the Green. Thanks to Forbes Candlesh we got to go! The party was so fun. I still don't understand how I didn't see John Stamos and Anne Hathaway who were apparently there. I got to briefly talk to Jeffrey Rush but he seemed really out of it, so I'm not sure that counts as a meeting. Earlier that evening, he received a TONY for Best Leading Actor in a Play. It was so fun to be there with my friends and to experience a night filled with excitement that honors the hard work that so many put into theater productions.

These are completely out of order, but I can't get them to move around for some reason...

Me and Gavin, my vote is for him... If only I were a TONY voter.

Self explanatory...

SO color coordinated! Triple A, Meghan and Rory

Rory. Me. Post TONYs.



Ash, Gavin and I.



Sooo excited! Waiting for the show to start.


Headed on a cab over to Radio City



Post dress rehearsal, Ash and I celebrated by eating Empanada Mammas at the street fair.


At the dress rehersal.

Finale for the opening number

Ash and I at the rehearsal.

I must be dreaming... again

Seriously, someone pinch me now. TONY awards and TONY dress rehearsal? SERIOUSLY???? I think my brain fell out. 

Dreams come true, biatches.

I'm sorry if you're offended by the title, but if you saw the PBS special In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams, then you know that is a quote that was used in it. 

ANYWAY... I love Broadway, clearly. And one day, I asked myself "Hey, wouldn't be so awesome to go to the TONY awards?" 

And I looked everywhere for tickets than don't cost more than my future first born child/kidney, and seat filling options, and well, came up with nothing. I was truly disappointed. And then the TONY awards thought "hey, wouldn't be so awesome to conveniently place ads for the TONY awards everywhere Alina looks so she can be reminded of how she doesn't have a ticket?" And truly, everywhere I looked was a TONY ad. It's like their ads threw up all over the city. 

Meanwhile, Ashley and I were beating our brains out trying to figure out what to do. And I kept having all these dreams about the TONYs (we all know of course, how I dream almost every night about the weirdest and yet, realistic things). Awesome. The TONYs haunted me even in my sleep. So there was no escape. 

And then I was looking at Twitter and saw that you could enter for a chance to win 2 tickets to the TONYs dress rehearsal. All you had to do was answer some trivia and you would be entered in a raffle. I immediately told Ashley who already knew... She helped me answer my questions and we both crossed our fingers and hoped and hoped and hoped. 

And Ashley won. Which means, Ash and I are attending the TONYs dress rehearsal. It's not the actual show, but I'm not about to start getting picky. As soon as I found out, I did a little dance. In the office. I am not kidding. I have several witnesses who will testify of my obnoxious excessive celebration. 

Ash, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!