Ned Donovan - Ithaca ‘12

Hey everyone,

So if you know me at all, you know that I am obsessed with the musical “Passing Strange”.  My story with Passing Strange is kind of fun, because I didn’t want to see it when I first read about it in the NY Times that February, and then when I went to the city in March, my friend Debra Evans informed me that if she was going to help me find cheap tickets, I was required to see Passing Strange.  I begrudgingly agreed.  Man, was I wrong.  I was on the edge of my seat, laughing uproariously, crying, rocking out, enjoying myself fully, just the way theatre was meant to be.  I saw many shows that week, including Sunday in the Park with George, In The Heights, A Catered Affair, and more; and Passing Strange easily took the cake for the best thing I saw that season.  I came home, saddened that no CD of the show

existed yet, and told everyone to go see it if they were in New York.  Not many people listened.

Fast forward a few months and we’re in June of 2008, the CD rendition of Passing Strange is totally a letdown in comparison with the beauty of the show, many songs are overlooked, and the interludes which made the show so great aren’t in there.

Last week my mother, Nicole, and I went up to the Maine State Music Theatre to see the preview night of their new show “Crazy For You”.  As always, I loved what I saw at MSMT.  Now the first thing that will get said to me by anyone who was also there was that the Technical aspects were a mess.  Yes, this is true, but there were a lot of them, and preview is not opening, it’s essentially dress rehearsal people pay to come see.  The tech issues happened, the show moved on, from what I hear from other people who have seen the show since, they have worked out most if not all of the kinks, and I still enjoyed myself despite them.

Tony Yazbeck is a god.  That’s really all there is to it, he takes the show, makes it his own, and truly shines on this stage.  As Bobby Child/imitation Bela Zangler is hilarious, fun, and boy can the guy dance!  His real-life fiancée Jessica Lee Goldyn plays the romantic lead Polly Baker.  Together they take the show under their wing and guide it through a night of singing, dancing, hilarity, and Gershwin music!  Oh did I mention that they were Al and Val respectively in the broadway revival of A Chorus Line?

It’s the song that rings in most aspiring musical theatre performers.  ”God I hope I get it! I hope I get it! How many people does he need?”  That number from A Chorus Line accurately sums up the feelings most people have at an audition.  How many times have you heard a cabaret group do the song “One”?  I can say I’ve heard it a lot.  Every Little Step is a documentary following the audition process of the 2005 revival of A Chorus Line on broadway.  They take you from day one, to shots from the performances, complete with callbacks, and rejections; laughs, and tears; and thrilling moments of exultation all the way to moments of bone-crushing defeat.

It also tells the tale of the coming about of A Chorus Line, when Michael Bennett sat 24 dancers down in a circle, and they had a 12 hour talk session where everyone told their stories.  It was captured with a reel to reel recorder (I believe the recordings are in the archives at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts) and from those conversations a show was born.

Hey everyone,

So last night my mother and I went up to Brunswick to see the opening night of the Maine State Music Theater season with The Light in the Piazza.  This is a show which NY Times called “the most romantic score of any Broadway Musical since West Side Story”.  MSMT’s production certainly lives up to that statement with a beautiful orchestra directed by Edward Reichert, professor at the University of Southern Maine.  He brings Adam Guettel’s beautiful score to life just through the harp-driven melodies.  (Coincidentally, Ed was my vocal coach all through high school, and currently is the vocal coach for the Musical Theatre students at USM.)  Also in the pit is my friend Shannon Allen who played Cello 1 for my production of The Last Five Years in May 2008.  I have to say, that this is one of the most complete casts I’ve ever seen at MSMT.  Usually MSMT never has a weak link in the cast, but in this production especially, no one is overly outshined by another actor.

The musical takes place in the summer of 1953 in the Italian city of Florence (there is one scene in Rome, and a few phone calls to America).

Hey everyone,

My Father, the City Council Vice President

So I am currently in Allentown Pennsylvania, spending my last few days with my dad before I head back up to Ithaca.  My father, an Allentown City Councilman (see accompanying picture) wanted to show me some sights that I hadn’t seen yet, so he brought me to America on Wheels.  It’s a museum, documenting America’s car history, but also the way the automobile industry shaped the Lehigh Valley, and brought about Pennsylvania’s first major economic boom.  As I learned the other night, Allentown is the third largest city in the fifth largest state in the country.  The Pennsylvania Turnpike was the first major interstate highway, and it shaped the way our country’s roads and highways were formed.  I learned all of these things while in Allentown, with a lot of help from America on Wheels.

Below is a gallery of all the photos, you can also find them in the photo section of my site. 

The museum was a good blend of written history and visual stimulus.  From the section entitled “The Legends of Speed” featuring various race cars of all different shapes, sizes, and eras; to the section entitled “Deja zoom” which handled the new resurgence of the electric car, and the possibility of a hydrogen cell car.