The year I DID see Book of Mormon

Yesterday, the stars aligned, and I was finally able to see the much ballyhooed Book of Mormon. I credit the victory to logical statistics over time and also the fact that it was 19 degrees yesterday. Although I was actually surprised that the lottery enterers numbers hadn't really dwindled and that there were already a large number of people standing in the standing room line (people usually wait there for something like 8 hours for the privilege of paying $20 to stand for the duration of the show). However luck prevailed, and they called my name for the second to last pair of tickets that were front row center.

I'm not really posting this as a review of the show because the show certainly doesn't need any more publicity to keep selling tickets. But just in case my readers are more swayed by my commentary than the New York Times, it was the funniest musical I've seen (followed closely by Avenue Q, fittingly as both shows share a composer). I will say that I'm kind of surprised that the show is as mainstream as it is because it definitely has some humor that toes the line of bad taste. Then again, it's probably not any worse than South Park in terms of offensiveness, and that show has also never really suffered for viewers.

We would have had a better camera, but frankly we didn't really think we would win tickets. Note how frozen I look.

In addition to being hilarious, the cast was all excellent. I can see why both Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad were nominated for Tonys. Josh Gad is particularly funny and apparently a correspondant on the Daily Show. I haven't been watching the Daily Show much ever since I discovered Law & Order was streaming on Netflix, but I recognized him from the episode of Party Down where they cater the College Young Republicans meeting. He's the treasurer who gets a war torn flag as a gift for Arnold Shwarteneger. Which is really neither here nor there except that Party Down is also really great, and I hear they're making a movie.

The lotto dude always opens the lotto by saying "Hasa diga, everybody!" and then reminding people that the lucky winners will find out what that means (I've been to the lottery enough times to know every one of his jokes). Having seen the show, I now know as promised and can only say: well played, lotto dude.

I'm posting the photo below because it seemed to oddly tie into the theme of this post as this group looks very much the costuming of the dancing Mormons.

Practicing MJ's dance moves in the small side chamber of St. Marks Church

This was from a strange performance I did with the rest of the Thriller dancers (from the Halloween parade) at a church for a memorial service. If that sounds odd, that someone would want zombies dancing at a memorial, I thought so initially too. However, after hearing from her loved ones' remembrances and seeing a video of her learning the dance for her birthday a few years ago, it actually seemed really fitting. We're sorry she never got the chance to dance in the parade with us. It was nice to see everyone out of their flesh wounds though--we cleaned up very nice to look like a proper choir (we were in the program as the "Joyful Sounds Choir" because we were intended to be a surprise flash mob). All told it was a very surreal and moving experience (the latter not frequently associated with MJ), and I was glad to be a part of it.

Hope everyone is having a good Martin Luther King Day! I'm spending mine warm and indoors while Dinah sits vigil by her empty food bowl and occasionally sends me death stares. I don't think she realizes that keeping her at a healthy weight is actually harder on me than it is on her. I will say I feel a little guilty enjoying this yogurt in front of her.

Karaoke and failure (surprisingly unrelated)

Since that last post, I'm worried I've begun something of a Book of Mormon lottery addiction. On Friday, because the evening performance is an hour later than on normal weekdays and thus I can make it to the lottery without leaving work early--I headed over there yet again. After another unfortunate failure (which actually ended up fine because the backup plan was to see The Artist, which was really enjoyable--definitely recommended), we headed back over there for the Saturday matinee lottery. Another loss. Interestingly, my fascination with the lottery seems to be contagious (although I can't really take credit for that, as who wouldn't want to win front row center tickets valued at close to $500 and unavailable at those prices for 6 months for $32 and a half hour of time?) because while waiting for the Saturday lottery, I ran into a friend and previous lotto compatriot with her family also happy to join the lotto hoards. They didn't win either, which is a shame because her family came all the way from Canada and thus chasing this particular dragon will be a lot harder for them.

I'm not really concerned that it's a serious addiction, although I do plan to keep going back once a week where possible. (I likely would have tried for the evening show today if my boyfriend hadn't pointed out that laundry should probably take precedence). It will really only be an intervention-requiring issue when (not if) I actually win tickets and still can't stop the quiet twitch when 5:00 on Friday rolls around and I'm not heading to 49th and Broadway before happy hour. Until then, I'm counting on luck too prevail--which is a shame because it has only recently come to my attention that I might not be especially lucky. For some reason, I've always sort of thought I was, but racking my brain, the only clear memories I have of winning anything (well, anything that was completely luck) is a cookie at someone's birthday party at a roller rink when I was 7 and $50 from my school's prom committee at our after-prom extravaganza. For lack of luck, I will just have to make do with dogged perseverance. This isn't about the show anymore, this is about winning.

But anyway, unrelated to my total failure at achieving Book of Mormon tickets through the lottery--other than the fact that this is the reason I didn't try for the evening lottery on Saturday night--I celebrated my birthday this weekend with some wonderful friends. My birthday is technically tomorrow, but I figured people don't generally party it up on Monday nights. We got some Indian food and then headed to Korea Town for some karaoke. I'd never been to this particular karaoke bar, but I would go back just for the videos. They left us in the room with a complicated remote and few instructions as choosing songs was largely self-explanatory. About halfway through our time though, my friend found you could switch the back-up videos to odd little dumbshows that had no relation to the songs. There was one of a girl running in a wedding dress while her, presumed boyfriend falls off his bicycle and seemingly succumbs to his injuries, causing the girl in the wedding dress to jump off a bridge leaving only her shoes behind. The weird thing is, while I was able to piece this together as the prevailing narrative, these scenes were shown in indiscriminate order. There was another one of chubby children playing with a bear cub and another of people making out, interspersed with shots of different people (I think) doing karate. My personal favorite story (which, if I remember correctly, was set to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline") involved a college student moving to some school in rural China that only had three students and winning them over with soccer. He also falls in love with their winsome teacher when they both reach for a nail on the classroom floor at the same time. It's worthy of Nicolas Sparks.

This post needed a photo. Specifically of Dinah.

You may wonder why I am recording all of this, in a post which at this point is quite clearly just a random smattering of recent events with no attempt at structure or relevance. The only reason is for posterity. Yep, playing the birthday card.

Checking into the McKitterick

Last night, I went to see Sleep No More at the McKitterick Hotel in far west Chelsea. The McKitterick is actually a warehouse transformed into a six-story labyrinth designed to look like 1920s hotel. It is the setting of the play, which is a loose retelling of Macbeth. Rather than sitting in the audience, you experience the play by wandering throughout the seemingly endless rooms each brimming with details--things to examine and drawers to rummage through. Periodically you may encounter some of the actors. You can choose to follow certain characters or just wander on your own.

When you first arrive at the theater/hotel/warehouse you are welcomed through to the front desk to check in, where they hand you a playing card. Afterwards you head immediately into a dark maze that involves feeling along the walls to find your way. This experience is handsomely rewarded when you enter the hotel bar--a 1920s lounge populated by unique characters. It very much reminded me of the bar and party scenes in The Shining. Actually, a lot of this experience reminded me of The Shining. Aside from being much darker and having more prudent carpeting choices, there were definitely elements of the Overlook in the McKitterick.

At the bar, my boyfriend and I realized we had different playing cards and also that the number on the cards was what dictated when you were allowed entrance into the rest of the hotel. We assumed it was an oversight, and I went ahead and snuck in with his group. They gave us masks that all audience members had to wear to keep themselves apart from the actors. Naturally they made them as creepy and reminiscent of Eyes Wide Shut as possible:

That's right--we were allowed to keep the masks! Doesn't it instantly up the creepy factor of my otherwise non-descript apartment?

It soon became apparent that trying to split people off from the groups they came with was not an oversight but an intention. I think they wanted to encourage people to explore the hotel alone. The 20 of us in our card group were piled into an elevator and the elevator operator went up a floor and told everyone to get out. The guy closest to the door followed the instruction and right after he got out, the elevator operator closed the door and kept going. He dropped groups of people off at all different floors.

As I exited the elevator and I and the other masked people dispersed, it was very dark and took me a minute to get my bearings. At first it seemed like a haunted house, full of masked silent ghouls (like any theater audience, silence was enforced). There were graveyards and hallways and rooms each with their own macabre details. One floor was a sanatarium with padded rooms and, for some reason, lots of taxadermied birds everywhere. My first encounter with actors was when Lady Macbeth (one of the few characters I was really able to identify) came in, took all her clothes off and took a bath. There was certainly a very voyeuristic quality to Sleep No More as the audience can get very close to the characters and scenes. At some points the actors even touch you to push you out of their way. The scene where Lady Macbeth seduces Lord Macbeth into the murder plot took on a totally different feel when several score of masked figures stood over the pair silently in judgement. Another element of the play was that the audience could look for clues to solve the mystery by reading letters or appointment books we found or by opening chests or looking in drawers.

The actors rarely spoke and when they did it was usually not intelligble. Instead the play was presented more as a Lynchian dumb show with the action communicated through dance. The actors were clearly very talented modern dancers. There was also a fascinating soundtrack that filled the halls of the hotel and grew to crescendos when an important event was about to happen. I'll be honest and say that I didn't really follow the play that much. I'm pretty familiar with Macbeth (having both read it and seen it preformed) and still had no idea what was happening in most of the scenes I came across. The only people I recognized were Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and (I think) the three witches, who were in this case two women and a man. I also gave up on looking for clues at some point and just enjoyed poking around for its own sake.

In the end, I feel like Sleep No More is less of a play and more of a theater experience. It is also a very fascinating and enjoyable one--different from any other play I have seen. The McKitterick closes its doors in November, so go see it while you can.