Potatoes in the Mist

Today we saw In the Heights , a new play on Broadway, with my SIL and a couple other people. My SIL went to high school with someone in the cast or crew so we got a discount. Also, the seats were big and roomy, and the ushers let me use the handicapped bathroom (no line, no stairs). So Bearette was happy. And the play was amazing! We were coming off a bad Broadway streak ( Rock 'n' Roll by Tom Stoppard - ugh - and a Chinese New Year Extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall - not Broadway, but close enough). This production was a pleasant surprise. It had a fun urban sensibility, great dancing, and the energy of the actors was "off the charts," as D said. Aside from a couple cliched "I'm gonna fly" tearjerking songs, I couldn't find any fault with it. It was set in the primarily Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights (hence the name). D felt a couple of plot points stretched credulity...but I didn't notice. I was enjoying the singing and danci...

So D and I kind of saw the Tom Stoppard play yesterday with L and his cousin -- it turned out he and his girlfriend had broken up (though possibly just temporarily) and he invited his cousin in her place. He told D the girlfriend was a "rude girl" and he'd been meeting a lot of "rude girls" in Florida. We go to Miami once a year, and the people we meet there are pretty relaxed and happy, but the idea of a state full of rude girls is kind of funny. Anyway, the play was awful. It was the kind of awfulness that beggars description, but I'll just say it was too talky, it made awkward stabs at humor, and it was fatally boring. If you have a yen for communism, go see The Lives of Others (it might be on DVD by now) or read The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Also, the physical seats were terrible -- really confining and uncomfortable. Think airplane seats and then make them a little smaller with less leg room. I had just gone swimming so I had all these endorphins, ...