Shows, Travel, Etc.
This past weekend was very busy with concerts. I highly recommend Josh Groban and David Burnham in concert! They were both wonderful. I didn't know too much of Josh Groban's music before the concert, but I really enjoyed it. I think I'll have to get a couple of his CD's. Surprisingly, David Burnham sang quite a few songs I had never heard before and they were all wonderful. I hope he puts them on his next CD (and that I don't have to wait TOO long for that). He has a great way with an audience and it was great to see him again before and after the show, too. Such a sweetheart!

September is going to be a very busy month. The first weekend, I'm visiting family in San Diego - it'll be nice to enjoy the long weekend down there. I love San Diego and it's always great to hang out with family. I'm sure I'll see a couple movies, too. Perhaps I'll finally get to see The Bourne Ultimatum. I've wanted to see it since it came out, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

The following Thursday night, I leave for PA, then NYC. It'll be great to see more friends and family, the Penn State/Notre Dame game, Grease, Spring Awakening, Rent (yes, when Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp extended I got a great ticket to see it Saturday night, September 15 - the last show I'll see this year in New York - I can't wait to see them again). With the Ticketmaster fees being so annoyingly outrageous, I've decided to only pre-purchase one Rent ticket for this trip, but if I can pick up a ticket for another show when I'm there, I'll probably see it again. I love Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp so much and I may never get this chance again. Hopefully, there won't be problems with the microphones this time. That was the only thing keeping the last time I saw Rent from being completely perfect.

The next to last weekend of September, I'll be in Las Vegas for Frozen Fury (Kings/Avalanche pre-season game). I'm glad my father and his girlfriend will be able to make it this year - especially since David won't be going with me. I know I won't be with them during the game, but it'll be great to do dinner with them on Friday and spend time with them Saturday and Sunday.

College football has started! It's good to have another sport! The Yankees are doing better (they're in the wild card spot now - yippee!), but I'm still really looking forward to having more sports. The summer doesn't have enough. Getting to see Penn State's second game will be great, too. I haven't been back to State College in years. It'll be great to see Beaver Stadium, go to the Creamery, Ye Old College Diner, see what's changed on campus and downtown, etc. I'm glad I'll get to hang out there with Lisa, too. My sister and I have never hung out there since she's been able to drink, so we should have a great time, in spite of the time of the game and the fact that I'll have to drive to Williamsport that night (I didn't get my hotel reservation early enough).

Very busy month. I hope I'll be able to get up early enough to enjoy the first two Kings games of the season - with them both taking place at 9 a.m. on my only non-travel weekend in September, it might be tough.

Hockey season is coming - I can't wait!

Labels: David Burnham, hockey, life, shows, sports, travel

Posted by Kat @ 10:28 PM | 0 meows

The Light in the Piazza
I got to see The Light in the Piazza again at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.  I definitely recommend seeing it if you can manage to catch it before the tour ends.  The Light in the Piazza tour site has information on the remaining citites.  I'm sure it'll tour again in a few years, if you miss this one, though, but then you'll probably miss David Burnham as Fabrizio and you want to catch him if you can, he's amazing.  The rest of the cast is wonderful, but he really stood out.

Before the show, the lady next to me explained that her friends had told her not to bother seeing The Light in the Piazza.  I told her I'd seen it a week and a half ago and had come back to see it (with a slightly better seat than my normal seat - I got lucky ), since I enjoyed it so much.  The music is beautiful and it's romantic.  I explained that perhaps her friends, like my husband, were put off by the Italian.  After the first act, she said that she thought there was too much Italian, but the music was beautiful.  By the end of the show, she told me she understood why I had come back to see the show again.   She also asked, since I'd mentioned David Burnham's CD earlier, if she should really get his CD, and I said definitely.  She was surprised that she hadn't seen him in anything before, but I mentioned that I'm sure we'll see him a lot in the future.  It's clear that with his voice, personality, and look he can accomplish almost anything he wants to in music and theatre.

It was great to see the show again.  I fully enjoyed seeing it again.

My migraine isn't in full swing yet, and I'm happy about that, but I am flushed and worried that it might be coming.  Here's hoping I get lucky today.  Perhaps if I manage to cool myself down early enough with ice packs I can keep it at bay...

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there...

Labels: David Burnham, holiday, migraines, shows

Posted by Kat @ 7:14 PM | 0 meows

What a Week!!
Any time I go to NYC, I have a great time. Surprisingly, this time I had more fun in my one night in Pennsylvania. That's not to say that I didn't have a GREAT time seeing everyone (and all the shows) in NYC.

It was great that Dad was there most of the time we were in town (he left for Pittsburgh the day before we left for Philadelphia). Craig's week got totally crazy, but fortunately we were able to see him Saturday and Monday before work kept him too occupied to hang out (he didn't even get to Philly for the Flyers game as originally planned). Seeing James on Saturday and again for Tuesday and Wednesday was great! Definitely a different visit than any of our previous trips, but we had a blast and James even introduced us to his friend who is one of the stars of A Chorus Line before we saw it (James didn't realize that his friend was in the show, but noticed his picture as we were walking past the theatre after seeing Avenue Q). I'm glad that we got to see Kenny for dinner one night, too. The fact that we managed to see everyone we really wanted to see in NYC in the week we were there was great. Plus, we got to meet James' friend Rob, who is always crazy busy with work when James and I are in NYC together. I'm sure Rob and I crossed paths at some point at Penn State, since he looked familiar and I hung out with the North Halls crowd quite a bit, but it was great to actually spend some time with him and get to know him more.

As usual, shows worked out pretty well for us, too. We went there having only tickets for The Wedding Singer (which we were able to get an extra ticket for at the last minute so that Rob could see it with us, too). I'm glad we saw that before it's gone, since apparently it's closing at the end of the year. Such a shame, The Wedding Singer was a MUCH better show than any of us expected. I'm definitely ordering the album!

The other shows we saw in the week we were there were A Chorus Line, Avenue Q, The Fantastics, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit, Les Miserables (the revival in previews), & more than half of Mary Poppins. We were there for the first night Mary Poppins had to completely shut down. Quite a bummer, but we did get to see a bit into the second act and all the first act for free. I hear the finale is amazing, so hopefully we can see it after the opening when they've worked out all the bugs. It was clear that Disney was not prepared for the show to have problems. They said nothing to the audience for the first 5 minutes it was clear there was a problem, then said they hoped to continue in 10 minutes, then returned a bit more than 20 minutes later to tell us it was all over and they had to send us home. If I were them, I would have brought out the Banks family, Burt, and (most importantly) Mary Poppins and had them sing the finale in front of the scrim. Of course, they never asked the audience...

The show reviews will be up on my review site, Kat Views at some point. With the hockey games coming up this week, it might take some time, but they'll be there.

I'll get to the Philadelphia part in another blog - I fear it might be a bit long...

Labels: life, NYC, shows

Posted by Kat @ 9:47 PM | 0 meows

Center Theatre Group response...
I did write the letter to the CTG to complain about The Black Rider and I got a letter back saying the person who chose it had seen it, loved it, etc. (To each their own..) Anyway, they offered to refund our money for the show, which I think is great and I'll call the guy's assistant with my credit card number tomorrow to take care of that.

Of course, after I finished reading the letter, I noticed that it was addressed to Ms. Kathy (my maiden name) and Mr. David (my last name). EXCUSE ME?!?!?? Are they serious? A. I changed my name not long after I got married and they have mailed me things to the correct last name. B. (this is really the most important one) the letter was (of course) signed with my correct name (it was even on letterhead that spelled it out at the top "Kathy & David _________" - definitely going to complain about the assistant (who's clearly the one who wrote the letter and prepared it for the signature) being a totally unobservant idiot who didn't even READ the letter or who it was from. I'll also complain that clearly the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre, whomever, has my name listed incorrectly in at least one system even though I've gotten mail to the right name. Man, am I glad that we didn't renew our season tickets there! They can't even get my name right when apologizing to me. PATHETIC!

Is anyone else as sad as I am about Alias going away Monday night? I'm so sad it's ending, but at least that should be one finale that'll be really well done. Alias series finale and 24 season finale all in one night - too much show for one night! Thank goodness for Tivo. What did we do without it?

I'm slowly improving from my fall last week, though I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with how sore I still am. At least I'm getting well enough that I can really enjoy the weekend baby sitting our adorable nieces! I want to be able to be fun Aunt Kathy, not an Aunt Kathy in pain... Just a couple more days till our weekend with the girls!

Labels: life, shows, TV

Posted by Kat @ 9:33 PM | 0 meows

For other Rent musical/movie geeks
Although I spend a lot of time reading Playbill.com, somehow I managed to miss this quiz when it was posted. Not surprisingly, I got 100% as I would have then... Still a couple minutes of fun for the rest of you who love Rent, though.

Check out this Rent Movie Quiz on Playbill.com.

Labels: movies, shows

Posted by Kat @ 8:49 AM | 0 meows

Another reason to love that man...
So, we were watching the special features on disc 2 of the Rent DVD and a little more than half-way through the documentary, which is so wonderful - all the special features are very well done... And David turned to me and said that he really wanted to see the movie again, since it had been a long time (the last time we saw it was in a theater the Sunday after it came out - it was taken out of theaters way too fast for my tastes) and he hadn't seen it a ton of times like I had. I just laughed and told him I can't WAIT to see it again and it can EASILY be arranged for him to watch it any time he'd like to watch it.

I had to record this moment not only because it was so sweet, but also so that a month from now when David's saying "Rent AGAIN?!?!?!?" (sort of how Tom runs from Eurotrip now) I can point to this and say, "Remember when you really wanted to see it again?" Of course, he'll then point out that he meant once or twice, not 5 or more times a week, but hey, at least we know he's interested in my favorite musical after seeing it 4 times with me already. :-)

I'll say it again - if you haven't seen the movie Rent yet, go rent it! ;-)

Labels: life, movies, shows

Posted by Kat @ 10:39 PM | 2 meows

Rent DVD!!!


I'm sure most of you who know me are surprised that I didn't write about the Rent DVD release on Tuesday (or even on Monday), but with the Olympics, the lack of enough Tivo space (since we didn't upgrade this Tivo - why bother when the HDTV DVR Direct TV system we want should be released fairly soon?), two shows (Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays on Wednesday and Aerosmith & Lenny Kravitz concert on Frida), I actually didn't have time to watch anything on the Rent DVD set (see Amazon.com's Rent DVD page for more details) till this weekend. Yes, I'm okay. I don't need to be rushed to the hospital or anything, but now that things are calming down some I am SOOO happy to finally have Rent on DVD! The commentary was great, even though it was only Chris Columbus, Adam Pascal, and Anthony Rapp. If you had to pick only two stars to be in the commentary, those playing Roger and Mark were the ones to pick. Chris explained that the one line with the bum on the street ("Who the f* do you...") was changed due to the MPAA and that one seemed to bother him the most. Amazing that they can get away with so much, but they couldn't say the f word a few times and keep the PG-13 rating. Since Chris, and many others, felt it was important that teenagers be able to see this movie, he cut it.

Chris tried to explain why he took out April's suicide, though I still don't think that was necessary or understand the decision. Not that it made a huge impact on the film one way or another, but I guess that's the thing... lol

I can't wait to watch all the other extras. I'll finally get to see the Goodbye Love and Halloween scenes that were cut! Halloween is one of my favorite songs, so I'm glad that they shot it and included it on the DVD.

The Aerosmith & Lenny Kravitz concert was great. I was surprised to see that Steven Tyler had cut his hair. It's still not short, but it's shoulder length now. Initially, it was a bit of a shock, but once that wore off, I realized that I like his hair even more now! The highlights are perfect and the length works very well for him!

I'm still on Saturday's Olympics and with a show tonight, I don't see getting caught up till tomorrow or Tuesday, but hey, they last longer for me, right?

Tom will be very happy to find out that David set up our PS2 today. We even played a couple games with our new Logitech wireless controllers. Tom, you totally need these! We asked the guy in the one shop we visited which ones he'd recommend and he said "The ones I have" and handed me one of the Logitech controllers. As soon as I saw the Logitech name on it, I smiled and thought that clearly there was no arguing with that. I've been happy with every Logitech product I've owned. I didn't realize they made wireless game controllers, but it totally makes sense.

I also got Kingdom Hearts because of Holz's recommendation. Heck, for someone as into Disney as I'd been, it made a lot of sense. Plus, the new game is coming out soon, so if I like it, when I finish this one I can get Kingdom Hearts II. :-) Still not sure if I'll get the Peach or Mario game when it comes out for the NDS, but Tom should be happy that he's managed to get me interested in games again, which hasn't happened since my sister had her Gameboy years ago (and even then I just played the games she had, pretty much). I like the Frogger game for the NDS and I'm still having fun with Nintendogs. :-)

Well, time to get ready to leave for Bombay Dreams tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Labels: concert, games, movies, Olympics, shows

Posted by Kat @ 5:12 PM | 0 meows

So sleepy...
700 Sundays, which we saw in LA last night was great. But very very LONG - especially when you were already tired and didn't have time to eat dinner before the show. I don't think I had ever seen a non-musical show that was 3 hours long. Heck, even most musicals are shorter than 700 Sundays. I wish I had known to expect that.

Surprisingly, we ran into relatives of David's (Karl & Nadine) at the show. This just teaches me even more that David knows people everywhere. He's like the east coast version of James. :-)

Very behind in the Olympics now, though probably still ahead of James. When we talked a couple nights ago he still hadn't seen the end of Friday's competitions. Oh well, tonight I'll watch Tuesday night's stuff and get through some of yesterday and the Olympics will just last longer for me. I knew this time would come and acutally expected it a little earlier. The upstairs Tivo dying and ice dancing helped me to catch up.

So very sleepy....

Labels: life, Olympics, shows

Posted by Kat @ 9:13 AM | 0 meows

New theatre, movie, etc. review blog
Since a friend of the family (and a few other people over the years) suggested that I become a critic, which seems like something that you don't just decide to do and then *poof* you're a critic, I gave it some thought. Many people ask for my advice about theatre & movies and I tell people what I think they should really see often. I sent emails to almost everyone about Late Nite Catechism, for example. So, I thought perhaps a blog would be the way to go. Anyone interested should check out my new blog, Kat Views. You can even subscribe to it if you want to be updated every time I review a new musical, play, movie, or event.

Other than that, I'm just waiting for the Superbowl. For the first time in ages, I care as much about the game as I do the commercials. Thank goodness for Tivo and the ability to pause live TV, or else when would we take a break to go to the bathroom? Since the STEELERS are going to the Superbowl, I care now.

GO STEELERS!!!

GO STEELERS!!!

Labels: life, shows, Steelers

Posted by Kat @ 11:35 AM | 0 meows

What a weekend!
So, it's been a while since I made a new blog entry, though I added the Rent preview last week sometime...

The wedding plans are coming along. David has now gotten involved in trying to get the Hyatt to get us a contract for our reception (we don't think having it by 10 weeks out is at all an unreasonable request - especially since we still need to make some more choices). Hopefully, him getting involved will send a message to the catering department that we're not putting up with any more crazy mixed messages. David means business!

Friday night, we saw the Stephen Sondheim 75th: The Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. :-) Although many people who were originally supposed to be in it (like Nathan Lane, Emmy Rossum, & Victor Garber) were not there, the cast that was (including Bernadette Peters, Angela Lansbury, Eric McCormack, Carol Burnette, Anne Hathaway, and many others) put together an amazing show. We talked to a nice couple of high school students who were in front of us and gave us the dirt on the super-diva Barbara Streisand and why she (thankfully) didn't sing (except the last two notes of Happy Birthday into the microphone). Apparently, they wanted Barbara to sing Children Will Listen (can you imagine my horror if they had made us listen to her mutilate that beautiful song when the original witch (Bernadette Peters) was there??? I guess the diva wanted them to change the key for her or something and when they said no, she said she refused to sing anything then. I love it! Imagine my happiness! I love that she's just too much of a diva and that got me out of having to hear her sing!

Saturday, I had my wedding hair trial with Lisa (my hairdresser, not my sister, though that would have been cool). It's going to look even more beautiful than I'd imagined, since what Lisa thought when I described my idea was even better than what I was picturing. She didn't charge me extra for it, so I just tipped her extra, since she spent so much time with me. It was a lot of fun!

Saturday night, we went out with a couple friends to see Greg Behrendt perform at the Irvine Improv. If you EVER have a chance to see him live, take it. He's the author of He's Just Not That Into You which I was untroduced to (as many were) through The Oprah Winfrey show when I was sick last year. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, even if you're happy in a relationship or not dealing with any problem guys - trust me, you will see someone you dated once or met once in it and you will laugh. (Heck, the people we went to the Improv with were the first person I made read the book and the first person she made read it. :-) ) If you go to see him perform and have the book, take it with you. He will do signings. I bought a new copy of the book, since I decided it'd be cool to have a signed copy and I sent my other copy to my sister before I got a chance to make sure that Melissa, Renee, and some others could read it for the laughs. Greg is going to be recording a DVD for Warner Brothers and apparently that will be at a live show somewhere in the southern CA area, so I'm going to keep checking the website to find out more about that. When I had my book signed, I asked about upcoming shows in the area, since Melissa & Tom couldn't join us this time around (too close to their wedding) and they need to experience his show. How cool would it be to be at the taping of his DVD and then be able to buy that exact show later? Definitely have to try for that.

It was also fun to hang out with friends outside of work, though due to David's early morning on Sunday we didn't hang out with them nearly as long as we would have liked.

Sunday, I finally got my nails done (I was so overdue for a fill, it wasn't even funny) so that my nails will look great for the wedding this weekend!

And that night, I got my book signed by Greg (I was surprised to be the first person in line at 4:15 and one of 2 in line until 4:45 for the 5 PM signing, but apparently it was totally supur of the moment and unannounced except at his shows at the Improv and for the day before in a sign at Barnes & Nobel). Then, we got together with Russell, Renee, Alexis, & Jennifer for dinner at the Spectrum. It was fun (as always) to hang out with them some. I forgot to ask them about the new tent they got (which they slept in inside the house Saturday night), but we're babysitting them tonight, so I'll have to make sure I ask about it then. I can't possibly describe how cute Alexis & Jennifer are! I had the pleasure of getting to sit between them at dinner (which is normally how it works when we have dinner with them) and getting to hear some of their upcoming plans and other excitement.

Other than working out, planning the wedding, helping Melissa when I can with her wedding plans, playing Bunco once a month, and going to shows, we haven't been up to anything. Of course, we think that's more than enough!

I'm really excited about Melissa & Tom's wedding this weekend in Vegas! We're driving up on Thursday (after checking out our glass options for our new windows in our bathroom and eventually closet) and going to the bachelor/bachelorette party that night, helping out where needed on Friday with favor assembly and anything else, and then the wedding Saturday morning, Memere's birthday party at the Rio buffet Saturday night, and checking out the stateline roller coaster finally on the way back from Vegas, since we always fly there. I have a chiropractor's appointment set up to fix me on Monday after work. :-)

Labels: life, shows

Posted by Kat @ 12:19 PM | 0 meows

First Rent Preview I Saw in Theatres
This past weekend, I finally got to see the Rent preview on the big screen. Okay, so it was only the second weekend it was showing in theatres and it was only the second movie I saw where it was even a remote possibility that I'd get to see the preview. Finally still applies. As soon as I saw New York come on the screen, I turned to David and said, "This could be it!" I was so excited. I was even more excited when I heard the first "Seasons of Love" chord. I was bouncing in my seat. After the preview (which is by far the longest movie preview I've seen in a while), there was some applause and one guy said "Yeah" behind me. I keep telling David that I'm not the only one anxiously awaiting it's release on November 11th, but I'm not sure he gets it yet.

This coming weekend, when we see Batman Begins in IMAX (it was still too crowded last weekend), I know I won't get to see the Rent preview, since they only show IMAX previews. I may just have to sneak into another movie for the previews if the timing works out okay. I saw a lot of things in the preview on the big screen that I missed in the tiny version on the computer. The more I read and see about this show, the more excited I am. Let the skeptics assume it'll be horrible and that they'll ruin the show we love. The original cast members are happy with it and I don't see how anyone who wasn't in that cast could feel closer to the show than they do - they knew Jonathan Larson and worked with him. I also feel a lot better reading the Rent blog and seeing that Chris Columbus (director) is a renthead just like many of us. :-)

Okay, enough rambling about Rent. The wedding is coming along great - probably printing the menus for the rehearsal dinner this weekend. One more thing to cross off the seemingly endless list. I can't believe that Melissa and Tom's wedding is only 2 1/2 weeks away. So exciting. I can't wait for the amazing Vegas trip and their wedding. Plus, I'll finally get to see Mystere. The oldest Cirque show and I still haven't gotten to it. Then, we'll need to see the two newer ones, though by then I'm sure they'll have opened something else we want to see.

Apparently, the NHL is going to be back in order soon. We'll miss Frozen Fury this year, since it's supposed to be the same day as our wedding, but missing that one year really isn't a big deal. We'd much rather miss that than the first home game, which we'll be in town for, since it should be right after we get back from our honeymoon. :-) It'll be nice to see hockey again.

I think that's it for updates now, though I'm hoping the Yankees start to play soon. They're making me nervous!

Labels: baseball, hockey, life, movies, NHL, shows, Yankees

Posted by Kat @ 3:06 PM | 0 meows

Happy Turkey Day!
Happy Turkey Day, everyone! We're staying up here rather than going to San Diego this year. It'll be my first year in Orange County for Thanksgiving - ever, I think. Definitely strange, but it'll be good to spend a Thanksgiving with David's family. We decided last year that spending holidays apart was ridiculous, so we started to alternate them. It's also good that we're not travelling for Thanksgiving, since we have so much to do this weekend. We're going to work on getting more of the house packed up and clearning out the room we have to refinish before we list the house. We're also going to look at some master bathroom ideas so that we can start to figure out what we want to do. There are so many options when you're tearing out everything that's already in the room. It's so much fun!

We're also seeing Caroline, or Change Sunday, which should be interesting. I love Angels in America (also by Kushner), but wasn't impressed by the Tony performance of Caroline, or Change.

Last night, we went to our favorite restaurant (Cafe Tu Tu Tango's) last night and saw our favorite waitress (Clara) for the first time since we got engaged. Clara sat down with us for a while to get the whole story and the update on our engagement and the new house. Susana (I'm pretty sure this isn't spelled correctly), the psychic who does readings there, came over to see the ring and tell me that she does a special reading closer to the wedding day... They gave us an extra dessert with a candle in it and announced our engagement to everyone around Clara's section outside... It was so sweet! I am really going to miss being super close to Tu Tu's when we move. Sure, Anaheim isn't that far from Irvine, but it won't be just down the street any more and I'll miss that.

Okay, I've done enough babbling for now. Have a great Turkey Day!

Labels: holiday, life, shows

Posted by Kat @ 11:06 AM | 0 meows

TGIF
Glad that I made it to Friday! My hair is now much cuter and once I get my nails done tomorrow, I'll be prepared for the trip to Philly/NYC. I'm really excited about the nails tomorrow, since I'm going to try out Way Cool Nails for the first time. It looks amazing and if they last, I can definitely see me going there occasionally - especially for holidays.

Tonight, David and I are going to dinner and Wimbledon. I loved all the other movies they've done, so I'm sure this one will be great, too!

Tomorrow night, we're going to dinner with some of our group before seeing Rent for my 10th time. Yes, 10th. Okay, I'm obsessed with musicals - I admit it!

Sunday, we're seeing the Broadway-bound play Brooklyn Boy. (Not to be confused with the musical Brooklyn, currently running on Broadway, which we may see in a couple weeks during our annual NYC trip.) I hope your weekend is fun and exciting, too!

Labels: life, movies, NYC, Philadelphia, shows

Posted by Kat @ 4:23 PM | 0 meows

Late Nite Catechism
Late Nite Catechism!!!

If you haven't seen it already, go see it! It is a wonderful night of comedy! David loved it, and he's not even from a Catholic family. I think this is a show everyone will enjoy, those who are Catholic or are friends with Catholics, possibly a bit more. It's a very interactive show with a lot of hilarious audience participation.

There are shows all over the country now. Check out the Late Nite Catechism site for more info. Not all of the locations are listed, so check local theatres, too. The production I saw at Laguna Playhouse was just extended to October, but it's not on the website.

It was even worth being a bit behind in my Olympics viewing. Yes, it was that good! I'm sure that if you can't get to it right away, it will be coming your way soon. Keep your eyes open and catch it when you can.

Labels: comedy, shows

Posted by Kat @ 1:47 PM | 1 meows