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managanam · 4 years

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Waitress (2020 Tour)

Hi guys! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

On Wednesday (about 4 days ago, 3/4/2020) I had the pleasure of seeing the touring production of Waitress! And yes, of course, it was amazing. I will talk about what I liked and what I didn’t like about the show, but please keep in mind that I am not a professional and that these are just my personal opinions!

First off, Doctor Pomatter was incredible. He was probably my personal favorite in this cast, by far. It Only Takes a Taste was probably the best song in the show. However, my short attention span did get a little bored by the scene, because Jenna and Doc just sit there? Maybe that’s the script, but it was a bit bland.

This is an incredibly specific moment, but I’ll try my best to describe it. What Baking Can Do is my favorite song in the show, and seeing it visually is something different. When the ensemble members pull back the huge racks, whatever you call them, to reveal Jenna’s father hitting her mother, I got chills. I really liked the way that moment was staged.

I hate Lulu’s name, but her actress was incredibly adorable. The pigtails really got me. I am wondering how this touring production takes a small child around the country though? I know there’s probably more than one Lulu but the idea of that is crazy to me.

Hearing “Sugar, butter” for the first time before the lights go up is so crazy!! It’s pre-recorded so the sound of it (tone? quality?) is a bit different than Jenna’s voice. I guess after just listening to the cast recording for so long it feels so surreal.

This isn’t specific to the touring cast, but watching the actors play with the food and props is very cool. It’s just so fascinating to me, and I can’t really explain it. The movement of the pies and everything without dropping them is amazing too. And I’ve heard that the racks are heavy, so kudos to the actors.

I was wondering how the set movement would go as compared to the Broadway production and it was amazingly similar. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like the Broadway set kind of moved on motors/tracks? Anyway, everything was pretty much set up the same way, except the huge set pieces were moved by hand (I think). I had a dress rehearsal in the same building where the show was being put on the day after (in another room, of course) and the sound equipment they have is crazy. There is a lot of it. Maybe the stuff I was seeing was backups or something? I can’t even imagine how they set up everything in a day. Extraordinary.

The funniest thing in the show wasn’t supposed to be funny, but I found it absolutely hilarious. Sorry. After It Only Takes a Taste, an ensemble member or running crew member takes off full sprint across the stage, taking the bench with him. He just ran so fast and was the opposite of nonchalant.

Another thing I noticed, seeing the show in person, was the juxtaposition between Jenna’s instrumentals and Earl’s. Earl’s has some percussion and grunge style guitar while Jenna has a more acoustic sound, namely piano. Again, not specific to the tour, but still pretty neat.

Similar to above, I finally realized that in the first act Jenna expresses her inner monologue with pies, while in the second act she writes letters to Lulu. I can be a bit slow to realize things sometime.

The only thing that really bothered me about the show was the casting of Dawn. Her singing voice was fine, but her acting was a bit annoying. When she spoke she emphasized every other word so her speech sounded super unnatural. It was also a little hard to tell her apart from Jenna at times because she was too tall, as compared to Dawn being tiny.

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far you’re amazing. I know this post is extremely out of order and convoluted, but this is pretty much my thought process. I haven’t been posting recently due to my extremely busy schedule, but I’ll have lots more content when I leave for New York! T-minus 4 days.

See you in New York, everyone!

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managanam · 5 years

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BC/EFA donation for Hadestown

I can confirm that Hadestown DOES, in fact, ask for BC/EFA donations. However, I’m not sure if they ask for donations for unsigned Playbills or for individual actor-signed Playbills, so if anyone knows, please let me know! But it did take about two weeks for them to respond, so if you do make a donation, expect a response in about that time.

The address, in case you were wondering:

Walter Kerr Theatre

c/o: Hadestown

219 W 48th St

New York, NY 10036

#hadestown #hadestown musical #musical #broadway

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managanam · 5 years

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Frozen

I was *slightly* disappointed that this Playbill was from December, but I’m thankful I got one at all. I’ll take what I can get! This one took just over two weeks to receive (I sent my letter June 26.)

The address used, in case you’re wondering:

St. James Theatre

c/o: Frozen

246 W 45th St

New York, NY 10036

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managanam · 5 years

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Tony Award Predictions 2019 Part 2

Because I didn’t really want to fit it all into one post. And these are the ones that no one really cares about that much.

Best Musical Score: Hadestown

Best Musical Book: Hadestown

Best Orchestrations: Hadestown

Best Choreography: Kiss Me, Kate

Best Scenic Design of a Play: To Kill a Mockingbird

Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Hadestown

Best Costume Design of a Play: To Kill a Mockingbird

Best Costume Design of a Musical: Hadestown

Best Lighting Design of a Play: Network

Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Hadestown

Best Sound Design of a Play: Network

Best Sound Design of a Musical: Hadestown

Good luck to all of the plays and musicals this weekend!

#hadestown #hadestown musical #kiss me kate #kiss me kate musical #to kill a mockingbird #to kill a mockingbird play #network #network play #musical #musicals #broadway

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managanam · 5 years

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Tony Award Predictions 2019

The most wonderful time of the year.

Best Musical: Hadestown

Best Play: What the Constitution Means to Me

Best Musical Revival: Oklahoma!

Best Play Revival: The Boys in the Band

Best Actress in a Musical: Eva Noblezada (Hadestown)

Best Actor in a Musical: Damon Daunno (Oklahoma!)

Best Actress in a Play: Elaine May (The Waverly Gallery)

Best Actor in a Play: Bryan Cranston (Network)

Best Featured Actress in a Musical: Amber Gray (Hadestown)

Best Featured Actor in a Musical: Andre De Shields (Hadestown)

Best Featured Actress in a Play: Celia Keenan-Bolger (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Best Featured Actor in a Play: Robin De Jesus (The Boys in the Band)

Best Direction of a Musical: Hadestown

Best Direction of a Play: To Kill a Mockingbird

Part 2 soon to come!

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managanam · 5 years

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How I Get My Signed Playbills

This is gonna be a long boy, but I’ve gotten a few questions about this so I’ll just share it here for all of you to see. I do not live in NYC, so I obviously can’t stage door or whatever to get my Playbills. So I mail in a nice little letter to the cast (although I’m pretty sure the stage manager reads it) asking for a signed cast Playbill. I address it to the cast because I’m usually not sure who the stage manager is or who reads it or whatever, so it’s just pretty convenient. I’ll try and make this post as detailed as possible to help everyone out.

Step 1: Write your letter

Obviously. This can be a little tricky, for me at least. Some people say to add some stuff about yourself, like age, why you like theatre, what shows you’ve been in, etc. But I don’t. I don’t really know why, I just don’t like to make it about me, but you do you. I just write my name, why I like the show, favorite character, favorite song, maybe a scene or something different you like about the show, e.g. costumes/makeup, score, lighting design. Then very politely say something along the lines of “I would really appreciate it if I could get a cast-signed Playbill in return! I sent a SASE for your convenience!” We’ll go over the SASE in the next step. Then you say something like break a leg or thanks for your time and sign it. And that’s it.

Step 2: Envelopes or whatever

You need 2 envelopes to get a Playbill in return. The first is the one you mail everything off to New York in, and the second is the one the theatre uses to send the Playbill or anything else back in. This is known as a SASE or a self-addressed stamped envelope. It is an envelope that is stamped and self-addressed. For the SASE you have to use a 6x9 or larger or else the Playbill won’t fit. For the other envelope, you can really use any size. Most people use one bigger than the SASE, but I am cheap and use just one of those business envelopes. Something like a 4x9.5 I think. I just fold the SASE in half vertically and stick it in there with my letter and whatever else I want to send and seal it up.

Now the trickiest part is using the stamps correctly. Since I use a smaller envelope to send everything, I use just one stamp on that envelope and use 2 stamps on the SASE. These are all 50 cent stamps, by the way. This has always worked for me, so I’m not sure if it’s different elsewhere, but I’m pretty sure it’s right.

Step 3: The waiting, the waiting, the waiting...

This is pretty hard, especially your first try. It really depends on the show and its popularity, so you have to keep that in mind.

Also, note that there are some shows that don’t do cast-signed Playbills for free, I think the only ones at the moment are Dear Evan Hansen and Waitress. These shows require donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS to get a cast-signed Playbill. Waitress will let actors send signed Playbills for free, as long as they are not signed by the full cast, but Dear Evan Hansen requires a donation for any Playbill. I actually have no idea how expensive these are, but they can get pretty pricey. I think Hello, Dolly! asked for a $100 donation, and Great Comet was somewhere around that price range as well. And Hamilton doesn’t send out cast-signed Playbills at all anymore, donation or not, but I’m not sure about actor-signed Playbills.

Getting back to the main point, some shows will take a lot longer to reply than others, just because of the mass amount of fan mail it (probably) gets. If I were to guess, the ones I would think would be the longest reply time would be Book of Mormon, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, and Oklahoma. Please do not quote me on this, I am just guessing. If you pick a less popular musical, it usually takes about 2 weeks, but the more popular ones can take 2-3 months, or even longer. Please do not let this discourage you, as I think it’s absolutely worth it!

And again, I’m sorry for this absolute beast of a post, but I hope this really helps all of you!

#musical #musicals #broadway

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managanam · 5 years

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Be More Chill

Although Notre Dame burned down today, this put me in a slightly better mood. This took a little over a month to receive after I sent my letter (I mailed my letter on March 6).

The address used, in case you’re wondering:

Lyceum Theatre

c/o: Be More Chill

Cast of Be More Chill

149 W 45th St

New York, NY 10036

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managanam · 6 years

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The Play That Goes Wrong

This is such an amazing cast and I am very grateful I got this today! It took about 12 days to receive after I sent my letter.

The address used, in case you’re wondering:

c/o: The Play That Goes Wrong

Cast of The Play That Goes Wrong

149 W 45th St

New York, NY 10036

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managanam · 6 years

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Mean Girls

I was so excited when this came in the mail! It took a little less than four months to receive after I sent my letter (I sent it on June 25).

The address used, in case you’re wondering:

August Wilson Theatre

c/o: Mean Girls

Cast of Mean Girls

245 W 52nd St

New York, NY 10019

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managanam · 6 years

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Hey there! I think you’re super cool and I hope you are having an amazing day!😁❤️

Awww thanks so much love!! You’re amazing as well

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managanam · 6 years

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Carousel (2018 Revival)

This took 10 days to receive after I sent it out!

The address used, in case you’re wondering:

Imperial Theatre

c/o: Carousel

Cast of Carousel

249 W. 45th St

New York, NY 10036

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managanam · 6 years

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Prior Walter. Critique is greatly appreciated

#angels in america #angels in america play #prior walter #andrew garfield #broadway #play

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