"Murder for Two" at the CLO

We took took a break from the Sunday tradition of Chaining Yourself To The TV Set And Watching The Steelers today.  Instead, we went into downtown Pittsburgh to check out the Christmas Village that has been set up in Market Square, and to have lunch and catch the matinee performance of "Murder for Two" at the CLO Cabaret.

First off, we were surprised at just how many people were in downtown Pittsburgh at Noon on a Sunday afternoon.  It was beautiful day, quite cold, but clear and sunny, but the number of people in Market Square still surprised us.

Secondly, the CLO's Cabaret Theater is a terrific venue.  Comfortable and intimate, and perfect for the types of shows that the CLO stages there.  You can even dine there before the show, which we did today.

Thirdly, "Murder for Two" is quite a fun little show.  Only two performers, one of whom played all ten "suspects" in this musical murder mystery.  Two very talented actors in a rather clever show.  If you are looking for a fun and entertaining night out during the Holiday season, you could do a lot worse than taking in this show.

"Singin' In The Rain" On Stage

Nothing says "the arts in Pittsburgh" like the Civic Light Opera season each summer, and yesterday we took in the CLO's initial production of the season, the classic, and dare I say it, iconic show, "Singin' in the Rain".

"Singin' in the Rain", of course, began as a movie that was released in 1952.  It starred Gene Kelly, Donald O'Conner, Debbie Reynolds, and Jean Hagen, and was directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen.  Whenever polls of "Best Movies Ever" are taken, "Singin' in the Rain" always scores highly, usually in the Top Twenty, and it is always rated as the greatest movie musical ever made.  

"Singin' in the Rain" was first produced as a stage play in 1983, this is the third time that the CLO has mounted a production of it, and it is often produced on the high school musical circuit, but this was the first time we had seen it on stage.

I prepped for seeing the play by re-watching the movie on Friday.  Mistake.   The movie has so many classic bits: O'Conner singing "Make 'em Laugh", Kelly, Reynolds and O'Conner singing "Good Mornin'", and, of course, Kelly and his umbrella dancing an singin' in the rain.  These performances are so well done, so good, and so famous that anyone, ANYONE, would suffer in comparison, so it really wasn't fair for me to have watched the movie a mere twenty-four hours before seeing the play.

That said, how was the play?  It was good, well produced (as are all CLO productions) and the actors were terrific.  David Elder, Mary Michael Patterson, and Cary Tedder played Don, Kathy, and Cosmo (or the Kelly, Reynolds, and O'Conner parts), 

and Ashley Spencer played Lina Lamont, the role played by Jean Hagen in the movie, and the role that always seems to get overlooked when people talk about the movie (Hagen received an Oscar nomination).   All were very good, but I thought that Tedder was a better dancer than Elder, although Elder definitely had the looks of a "leading man".

And to answer the question that is probably in your mind, yes, it did rain in the stage at the Benedum, and Elder did all of the things Kelly did - dancing with the umbrella, splashing in the puddles, and leaping on the lamp post.  He was great.  But, he was no Gene Kelly.  Nobody is.

Remember a few months back when NBC telecast a live production of "Sound of Music" starring Carrie Underwood?  I didn't watch, mainly because I'm not all that big  fan of the show, but I thought is was tremendously unfair how Miss Underwood was savaged by the critics and the public at large - before the show was even broadcast, no less - for the simple fact that she WASN'T JULIE ANDREWS.  I thought of that yesterday watching this play, and thinking of how unfair it is to the actors in this, or any play with similar lineage.  It is a shame for anyone to deny themselves the pleasure of seeing a show like "Singin' in the Rain" just because the actors in it ain't Kelly, Reynolds, or O'Conner.  Nobody can be Gene Kelly, just like no outfielder can ever be Babe Ruth, but that shouldn't stop us from enjoying a different production of a beloved show on its own merits.  So, if you ever have a chance to see a stage production of "Singin' in the Rain", by all means do so.  But wait until after you see the play, before you decide to watch the movie again!

One final thought on "Singin' in the Rain".  The basic story of this show is what happened to a couple of beloved movie stars of the silent film era when talking pictures were first introduced.  In 2011, "The Artist" was a black and white, silent movie that was quite good, and it won the Best Picture Oscar that year, but it pretty much told the same story that "Singin' in the Rain" did. The big difference is that we are STILL watching and loving the Gene Kelly movie sixty-two years after it premiered.  I don't think that we will be doing that with "The Artist".

So, let's end this post with one of those classic numbers from "Singin' in the Rain", shall we?

The Bucs, A Burger, and Buddy

It has been a busy week since our return from vacation, and in many respects, we still haven't recovered from that middle-of-the-night drive from Corolla to Pittsburgh last Saturday, so let's cover some selected short subjects, all beginning with the letter B....

BUCS

It was a wild week for the Pirates, who jumped into first place with an amazing four game winning streak against the Cardinals, and the fact that they have now lost two in a row, one to the Cards and one to the Rockies, in no way  diminishes that accomplishment.  As this is being written, the Pirates have a 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals in the NL Central, and are 21 games over .500.  A long, hard road lies ahead, but the goal now is to win the division.  Finishing with a winning record is all but assured and the odds of securing a wild card spot are almost overwhelmingly in the Pirates' favor, but winning the division, well, that will be a long hard slog right through the end of the season if it is to happen.

I was fortunate enough to be in attendance at the Wednesday night 5-4 win over St. Louis, and it was an amazing atmosphere at PNC Park that night.  I am hoping for many more such evenings between now and September 29.

As for the trade deadline that passed without the team making any moves, I am OK with it.  I would not have wanted to see major pieces of "the future" traded away for marginal players (Alex Rios, Bud Norris) or short term rentals (Raul Ibanez), and, as I mentioned in a post a few weeks back, I believe that Neal Huntington has earned a benefit of the doubt for the time being.  Also, what has been credited as one of NH's best deals over the years was acquiring Derek Lee in 2011, and I believe that that move was made at the August 31 waiver deadline, so I am guessing that some move will be made between now and then to shore up what is a glaring weak spot in the batting order at the 1B and/or RF position.

BURGERS

It has been a while since I have written of my Quest to find the best hamburgers in Pittsburgh, but this week, I found an outstanding burger in a surprising place:

Yep, the hamburger at Manny's BBQ in PNC Park has moved into the Top Five among Pittsburgh Burgers.  First off, the burgers is cooked on a charcoal grill right before your eyes, you can choose your toppings, and it is relatively inexpensive for PNC Park concessions: $8.50, and for an extra buck, you can get a side of cole slaw and baked beans.  Of course, you  have to pay for a ticket to actually get into the ball park, so that does add to the cost.  Still, if you are planning on eating at the game anyway, go for the burger at Manny's.

Current Top Five Burgers in Pittsburgh (listed alphabetically because it is becoming too hard to list them numerically!):

• Manny's BBQ (PNC Park)
• McFadden's (North Shore)
• Rochester Inn (Ross)
• Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
• Union Grill (Oakland)

BUDDY

We took in our final CLO show if the season on Thursday at the Benedum, "Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story".  Based on the life of Buddy Holly, this was as much a rock & roll concert as a musical play, and it was really a fun show.  Great energy and musical performances by the actors, particularly by the actor portraying Buddy Holly.

This is actually the second time that we have seen this show, and it is one that I would not hesitate to see a third time as well.  The way the show starkly ends at the Clear Lake concert on "the day the music died" is shocking and most effective, and the encore performance that serves as a curtain call is absolutely fabulous.

In the course of this two and on-half hour show you can really see how Holly's music and Holly himself evolved over the course of his very, very brief career.  It makes you realize that the "what ifs..." and the "could have beens..." that surround the death of Buddy Holly are very real and very sad.

A great, great show. 

CLO Show: "The Little Mermaid"

Last night was a delightful evening at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera production of Disney's "The Little Mermaid".

I am going to assume that most of you either are familiar with the Hans Christian Andersen  fairy tale, or have seen the 1989 animated Disney movie, so I won't go over details of the story itself, but rather the production now playing at the Benedum.

How do you simulate an underwater world on stage?

That was the big question and this production pulled it off to the extent that these scenes were every bit as believable as the scenes that took place on dry land.  many of the actors, most notably Ariel, Triton, and Scuttle the Seagull used wires (think Peter Pan) to fly, or in this case, swim while under the sea.  And other actors continually moved their shoulders and bodies, even when standing still, to make themselves look like sea creatures swimming in the water.  Amazing.

As was the case with the movie, the big show-stopping number was "Under the Sea" led by Sebastian the Crab.  Fabulous.

Movies are great, but there is nothing quite like a well done stage production, and this one was eye-popping.  Leave it to Disney to always pull it off.  And the voices of the actors, all of them, were simply amazing.

A great production and well worth seeing.

And with that, I will steal a scene from the Disney movie to make you remember that show-stopper I mentioned earlier.

A Musical Christmas Carol

Yesterday, we took in the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera's production of "A Musical Christmas Carol" at the Byham Theater.  You all know the story, so I won't recount it here, but I will say that it was a great show.  Pittsburgh's own Tom Atkins as Scrooge was terrific, and it was an added bonus for us to see Billy Hepfinger in one of the key supporting roles.  Billy, a veteran of many North Allegheny productions, is the son of an old co-worker of mine, and we have known him, literally, since he was a baby.  It was special for us to see him in such a big CLO production.

If you need something to really, REALLY put you into the true spirit of Christmas, please try to see this CLO production.  It runs for the next two weekends at the Byham.

God bless us, everyone!

"Sunset Boulevard", the Musical

You always worry when one of your favorite books/movies/plays is transferred to another art form:  book to movie, play to movie, or, in this case, Classic Movie to Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical Extravaganza.  


The 1950 Billy Wilder movie, "Sunset Boulevard", is by almost any source you care to sight, considered one of the Top Ten movies ever made in America.  It is the story of an aging silent screen movie star, Norma Desmond, who has been pushed to the Hollywood scrap heap with the advent of talking motion pictures, who meets up with down-on-his-luck cynical screenwriter Joe Gillis.  How the two meet, interact, and use each other makes for one of the most compelling movies you'll ever see.  The movie starred Gloria Swanson and the incomparable William Holden, and the thought of someone tampering with such a classic could seem almost sacrilegious.


However, Andrew Lloyd Webber provided the music and brought his story to the London and Broadway stages back in the early 1990's.  The musical was highly acclaimed and even Billy Wilder was pleased with it ("I think it would make a pretty good movie", he said), so seeing it has long been on my bucket list.


Anyway, the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera brought "Sunset Boulevard" to town this week at the Benedum, and we took it in yesterday.  We both liked it.  The show starred a Broadway actress named Liz Callaway as Norma, and  Matthew Scott (who looks a lot like Pirate Neil Walker) as Joe.  Joe is the character who holds the play together, he is in almost every scene, but it is Norma who draws all the attention, and the numerous dazzling costume changes almost every time she is on stage is just the least of the attraction.  Norma also has the two show stopping musical numbers, "As If We Never Said Good-bye" and "With One Look".


The show is true to the movie, and while there is very little spoken dialog, what there is taken almost directly from the movie, including it's two most famous lines:

• "I am big.  It's the pictures that got small."
• "are you ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille?"

Very good show, well staged by the CLO, and all of the actors.  It made for a great day at the theater.

However, one should never forget the source material, the great 1950 movie by the great Billy Wilder.  If you've never seen it, and you love movies, then make it a point to see it very soon.