"She says, 'If I leave before you, darling, don't you waste me in the ground.'" ~iron & wine

I realize I haven't written in a long time. But now that I have more free time (because school is out!!!), I'll be able to post more. I have a bunch of show reviews to do, and I'll start with one today.

The House of Blue Leaves
This show just closed on Sunday, and I knew I needed to see it before it closed, so Nic and I got rush tickets one day last week. First of all, can I just explain where our seats were? We were in the front row, and we were in literally the only two seats in that row. Seriously. Because of the wacky stage construction for this show, there are two lonely seats directly in front of the stage. They're not on any seating charts, but they're there. Despite the high stage we had a perfect view, and I thought it was pretty awesome. It was especially cool because in this play they break the fourth wall quite a bit and address the audience. During the play Ben Stiller (in character) knelt down in front of me and showed me a picture of his son. Alison Pill made eye contact with me. It felt like we were actually in the family's apartment. I loved that.

There's been some criticism of this production (and an interesting New York Times review), but maybe because I went in with low expectations, I enjoyed it very much. Is Ben Stiller the perfect Artie? Maybe not, but I didn't mind the fact that he didn't deliver the comedy most people were expecting. I felt sorry for Artie, seeing him as pretty pathetic and knowing right from the start that there was no way his dreams of Hollywood grandeur would ever be realized. Edie Falco was really the star of this production. I thought she deserved the Tony over Ellen Barkin. Her portrayal of Bananas was absolutely brilliant; she was captivating. I couldn't take my eyes off her when she was onstage. I thought Jennifer Jason Leigh as Bunny provided a good foil to Falco's Bananas. Alison Pill was as fabulous as always (I've seen her onstage a bunch of times and she never disappoints), and the rest of the supporting cast was strong as well. I've never seen a production of this play before so I have nothing to compare it to, but I enjoyed David Cromer's production that focused more on the tragedy than the comedy in the play. Seeing so many talented actors who's work I've admired for a long time on the same stage (and from so close a distance) was wonderful.