"It's hotter than the islands are tonight, and Mr. Softee's trying to shut me down. But I keep scraping by the fading light. Mi 'pana, this is my town. Piragua, piragua, keep scraping by, piragua." ~in the heights (lin-manuel miranda)

This song usually pops into my head whenever I pass a piragua guy on the street (which happened every time I left school for the last two months, because he waits right outside the school for the kids to come out). It's definitely piragua season. I might like the reprise even better. In the Heights is a great cast recording to listen to in the summer; the music is light and playful and upbeat. Lin-Manuel's Tony acceptance speech for Best Score was quite awesome. I especially love the Sondheim reference. He's quite awesome. During this year's Tonys, he spent the show backstage writing a rap based on the night's happenings for Neil Patrick Harris to perform in closing the show. I knew right away that Mr. Miranda must have created it, and of course I was right. Anyway, here's his Tony acceptance speech from a few years ago:


I met a famous Broadway performer yesterday. He's one of the best musical theater actors of his generation (if not the best), he's a Tony winner whom the New York Times called "The Last Leading Man," I'm constantly in awe of how talented he is, and one of my friends introduced me to him. Of course I made a fool out of myself, but he was so incredibly kind and we actually had a real conversation. I'm still in awe.

Another cool Broadway experience: I went to the fan performance of The Book of Mormon. I've seen the show already, but I was very grateful for this opportunity to see it again. The show scheduled an extra performance that was completely free for all the audience members. They held a lottery for everyone who has ever entered the daily lottery, and I happened to win. It was a stroke of luck (some people entered dozens of times and didn't win tickets to the fan performance, but I only entered once and won). I got seats in the second row of the orchestra on the aisle so I had an absolutely perfect view, and I loved seeing the show again. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic, and the performance was filmed for the Lincoln Center archives, so it was a cool show to attend. I think it was very generous of them to give back to their fans through this free performance. They certainly don't need the publicity (they're sold out for months), and this was a very nice gesture. The show was just as funny the second time. Just in case you can't get tickets, you can catch a glimpse of the show in their Tony performance:


Another show I've seen recently is The Illusion at Signature Theater Company. It's the last in Signature's Tony Kushner series, to which I subscribed this season (so I was able to see all four shows in the series). This play incredibly different from the other three Kushner plays that were performed (both parts of Angels in America and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures), but I enjoyed it very much. It was directed by the talented Michael Mayer, whose careful attention to all the production elements (from the set design to the lighting) created a beautiful production. It was illuminating to participate in a talk-back with the cast members after the show; this is the kind of play you should see more than once in order to understand it more completely (because of a reveal at the end that I won't spoil), and I liked hearing the cast discuss it. Ben Brantley wrote an interesting review for the New York Times. I was glad I was able to see all the plays in Signature's Kushner season, because he's such a talented playwright who has a lot to say.