Are you watching Peter Pan Live? It's a fun show. Allison Williams is a great Peter Pan (she can sing and act!); I'm a fan of hers from Girls, and I was excited to see her in this role. Christopher Walken is absolutely hilarious as Captain Hook, just because he's Christopher Walken and he basically speaks all the songs and it's bizarre and ridiculous. Who knew he was such a good tap dancer?! Kelli O'Hara is wonderful. Anyway, I'm enjoying the show, despite a few complaints (it's not as good as it could be; I'm not crazy about the sets and the costumes and some wacky shots/camera angles/sloppy filming). I'll probably add videos later once they start popping up online, but for now I'll just post this video from July 30th's Nightly News because I thought it was sweet to see Brian Williams as a proud papa. I also think it's sweet that he missed tonight's Nightly News to watch the broadcast live.

Last night I was fortunate enough to attend the U2 Minus One concert in Times Square. It was a surprise show as part of World AIDS Day. Bono was the minus one due to his recent Central Park biking accident, but Chris Martin of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen were kind enough to fill in for Bono and perform with U2. Carrie Underwood and Kanye West also performed. Despite the rain, the concert was a blast. Chris Martin sang "Beautiful Day" and "With or Without You" with U2 to open the show, and Bruce Springsteen sang with them on "Where the Streets Have no Name" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" to close the show. All of U2's songs were magical. I loved hearing Bruce Springsteen and Chris Martin sing with the band. I don't care whether or not you're a fan of U2, I don't see how anyone could not be moved by those anthems that they performed last night.
There's a nice review of the concert here.
And the whole show is online. You should at least watch the first two songs (U2 with Chris Martin) and the last two (U2 with Springsteen, starting around the 37-minute mark in the video). Seriously, magical. I'm so glad I was able to be there. I posted four videos on my instagram so you can see a glimpse of my view (and a few of my photos are below).

I saw an advance screening of Into the Woods, and I signed a nondisclosure agreement so I can't give any specific details about the film, but I will say that I loved it. If you're a fan of the musical, I recommend putting aside your expectations. Some changes have been made, but I don't think any of the changes majorly detract from the story. It's a beautiful movie. Anna Kendrick and Emily Blunt's performances were my favorite, and I was also really impressed with Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen (oh my goodness, "Agony" killed!). I didn't like the performances of Lilla Crawford or Johnny Depp. I'll probably write more after the movie is released. For now, watch this snippet of "Stay With Me." I wasn't crazy about the casting of Meryl Streep as the Witch, but she won me over, mostly with this song.

"Every time the sun comes up I'm in trouble." ~sharon van etten

I got into Sharon Van Etten through The National (which is also how I got into St. Vincent, whom I've also written about on here; The National works with some awesome women). I've seen her perform with them and I've seen her open for them. Aaron Dessner (from The National) produced her brilliant album Tramp. I like that she's from my home state of New Jersey. She's incredibly talented, and I was really excited to hear this song of hers on last night's episode of Elementary. I've noticed that all my favorite TV shows feature really, really good music.