So You Think You Can Dance 5 – Top 14 Performances

This week’s So You Think You Can Dance was the best of the season so far, and certainly among the top shows I’ve ever seen. Seven couples performed and I loved every dance from this week.  The results show was stressful because I couldn’t imagine how any of the couples could end up in the bottom three. It’s hard for me to talk about highlights this week becuase everything was a highlight. So I’ll share two videos of a couple of the funkier dances that were done.

This first one, from Jason and Caitlin, is a pop-jazz piece choreographed by Brian Friedman. Caitlin is a space alien and Jason is the last man on earth. Her goal is to impregnate him. How’s that for a theme! This was the dance I voted for this week. I was thrilled to see that enough people voted for it to keep Jason and Caitlin out of the bottom three. The dance starts around 2:11 in this clip.

I also loved this dance from Kayla and Kupono, who got a contemporary routine from Sonya Tayeh. I love Sonya’s work and this dance didn’t disappoint. Sonya said this is a dark dance in which Kayla is pulling away from death and Kupono is dragging her into it. The judges loved it. I loved it. And they still ended up in bottom three. That was disappointing, but at least they survived the solos to dance another week.

I couldn’t find a clip of the classical pas de deux Melissa and Ade performed (the first time this type of dance has been done on SYTYCD. The dance was from Romeo and Juliet and it was gorgeous.

Karla & Vitolio, who did a spiffy Quickstep, didn’t dazzle the judges with their solos, so they were sent home. I’m not surprised by Vitolio’s departure (and am kind of glad to see him go). While I thought Karla’s solo was stronger than Jeanine’s, I think Karla hadn’t impressed the judges overall as much as the other two women.

One shout out on the results show… the opening number was stunning! I can’t find a clip of that up yet either. It was performed to Diana Ross singing “Brand New Day” from The Wiz motion picture soundtrack. It was just sublime. If I can find a clip later in the weekend I might just have to post it. And the funny thing with this, right before we started watching SYTYCD, we were watching some of The Wizard of Oz on TCM and the wicked witch had just  been killed, which of course is the cue for this song in The Wiz.

Geek Out Takes a Break…

Friday April 13, 2007, was the first Friday Geek Out and over the next 117 weeks I’ve written about 101 movies, songs, shows, people, books, events…things that I am very passionate about. Over the weeks, there have been a few Fridays that I’ve skipped for one reason or another.

Geek Out is going to go on break for the third quarter. I know work is going to be crazy busy this quarter and I want to focus my free writing time on Neutral Zone editing as well as some anthology submissions that are due in the early fall.

Of course there’ll still be plenty of blog entries, but the regularly scheduled Geek Out won’t be back until Friday, October 2. Think of it as a Geek Out summer vacation.

Giving the Nation A New Syncopation: “Ragtime” Returns!

Ragtime is coming back to Broadway and I am psyched.

This 1998 show deserved a lot more acclaim than it got back in the 1998-99 season. For the Tony Awards it was up against The Lion King. The lack of major Tony love, along with the collapse of its production house and the show’s sprawling, expensive (and some would say bloated) production values killed this amazing show after only two years on Broadway.

This spring the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. mounted a successful and well-reviewed new production and it’s headed to Broadway this fall. It will play the more intimate Neil Simon Theatre (after the cavernous Ford Center, practically any other Broadway house is more intimate) with previews starting October 23 ahead of a November 15 opening. Casting isn’t announced yet, but from what I’ve read it’s expected that the Kennedy Center cast will be given the chance to reprise their roles.

Yet another reason to look forward to fall…

Here’s director Marcia Milgrom Dodge talking about her vision for the show…

Embracing a Teaching Moment

As I was sifting through the 365Gay news headlines today, the blurb for “Those Who Can, Teach” caught my eye: “The Family Research Council’s attack on Kevin Jennings should inspire us to a teachable moment. ”

Kevin was recently appointed as head of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the Department of Education. He’s got excellent credentials for that office since, among other things, he is the founder of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network). Among other things, GLSEN is responsible for starting the Day of Silence and the organization actively works to make schools a safe place (or at least safer place) for LGBT students.

The Family Research Council lunched a campaign to remove Kevin from this position simply because he is gay. The FRC says this: “Jennings and the organization he founded have been the leaders in promoting a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools, beginning in kindergarten. His positions are extreme and narrow-minded, his rhetoric harsh and hate-filled, and his qualifications and ethical standards questionable at best.”

Funny, I feel the same about the FRC—harsh, extreme, hate-filled and with questionable ethics.

I know Kevin. I’ve periodically played hockey with him for a few years. I’ve worked with him through the NYCGHA to help the New York Rangers understand how unfortunate it is that so much hate language is tossed around at their games by fans (read about that here and here). I’m inspired by GLSEN and the work it does to make the difficult school environment better. It’s disgusting that the FRC is attacking him… though sadly it’s not surprising.

Cody Daigle, writing the piece for 365Gay.com, says: “No amount of legislation will reduce the power of that rhetoric in the minds of those who know little to nothing about the reality of our lives. Marriage equality tomorrow will not make this FRC attack on Jennings less successful to their target audience.What will reduce the power of the rhetoric? An embrace of this current historical moment as a teachable moment.”

He wraps up the piece saying this: “So with one eye on activism, we should train the other on individual advocacy – being out, taking the time to correct someone who uses a gay slur in public, start a blog (seriously, go start one. Tell your story. What could it hurt?), demonstrate in every small way the reality of gay men and women – we can be gay and moral, we can be gay and ethical, we can be gay and good role models, we can be gay and be a good teacher. You can’t learn what you aren’t taught. So, teachers we must become.”

I couldn’t agree more. The more people that work their inner advocate the better. I’ll continue to work mine—on this blog, by wearing the NYCGHA logos on my hockey uniforms and the rainbow triangle on my helmet, by not hiding the fact I’m married to Will when anyone asks who I’m married to, and whatever else I can do to highlight the fact that a gay life isn’t really different from a straight life.

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck: Return Visit

The tweet hit my phone at 2:01this afternoon: The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (@biggayicecream) parked at 36th and 7th.

That’s only 3 1/2 blocks from the office.

Two words: field trip!

Carolyn and I went out as soon as I finished the conference call I’d started at 2. Sadly, Dawn could not come becuase she was trapped in her own meetings.

I finally got to try a vanilla cone, drizzled with dulce de leche and coated with vanilla wafers. This was crazy good the cookies and the caramel flavor mix oh so good with the creamy ice cream. I originally saw this cone on The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck blog and knew it would be the thing I got next time I caught up with the truck. Luckily Doug had the right fixins to do this today.

I hope he makes more visits to the midtown area over the summer. I think Carolyn is hooked on it. I suspect more will get hooked the more the BGICT is in the area. Meanwhile, still have to get Will to the truck. Hopefully this weekend…

Tigers Lose in OT, Ordinals Snowed by Blizzard

It was a rough Saturday night on the ice.

The Tigers met the Hotshots, which featured a guest appearance by the Lions goalie Chris Brand. It was unclear how we’d fare against this goalie. Peter is difficult to play against so to see Chris in net was not a welcome surprise. However, we rose to the occasion and by the end of the second period we were winning 2-1. Laurie got a goal. Adam got a goal.

The team seemed to be playing solid. We had passing. We had tremendous pressure in the offensive zone. The D was keeping pucks in the offensive zone and doing a solid job of shutting down Hotshots offense, including their D7 players. Sure, they got a goal, but we were still dominating the game. Continue Reading »

“August: Osage County” Disappointment

Admittedly we procrastinated seeing August: Osage County. At 3 1/2 hours it really couldn’t be done easily during the week. The show had been on our radar since it won the Pulitzer Prize and then the Tony Award last summer.

July was the month we were going to go. On May 26 Phylicia Rashad joined the cast as the “pill-poppin’, bruising matriarch Violet Weston.” I was excited at the prospect of seeing Rashad in this role. June was full of activities on the weekends, so July was going to be the month to make the trek to Osage County.

Then, out of the blue, on June 17, the weekend that lead into the Chelsea Challenge, the producers announced that August: Osage County would close on June 28. The schedule of the Challenge made it impossible to do a show that weekend. The week after that, I had already planned to see Hair for my birthday, plus I had Thursday  night hockey and we had the The Wiz too.  All of this nixed our chance to see this show.

I don’t understand the closure. Rashad was contracted for the show through August and she got to barely play a month. Her reviews, from what I saw, were good. The published attendance figures showed increased audiences each week she was in the show. I did read this today: “The 2008 Steppenwolf production of [August playwright Tracy] Letts’ new play, Superior Donuts, will be the next tenant at the Music Box  this fall. The August producers are also behind that transfer.” It sounds like the producers closed August to use the theater for this new production. Couldn’t they let Rashad finish out first? Why bring her in only to shutter the show so soon after she began?

It’s a major disappointment.

The Ride, Week 11

It was a mixed week on the bike. I was off on Monday to recover from the Chelsea Challenge. Tuesday found me still in recovery mode. My legs were just not up to riding, plus I knew there was a good chance I’d be seeing Hair that night and I wasn’t sure what bike parking would be like near the theater.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were good bike days though. Wednesday I learned about riding with a low-pressure tire. I’m not sure what changed between coming home from the last Challenge game on Sunday afternoon and heading out Wednesday morning, but the bike was sluggish. I rode easy until I got home Wednesday night and then inflated both tires up. Thursday’s ride was back to normal. Continue Reading »

The Wiz

This afternoon I saw The Wiz on stage for the first time. This production is part of City Center Encores! Summer Stars, a series dedicated to presenting Broadway classics in limited-run productions (last year was Damn Yankees and its inaugural year brought the acclaimed Gypsy with Patti LuPone).

This is the first time The Wiz has received a major NYC production since a brief Broadway revival in 1984, which survived for 7 previews and 13 performances. The original 1974 production was a huge hit, running 15 previews and 1,672 performances before it closed in 1979. Check out the cast from the original: Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, Hinton Battle as Scarecrow, Andre DeShields as The Wiz,. That production was also the Broadway debut for Phylicia Rashad (back then Phylicia Ayers-Allen) as a munchkin and field mouse and an understudy for Glinda. The show was nominated for eight Tonys and won seven, including Best Musical and Best Score.

Most people, however, probably got their first sample of The Wiz from the 1978 movie version with Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsy Russell, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. There are also the hit songs from the show like “Easy on Down The Road,” “Everybody Rejoice (Brand New Day)” and “Home.”

City Center did itself proud with this production.  It was great to see LaChanze back on stage in the dual role of Aunt Em and Glinda. She’s on stage at the beginning and the end, but her few minutes her outstanding.  Orlando Jones makes his New York stage debut (and I believe his musical debut) as The Wiz and he was quite up to the task of being all-powerful before being found out as a fraud. James Monroe Iglehart is wonderful as the lion as is Joshua Henry as Tinman. The standout in the needy trio is Christian Dante White as the Scarecrow. He belted great on “I Was Born on the Day Before Yesterday” and his movements throughout the show were extraordinary as he kept his lanky frame in full scarecrow mode.

I have to call out Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography. He’s a Tony Winner for In The Heights and nominated for 9 to 5. Here his work is extraordinary. The Tornado Ballet is amazing. You get the dancers making the on stage tornado, tearing apart the set, repositioning it and transporting Dorothy to Oz. Amazing! The movement of the yellow brick road was also choreographed to stunning effect as was the moment the slaves were freed from Evillene. There are no awards for stagings at City Center, but Blankenbuehler deserves all the good notices he’ll get for this show.

The clinker in this show is, unfortunately, Ashanti as Dorothy. She sings the role beautifully, no doubt about it. But her acting is not up to par with her co-stars. When she’s not singing, she’s got the same, mostly blank, look on her face. This is not good for the person who is at the center of the show. There’s a lot of great stuff going on around her and the show is still a massive dose of fun and worth the price of admission. If this is going to make a leap to Broadway, which I think it could becuase so much of it is in fantastic shape, it’s going to need a much stronger leading lady for Dorothy.

The Wiz continues for another week at City Center. If you’re in the city and want to have a great time, go check it out!

Meanwhile, you can check out this Broadway.com behind the scenes look at the production.

Groovin’ With the Bears

Last night we broke the mold on our usual Friday night, which consists of Will cooking dinner and then we curl up on the couch to watch stuff on the DVR.

We still had dinner, but then we went out to the LGBT Community Center for the Summer Fur Dance. The last time we went dancing was somewhere in 1995 or ‘96 while we were still in our early dating years. I don’t dance well, but I do like trying to keep some kind of beat going and watching others. Will, on the other hand, is a good dancer and can hold his own well on a dance floor.

We certainly weren’t in the middle of things, but it was nice hanging out with a great diverse crowd (particularly nice to hang with Josh and Neil through the evening), chatting with some people and people watching in general.

Thanks to Josh for snapping this pic of us last night. Proof that we can occasionally go out after dark… and to a dance no less!

We had a good time and I wouldn’t be surprised if we went to the next fur dance.

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