07-30-2018, 07:07 AM
The Queen and I ventured out to the Hollywood Bowl on a school night to see the musical Annie. Whew! So, many things to unpack in that sentence.
This was my first time to the Hollywood Bowl so now I can be one of the cool kids and refer to it simply as 'The Bowl'. As in, The Queen and I are going back to the Bowl at the end of August to see John Williams play his hits. I am so hip this morning. And incredibly tired.
Everything they say about the Bowl is true. The parking is horrendous. The sound is terrible. Who didn't take into consideration when they were building this place that there would be helicopters flying over the Bowl during the performance? But it's the Bowl! The Beatles played here. They serve food to to the seats and bring out tables. It was also deliciously cool once the sun went down.
The stage was full of giant letters that spelled out Annie. Turns out they became all the sets for the show. They turned the letters around to reveal different aspects of Annie's world. For instance the interior of the A was the garret where Annie slept in the orphanage. It dawned on me halfway through the show this is probably the original production design from the show. So, kudos for innovative production design. It probably makes it real easy to take the show on the road. All you have to do is load up the letters.
The cast was pretty good. David Alan Grier played Daddy Warbucks. Anna Gasteyer was Mrs. Hannigan. Steve Weber played FDR. And the copilot from LA to Vegas played Rooster. They had a woman in a wheel chair do a musical number and she had quite the set of pipes. FDR was also in a wheel chair and I wondered if that part of the original show.
The longest tenured member of the cast was Max who played the dog Sandy. He's been doing productions of Annie since 2009. Which means he also damn old for a dog and doing this show. But he hit all his marks. Which mainly meant lying down on the stage in front of Annie. The girl who played Annie did a good job except for the part where she looked lke a brunette for most of the show. She never did wear the traditional AnnieFro wig, though.
The sound was terrible. I couldn't understand a word the kids were singing. It all sounded like mush. If people did solos, it was a bit better, but the mix seemed to be way off. I will say all the performers sang really well. And I still have "Hard Knock Life" stuck in my head today.
I had never seen Annie all the way through so the story was surprising and kind of creepy. Who decides it's a good idea to take a kid out of an orphanage for two weeks, put her in the lap of luxury, and then put her back in the orphanage? Why would Annie's fellow orphans be overjoyed that she gets to leave the orphanage instead of them? Why would Warbucks's servants be glad to have an orphan come into the house and give them orders? Who thinks it's a good idea to have a billionaire going and requesting young girls be brought to him from the orphanage? Granted, he said he wanted a boy but that doesn't really make it any better. The dance number at the end between Warbucks and Annie gave me the creeps.
I'm sure you are asking yourself why. Why did Greg bust his Bowl cherry to go see the musical Annie?
Turns out, of the Queen's friend was in the production. He was part of the Ensemble. The game during the musical was to spot Jeff Sumner, the Queen's friend. He was the laundryman for the orphanage. He was the top hat wearing bum in the Herbert Hoover musical number. He handed out balloons. He was the chef to Daddy Warbucks. He was the right hand man to FDR. He was good in all his roles especially in the FDR scene. Jazz Hands, everyone. After the show, we hung out at the Acura door to shake his hand. (Yes,The Bowl has corporate sponsors for the their stage entrances.) We also got to see a bunch of the orphans while we waited for Jeff.
So, yeah. I left the house. I didn't get in until almost midnight. Yes, I got up at my normal 4am. Yes, I'll probably head back to bed in the next few minutes.
This was my first time to the Hollywood Bowl so now I can be one of the cool kids and refer to it simply as 'The Bowl'. As in, The Queen and I are going back to the Bowl at the end of August to see John Williams play his hits. I am so hip this morning. And incredibly tired.
Everything they say about the Bowl is true. The parking is horrendous. The sound is terrible. Who didn't take into consideration when they were building this place that there would be helicopters flying over the Bowl during the performance? But it's the Bowl! The Beatles played here. They serve food to to the seats and bring out tables. It was also deliciously cool once the sun went down.
The stage was full of giant letters that spelled out Annie. Turns out they became all the sets for the show. They turned the letters around to reveal different aspects of Annie's world. For instance the interior of the A was the garret where Annie slept in the orphanage. It dawned on me halfway through the show this is probably the original production design from the show. So, kudos for innovative production design. It probably makes it real easy to take the show on the road. All you have to do is load up the letters.
The cast was pretty good. David Alan Grier played Daddy Warbucks. Anna Gasteyer was Mrs. Hannigan. Steve Weber played FDR. And the copilot from LA to Vegas played Rooster. They had a woman in a wheel chair do a musical number and she had quite the set of pipes. FDR was also in a wheel chair and I wondered if that part of the original show.
The longest tenured member of the cast was Max who played the dog Sandy. He's been doing productions of Annie since 2009. Which means he also damn old for a dog and doing this show. But he hit all his marks. Which mainly meant lying down on the stage in front of Annie. The girl who played Annie did a good job except for the part where she looked lke a brunette for most of the show. She never did wear the traditional AnnieFro wig, though.
The sound was terrible. I couldn't understand a word the kids were singing. It all sounded like mush. If people did solos, it was a bit better, but the mix seemed to be way off. I will say all the performers sang really well. And I still have "Hard Knock Life" stuck in my head today.
I had never seen Annie all the way through so the story was surprising and kind of creepy. Who decides it's a good idea to take a kid out of an orphanage for two weeks, put her in the lap of luxury, and then put her back in the orphanage? Why would Annie's fellow orphans be overjoyed that she gets to leave the orphanage instead of them? Why would Warbucks's servants be glad to have an orphan come into the house and give them orders? Who thinks it's a good idea to have a billionaire going and requesting young girls be brought to him from the orphanage? Granted, he said he wanted a boy but that doesn't really make it any better. The dance number at the end between Warbucks and Annie gave me the creeps.
I'm sure you are asking yourself why. Why did Greg bust his Bowl cherry to go see the musical Annie?
Turns out, of the Queen's friend was in the production. He was part of the Ensemble. The game during the musical was to spot Jeff Sumner, the Queen's friend. He was the laundryman for the orphanage. He was the top hat wearing bum in the Herbert Hoover musical number. He handed out balloons. He was the chef to Daddy Warbucks. He was the right hand man to FDR. He was good in all his roles especially in the FDR scene. Jazz Hands, everyone. After the show, we hung out at the Acura door to shake his hand. (Yes,The Bowl has corporate sponsors for the their stage entrances.) We also got to see a bunch of the orphans while we waited for Jeff.
So, yeah. I left the house. I didn't get in until almost midnight. Yes, I got up at my normal 4am. Yes, I'll probably head back to bed in the next few minutes.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
