Thank You For NOT Standing

Seriously, thanks! You were the woman sitting in front of me who chose not to stand during the ovation at the end of the show (Avenue Q) I attended yesterday evening. I'm so elated that you chose to sit. One of my major complaints about going to see live theater (besides the overpriced tickets and old ill-equipped theaters...more to come on that) are the people who figure it's their patriotic duty to stand up and give a "non-sitting" ovation for any show they see.

To be fair, these people may not get out much or see many shows, or the informational filmstrips from grade school on how to behave in the theater. I can understand that, but it's not your right to block my view for the ticket I paid just as much for. Remember, this is not a major sporting venue with big screen video footage of the action down on the stage (that would be really cool though!)

So kudos (or other chocolat-y) granola bars go out to the woman in front of me who enjoyed the whole show and then didn't try to lead us in an over-the-top overture.

Now on to the show itself which was FAB-U. It was even better then the soundtrack, which I also highly recommend. Among the songs which should be given their 5 seconds of fame on pop radio are

"Everybody is a little bit Racist"*

and
"The Internet if for Porn".*

These songs are the winners for two reasons, 1) they're catchy as hell and 2) their true.

We were actually the last crowd to see it at the National Theater in DC and as we were leaving the show, the trucks were outside ready to load up the sets and move the whole thing to Baltimore for shows later this week. My only complaint is one I have with many theaters, they are too old. The people that run the National, have done an excellent job with restoring it and adding top flight lights and sound but the trudging up 3 very steep flights of stairs to the balcony and then down the steps to the seats (where it looks like you very well might take a spill down to the "good seats" if you were to stumble even for a moment) and then you have to go down another flight if you want to us the "can, well it all adds up to a sub-par experience. By comparison, the theater in Philadelphia (Kimmel Center) is state of the art and doesn't feel like you might have seen Lincoln be assassinated had you shown up a hundred years (or so) early for the show.

*Both songs videos are from YouTube. I claim no copyright infringement and and did not record or post either of these videos. Any other questions can be addressed to my legal team at kvetch@nobodylikesajerk.com