In an awesome display of birthday gift-giving saavy, my husband bought us tickets to see a performance of "Sleepwalk With Me", a one-man show by my favorite comedian Mike Birbiglia.
So it was with much excitement that we headed to the Bleeker Street Theatre in New York City on Sunday afternoon to see Birbiglia in person.
Here he is on "Conan O'Brien".
Sunday evening, I met friends at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg to see a live performance of Winter Radio Theater. The show was fun. The great singing and clever lines had me smiling the whole way through.
The atmosphere, however, left much to be desired.
The show was held in the second floor gallery room, and I don't know if they were having problems with the heat in there or if it's always that cold, but nearly everyone in the crowd of more than a dozen (by the way, I'm surprised they didn't have a bigger audience -- has word not gotten out how good they are?) was bundled in winter coats, hats, gloves and still shivering.
I was so cold that I considered leaving early, but I stuck it out. At times, the music from the band performing for a live party in the next room covered some of the lines.
They'll perform the show again this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at ABC, 50 N. Cameron St. Admission is $5, plus donation of one non-perishable food item. If I were you, I'd bring an extra scarf, too.
Just in case.
Britney Spears: Barnum & Bailey style
The video for Britney Spears' single "Circus" dropped Thursday. Check it out.
Looking for things to do this weekend? We've got you covered; click here or here.
Get into the Christmas spirit at Light Up Night Friday in downtown York.
Enter for the chance to win free tickets to "Footloose" at the Pullo Center here.
Check back Monday for the Weekend Roundup. Ciao for now.
"Everybody Loves Raymond" star Brad Garrett performs his stand-up routine at 7:30 p.m. April 17 at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center, 50 N. George St. in York.
Tickets go on sale 11 a.m. today for Strand members and 11 a.m. Monday for the general public. They are available at the Strand-Capitol box office, by phone at 846-1111 and online at www.strandcapitol.org
YLT hits a high note with 'Dreamgirls.'
I went to see York Little Theatre's production of "Dreamgirls" Thursday night.
The show wrapped up YLT's 75th season.
Lather on the sunscreen and check out Artscape in Baltimore this weekend -- hyped as the nation's "largest, free public arts festival."
It rocks. Think art exhibits, fashion designers, craftspeople, live demos and concerts, "art cars," public sculpture on Mount Royal Avenue, freshly squeezed lemonade, funnel cakes and a pink ferris wheel.
The hours are noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.
York Little Theatre and Pullo Family Performing Arts Center are teaming up to present Disney’s “High School Musical” at 7 p.m. Aug. 8 and 2 and 7 p.m. Aug. 9 at the Pullo Center, 1031 Edgecomb Ave. in Spring Garden Township. Dozens of local teens recently participated in open auditions at William Penn Senior High School, South Western High School and YLT. To read an article about the try-outs, click here. To see who made the cut, read the rest of the blog post.
Thursday night Nicki Lefever and I went to check out "The Vagina Monologues" at York Little Theatre. Nicki had seen it twice before, but it was my first time. As I sat in the black-box theatre, surrounded by older women and a few brave men, I found myself a little nervous about how the audience would react to the racy subject matter. We were in South Central Pennsylvania, after all.
Yesterday I went to see Northeastern's performance of "Grease."
I am a huge supporter of community and amateur theater. You don't have to give me a roof-raising performance for me to appreciate a performance, but you have to give it your best effort.
Without naming names, I really felt there were a handful of main cast members who seemed very apathetic about their roles. It was really disheartening. To play any of these characters has to be a ton of fun. They are high school students at their prime.
There were, however, students who really loved what they were doing and it showed. Jillian Ambrose (Jan), Phillip Freedman (Danny), Ben Heiland (Roger) and Lindsay Deacon (Rizzo) were four standouts who saved the show. They had the energy, charisma and comedy that it takes to pull off "Grease."
Kudos to those four students! They owned the stage. Jillian and Ben's performance of "Mooning" made me want to get out of my seat and shout. Jillian made me laugh out loud numerous times with her stage command. Phillip had me believe that he was the leader of the pack with awesome vocals, and Ben's hilarity was contagious. Lindsay gave the attitude it takes for raunchy Rizzo.
