Free Twinkies!

First of all, we have to say that right now we are really, really pissed off at Annie's cat Kitty Minky. She literally stepped on our computer and somehow managed to CTRL-A, then delete everything we had written. And thanks to stupid "Auto Save", when we refreshed our blog, all we had was a backslash. We are literally having to rewrite this post. So basically Annie and her cat are no longer on speaking terms.

Friday night, we got the chance to see tick, tick... BOOM!, Stage 1 Theatre Company's Inaugural Production- so exciting! Chase Kniffen, in his Letter from the Director, stated that starting a theatre company during these economic times is perhaps "the craziest thing anyone has done... ever!" You're so right, Chase. What you did is SO ZANY and OUTRAGEOUS! No one in the history of the world has ever done anything that crazy.... ever! Except maybe when people bike to school when they could just drive? That's pretty insane.

Let's talk about the show, in our scattered, random, incoherent (quick, think of more synonyms for "scattered"!) way! Bullets, ignite.

• First of all, please don't forget to bring your Twinkie net to the show. Free Twinkies are literally thrown at the audience. We, personally, can't think of a better reason to see the show. 
• We realized, in a scientific discovery not unlike Einstein's Theory of Relativity, that tick, tick... BOOM! = Rent, minus lesbians and plus a gay Taye Diggs. Seriously. As a little experiment, Elyse sang the song "Rent" (from Rent) and Annie sang "No More" (from TTB) simultaneously. What we had was sheer Sondheim brilliance, a song very much like "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/ Love Will See Us Through" from Follies! If you got this joke, you're awesome.
• Brett Ambler as Johnny-Who-Can't-Decide has a really amazing voice and true charm. He told us himself that he is only offstage for about 12 seconds, enough time to put on an apron. The fact that he is able to hold our attention through an entire show is impressive. His cathartic number, "Why" was our favorite. This song is not to be confused with Annie Lennox's 80s power-ballad of the same name.
• Audra Honaker as Susan + Others is so much fun to watch on a stage- talk about someone with great comic timing! She's really awesome when it comes to taking on different personalities. As the businesswoman, her performance truly shined... almost as much as her wig. 
•  Durron Seymour Tyre (pronounced "tire" by Annie; apparently this is incorrect) as Michael + Others has such an awesome voice. We love watching people onstage whose pitch doesn't worry us. He's especially funny as the cashier in "Sugar", spontaneously breaking out into song. If we had a nickel for every 7-11 cashier we've had who's started randomly singing, we'd have 0 cents. If we had a nickel for every customer at 7-11 who's spontaneously broken out into song, well, that's another story.
• All the behind-the-scenes aspects of the show can't be ignored. With an intelligent set, a rocking band, and rolling lights, the show really was an intelligent rock and roll spectacular. But seriously, we applaud all the thought, time, and energy put into this show- it showed. Show. Show show show.

Congratulations, Chase, on your first production in your new theatre! We loved, as you said, "sitting in your dream". We couldn't have asked for a better, more entertaining night, and we wouldn't be surprised if we went to see this show again... because we're that cool. Maybe "cool" isn't the right adjective?

Go see tick, tick... BOOM! For a really inexpensive ticket price, you're basically seeing two shows in one! Rent is the other show, in case you didn't get it before.