A Very Merry Zohan Christmas!

Ho, ho, ho, Merry Belated Christmas! Hope your day was full of family, good cheer, and lots of random presents. Hopefully the Hanukkah-ites are keeping up with the lighting of the candles. We're not... the fact that we fess up to opening up presents on Christmas (no, we don't have a tree), pretty much explains the fact that we forget to light the candles.

Anyway, here's a Christmas BULLETin to fill you in our holidays.

• It very much was a very merry "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" Christmas in the Steingold household. We literally, in all, ended up with 2 DVDs of the classic and 2 Blu-Rays, as well as the soundtrack which hasn't even come out yet but Elyse downloaded all the songs for our mom because she was obsessed with all the Israeli songs in the movie. We love Adam Sandler and have a crush on him, which is why we're a little peeved at Chase Kniffen who told us he thinks our dad talks like Adam Sandler. We will not have a crush on our dad. Freud be damned.
• Of course there was a pretty large amount of musical theatre CDs received including the Jason Alexander Bye Bye Birdie, which we recently became obsessed with when we found the video cassette in our "random video cassetes" case. Elyse got her wisdom teeth out yesterday (ick) and was very, very doped up. So doped up in fact that as our dad held her hand to go to the bathroom, Elyse proceeded to do the "Put on a Happy Face" choreography.
• We know you're thinking, "Oh, how we wish we could have seen Elyse in this altered state." Well, do you believe in Christmas miracles? Because we have one. We videotaped Elyse on a doped-up rant and, in our opinion, it's pretty hilarious. Unfortunately, we didn't get footage of her walking around the house with a big foam hat, putting it on various people and "sorting" them into Gryffindor (Annie), Hufflepuff (Mom), and Slytherin (Chris Collins). However, we did get footage of her as a Tiki Post at Kings Dominion. Merry Christmas. Oh, and we apologize ahead of time for her lack of makeup and bird's nest hairdon't.

Annie and Elyse's Wild Christmas Blog

Big news: for the first time ever, both Steingold Sisters are in shows at the same time! Yay! It's really good because it eliminates any potential "acting notes" that turn into one of us in tears. Just kidding. We're really good at getting along... except when it comes to where to eat dinner. So everyone needs to look out for Annie in the ironically titled Annie, at Theatre IV. Elyse is in Baby with the Bathwater by Christopher Durang at GW (road trip anyone?) which led us to going to see Mrs. Bob Cratchit's... Ridiculously Long Title. Firehouse was doing a staged reading, and since it's by Durang also, we figured it would be a good learning experience for Elyse. As well as entertaining.

The show is hilarious, and the audience was crazy! Seriously, as opposed to laughing, they just screamed at the stage. Looks like everyone has the Hanukkah Cheer! The standout of the show was a Mr. Cooper Timberline, who is probably one of the most adorable kids ever (not counting either of the Farley boys). Funny that our favorite actor in the staged reading was a boy who is too young to read. We think his mom, the eloquent Holly Timberline, drew pictograms or something over his lines. Actually, we're not sure how old he is or if he's literate or not (we're thinking yes), but we do know he never flubbed any of the lines that were right in front of his face. Just sayin'.

Robert Albertia as Ebenezer Scrooge was perfect, Jacqueline O'Connor played mean really well (she had some awesome one-liners), Scott Wichmann had people laughing simply in anticipation of his lines (no kidding), Richard Koch now has a secret admirer (Elyse), Jackie Jones was funny as always, and Katherine Louis just saying the word "Fezziwig" had us die laughing. BTW, how convenient is it for the Muppets that when they made A Muppet Christmas Carol, they literally already had a character named Fozzie? 

Congratulations to Billy Christopher Maupin and his really funny/witty "Director's Notes"- the audience was packed and the show was very well-received- huzzah! Oh, and by the way, we got to talk to Dave T. of the famed Richmond Theatre Blog at intermission. We kid you not, Elyse uttered about three words. We think they were, in no particular order, "dog", "Canada", and "dreidel". She would like to apologize publicly to Mr. T.  for her star-struckness. Star-struckedness? Strickidy-stardness? Yeah, that's it. 

Happy 2nd Night of Hanukkah! We forgot to light the candles already. Oy vey. 

Elf Yourself- Steingold Style!

Hmm. So Elyse is taking forever to write her White Christmas blog, so here is something to hold you over until she posts this literary masterpiece.

Have you ever been to ElfYourself.com? It's hilarious. Annie saw it last year but never took the time to find a picture cute enough of herself to put on it, so Mother Hen handled it for us this year. Elyse had literally never seen this site until our mom emailed it to us a few weeks ago. When we watched it, we literally had tears rolling down our face. Hope you get a kick out of it! Oh, and Happy Hanukkah, by the way!

It's Not Easy Being Green?

Last Wednesday night, Annie and Elyse actually split up and saw two different shows: Shrek the Musical and White Christmas. This is not the first time we've split up... one time Annie and Dad saw the classic Broadway musical Swing! while Elyse and Mom saw Jesus Christ Superstar. We don't know why Annie was so intent on seeing Swing!, but nevertheless, she dragged Dad to see the masterpiece itself. Anyway, it's time for Shrek the Musical to try to defend itself in the quest to find out if it's a white world or green world.

• New musicals are fun because it's a whole bunch of songs you've never heard before and proceed to obsessively watch on YouTube because the soundtrack isn't out yet. Plus 5. But Minus about 4.5 because only 3 of the songs were catchy; the rest was just filler music. Most of the songs are very, very funny (lots of Broadway culture references), so that's cool. Plus 20. 
• In one of the songs, which was entertaining but not all that melodic, Shrek and Fiona duke it out to find out who has had it worse, and also to find out who is the grosser being. They take turns burping and passing gas. Having the sense of humor of a 2-year old,  I, of course, found this number funny. It was basically "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" but with flatulence. I'm really making you all want to see this show, aren't I? Umm, for Annie, about Plus 30. For everyone else, Minus 10.
• Christopher Seiber on his knees doing intricate, hilarious choreography will most likely get him nominated for a Tony for his portrayal of Lord Farquaad. Seriously, he's hilarious. If only his songs had been a bit more catchy. Plus 6.
• Obviously with big ol' Dreamworks Theatricals backing up this show, you're in for a big spectacle. The costumes, sets, lighting- it's basically just watching bags of money up on the stage. Some of the technical elements were amazing, like the transformation of Fiona into an Ogre, but some parts fall a little flat, like when Shrek and Donkey are crossing the bridge over the lava. I think some kinks still need to get worked out. For example, at one point Shrek amazingly does a back handspring. Who knew Brian Duh-Arcy James was capable of that? Just kidding, I knew it was a Shrek double. However, I did not know that seconds later, I'd see both Shreks onstage at the same time, not on purpose obviously. So, Plus 10, Minus 8... Plus 2. 
• Tickets to Shrek the Musical: free, thanks to your friend Caroline. Hot chocolate from Europa before the show: about 30 bucks. Getting to see Sutton Foster as a green ogre? PRICELESS. And kind of amazing. Never again will you get the opportunity to say, "Thank goodness... FINALLY Sutton Foster has gained weight!" Plus 1,000.
  

I don't feel like doing the math, but I think that Shrek is definitely going to win this battle. Proving that maybe it IS easy being green?

Sweetest Holiday Commercial

Not counting the Coca Cola white polar bears holiday commercials (because those almost have a negative effect on our holiday cheer because of the fact that they are SO sad and make us cry), this is one of the most adorable Coke (/Wal-Mart) holiday commercials out there. Annie saw it in the movie theater before Twilight, and proceeded to obsessively check the Internet to find it.

And the day has come! It has been found! What is it these days with commercials with dorky-yet-because-they-can-sing-they're-attractive guys? First the Free-Credit-Report-Dot-Com-Guy, now this guy. Hope you enjoy it, though we know you won't enjoy it as much as Annie does. 

On a different note, we're in the process of writing about some NYC shows, including Shrek, White Christmas, and Pal Joey, which we think should be retitled Pal Stockard Channing is Amazing. 

Because You're Obviously Bored...

Hello friends! We have to start off by saying that after having written the title for this post, we literally sat staring at the computer screen for about seven minutes- the time it took us to finish the bag of chips we initially bought for our mom on the train. BTW, Eric Schaeffer's on the train with us, sleeping like a baby. We were going to take a picture of him asleep and realized everyone around him was not asleep.

Second, sorry it’s been a while! We're on the train because we were in NYC. C, Elyse had a whole week between her classes ending and exams, time which her school allotted for studying. So we went to New York with our mom so Elyse could get her headshots done.

The same guy did Annie’s a year ago.

No but seriously, we both got them done by Matthew Cippaghila, who is wonderful, and we totally recommend him if you ever want to venture to NY to get your headshots done!

Anyway, we have some NYC shows to talk about! But for now, here are some online places to check out instead of doing work. First, this is kind of old news now, but check out "Prop 8- The Musical". It’s hilarious and boasts an awesome cast. We can’t tell you how many people have sent this to us to put on the blog. Very apPROPri8 for it! Thanks for sending the video to us- if you have anything else you want to see up here, we are now selling ad space. 

Here’s another very random website to check out. It’s called Stardoll.com, and it’s a totally awesome way to waste your time. Basically you get to pick a celebrity (and they have a ton) and dress them up, like a paper doll- and each celebrity has a different wardrobe. For those of you men who aren’t into this, the dolls are half-naked! And for those of you musical theatre fans, one of the celebrities is, kid you not, IDINA MENZEL. Here's the link for her doll. Way to go Idina! Clearly Enchanted was way more popular than we thought. Too bad the clothes in her online wardrobe kind of suck. A blue and gray leopard print leotard? Okay.

Life is Good

Today while Annie was at the gym, Varsity Fanclub's single "Future Love" played on the gym's radio. That would be enough motivation for me to run a marathon*. There's just something about Jayk's Purdy voice. Ha! Those of you hardcore Varsity Fanclub fans got that awesome pun. So... Annie... got that awesome pun.

*Actually, marathon is pushing it. Maybe just run a mile**.

**You know what? The mile never really worked out well for me. So we're gonna go with just some light aerobic activity. Maybe a nice, easy Dance Your Way Fit workout tape***.

***Yeah, let's just go with "That would be enough motivation for me to drive to Wendy's and get a #6 with only mayonnaise."