What Do We Think?

We're not kidding when we said there's really not much to talk about. We're excited to see Altar Boyz at Swift Creek and we're really upset we missed the other production. Especially because Eddie Tavares would make a perfect Juan.

In the meantime, let's talk about the Where the Wild Things Are trailer, which Elyse has now proceeded to watch about 50 times. Part of the time we were crying, part of the time we were elated, and part of the time we were glad they found a use for the Gorgs' costumes on Fraggle Rock. Besides the fact that the trailer alone is pretty amazing, this movie has so much potential. Let's ignore the fact that the voice of the Wild Thing at the very beginning of the trailer seems a little unfitting.

Like We Didn't Love Them Enough Already...

Welcome to Steingold Mekai

Tonight, the Steingold sisters ventured out to Hanover Tavern for the first time ever. And we mean ventured. We've never passed so many haunted houses in our lives. We were very excited when we got there and realized Hanover Tavern is gorgeous. The area around the building is very quaint, old-fashioned, and charming. All the history fits right in... unlike the Civil War Trail we've been to in Charlottesville that cuts directly through a Waffle House and a Sell-It-On-Ebay Store.

It was nice finally getting to see Mona's Arrangements in person, considering we've seen about 300 pictures and videos talking about it online. Time to bring the bullets back!

• First off, pretty cool that this is a world premiere- and of a MUSICAL! It's always nice to hear new songs. Props to Bo Wilson and Steve Liebman for literally writing a show. We love smart people.
  
• We personally think the show should be retitled Mona's High-Heeled Flip Flops, because Jan sported them in every color of the rainbow, including gold. Anyone else notice that?
• Speaking of Jan Guarino, she's just too cute! We want her to be our aunt, but we don't want her stealing men from us who are our age. We have a hard enough time with guys as it is. Jan totally has a lot of heart, and audiences can't help but eat up her every line. We're pretty sure that after this show, Haynes will increase their sale of Clik Claks (yes, we went to the Haynes website. And yes, we now want to buy a Clik Clak).
• Audra Honaker embodied the part of the rambunctious match-making niece. We also were impressed with the random note progression that she tackled at the end of one of her songs. The note progression sounded a little like the Torah portion at our Bat Mitzvahs. She handled it very well the second time she sang it, during the unnecessary reprise where Jan changes into another cute dress with matching high-heeled flip flops.
• Scott Wichmann as the young love interest was entertaining as always. We loved his first big number! When he literally jumped over the baseball bat, we realized that this number was a conglomeration of the "Special Skills" section on a resume. "Tap dance, impressions, can jump over baseball bat, valid Driver's License." He's also SO funny and genuine to watch. We want to be real friends with him. But honestly, Facebook would work, too. We'll be awaiting your request.

So as you work your way down the Civil War Trail, make sure you stop along the way to see Mona's Arrangements. Oh, and something funny to leave you with. As we were leaving the theatre, we overheard the conversation of two very elderly women. We've reenacted it for you. The third character was added so as to include our mom. Blooper reel also available.

Arabian Nights

Things are totally fun because Elyse is home right now for her spring break- and what wonderful spring break weather she’s been getting, huh? 50 degrees and slightly snowing. Anyway, her being home means we spend a lot of time watching movies and talking about musical theatre. Really it’s no different than her being at school, except we’re not on video chat. Which means Annie can’t spend the whole time looking at herself. She’s actually forced to look at Elyse.

Anyway, we came to two realizations recently that we would like to share with you. One is a positive one, and it’s that Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin are geniuses. We were talking about Annie and the Star-To-Be solo. By the way, wait until you hear Robin Harris-Jones belt it out at Theatre IV. You’ll LOVE it. So yeah one of the lines in that little solo bothered us. The music is all upbeat, happy and fast, and she sings, “NYC, Tomorrow a penthouse, that’s WAYYYY up high…”- and then the music really slows down and it sounds sad. She then sings, “Tonight, the Y…. why not? It’s NYC.”

What perplexed us is, how come she’s talking about living in a penthouse and then sounds depressed that she’s going to the Y? Why are the 2 related? Did the Star-To-Be get to NY and realize that everyone in NY is a lot skinnier than she thought, so she’s kind of bummed that she needs to go to the Y to take a Zumba class? Our mom then told us that people stay overnight at the YMCA. Okay, where have we been? We literally had no idea that people stayed at the Y. But now that makes perfect sense. And we love it! Thank you Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin. And seriously, wait until you hear R-Har-Jones (hard making a nickname out of her name).

But ladies and gents, we then realized something really depressing, too. We were watching the salesman’s opening monologue in Aladdin because we’re starting a new theatre business where we reenact, to a T, iconic scenes and videos that don’t get enough credit. Elyse is handling the Salesman/Narrator part in Aladdin while Annie plays the camel. Annie gets to play Ace Ventura doing the dolphin monologue. Elyse is playing the kidnapped dolphin, Snowflake. And wait until you see our amazing reenactment of Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” video. Anyway, in watching the monologue in Aladdin, we realized, to our HORROR, that the salesman is literally just telling the story of Aladdin. As in, Aladdin and Jasmine, etc. don’t exist. It’s just a story. That’s incredibly depressing. We realized that’s what it must be like for kids when they realize Santa doesn’t exist.

So yes, we’ve made a lot of discoveries recently. A positive and a negative. Which apparently equals us making zero discoveries. Oh well. Looking forward to seeing Mona Lisa Smile at Hanover Tavern on Wednesday.

You're Welcome Readers

Most of you probably know this already, but one of our favorite comedians, Will Ferrell, is starring as George Bush on Broadway in the limited-run of You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush. Now, we haven't seen this on Broadway despite the fact that we love Will Ferrell. See, when we go to a Broadway show, we'd rather spend our money on more intellectually-stimulating pieces of art, like Shrek the Musical.

But, what's exciting is that Ferrell's show is going to be on HBO tomorrow night, Saturday the 14th, at 9PM, so we can all watch it for free! Here's the information. Personally, we love when Broadway shows are on TV, because not only can you make loud comments during it, but you can also rewind-play as many times as you want. Remember when Fosse was on PBS many years ago? Yeah, can't tell you how many times we watched that over and over again to A. Try to learn all the choreography, and B. Swoon over Ken Alan, the guy who's about five feet tall in person and an incredible dancer.

So pop your 100-calorie kettle corn, sit back, and watch a Broadway show in the comfort of your own living room. It's sure to be hilarious. And Mike, we know what resnark you're going to make, so we might as well address it now.

Mike: Why would I choose to spend my time watching an actor who I find to be incredibly annoying play a politician who I find to be incredibly annoying?
Us: You don't have HBO. No worries.

And finally, we leave you with this video of The Rock- we're sorry, ahem, Dwayne Johnson- SINGING and DANCING on SNL. His arms are pretty ridiculous. So yeah, watch this video, it's hilarious, and it's pretty cool/bizarre/we're never going to watch his movies the same way again.

So Close!!

All right, so tonight the two of us were so excited to get back on the horse with this blog, so we recorded a VIDEO of us expressing our excitement and it was really funny (?). BUT when we went to upload it to the blog, we couldn't find where it was saved on our computer. So as of now it's lost in Elyse's hard drive along with the 12 times she tried to download Chip's Challenge (if you've never played Chip's Challenge, PLEASE find it and play it). So she's gonna keep looking, but for now, we're going to leave you with the promise that we are BACK.

Family Ketchup

P.S. Were we the only people who hated it whenever "ketchup" was spelled "catsup"?