One Night in Blogkok.

Those of you who have gotten sick of the Alanis-Morissette-imitating-and-movie-acting Idina Menzel might not know about the fact that Idina recently starred in the Chess benefit concert, and it's on DVD- oh, and you know she's pregnant, right?! Yeah, old news. The concert was also on PBS, for free, and we realized that fact basically immediately after we ripped open the DVD from Barnes and Noble. Anyway, Adam Pascal, Josh Groban, and Kerry Ellis also headline. Other than the fact that there literally needed to be a letter from Tim Rice in the DVD cover explaining that no one really knows or understands what the storyline of Chess is, we really enjoyed the show! The guys from ABBA teamed up with Tim Rice to write the music, and they do a great job of balancing the two styles. Just when it gets too Evita for your taste, they mix in some Mamma Mia. Our personal favorite song is "The Deal." It's so good.

Idina is just so amazing singing "Nobody's Side," minus the fact that she throws in her signature speech impediment: singing it "Lobody's on lobody's side." Kerry Ellis sings "Someone Else's Story," but she decided to make her mark on the show by creating her own speech impediment: pronouncing her S's "sh." Now WHY they would give the song Someone ElSe'S Story to someone with an S problem, we will never know. Josh Groban is a little lame to tell the truth - acting is definitely not his strongest suit. His voice makes up for it, though, in a very Polar Express kind of way. Adam Pascal is ridiculous. We've watched him sing "One Night in Bangkok" about 64 times already. Finally, watching Kerry Ellis and Idina Menzel sing "I Know Him So Well" together is awesome just because of the fact that you can't help but think- and hope- that they're going to screw Chess and instead just break out into a Who Can Riff the Best at the End of "Defying Gravity" contest.

So if you're bored this summer, curl up in front of the TV and watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dancing Queen. Idina's back in town!

P.S. Elyse was at dinner last night with a group of people and one of the girls said, "For my new car I want to get a Peace Frogs sticker. I wish that was still around." Elyse had to tell her the sad truth that there was, in fact, a Peace Frogs store just 5 minutes from her house. We stand corrected about the demand for peaceful amphibian gear.