I had just watched this version, by comparison with which Ms. Gwynne's rendition looks even better, though the latter would probably have impressed me anyway.  I'm guessing Beth Leavel might perform this song when Sondheim's Old Friends arrives on Broadway next month?

And while "Ladies Who Lunch"s are on my mind (and in my YouTube feed), our own Divine Mrs. M gives a sterling account, upbeat (for the occasion, presumably?) until it's not, and brilliantly effective.  I'd have assumed this song was pretty well locked into its original tone of desublimated rage, but Donna's easygoing compassion is sneakily persuasive — again, all the more so in its context, but I dearly wish I'd also seen her perform the song in Company, for comparison (and because I'm sure she was spectacular).  "Approachable" isn't a quality I'd necessarily have thought to associate with Joanne, but it's a fascinating idea: what if her bitchiness is customarily leavened by such a warm twinkle that all she really has to do, to freeze our blood during this song, is to stop smiling?

Plenty of performers have dropped their smile for the final verse, perhaps instinctually — Gwynne, above, provides a deft example.  But often, their smiles until then have been so steely, practiced or brittle that their eventual fading (from exhaustion, it can seem) is hardly a surprise.  In less-expert hands, it can even feel clumsily overdetermined: "I've been singing about myself in the third person this whole time, but just in case anyone hadn't figured that out by now, I'm gonna drop even the pretense of being funny and get right down to the nub of my own self-hatred — check out my haunted gaze into the middle-distance, see what I'm doing here?"  Donna, by comparison, manages to downplay the acid so convincingly that, when her easy smile does finally evaporate, the tonal shift is subtle yet seismic — and, crucially, it feels spontaneous.

This isn't meant to be a stumper. The song I was thinking of uses the word three times in three lines. But the word (hip) is also a part of many other words, which leads to zillions of possibilities.

hip

Some of my co-workers were talking about Discount Tire recently.  They really like them and said they have wonderful customer service.  Your experience confirms what they were saying. I probably will be needing new tires soon as well as brake pads.  Actually, the brake pads most likely need to be changed soon.  And my windshield wipers need to be replaced a few months ago.  They still work but not very well.  Having a car is so much fun!   

Today I took my car in to have the tire looked at because the tire sensor alarm kept going off. After the fourth time going and having the pressure checked, I thought that maybe it was an actual tire going flat instead of an overly-sensitive sensor alarm. (Which I believe I have also.) It turns out there was a screw in my tire, and Discount Tire fixed it for free, although they first tried to get me to sign off on what would happen in the Worst Case Scenario, which would have been $400-something. 

Someday I need to find out what Costco's policy is on fixing flats, because that's where I get my tires. 

That has been my excitement for the day. I also went grocery shopping. Yippee!

Quote from: DiveMilw on Jan 28, 2025, 07:42 PM

Quote from: scenicdesign71 on Jan 27, 2025, 03:03 PMGiven the focus, in this PDF, on nearly imperceptible changes to the street view (and those from neighboring buildings) caused by a few relatively minor alterations to the building's roof, I can't help wondering about the acoustics of performing up there: PotO's cemetery and rooftop scenes aren't exactly quiet, and you'd think the neighbors might have something to say about hearing them night after night.  Perhaps audiences during these outdoor scenes will be obliged to don headphones featuring pre-recorded tracks to which the performers lip-sync?  (On the other hand, perhaps not... my recent wildly-informal study of the theater district didn't really extend that far north, but I was a pretty regular customer of Lee's when I lived in the neighborhood, and that block is basically office buildings; the nearest residential neighbors may actually be faraway enough not to hear).

What about street noise?  Especially if they have a weekday matinee?  Or is it a quiet neighborhood....at least until Phantom opens. 

It's hard for me to imagine there being any matinées for an even partly-outdoor PotO... those rooftop and cemetery scenes, in daylight??  I mean, where profits are at stake, nothing would surprise me, but letting sunlight fall on this show sounds like a pretty wretched idea, especially for a production built primarily if not entirely around Phantom's one notable strength: wraparound atmosphere.

On no particular basis, I'm imagining something a little closer to the actual PotO than, say, Sleep No More is to Macbeth; but perhaps less linear than... I don't know, Here Lies Love or Cats: The Jellicle Ball.  (Full disclosure, I've seen precisely none of the immersive "experiences" cited in the previous sentence, if that suggests just how vague my guesswork here is).  But even if they aren't continuously letting people in on timed ticket-entries all night long like Sleep No More, I could easily imagine this PotO doing a couple (or more than a couple) two-show nights each week, with a much shorter running time than the original theatrical version.  All of which is just to say: given two rooftop performance areas all but demanding a dark romantic nighttime-city ambience, there are other ways they could make money than by doing matinées in which those scenes — both dramatic turning points in the "plot" — would be effectively ruined by sunlight.

In terms of street noise: I've been there (at street level) at night, but not too often, not very recently, and not with anything like this in mind.  Still, it's far enough from Times Square (or any other really bustling nightlife, as far as I'm aware) that it wouldn't shock me if this particular location actually was quiet enough for the show's purposes — again, assuming only nighttime performances — and being five stories above the street should help a bit.

Still, this situation does sound like an interesting challenge (bearing in mind: I know nothing about sound design).  It makes me wonder whether there might be some high-tech solution — ideally not involving headphones — that would help focus the acoustics so that audiences could hear the show without interference from city noise, while also keeping it contained so that non-audience members in the surrounding streets and (especially) buildings aren't subjected to an unwanted nightly concert.

Quote from: scenicdesign71 on Jan 27, 2025, 03:03 PMGiven the focus, in this PDF, on nearly imperceptible changes to the street view (and those from neighboring buildings) caused by a few relatively minor alterations to the building's roof, I can't help wondering about the acoustics of performing up there: PotO's cemetery and rooftop scenes aren't exactly quiet, and you'd think the neighbors might have something to say about hearing them night after night.  Perhaps audiences during these outdoor scenes will be obliged to don headphones featuring pre-recorded tracks to which the performers lip-sync?  (On the other hand, perhaps not... my recent wildly-informal study of the theater district didn't really extend that far north, but I was a pretty regular customer of Lee's when I lived in the neighborhood, and that block is basically office buildings; the nearest residential neighbors may actually be faraway enough not to hear).

What about street noise?  Especially if they have a weekday matinee?  Or is it a quiet neighborhood....at least until Phantom opens.   

I came across this on FB — a glimpse into the new immersive PotO being proposed to take over the old Lee's Art Shop building on West 57th St:

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/lpc/downloads/pdf/presentation-materials/20240213/218-West-57th-Street.pdf

TL/DR: the info on these drawings is boiled down to TikTok-length summary here.

There's not much scenic info apart from one rendering of the building's lower-roof level dressed as Père Lachaise cemetery for "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," and some elevations for the building's facade and signage.  I'm guessing the smaller upper-roof level will be used for the Opéra roof, with a reproduction of one of Garnier's gilded angels designed to allow hidden access for the Phantom.

The interiors aren't shown or described in this document beyond the inclusion of floorpans of the existing four levels with proposed performance areas labeled as such, but no specific indications of furniture, props or set pieces.  (This document was presumably submitted to the city for permitting, to which the interior décor would be irrelevant — although those elements will eventually have to pass a separate safety inspection).

Given the focus, in this PDF, on nearly imperceptible changes to the street view (and those from neighboring buildings) caused by a few relatively minor alterations to the building's roof, I can't help wondering about the acoustics of performing up there: PotO's cemetery and rooftop scenes aren't exactly quiet, and you'd think the neighbors might have something to say about hearing them night after night.  Perhaps audiences during these outdoor scenes will be obliged to don headphones featuring pre-recorded tracks to which the performers lip-sync?  (On the other hand, perhaps not... my recent wildly-informal study of the theater district didn't really extend that far north, but I was a pretty regular customer of Lee's when I lived in the neighborhood, and that block is basically office buildings; the nearest residential neighbors may actually be faraway enough not to hear).

[digression]

Well, I almost lucked into a surprisingly reasonable-ish (by current standards) house seat for Cole Escola's final weekend in Oh, Mary!  But in the end, I wasn't too devastated to lose out (this was on the last-minute-resale app Theatr), since I expect their sendoff was probably even more hysterically fan-ridden than most final performances.  (Those I've seen for other shows or performers sometimes become such love-fests that the performance itself gets a bit overshadowed by the event — and my sense is that Escola and Oh, Mary! might've been even more susceptible to that than most).  I had been keeping an eye on Telecharge, and getting lots of Theatr notifications, throughout their final couple of weeks; and dithering, and resisting the spiraling ticket prices; and by the final weekend I was pretty well resigned to seeing the show without its creator, if at all.

And now I shall, this Thursday at 8:30pm, featuring the talented Ms. Gilpin, who took over last week and whose work I'm predisposed to enjoy even if her casting here surprises me (admittedly based on no actual experience of this play yet) as much as it does her:





[/digression]

Hip hip... hooray!   

And thanks for the link to your wonderful review, @KathyB !  I hadn't remembered it being that (relatively) recent, but then again, time's been slippery for at least the past five years.  And I'm still hoping for a miracle production that finally turns ACW into, if not a hit, then at least a true succès d'estime rather than an interesting score with a hopeless book.  My only real experience of it — the Donna Murphy-Raúl Esparza-Sutton Foster Encores concert in 2010 — was so delightful.