Current Obsession: HAMILTON (Yay Hamlet!)

Lin-Manuel Miranda leading the November 25 Ham4Ham perfor­mance. Photo: Mark Peterson/Reduxpictures as seen in New York Magazine.  See Lenny in the bottom left corner? OK...half of her? :)

The soundtrack to Lin-Manuel Miranda's brilliant Hamilton has been on constant rotation in our house since early this Fall and I don't expect that to change any time soon.

If you haven't yet found yourself under the spell of this master and his masterpiece I've got some suggested viewing for you...

It all started at the White House in 2011. As Lenny would say, "prepare to be amazed":



The standing O from the President was prophetic.

A few years later, that became THIS:



And the press and mainstream success has been flooding in. Check out Lin's Wheel of Freestyle on the Tonight Show:



That day Lenny came home from school and told me she wanted to listen to Hamilton and paint abstracts. Parenting WIN. Click here to see 36 seconds of awesomeness.


And finally, on our recent trip to NYC at #Ham4Ham with Céline and Lenny.  MEGA exciting to be there and see Lin-Manuel in person.  Click here to check that out.

Yeah, this show hits a bunch of my sweet-spots, American History, Politics, Broadway and Hip Hop so it makes sense that it would speak to me. But it's genius seems to be nearly universally accepted. Which is such an exciting thing to witness.  Most exciting for me is, I think, feeling this excited by a piece of theatre again. I don't think I've felt this way in 20 years. It feels amazing to be completely consumed by a piece of art. I'm very grateful for the joy this show has given me.

My Favourite Stritch Moment

In rehearsals for Follies in Concert in 1985, Barbara Cook sings In Buddy's Eyes. It's so beautiful, it's as if all of the air as been sucked out of the room. There is complete silence. Lee Remick watches on and appears as though she is going to cry. Mandy Patinkin closes his eyes...and you can almost see his goosebumps. Sondheim himself is in the corner of the room mouthing along to the lyrics.

And then, there is Stritch.

In her tights and button down shirt and bucket hat. Fussing with her purse, taking her shoes off, putting her shoes on. Cigarette hanging out of her mouth. She had not one fuck to give.

Not one, single, solitary fuck to give.

And I think that's why we (the audience) loved her. What an asshole. What a wonderful, gifted, completely watchable, honest asshole.

Tony! Tony! Tony!

Hey, theatre geeks, it's Tony night! To celebrate I humbly suggest you pop over to Tracey Nolan Studios and check out my two latest entries featuring photos from an event celebrating Mirvish Productions' upcoming Priscilla Queen of the Desert and publicity stills from Sean Fisher's new Fringe show A Freudian Slip of the Jung.

AND...while we're celebrating great theatre in Toronto and New York, I want to share a video from the magnificent Sharron Matthews of her much talked about debut at Joe's Pub last week. Sharron is one of my favourite subjects to photograph and wonderful lady. I love to see her knocking them dead like this! Check out this video from Joe's Pub to see for yourself!

Meanwhile, I'll be with all the other bitchy theatre queens over at Twitter, live-tweeting the festivities. See you over there, or see you in the theatre!

Times is hard...times is hard...

Went to the opening night of Sweeney Todd at the Princess of Wales Theatre tonight with Mo and the Robeau. Run, don't walk, friends. It's the touring version of John Doyle's bold re-imagining of the Sondheim masterpiece - a "chamber production" where the actors all accompany themselves on instruments. The legendary Judy Kaye is a pitch perfect Mrs. Lovett and David Garry (filling in for Michael Hess) is too strong to be mistaken for anyone's understudy. Chilling. Amazing. If you have the opportunity to check this out, do it. I might add, a very clever person decided to serve Bloody Marys and meat pies at the after party. Don't you love it?

And now, because this show defies description, check out a clip from the Tony Awards with the Broadway cast of the revival:

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Coming Soon to a stage and a TV near you!

Take a look at my pics from today's press conference.

Kitty Carlisle Hart

I got the following sad email just now from The Leaugue of American Theatres. A long life, well lived. What a classy, classy lady.

It is with great sadness that we let you know that stage and film legend, Kitty Carlisle Hart passed away on Tuesday, April 17. She was chairperson of New York State Council of the Arts for 20 years, and a lifelong advocate for the arts. In her memory, the lights on Broadway marquees will be dimmed this evening.

When I think of her I think not just of her many accomplishments, but of Moss Hart and George Gershwin and oddly enough, The Simpsons and the gag done well over a decade ago involving the "perectly preserved head of Kitty Carlisle Hart".

All about Kitty Carlisle Hart

A fun film clip from "To Tell the Truth"

She was the best.