[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7CDT820D7c]

Jay Brannan Tour Dates:

July 8 – New York, NY
July 9 – Annapolis, MD
July 10 – Philadelphia, PA
July 11 – Hoboken, NJ
July 13 – Minneapolis, MN
July 14 – Chicago, IL
July 15 – Columbus, OH
July 17 – Houston, TX
July 18 – Austin, TX
July 19 – Dallas, TX
July 21 – Los Angeles, CA
July 24 – San Francisco, CA
July 25 – Portland, OR
July 26 – Seattle, WA
July 29 – New York, NY
July 30 – Boston, MA
Sept 4 – Amsterdam, NL
Sept 7 – Köln, DE
Sept 8 – Frankfurt am Main, DE
Sept 9 – München, DE
Sept 11 – Berlin, DE
Sept 12 – Hamburg, DE
Sept 14 – Milano, IT
Sept 15 – Roma, IT

By far the best moment, for me, was the portion of the opening number where, (about 4:50 in the clip below) in a fantastic back-and-forth piece, Stockard Channing (who I adore) sang parts of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” (which is one my favorite songs of all time) and Aaron Tveit (who I quickly am learning to adore) sang parts of “I’m Alive” (which is my favorite song from Next to Normal).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cr6h5fFEjI]

Could it get any better than when she throws her wrap over his shoulder as she sings about being unable to sleep “until I could sleep where I shouldn’t sleep”?

The second best moment, which apparently was cut off in some markets because the show went about 5 minutes over, was a “closing number” song, as Neil Patrick Harris called it, in which he sang about the winners — and got the line of the night: “This show could not be gayer if Liza were named mayor and Elton John took flight!”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjSwbte3G4]

My favorite of the “Best Musical nominee” performances was the performance of “You Don’t Know” and “I Am the One” from Next to Normal, featuring the talented Ms. Ripley and Mr. Tveit, playing her son Gabe (as well as her husband Dan, played by J. Robert Spencer):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYo-dflx4Gk]

Watch for Tviet in the new musical, Catch Me If You Can, where he is to originate the role played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2002 movie version of the story.

Finally, a great dance number from Billy Elliot, with an introduction from Elton John:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg57KOrg3mw]

With that, have a great Monday!

Apologies for the lack of updates today, but I’ve been Interwebs incompetent today.  Nothing working, anywhere.  My Internet in the condo is on the fritz.  The Starbucks Internet is down.  I’m currently on “borrowed” Internet from someone who lives near the Starbucks.

Justice Souter is by far my favorite sitting justice, so I look at his retirement with some sadness.  I have been a great fan of his since I did my paper on him in a Women and the Law class at American University back in 1997.  With the exception of his vote in FAIR v. Rumsfeld, I cannot, offhand, come up with a recent decision of his with which I readily disagree.

Over the weekend, I plan to do some re-reading of Justice Souter’s most notable cases, as well as doing some research into possible replacements.

Also, I’ll be seeing Eric Himan perform tonight!  Check him out!

Have a great Friday, all!

The line comes from Troy Patterson’s review of HBO’s Grey Gardens, starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in the movie telling the story of the 1975 cult documentary of the same name:

But really the great bad luck of the Edith Bouvier Beales was to arrive before their time, to antecede reality television.

Although he referred to the 2006 musical of the same name as an “off-Broadway” production, and although it began as such, the show was staged quite successfully on Broadway (and I saw it in its last week).  It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including Best New Musical, and both Christine Ebersole and Mary-Louise Wilson won the Tony for their leading and supporting roles, respectively.

Of HBO’s production, Patterson writes:

A different kind of film would signal Big Edie’s irretrievable descent into battiness with a scene of her drinking before cocktail hour. Here, the pivotal moment comes when she switches from a highball glass to a pickling jar.

The documentary is a classic train-wreck, the musical was fantastic, and it would appear that HBO has succeeded in its effort.  I can’t wait to see it.

For some Sunday fun, here’s Christine Ebersole, with an intro from Patrick Wilson, at the performing at the Tony Awards in 2007.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgOQZpMD0fE]

watch?v=h_d3fqMH58s

I have been impressed with Bo Burnham.  I like seeing artists who I first found on YouTube “making it” — and love promoting them to others (like Ben Deignan, who I met down in Atlanta in 2007).  Bo has a Comedy Central special coming up at the end of the month, and — although he definitely has no concern about lines of propriety — he far more often than not finds a great way of balancing cutesy puns, poking mockery and tough satire.

He’ll make some people uncomfortable and others will find him plain old unfunny, but I think he’s got some real talent.  With more than 60,000 views in the twelve hours since he posted his most recent video, his explicit, not-safe-for-most-workplaces video is worth checking out before his Comedy Central special airs on March 27.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fg-dQxQOEs]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhJOT7CHO94]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mv35SN3ctU]

Reann Ballslee waving to the crowd. (Photo in The Washington Post by Teddy Meyer - Broadside)

The color commentary piece in The Washington Post is good, and describes it as thus:

Allen is now — as of halftime at Saturday’s sold-out basketball game against Northeastern at the Patriot Center — the school’s homecoming queen. He received more votes than the two women who vied for the crown.

Allen, who is gay and performs as a popular drag queen at local clubs, assumed the title of Ms. Mason. He was wearing a green-and-gold bow, sewn for him by the theater department costume’s shop, that was visible even from the cheap seats, a sequined top, a black skirt and heels. Ricky Malebranche, a junior from Woodbridge, was named Mr. Mason.

But, of course, there’s always an asshole:

But electing a dude as homecoming queen is not the way to bolster pride, sophomore Grant Bollinger said. Mason was recently named the No. 1 national university to watch by U.S. News & World Report, he said — it should act like it.

“It’s really annoying,” said Bollinger, who works as an ambassador for the admissions office. “The game was on TV. Everyone was there. All eyes were on us. And we do something like this? It’s just stupid.”

Grant, congratulations, you’ve done the worst job of promoting your school that I can imagine.  In Keith Olbermann’s lingo, “You’re today’s worst person in the world.”  I wonder if he’ll be working as an ambassador next week?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ3Oz5JVKs]

Truly, it is worth the three minutes to hear this debate about whether a .002 dollars is the same as .002 cents.

Customer service guy: “They’re both the same if, if you look at ‘em on paper-wise.”

Customer: “No, they’re not, actually.”

And later:

Customer service manager: “Well, I mean, it’s obviously a difference of opinion.”

Customer: “It’s not opinion.”