I’ve gone on a bit of a theatre binge over the past month or two. Here are the shows I’ve seen:

• Sweeney Todd: Done as a reenactment in a mental instituion with only 10 actors, who also play all the instruments (Patti Lupone plays a mean tuba). The reduced orchestrations actually sound fantastic and I can’t wait for the cast recording.
• In My Life: It may not be the new Carrie (which Jeff saw), but it’s earned a place in the next revision of Ken Mandelbaum’s book. Heaven as a bank of filing cabinets? Dancing skeletons? Brain tumors? It’s a shame, because the romantic couple (a musician with Tourette’s syndrome and a flakey woman who works for the Village Voice who “meet cute”) were adorable. I saw understudy Courtney Balan, who seems a better match for the material than what I saw of the lead in rehearsal footage.
• On the 20th Century: I’ve loved this show since I did it in college, so I splurged for a ticket to this one-night-only Actors Fund concert production. Mike and Jere were there too.
• Silence! the musical: The hit of this year’s Fringe Festival. We also went to The Sounds of SILENCE! and Other Inappropriate Show Tunes concert, where Tyler Maynard brought down the house doing Liza doing “Somewhere that’s Green.”
• 4 shows at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, which is kind of like Sundance for musicals.
  • But I’m a Cheerleader: This show will definitely see a future. Bright and fun. RuPaul, who was in the film, sat 3 seats over from us.
  • The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde: Some nice tunes, but no dramatic engine.
  • Reluctant Pilgrim: a Side-by-Side-by-Stephen Schwartz revue. With the “popular”-ity of Wicked, I bet colleges and theatre groups across the country will want to do this revue.
  • Plane Crazy: I really wanted to like this new show, because I’ve been following the writer’s blog; but it wasn’t really to my taste. But she’s definitely talented.
• The Great American Trailer Park Musical – Jeff and I saw this in previews and thought it an enjoyable piece of fluff. Apparently it went through a lot of rewrites before opening. I just watched the video clips on the website and it sounds like the orchestations were changed.
• Slut-A Musical: Jeff left at intermission and I stayed to see if there’d be more jaw-dropping production numbers like “The H.M.S. Donkey Balls.” The show committed an even greater sin by having a completely boring second act.
• Joy: The token “straight” play of the bunch. Pretty standard gay-romantic comedy fare, featuring Ben “Dell Dude” Curtis.

And this Sunday is See What I Wanna See, the new Michael John Lachiusa musical.