Chaplin and Avenue Q

Patrick, Brian and I enjoyed two musicals yesterday, the first of which being 'Chaplin' with the slogan, "The big musical about the little tramp!" And when they said big, they really meant it! Black and white staging and costuming combined with projected reals of old Chaplin films gave it a highly stylistic look and the choreography was splashy and fun! Rob McClure, who played Charlie Chaplin, was fantastic and full of energy, but the story, based on his life, was a little messy and schmaltzy at times with average music. We all still had fun though.

We knew 'The Book of Mormon' was difficult to get into, being one of the most popular shows on Broadway, but someone told us of the ticket lottery and the standing-room-only tickets available if you went early. So we each entered the drawing, and although they pulled out several names from Utah (causing us to hold our breath in excitement each time) none of them were ours. There were also too many people in front of us in line for the limited standing room tickets, so we didn't get one of those either.

So, in the mood for musical laughs, we ran to the TKTS booth for Plan B: 'Avenue Q.' It was off-broadway by a few blocks in a smaller theater, but it was so good! I've heard all the songs before but I had never seen the show performed and I loved it! It's basically a grown-up version of 'Sesame Street' with puppets and cartoon segments and singing, only the characters are living in the slums and struggling with bigger issues than colors and counting. If you get a chance to see it anywhere, see it. You'll be laughing your head off!