Theatre, mostly

[firstfrost]

My big frivolous accomplishment of yesterday was adding the following to my emacs calendar:

 
&%%(let* (  (day (car (cdr date))) (month (car date)) (year (car (cdr (cdr date))))
	(lastday (calendar-last-day-of-month (car date) (car (cdr (cdr date)))))
	(lastdaytype (calendar-day-of-week (list month lastday year)))
	)
	(or
	 (and (memq lastdaytype '(0 5 6))
	   (or (diary-float t 3 -1) (diary-float t 4 -1) (diary-float t 5 -1)))
	 (and (= lastdaytype 1)
	   (or (diary-float t 4 -1) (diary-float t 5 -1) (diary-float t 1 -1)))
	 (and (= lastdaytype 2)
	   (or (diary-float t 1 -1) (diary-float t 2 -1) (diary-float t 5 -1)))
	 (and (= lastdaytype 3)
	   (or (diary-float t 1 -1) (diary-float t 2 -1) (diary-float t 3 -1)))
	 (and (= lastdaytype 4)
	   (or (diary-float t 2 -1) (diary-float t 3 -1) (diary-float t 4 -1)))	     
	   ))  Laura: Pick Up T Pass

Two weekends ago: Blue Man Group. One weekend ago: Yeomen of the Guard. I had never seen the former before, and they're totally cool. I had also never seen the latter before, but the fact that it's way more of a tragedy than any other G&S I've seen was not a surprise, because I had already typeset the libretto. harrock and Jelom's roommate were kinda pole-axed, though: "I was wondering how it was going to work out, since there weren't the same number of men and women, so they couldn't all just get married. But I thought maybe they'd bring in some new character at the end or something. But it didn't work out!". G&S is, at least for the nonce, no longer in the "inane but amusing, and I should go 'cause I made the program" category. Oh, and then we spent some time playing in White Noise White Light trying to deduce the rules, which got us home (alas) after all the Comet puttering had gone to bed.

Last night: Shakespeare in Hollywood at the Lyric. I quite liked it - it seems to be the same niche as Epic Proportions (comic shenanigans at the filming of a movie in classic Hollywood), but actually funny. I can finally forgive them for Epic Proportions, if not yet for Meshugganuns. Puck was very amusing, Joe E Louis was a lovely gentle straight-man; everyone else was also good, if more or less over the top. Then, Cruel Betrayal by Picco! All out of pizza dough! Out of cheesy poofs! Out of lasagna! Out of lemonade! Also somewhat exaggerated and over-the-top (I mean, come on. Out of lemonade?), but amusing.

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Obligatory G&S pedanticism: though it's true that Yeomen is the only unhappy-ending G&S, it's more often true than not that there's one more male lead than female. The baritone or bass often ends up sitting out the marriage round; sometimes the pairing off works out because someone pairs off with a chorus-lead/sings-one-madrigal-but-otherwise-non-existent character ("But with Zorah for my missus/There'll be bread and cheese and kisses..."). Also, Yeomen is not the only show where someone has to marry someone they don't like--as often as not, whoever marries the alto doesn't want her--but it's the only one where more than one character suffers that fate. :)

Related G&S trivia: Gondoliers has the only couple that *starts* (and ends) the show married (Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro). Princess Ida is the only show where a *female* honest-to-goodness lead doesn't get paired off at the end (Lady Blanche). (Well, I suppose Grand Duke might be up for debate on that latter point.)