Where The Neon Lights Are Bright

Last year I was a down and out first year New Yorker too paranoid of sudden financial death to splurge on much. However I did manage it to Broadway a couple of times, watching 12 Angry Men and Dame Edna with my tourist parents. The experiences incited a need to see more and yesterday I got the chance to do just that.
A friend and I ran around crazy Manhattan yesterday in an effort that seemed to span the edges of known time. But we finally snatched tickets for Sweeney Todd (or Todd Sweeney depending on your mood) and The Wedding Singer. There really wasn't time to do much else before the curtain opened than to grab a snickers bar and run in to the frist show, Sweeney Todd. Out of both shows, I'd say this show was my favorite. Though at times the lighting was a little too moody and challenged my eye lids, I really like the storytelling and the song structure. The entire cast was amazing. The kind of cast that makes it really hard to pick a favorite. There was a casket on stage and nearly everyone ended up sitting in or standing on it. OH! The show is about a murderous barber who is swayed into making people pies by a local unsuccessful pie maker. It's a cannibal tale in other words and all the performers play their own istruments while acting and singing. It's dark and funny and pretty damn disturbing by its end. It was an awesome show of skill in every category of craft.
The Wedding Singer was the perfect follow-up, light to a point of peppiness, extravagent sets and bunches of laughs. It's of course based on the movie and many of the lines (mostly the jokes) are verbatim. So to be completely honest some the humor that Sandler brought to the film didn't translate as funny on stage for me and I think I was laughing more at the supporting cast than the two leads. The songs didn't grab me as much as Sweeney Todd. I find that I like songs in musicals more when they tell a story rather than describing an actor's particular emotion. But again I laughed a lot and the set design and costumes were great. My favorite one being the Delorean. I wish more of the show took place in that damn car. So there you have it, my reviews of Broadway.
In between shows I got a call to do stand-in for today. I am WAY up, 175th street, in Ghettoville. The film's called American Gangster, but it's defiantely American Gangsta in these parts. Definately not where I would want to be lost in the middle of the night. At any rate I am hoping this will turn into more work, if this actor has multiple days. I didn't sleep much; for some reason I've been worrying lately that I won't wake up in the morning, so I end up stirring myself awake and staring at the clock...... It's been an incredible week so far.