The Theater - Top Five

I love the theater. That's good, since I married an actor and have seen him in oodles of productions. I loved the theater before I even met Jeff, though. My best proof of that fact is that when I graduated from high school and got to choose between a trip to Hawaii and a trip to New York, I picked New York just so I could experience a Broadway production. 


I've often thought about posting reviews of shows I've seen, but decided that wouldn't be universally interesting since most of you Lobsters aren't stuck living in Virginia Beach. So, as a one time thing, here's a list of my Top Five favorite shows I've ever seen (of course, these are off the top of my head, so I could totally have other favorites):


5. You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. I'm fairly certain that when I saw this for the first time in seventh grade, it was the first production of anything I'd ever seen (Christmas plays aside). I still love this show, and I've now seen four different productions of it and loved them all. In fact, Jeff once directed this show and used the money he earned from that to purchase my engagement ring. Sentimental crap aside though, I love the simplicity and sweetness of this show. Wait, that still sounds sentimental. Good grief.
4. Dancing at Lughnasa. This was my favorite show that Jeff has starred in thus far. It's about an Irish family in 1936 (why, yes, I did look the year up on wikipedia, thanks for asking), and I loved everything about it from the set to the acting to the dancing. Most of all, I loved the relationships between the sisters in the play. Arabella also starred in this show and did some impressive snot acting. Beautiful.

Dancing at Lughnasa. Photo stolen from Regent Theatre's Facebook Page.

3. Cleopatra's Wake. This was an impressively entertaining show that I saw at Vanguard University. It was a mystery, but also happened to be one of the funniest shows I'd seen since Urinetown. Also, there was an autistic character played by the wonderful Chelan Glavan, and I was blown away by her acting. She had obviously thoroughly researched the character and autism.
2. Urinetown. Probably the funniest show I've ever seen. Ever. My mom and I saw it because we were in New York and were brainwashed by advertisements on taxis throughout the city. It was amazing.
1. Wicked. Look, some things are trendy for a reason. I have seen Wicked three times now, and it has blown me away every time. I can't stress enough how much I love this show. Parts of it are so musically beautiful that I end up worshipping God for creating such sounds. Imagine, wholly focusing on worship while a green witch laments doing good deeds. Yeah, kind of blows your mind. 


I can already think of several other favorites I could have included in this list, like Godspell, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (one specific production out of the three that I've seen), Aida, Hamlet (an artsy fartsy pared-down version that I saw three years in a row Santa Barbara), How to Succeed, and more. 


What about you, Lobsters? Seen any good shows lately?