If you somehow don’t already know the story behind Wicked, one of Broadway’s most successful plays (Tony’s, Grammy’s, all that good stuff), then you’ve more than likely been living under a rock. Or maybe a house… Instead of boring you by rehashing the story line, or talking about how it compares to the Gregory Maguire novel that it is based on, or the original Wizard of Oz film that the book is based on, I will tell you why the touring production that has settled onto the stage at Bass Concert Hall is beyond magical, starting with the setting.

The steampunk styling of the classic tale is likely the first thing you’ll notice when you take your seat, as the Clock of the Time Dragon is an enormous piece, built out over the stage, luring you in to what is lurking behind the curtain. The gears, clock pieces, rusty beams, and other set pieces continue to add ambiance during a good portion of the first section of the play, with Glenda’s steampunk bubble as my favorite of the set pieces. The darker aesthetic then gives way to one that is truly remarkable as the characters make their way to the Emerald City, which is perfectly luminescent and breath taking. The colors are almost their own character throughout the play, no Technicolor special effects needed, just some creative and well executed costume design, makeup, and lighting. They were so fantastic that I wish O.P.I. would create a line of Wicked nail polishes, especially a matte green inspired by Elphaba.

Then of course, there’s the acting and vocal abilities by a wonderfully talented cast, each one of them doing the role perfect amounts of justice. Of course, I had a favorite: I know this might not make me “popular,” but I feel like Tiffany Haas may have stolen the show. Yes, Anne Brummel’s Elphaba was truly astounding and her voice is beyond incredible (I was blown away during “Defying Gravity”).  I don’t want to undermine her performance in any way, but there was just something that really drew me, a lifelong pessimist, to Haas’ Glinda. Maybe it was all the pink…Most likely, however, it was the comedic quality that she brought to the stage, sprinkling in the perfect amount of levity for any given situation, and delivering it in the most darling of ways. The way she roared through the ending of a joke made the lack of the Cowardly Lion virtually unnoticeable. Her ditziness was perfectly ridiculous, and I loved every moment that she was on stage.

Anne did, however, throw up a set of horns before the curtain fell, so she kinda grabbed my heart forever at that moment.

Finally, there’s the amazing story that makes us both nostalgic for our childhoods and fearful of the potential downfalls of adulthood. From this story about being different and not fitting in, this story of oppression and the silencing of discourse (kind of like if V for Vendetta happened in Whoville instead of London), the truly beautiful moments, the ones that made me reach for my tissue were not the ones about love, they were the ones about friendship. It is a different story from the book and the original film, one that stands up as its own tale, making all three have a special, but different place in my heart.

You can catch Wicked at Bass Concert Hall through February 12. Shows are Tuesday through Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 1pm and 7pm. Tickets starts at $38.50 and are available at Texas Box Office Outlets, Bass’ box office, and online here. There is also a daily lottery for $25 tickets, which you can read more about here.

You can find Bass Concert Hall at 2350 Robert Dedman Dr.

Man on a Ledge seems like a movie that was created because two drunk guys came up with a great concept, but couldn’t build an entire movie out of it: what if a kinda nerdy boyfriend and his hot, feisty girlfriend tried to pull off a heist together? Unfortunately for us, that plot wasn’t completely fleshed out, and someone went in and built some other story around it, because the best part of the movie is watching the brother of the title character, Nick Cassidy, and his girlfriend attempt to break into the building of David Englander, our antagonist, in order to prove his innocence. Their DIY version of cat burglar gear is a fantastically hilarious version of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol on a budget. It kind of made me think I could actually break into some rich dude’s high-rise with some bubble gum and a fire extinguisher.

And that’s really all there is to say about the movie. The rest of the acting was passable, with Kyra Sedgwick as a shady reporter standing out as the only other memorable performance. Elizabeth Banks does an adequate job, but I definitely prefer her in comedies and horror films where she got her start; dramas take away a lot of the pizazz that makes her who she is. And Jesus, Sam Worthington is good to look at, but not to listen to; his attempts to cover up his Australian accent are feeble at best. If nothing else, this was a great vehicle for Jamie Bell, the all grown up version of little Billy Elliot and newcomer Genesis Rodriguez (you’ll be able to see more of her in Jennifer Lopez’s upcoming What to Expect When You’re Expecting). So, I guess go see it if you’re bored. At a matinee. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t actually jump, but after sitting through the movie, I kind of wish he had.

There’s nothing like a new love…that feeling of anticipation when you know you’re about to see one another again, that little bit of sweatiness that helps to keep you at the top of your game, that bliss that comes with spending time together. My new love happens to be a building with four walls and more often than not, lots of dancing, drunken people inside. Oh, Beauty Ballroom, let’s never break up.

We accidentally met last weekend, when I ended up on East Riverside thanks to kismet and a little bit of confusion on the part of my actual boyfriend (he’s totally cool with the affair, in case you were wondering), and it was quite magical. The new incarnation of the hipster haven that is Beauty Bar is not only covered in glitter, like everything wonderful and magical, but it may just be my new favorite mid-sized venue in Austin. With a capacity of 700, a tiered downstairs level, and a second floor balcony that overlooks the stage from multiple angles, I can’t imagine a bad spot to stand and watch whatever band/DJ/contortionist/whatever awesomeness happens to be schedules. And if you get tired of that whole standing business, there are a few tables toward the back of the main stage area where you can sit down and sip on a PBR, a Bullet on the rocks, or what have you.

Besides the fancy walls and layout that actually leads to a pleasant concert-going experience, my other favorite part about the new BB is that there are two, count ‘em, two big bathrooms per gender (though I still somehow ended up sharing the ladies room with a guy, even though there were no lines; oh, Austin…) and they are plenty far away from the stage, sound booth, and bar so that no one gets hurt in an effort to relieve themselves. The patio is relatively small compared to the 7^th Street location, but hey, that just means that smokers will have to stand closer, which is more romantic, anyway. Everyone is feeling the love!

Beauty Ballroom will host more national and international shows than its original Austin location, with upcoming shows that include Theophilus London on Friday night, Yelawolf, Ben Kweller, Big Krit, Gaslamp Killer, and Wild Child (not all together, that would be weird), but to start off what will ultimately be a reign of awesomeness over Austin’s nightlife, Beauty Ballroom will host its Grand Opening on Saturday night with a veritable super group of amazing Austin singers who are joining Ambitious Orchestra to celebrate the music of The King (Elvis Presley) and The Duke (David Bowie), who happen to share a birthday of January 8. You’ll find the likes of Daniel Johnston, Alex Maas (Black Angels), Jason Reece (Trail of Dead),  Yvonne Lambert (Octopus Project),  Mike Wiebe (The Gamblers), and others singing along with the symphonic rock of Ambitious Orchestra. In addition you get DJ sets by DJ Scorpio and Whiplash, along with Lady Circus and Bro Circus performing aerial, acrobatics, and burlesque. There will be Ziggy Stardust everywhere.

Tickets are just $7 in advance and $10 day of show. Get you some right here.

And don’t forget to spend some time at the 7^th street location-after SXSW it will be no more, but the owners promise to bring another new, fun, and hopefully sparkly concept to the location.

You can find Beauty Ballroom at 2015 E Riverside Dr (at the southeast corner of Royal Crest and Riverside), in the same complex as the new Emo’s East.



Photo by Joan Marcus

Here at SeeSawAustin we are MORE than a little excited about the phenomenon that is Wicked coming to Austin from January 25 through February 12. Personally, I have wanted to see this retelling of the Oz story since I read Gregory Maguire’s book a few years ago, it just hasn’t happened–until now. For those of you who are as excited as I am to see the production, whether it be for the first or the fortieth time, but who may be lacking in the extra funds to actually purchase a ticket, I’ve got some excellent news for you: Texas Performing Arts is practically GIVING away tickets to the show by hosting a daily lottery for Orchestra seats that cost a mere $25.

Here’s how it works:

A day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of $25 orchestra seats will be held prior to each performance of WICKED, playing January 25 – February 12 at Bass Concert Hall. Each day, 2½ hours prior to show time (Tuesday–Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m. & 7 p.m. Additional matinee is scheduled on Thursday, January 26 at 2 p.m.) people who present themselves at the Bass Concert Hall box office will have their names placed in a lottery drum and then thirty minutes later, names will be drawn for a limited number of orchestra seats at $25 each, cash only.  This lottery is available only in-person at the box office, with a limit of two tickets per person. Lottery participants must have a valid photo ID when submitting their entry form and, if chosen, when purchasing tickets.

If you want to avoid the lottery and buy tickets outright, there are still some available:

WICKED will play Texas Performing Art’s Bass Concert Hall January 25-February 12. Tickets start at $38.50; are available at the Bass Concert Hall box office, all Texas Box Office Outlets, by phone at (512) 477-6060 or online at BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com/Austin. Groups of 20 or more, reserve now at (877) 275-3804 or e-mail Austin.groups@broadwayacrossamerica.com. Good seating available for weeknight performances and Thursday, January 26^th matinee.

You can find Bass Concert Hall at 2350 Robert Dedman Drive.

With an ever-expanding downtown bar scene where a mouse could throw a rock and hit a bar or club playing Top 40 music, finding diversity in your going out experience can be a bit difficult. Now, however, Austin icon Ray Benson, along with Austin entrepreneurs Kevin Williamson and Matt Luckie, is putting the “West” back into the West 6th Street District with their new bar and venue, The Rattle Inn. They’re celebrating their grand opening this evening with a special performance by Asleep at the Wheel. Tickets for the event are $30 and are available on Eventbrite until just before the show.

At The Rattle Inn you get three bars in one, with their intimate main bar, fully decorated with snake skin booths and taxidermy along the walls (not my personal favorite, but it seems appropriate), Ray’s Backstage where you can listen to music in an intimate venue and enjoy some of Ray’s personal memorabilia, and the rooftop bar, with wonderful views of Austin’s beautiful skyline. You can find out more on their website, check it out at the grand opening tonight, or just mosey on by when you’re in the area. The bar is open Monday through Friday 4pm-2am and Saturday and Sunday from 6pm-2am.

Other upcoming shows include:

Every Sunday for the month of February 7pm-10pm: Ray’s Backstage Jam hosted by George Devoure, Free Show

Every Tuesday for the month of February: $5 Door Cover, Bordertown Bootleggers, Time TBD

Wednesday, February 8, 15, 22 9pm-12am: Dale Watson and The Texas Two, Free Show

Every Thursday for the month of February: 7:45-8:45 Country dance lessons with Peter Turner, 10:30-12am Hudson Moore, Free lessons, $5 Door Cover

Friday in February: Feb 3rd, 5:30-7pm Mike Kelly (Free Show), 10:30-12:30 Emory Quin (Free Show)

You can find Rattle Inn at 610 Nueces, between Ranch 616 and Star Bar.

Be sure to check out their Signature Cocktail Menu below–good luck trying to pick one!

Who doesn’t like free cocktails, mini treatments, and door prizes? Communists, that’s who. Flaunt your Americanism this Tuesday at the Hiatus Spa and Retreat’s grand opening party as you get some free pampering, the chance to win prizes, and the opportunity to purchase discount spa packages. It’s so much better than happy hour.

You can find Hiatus Spa at 1611 W 5th St.

This weekend, Austinites have shown their true colors as a tributes and benefits for the lovely Esme Barrera have happened this past Thursday and Friday night, raising funds for her family and pooling love for her memory. This Sunday marks the end of this weekend’s events with “A Benefit for Esme Barrera” presented by GSMG, 3 Rules, and Frontier Bar.

For a $7 donation, 100% of the door goes to Esme’s family and to Girls Rock Camp, you get an amazing 10 hours of music from some of Austin’s best bands and DJs:
The Nouns: 12:15am
Luck Mountain: 11:30
Higher Than Why: 10:45
Money Chica: 10:00
Soul Pilots: 9:15
Little Emily Warfield: 8:30
The Scarlett Effect: 7:45
Northern Paradox: 7:00
Monarch Box: 6:15
Bloody Knives: 5:30
Eons Ago: 4:45
Mc Homeless: 4:00
Buffalo: 3:15

DJ sets by DJ Matt Rose and DJ Pnyce

You can catch the music, the generosity, and the love starting at 3pm at Frontier Bar. Don’t forget cash for your donation, as well as other donation opportunities.

You can find Frontier Bar at 2124 Webberville Rd.

Who’s in it? Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, and Jeremy Renner

The Lowdown: Director Brad Bird put his stylish touch on his very first live-action film to bring us the fourth installment in the Mission: Impossible series where one time teen heartthrob turned washed up action hero, Tom Cruise aka Ethan Hunt is disavowed by the government after he was framed for a terrorist bombing in Moscow. So, of course, Hunt and his team of newbies fight evil on their own! Like they said over at the Slate, Pegg is funny, Patton steely, Renner funny and steely. As for Cruise, he’s a piece of meat…beautiful, expertly displayed meat.  Everything in every frame plays to Cruise, and that means the surrounding talent gets the short end of the stick.  He’s entirely concocted, but because he seems to believe in his own mythology, it works a weird magic and we fall under his spell.

So what am I thinking? I think Tom Cruise desperately needed to reignite his career after a so-so performance in Knight and Day and yes, he desperately needed to put the couch-jumping episode behind ALL OF US, once and for all!

This Mission: Impossible seems to help Cruise get his action movie mojo back, but I have this feeling after seeing Cruise’s name smeared over every production detail that he made sure he looked good in every.single.shot. Whether it was the toss of his perfectly treated hair or when you watch Cruise and co-star Renner check into the Bruj Khalifa hotel in Dubai wearing tailored silk suits and sunglasses, it became almost laughable….almost.

The good news is that Cruise does look rather handsome, in that big-toothed, self-conscious, control-freak way.

Besides, there’s a lot to sink your eyeballs into in this IMAX-first release. The visuals are spectacular, the scenery is beautiful (even if it was shot in Canada and NOT India), the colors are vivid and even the supporting performances bring eye candy as well as comic relief.

All together, it’s a pretty decent package — as long as you can handle Cruise gift-wrapped in a blue silk bow.  So by all means watch it, and watch it in the big, big, biggest theater you can find.  Be prepared, afterward, to feel as if the outside world is just a little bit too small.

Enjoy!

Who’s in it: Director Garry Marshall put together an incredible cast that left me asking, who the hell ISN’T in it?! This movie is jammed packed with so many celebrities, I couldn’t even keep up with them! Although, they do need some mentioning (deep breath): Hilary Swank, the fabulous Michelle Pfeiffer, hot to trot teen heartthrob Zac Efron, Glee’s Lea Michelle, Ashton Kutcher (of course), Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Beil, Seth Meyers, Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Bon Jovi and STILL so many more!

The Lowdown: Marshall repeats his formula from last year’s Valentine’s Day by continuing his corruption of the year’s most romantic holidays with, yes, another romcom built around a bunch of mini melodramas and love stories set in New York City on, naturally, December 31. Most of the smooth-tongued characters are just looking for their happy ending…or, new beginning.

So, what am I thinking? Hand’s down favorite part of Garry Marshall’s shamelessness in this movie was Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, Ingrid, who delivers one of her best lines “I’m pathetic, dude!” while trying to spend her last few hours of New Years Eve finishing a bucket list with none other than Zac Efron, a hot messenger boy looking for a good time.  Best line, you say?…because I’ve never seen Michelle Pfeiffer in a role such as this, and I love me some Michelle Pfeiffer!  There was something about these two being paired together that I wanted them to have the movie all to themselves. (Spin-off?)  Their characters were both hilarious in their own special way that wasn’t too cheesy or sentimental (ok, maybe a little cheesy); if anything, some of the match-ups/stories/run-ins were not cheesy or sentimental enough (yes, I love cheesy, sentimental romcom’s, leave it alone, it’s my thing).

I do also love that EVERY character is somehow connected to the other in some twisted way, and of course, you never know how UNTIL the end, but that’s the fun part of these kind of movies! Each character is on their own path of following their heart, making amends, taking chances and the oh-so-cheesy story of chasing dreams.

If I have one complaint, it would be that the small stories that filled this movie don’t have enough time to develop.  You get a glimpse into the life of each of the dozen characters, and I just wanted to know MORE!  But as cheesy as I am, if Mr. Marshall makes another movie like this, it better have half  as many characters or run twice as long. I’m JUST saying!

Enjoy!

Saturday, December 2, 2011

So, there’s a pretty basic formula to a good concert.  Start with a big hit, finish with a bigger hit, encore with the biggest hit.  There may be a few artistic variations here and there, but the overall science never fails.  Why, then, did Big Sean, on his Emo’s East stop of the I am Finally Famous tour, go a full 45 minutes before even dropping one recognizable track?  Let’s be honest, aside from the kids that know every song because they bought the album as soon as they heard Sean was “discovered” by Kanye West, we were all  really there to hear Dance (A$$).  Instead we got every other track and a speech in between each one.  Something about having goals, something about working hard, something about “if I can do it, you can do it.”  Literally, between every song.  Don’t get me wrong, Sean is a talented young dude and I’m sure he’s worked his A$$ off, and it’s definitely a message that resonates with hip hop heads, but that’s just it, he’s not the first and he won’t be the last so save the speech for the CD jacket.  To boot, he’s got a lot more work to do…like finding a better way to end a set than with that amateur glass breaking sound bite.

If it makes our Big Sean fans feel better, I was equally unimpressed with the venue.  Emo’s East is Austin Music Hall’s runt little brother.  A stage up front, a bar on either side, and high school gym bleachers in the back of the room instead of a balcony.  And the staff looked just as frustrated with the all ages crowd as I was waiting for Big Sean to play a single.  It’s never a good sign when there’s as many people getting kicked out as there are people walking in.  For a second, there could’ve been a chance I got kicked out.  What I thought was a bouncer giving me the up and down, turned out to be him making sure I had a wrist band since there was a cocktail in my hand.  I’ll assume he thought I looked young and take the compliment, but it totally turned me off to any more shows at Emo’s unless Kanye himself decides to play there.  With all due respect to ScoreMore and a fond memory of my own college experience, I really would have just rather sat in the car and waited for a Big Sean joint to play on the radio.