Summer in the City

I got back last night from New York and Canada. Spending my summer in New York City was the greatest experience of my life (except for Israel). I became a real New Yorker. I saw a bunch of shows and met a bunch of stars. With my cousins I saw Gypsy (finally!!!) and A Catered Affair. The latter was not that good and was really the only show I've ever not liked. The cast was great though, I met Harvey Fierstein and he was really nice. Gypsy was..... the most incredible thing I've ever seen. Well, Patti was. The show was incredible but Patti is Patti. Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines also gave exceptional performances as Herbie and Louise. All three completely deserved their Tony's. Patti's "Rose's Turn" sucked the oxygen out of my body... literally. The whole time I was practically hyperventilating while crying and trying to remain conscious. I barely remember it ,which is unfortunate, because it was like a dream. I went to the stage door and scared Patti's son but got autographs from both Patti and her son. Laura Benanti didn't come out. :( Patti was very nice and talked to me. Of course I had no clue what she was saying because the woman speaks at 100 mph. So that was Gypsy. Oh and Leigh Ann Larkin would make an amazing Glinda. On to Juilliard....

The program was intense but the greatest thing that ever happend to me. I found myself and lifelong friends there. The passion and commitment to the work was just incredible. Living at Lincoln Center wasn't that bad either. ;-) Which brings me to... Broadway encounters! We were walking back to Juilliard for dinner one day when Paulo Szot (Tony Award winner for South Pacific) walks by on his cell phone. Normally I'm very calm at the stage door when meeting actors. Never had I seen one on the street before. The shock and adrenaline caused me to freak out yelling "Oh my gawd! Congrats! I love you!!!!!" down the street. He thanked me and was on his way. That was all I talked about the rest of the day. The next day were eating lunch at the studios when my friend, Marissa, comes in like "The guy from Sunday in the Park With George is at the elevator!" I peeked outside the door and saw Tony Award nominee Daniel Evans waiting for the elevator. I got a picture and an autograph and told him I would see the show but it closed the next week. :( I went the next week without seeing a single star. I was convinced it was making up for seeing two the previous week. We went to a comedy club that night and were walking home and as I was saying "i havent seen any stars..." Matthew Morrison (South Pacific, Light in the Piazza, Hairspray) walks by so I immediatly got a picture and a hug. We will be married. You'll see... The next week we saw Spring Awakening (amazing!) and coming home from the stage door of that, I run into my good friend Paulo Szot again. Much calmer, we chat and I apologize for freaking out and we got a picture. He actually remembered me! So Kelli O'Hara is the big star of South Pacific and also my hero along with Patti LuPone. I've dreamed of meeting her on the street since forever and I figured I was bound to run into her since I lived where she worked. Walking to the bus stop I happen to look at the sidewalk on the other side of the street. Kelli O'hara was walking down the street. I froze and tried to comprehend what was happening. Then I started crying. I didn't meet her but just seeing her was enough. :) When going to see August: Osage County, we sprinted to see Bernadette Peters at her annual Broadway Barks. We did. Which caused Bernadette-obsessed Hayley to freak and skip the show to go to Broadway Barks. The show was awesome btw. Our original musical, 'Beyond the River' turned out very interesting. I got a song (Mad About the Boy) and rocked it. STI was all amazing so thanks to Allyn, John, Jennica, Nick, Steven, Heidi, David, Alexandra, Michael, Dean, Leilani, Gabriella, Lavina, McKenna, Lindsey, Shiela, Christian, Greg, Kevin, June, Susan, Sarah and Jesca for making it all possible. And thank you to the amazing friends I made. I love you guys sooooo much and I hope we can all room together when we're starving artists, baby!!!!!!

A Night of Tony's and Sock Puppets

Heyy sorry for not updating but I've been buuuusy. Emily is here sleeping over because I just came back from Colorado tonight. Tonight is also the most important night of any theatre buff's life: the 62nd Annual Tony Awards!!!!!! The 07-08 season has been fantabulous. Good thing Emily and I are going to NYC in a few days to check it out! (You know you're jealous...) Whoopi Goldberg was a great host and I was craaazy happy about the wins. Emily, Felicia and I dressed up as we always do for awards shows. I broke my dress and had to change. Oh well... The most important facts of the night: LAURA BENANTI AND PATTI LUPONE WON!!!!!!!!!!! I was crying for Laura because its her 3rd nomination and 1st win and no one thought she would win because everyone thought it would be the actressess from South Pacific or In The Heights. She was adorable crying and stuttering. "I love being married to you!!!!" - to her husband. Haha. Kristin Chenoweth was a presenter and also soo cute. I also added South Pacific nominee Kelli O'Hara to my diva list consisting of Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth and Sutton Foster. Our friend Noah Weisberg was great in the ensemble of South Pacific and he looks good (even though he cut his Jew-fro. So sad...) OMG! Alec Baldwin actually said the name of the Scottish play at Radio City!!!! Ooops. For you non theatre people (what are you doing on my blog then? JK...) that's Macbeth. *gasps* Its terrible bad luck to say in a theatre. Same as whistling. DON'T DO IT. You may think its funny but theatre people (including me) are totes superstitious and you will get the look of death. For a list of all Tony winners:

http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=28926

Onto the puppets...

Emily and I made the absolute funniest vlog EVER. Which by the way, episode 1 part 1 is done and should be up.... eventually. We re-enacted (sp?) the musical numbers "What Do You Do With A B.A. in English/ It Sucks To Be Me" and "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" WITH SOCK PUPPETS!!!!!! F-Alarious!!!! BTW, I'm off to NYC on Thursday to see Gypsy and possibly South Pacific. Emily is seeing Gypsy and Spamalot. YAY!!!!! Well.... we're gonna go watch A Chorus Line now.

"If you give a moose some candy corn, it will love you forever..." - Alli

p.s. I'm done with my old private school and on to the big bad world of public high school. Should be fun. :)

Avenue Q and Sweeney Todd (again...)

Heyyyy everybody!!! Before anything, I just wanted to thank everyone who reads the blogs and comments on them (all 4 of you). On to the blog.... This month could not get any better with Israel and school ending. But on top of it all, I got to see two shows in two days!!!!! It was magical. On Saturday, after dance and voice (which I missed sooooo much. Not going to class for 3 weeks really made me miss training.), I went with my parents and grandma down to Miami to see Avenue Q. We took my grandma instead of my sister because my mom though it was too inappropriate for a 10 year old (it kind of was...) It was weird seeing a show without her. It was weirder stage dooring without her. I missed her "Oh my gosh. You were SO amazing..." to every single actor. Whatever... The show won the Tony over Wicked in 2004 and it totally deserved it. (Yes, you got it in writing. Avenue Q was better than Wicked...) It was hilarious and heart warming. Fictional but soooo real. The stand-out performance award goes to Kelli Sawyer who played Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut. Her voice is incredible. Suuuuuper nice at the stage door, too. Thats always a plus. The show is cool because they use puppets and actors. Its hard to explain but if you want to find out more about it... GO SEE THIS SHOW. It is comedic brilliance.

Next show...

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd... again. The show was here in Miami in January and I HAD to see it again. Its the 2005 John Doyle revival that starred Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris on Broadway. A lot of original cast members are in the touring production. Judy Kaye and David Hess star in the touring production. After I saw the show in January I fell in love with it so when I heard it was coming to West Palm Beach I begged everyone I knew but no one was available. Thats when my heaven sent aunt comes in. I love you Gogi!!!! So I've gotten really into Lauren Molina (who plays Sweeney's lost daughter, Johanna) and her music lately and I met her last time at the stage door and we briefly spoke through email. We talked for a long time after the show about Jake Wilson and Andrew Keenan-Bolger and the T-shirts and stuff. Got a cute pic which is the pic at the top. She signed my Sweeney Todd playbill purse (which the whole cast loved) and her CD. The show was fantabulous by the way. Somehow I managed to get perfect seats like two days before the show. The orchestra pit was raised for seating in this show because the actors are the musicians so we sat there, perfectly centered, right in front of the stage. F-A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. (speaking of famazing things, I jumped out of moving car when I saw Emily on Friday. Hahaha. Stupid but AWESOME.) We had an understudy for Sweeney Todd (which I was fine with because I didn't LOVE David Hess's performance) and he was great. He had this big,deep, baritone voice and he was bald (like Michael Cerveris. it gives Sweeney an extra creepy factor). His name was David Garry. He's awesome.

Soooooo that was my theatre filled weekend. Random awesome news: I got a 100% on an Algebra quiz! Woohoo! That also is thanks to Gogi who sat with me in a Barnes and Noble for 2 hours tutoring me. Other random exciting news: I'm going to see Hillary Clinton tomorrow (also again...)!!!!!! Although its probably going to be her defeat speech, I still hope she never gives up because she is one of my inspirations. I met her a few months ago when she won the Florida primary (which didn't count. grrrr....) and she showed me that I can be anything I want to be if I work hard and never give up. Which is exacly what I intend to do. Peace. (and if you know anyone who lives in Orgeon, tell them to VOTE 4 HILLARY!!!!!) - Alli

Greeting from the Holy Land

Shalom!!!!!! It is Friday the 9th and I just wanted to say that I'm already planning my next trip. This is the most gorgeous country on the face of the planet (except for Greece). The food is FA-MAZING. One word: falafel. Mmmm... yum. I had sooo much fun riding my camel named Bobby. His first hump is named Zeigfield and the other one's name is Garfunkel. Hehehehe. The second you land in this country you automatically feel more connected to G-d. Its insane. And the Kotel... OMG! We went down to the Negev (the southern most part of Israel aka the desert.) and slept in the Bedouin (type of Arab) tent for a night. We had to wake up at 4 the next morning to climb Masada and none of us got any sleep cause we were talking the whole night. And then a cat supposedly came into the tent at 3 in the morning so we woke up an extra hour early. argh.... Fun fact: I apparently can speak Hebrew! Who knew? I've been speaking all in Hebrew and then the Israelis laugh at me because everyone in Israel speaks English. I try so hard and what do I get? LOL. ooooo the Dead Sea hurts soooo bad. Even if you dont shave it still buuuuurns. My favorite city is Tzfat. It is GORGOUS!!!!! Its like Aix-En Provonce in France but Jewish. Its where Kabbalah originated. I LOOOOOVE IT!!!!! The staff took some pics and put them up on line so those are some of them on the top of the page. I took waaaay more. And I've been vlogging so no worries. OK, its Shabbat so I gotta do Jewy stuff now. Byeeee. - Alli

ISRAEL!!!!!!!!

I'm baaaack from Cancun, Mexico and may I say it was fantabulous! Gorgeous beaches and cool Mayan ruins. I almost died on our last day because I choked on a fish bone. Pretty scary. My mom had to do the Heimlich. But it was OK because they gave me a yummy banana after. :) I turned purple. Hehe... We had a loooooong time in the airport before we left so I made a "You know you're a theatre geek when..." list. It's saaaaad. LOL. But more on Mexico later... I'm going to Israel!!!!! I'll be at the airport at 11:30 in the morning at the Delta terminal with Sophie and the gang. I can't even put into words how excited I am. I've dreamed of going to Israel since I was little. We've been counting down for 165 days and now its finally here! I'm all packed and ready to rumble. I'm taking the vlog to Israel so once I figure out this editing thing and I find time, I'll get them up on here. I've already named the camel I'll be riding Bobby. After Bobby from 'Company'. So now whenever I say Bobby I can do the whole "Bobby. Bobby baby. Bobby bubi. Robert. Bob. Bobby..." thing, you know? Anyone? Um... hehe...ok. If I find a computer I'll try and upload a blog from Israel for everyone. YAWN. Well, its time for this world traveler to go to bed. Oooo!!! By the way, Bill ( fabulous Anne Frank director) performed the other night and a lady walked up to him and told him how amazing the show was and that the girl who played Anne (me) was OUTSTANDING and perfect for the role. Awwww... how sweet. When I get back from Israel, I have Avenue Q waiting for me that Saturday and possible Sweeney Todd too. I'm so Broadway spoiled. Oh! Emily is seeing Gypsy with musical theatre goddess Patti LuPone this summer (before me. GRRR...) but I get to see it with my amazing cousins Florence and Paul. YAY FOR FLORENCE AND PAUL!!!!!!! OK, seriously I'm going to bed. I've got a busy day tomorrow. I have a 5 hr. layover in New York which is clearly enough time to go see a show and make it back in time. I just don't understand what the problem is. Hmph...
- Alli
"Life is a caberet, old chum."- Sally Bowles, Caberet

Fear of Pickles????

Ok I know this has nothing to do with theatre or the vlogs (which are taking longer than I had hoped. editing is HARD.) but its so hilarious I had to post it. Just watch:

"In the 24th Hour" Reading

Hello everyone. I am pleased to announce that the first reading of Bill's (f-amazing director of 'Anne Frank') screenplay was last night and went fabulously. Our lovely ex-Margot, Emily, has been cast as the lead, Samantha. My part is very minor (Samantha's younger brat sister, Lindsey. Am I being typecast here? LOL.) so I hope if we get the money to do this film, I'll help more behind the scenes. It was great seeing some people from the cast because I've missed you all so flippin much!!! Richard (Mr. Frank in 'Anne') plays the dad opposite Kathleen (Mrs. van Daan in 'Anne'). Arianne (Margot #2. LOL.) plays Samantha's friend, Tammy. Stephanie (not sleep-over-all-the-time Stephanie. Ecudorian car party, Stephanie. That's gonna get confizzling...) plays the cheerleading coach. We had fun.
In other news...
I forgot to mention in the last blog that [title of show] is coming to Broadway in July! I love this show. It's about two writers trying to make an original musical. Totes fun. OMG Dani Spieler is joining the cast of Legally Blonde which pretty much made my day yesterday. Congrats Dani! Hmm... what else can I say? Oh my stupidity is getting worse and worse each day. I sent an email to Lauren Molina requesting these fierce Sweeney Todd shirts she makes. And there were 2 emial addresses and I sent it the wrong one and now I feel stupid. But I'm still totes excited about seeing the show. I'm really getting into her album now. It is the exact definition of fierce.
Vlog status...
Eric (Mr. van Daan in 'Anne') is coming over the house in about a half an hour to install my new editing program. Meaning... the vlogs should be up and running shortly. I'll try my best to edit and get the first one up ASAP. For those not familiar with the vlogs, video+blog= VLOG. What's in the vlogs:
video camera+theatre kids= much dancing.
Random rambling...
I decided I am going to stick to what I originally wanted to do in the behind the scenes business of theatre: casting directing. Thats what I started out wanting to do but then wanted to get into directing, then writing, then producing (which I'll probably end up doing too) and stage managing. I love it all. Onstage, backstage or in a theatrical office, I'm in heaven. And with that, bloggers, I leave you. As I have homework in every single subject today and a project due TOMORROW. Yay!
Let yourself be enchanted- Alli
p.s. Happy Birthday, Laura Bell Bundy!