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First off – GO buy tickets here… NOW! Xanadu is currently playing at the Paramount Theater in Seattle until January 24th (this Sunday) – this is a limited engagement and tickets will be gone quick. So GO – after you read my article of course.
Tuesday night I was fortunate enough to score tickets to Broadway’s hit musical Xanadu, so I grabbed my friend Scott (Lady, as I affectionately call him) and made our way down to Seattle’s Paramount theater. To be perfectly honest, when we sat in our seats I turned to Scott and said “I really don’t understand how a musical about a roller skating and Greek gods can be a hit musical. I mean, REALLY?” Scott just looked at me, nodded and shrugged his shoulders. If I didn’t understand why this wasn’t a hit before the show started, I definitely did 10 minutes into it.
It’s safe to say that both Scott and I gay-gasped throughout the musical, probably about every 20 minutes. Between the outfits, humor, glitter, lights, music and energy – there was no shortage of laughing out loud and definitely not much time spent without smiles plastered across our faces. The story line, while literally out of this world, is cute and not over the top in the cheese department. Clio (aka Kara), played by Elizabeth Stanley, kills it as the Leader of the Muses even adapting a comical version of Olivia Newton John’s Australian accent. Her on-stage counterpart Sonny played by Max Von Essen is equally as entertaining as the goofy Venice Beach “valley boy” artist trying to make a name for himself.
While both of these characters were awesomely entertaining, I was hugely impressed by Melpomene, Clio’s evil oldest sister played by Natasha Yvette Williams. Homegirl had some lungs on her and was brilliant as the villain. Her song “Evil Woman” had me tappin’ my foot and bobbin’ my head. All the characters in the musical, including Clio’s sisters (played by 4 women and 2 men) were entertaining in their own right and provided for amusing comic relief with lots of gay undertones.
All in all, this musical was seriously BRILLIANT. If you get the opportunity to go see it, take it. It’s only 90 minutes long and will turn even the sourest night into a memorable one. To find out more information and purchase tickets go here.
PS: the finale… I almost peed from shock/surprise/excitement – it was AH-MAZ-ING!
PPS: here’s a picture taken with my iPhone with my friend Scott and me.
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BMW
January 21st, 2010 at 1:30 am
Did you see the same show Tuesday night I did? I found the show cliche’, often boring, difficult to connect with– yet if I didn’t find it quite as BRILLIANT as you did– I at least found it a”muse”ing.
A good filler for 90 minutes and a decent, random, night out. Not the best Broadway show to come to Seattle’s magestic Paramount, but hey… that’s art for ya’. Subjective.
(Side note: Just curious, is your review above objective? i.e. did you _pay_ for your tickets? Disclosure: I did not… and think ITE ™ there’s gotta be better value for your money…)
The Stranger hosted a benefit for Equal Rights Washington that has already passed. But… According to the article… if you “still want to help, enter the ticket code ‘ERW’ when you buy tickets and $5 will go to this indispensable advocacy organization.”
So if you’re gonna XANADO…. at least use the code to give five bucks to ERW. My take? XANADON’T bother.
Alex
January 21st, 2010 at 10:22 am
I did see it on Tuesday, wasn’t bored, not sure what it would be compared to in a cliche sense and connected quite well with it. Was it the best Broadway show I’ve ever seen – no. Does it pale in comparison to Wicked, Chicago or the Lion King – yes. That said, for a 90 minute show I was entertained and did think that some of the humor was… brilliant. The fact that they poked fun at Olivia Newton John’s accent was clever if you ask me vs. erasing all traces of the original Clio.
I didn’t pay for my tickets, but would have to just have been able to experience Xanadu. Like you said though, art is subjective, so I don’t expect everyone to revel in the little mirrors of the disco ball as much as I did.
BMW
January 21st, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Since we both love mirror balls… Allow me to present the ultimate gay dance party effect… from an artist in France:
http://vimeo.com/8750694
(Art might be subjective, but I bet we’ll all agree this GIANT mirror ball is DAMN cool. ;-) )
Anyway, thanks for the review and glad you had fun! Here’s to many more enlightening Broadway shows on the road in our respective cities… (and to more of Alex’s thoughtful reviews on homorazzi.com!)
Alex
January 21st, 2010 at 3:54 pm
OH. MY. GOSH. that’s amazing. i want it. right now, i want it.
BMW – are you into the Seattle arts/film scene much?
Russ
January 21st, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Evil Woman is my favourite part of the show too! I like how over-the-top the Xanadu is. Sometimes you need a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
BMW
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Alex– Not too terribly much. More of a tech guy… fire me off an email. :)
Jude Hibner
July 3rd, 2011 at 1:59 am
Whats up this is kind of of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!