Hayley, Kristin, and I took the train from New Haven into Grand Central to see two shows in NYC, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Promises, Promises. We also went to Cosi for lunch, and had the Smores dessert, which was fun! We also checked out the new Disney Store in Times Square. I liked it, but was disappointed that it had SO MUCH Disney Princess stuff, and not enough classic Disney. Or Nightmare Before Christmas.
We didn't know much about Women on the Verge, except that it had a star-studded cast that we were excited to see. We were not disappointed! The show was pretty good, the acting and singing excellent. There was one song that was so catchy we couldn't get the tune out of our heads, and I am not-so-patiently awaiting the cd release!(Promises of this spring are in the air!) I can't say enough about the actors, just wonderful!!! Met everyone at Stage Door, also, except Sherie Rene Scott and of course, Ms. LuPone!
Synopsis:
The show opens up with Pepa, who is a famous voice dubbing actress, realizing her boyfriend, Ivan, just left her and she is upset. He wants her to pack his things up for him so he can pick them up later. Pepa is so distraught about this, and she checks her answering machine, hoping for a message from Ivan, but instead finds that all 20 messages are from her friend, Candela, who is upset and near suicidal. Pepa is frustrated, and throws her phone out the window. Candela comes by, and is still suicidal, and tries unsuccessfully to jump off the balcony. While Candela is attempting suicide, there is a knock at the door. At the door is a young couple, Carlos and Marisa, who are apartment hunting and came to look at Pepa's penthouse. Coincidentally, Carlos is Ivan's son from a previous marriage to a woman named Lucia. Marisa pokes around and finds gazpacho in the fridge, and pours herself a glass. What she didn't know was Pepa had spiked the gazpacho with sleeping pills. Marisa promptly passes out. Pepa finally has a minute to find out what made Candela so suicidal, and it turns out that she had had an affair with an Arab who was part of a Shiite terrorist cell. He and his friends have held Candela hostage in her own home, and now she is afraid the police will think she was involved with them. Pepa assures her she will get her her lawyer, Paulina. Pepa goes to Paulina, only to find out that Paulina was very rude to her, and noticed that she had her suitcases packed. Back at Pepa's place, Candela confides to Carlos that the Shiites plan on hijacking a flight to Stockholm that evening to divert it to Beirut. Carlos calls the police, hanging up before he thinks they can trace the call. Pepa returns home, only to receive a call from Lucia, Ivan's ex wife, who wanted to come and confront Pepa about Ivan. Lucia has been in a mental institution since Ivan left her, and has only just been released. Pepa no longer wishes to hear about Ivan, so she delivers his suitcase down for him, narrowly missing Ivan, who has arrived with--Surprise! Lawyer Paulina to go to the airport. Lucia has now arrived, as have the police who actually did trace the call to Pepa's apartment after all, as well as the telephone repairman. Candela freaks out, and Carlos decides to serve everyone the spiked gazpacho. The cops and repairman pass out, and Lucia grabs the policemen's guns and aims them at Pepa. Pepa has now figured out that the flight that is being hijacked is the one that Ivan and Paulina are going to be on. Meanwhile, Lucia announces that she is still indeed insane, and faked sanity to be released. She heads to the airport to kill Ivan. Pepa follows, to try to save them. Lucia sees Ivan and Paulina at security and tries to kill them, but Pepa stops her. Ivan tries to talk to Pepa about what she has been trying to tell him for days, but Pepa realizes that she no longer needs Ivan, and leaves the airport and Ivan behind. When Pepa returns to her house, it is in shambles. Marisa wakes up, and the show ends with Pepa confiding to Marisa what she had been trying to tell Ivan: She's Pregnant!
Cast:
Pepa-Sherie Rene Scott
Ivan-Brian Stokes Mitchell
Taxi Driver-Danny Burstein
Cristina-Jennifer Sanchez
Hector-Murphy Guyer
Man In Film-Charlie Sutton
Woman In Film-Nina Lafarga
Doctor/Detective-Sean McCourt
Candela-Laura Benanti
Malik-Luis Salgado
Carlos-Justin Guarini
Marisa-Nikka Graff Lanzarone
Lucia-Patti LuPone
Paulina-de 'Adre Aziza
Pepa's Concierge-Mary Beth Peil
After Women on the Verge, we went to eat at Serafina's and then on to Promises, Promises!
We had orchestra seats this time, for Promises, and I think I enjoyed it more this time than last time, probably because I had already seen the show and knew what it was about. The only major cast change was Molly Shannon replaced Katie Finneran as Marge, so I won't list the cast or a synopsis as they have been previously described. I think the highlights were definitely Sean Hayes as CC Baxter overclinking the glass of brandy with his boss, Mr. Sheldrake, played by Tony Goldwyn as they are sealing the deal of CC letting Sheldrake use his apartment in exchange for a promotion. Sean accidentally spilled the brandy, and improved by wiping down Tony and the stage, "Just in case anyone felt like spontaneously singing and dancing later on." If that wasn't hysterical enough, the next scene Kristin Chenoweth's character, Fran Kubelik, had the musical number of "Say A Little Prayer," and she began it by saying, " I feel like spontaneously dancing and singing now!" Which was a great continuity ad-lib! The only bad thing was for poor Sean, he was starting to get sick that night, and you could hear it in his voice. Subsequently, he was out the next couple of days, so I am happy we saw him! Great show!!
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