A million thanks to Jam for burning me a copy of Spring Awakening! My laptop's probably going to conk out soon from the constant replay of the DVD, but it's so worth it. I love the show, and you're right, they really should stage it here. I don't know a lot about Philippine theater actors, but I think my theater crush Felix Rivera would make a brilliant Moritz or Ernst!
In keeping with what I like to call The Floy Quintos Mission, I've decided to review every play and musical I watch, starting with this one. (Stay tuned for Dogeaters, Fiddler on the Roof, and Avenue Q!) Reading brilliant reviews from the New York Post and the New York Times has temporarily hampered my full-length-review-writing mojo, though, so I will cut my review into short, snappy (and snippy?) pieces.
Overview (more here): Based on a controversial 1891 play by Frank Wedekind about teenage sexuality, Spring Awakening came to life off-Broadway in May 2006 and was subsequently moved to the Great White Way in a matter of months. It won eight Tony Awards in 2007, including Best Musical and Best Performance for a Featured Actor in a Musical for John Gallagher, Jr.
The pitch: Another publication described it as "The History Boysdiscover sex," which is close, although I would beg to differ -- the History Boys already knew about sex (and I love Dakin for coming on to that sexy, bookish Mr. Irwin). I'd say Spring Awakening was more similar to Dead Poets Society, but with more emphasis on sexuality.
Warnings: It's a racy show. Partial nudity. Underage sex. Masturbation, tee-hee. Possible rape, though that depends on the viewer, implied incest and child abuse. Suicide. Abortion. One brief scene on sadomasochism, or just morbid curiosity -- again, it's left to your judgment.
Favorite characters: Moritz Stiefel (John Gallagher, Jr.), sweetie, you had me at "Oh God, give me consumption and take these sticky dreams away from me!" Rarely can a character be both charmingly inept and tragic (and, okay, emo) at the same time, but you pulled it off. Hanschen Rilow (Jonathan B. Wright), you fucking rule. You sick, twisted, creepy, unfairly hot bastard. I doubt you could ever charm the pants off of anyone, but you sure know how to seduce them. Marry me, and let's make dysfunctional, misanthropic babies together!
This side of "meh": Melchior Gabor (Jonathan Groff) is just a little too perfect and Gary Stu-ish for my tastes (the smartest, the sexiest, and the most altruistic? Bitch, please), but he makes up for it by showing his equally perfect ass. Oh, Groff. Rowrr.
Logic go boom: When Wendla Bergmann (Lea Michele) pleaded with Melchior to beat her so she would know what it feels like, it was startling, but also (surprisingly) believable. In addition, it provided an opening for a genuine character flaw -- thank God -- for Melchior. As great a scene as it was, though, it still didn't stop me from going, "Fuck the what? Is that S and M?"
I laughed my ass off (while watching you jerk off): Hanschen whacking it to the fantasy of murdering Desdemona ("Darling, why, why do you press your knees together, even on the brink of eternity?") while being surrounded by young girls dancing and bursting into a bubbly chorus is the most hilariously fucked up scene I've ever had the joy of witnessing. "My Junk," indeed.
Most touching scene: The conversation between Moritz and Ilse (Lauren Pritchard) towards the end of the play takes the cake. I love that it's glaringly obvious how lonely they both are, without either of them even having to say it out loud, or let out so much as a sigh. When Ilse left, and Moritz cried "For the love of God, all I had to do was say yes," I swore I heard my heart break.
Screw the Tonys, man, you totally win at life: Jonathan B. Wright is a fucking god for managing to keep a straight face throughout all those side-splitting scenes. He makes Hanschen so beautifully vacuous that if they ever make another film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, I'd totally kick some asses to get him cast in it.
Duncan Sheik owns my soul: When I heard that the most excellent Mr. Sheik wrote the score, I expected something truly fantastic, and he did not disappoint. As I've said before, I've never come across a Duncan Sheik song I didn't like, and I've never come across a Spring Awakening song I didn't like, either. My favorite songs include "All That's Known," "Touch Me," "The Mirror-Blue Night," and "The Bitch of Living" (below).
Verdict: Despite a treacly ending ("The Song of Purple Summer"), Spring Awakening truly does deserve to be called "the best new musical in a generation" (John Heilpern, The New York Observer). It's the perfect marriage of century-old theater and modern rock sensibilities, which is why I'm starting a petition to get The White Stripes to help me write a musical about orange, human-eating bunnies on a quest to find a giant Xeroxed cotton ball. It'll be the best thing that could ever happen to Broadway! Now, who's with me?
My favorite kind of day is the day that seems to end too soon, the day that I wish would have lasted longer. Today, Halloween 2007, is one of those days.
Of course, not all fantastic days start that way. I awoke at 5 a.m. to the rapping at my bedroom door. I don't normally wake up this early (not anymore, boo-yah!), but I did today because of a one-character typographical error in the following text message exchange, which took place the day before. I'd asked Micmac about his Halloween plans (hang out at Kat's house), he asked me about mine (shopping), and he was like, "sama ka na lang kaya samin?" After getting Kat's consent, we went over the details:
Me: "Anong oras siya?"
Micmac: "6am onwards dude haha"
Me: "Huwaat? Ang aga naman!"
Micmac: "Haha, it's ONWARDS, meaning walang limit, although ewan. Di naman party eh, bonding. =))"
I thought it was kind of weird for a get-together to start at six in the morning (come on, you guys don't wake up that early, do you?), so I figured it wouldn't hurt to show up a couple of hours late.
The following morning, I arrived at Alabang Town Center at about 8 am. Ayala Alabang Village has strict security, so I needed confirmation from a resident via phone that I was a visitor; the problem was, I didn't have Kat's phone number. I strolled down Madrigal Avenue as I waited for Micmac's reply. By the time I reached Gloria Maris, I decided to call him.
"Okay, so I've been walking around ATC for the last half-hour or so," I ramble a little frantically. "Can you send me Kat's number?"
"I did! ...Wait, bat ang aga mo?"
"Uh, sabi mo '6 am,' diba?"
"HA?! Sabi ko 6 pm!"
Toink. "'Di ka ba nagtaka nung sinabi ko 'Ang aga naman?"
"Akala ko ineexpect mo na magsa-start yung party ng 10pm or something!"
Hee-hee. All it took was one mistyped letter. I assured him it was no big deal, since I planned to go to the mall, anyway. Malling's become part of my routine, so I knew exactly how to spend 10 hours at the mall without ever feeling bored.
I started at Starbucks, where I tried their chocolate espresso brownie while catching up on my reading. Thank God I'd thought to bring along my copy of "Cosmopolitan" by Toby Cecchini! It's research for my NaNoWriMo novel, which is set in an Irish pub in Greenwich Village, NYC. I also whipped out my notebook, which I carry around with me since I've recently developed the habit of jotting down all my expenses. Yeah, I'm such a dork. :P
When the clock struck 10, I headed to David's Salon, where I had my eyebrows threaded for the first time. I often have my eyebrows done at the salon, but it had always been shaving up until this point. The threading wasn't as painful as I'd expected (well, I was expecting a "NOOO! KELLY CLARKSON!" kind of scene out of The 40-Year-Old Virgin), although I teared up a whole lot, probably because of being under a bright light. After the threading, I had my nails painted iridescent white. Love them! They seem clear when you look at them from one angle, but from another they're electric blue!
At the supermarket, there was a Rolling Stone back issue with Pink Floyd on the cover, so I bought it (I am the reason why bookstores run out of RS back issues! :P). Then I went to Powerbooks to by the Zsazsa Zaturnnah comic book by Carlos Vergara. It was sold out at that branch, but the nice lady at the customer service area offered to reserve it for me at the Festival Mall branch. Since I had a lot of time to kill, I decided to walk from ATC to Festival and back to pick up the book, and while at Festival I also bought the Zsazsa Zaturnnah DVD. There were cushy sofa-beds in front of a strip of clothing stores on the ATC 2nd level, so I lounged there and read through the whole book, and I must say: totally worth it! Guys, bilhin niyo 'to, it's only P240 for a really nice-quality paperback. It was hilariously cheesy but it retained its charm, and I love the role-reversal where the male love interest is objectified (oh noes, Dodong, evil zombies are tearing off your clothes!). Tsaka ampocha, muntik na akong maiyak sa ending. Really! I had to skim over the words so I wouldn't start sobbing in front of dozens of strangers. Waah, ambading ko talaga. XD
I also received my first ever paycheck today (okay, it was just wired to my bank account), so I spent most of the day humming NSYNC's "Just Got Paid." Hehe kulit. Then I went clothes shopping at Mango and Rustan's, where I found this gorgeous Oleg Cassini silver spaghetti strap top and matching bolero! Since I was feeling particularly faaat that day, I took their biggest size, and holy pakshet, mukhang sako. Their next size was 6 dress sizes smaller. This is where my problems with tops comes in: it's loose at the waist, but tight at the bust. I could button it up, sure, but I looked like Bruce Banner seconds away from tearing up his shirt.
The saleslady was waiting outside the dressing room. "Kasya po, ma'am?"
"Um, masikip sa bust," I replied, handing her back the clothes on a hanger. She notices that the spaghetti-strap top is facing the wrong way. I, of course, did not know then that it was the wrong way.
"Ma'am, sa likod po yung buttons."
"Ahehe." Ay, tae. =))
They had a size for me that fit perfectly, but it was in black. I liked the black well enough, but it just didn't feel as special as the silver one. Hehe, ang arte ng lola niyo! :P Luckily, though, the nice saleslady (for some weird reason, the salespeople I'd come across were being particularly nice to me today!) offered to contact the other branches to see if they had the silver set in my size, and she would call me if/when they did. Yay!
...And that's how I made 10 hours fly by. I'm a bloody genius at anti-boredom. :)
Micmac and his mom were nice enough to pick me up and take me to Kat's house so I wouldn't have to go through all the fuss at the village gate. I will never, ever stop being amused by the routine I go through whenever I meet up with Zobel classmates, which usually involves screaming "OH MY GAAAAHD!" and then slow-motion running into a big bear hug. Ahh, it's funny and awesome every time. It happened in varying degrees with different people:
Scene # 1
Sophie: "OHMIGOD JEANNE!"
Me: "SOOOOWF!"
*glomp*
Scene # 2
A guest arrives in the living room. I turn around and see Kalals.
Me and Kalals, unison: "AAAAAAH!"
Scene # 3
I'm in the backyard with Miggy, Kat and Kevin. Enter Jam.
Jam: "JEANNE!"
Me: "JAAAAM!"
*glomp*
And then we babble at full speed about a ton of things, just like the Legally Blonde girls. XD
We played that old South Park game, Chef's Love Shack, and Micmac pwnd me and I pwnd Miggy (sort of -- I pussed out during the game play rounds). Bonding kami ni Miggy over dinner outside, then he introduced me to Herald, a guy who actually loves studying (jealous!). I was telling him about Pisay, and how I missed being able to go on gimiks every week, and he was like, "I think I would have liked that, because I'd honestly rather spend my free time studying, and I really like science." Ah, Herald, I wish I were you. Herald also dressed up as Jimi Hendrix for Halloween last year, which earns him bonus points in my book. =))
After some hemming and hawing on what horror flick to watch, the group decided on Poltergeist, despite the insistence of some of us that we do a How I Met Your Mother marathon instead. Slutty Pumpkin! Hee. Miggy and I didn't like scary movies (if you'll remember how I spent last year's Halloween, watching The Grudge 2 with Kat and Micmac, I had my eyes shut and my hands over my ears throughout half of the movie), so we abducted the plate of M & M's and other chocolates and went to the backyard to sit in the grass and go stargazing -- well, there weren't a lot of stars out, so we called it "cloud-gazing." On the plate, there was this weird tinfoil-wrapped eyeball chocolate thing that had caramel inside. Miggy said it was good pero tunaw, and it would taste better after being refrigerated for a while, so I pocketed one with the intention of refrigerating it when I got home. Thirty minutes later, I reach into the pocket of my hoodie to get my cellphone, and:
"Ugh, guess what just melted all over my phone!"
"Yung chocolate?"
"Hehe. Yeah."
"Told you."
We talked about our lives, and how we both kind of missed that special feeling you get when you find someone you're fond of. Aww. :P Kevin, whom I'd only met that evening, joined us in the backyard a little later, complaining that Poltergeist looked like a crappy movie. We talked about our ambitions: Miggy wants to be a novelist, I want to be a columnist, and Kevin wants to serve in the Marines because he was outraged by all the senseless murders committed in the name of Allah. Really brave of you, dude. Kat joined us a little later and we talked about politics, religion, and all the things that you wouldn't ideally discuss with strangers. I don't even talk about that with my friends, really, so it was kind of cool to get to discuss it openly this once, especially since we all basically shared the same point of view.
We also took a moment to look at the firefly by the trees, which was a pretty nice moment.
I tried lying down in the grass, but thirty seconds into it, I was like, "Miggy, the longer I lie here, the more I think about the number of times the dog must have taken a crap right in this spot." XD
We, including other attendees, all made plans to watch Into the Woods, Cinderella and Avenue Q together (it's not Art or Shock Value yet, Floy Quintos, but I'm working on it!), and then I had to leave earlier than I wanted to because my parents didn't want me staying out so late. Boo parents. :(
Halloween 2007 was fantastic. Some people like their parties with lots of booze and dancing, but for me, there's nothing better than bonding with friends under the stars and making the time fly by. I left with a grin on my face, new numbers added to my phonebook...and yes, a sticky, chocolate-covered cellphone.
Currently on hiatus, since I'm posting on Multiply and LJ, but look out for a comeback around August 2008 (i.e. when I start college). :D
ETA 10.29.07: Back from the dead!
