I happened to re-attend LES MIZ Thursday night of last week, tentatively planning to re-review the current cast including Lea Salonga. As it turns out, on Sunday night, it was revealed that Cameron Macintosh had apparently re-attended the show himself and didn't exactly love a lot of what he saw. The actress playing Eponine and the actor playing Javert, both of whom I had seen, were dismissed. I won't comment on whether or not I agree with what Macintosh did, but for the time being, I will not be reviewing that performance. Instead, I plan to re-attend in like a month or so and review that performance.
Tonight, Wednesday, marked my 6th trip to INTIMATE EXCHANGES. Tomorrow I'll go back, which will assumedly be my last time, meaning I'll have seen 7 of the 8 pieces. As many of the critics have noted, the more of these Alan Ayckbourn plays you see, the more you become attached to his characters, all 10 of which are featured in all eight plays. It may be early to say, but this might be my "show of the summer." I tend to have one of these each year- the show that somehow defines the best of my theatergoing experience of that summer. Past summer shows for me have included the Nine revival (2003), The Frogs (2004), As You Like It/2 Gentlement of Verona at Shakespeare in the Park (2005), and Spring Awakening's Off-Broadway production (2006). Of course, I've yet to see Patti in Gypsy, so we'll see what happens with that.
I also got the chance to attend ROMEO AND JULIETTE at American Theater Ballet on Tuesday, prior to attending ROMEO AND JULIET at Shakespeare in the Park on Friday. To prepare for each, I reread the play on Monday. It had been about two years since I've attended an American Ballet Theatre production, and probably any ballet for that matter. It'll take a lot more time before I can persuasively and analytically review ballet performance, but I'm hoping that's something I'll be able to achieve in time, just as I've tried to increase my aptitude in reviewing opera and avant-garde performance art.