Mademoiselle Anna Held‘s Eyes poster, circa 1898

[via LOC]

Cirque du Soleil: Zarkana
Radio City Music Hall
offical site

No, this is not a show about Fareed Zakaria roaming around Texarkana in search of Zardoz, but to be perfectly honest, that makes about as much sense as whatever Zarkana was or is suppose to be

They say it’s about Zark, a magician who has lost his powers – and the love of his life – in an abandoned theatre populated by a motley collection of off-the-wall characters and incomparable acrobats. He runs into the Mutants, four sirens as sinister as they are fabulous, who are determined to divert him from his quest.

We say it’s some crummy musical, led by a guy who looks like a cross between Dave Navarro, Johnny Knoxville and David Johansen, with a story that’s barely a story, but is still totally fun cause it has like French circus clowns, acrobats, hot Asians, and some stuff that coulda been aired on That’s Incredible!.  That stuff was hactually purty darn yumcredible, but that singing stuff was like totally killing the vibe… and there’s also some strange talking larvae cartoon thing, which might hactuallly be worser than microwaved tunafish

This is the very first Cirque du Soleil Moon Frye thingamabob that we’ve ever seen, so we don’t know how on par it is with the usual French circus stufffff they does, but we’d be down to see more, if they promise to get rid of the singing or only use Beatles songs, or had like more French clown madness, which is purty stoopid, but STOOPID AWESOMES!!!!

The show also got us to thinking – what are modern day American circuses like?  Are they like this but like less French and with no dumb singings?  Maybe it’s time to give Ringling, Barnum and/or Bailey another shot.  Is Gunther Gebel still taming it?  Apparently not.  Can they raise him from the dead?

Sleep No More
The McKittrick Hotel
offical site | tickets
now thru June 25th

A woman hands you a playing card and tells you to walk up a set of stairs.  You follow her instruction, and after reaching the top, all light has disappeared and darkness surrounds you, as you continue to make your way somewhere, but have no clue where.  Things quickly become disorienting and possibly even a bit scary.  Fret not, you’ll soon (or eventually) find your way, even blindly, into the safe confines of the McKittrick Hotel’s red-lit bar, where you’ll soon embark on Sleep No More, an unforgettable one-of-a-kind journey and experience you won’t soon forgot, OR WANT TO!!

Once your card is called, yer briefed on the very brief set of rules – you have to wear a white Venetian/Eyes Wide Shut orgy-like mask at all times, you are not allowed to talk at all times, and everything else is pretty much ON limits, most importantly, touching stuff!  If something is off limits (no photography, OBVS!), someone in a black mask will let you know.  Wait, what the heck is this?  Nothing like anything we’ve or you’ve ever done did before!  So, sharpen those senses, shut yer yap and let the fun unfold, at your own pace!

You get to literally roam free, a true Choose Your Own Adventure, in the ‘hotel’ (named after a location in Vertigo)’s six floors and zillions of rooms.  The rooms are all over the cinematic map – one minute you’ll feel like you’re walking thru Norman Bates’ Victorian home (and hearing Bernard Herrmann’s score), the next, The Shining‘s Overlook hotel, and the next, the psycho wards of Jacob’s Ladder, and the next? Some other heeby-jeeby flick that’s made yer skin crawl

While yer exploring, a play is being staged (Shakespeare’s Macbeth… hence the title), but it’s up to you if you want to follow the story and characters (you can literally follow them as they run around the place), or juss dig through their actual drawers (or candy jars!).  We opted for the latter, but you can do whatever the funk you want.  That’s the beauty of this – it’s what you make of it.  So if you want to have a lame time, you will have one!  Probably not though, since the place/play is quite low on lame-ness

If yer in New York over the next two months, you have to do this.  It’s a piece of theater that’s worth the price of admission, cause it’s nothing like theater.  And please, go in with an open mind, wide set of eyes, a well rested body, and most importantly, someone you don’t want to talk to for 2-3 hours

The Pee-Wee Herman Show
The Stephen Sondheim Theatre
now thru January 2nd
websight

Do call it a comeback, a long overdue one, interrupted by some personal downfalls, but that’s all now juss a bunch of jizz on a porno theater floor water under the bridge!!!!  If you believe in magic, well magic is very much alive at The Stephen Sondheim Theatre this fall thanks to the manchild in the gray suit, red bowtie and white shoes.  Pee-Wee (bless you Paul Reubens) may have left us for awhile, but he never really left us.  And how could he?  Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse are timeless classics worth revisiting for generations to come, and so was his original stage production from 1981, which has now been updated with much modern flair (& rightfully includes the Playhouse TV gang) almost 30 years after the fact!!!  Even the original Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart), Jambi (John Paragon) and Mailman Mike (John Moody) are along for the ride and they shine on like the crazy diamonds they once were.  Larry Fishburne wasn’t able to re-saddle-up as Cowboy Curtis, but don’t worry, he rides on, and so do Chairry, Pterri, Globey, Conky, The King of Cartoons, Penny and everything else you know and love from the wonderland of Puppetland (we forgot about those Coronet Educational Films)!!!

Our father is one of the biggest Pee-Wee fans we know, and after he saw the show in LA, he said it might not have been the most funny thing he’s ever seen, but it was a dream come true to see him do his thing under the proscenium.  Well, he was wrong about one thing, the show is uproarious (in terms of awful puns, sexual innuendo, and childlike glee)!!!  If Pee-Wee ever brought joy into your life at some point in time, do yerself a flavor and let him do it for you again.  We love him so much, we may juss have to marry him!!!

And if not him, how bout Naomi from Lost?!?!

+ if you see the show, he unintentionally gives a Thigh Master shout out!!!

January 23, 1984 – Beach Boys Brian Wilson visits the cast of Cats backstage at the Broadway Theater. Brian was with his psychiatrist, Dr. Elliot Landy, who travels with the reclusive musician. Brian’s brother, Dennis recently drowned in California

pic rezlogged from 100 Bad Dreamz

via

Beach Boys Beards