Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Edwin Drood, Israel, etc.

On Sunday, CodeMonkey and I went to see The Mystery of Edwin Drood. This is an Off-Broadway production, and the Roundabout Theater Company has a great program where people under 35 can see their shows inexpensively. This was probably the easiest experience I've ever had buying cheap theater tickets. No arriving hour early at the box office, no hoping to win lotteries, no standing room only "seats." I bought the tickets online and picked them up at will-call when we arrived at the theater 30 minutes before the show. The tickets cost $22 each, making this a bit cheaper than the Broadway shows I've rushed. The seats were in the upper mezzanine, off-center, but I've had worse seats. It was a good value.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Charles Dickens' final, unfinished novel. In this musical adaptation, the story is performed up to the point where the novel ends. Then the house lights go up and the audience gets the opportunity to vote on the ending, which is then performed according to our wishes. This made the second act lots of fun, as we picked the detective, decided on the killer, hooked up a pair of unlikely lovers, and the story ended with a flourish. Unfortunately, the play took a long time to get going, and both CodeMonkey and I found ourselves drifting off during act one. The sound wasn't great, so we had a hard time hearing the lyrics, the initial plot was confusing, and it was generally underwhelming enough that I flirted with leaving during intermission.

In other news, I kept up reasonably well with my goals, and am tabling goal setting for this week as I AM LEAVING FOR ISRAEL IN UNDER A WEEK. It's a business trip, and I'm spending most of my free time packing or preparing things at home to run smoothly while I leave. Chinese New Year will start while I am overseas, so I want to have all holiday-prep done before I leave. I'm excited and nervous and will be much more mellow once I'm on a plane overseas.

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