Scrappy Travels

I've always thought that in musical theatre, there were two camps.  In the first camp, you have the Sondheim fans; the lovers of all things Into the Woods or A Little Night Music. And in the other, you have the Andrew Lloyd Webber fans; those that gravitate to "Jesus Christ Superstar" or Phantom of the Opera.  I have always been in the Andrew Lloyd Webber camp.   Jesus Christ Superstar was the first musical I ever saw, and Phantom was the first I saw live.  So you can say Lord Lloyd Webber has a special place in my heart. Sondheim, on the other hand, not so much.  Until recently (we're talking just last month) I'd never seen a single Sondheim show.  In my mind, he was too classic for me.  I like new and different, and I'm not such a fan of the high soprano.  However, as I wrote about here , I saw the marvelous production of Sweeney Todd at the Barrow Street, and just fell head over heels for it.  So I decided that it might be time to...

A few months ago I learned that immersive theater really wasn't my thing.  I barely made it out of HT Darling's Musaeum before collapsing into a nervous fit of giggles. Let's just say, I'm much too awkward to enjoy theatre interacting with me.  But that was before I heard about Barrow Street's immersive production of Sweeney Todd .  This production would have pies to eat - a clever tie in to Ms. Lovett's pie shop - and would be performed in and around the theater-goers.   It would still be "immersive" per se, but I wouldn't be forced to interact with the performers, and I would get to enjoy a yummy pie, so it couldn't be as scary as HT Darling's Musaeum.  Turns out it wasn't scary at all.  It was positively fantastic!  I can't imagine the work and time it took to transform the space into a pie shop, let alone figure out the choreography for the actors.  The shop itself was tiny - only about 120 seats.  The tight space made th...