Scrappy Travels

The Tony-winning and hilarious Christian Borle is making his debut, directing the madcap action/adventure/love/comedic story  Popcorn Falls . In the play, 2 men inhabit 20 different roles while telling the story of the struggling town of Popcorn Falls, where the famous waterfall has all dried up. Knowing Borle's humor, the piece sounds tailor made for him, and if he weren't directing it, I'm sure he'd be in it. Popcorn Falls opened its first preview last evening, at the Davenport Theatre; a tiny off-Broadway theatre holding about 120 seats. Unfortunately, most of those seats were empty today. But I'm assuming they will soon be full because judging what I saw the show is practically perfect. I'm owning up the empty seats to the fact the show isn't out of previews yet. We only saw it so early in its run because we were hoping to see Christian in the audience prepping last minute notes. Alas, he was not to be seen sadly. The show however, was wonderful...

A few years ago, I fell for a show called Newsroom . It was written by Aaron Sorkin, and it filled the fast-talking, progressive, idealistic hole that West Wing left when it was cancelled. Whereas the West Wing centered around the lovely people that inhabited the lovely Bartlett White House, Newsroom followed the news-makers that inhabited a cable news network all led by the less than likable Will McAvoy. While McAvoy was the Dan Rather of the fictional news world, he wasn't anyone's favorite boss. But of course, once his writers got to know him, they stood behind him fully just like Bartlett's staff had in the West Wing . From the first lines of Will McAvoy's speech in the pilot - where he dispelled the myth that America wasn't the greatest country in the world anymore - I was completely in awe of this character and the amazing actor that was portraying him.  Later in the series, we learned that Will McAvoy played the guitar and sang,  thanks to the sing...