Sometimes I feel like everyone else in the world has come from another planet except for a select few. Sometimes it seems that in order to get anything done right you gotta do it yourself. But there's no time to do it yourself until you realize that everyone else screwed up and you're left with no option other than to redo it yourself. Yea to J & J...the only people around me in a certain environment who come from the right planet...the one that isn't full of inept freaks.

And it also baffles me how people who lack common sense can get ahead in this world too! Buzz, buzz, buzz...do I hear a fly?

I can't believe the Shubert will soon be a distant memory! Growing up in Southern California, my opportunities to see theater were at the OCPAC, The Music Center AND the Shubert! Boo hoo. :(

How sad. :(

LOS ANGELES, Aug 27 (Reuters) -- The Shubert, the 1,800-seat Los Angeles theater that was home to such hits as "Cats," Sunset Boulevard" and "Les Miserables," will be razed to make way for a new $280 million office building, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported Monday.

The theater will be torn down as part of the planned demolition of the ABC Entertainment Center in Century City, the paper said. A spokesman for the Shubert Organization, which operated the theater since 1972, was not available to comment.

But in a statement to the Journal, Shubert spokesman Lee Silver said, "The Shubert Organization is saddened and disappointed the ownership of the ABC Entertainment Center has decided to replace the existing complex with a new office building." Under the plan, the theater would cease operations on Sept. 30, 2002.

The theater has been the home for such musicals as "Evita," "Annie" and "City of Angels." The last major production was "Ragtime," which closed in spring of 1998 to go to Broadway.

A year later, the Shubert lost a bid to mount "The Lion King," which is still running at the Pantages in Hollywood.

The Shubert, meanwhile, returned to subscription sales and has hosted "Mamma Mia," "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour," "Saturday Night Fever" and "Kiss Me, Kate," which is currently running."

The complex includes the theater, two five-story office buildings and a limestone plaza and fountains.

Officials for the Trammell Crow Co., which will build the new structure, said brokerage house Bear Sterns & Co. is considering becoming a major tenant of the new building.

Some days, certain people can just set you off and you feel like you've just had enough. Today, is one of those days. **sigh**

What is it with (the lack of) theater in Los Angeles? Of the last "big" shows I've seen in LA (Mamma-Mia! and Saturday Night Fever) both were so incredibly bad, it hurt. Ok, so (Mamma-Mia! wasn't quite as painful as Saturday Night Fever (which was heinous and I do mean that) but neither show really had a concrete story.

So when I found out that Kiss Me Kate was coming to town, you can surely understand my excitement at the prospect of a real Broadway show finally making it's way to LA. I (very happily) was given comp tix (thanks Emily!) to opening night and my friends (Curtis, Yami and Tianyi) accompanied me. Curtis had seen the show on Broadway and raved about it, so when the lights dimmed in the Shubert, we both grinned from ear to ear in anticipation.

Oh, but my anticipation turned into disappointment. Rex Smith was much too campy and played the role of Fred Graham/Petruchio like a sleazy, lounge singer. The man has a good voice, but...not appropriate for this role...well, he would if he had better direction. Rachel York made the role of Lilli Vanessi/Katharine her own and did indeed do a great job with I Hate Men. She overplayed it just a tad in that song, but it worked. Nancy Anderson (Lois Lane/Bianca) overplayed the role as well, and just didn't make her character very special at all. She was your typical dumb blonde and you never really felt much of anything for her...only that she was just one of a thousand other ditzy blondes. The audience sure seemed to like her performance of "Always True To You (In My Fashion)" but again, she overacted and oversang her range to the point that she cracked big time in the last line of the song. Overall, the show was like a bad, campy soap opera and all I wanted was to watch Brian Stokes Mitchell & Marin Mazzie in the lead roles.

I didn't quite understand why the entire show was overdone. Was it because it was opening night? Were they nervous? Was it LA? Do audiences in LA appreciate that type of acting? Do they need extreme acting in order to understand what is going on? Is this where the state of musical theater in LA is going? I certainly hope not. I haven't seen a decent musical in LA since Ragtime and that's quite a shame.

Getting the blog was the easy part. The difficulty now is figuring how the heck to edit html code for someone who is completely html illiterate! Granted html code is pretty easy to understand once you get the hang of it, but that is a whole seperate issue. Speaking of issues...

Can I just publicly declare that I cannot stand indecisiveness and being under appreciated? Thank you, I suppose I just have.

CONFUSION

I'm so confused!!!!!

FIRST ATTACK

Who knew it was so easy to get a blog! Yea, I'm finally among the bloggers and blogees of the internet generation! Pardon me if this site is kinda lame and dusty, I'm just beginning to figure out how this all works. Stay tuned for more...when my brain isn't mush from having been at work until 11:30 PM in BUDGET HELL! Yikes! When will budget hell ever be over???