Monday Miscellaney

Dad
I haven't heard since yesterday afternoon, and am cautiously taking the "no news is good news" line. As of then, Dad was able to talk and was getting "feisty," although they hadn't moved him back out of cardio yet. The reason was something about there being no beds back where they wanted to put him. Mother doesn't quite buy that, but they didn't tell her that there was a medical problem preventing the move.

Interesting Stuff
From Sunday's Washington Post - an article about how wood frogs may help cyrogenics. Surprisingly funny. ("Take an ice cube. Paint it green. That's a wood frog in winter.") and with a faintly disturbing picture that will probably be someone's icon by the end of the day.

And now, for something completely different
For a much-needed change of pace, Mo, Smap & I went to the 100th show of "A Broadway Christmas Carol" at the Round House theater. Billed as "A little song, a little dance, a little eggnog down your pants," this filk-carol studded Carol is a blast at the best of times, with parodies from Broadway Past (Gypsy, Cabaret, Oklahoma), Broadway Present (Chicago), and Broadway Well Into The Future (Avenue Q). It's a tiny cast - Scrooge, The Man Who Is Not Scrooge, The Woman Who Is Not Scrooge, The Piano Player Who Is Also Not Scrooge, and three Apprentices. And in addition to the sung parodies, there are plenty of simply silly bits, like the Cratchett line about Tiny Tim's grave "being green and peaceful" being underscored with a snippet of "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors.

But this show was special. Everyone in the audience got Christmas cards and a set of lyrics (whee!), and many of the cast members from previous productions were in attendance. And that was where the REAL fun began, because they felt free to randomly pop into the action, to the horror and amusement of the present cast.

Sometimes they just filled out the scene, as when Bob Cratchett's family (entering to the tune of the March of the Siamese Children) swelled to 3 times expected size, including some very tall teenagers. Sometimes they outright took over; a previous Scrooge took one of the songs, and a previous Man Who Was Not Scrooge (TMWWNS) did his best to upstage the show. He first swiped a Cratchett song and dance number about Christmas (This is my Once A Year Day) by sneaking onset, swiping the actor's hat, and slapping a hand over his mouth. TMWWNS let him, although he hammed up hilariously at the end of the number when his hat was returned, gasping and fanning as if he'd been high-kicking for the last three minutes. And when the number is almost reprised, he protested the stopping with "Oh, but I'm so much better!"

But sometimes he didn't yield the stage, and The Woman Who Was Not Scrooge (but was, at the time, Mrs. Cratchett) totally lost it when she was presented with a Tiny Tim and Tiny Tom duet about "Oh, I'm gonna walk, tomorrow, bet your last ha'penny that tomorrow's the day..." (Later in the play, the current TMWWNS delivered the line, "Scrooge kept Christmas in his heart all the year long. And Tiny Tim - who died a long, painful, agonizing death [wait for spluttering laughter from audience] I mean Tom...")

They also stopped the show for a tribute to the rubber chicken. The Phantom ripoff ("Sing for me, my miser!") ends with a rubber chicken hurdling across the stage, because "He's singing to bring down the chanticleer!" This time the chicken got picked up and handed from cast member to cast member to past cast member, and each of them cradled it like an Oscar, explaining what the chicken meant to them. (The previous TMWWNS pretty much brought the house down, leaving the previous Scrooge to plaintively ask, "How do I follow THAT?")

This is always the best ticket in town, but last night, I'm gonna say it was probably the best ticket on the East Coast.