See What I Wanna See

This past Sunday I had the PRIVILEGE to see the west coast premiere of See What I Wanna See at The Blank Theater.

It was AMAZING.

To begin to tell you what it's about is a little hard. It's a musical by Michael John LaChiusa based on three short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It sounds SUPER arty, but it's not. Don't let that scare you. It's not artsy for arts sake, it's thought provoking, moving, interesting and compelling.

I'm one of those guys that will happily click through itunes when they give me suggestions of things I might like. One time SWIWS was featured and I clicked through to it. Not knowing ANYTHING about the show, there WERE a few songs that I downloaded because they were SO good (Including Kesa and There Will Be A Miracle). The soundtrack as a whole is REALLY hard to follow and sounds WAY off-broadway, which is SURE to turn some people off (think Drowsy Chaperone), but in context the music is wonderful, creative and new. (Again, think Drowsy Chaperone)

Leading the talented cast is 2009 Olivier Award (the UK equivalent of the Tony Awards) Winner Lesli Margherita as the role originally played by Audra McDonald in conception and Idina Menzel in production and I gotta tell you: Lesli gives them a run for their money, not just vocally but as an actress and performer. Margherita gives you the entire package and actually made me think there was NO WAY Idina could have done this role justice. Lesli makes you laugh, cry, think, hate and love. There wasn't a single thing wrong with her performance.

Doug Carpenter is the male lead and again another brilliant performer. His voice is sexy and luscious, his performance provocative and his undertaking of making the subject matter relatable, understandable and justifiable is a talent all in it's own. (If you want to just see him be handsome and sing his guts out, check out his upcoming cabaret debut at Sterling's Upstairs May 30th!)

The rest of the fabulous cast is rounded out with Jason Graae, Perry Ojeda and Suzan Soloman. Graae gives a classic Broadway performance, Perry is awesome in the second act and Suzan did a fabulous job singing one of the songs I downloaded (and didn't want to be ruined OR I'D KILL HER) There Will Be A Miracle.

Of course I'm BITTER that I didn't see this sooner so that I could tell you all to go out and see it, but since it MUST CLOSE on Sunday May 30th, 2010 YOU HAVE TO GO SEE IT! BUY TICKETS HERE!!!