Last night I saw the Blue Man Group for the first time.  Kim has season tickets to a series of plays with a group of girls and one of them couldn’t make it last night, so I gladly took her place.  Having never seen them before I only really expected to see them play their PVC pipe style instruments for an hour and a half.  And while they did do plenty of that, there was so much comedy mixed in to the act.  That was the surprising thing for me.  I actually laughed way more than I expected.

Since the blue men do not speak, they rely on great visual effects and the occasional voiceover to provide the comedy.  Whether it be Twinkie filling shooting out of their chest, or paint flying from their mouths and drums, the visual effects are wonderful.  There is also a fair amount of audience participation, some of which has to be staged, at least a little bit.  Regardless having members of the audience up on stage helps add to the humor and really captures everyones attention.

I believe that this national tour just started, so be on the lookout for when they come to your town.  I would highly recommend it.  Check out the video above for brief clips from the show.

Saturday night I headed to the Impulse Theater with my wife and a couple of friends. Our friend Amy was in town visiting and chose this activity for us since she can’t see improvised comedy anywhere in Cincinnati. I had often seen the theater entrance, as it’s in the basement of the Wynkoop Brewery, but had never been inside. My knowledge of improv extended only as far as what I’d seen on the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway. Fortunately, many of the acts at the Impulse were very similar to the games on the TV show, only they don’t keep score and there is no winner.

Actually there is a winner, everyone in the audience! The comedic wit and quick thinking of the four actors we saw was amazing. We were treated to seats in the very front row, but I think everyone in the room had a great view. The hour and a half long show was the perfect amount of time, and it went by so quickly while I was cracking up in my chair. I would highly recommend this show to anyone, well anyone over twenty-one since that is the age requirement. Even then the show is not really crude, which was hard to pull of with a group of women celebrating a bachelorette party in the crowd. I thoroughly enjoyed the Impulse and hope to be back soon.

For her birthday I got Kim and I tickets to see A Christmas Carol on it’s opening night at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, which was last night. I thought the play was wonderfully done, and the very intimate Stage Theater was a great place to see it even from the very last row. I’m sure everyone knows the play, so I won’t go into a recap of it, but this is definitely worth seeing for anyone in the Denver area.

Prior to the play, we had dinner at the nearby Corner Office, a restaurant and martini bar. For starters we both ordered from the martini menu. I had the paper shredder which was Jim Beam (though online says Knob Creek), fresh ginger, and ginger ale. Kim had one of the holiday selections which involved spiced apple cider, cranberry, and rum as best I can remember. For dinner I had the orange chicken which was served in a traditional Chinese takeout-like container. Kim ordered the tonkatsu salad, which was panko crusted chicken breast and sesame soy dressing served over a standard salad mix. I thoroughly enjoyed all of what we ordered and would love to return to the restaurant in the future to try even more.

Last night we caught the final performance of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo in Denver. I had never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance before, so I had no idea what to expect, but Kim was really excited for it since she had already seen a show before. I have to admit that the acrobatic elements of the show were pretty amazing. I think my favorite of acts were the Teeterboard and the Ladder (video of both posted below). I could have done without some of the more theatrical acts, but I guess those are necessary as the crew sets up for the next acrobatic act. The two hour show flew by, so that must be a good sign, and I would gladly go see another Cirque du Soleil in the future.

We attempted to go to our last play of the Starlight season last night, Hairspray. The weather had different plans for us though. The start of the play was delayed for a bit so that a “small storm” could pass by. Well once they finally started the small storm quickly grew in strength and after ten minutes or so they delayed the play once more. We stuck around for awhile but sensed that the weather was not going to get any better, so we left. I’m still not sure if they officially cancelled the show or not, which would entitle us to tickets for another date. Oh well.

The best part of the night was having dinner in the Applause Club before the start of the show. The buffet style dinner is served by Fiorella’s Jack Stack Catering. Thanks to Phil and Doni we had a free meal there with our friends The Martins! The food was pretty good, although I’m not sure that it would be worth the $16.95 door price. It would depend on the menu for the night.

Of the five plays in the Starlight season we saw about two and a half. I guess you get what you pay for and we had discount on the tickets. My definite favorite of the season was Riverdance, the first one we saw. If we are around KC next year I will consider buying the tickets again but likely only for a discounted price.

We made our return to Starlight Threatre last night to see Rent. Unlike plays in the past, I actually did a little reading about Rent before attending. I think it helped in the end, otherwise I think I could have been really lost at times. At times during the show the music would drown out the performers’ vocals and other times the singers were just hard to understand. Thought you could still get a sense of what was happening based on actions and props.

Overall my review of Rent can be summed up in one word: interesting. If you aren’t familiar with Rent, “the musical centers on a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Alphabet City in the early 1990s, under the shadow of AIDS.” Wikipedia continues, “Rent was one of the first Broadway musicals to clearly feature gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender characters.” Although the characters may be hard for everyone to relate to, the plot contains themes that touch everyone’s lives.

On a more positive note, I thought the music and singing was spectacular. Rent is referred to as a “rock opera” and the band that was playing last night certainly did rock. Most all of the performers had great to amazing voices and the collaborations were excellent. I’d recommend seeing Rent, just once in your life, for the music alone.

We were supposed to watch our second play of the season last night, Dr. Doolittle featuring Tommy Tune. The weather had other plans for us though. Supposedly the entire play was performed, but we stuck around through about half of the first act only. Shortly after we got home it was raining buckets though, just as I had predicted. I couldn’t image being outside in that type of weather, so I’m glad we left when we did. Besides, the play wasn’t that good. They advertised it as the one to bring your kids to and there were many of them, even some on stage. I decided that if there were kids dressed up as animals I was leaving, and that’s just what we did. Next up, in a couple of weeks, is Grease!

I saw Riverdance last night at the Starlight Theatre and actually enjoyed it. I was slightly worried that it wouldn’t be what I expected from hearing about the show years ago, but it was all that and more. The singers, musicians, and of course the dancers are all world class. I would definitely recommend seeing this show if you get the chance.

My favorite act of the night was called Trading Taps and featured “a trio of Irish dancers facing off against two urban American tappers.” The contrasting styles were interesting to watch and the duel was very entertaining. In the end they join together to close out the act to the loud cheers of the crowd.

How did I end up there for the show? Well Phil and Doni have had season tickets to Starlight for years, and even Phil seems to enjoy some of the shows. Kim convinced me that we should also get season tickets this year, so we did. This was our first show of the season and if the rest are of this quality I will deem the purchase a huge success. Next up is Dr. Doolittle.

The Christmas party was excellent! I got home from work and immediately Kim showed me the kitchen and said get to work. :) Most everyone showed up right at 6, and we had lots of food ready and plenty of drinks to go around. Kim and I took a few pictures of the night with the new camera, hopefully I’ll get those up soon. Doni forwarded some pictures that she took and I’ll see if I can get them online now. After an hour and a half we all headed to the play. Our seats were great, right up front and all together. The play was good as well. We saw it last year, so I remembered a bunch of the parts but I also forgot a few things as well. Good times! Thanks to Steve and everyone else at Kim’s work for coming over and having this party.

We have a few plans for the weekend, but nothing too big. We may go to the brooksider tonight for their Christmas party. At some point tonight Kim and I are going to have our Christmas, I’m really excited for that! Then tomorrow we are going with Doni & Phil up to the Martin’s for their Christmas party. We also have 3 DVD’s to watch sometime this weekend. These are all from a free trial of blockbuster online. I convinced Kim to sign up for the free ipods, so in a week or so I should have all of my referrals needed to get this thing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed…

So tonight is Kim’s work Christmas party. Not sure if I mentioned it before or not, but it is partially happening at our apartment. That means we have been cleaning the apartment all week, and it actually looks really good. If only we could keep it looking like this. We are going to have drinks and appetizers at the apartment and then go watch “A Christmas Carol” at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Perhaps I’ll have some pictures to post before too long!