Woke up this morning and headed down to Starbucks.

That’s the first test - see if my system can handle coffee. It did. So far, so good.

About an hour later, headed back to Un Deux Trois (yes, again) for brekkie and in the hour between that and Starbucks, some people covered the sidewalk with 9/11 memorials.

After that, I knew that Rob was seeing shows today, so I thought I’d head over to TKTS - a Times Square institution that sells same-day Broadway tickets for reduced prices. I mean, have you ever really been to NYC if you haven’t stood in line at TKTS?

Got two tix - matinee and evening - for “MJ” and “Little Shop of Horrors”. I was bummed about missing Little Shop the other night, so I’m making up for it tonight. But there were hardly any matinees today, so I figured I just see the evening show. But one of the hawkers in the queue pointed at my shirt and complimented me on it.

We had a bit of a conversation and he asked me what I was planning to see. I told him Little Shop and he said, “there are a couple of shows with a matinee that still have tickets.” I said I wasn’t really big on seeing any of them… and he said, “You have to see MJ. It will blow your mind.” So when I got to the ticket window, I took the guy’s advice (he’s a Pete and Bas fan, after all) and got my ticket.

Full disclosure: I’m not a big Michael Jackson fan. I only knew about a third of the songs in the loooooong setlist. And my lord, the man himself was a hot mess. BUT: The impact he had on music, on concert performances, on music videos, and on dance itself can’t possibly be understated. In that regard, he was a force of nature and this being Broadway, I was sure it would be worth seeing.

Understatement.

Holy cow, what a show! I expected basically a musical montage, like watching a concert of his greatest hits. What I got was a history lesson about why he was the hot mess that we all remember. They were not at all kind to his father, as was expected, and the Jackson 5 flashbacks were amazing because that kid was in the big afro wig playing his younger self was better than the lead who played adult Michael. Astonishing.

The other thing I wasn’t expecting was for it to be emotional. There’s a song most of you know called “I’ll be There” and the lyrics are basically a love song, “just call my name, and I’ll be there…”

But in the show, it’s not Michael who sings it and it’s not that kind of love song. It’s sung by his mother to his child self after a particularly abusive episode with his father. She’s offering him a lifeline. I know that I can’t stop what’s happening to you, but I can help get you through it. Powerful.

Then, halfway through the song, the dad re-enters and snatches young Michael away from his mother as if to say, “she can’t help you, boy, I own you.” And as soon as young Michael disappears behind the door, current day Michael picks up the song without skipping a beat and they finish it as a duet. A mother’s love is always going to win out. On the switch, there were gasps and hands up to faces, and the Columbian guy sitting next to me muttered, “aw, fuck me” and started looking for a handkerchief. It was an emotional sucker-punch that I was not prepared for, but it was the highlight of a show full of highlights.

Back to the hotel for a quick lie-down, then it was off to a cute little place close to the hotel for happy hour.

I got Mac and cheese because I’m Canadian (Canadians eat more Mac&cheese per capita than any other country). Started feeling poorly, so I went back to the hotel for another lie-down. Then it was time to go “Off-Broadway” for Little Shop of Horrors

I’m very familiar with this show. And by ‘very familiar’ I mean I have 99% of it memorized. Rob said that this new revival was really well done, so I was excited. He raved about the voice for Audrey II and he said that Seymour was a fantastic singer, but he was way too pretty to be Seymour. When I got the playbill, I saw that Seymour was going to be the understudy, as was Audrey II and even one of the Urchins. OK, no worries.

The show was very good. There were some changes made, most of which worked, except for the extra song put in called “Now (It’s the Gas)” which drug out Orin Scrivello’s death scene into a five-minute snooze-fest. The guy who played Orin was so over-the-top, he made Steve Martin’s take on the character seem subdued.

Also, the whole show takes place in or just outside Mushnik’s Skid Row Florist, except for when they roll out the dentist’s chair for the aforementioned crappy song.

Most of the songs are brand-new arrangements, including a rocking treatment of '“Skid Row”. Seymour’s performance in that one won me over right away and he didn’t falter at all the whole show.

I wasn’t sold on Audrey at first because I didn’t think she looked tawdry enough, but she wept real tears on “Somewhere that’s Green” - and I did as well, because I always do. That song wrecks me. She ended up being my favourite Audrey.

The Urchins have much bigger roles in this version. It works well.

However, the understudy for Audrey II was a woman(!) If it had been an alto singing it at the proper pitch, then OK, but it was a soprano and she sang the whole part up an octave. How menacing is your bloodthirsty plant going to be when it sings like freaking Snow White? Didn’t work for me at all.

But the guy playing Mushnik freaking killed it. He brought nuance to the character I hadn’t seen before and he’s easily my favourite Mushnik.

If you’ve only ever seen the movie version, you might be surprised at how dark the stage version is. Seymour and Audrey don’t have a happy ending, as they’re both plant food by the last scene. Also, in the movie, they’re very careful to keep Seymour wholesome. Mushnik’s death was accidental in the film, but in the stage version, he is entirely responsible for luring Mushnik into the plant, where he knows Mushnik will die. This is especially brutal, since Mushnik adopts Seymour as his son (also not in the movie) just a few songs before.

Anyway, it’s a fantastic new production, I loved most of the changes, and I think my favourite change was how the Urchins were shown to be included in the list of people who were making money off of betraying Seymour. It put a new shade on them, showing them as opportunists, rather than just a Greek Chorus filling in the story gaps. With everyone (except Audrey) using Seymour for their own gain, he didn’t stand a chance- but as I mentioned before, Seymour wasn’t a saint, either, so you didn’t really feel sorry for him when he got eaten.

Some of the buildings were lit up to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11

Two shows in one day was too much. I’ve gotta take a break tomorrow afternoon.

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