Shows 2016

Last year I managed to hold on to 16 Playbills from shows I saw (and also a BAMbill and a booklet from a concert at the Miller Theater), but my Gmail inbox (and to a small extent my memory) helped me put together the below list of 25 live performances I saw this year. Also using my memory, but mainly the back of the LGBAC marching band shirt and the QUO season packet, I've added up 21 of my own performances in 2016, which means I gave back to the world almost as much as I took in.

Shows 2016

A photo posted by Andrew Berman (@andrew.berman) on Jan 4, 2017 at 7:31pm PST

Theater:

• January: Spring Awakening (Broadway, Deaf West), with mom
• January: Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway), with Marissa
• February: Noises Off (Broadway, Roundabout), with Stella. The beginning of the end of my Hiptix eligibility
• March: She Loves Me (Broadway, Roundabout), with Kate
• March: The Robber Bridegroom (Broadway, Roundabout), with Mike
• March: 1776 (City Center Encores!), with Anne
• March: Puffs (PIT), with wizards and witches
• August: Waitress (Broadway), with NYMAAC
• September: Holiday Inn (Broadway), with Lindsay, Marita, and Ana (I took Leslie's place)
• October: The Unconventional Convention (Squeaky Bicycle Productions), NYMAAC and friends
• November: The Color Purple (Broadway), with Louise and mom
• November: Something Rotten (Broadway), with Louise
• November: In Transit (Broadway), with Anne via lottery
• December: Dear Evan Hansen (Broadway), with NYMAAC
• December: The Femmys (PIT) with Max

11 musicals, 4 plays (including an evening of one-acts)

11 Broadway, 2 PIT, 1 City Center, 1 SBP

Spring Awakening and Fiddler I'd seen before (in one medium or another), She Loves Me I'd seen in its incarnation as the film You've Got Mail, and Waitress I'd seen in its previous film version. The rest were new to me, but I did get my hands on the film version of Noises Off as soon as I could after seeing the play. Everything was great, but honestly I haven't stopped talking about Puffs since I saw it.

Concerts:

• February: NY Phil: Mozart, Respighi (Lincoln Center), with percussionistas
• February: NY Phil: Kodály, Liszt, Dvorák, Ravel (Lincoln Center), with Courtney
• March: Selected Shorts at Radio Love Fest (BAM), with Holly
• March: Whoopi Goldberg (King's), with Mike (I took Randy's place)
• April: Brian Nash & Nate Buccieri: Snuggling Pianos (54 Below), with Mike
• July: Reich/Reverberations: Drumming (Lincoln Center), with percussionistas
• July: Molly Pope in A Star Is Born (54 Below), with Brian and two Mikes
• September: Steve Reich: Variations (Miller Theater), with percussionistas
• November: NY Phil: Beethoven, Dvorák (Lincoln Center), with percussionistas
• November: Dar Williams (Ridgefield Playhouse), with Sara

Slightly harder to compare these, but I think I'll give the year to July. Steve Reich's Drumming was transcendent, and Molly Pope is otherworldly.

Me:

• 6 QUO concerts
• 2 LGBAC symphonic band concerts
• 5 parades with the LGBAC marching band
• 5 stand (or sit)-and-plays with the LGBAC marching band
• 2 services (Easter and Christmas Eve) at the Church of the Holy Apostles
• 1 concert and 1 parade with the LGBA massed band in Palm Springs

Highlights of the year: playing Fanfare For Tambourines at QUOtets with Alvaro, Clint, Sean, George, and Brent, with Ian conducting; watching the young audience's enthralled reaction to "The Wild Woods" at QUO's children's concert; Kelly Watkins' last concert with the LGBAC and getting to rock out on the vibraphone in Danzón; a Pride Day full of fun with the LGBAC marching band, followed by a cocktail party at Brandon & Luke's, and then meeting up with our QUO friends at the Eagle; everything about the LGBA conference in Palm Springs.

TV consumed in 2016

I don't normally make a Big TV Post, mainly because it's embarrassing how much TV I watch, but embarrassing details about myself are some of my best blog fodder. This was actually prompted by a first date I went on recently in which the guy asked me what I'm currently watching. I answered honestly, which was "Madam Secretary," and he grimaced. I know Madam Secretary isn't the height of television art, but I like it, so whatever. I felt insecure in that moment, so I tried to balance that guilty pleasure with other more hip (?) shows, like "The Crown" and OITNB, but after that my memory failed me. I told him that as my homework (playing off the fact that he's a professor) I'd bring a list of my 2016 viewing to our next date. We did have a second date, but the subject didn't come up and I decided to let the topic die. Since I did go to the trouble of making the list, I present it to you now.

Series I started watching in 2016:
Making a Murderer (s1)
Chelsea Does (s1)
W1A (s1-2)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (s1)
The Shannara Chronicles (s1)
Star Trek: Enterprise (s1-4)
The Killing (e1-10)
The Crown (s1)
Madam Secretary (s1-2)
Orphan Black (s1-3)
The Man in the High Castle (s1)
The Magicians (e1-9)
Wolf Hall (s1)
The OA (s1)

In the above list we have 3 sci-fi, 3 period dramas, 2 documentaries, 2 comedies, 2 fantasy, 1 police drama, and 1 political drama. Michelle Forbes appears in two (Killing, Orphan), Claire Foy appears in two (Wolf, Crown), Rick Worthy appears in two (Castle, Magicians), and Jason Ralph appears in two (Magicians, Secretary). I enjoyed Crazy and the Crown the most. The OA is second to them only because the finale left me feeling a little nope. Everything on this list I either finished or intend to finish, so I didn't dislike any of them, but Shannara and Enterprise made me roll my eyes the most, with the Magicians not far behind.

Series I continued watching in 2016:
Call the Midwife (s5)

Mad Men (s7)
Nurse Jackie (s6-7)
The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt (s2)
Grace & Frankie (s2 e1-2)
Orange is the New Black (s4)
The Fall (s3)
Gilmore Girls (reboot e1-4)
Downton Abbey (s6)
Transparent (s2)

3 period dramas, 3 other kinds of dramas, and 4 shows that cover a spectrum from comedy to dramedy. Kimmie Schmidt is far and away my favorite of these, although there were a bunch of impressive finales. I want to want Grace & Frankie more.

Series I tried watching in 2016:
X-Files Reboot (e1-3)

Twin Peaks (e1-2)
Characters (e1)
Love (e1)
Lady Dynamite (e1)
Chelsea (e1)
Bloodline (e1)
Marcella (e1-2)
Stranger Things (e1)

Nothing really to report on here. I do plan to watch Stranger Things, though. The only reason I stopped is Netflix was being testy.

Movies I watched via Netflix in 2016:
Do I Sound Gay?
Tig
Spotlight
G.B.F.
The Big Short
Tallulah

Mostly non-fiction here, although some of it dramatized.

Movies I watched in theaters in 2016 (that I remember):
Carol
The Secret Life of Pets
Ghostbusters
Rogue One
Fantastic Newts and the Beasts Who Love Them

I'm glad I saw Carol to class up this list.

Movies I watched on planes in 2016:
Zootopia
How to Be Single

I watched these one right after the other, and I wish I'd done it the other way around. Zootopia was fantastic. How to Be Single was garbage. I wasn't expecting much from it (although I was charmed by the cast's appearance on "Watch What Happens: Live") and it still disappointed.

I'm way better at keeping track of the books I've read and want to read than I am at TV and movies. Maybe I'll be better at that in the new year, but probably not as we all know people don't change.

I'll probably do one more of these for live shows, and then go back to forgetting I have a blog for a few months.

Ways in which first dates are like job interviews

• You try six or nine different outfits before choosing something you don't realize has a stain on it
• You don't want to go, at all
• You spend the the preceding minutes pondering your greatest weakness
• You are overdressed
• You have to explain any gaps in your résumé
• If you happen to be both single and unemployed, you treat any date or job interview as if it could be either
• A bird lands on a tree branch just outside the window and you consider a simpler existence
• You spill coffee on yourself
• You have sex at the end
• You send a thank you message the day after, expressing a hope that you'll see each other again
• You never hear from them again, and you console yourself with stories of how they weren't right for you anyway
• Your mom says the right one will come along, and maybe you should have worn the shirt she got you. Your dad offers to call them for you.