The Seinfeld experience

I'm a big Seinfeld fan. I just finished watching all nine seasons on DVD, and on my last trip to New York, I made a pilgrimage to Morningside Heights to see Tom's Restaurant, the exterior of which was featured in the series.

So I really hope this makes a stop near me.

A 60-foot-long bus filled with memorabilia from Seinfeld is embarking on a tour of 26 college campuses to try and drum up a younger audience for the now-syndicated show. It's starting off in Central Florida but I don't know any of the specific stops.

"Seinfeld has been America’s favorite shows for some 20 years. We are trying to take on more fans, younger fans," says Bob Oswaks of Sony Pictures Television.

Among the items you can see on the bus, according to this story, are Jerry's puffy shirt, the "manzier," a bra for men; a 1993 Emmy for best comedy series; and a doll that looks like Jerry’s mother. (I thought the puffy shirt was in the Smithsonian, so maybe this is a replica. Or maybe there was more than one.)

You'll also be able to watch your favorite episodes, eat candy featured on the show, sit in a replica of Monk's Diner and play a DVD-based Seinfeld trivia game that's being released this fall by Mattel.

Save me a seat!

One month to go

One month from today I'll be in Minneapolis, sitting in the audience at the Guthrie Theater's McGuire Proscenium watching the new musical Little House on the Prairie!

So with previews in full swing, and the Aug. 15 opening night a little more than a week away, it's time to catch up on a little Little House news.

Graydon Royce, theatre critic for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, has an interesting story about the show and its prospects after the Guthrie run, which has already been extended by two weeks - to Oct. 19. In the story, producer Ben Sprecher cautions that there are no official plans to take the musical to Broadway. Still, he doesn't rule out the possibility. "The show's got to be correct. It is very much a work-in-progress, and we hope we get it right at the Guthrie."

And Philip Boroff of Bloomberg News speaks to Adrianne Lobel, who conceived of the musical and designed the sets. Lobel was producer and set designer for A Year with Frog and Toad, based on the children's books written and illustrated by her father, Arnold Lobel.

As a child vacationing in Vermont during the summer she'd build houses out of sticks, imagining herself living on the prairie like Laura Ingalls. "What I love about the books is the power of autobiography,'' Lobel said. "That little girl made all her family immortal. Mary's blindness started Laura on that path. She had to describe things to her sister, which helped her remember them.''

Ticket sales on the first day broke a box office record for the Guthrie, and the theatre isn't the only place that's getting a boost. The musical has also sparked interest in visits to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, according to director Amy Ankrum. "The books are still very popular, and when they hear that name (Little House), they think of the books as well, and it brings to mind the TV series."

Apparently I'll be in very good company on Sept. 6. In addition to my two excellent theatergoing companions, there'll be a contingent from Walnut Grove. The Walnut Grove group will be getting a backstage tour and hopefully a meeting with Melissa Gilbert, who plays Caroline Ingalls to Kara Lindsay's Laura. "I'll be on the bus that day, I gotta go," said museum board president Mary Jo Hendrickson. "It's a special event. It's important."

Also, check out the blog Only Laura, a great meeting place for fans of Little House on the Prairie. Blogger Sandra Hume edits The Homesteader, a newsletter about author Laura Ingalls Wilder that comes out twice a year.

Finally, you should stay away from these next two sites if you want to remain absolutely spoiler-free. (I'll admit, I'm a hopeless information junkie. I couldn't resist looking at either one of them.)

At Besides the Obvious, a Minneapolis blogger named Erika has a very detailed and thoughtful review of the musical. And, if you want to see what the show looks like on stage, Playbill has lots of photos of the entire cast, including Gilbert, Lindsay, Steven Blanchard as Pa; Jenn Gambatese as Mary, Sara Jean Ford as Nellie, and Kevin Massey as Almanzo Wilder.

Tickets for Little House on the Prairie are priced from $29 to $75, and are available by calling (612) 377-2224 or (877) 44-STAGE or by visiting the Guthrie Web site.

A good friend, a good cause

This year, as he has for the past several years, my friend Doug Lyon is participating in the River Road Run, sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The two-day motorcycle tour takes place Aug. 16 and 17.

Doug has been a great fundraiser for this very worthy cause and last year, he was selected as the event's ambassador. In his speech he talked about his own personal journey with MS, and the tremendous satisfaction he gets from helping others. For the past two years, Doug has also volunteered at a camp for people with multiple sclerosis.

Not only does the camp provide enjoyment, education and fellowship for people struggling with the disease, it gives a much needed respite to their caregivers and loved ones. "What really hit me is the fact that this disease does incredibly devastating things to perfectly decent fellow human beings."

I know volunteering at the camp is an incredibly emotional experience for Doug, but he's helping to make a difference in people's lives and for that, as well as much more, he's definitely a hero to me.

You can read about Doug's experiences on his blog, My MS, and you can help him reach his fundraising goal this year by making a donation.

Dan Fogler - master of suspense

I was catching up on Filmspotting, one of my favorite podcasts, while I was exercising the other day and my ears perked up when the talk turned to Dan Fogler, a Tony winner for his performance in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Fogler seems to be concentrating on his movie career nowadays, and I'll admit I haven't seen any of the movies he's been in. I just haven't been all that interested in Balls of Fury or Good Luck Chuck or School for Scoundrels.

But his biggest role is coming up and it's one that does interest me. He'll portray the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, in a murder mystery called Number 13. Now, I saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on tour, so I missed Fogler's performance as William Barfee (that's Bar-fay). Although I caught a little bit of it on the 2005 Tony awards, and he was pretty funny.

The cast of Number 13 looks great. In addition to Fogler, it features Ewan McGregor, Emily Mortimer and Ben Kingsley. I've never heard of the director, Chase Palmer, who also wrote the screenplay. But in 2005, Filmmaker Magazine listed him as number 23 in its list of 25 new faces of independent film.

Unfortunately, there's very little current information about the movie. It's listed on imdb as being "in production" this year. A 2006 post from Cinematical says the story takes place during the filming of a movie and finds the director "caught up in a Hitchcockian dilemma when he ends up in a love triangle with two crew members while making the film. When the lead actor turns up dead, the editor suspects the director and tries to uncover the truth."

The most recent mention I could find is a story from February that appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, which said that the movie would begin filming sometime this year in Cologne, Germany. The article says that the drama "focuses on Alfred Hitchcock's first film, the 1922 thriller Number 13, which was never finished and has been the source of much speculation by Hitchcock fans and film historians."

In an interview with MTV last year, Fogler said "[The movie is] cool if you're a Hitchcock fan. Just like Shakespeare in Love, you see how he comes up with certain ideas [for future films] from events that happened during the course of the movie."

New kid on the blog

It's always exciting to find a new theatre blogger whose writing I enjoy. Everyone comes at it from a different perspective, and I love reading them all. Dorian, after making quite a few great comments on my blog and others, has decided to test the waters for himself. His blog is called In the Dorian Mode. (Which I didn't realize is actually a musical term). He's got a few posts up, including a terrific one on his favorite cast recordings. So welcome to the blogosphere, Dorian. I hope you find it as enjoyable as I do. I think you're off to a great start!

The aisle seat

I like sitting on the aisle.

It's comforting to feel that you're in control when you're taking a long trip on a train or an airplane. There's no awkward "excuse me" while you climb over the legs of the person sitting next to you to reach to the ladies room or for a drink of water or to get something out of the overhead compartment. But I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay extra for an aisle seat.

So I was surprised by this story at Playbill that some Broadway shows are charging extra to sit on the aisle in the orchestra section.

Among them are the upcoming revival of The Seagull. An aisle seat will set you back an extra $25. But you can't just buy an aisle seat. You have to purchase it as a pair, with the seat next to it, which isn't on the aisle. If I'm reading the story correctly, you have to pay an extra $25 for that seat, too. I guess theatergoers who go by themselves, as I often do, are out of luck.

Apparently, this isn't something new. I didn't realize it, but Spring Awakening has been charging $23 extra for its aisle seats, and they also must be purchased in pairs. Gypsy charges an extra $18 for an aisle seat, also as part of a pair. (This makes me mad. Why can't you purchase a single aisle seat? What do these shows have against solitary theatergoers?)

Is it worth it? Sure, it would be exciting when Patti LuPone comes marching down the aisle at the start of Gypsy, shouting "Sing out, Louise!" Although honestly, when I saw Gypsy last summer at City Center, I was three seats off the aisle, and that was pretty thrilling, too. And I'll admit that the aisle is a very cool place to be during the parade of animals at the beginning of The Lion King. I guess, like me, there are some people who simply feel more comfortable sitting on the aisle.

But other than that, are there that many shows where you'd pay extra? Paying more to sit closer to the stage I can understand. And what if you're not on the aisle where Mamma Rose comes marching down? It doesn't seem like that seat would be worth an extra $18.

It's getting to the point where the pricing structure in a Broadway theatre is getting as varied and complex as buying a seat on a plane. What's next, a fuel surcharge?

Freedom to read

I've been passionate about books and reading ever since I was kid, and librarians have played a big role in nurturing that passion. This post, from a librarian in Colorado, has been getting some exposure in the blogosphere, and I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of praise.

Jamie LaRue, director of Colorado's Douglas County Libraries, writes that a patron challenged a book called Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah Brannen, on the grounds that it was targeted to children and designed to "normalize gay marriage." She felt it was "inappropriate that this type of literature is available to this age group" and said "This was not the type of conversation I thought I would be having with my seven year old in the nightly bedtime routine.”

Yes, those are guinea pigs on the cover. The book is about a little girl, Chloe, and her beloved Uncle Bobby. Chloe is concerned that her uncle's marriage to Jamie, another male guinea pig, will change their relationship. Awww! Don't worry, Chloe. Remember, you're not losing an uncle, you're gaining one! (Ironically, among the endorsements on Brannen's Web site is one from Wicked author Gregory Maguire. While Maguire has written books for children, Wicked is definitely not one of them!)

Anyway, LaRue answered the patron in a very eloquent and well-reasoned letter, which he reprints on his blog (minus the patron's name, of course.)

His basic point is that children's books deal with all sorts of subjects - even some that are quite disturbing. (Just think about Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel. They don't call them Grimm's fairy tales for nothing!) "I think a lot of adults imagine that what defines a children's book is the subject. But that's not the case. Children's books deal with anything and everything."

It's up to parents, not the library, LaRue says, to decide which books they want their children to read. And he notes that not all parents come at the decision from the same perspective. "There are gay parents in Douglas County, right now, who also pay taxes, and also look for materials to support their views.''

It's truly scary to read some of the bigoted remarks about Uncle Bobby's Wedding on Brannen's Web site. It infuriates me when opponents of gay marriage argue that the subject shouldn't be broached "in front of the children." We have to "protect the kids," because heaven knows, gay people aren't something you can discuss around their tender young ears. It is so offensive and it makes me so angry. How could it possibly harm a child to know that two men or two women love each other? Isn't the highest family value two consenting adults who love and care for each other wanting to build a life together?

Plus, there are plenty of kids with beloved gay uncles and lesbian aunts, people who may be getting married someday soon. And those kids may well tell their friends at school, and their friends may come home and want to talk about it with their parents. This sounds like a great book for them, or for any child. As LaRue correctly notes, "In some parts of America, at least today, gay marriage is legal. If it's legal, then how could writing a book about it be inappropriate?"

And I loved LaRue's description of the purpose of libraries: "If the library is doing its job, there are lots of books in our collection that people won't agree with; there are certainly many that I object to. Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life."

When I was a kid, I loved nothing better than to get a big pile of books out of the library and read them one after another. I don't remember anything in the children's room being off limits. That was where I first developed an interest in topics that still interest me today - mysteries, British literature, American history, biography. I often think that some of the best books I read were ones I read as a child. It's how I learned about the world, really. (These were among my favorites).

Will the parent who objected to Uncle Bobby's Wedding agree with LaRue? Probably not. I realize that not every parent will want their child to read this book, and that's their right. But they don't have the right to take it way from other parents and children. I really admire the way Jamie LaRue states his case and stands up for this book, for the freedom to read. Thank goodness for courageous librarians.