Fears' Confections

 When I went out to Venus in Fur last night, I received an ad for Fear's Confections.  I was intrigued.   We called today, and they were out on our side of Cleveland for a Dr. Who event.   We bought lots of their brownies to try the different flavors.  I can't wait to try these, especially the After School Snack.

Venus in Fur

I saw Venus in Fur tonight tonight at the Cleveland Playhouse.  It was absolutely amazing!   The play has just two characters, and is about casting for a play, specifically, Venus in Fur, whose author is where we get the term masochism from.  It was intellectual.  You really had to think about the exchanges between the characters, which can be extremely quick.

You have a playwright (Thomas), who is adapting Venus in Fur, and extremely frustrated searching for a lead actress for his production.  Enter Vanda, an actress who just happens to share the name of the character from the play.  There is a lot of shifting of balance in the show, between male and female, fantasy and reality, and power and submission. 

The play twists in and over itself so many times!   You have to go see this!    It's smart and sexy, with superb acting. 

Once

This afternoon, we saw Once.  I haven't seen the movie that it was based on, but I definitely will pick it up in the future.  This is a musical about creating music.   Simple story, a guy is a musician, but the girl in his life left, leaving a him with a case of writer's block.  Enter the new girl, who then becomes his muse, and they create great works together.   Now, the way that it's told is amazing.

There is no orchestra for this performance.  All of the actors on stage play the music.  There were probably only a dozen people on stage, playing everything from violin to drums.   The setting is an Irish pub, and the production creates intimacy with the audience by having it serve as a real bar before the show and during intermission.  I think they served whiskey and beer.  Most of the performers were on stage and playing Celtic music as audience members meandered around.

Once is the type of a new genre of musicals that scale things down, rather than the traditional humongous Broadway shows that have lots of flash and bang.  This production really does a wonderful job telling the story and demonstrating how the music really works with it.

Potted Potter

We went out tonight to see Potted Potter.  Fun for the fan, and a funny Cliff notes version for people unfamiliar with the franchise.  It's two guys on stage going through all 7 Harry Potter books in a madcap romp!  Steve and I laughed pretty much the whole way through the show.   If you sit in the front section, beware of audience participation.

Voldemort and Harry clash wands.

Afterwards, we went to Starbucks and ordered something that tastes like a Butterbeer.  It tastes like the beverage at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but with whipped cream.  Yum!

33 Variations

We just got back from seeing 33 Variations at the Beck Center.  It isn't a musical, but music is prevalent throughout the play.  The first thing you see when entering the theater is the grand piano at the side of the stage.  The pianist stays there through both acts and illustrates the musical work in the show.

We see two parallel stories in this show.  A musicologist struggling with ALS studies Beethoven's variations on a waltz, while we see the composer's struggles with hearing loss.   It is extremely well interwoven.  We see the musicologist and her daughter and their strained relationship, and we see the composer and his servant and the person who commissioned the variations mull over deadlines and expectations.  In fact, a good comparison is drawn between the daughter (in varied career choices that her mother is unhappy with) and the original waltz, which the original composer fears that Beethoven is mocking through variations.

I enjoyed this show because it touches two very important facets of my life, music and medicine.   I highly recommend seeing it.

Sweetest Day Cupcakes

Today I decided to use my birthday coupon at Main Street Cupcakes.  It also happens to be Sweetest Day.  From left to right we have Orange Float, Chocolate, Shirley Temple, and Mint Chocolate Cookie.  The store also had these over sized Sweetest Day Cupcakes for a dollar more, but we decided to go for the Sweetest Day Rose instead.

Reilly's

Ok, it's a little morbid, but we went out for meat pies before we went to see Sweeney Todd.   Reilly's at the West Side Market has the best savory pies I've ever had.   The crust is flaky and filling is tasty.  My favorite is the turkey and swiss pasty.  You can microwave them to keep them soft, or bake them for a more crispy taste.