Penn and Teller; Wicked at the ballpark; THE WHO

[cjlasky7]

Penn and Teller at Radio City Music Hall (8/21/25)

Busy social calendar this month. Last Thursday, the family unit ventured into Manhattan to see Penn and Teller on their 50th anniversary tour.

Penn and Teller's act really hasn't changed all that much in 50 years. They cycle in new magic tricks all the time, but the style remains the same: Penn Jillette, bombarding and distracting the audience with a stream of sarcastic patter; Teller, ever silent, Penn's able assistant and a fountain of physical comedy; and the tricks themselves--objects (envelopes, exotic needles, guys in gorilla suits) disappearing from plain sight or appearing where they simply could not be.

The real treat of a P&T performance is the high concept stunt that would tickle the brain on a deeper level than your average card trick. In the Radio City show, they opened the second half with two life sized inflatable Penn and Teller figures bouncing on to the stage. Penn's voice is coming out of the speakers, but are they really in there? (And should they be aiming sharp objects at Teller?) The show's conclusion was a brilliant, almost elegant stunt centered around the concept of entropy. (I'm not going to spoil it here; you can download it on the internet.)

One pleasant surprise for me was Penn's facility for working with audience volunteers, especially kids. He's still the same acerbic personality, but he knows when to dial it back to goose the trick along. Then again, as my wife reminded me, he's had 50 years of practice.

Great show. And on the way home, we bumped into an old friend of mine (from my international travel days) who I hadn't seen for at least a decade!

WICKED (on the Jumbotron) at Maimonides Park

Normally, I wouldn't pay to see a movie like Wicked. But if it's going to be FREE and projected onto a 50 foot screen? I can indulge my curiosity.

I'm going to be nice to any Wicked musical fans out there and praise the set design, costuming and choreography. Absolutely impeccable. Ariana Grande as G(a)linda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba? Divine. (I have loved Cynthia Erivo since Bad Luck at the El Royale.)

The problem? Every time I was really getting into the story, the damn musical got in the way.

It occurred to me--after we staggered out of the ball park, exhausted from the 160 minute runtime--that everything I loved about this movie was from the Gregory McGuire novel, and I would have been perfectly happy if it had been a straight drama. The ingenious inversion of the Baum story, with the wizard as a fascist dictator and the Wicked Witch of the West as the courageous freedom fighter, came through loud and clear without the singing and dancing.

[My favorite moment in the movie was non-musical: Grande's Galinda in a dramatic display of virtue signalling so spiritually empty that I had to laugh out loud.]

Were the musical numbers BAD? No, not really. (Except for the Wizard's. Jeff Goldblum is not much of a singer.) But I didn't feel they added much to the story, and it just went on... so... long.

So am I going to see the inevitable Part Two (Wicked: For Good)? Probably when it comes to TV.

THE WHO live at Madison Square Garden (8/30/25)

The farewell tour (and we mean it this time!). The last show at the Garden. There is no way in this universe I am missing this. I have my ticket. I'll tell you all about it on Sunday.

Comments

[shadowkat]

1. The WHO is still performing??? Is it everone? I thought someone died in there somewhere. I could be confusing it with Pink Floyd. I actually saw Pink Floyd in concert (I didn't enjoy it even though I adore Pink Floyd, and saw very little, heard even less - the appeal of live concerts is lost on me for the most part).

2. Penn and Teller - has it been 50 years? I thought surely less than that? I remember Alyson Hannigan hosting and working with them for a bit on the television show about five or six years ago.

****
3. Where is Maimonides park?

And...Yes, I could have told you that you wouldn't like The Wicked film. I didn't like the original musical, which I saw with my Aunts in the Mezzaine section way back in 2010, I think. (It wasn't with the original cast - not that it mattered. Just made it more affordable.) Of Stephen Schwartz's musicals, it's a bit on the weak side. I'd listened to the music several times, and found it disappointing. There's not much there? Schwartz is at his best when he can be full on satirical and do his own thing - Pippin and Godspell, come to mind. Those musicals have a lot of show-stopping numbers, which I can listen to separately, and are amazing. Day by Day, Magic To Do, Corner of the Sky, I'll Miss the Man, You're on the Right Track, Prepare Ye, We Can Build a Beautiful City, Please Save the People, Turn Back Oh Man...to name a few. Wicked? It has maybe two? Popular (which is the ear-worm song from hell) and Defying Gravity (which is okay, and a nice number - similar to Let it Go and designed for a belter).

Also Gregory McGuire's book is...well, as I recently reminded by a youtube book reviewer, because I'd forgotten all of it (I read it back in the late 90s early 00s, it's been a while) - is a problematic mess and kind of twisted? Doesn't date well and there's stuff in there that no sane person would put in a musical. (I'm being kind. It's not twisted in a good way. Also it drags. )

What's most interesting in the musical kind of gets buried with the attempt to make into a musical. The whole bit of Elphaba and Galinda and the Wizard's behind the scenes politicking, while using Dorothy and her associates as pawns is genius. Wicked is basically the audience jumping behind the curtain. That's clever. But to make it into a musical - it needed to lose the tragic elements, and a lot of the politicking, and focus more on the girl-romance between Galinda/Elphaba, and the romance between the guy they both want (Jonathan Bailey's role - he can sing and dance). The difficulty is there's only really two or three songs that work? Bailey's number doesn't quite work. Goldblume's doesn't at all (and he's not a singer - and it's obvious when you have Ariane Grande and Cynthia Orvio in the roles).

But in order for a musical to work? The musical numbers have to work for me - and they didn't. I also kept getting lost in the plot. I never quite understood what Galinda wanted exactly. And Elphaba's motivation made sense - but she's all over the place. Schwartz is doing a story about Feminism and it's been advertised as one? But in order for that to work? Galinda had to be more on Elphaba's side than she actually is? And less of a stereotypical cliche? Galinda becomes problematic.

Ugh. It's a frustrating musical, just as the book was a frustrating book - because I can see how to fix it. A few tweaks, here and there, and voila. The problem may well be that it is allegedly a woman's story about female empowerment, but it is being told from a decidedly male perspective? And falls into some pitfalls along the way.

I've always had issues with it. It's why I waited for it to pop up on streaming for free - before I watched it. I didn't want to pay to see it on the big screen. It didn't wow me as a live musical, or a cast album, or a book, it wasn't going to as a movie. And it didn't.

[cjlasky7]

1. The Who have had periods of inactivity, both in live performance and in the studio. There was a 26 year gap between It's Hard and Endless Wire (1982-2008). Pete Townshend kept busy with solo projects of varying quality. Roger Daltrey would do solo tours.

Keith Moon (drums) died in 1978 (on my birthday, no less). John Entwistle (bass, brass) died in 2002. Without those two, it's not REALLY The Who, at least not at peak power. But when Townshend and Daltrey get their shit together and take it on the road, they can still summon some of the old magic.

The Who still has one of the greatest song catalogues in modern music history. Their songs speak to me in ways unmatched by anyone. In my Sunday post, I'll explain why.

2. Penn and Teller have been around since the mid 1970s, when they were shaking up the field as "guerilla magicians." As I said in the post, they haven't changed much since then. They haven't had to. Nobody has caught up with them yet.

3. Along with the other problems I mentioned, I didn't think the love triangle between Galinda, Elphaba and Fiyero clicked at all. (Maybe it'll work better in part two.) I also thought Galinda's shift from spoiled ditz to conflicted co-protagonist was too choppy to be effective. (Grande's vocal performance was amazing, though.)

Totally agree--this isn't one of Schwartz's better scores. "Popular" and "Defying Gravity" have hit the mainstream, but nothing else seems to have broken through.

4. Maimonides Park is at Coney Island. If you're watching a movie or a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game, you can see the amusement park rides in the background. It's pretty cool.

[shadowkat]

No, I completely understand the appeal of The Who. (Although I admittedly was more into Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and the Beatles. Townsend and Daltry annoy me.) It's the live rock concert bit that I don't understand. I've tried it multiple times and multiple venues, the only time it worked for me was in London, when I saw Peter Gabriele perform at Wembly Stadium, with a surprise appearance by Kate Bush in 1987. That worked because everyone was sitting down for the most part, it was on grass, and outside, I could clearly hear all the songs and see everything Gabriel did. And the audience stood up in unison during Biko and sang it with him, with lighters lit, and on their chairs. That was wonderful. Usually, I can't hear a thing.

So much is dependent on the venue, I think? And the acoustics? And the difficulty with a lot of hard classic rock bands - is their equipment has a feedback loop that can cancel out the music and the songs.

Where are they playing? Or what venue? Is it Forest Hills? Or Madison Garden?

Live! In Concert!

[cjlasky7]

A lot of factors go into whether a live concert will be enjoyable or a slog. If it's a stadium/arena concert, does the act have both the raw power to fill the venue and a quality sound system to focus that power? Is there a visual component to help keep the audience entertained? Do you have good seats?

One of my biggest disappointments in concert going was seeing Genesis (in their prime) at the Meadowlands. The sound system wasn't that great, and my seat might as well have been on the moon.

[My all time favorite concert? The Roches at Carnegie Hall (with Robert Fripp sitting in). Right artist. Right venue. Beautiful sound. Everything aligned perfectly.]

The Who should have no problems at the Garden. (They could fill the Grand Canyon.) I wish I could have seen them with Moon on the drums; if you look at live clips from the original lineup, it's barely controlled chaos. It looks like the whole stage might fly off into space at any moment...

Re: Live! In Concert!

[shadowkat]

I've only done the Irving Plaza venue and wasn't impressed - saw Aimee Mann there back in 2003.
Smoke filled, no sitting, and she is not a good live performer.

It does have a lot to do with whether the artist is good on stage. Some are, some aren't. Floyd had a good act, but Denver Stadium was a horrid venue. It was open air arena, but it was just nasty.

I admittedly am more a fan of visual than auditory, and prefer watching dance to musicians perform. I don't know why. Watching people sing or play instruments doesn't do it for me. But dance does. So part of it is also visuals. But mainly I need to hear and understand the lyrics.

That said, I get how the acoustics and sound vibration of a live venue event can be amazing.

Are you going with Paula or friends or solo?

[cjlasky7]

You must have caught the wrong tour with Aimee Mann. I saw her on a bill with her husband, Michael Penn, and it was a great show. (The highlight was the two of them acting out the video for "Voices Carry".)

I have a love/hate relationship with stadiums/arenas. Too many things have to go right for a good show. Clubs are too noisy. For a big name act, I prefer a mid sized venue like the Beacon Theater or Radio City.

I miss intimate venues like Folk City and the Bottom Line. Heard some great music there.

The Who is my birthday present to myself. This is just me. (Next time we meet, I might be wearing a jacket I bought at the show.)

[shadowkat]

Happy Birthday! September? Or was it August? (I'm horrible at remembering birth dates, I only remember my family members because they are all variables of the number 9 - so its easy and the astrological signs fit them.)

The Aimee Mann tour that I saw was the "Lost in Space" tour - right after she performed in Sleeper. And honestly? It might as well have been that performance. It was literally the same band, the same performance and the same set that she performed at the Bronze in Sleeper - and Irving Place looks like the Bronze, actually, we even stood on the balcony looking down at her, with smoke in the air. Just not as nice as the Bronze, and no vampires, or Spike for that matter.

Actually if it had been the Bronze with the vampires, that might have been more entertaining. I saw it with Wales in the fall of '03 before our second big falling out.

It depends. Some times the band works for me live, some times it doesn't. I kind of found Micheal Hedges and Leo Kotke kind of boring - although I do like their music.

Here - I actually saw them in Colorado Springs in 1988. I like their voices. But I don't have the patience for watching? I almost hear the music better when I don't watch? It's hard to explain?

I think you are correct - it's a combination of factors? And so much is dependent on the venue, also the equipment? As apto-omn explained once - if you have bad sound equipment - the feedback will make it impossible to hear anything. Also Prospect Park is a horrible venue for music - every time I went there, I might as well have been on the moon.

[cjlasky7]

My birthday is September 7th. (My wife and I are both Virgos.)

I am in my seat at MSG. (The opening act--Feist--is playing.)

View of the stage is... not bad! I'll send you a pic when The Who comes on.

Review TK!

[shadowkat]

So early birthday present? Cool!

Feist is good actually. I like Feist.

Oh good, you got good seats!!

Yeah, I don't tend to get along well with Leo's. Sooner or later, one of us will try to kill the other one. Virgos I can deal with. Since I'm a water sign, and they are a fire sign - I win. But since they are Lions and I'm fishes, well...as you see? It can go either way.