Midterms...

As my adventures in blogging begin, I'd like to take a look back at the productions I have so far seen/witnessed/been assaulted by on the New York stages since my move here. In a spirit of solidarity with my classroom-bound comrades, I've graded each production and assigned NYC its midterm GPA. Will the city keep its TOPS? Find out now!

D As Yet Thou Art Young and Rash
A Translations
C Suddenly Last Summer
A The Clean House
C Howard Katz
B Fêtes de la Nuit
A The Little Dog Laughed
A Particularly in the Heartland
C The Mother of Modern Censorship
C Witness
D All's Well That Ends Well
B My Fair Lady
A Spring Awakening

According to my calculations, the stages of NYC squeaked by this quarter with a 2.769 GPA. (And grades in some of these cases are somewhat generous, but I'm coming from an LSU standpoint, here.)

What's more impressive is the total ticket cost I withstood to see all of these productions: $65.25. Not bad for thirteen shows (three on Broadway, three off Broadway, two off off Broadway, three university theatre, and one special event).

Coming soon: an exhaustive discussion of the above performances - or at least a summation of the good and the bad and the merely there (perhaps the worst offense of all). Said discussion to encompass such worthy topics as directorial lack of imagination/inspiration/theatricality/stage logic; non- and mis-directed acting; the sordid, pernicious, and dismal effects of television and film on stage productions; and the abuse of one's audience, whether through ignorance, laziness, dishonesty, or downright malice.