the three shows i saw this weekend in NY were about what i thought they would be. here's a quick run-down: assassins: a great play but mostly average production. the hardest task is to make the assassins human instead of just loonies, and the director didn't pull it off. but overall it was a competent, if not stellar, production. i am my own wife: a fascinating character, but the author chose to gloss over the details instead of delve. the story was fairly standard, and it hits its easy shots (as everything with nazis tends to do). the acting wasn't particularly impressive. the frogs: actually the most interesting of the three things i saw. a curio in the sondheim canon (and the musical theater canon also). stroman's direction was as glib and boring as i expected. lane's writing was subpar and had a tendency to become maudlin, but he did manage to get in a few good belly laugh-inducing cracks. i was actually surprised at the quality of sondheim's new songs, which were in general better than most of the work he's done lately. the acting was average. all in all the work is still as problematic as ever and will need at least another rewriting to make it work. i'll get the CD when it comes out, though. non-theater events this week: spidey 2: better than X2. good emotions, although a bit more trite at times than it needed to be, and good action. went to the museum of natural history to catch the exhibit on frogs. the exhibit was smaller than i thought it would be and less interesting, but maybe i've been spoiled by david attenborough's great video on amphibians that was part of his life on earth series. also went to the guggenheim. the brancusi exhibit got off to a good start, but then got a bit dull. the accompanying exhibit featuring similiarly minimalist artwork was okay. there was a huge photography exhibit on hands that was annoying. the section of the permanent gallery was refreshing, though. in particular some of the picassos that i didn't know were great. best meal in ny was at craftbar w/ tim and winnie (although the bartender was taciturn). i had this eggplant campanata bruschetta and chanterelles with snow peas. good, although the chanterelles were extremely buttery. andy had arctic char which came w/ bits of pickled watermelon on it. winnie and tim had some octopus which they raved about. i forget what else they got; i was too busy chowin' down. read ghost world yesterday, a graphic novel about cynical recent high school graduates. the main character was sort of like janeane garofalo's character from reality bites, but younger and much more obnoxious. a bit better than i thought it would be. not sure i'd want to see the movie, though. phew! that's it for now.