rivers_bend

I've been sitting here for an hour trying to marshal my thoughts about this afternoon. What I can say with no effort is that it was more than worth the trip to come down for this, and I am so glad I did it. It's also been wonderful getting to hang out with glendaglamazon and ze_pink_lady and talk about show and see some of Hollywood. But wow. So this show.

The website again, for basic information if you want it.

I saw the original play, The Laramie Project last spring at a local high school, and it was wonderful and very moving, and it really stuck with me. This was just as good. plus, yk, with added awesome famous people. We'd started the morning with brunch and then headed over to the theater. We had seats about half way back, but had a clear view of the stage.

The actors filed out and took their seats, and I have to admit, I did find it very thrilling to be seeing all these people I love on my tv, live, right there in the same room with me. I am not cut out for living in LA, I don't think. They all had scripts and sat down unless it was their turn to read and then they stood at the mic in front of their chair. It was actually a really good way of doing it and I found it less distracting than the staging of the original play in a few places, though it made me really interested in seeing a staged version too.


Julie Benz looked stunning, and I really love her hair at the moment. It's gotten much longer, and looked really pretty today. I think I've gotten used to her having bed hair on Dexter. She also had on lovely knee-high boots over her jeans, and was looking elegant and sexy as. One of her parts was Matt's friend who made a huge impression on me in the first play, and she brought tears to my eyes with that. Her other role was as the lesbian professor at the college in Laramie who later went on to serve in the Wyoming legislature. that section of the play made me very very grateful that Glenda had a spare tissue.

Christian Clemenson did a great job as the priest, Denis Shepard and various other older members of the community. He's not someone I was particularly familiar with prior to today, but it looks like he's been in just about everything at one point or another.

James Cromwell was the narrator, and he has such the perfect voice for it. He was the only one who was sitting through the performance and he was also pretty much behind the head of the woman in front of me, so I couldn't see him as well as the others, but he was perfectly him as he narrated.

Lisa Edelstein is a hotass and a half. omg. I've always thought she was gorgeous and I love her, but holy fuck she was ON. FIRE. today. she had on skinny jeans and a gorgeous dark teal/green top with sparkles and gauzy sleeves. She tripped on her words a couple times, but did a great job with the different characters she was playing.

Johnny Galecki. Oh, Johnny. I've loved him since he arrived on Roseanne years and years ago. He holds a soft and squishy place in my heart. This made it really alarming and humanizing when he played the role of Aaron, who is the man who actually beat Matthew. Like the original play, this is made up of a series of interviews, using the characters own words. There was nothing that Aaron had to say that gave me any sympathy with him. seeing those words come out of Galecki's mouth made them extra hard to hear.

Barrett Foa. I've been loving him in NCIS: LA, because hello, he's a geeky tech guy, and that is my weakness. He was far and away the standout performer this afternoon. He threw himself into every character and he did a tremendous job. A lot of the other actors took a few scenes to get rolling, but he was awesome from his first word. One of his characters was an overly dramatic queen, and he was brilliant. I wanted to run up on stage and hug him. It was also good to see him in 'normal' clothes, as he tends to shorts and hawaiian shirts on NCIS. (I also wanted to have a chance to ask him if Chris and LL are as slashy in person as they are on the show, but obviously that was not going to happen.)

Jim Parsons is much more actually like Sheldon than I was expecting him to be. But his stilted presentation and voice actually worked really well for the characters he was playing.

Pauley Perrette was looking gorgeous in brown. It was so odd to see her not in black and white. Her legs are muuuuuch longer in person than they look on TV, which is a little odd given the skirts and shoes combinations she often wears as Abby which give her long legs. There were a couple times that the person turning the mics on and off was a little late with hers, so I missed what she said, which was a shame, and adorably she sat down too soon once, and Johnny patted her shoulder and gave her a grin.

Zachary Quinto was ADORABLE in his little cardigan and beanie. I managed not to squee out loud, but it was a close thing. There were a couple times at the beginning where it felt like Spock or Sylar was on the stage, but then he got into the roles he was doing, and was awesome. Boy talked FAST when he was playing Moises Kaufman, to the point that it was almost hard to understand him. Then he'd be all slow playing townsfolks. It was interesting to hear the different things he did with his voice. He is super adorable.

Helen Shaver was phenomenal. She didn't have as much to do as Barrett, but I think she would have equaled him if she had. She has such a richness to her voice and she absolutely sold every emotional note. I was weeping at more than one point when she was speaking. Also, she looked beautiful. Plus, she recently directed an episode of Castle, so she is automatically awesome :D

Michael Weatherly was another one who took a couple scenes to get into what they were doing. But again, like everyone else, once he got into it, he was great. He sounded like DiNozzo a couple of times when he was doing an interrogatory piece, which made me aww.

It was so wonderful of all of them to come and do this. It can't have been all that easy, and they are all busy people, and they did a fantastic job. It was one of the most moving theater experiences I have ever had.

After the performance, there was cake and coffee in the church's gym (yes, gym) and then Matthew Shepard's mother spoke and signed her book. Also very moving.

I'm just so very very glad I came.