Date night in San Francisco is back!

Live theatre in San Francisco is back!!! Don and I had so much fun at the premiere of "A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING." 42nd Street Moon Theatre company does such a nice job with all their productions. We have enjoyed every show we've attended. They never disappoint.

"A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING" is one of the best musical revues ever written,” says Executive Artistic  Director Daniel Thomas. “It truly takes you on a journey over the course of two hours. The song selection is impeccable - you get some of the most well-known and loved Rodgers and Hammerstein songs alongside lesser-known but equally brilliant gems. And each song is given a treatment that highlights how well it stands outside of its original context. We are lucky to have such a tremendous  group of artists bringing this show to life.” 

Thirty-two of Broadway’s greatest songs were written by one of Broadway’s most iconic partnerships! Now,  experience musical theatre legends, Rodgers and Hammerstein as they’ve never been seen before! Join us for a celebration of both the hits and hidden gems — showing off Rodgers’s exquisite melodies and  Hammerstein’s evocative lyrics that celebrate the humanity that binds us together – all with a modern twist! Featuring favorites from Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and more. 

The cast of A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING includes Edu Gonzalez-Maldonado as “Edu,” Keith Pinto* as  “Keith,” Jacqueline De Muro* as “Jacqueline,” Jasmine Cook* as “Jasmine” and Joel Chapman* as  “Joel.”  

In addition to Goldfield and James, the creative team for A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING will include,  Mark Mendelson (Set Designer), Claudio Silva Restrepo (Lighting Designer), and Cindy Goldfield (Costume  Designer).  

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.  

42nd Street Moon’s 2021-2022 season will continue with FUN HOME (April 21 – May 8, 2022) and THE  PAJAMA GAME (June 2 – 19, 2022). Single tickets range in price from $35.00 - $76.00 and are available now at 42ndstmoon.org/2021-2022-season. The previously-announced production of THE SCOTTSBORO  BOYS will now take place in the 2022-2023 season. 

42nd Street Moon celebrates and preserves the art and spirit of the American Musical Theatre. The organization contributes to its evolution and continuing vitality by presenting intimately produced performances of classic and rarely performed musical works. Through productions, educational programs, and community outreach, 42nd Street Moon is committed to increasing the awareness and appreciation of the rich heritage and cultural perspective of musical theatre and its vast influence on the world stage.

Grab some tickets and head to San Francisco! For more information, visit www.42ndstmoon.org. 

Wordle Mania

Every morning I wake up to the green glow of Wordle squares on my phone. The messages start appearing before I wake up and my alarm goes off at 6:30am. This is what happens when you're in a western time zone and are apparently one of the last to arise. The string of game posts, emojis, and comments greet me like a warm hug every morning. 

I love that we have this little exchange every day! 

It all started right after Christmas. I had heard about Wordle from a friend and invited my family to try it. We all love games. My dad is a crossword puzzle fanatic. And we are all just a teeny bit competitive when it comes to games. 

If you've never heard of Wordle it's basically a simple word game where you have 6 tries to guess a 5 letter word. It was started by Josh Wardle in the fall of 2021 as a game he created for himself and his friends. It grew like crazy almost overnight. Then the New York Times bought it for 6 figures in February 2022. (Way to go, Josh!) You can check it out here.

After we got everyone in the family to understand the game and how to play we all started posting our results. The "family" includes my husband, my sister, my two brothers, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, my daughter, and my parents. The age range is 19 to 91. 

Part of the game is to post your results. We had a couple of group texts and ended up renaming one WORDLE MANIA so we all knew which one to post our results to. We don't need to mix up Wordle stats with recipe recommendations, soccer stats, and birthday celebrations. This is serious business. haha.

It's now become a daily habit and competition to see who can solve it in the fewest tries. Since I'm not the first, I take my time in the morning. Get my coffee, my cereal and watch the Today Show while I solve the puzzle. And there is absolutely no cheating. Duh. You just don't. Cuz what fun is that? 

If you don't solve it it's a bleak morning. And humbling to post that you couldn't meet the challenge.

Big bragging rights when you get it in two tries. Or three. Or four. Really, if you finish we celebrate! lol.

We don't have any one-hit wonders yet. But it's bound to happen. I guess it's the equivalent of a hole-in-one. Although much harder, because at least in golf you have an idea of where to aim. With wordle, the first word is the biggest guessing game. 5 letters. Go. That's your clue.

I've used the Wheel of Fortune strategy. Trying to get as many of the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E in my initial guesses based on them being the most frequent letters in the Wheel of Fortune game. I feel like this strategy worked better before the NYTimes purchased the game. I think it got harder after they bought it. They claim that they didn't change any of the planned words immediately upon closing the deal, but I don't know, it feels harder and the words more obscure.

So every day we post our scores along with some pithy comments. 

"Got it going on today."

🤠

"Dang."

"boom baby"

"I thought my other guess was better."

"a struggle"

🤮

"yeah"

"grrrr"

"okay for an old geezer"

"whew!"

🥸

"ugh"

"oh well"

"Mr smarty pants"

Most impressive are my parents who are in their 80s and 90s. They never miss a day. 

We haven't created a leader board yet. We all have our individual stats but haven't shared it with the group. But it wouldn't surprise me if someone is tracking that! 

The best part of the game is how it's connected our family. 

Before wordle, I would talk to my brothers every once in a while. Months might go by. We don't live near each other and all have busy jobs and families so life would happen and we wouldn't hear from each other. Now we have something that connects all of us every day. 

It's pretty cool. 

We laugh, we vent, we brag and we support each other. 

#WordleManiaForever