Last night (Monday night) I met with an old Sarasota friend, Alex, and some of his friends for dinner at Mandoo Bar in Koreatown.  Koreatown is located mostly in the mid-30s in the area right around the Empire State Building, and is basically what it sounds like.  Koreatown is smaller than Chinatown, and also much easier to stumble into randomly.  Mandoo Bar specifically in mandoo, or dumplings, so that is what I ate: vegetable pan-fried dumplings and some tofu.  I figure I needed to go vegetarian to repent for all the treyf I have consumed.  The food was good, not fantastic but it satisfied, and the sauce on the tofu was extremely tasty.

After dinner Alex and I parted way with his friends and headed down to Splash, a gay club in Chelsea.  Mondays are “Musical Mondays” at Splash.  From 7:00-12:00 a video DJ plays Broadway clips: Tony award performances, actual clips of shows, scenes from movie musicals, etc.  Everyone sings along to said clips.  At midnight an actual Broadway veteran performs.  Yes, it is as fun and as gay as it sounds.

We met Ashley at Splash around 10:00 and wandered inside.  The video that greeted us was this year’s Tony opening performance, complete with Bret Michaels getting smashed in the face awesomely.  The bartenders were all wearing, well, not a lot of clothes–mostly tiny little briefs that left nothing to the imagination.  You get the idea.  The night continued in a similar vein: “America” from the West Side Story movie, “It Sucks to be Me” from Avenue Q, lots of Patti Lupone including her “Everything’s Coming up Roses” from Gypsy and an old concert version of her singing “Being Alive” from Company, the Tony awards performance from Les Miserables was back in the 1980s, Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur performing “Bosom Buddies” (this one got a huge cheer), well, you get the idea.

If you want to watch Bret Michaels get smashed in the face, along with other musical theatre antics, well, here you go:

Oddly enough Alex, Ashley and I had picked a table right by someone I recognized from UF: Jonathan D. Lovitz, who lived in Hume Hall with me and who was a theatre student.  I re-introduced myself (he didn’t recognize me but we’d only spoken twice, and I’d seen him in numerous shows at UF, which is how I best recognized him) we chatted a bit, I told him my sister’s at UF, he told me it was his birthday and about the projects on which he is working, etc.  He is one of the lucky ones: an actor who is currently employed and has jobs lined up for the foreseeable future.  Anyhow, a bit of randomness, in a crowded gay club.

One of Alex’s friends stopped by during all the singing and screaming.  Evidently each Musical Monday ends with the same two songs: “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” from Funny Girl (LOVE. BARBRA) and the Tony performance of Jennifer Holliday singing “(And I am Telling You) I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls.  This second song is definitely a favorite.  The Tony performance is long, and encompasses the whole scene leading up to the climactic diva moment.  In case you don’t recall the scene, complete with the line “Lorelle, where is my DRESS!?!?!” here it is:

“CURTIS WAS SUPPOSED TO LOVE ME.”  God this musical is so good.  Just in case you want to compare it to the movie:

Just in case you can’t tell, I’m pretty much a musical theatre queen myself.

Anyhow, a live performance occurs after the extreme queening out completes at midnight.  This week’s performer was Marty Thomas, who I have the pleasure to have actually met.  My family and I encountered Marty a few years ago at Birdland, during an open mic night sort of event where he sang a song called “Lead Me Not Into Temptation, I Can Get There Myself.”  We ended up talking to him after he sang; he was currently performing in Wicked, and since we were seeing the show later that week he offered to give us a backstage tour.  Backstage tour of Wicked = win, therefore Marty Thomas = win.

Anyhow, Marty has been in many things, and is phenomenally entertaining and talented.  He sang us a lovely medley of Broadway awesomeness: songs from Dreamgirls, a few numbers from Little Shop of Horrors, the entire opening (including every part of the ensemble) of Legally Blonde which, oh my God you guys, was awesome, “I Am Here” from The Color Purple, etc.  Youtube “Marty Thomas,” you will receive glee.

Alex and his friend left while Marty was performing, and after he was finished Ashley and I headed downstairs for more musical goodness–Musical Mondays on request with four dollar frozen drinks.  Win.  Ashley requested some Judy and Barbra, I requested some Yentl and Hello Dolly, and all was well.  Ashley and I both realized that we explode glitter and sparkle like few others, and we are all right with that.