{"id":1829,"date":"2011-07-20T12:06:46","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T19:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotnerdgirl.wordpress.com\/?p=1829"},"modified":"2024-02-27T09:48:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T09:48:57","slug":"dr-horribles-sing-along-blog-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/20\/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing Along Blog \u2013 Live!"},"content":{"rendered":"
HNG with cast members Nathan Turner, Michael Minto, Zack Wolfe and Jane Lui<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First off, a disclosure.\u00a0 I have never seen the original online Dr. Horrible<\/em> starring my beloved Neil Patrick Harris<\/a> (NPH), Nathan Fillion<\/a> (NF) and Felicia Day<\/a> (FD).\u00a0 It\u2019s true.\u00a0 As much as I heart Joss Whedon, I have never been big on watching TV online and, to be honest, I\u2019m lucky to have time to watch good ol\u2019 fashioned television TV.\u00a0 I thought about watching it before driving down to San Diego but two things held me back.\u00a0 One, this move from LA to SD is killing me and every spare moment is going into packing and prepping.\u00a0 Two, I kind of wanted to see the show on its own merit so that I wouldn\u2019t be tempted to compare it to the Whedon\u2019s Writer\u2019s Strike pet project.<\/p>\n

HNG age 12. Admit this is an EPIC win.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another disclosure, I\u2019m a huge theatre nerd.\u00a0 I come from a theatrical background and have been performing most of my life.\u00a0 I have a deep appreciation for the time and effort that goes into putting together a production.\u00a0 Needless to say, I was very, very excited to see this show.<\/p>\n

The evening started off with Gam3rs: The Play<\/em>, a one-man\u00a0show about an extreme gamer and his attempt to wage an epic RPG\u00a0battle in the middle of a work day.\u00a0 The premise was clever and the actor\/co-writer, Brian Bielawski, was great as the spastic and obsessive Mountain Dew drinker\u00a0“Steve.”\u00a0 I dug the myriad of obscure nerd references and character voices he whipped out.\u00a0 Nary a line was said that wasn’t culturally significant in the geek lexicon.\u00a0 Having done one-(wo)man shows myself, I know how challenging it can be to pull off and I think he did an admirable job.\u00a0 I guessed the ending the very first time the boss came out but I chalk that up to my superhuman ability to guess the ending of virtually everything I watch.\u00a0 Seriously, it’s bizarre.\u00a0\u00a0That said, I smiled and laughed throughout the whole show and truly enjoyed watching it.\u00a0 If you’re into WoW, D&D, FF, Diablo, DQ or any of the other fantasy-based RPG’s, you will appreciate this show.\u00a0 Part of my press packet included a “made of awesome” pin which, I must admit, is pretty awesome.<\/p>\n

Onto the main event!<\/p>\n

Like I said, I’ve never seen the original Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog<\/em> so I really didn’t know what to expect from the Live! version.\u00a0 I figured, if it’s created by Joss Whedon then it’s got to be good!\u00a0 Andy Lowe and Co. did not disappoint.\u00a0 There was great deal of creativity that went into this in the form of shadow play. My friend (who has seen the original) wasn’t sure how they were going to pull off certain scenes and the shadows seemed to fill in those blanks for him.\u00a0 As a Dr. H virgin, it made perfect sense to me to use them as a storytelling tool.\u00a0 One thing we were both shocked and impressed by was when they brought out an actual van that had been cut in half and attached to a flat for Captain Hammer’s introduction.\u00a0 Rarely do you see such a feat on a large stage let alone one that is relatively small like 10th Avenue Theatre’s.<\/p>\n

Fun with shadows! (photo by Christina Rogers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were some seriously amazing voices on that stage.\u00a0 Nathan Turner (Dr. Horrible) was utterly charming whether he was in “aspiring evil genius” mode or “awkward nerd likes pretty girl” mode.\u00a0 You can tell that he’s a stage veteran and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment that he was performing.\u00a0 I was surprised to\u00a0read in the program that this is Jane Lui’s (Penny) first time acting.\u00a0 Very impressive.\u00a0 Both her voice and her demeanor are very sweet and she’s completely adorable.\u00a0 Seriously, I wish I could pull off her awesome hairstyle.\u00a0 Check out her music, it’s lovely.\u00a0 Michael Minto (Captain Hammer) is delightfully cocky and obviously having a lot of fun playing a character with such bravado.\u00a0 I can totally<\/span>\u00a0picture Nathan Fillion (*sigh<\/a>*) playing this role.\u00a0 The rest of the ensemble cast has some wonderful moments but one in particular was my favorite actor in the whole show.\u00a0 Zack Wolfe does double duty as Moist and an extremely flamboyant Captain Hammer fan.\u00a0 Even before he made his first appearance as Moist he was catching my eye as a background singer\/dancer in the first laundromat scene and from then on I kept finding my attention wandering in his direction.\u00a0 I can’t even count the number of times he made me LOL.\u00a0 When I met him at the after party I think all I could blurt out was “seriously dude, hilarious.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Horrible and Moist (photo by Christina Rogers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking of the after party…it was great to finally meet Andy Lowe, the Director and champion of this noble effort, after corresponding via email.\u00a0 I found him to be warm and engaging and genuinely passionate about this project.\u00a0 The cast members were awesome and friendly.\u00a0 It seems like a kick ass group to work with.\u00a0 The rooftop space is the home of other parties related to Gam3rCon<\/a> and if you get a chance, you should definitely check it out.\u00a0\u00a0You will be rewarded with lots of string lights and some seriously gorgeous views of downtown San Diego.<\/p>\n

With Director Andy Lowe and fellow HNG Joy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The after party also marked the first time ever that I’ve been recognized in person.\u00a0 Like many nerds, I tend to be shy and a bit socially awkward (hopefully it wasn’t too obvious) so having someone say “Hey, you’re Hot Nerd Girl!”\u00a0was kind of trippy and\u00a0kind of\u00a0awesome all rolled up into one big burrito of weird.\u00a0 I’m not really sure what that means but I’m rolling with it.<\/p>\n

In conclusion , if you are heading to San Diego for Comic-Con, you should really swing by Gam3rCon and check out the tournaments and plays.\u00a0 You can get more information about\u00a0all of the festivities at www.gam3rcon.com.<\/a> And hit www.iwanttosingalong.com for more on Dr. Horrible Live!<\/p>\n

Go.\u00a0 Now.\u00a0 Don’t make me shoot you with my Freeze Ray.<\/p>\n

Don't be fooled by my innocent looking exterior, Bad Horse has nothing on HNG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First off, a disclosure.\u00a0 I have never seen the original online Dr. Horrible starring my beloved Neil Patrick Harris (NPH), Nathan Fillion (NF) and Felicia Day (FD).\u00a0 It\u2019s true.\u00a0 As much as I heart Joss Whedon, I have never been big on watching TV online and, to be honest, I\u2019m lucky to have time to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,11,15],"tags":[30,207,271,352,354,822],"class_list":["post-1829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","category-reviews","category-theater","tag-10th-avenue-theater","tag-comic-con","tag-dr-horrible-live","tag-gam3rs","tag-gamer-con","tag-san-diego"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hotnerdgirl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}