SouljaBoy And Fabolous Poster For Hanover Theatre Show

Found this image via @DScribezBHHP on twitter and had to share. This is the first hip hop show that the Hanover has seen in the year and a half since the grand relaunch and in my opinion could very well be the last. This might be the first show that brings "downtown" to "downtown".

Superman Dat Hanover Theatre

I just caught wind of a new booking at The Hanover Theatre, and it appears that they have added Soulja Boy to their April lineup with a show on April 29th. This is so out of left field I am scratching my chin in befuddlement.

When it comes to music The Hanover has booked shows more along the lines of BB King, Aretha Franklin and 50's doo wop shows so this Souja Boy date is very confusing. I think the "wildest" musical performance in the past year was when Foreigner stopped for a night of 80's rock. I think I might want to usher this one just for some laughs. Some of the senior ushers get flustered when Lisa Lampanelli or George Carlin said the word "fuck". I don't know how some of these ushers will cope seeing their first live "rap show" at the age of 65!

I hope this signals The Hanover to be a bit more bold in their musical bookings and bring in some up and coming rock bands touring 2,000 seat venues.

Louis C.K. at Hanover Theatre Saturday May 2nd

The Hanover Theatre books another solid stand up act, it was just announced today that Framingham's own Louis C.K. makes a stop in Worcester at The Hanover Theatre on Saturday May 2nd.

Louis is a damn funny standup and was the writer and director of the famed instant classic known as Pootie Tang! The Hanover has been open for just over a year and have hosted George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Lisa Lampanelli now Louis C.K. and a couple others that slip my mind right now. The big name comedy shows have all played to full houses so I would expect to see top flight touring comics make stops at The Hanover as the days go by.

I'll be putting myself on the volunteer list for this one pronto!

The Hanover Theatre

Cirque Dreams, Cupcakes & Beer

So this afternoon Crystal and I were ushering at the matinee of Cirque Dreams" Jungle Fantasy at The Hanover Theater. We have both been feeling a bit under the weather with Crystal feeling the brunt of it. She tried to talk me into not going to usher, and was going to stay home and boycott bit at the last minute she decided to tough it out and go.

Full house of 2,200 for the Saturday matinee, I know Friday night was sold out and I and guessing that the Saturday night show was sold out as well. The show was pretty decent. Certainly a cut below Cirque Du Soleil overall, but that was to be expected. The acrobats, contortionists and other performers were adequate but the show certainly lacked a cohesive soundtrack. There was a tree who played the violin and Mother Nature singing some eye glazing lyrics to a second rate new age techno beat and they were supposed to guide the audience thru this jungle filled with fantasical creatures. Not so much.

The skills of the performers and the day glo and sequins on their getups made it easy to forget about the sub par soundtrack and focus on their superb tumbling, balancing, contorting and aerial abilities. Plus there were some cheeky bits of fun mixed in including these emu's with human legs and a human arm for a neck and head that would spontaneously hump each other! Good clean fun!

After leaving The Hanover we went to Sweet Bakery on Shrewsbury St, to pick up some cupcakes. I had a peanut butter and chocolate one earlier this afternoon and about 20 minutes ago devoured a peanut butter and jelly.

We then went and had two early quick ones at The Dive Bar's Anti-Valentine's Day party before calling it a night.

L is for Lazy...

This has shaped up to be the epitome of a lazy Sunday afternoon. I rolled out of bed at 10 minutes of noon, made a pot of coffee and hit the couch for some NFL pregame clad in comfortable clothes and slippers. I usually get the Sunday paper but even the task of trudging out in the clod to get the paper and then the act of reading it seemed like tasks I would rather not accomplish today.

Just finished watching the Bills/Jets game. Way to fumble the game away JP Losman, fuck! I had a hot fudge sundae for lunch during halftime and Crystal is doing some homework and listening to Christmas Carols. What more can you ask for than football, ice cream and coffee and an afternoon of supreme laziness.

Unfortunately it can't last all day because we are scheduled to usher the Terry Fator show tonight at the Hanover and we have to be there at 5:30, which means I will miss most of the Patriots and have to catch up with the Survivor finale on Tivo when we get home.

We worked at Hanover last night too, we were the two assigned folks to run Lisa Lamapanelli's merch table. We were still able to catch almost all of her show from the upper balcony. She pulled in a crowd of 1,700 which is pretty good for Worcester and a Saturday night in this economy. It sounded like the Theatre was happy with the turnout. The crowd was an interesting mix, a bunch of groups of gay guys, couples of all ages and varieties and then a fair amount of groups of high school kids who came with one parent. I had gave my parents a pair of tickets as their Christmas present, they came up early and we went and caught dinner at Roma's beforehand.

Lampanelli's set was dirty as all hell, no surprise there though as she ragged on each and every ethic group and minority in the crowd in front of her. Leaving no swear unsaid she had the crowd rolling thru her set. She had a couple funny lines about flying into ORH the Worcester Airport earlier today asking "What the fuck is up with that piece of shit airport you have here in this city." After the show she came out to the merch table to sign autographs and take pictures. Crystal and I worked the merch table while she signed DVDs, tshirts, ticket stubs and whatever else folks put in front of her. There was quite the line but she was totally cool joking with everyone who came thru line and posing for multiple pictures. Afterwards I spoke with her for a brief minute letting her know that I think she is hilarious when she is on the Bubba The love Sponge Show and about her co hosting the Lisa G cookie party for Howard 100 last week. She threw me an autographed DVD and Crystal scored a Dirty Girl tshirt.

Ugh, almost time to get ready to head out for tonight's show although both of us would like to do nothing more than stay sitting on the couch!

Lisa Lampanelli @ Hanover Theater 12/13/08 Tickets Now On Sale

Tickets are now on sale to the general public for the Lisa Lampanelli show at The Hanover Theatre on Saturday December 13th. This will be the best comedy show to come thru Worcester since George Carlin made a stop at the Hanover earlier this year (sorry Jeff Dunham fans).

Crystal and I will both be ushering at The Hanover the night of this show, and I was able to score two tickets for my parents during the pre sale, seven rows back and on the aisle. This will be their Christmas present this year, I bought them Chris Rock tickets for Christmas last year. Nowadays they certainly don't need random "things" for Christmas or any other time and they both like comedy and my father is a big Lampanelli fan from her apperances on The Stern Show so this made the perfect gift this year. Plus it would only be their 3rd trip to Worcester in the 2 years that I have lived here so it is a perfect excuse to get them to head this way, check out The Hanover and see a good comedy show all in one evening.

Lisa is the rare female comedianne who is actually funny. She can slice and dice people with the best of them when on Stern and is not afraid to open up and make fun of herself and the things that go on in her daily life. Even better than Stern she is absolutely on fire every time that she appears live in studio on Bubba The Love Sponge. Bubba will push her farther than Howard will and she does not disappoint with her outlandish actions on the show. This show will be rude and crude and totally hilarious.... A far cry from the Lily Tomlin show that was at The Hanover this weekend.

And looking at Lisa's schedule on her website she will be coming to Worcester just 3 weeks after completing a taping for an HBO Comedy Special, so I am sure she will be unloading plenty of fresh material and will be on top of her game. Looking at The Hanover website the orchestra is about 75% sold but the balcony is still wide open. Get you tickets now as I am sure this will approach near sell out status as we get closer to December.

Hanover Tickets
Lisa's Website

Girl's Night Out The Musical-- A Mini Review

Guys, ever wonder what women do when we aren't around? Well last night I may have got as close as possible without hiding in a closet and looking thru a keyhole.

I ushered at the Girls Night Out- The Musical performance at The Hanover Theatre. Friday nights show sold 1,400 tickets and no word of a lie there were no more than 15 men in the whole audience, and a few of them were gay. So the crowd was 99% female and 1% male, I don't know where else you can run into numbers like that. And besides the paid audience there were maybe 8 or so male ushers in attendance, so we were certainly outnumbered. And was certainly the only usher under the age of 35 minus one high school aged kid, which meant that all these ladies who were celebrating Girls Night Out while lubricated on liquor were a bit friendlier to me than most other shows that I volunteer at. Which was quite fine by me.

It was interesting to just stand back, direct them to the bathrooms as needed and observe. The groups ran the gamut from batchelorette parties, to groups of girls in their late 20's and 30's (come on ladies THIS is how you cut loose?) your too young for The Hanover to be your crazy night out, mother-daughter and friend tandems, co-workers and groups of cougars and no so cougars on the loose.

When the ladies think no men are watching they seem to drink to excess, I saw a couple girls who might have exceeded their monthly alcohol intake in one night, gab gab gab, and dance in the aisles to cheesy 70's jams. All in all harmless fun.

I didn't know what to expect from a show titled "Girl's Night Out", but all in all the 2 hours went by pretty quickly and the performance was pretty decent. The play surrounds 4 girls out for the night at a karaoke bar/ dance club and is narrated by an angel who was their best friend who died in a moped accident 22 years earlier. You have the girl in the unhappy marriage, the popular girl and her nerdy sister and the crazy girl on medication. The story follows their loves and love lost over the past 20 years along with the goings on in the club that night. The karaoke bar is used as a vehicle for a dozen or so songs ranging from "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" to "Lady Marmalade" to "We Are Family" to plenty of cheese in between.

All the ladies in attendance seemed to have a good evening out, and that is what it's all about.

  Girl's Night Out

George Carlin Hanover Theatre 5/1/08

Crystal and I made sure that we were volunteering on Thursday night for George Carlin at The Hanover Theatre. Volunteer nights there are especially kick ass when it is a show or artist that you are interested in and of course George Carlin would be on that list.
Plus when you are working a show that is sold out there is going to always be something unexpected that happens or some sort of seating glitch that you will have to sort out. The audience on Thursday straggled in a bit late or stayed in the lobby for a second drink before looking for their seats and it was the first time I really had to use a flashlight and seat people in the dark. And if you count the rows wrong or people are in their seats or off by a seat it can create quite a commotion. Not that I did that or anything. But once intermission rolled around after the opener and everyone found their way back to their seats Crystal and I had a great vantage point in which to watch Carlin.

He put on a strong hour long set that is much social commentary than comedy, but that is the charm of George Carlin at age 70. He isn't afraid to mock death, god or the lack thereof, the government and the sheep like quality of the average American. There were plenty of zingers mixed in with the type of talk that you would not have in polite company along with his own straight shooting outlook on things. It was a great chance to see one of the country's greatest comics work his craft from an up close vantage point.

In two weeks we will be working a jesus Christ Superstar show along with a BB King concert.

STOMP at The Hanover Theatre A 2 Sided Review

STOMP rolled its way into the Hanover Theatre in Worcester and put on 4 sold out performances. Crystal and I were able to catch 2 different shows, on Friday evening we attended the theater for the first time as patrons and today we volunteered at the matinée show.

For Friday night's show we had nice lower seats on the aisle 13 rows back from the stage. We showed up with just 10 minutes to spare before the show started since we are so familiar with the building at this point we just had to show up right before 9pm. The theater was packed with a Friday night crowd, a nice mix of folks,from seasoned theater goers and couples to kids who seemed to be on high school dates. Waiting for the show to start the one thing I noticed for the first time was how loud the din if the audience is while everyone is being seated. I had never really noticed it before while volunteering at an event. I guess I am so busy helping folks out and getting them seated that I am focused and don't really have a chance to hear the background noise. But as a patron who is waiting for the show to start it was really something I picked up on.

On to the show. What can I say except that both Saturday evening's show and Sunday's matinée were both 105 minutes of rhythmic pleasure. The cast seems really loose with each other and it was interesting to see the subtle nuances between the two shows depending on the vibe the cast members were feeling at the time. Also we watched Sunday's show from the balcony rather than the floor and having that higher viewpoint was a great way to follow up watching the show from the night before. I appreciated the performances from the set scaffolding much more by watching from the balcony.

The show mixes hard core rhythms that overpower your senses with minimal noises made from the smallest of objects in a way that creates a very nice ebb and flow to the whole sense of the show.

Great to see that STOMP was able to sell out all 4 shows and bring over 8,000 patrons to downtown Worcester this weekend. I hope everyone in attendance had a blast!

Hanover Theatre Grand Opening

Well I got home from my volunteer duties at the Grand Opening event at The Hanover Theatre about an hour ago. I can say from what I witnessed the opener went off without any hiccups to a near capacity crowd and everyone that I saw in attendance seemed to have a great time and enjoy themselves, the show and the atmosphere of this grand old building.

There has been some naysayers online recently whether it is in blog posts or comments on the T&G website regarding the viability of the theater and the ability that it can have to kickstart the downtown transformation that this city needs. Maybe it is because I didn't grow up in Worcester or the immediate surrounding area and I wasn't around for the failure of the mall/outlets that I am more optimistic than most. I've only been living in this city for 14 months at this point and I will freely admit that one of the reasons we chose Worcester was because the potential for this city is there. We wanted to be as close to "a city" as we could be and be able to purchase something we liked and could afford. And that lead us to Worcester... A city that can support an endeavor such as The Hanover Theater because of the density of Worcester proper and its environs.

So at this point we both figure the least that we can do is lend a couple evenings a month of our time to support the theatre. At the same time I can do my small part to interact with more people from the area than I would under any other circumstances and provide a smile and hospitality. I look at these volunteer positions as ambassadors to the city. I want to make the folks that come to the theater feel as if they had an experience that was on par with any show they would go see in Boston. And with that people will return and word of mouth can grow and this new theater can thrive.

No doubt there will be plenty of discussion regarding the acts that the theater brings in. I'll admit that I was not overwhelmed by the initial lineup, but there is something for everyone, from Hairspray to Stomp to David Copperfield to The Saw Doctors. And today's announcement of the George Carlin date is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to booking talent.

So those are my thoughts about the theater as a whole.

I won't go into a big long dissertation about the night, but I must say with the small amount of mock training that all us volunteers had over the past two weeks we all did a heck of a job getting folks seated in the right place. Having the paying customer all coming in to find their seats for the first time while soaking in the building for the first time and checking out the chandelier and talking amongst themselves is not something you can practice. I was able to catch Bernadette Peters sing 4 songs Little Willie John/ Peggy Lee's "Fever". She was in good voice throughout and looked glamorous on stage. You wouldn't guess that she was 60!

After the show all the Central Massachusetts heavy hitters that put on their evenings best seemed to have had a great time and enjoyed the experience. As long as the theater can consistently pull in solid acts there is no reason The Hanover Theatre can not be a viable and successful venue.

Hanover Theatre Dinner & A Show Program

Worcester's Hanover Theatre has unveiled the early incarnation of their "dinner and a show" program. I am happy to see that The Hanover Theatre and many local restaurants are exploring synergies since the downtown proper area faces a dearth of dining opportunities at the present time.

It seems that the "dinner and a show" program is only open to Hanover Theatre members at this time, but with memberships starting as low as $35.00 and some pretty good deals with the restaurants the $35.00 membership fee could be recouped pretty quickly and the membership goes to a the theatre and is a small investment to make in the downtown community and the city as a whole.

The participating restaurants include:

Block 5
Bocado
86 Winter
George's Cony Island
Harlequin Restaurant
Maxwell Silverman's
Mezcal
O'Connor's
One Eleven Chop House
Peppercorn's
Rovezzi's
Seven Hills
The Sole
Tribeca
Via
Z Cafe

Member benefits include free shuttle, free deserts, percentage off your bill and points towards free food. Not a bad deal at all.

Crystal and I have our final evening of training tonight at the Hanover and will finally find out if we get to work the opening night, as well as our schedule for the first couple months!


Hanover Theatre Dinner & A Show

Hanover Theatre Sneak Peek Pictures

So I got a sneak peek of The Hanover Theatre this evening during volunteer training and orientation. I brought the camera along and the pictures you see above don't do the place justice.

There seems to be plenty of work yet to be done, especially in the new facade portion of the building. The new portion of the lobby blends well and merges into the old and the theatre portion itself has been brought back to its heyday of the 1920's. There doesn't seem to be a bad seat in the house. I checked out a few views from the floor as well as a balcony seat and all the sightlines looked great and a fair amount of legroom especially down below.

One more training session next Wednesday before the Grand Opening on the 14th of March. Next week we should find out what shows we have been scheduled to work.