Evolutionarily flawed

I saw the play Oh, Mary! this week. Memes relating to it have been all over my feeds for months, and I really wanted to see Cole Escola be strange. I don’t want to say anything about the plot because it’s best to just be surprised. The cast is just five people, including Cole as Mary Todd Lincoln plus two of the love interests from the Fire Island movie (one of them also playing Forty in Netflix’s You). It’s probably one of the funniest plays I’ve ever seen, and I’ve never heard more laughter from a Broadway audience. We got the tickets for $60 each on Today Tix, which I think is a steal even though we were in the back row. It’s humor that you don’t really see showcased in this setting, and a lot of it is really stupid (in a good way). Even if you don’t usually like plays, I implore you to see it because it is worth the hype.

I saw one of my favorite artists in concert this week, Young Miko, who frequently populates this newsletter section. If you’re unfamiliar, she’s a pretty, gay Puerto Rican artist who’s live multiple lives previously as a tattoo artist and a pro soccer player. She played at a venue under MSG (called The Theater at Madison Square Garden,,,,) and absolutely destroyed. She’s so gorgeous, and we spent most of our time howling at her like dogs. She performed most of my faves, and I didn’t realize how much of her discography I know (a lot!). She was great live. I have some more thoughts: 1. Before she came out, there was a projection of a fake video game loading screen that filled up the closer she was to coming on stage. I thought this was awesome, and all concerts should do this so you know when to get excited and when to get a drink. 2. The crowd was kinda lame, and it was phone city. We were some of the few people dancing. The venue is all seating and doesn’t have a pit, but I feel like her fans can do better. 3. I was expecting to see a lot of gay people. I did, but I also saw a ton of girls and their boyfriends/husbands. I don’t think you can say the same for a lot of queer American artists. 4. Seeing an artist in New York is more expensive, but you should always do it if you can. So many artists do not take performing here for granted, and you can feel their joy. Also, New Yorkers sometimes get special treats. Miko brought out two artists at different times, Villano Antillano for “MADRE” and Tokischa for the “Chulo” remix. Tokischa is another one of my favorite artists, and for her to come out was a complete surprise that took me days to get over. Miko performed a show the night before at the same venue and didn’t have these bonus artists, so we were super lucky to see them.

One of my favorite TikTok accounts is Hitsotomorrow, a user that posts snippets from Instagram Reels of artists promoting their (usually terrible) music. All ages, all genres, no one is safe. There are a few recurring characters, too.

I finished the most recent season of Survivor and absolutely loved it. I feel like I understand the show more and am now starting from season 1 and working my way up (I posted about that on Instagram and got backlash from random fans of the show that I haven’t spoken to since high school). Even though I thought Hunter, Tiff, or Tevin would make it to the end, I’m super happy with Kenzie’s win. I would never be on the show, but I feel like I’d play it a lot like her. Her and Tiff were my two favorites. The next season starts in a few weeks on the same night as the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season premiere, so I’m gonna have my hands full on Wednesdays.

I was not a good reader this week. Check out “The 21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking in September” from my Sunset colleague Sarah Yang. This is the last part of the newsletter I’m writing before eating dinner, so here’s some inspo if you’re also eating late.

I saw the Tony-winning play Stereophonic this week. The play is about a fictional Fleetwood Mac-esque band recording an album while fighting, doing drugs, and dating each other. The whole show takes place in a recording studio they built for the stage. I really enjoyed the show in spite of the things that usually would deter me from liking a play like this. The whole show was very slice-of-life-y, and it was a bit hard to know when dialogue was going to matter or not. I usually don’t like that stuff but enjoyed it here. The play also takes place in the 70s, and I roll my eyes at the majority of 70s-set media because it all feels very flat. Hairy, druggy, rebellious people written either by people who miss that era, wished they grew up in it, or were losers during it. The cast is also pretty small, but they all slayed. I was excited to see Sarah Pidgeon in the cast after enjoying her on Amazon Prime’s short-lived The Wilds. They play actual songs that were written for the show, and the songs are actually fantastic. If they sucked, the whole illusion would break. I feel like I was too young for the show, because I heard a lot of sniffly audience members around me crying during specific conversations about marriage and kids. Oh also, the show is 3 hours. When it was intermission, I thought the show was over. You get to be agitated along with the characters. All in all, I’m clearly not the target audience and still loved it.