We saw a couple of shows last week. Both were great.

On Wednesday night, we saw Macbeth at BAM, starring Patrick Stewart. It was exciting and scary as hell, almost like a good popcorn movie. The theater looks like this, all exposed plaster and peeled paint (that’s not what the stage looks like for this production, though). I said to Matt that it would be a great place to see Follies.

We sat in the balcony, which is way, way, high up in that theater. I got vertigo as we walked down the steps to our seats. It didn’t help that we had to sit in upright rigid stools, so we couldn’t even lean back. The last time I felt such vertigo at the theater was when my mom took me to see Barnum when I was a kid and we sat in the balcony. (I don’t remember Barnum at all. All I remember is the terrifying vertigo.)

On Friday night, we saw Patti LuPone in Gypsy, currently in previews on Broadway after having transferred from the Encores production last summer. Oh my god. So brilliant. I love her as Mama Rose. And I love Gypsy. Is there a better musical? After almost 50 years it remains fresh. It was my fourth time seeing Gypsy – Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, last summer’s Encores, and this one. Patti LuPone is even better than she was last summer. Her “Rose’s Turn” is heartbreaking, and I’ve never seen the show end the way this production does (it’s different even from last summer).

There was one mishap, and it happened at a pivotal moment in Act II. Louise, played by Laura Benanti, was beginning her metamorphosis into Gypsy Rose Lee, putting on her long silk gloves, looking into the mirror, about to say to herself, “Mama… I’m pretty!”

And then a curtain came down right where she and the mirror were standing.

Benanti pushed the mirror through the opening between the curtains and tried to continue the scene. Then she stopped and disappeared behind the curtains. Then, from behind, a stagehand pulled back the mirror, which snagged on the stage right curtain and pulled it nearly all the way back, giving us a glimpse of Benanti standing there wondering what to do before it closed again. Then the curtain went back up, where we could see, too early, the “Garden of Eden” scrim. Benanti stood there, looking off stage right, and then we heard her say, “Stop the show. Stop the show.”

The main curtain went down and someone made an announcement about technical difficulties. About 10 minutes later, the curtain went back up, and the show picked up again from the mirror scene. Benanti continued as if nothing had happened, and the rest of the show went on to the end from there. Brilliant, really.

Anyway, Patti LuPone is wonderful, Laura Benanti is wonderful, Boyd Gaines as Herbie is wonderful.

God, I love this production. I may have to see it again.