Hurry up and get yourself to the Paramount, because no theater fan wants to miss their current show! Seattle has welcomed Harvey Fierstein and the rest of the touring cast of Fiddler on the Roof, and the show is running through this Sunday!

Fiddler is a classic musical and a favorite of many theater fans, and although I’m a modern musical girl, I knew I could not miss this. I attended the opening night performance on Tuesday, and although I was completely exhausted, I did like the show. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a favorite (my tastes more fit the most recent generation of musicals, from the last 30 years or so), but it was definitely a well-written show and since I already knew a lot of the music, I did have fun. (I was not happy about missing this week’s Glee episode while I was at the Paramount, but you can’t have everything, right?)

A quick recap for anyone who has never heard of Fiddler on the Roof (although I think that’s kind of like never hearing of The Sound of Music, but what do I know?): it is a musical, written by Joseph Stein, set in the very early 20th century, in a small town called Anatevka. Popular songs from the show include “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” It is basically the story of Tevye, a hard-working Jewish family man, who is trying to live his life true to his faith, in a world where many Orthodox customs are being challenged. Throughout the course of the show, the three eldest of Tevye’s five daughters get married (all picking their own groom, which served as enough of a shock to the parents), each one straying just a little bit further out of the norm of Orthodox Jewish traditons and customs. The final scenes show the beginning of things getting very bad for the Jews in Russia, when the Jewish population of Anatevka are served with an order to sell their homes and leave the village. The story is concluded there, but please don’t let my weak synopsis stop you from seeing the show. I promise, it is much more interesting than I’m making it out to be. There just are too many small plotlines for me to elaborate on right now. The show accomplished incredible things, from being the first show ever to run past 3,000 performances on Broadway, to winning nine of the ten Tony awards the original production was nominated for. The most recent revival of Fiddler has closed on Broadway, and this is the “farewell tour,” so this is probably your last chance to see the show for quite a while.

And since I can’t not talk about him, if you haven’t seen the billboards all over Seattle, gay icon Harvey Fierstein (an original star of Hairspray, and librettist of the Tony-nominated show La Cage aux Folles) is playing the lead character of Tevye, a role he played for several years on Broadway as well. Personally, I found him to be very funny (since the character is supposed to be a bit crazy), although he was hard to understand. Harvey Fierstein made an unusual choice and chose to effect an Eastern European accent for the character, since the story is set in Russia, and on top of that, he has a very raspy speaking voice naturally, so it can be a bit hard to discern what he’s saying. If you can, I’d suggest you either bring a huge fan of the show who can translate for you, or go to the evening performance this Sunday, which has closed captioning provided for hard-of-hearing audience members. It will definitely enhance the experience!

Tickets range from $30.50-73.50, not including fees, which is on the pricey side. However, if you can afford it, it’s a great price to pay to watch a legend like Harvey Fierstein live. Regular tickets are sold at the STG website here. A better option would be to try for student/educator rush tickets, which are last minute tickets given at a discount to anyone with a valid school ID. Rush tickets, if they are available, are sold at the Paramount Theater box office on one hour prior to the curtain time (at every showing of Fiddler except those on Saturday, May 29th), and cost $25 each. You are limited to one ticket per ID, so if you bring friends, make sure they have a school ID too. And enjoy the show, fellow theater geeks!

Almost everyone around knows Popeye. I mean, he’s Popeye, the sailor man. He’s tough to the finish, ’cause he eats his spinach. This cartoon has entertained thousands upon potential millions for decades. Being an active classic cartoon viewer, I happened upon an episode of this show where Popeye’s children were watching their father, Olive Oyl, and Bluto acting within a desert-based movie set. Seeing this, and thinking back on other episodes, I realized that Popeye is not a good father. There are some reasons for this that are obvious, but there are a couple that take the right mentality to see properly. I will list them here in order from the most obvious, to the hardest reasons to spot.

First off, countless studies, and even science, have proven that smoking is not only unhealthy to the smoker, but the people around the smoker. Popeye’s a very heavy smoker, so it’s highly possible that his offspring could catch a few of the effects of secondhand smoke. Simple as that, it’s downright unhealthy.

Secondly, the sailor tattoos are another thing that must be looked at. I mean, it’s not harmful that Popeye has them, but his sons all have tattoos as well! It’s ridiculous. Why they have ‘em is completely beyond me.

Third, the violence that Popeye gets involved in all of the time. You’d think that violence would make Popeye’s kids idolize him all the more. Even if that were to be the case, having Popeye as a role model isn’t the best thing for their well-being. They may also experience trauma from watching their father beat up all who stand in his way. I mean, that would scare them into not making the oft-beloved sailor man angry.

Lastly, the way our villain-pummeling person uses spinach in order to beat up Bluto and all of the others that stand in his way may reflect on his children. In one of the numerous episodes, Olive Oyl even sees this coming in a dream, in which the children quaff some spinach and beat her up as means for revenge for their punishment. Because of this, the house’s spinach should truly be stored in the same place as a family would lock a gun for the purpose of self-defense. It’s quite scary when superpower-giving spinach is not used for the greater good.

And thus, those are the four reasons that Popeye doesn’t make the best father. It’s as simple as that, really. Some of these aren’t seen by the untrained eye. Well, maybe none of them are. Regardless, these are them. There’s a clear life lesson here, and I’ll end on that note; do as Popeye encourages, not as he does. (Seriously, that spinach is deadly in the right hands).

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Those of you who have read my theater column from its inception at the start of the semester probably know that I reviewed the Broadway musical Beauty and the Beast awhile back, naming it as one of the top 7 musicals of the decade. And for me, Beauty and the Beast always will be a hit. But in that article, I said that regional productions of the show weren’t as good as the Disney produced one that played on Broadway for over a decade (5,461 performances, to be exact), and I need to take that back now.

For over three months now, I’ve been working with Broadway Bound Children’s Theater as an ensemble member in their spring show, which is–you guessed it–Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. And I don’t mean to brag, but our production kicks Disney’s butt. It is going to be absolutely fabulous, and the more Nova students who get to witness it, the better! Broadway Bound and its amazing musical productions have been an important part of the Seattle arts community for many years now. The shows are well produced, well directed, and are made up of casts of ridiculously talented children.

As I said, Beauty and the Beast is going to be marvelous. I’ve been watching everything come together since February, from the music to the choreography to the sets and costumes, and it’s all beyond belief. Trust me, if you’ve never seen Beauty and the Beast onstage before, you want to see Broadway Bound’s production. If you have seen it onstage, you will want to relive the experience at the end of this month when the show opens.

Tickets for Beauty and the Beast are available here via brownpapertickets.com. The show will be running at Broadway Performance Hall at Central Seattle Community College from May 21 to May 30. The performances rotate to feature three different casts, and while I personally would strongly encourage you to buy tickets for a cast 2 performance (we’re the best, I promise!), all the casts are great. Tickets are $17.50 each for a regular performance, or $7.50 for the student matinees (10 am each day from May 25-27). The student matinees are a great deal, especially for any Nova student who has to be at Central on a weekday anyway!

After Beauty and the Beast runs, Broadway Bound’s production for younger kids (grades K-5), Cinderella, will also be running at the Broadway Performance Hall. The version of Cinderella being performed is the version with music supplied by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and is a personal favorite of mine, so check that out too! More information on Cinderella is at broadwaybound.org.

Food is a very important part of being healthy, it keeps up your energy and helps you work better, and so I wanted to see what other people at Nova eat regularly. This is what I’ve found for a small collection of the students and staff here at Nova.

Finally, there are snacks. Those tend to vary a lot more since snack foods can change a lot. Christina will often times have a latte, carrots with dip, edamame beans, tara chips with salsa, pears, or a cup of tea. Sierra will just eat potato chips. Then there’s Cherise who likes to eat chips and pocky; Karen who’ll eat fruit or licorice; Gabby who likes to eat eggs and toast; and Ellen who’ll eat a sandwich or symphony bars.

What I’ve gathered from these interviews is that all Nova students have a different diet. I was surprised to hear from the six people I interviewed how different their eating habits are and also what foods they have in common.

Last year, after portions of 1up Network were acquired by the Hearst Corporation, Electronic Gaming Monthly (a part of the 1up Network), or EGM for short, was discontinued. This was very upsetting for many fans of the 20-year old publication, myself included. Shortly after it’s discontinuation, however, the founder of the magazine, Steve Harris, acquired the publishing rights for a re-launch of the magazine. For nearly a year, many have waited for the re-launch to finally come into fruition, but as of April 29th, the wait is finally over. But was it worth it?

The first thing that any previous reader of EGM will notice is that the magazine has been completely redesigned. The look of the magazine is more clean, organized, and futuristic. The order in which the magazine’s stories are put in has changed slightly, with the “Review Crew” section coming before the cover story, instead of vice versa. The paper used in the magazine is slightly weightier, has more sheen, and overall feels more professional. The font size is no longer uniform throughout the entire magazine, with some pages having smaller text than others (particularly page 21). Oh, and the page number is now on the top of the page, among other things. Though it doesn’t have the same personality as it used to, I approve of the new look.

The big new feature of the new EGM is EGMi, the online magazine. EGMi uses ScreenPaper technology, though what that is, however, is beyond my understanding. They claim that it will make “stories come alive inside an immersive platform” (immersive platform referring to the internet). Guess that’s a fancy way of saying that they put videos in there. Anyway, there are two versions of EGMi, the free version, and the premium version that requires an iPASS to access. Four-issue iPASSes are included in every print issue of EGM, and if you subscribe you get one iPASS for the length of your subscription. They release one issue of EGMi on a weekly basis, giving gamers plenty of reading material.

To access EGMi, you must also create an account on egmnow.com, which is a simple enough process. I don’t particularly like the look of the website, it seems a bit unfinished, but they have plenty of time to improve on it. The digital magazine however, is very nice looking, and uses the internet “medium” to expand on what a magazine can do. For example, you can’t watch videos in the physical magazine, because it’s on paper, but in the online magazine, they can have video and audio embedded onto the page. The pages also have a good deal of interactivity to them, which I hope they continue to use in interesting ways. Loading appears to be an issue, albeit a minor one that could be improved.

The online magazine itself appears to contain a mixture of content from the magazine, and new, web-exclusive content. Although some of the content can be viewed for free with your egmnow account, a good portion of the content can only be viewed if you have an iPass. For example, the current issue of EGMi’s “Cover Story”, about the history and future of Final Fantasy, can only be viewed with an iPass.

Despite all of the new stuff, the magazine itself is still very much the same magazine it always was. Thankfully, some of the original staff has been brought over to the new magazine, including Dan “Shoe” Hsu, and Seanbaby, who are still just as great as ever. The writing is the same informative and occasionally funny style readers are used to, and the reviews are still very honest. The reviews themselves, however, have changed too. Instead of multi-man reviews, it’s just one reviewer, and is usually accompanied with a “second opinion” mini-review. But thankfully, they returned to the old scoring system, 1.0 – 10.0 in increments of .5, as apposed to the lettered scoring system. I’ve always hated those.

Whether or not you think that the new magazine was worth the wait is a matter of opinion, but at the very least it looks incredibly promising. The innovative online integration of the magazine is very well done, and is something that I hope to see more in magazines. And it smells good, too.