Opening Night At The Hollywood Bowl with Reba and Chaka Khan

One of my greatest summer pleasures in Los Angeles is the Hollywood Bowl.  I go every year to catch everything from Hall and Oates to Gustavo Dudamel to the Broadway musical, Hairspray.  I have never been to the Opening Night at the Bowl which always honors the inductees to the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.  My amazing friend, Annie, who was working on the production, offered me two tickets to opening night.  How could I say no?  Well, the seats turned out to be gorgeous box seats with the most incredible view of the stage--a completely different experience for someone like me who normally buys the $10 seats in the last row.  If you live in the LA area and you haven't taken advantage of the Bowl in awhile, check out their schedule here.  It's an affordable entertainment option for the summer season.

Here are a few photos from my evening with my usual inside commentary.....

 Tarrah and I joked about our "terrible" seats all night long.......

 Okay, see that last section all the way in the back?  Yep, that's where I normally sit. By the way, the bathrooms are way nicer and more plentiful by the box seats too.  Higher price=better life?

 This photo makes me giggle--I'm taking a self-portrait on my iPhone while Tarrah is busy Tweeting on her iPhone.  Steve Jobs would be proud.

 The host of the evening, Julie Andrews.  She's a Dame, but prefers to be called, "Julie".

 The super sweet Reba McEntire.  Her awesome fans followed me all night on Twitter.  They love their gal, Reba. 

 Souvenir chocolate bars for the box seats!  We never get this in the bleacher seats.

 I was happy to see there wasn't any corn sugar or high fructose corn syrup in this chocolate bar.  

 Hey, Dawg, it's Randy Jackson!

 The diva-licious Chaka Khan even had a costume change with only a 5-song set.  "Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan!"

The best way to end the night......Hollywood Bowl fireworks.  

Don't forget, it's #RadioBurtt night!  I will be on the Driving With Gass show at 7:35PM PT/10:35PM ET tonight on KWSS.  I hope you join me for the latest in entertainment news.

If you missed my appearance last week with Dara on Radio, click here to listen in about how I got my start in entertainment reporting. You can find most of the archives to other media appearances here.  

Disclosure:  My tickets were complimentary.  I was not asked to post on this event, all opinions are my own.

Godspell Opening Night Photos

I'm reveling in all of the excitement from Monday's opening of Godspell.  It was such a thrilling night and it was a great opportunity to see how far the cast had come from the press rehearsal I attended in late September. My mom AKA "Grammy" was my hot date for the night, so we got all gussied up and hit the Great White Way. Here's the inside scoop on the evening and don't forget to buy your tickets to Godspell.

I made sure Grammy hit her best red carpet pose, hand on the hip!

So this is a photo from our seats.  Yup, we were that close--front row and center, thanks to Ken Davenport.  The show is at Circle in the Square, so it's theatre in the round.  

Grammy and I onstage at intermission enjoying some "wine" with the cast.  Don't miss this when you go to see the show.

Just after the final curtain call, the cast huddled for a moment onstage.  This cast is incredibly close and you can tell they genuinely enjoy working together.  This is one of my favorite pictures from my NYC trip.

The row of Canadians! If you look carefully, you see Victor Garber and Martin Short in the photo.  Many of the cast member from the legendary Canadian production were there:  Paul Schaffer, Martin, Victor, Eugene Levy, and Andrea Martin.

The stage is littered with glitter and confetti by the end of the show.

Olympic gold medalist and my favorite figure skating commentator, Dick Button. I have the pleasure of knowing his awesome daughter, Emily, and I love that the Button sass runs in the family

Director, Daniel Goldstein with me after the show.  We spent several summers together at Stagedoor Manor because I am the dork who attended musical theatre camp. (Yes, I was that kid.)

Pointing out my name on the People of Godspell banner.  Yep, I am an investor and my name is right next to Dick Button. Sweet.

Scream!! It's a Jonas Brother!  Yes, Kevin and his wife, Danielle, came to support Anna Maria Perez de Tagle in the show.

 You know I wouldn't miss this cupcake.

My mom is toasting Producer Ken Davenport for the open bar. Just kidding, Grammy!

I think I liked my faux hawk a little too much.  I took 9453029458 photos from this angle.

I love this shot.  I've known Ken (producer of Godspell) forever and I am so happy for his success. 

Seriously, could Anna Maria be any prettier?  I interviewed her earlier this year at the Kids' Choice Awards gifting suite.  Sweet girl and she's absolutely luminous in this production.

Getting our party on at Planet Hollywood!

There was glitter everywhere. I found it in my hair the next day and it was stuck to our skin.  Notice the logo of my iPhone case reflected on the glitter....it's the Godspell logo!

The opening night gift.  It was a brick.  Um, I had to fly home with a brick.  If you ever want to travel with a brick through TSA just know that you will endure a bag check and an explosives test.