The Midwest is really pretty. I spent the weekend in beautiful Saugatuck, Michigan, and upon my return to New York, as my plane came down through the clouds and I got my first glimpse of the area around JFK Airport, the words "industrial wasteland" came inescapably to mind.

I was in Saugatuck to catch a regional performance of Urinetown: The Musical, and was flabbergasted by it. It's a great, incredibly funny musical in any case, but the cast in this production was unusually terrific: I haven't seen this sort of chemistry onstage in any musical in a long time. If anyone happens to be in Saugatuck tonight (which is, unfortunately, their last performance), you should definitely try to catch the show.

Also, the lovely ingenue playing Hope Cladwell just knocked me down and all around. As I told her afterwards, she dominates the show whenever she's onstage, even when she's bound and gagged.

Saugatuck, incidentally, is the gayest city in Michigan.