Isn't it great when you find someone who shares your interests, your obsessions, your favorite things? My cousin-in-law, Laurie, and I share a love for Broadway. Every year or two we go to New York for four days and see five OR SIX Broadway shows. Yes, I'm serious. It takes a lot of Broadway stamina to carry out this type of schedule! But we have it down to a science now after about seven trips now? We've seen a lot of great shows, ate a lot of great food, walked a lot of steps through the city. For the first time on this blog, I share with you ... our 2019 Broadway Bash:
Thursday August 14: Wow, what a stellar premiere night of our 2019 Broadway Extravaganza! My NYC traveling partner, Laura planned a French theme night with dinner at a French bistro called Le Rivage. Delicious. We each chose a soup to start -- La Bisque for me and Vichyssoise for her, followed by main entrees of Coq Au Vin and Boeuf Bourguignon!On to Moulin Rouge! Incredible. High energy. Spectacular! I went into it never having seen the movie. I was expecting a period piece with all original music. But part of its immense charm was that it included at least a hundred modern pop songs interwoven seamlessly into the plot, songs by Beyonce, Elton John, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga ... you name it. It was funny, but highly emotional. The performances were riveting. We truly loved every moment!
Friday August 15: Day 2 in NYC: we ventured down to Greenwich Village and visited Tea & Sympathy, a quaint little hole in the wall British restaurant. We enjoyed traditional afternoon tea on the tri-tier serving plate followed by champagne. It was delicious and a fun experience.This evening we saw To Kill a Mockingbird. This Broadway run is the first time the classic novel was adapted for stage. Jeff Daniels makes a great Atticus Finch. The play was powerful, the cast was impressive. What a compelling evening!
Saturday August 16: NYC Day 3: awesome day full of great theater and great food! After a delicious brunch at Times Square Diner, we went to a drama called Sea Wall / A Life. It was a pairing of two one-act plays featuring a monologue by a single actor in each. The plays were unrelated, but the themes were consistent ... love, parenthood, loss, tragedy. It was amazing to me how each actor could simply stand on an empty stage and say his lines -- no set, no co-stars, simply a spotlight, and thoroughly capture the attention of everyone in the whole house.It's always fun to witness Hollywood star power on a Broadway stage and powerhouse Jake Gyllenhall did an awesome job, along with Tom Sturridge.
Keeping with our international food theme, we had a delicious Italian meal at Bond 45 before attending the raucous fanfare Ain't Too Proud. Loaded with Temptations hit songs, the actors were fabulous singers as well as wonderful dancers pulling off the group's signature smooth moves. What an uplifting way to spend the evening!!
Sunday August 17: Final day of our 2019 Broadway bash! What a great trip it's been!
Today we saw the matinee of Come From Away. All I can say is wow! If you get the chance to see this phenomenal production, DO IT! Sept 11, 2001 had such a huge impact on all Americans. We can all remember where we were, what we were doing, how we felt when the news hit. This is the story of our neighbors in Gander, Newfoundland and how they welcomed 7000 people whose airplanes were rerouted when US airspace closed that day. This play has ALL the feels. Laura and I were laughing one minute and crying the next. It was awesome and I can't stress enough how good it was!
A thunderstorm hit us between shows. We walked to our final show 8 blocks in the rain! We saw Pretty Woman, the musical based on the Julia Roberts/Richard Gere movie. Little did we know we were watching the very last performance, the END of their Broadway run! The audience was extremely appreciative and boisterous. And the show was a lot of fun. It was Garry Marshall's brainchild, Bryan Adams wrote the new music and the transformation from movie to stage musical was really good.
Another Broadway trip in the books! Already can't wait for our next one!
