Indulge me - oddest circumstance for going to a bway show - please add your

[bwaybri2]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 10:11pm

It was mid March 1999 and I read that Titanic was closing. (I was living in northern Minnesota) I decided that I needed to see it. Called telecharge, they said it was closing the next day. I got a ticket for that night (Saturday), used some frequent fliers miles, left Fargo at noon, landed at LaGuardia at 7:00 p.m, took a cab to the Lunt (I think), walked in the door at 7:55, and had a magical evening.

This evening I put in the Titanic CD in the player and was transported back to that wild ass trip I took 10 years. Ah - to be single again.

(the next day I saw Footloose - don't remember much about that show other that they auctioned off his t-shirt from the stage - it went for $150)



Updated On: 8/6/09 at 10:11 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 10:31pm

That might already win the prize.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 10:46pm

That probably takes it, especially for a show like Titanic.

I did take an overnight flight to see the Roundabout's Little Night Music concert though, when I was not at home. Thank God I did.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 11:53pm

I had never been to a closing night performance before, and I happened to be in NYC when HIGH FIDELITY posted its closing notice. So I saw the (14th) and final performance in the last row of the Orch, and standing behind me was the creative team. I was able to hear them commenting to each other throughout the entire show about memorable rehearsal moments, moments in the show that worked and didn't work, etc. It was like listening to a commentary track on a DVD. While it would generally be distracting to other audience members, I rather enjoyed it.

Also, I happened to be in NYC when the COMPANY revival closed. I walked by TKTS and saw that tickets were on sale for the closing show. So I went and caught Raul Esparza's electrifying performance for a sexond time.

[saveusmike]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 11:57pm

Well I explained once on the forum what actually got me started with Broadway and is now responsible for me seeing over 50 shows is...Shrek the Musical..

Some guy was going back to his state or something and he had a ticket for the night before official opening night and he just asked if I would be in the city and gave it to me.
(it was for the next week)

I didnt think I would like it (escpecially by myself) but I did and it opened the door to every other show I ever saw.

[jo]

Posted: 8/6/09 at 11:59pm

Not on Broadway - but at the West End!

It was around the years of the financial crisis in Asia and we were asked to make a corporate presentation to international foreign fund managers ( USA/ UK/ Other Europe)in London. I was reluctant to go having apprehensions about facing a crowd of potential and existing shareholders about an increasingly difficult situation for banks.

I did go on this trip ( 15 flying hours, one way!) - spent a great deal of time on the presentation - and hardly had time to get any decent tickets for any theatre shows ( which I usually plan for quite well when I go on a business trip). I was eager to go to one particular show because it featured two of my favourite composers and I hadn't seen any of their shows live - so, even if my tickets were in the mezzanine, I was excited to go.

Initially, I was a little disappointed as I thought the sets were sort of drab ( in contrast to the lively movie version I had once seen)...but as the show had unfolded and the leading man surprised me with his strong musical theatre voice and his commanding stage presence ( I was in dress circle - mezz, front row - but I could hardly see his face - poor vision on my part), I had begun to think that this was something special! I don't think I even had a copy of the playbill to read about the show and the unknown leading man ( to me, anyway).

And that was my introduction to Hugh Jackman and the RNT's well-acclaimed revival transfer to the Lyceum of OKLAHOMA!

Btw, the corporate presentation went well, too




Updated On: 8/7/09 at 11:59 PM

[bwaybri2]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 12:21am

jo:

that is a great story - have you been back to anything else over there?

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 12:26am

I am only a 1.5 train ride away from the city, so I don't have any crazy "I took a last minute flight" stories. Sometimes I have made really spontaneous trips into the city. One time I woke up and decided I needed to see a show. I finalized plans for someone to pick me up rush tickets about 20 minutes before I needed to leave, and I caught a train into the city sometime after 12 p.m. I saw the 3 p.m. performance of A Chorus Line that day.

[yay_gerb]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 12:36am

i flew out to LA to see Eden in the closing performance of Wicked, but that was planned months in advance.

most spontaneous show going experience was about a month and a half ago. it was the weekend of Gay Pride and i was in the city handing out fliers until 4 a.m. for some club so i decided instead of taking the Path home..why the hell not take a cab up to central park for SITP tix? only bad part was that at mcdonalds they were still serving freaking hamburgers. its 4 in the god damn morning i want some pancakes!

[jo]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 12:37am

>>> jo:

that is a great story - have you been back to anything else over there? <<<

Lots of time - my last few shows to see in London were HAIRSPRAY and KISMET ( both with Michael Ball, another favorite musical theatre star with me), Trevor Nunn's ill-fated GONE WITH THE WIND, BILLY ELLIOT ( which I had also seen on Broadway) and a many others over the years. I like London and also many European cities and London is usually the gateway city. It is also a welcome coincidence that London is a great theatre town.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 12:42am

On my way to the final matinee of SPRING AWAKENING, there was a horrific snow storm going down in Rhode Island (where I was coming from considering it was Christmas break from college). I picked up my friend and got on the highway headed to NYC, crashed my car into a ditch, had it towed out, got off the highway to wait an hour while the tow man ran my credit card (for $100, mind you), drove to Stamford, CT, caught a train, took a taxi from Grand Central, and walked in the doors just as the lights were coming down and the cast was entering.

It was... a whirlwind. But the performance was so worth it.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 12:48am

I am only a 1.5 train ride away from the city, so I don't have any crazy "I took a last minute flight" stories. Sometimes I have made really spontaneous trips into the city. One time I woke up and decided I needed to see a show.

I'm just as far away but in the opposite direction. There have been times when I've, randomly, decided to see a show. I remember I decided to see a show the night after the strike ended. I choose Drowsy and Cindy Williams was sitting two rows in front of me.

[winston89]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 5:23am

I live on Long Island and it is a half hour train ride from my town's station to Penn. So, just like some other people in this thread I have no stories about how I booked a last second flight to NYC to catch a particular performance or anything like that.

When I was in high school my school let us out at a little after 12 on Wednesdays so that they could have staff meetings that afternoon. Just in time for me to go get a ticket to a 2 PM post school performance. And, it wasn't that hard considering that my school was only on 18th st. But, I digress. There was one situation where I was on my way to see Phantom, and they had given the cast and some of the crew comps due to the fact that the show wasn't fully sold. One woman who was in the crew just gave me her ticket and I took it with some hesitation due to the fact that I didn't know if it was going to scan and real or be fake. It turns out that it was real and I got a free house seat and had an amazing time.

[DefyGravity777]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 7:37am

On a Sunday morning after I leave work I will drive 1 1/2 hrs to the bus station and spend almost 2hrs. on the bus(in which I sleep) to NYC,catch a show or two(if there is an evening show that I want to see) and come home that night. I spend up to 8hrs roundtrip to see a show or two. Did that all last summer and most of this summer also.

I also drove to Cleveland, Oh.(which is over 5hrs one way) to see the 1NT of Wicked and drove back that night. The day before there was a blizzard and the day I drove it was snowing the whole way from Harrisburg, Pa.(where I'm from) to Cleveland.

[Mark_E]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 7:57am

Mine was probably Drowsy in London.

Found out it was closing and just had to go and see it, so booked a train ticket from Doncaster the night before (was too expensive from Newcastle), drove to Doncaster early the next morning, caught the train at 9am, then got tickets for the Drowsy matinee and Spamalot on the evening.

We had booked the last train back at 11, but there was a fault, so onto the coaches it was! Took us to Peterborough, then got the train from there to Doncaster. Wasn't back at home in Newcastle till 5am. Was worth it though. Drowsy is still my favourite musical.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 8:17am

I live in northern NJ, very easy access to NY theaters, so I don't have a great NY story. I do however, have a West End story. A few years back, my oldest daughter went on a soccer trip to England. I went along as a parent, but not an official chaperone. We were staying in the town of Colchester, about an hour outside of London, but the trip had a day of sightseeing in London. My daughter and I spent the day cramming as many sights as we could into our eight hours, and we met the group back at the bus at 6PM as planned. We were getting ready to get back on the bus, and I made a hasty decision that I have never regretted. I found the guy running the trip, and told him I was staying in town to catch a show. I knew there was a train station in Colchester, but I had no idea how often or how late the trains ran. Omitting some of the additional details, I got tickets to the Witches Of Eastwick, found my way back to our hotel in Colchester via taxi/train/taxi, thanks to much assistance from to some very helpful citizens of London.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 9:40am

I've got one! I tell this to every theatre lover I meet!!!
This was before I lived in the city- I was only visiting for a day-

I was about to walk into a matinee of In the Heights- when I saw on the lobby's understudy board that.. Lynn Manuel Miranda was out!! I was about to have a major mental breakdown- so I ran up to the lobby box office and begged the attendant to switch my ticket to the evening performance- she did- for free! Which- was a MIRACLE because Lynn's name wasn't above the title!

So I'm only in the city for a day and want to get as many shows in as possible- so I'm wondering what I can replace this time with. Just as a step outside the theatre- I LITERALLY STEP ON a flyer for Passing Strange- telling me the address of the Belasco (right?) theatre.

It's about 10 minutes to 2- and so I am BOOKING it over there- and I run up to the steps of the theatre- about to see if I can get a ticket, when someone- an usher I believe- on the steps of the Belasco- stops me. She asks if my mother (who was with me) and I have tickets- we said no- and she offers us TWO FREE TICKETS to the show! Front mezz- AMAZING seats. Obviously we said yes!

So- basically this was a case of perfect serendipity- everything working out exactly in the best possible way. I got to see Passing Strange for free, and Lynn Manuel Miranda in the role he wrote in "In the Heights." Absolutely amazes me even to this day.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 9:47am

It wasn't Broadway, but six or seven years ago I was living in St Louis and found out Jennifer Holliday was doing Dreamgirls in Atlanta. Three friends of mine and I got tickets and were going to make a little vacation out of it.

A few weeks before the show, I was cast as a last minute replacement in a play, and the tech week was the same week as Dreamgirls. Since I had already had the tickets for Dreamgirls (and the fact that the company that cast me had dicked me around and cast two people before me who dropped out before finally casting me) I wasn't going to miss it, but knew that I was only going to be able to be out for that one rehearsal (which was a Tuesday night). My friends and I left St Louis early Tuesday morning, got to Atlanta around four in the afternoon, had dinner, saw the show and turned around and came back. I think the entire trip door to door was twenty-six hours.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 9:52am

This thread should absolutely have What I Did For Love playing in the background.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 9:53am

Or the theme from Psycho.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:07am

Living in Houston, I was bummed to find out the Parade tour was stopping in Dallas, but not in Houston. My father and I wanted to see the show so much, we drove 5 hours to catch a matinee performance and then turned around and drove 5 hours back home again in the same day. David Pittu was amazing and the production was worth every minute of the time we spent to see it. We both have fond memories of that fun little trip.

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:09am

I went to college about 2 1/2 hours out of Chicago. Last year, right around my birthday, I mentioned to a friend that I still hadn't seen Wicked, and neither did he. We had no plans for the day, so he went on-line, bought tickets (as a birthday gift), and we drove down that night.

I was very disappointed in the show, but we had fun.

[Elke]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:12am

I don't have any crazy "last minute flight" stories, but I do fly to NY 4 times a year just to see shows. It's a 7h flight, so that sort of counts, right?

Immigration officers have started to give me weird looks now though... "You were here two months ago. Why are you back already? What, to see Broadway shows? Right." ... Freaks me out every time.

[viola13]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:22am

Not a Broadway story, but when I was studying in Prague, I went to Vienna for one night to see Rebecca. And while visiting a friend in Norway, we found out Chicago was playing in Copenhagen, so we flew out there for a night a couple days later. Neither was really last minute, but going to another country has to count for something, right?

[GottaHaveAGimmick]

Posted: 8/7/09 at 10:29am

Last summer I flew into NYC from Florida on a Saturday morning. Caught the matinee for "Title of Show" and evening performance of "Damn Yankees" at Encores and flew home Sunday morning. Had a blast and will never forget it.