Posted: 11/14/15 at 3:31pm
Inspired by BroadwayBabyWannabe's post, I thought I'd report on my NYC trip from this past week.
I'll try to be brief for once and leave any major talk on each show in their respective thread. This trip was planned by my fairly recently new step father--for me, mom, him, my twin sis, his son and his daughter-in-law to all meet up in New York, and he paid for travel and hotel, so much of the time we were together and I knew I wouldn't be able to run off and do as much as I would have liked to. Still, it's rare for me to be able to travel to NYC, so I had to take advantage as much as possible (I'm currently living in Victoria BC.) And for the most part it worked out wonderfully.
We got their late afternoon and my step dad was set on seeing the New York Philharmonic. I like classical music, but it wasn't a priority for me, but it meant a lot for him to have us all go so, while sleepy from the long plane trip (lots of connecting flights,) we saw a Mozart selection at Avery FIsher... sorry Geffen Hall. I'm not a big Mozart fan outside of his operas, but I admit it was great to be in Lincoln Center, having only ever seen it on PBS before.
The next night we split up--Neil and his side of the family went to Tosca at the Met (and similarly I would have loved to have seen something at the Met, but opera wasn't a priority for me) whereas my twin sis, mom and I went to Fun Home, which *was* the one can't miss show for me--seeing as I've been obsessed with it since basically the original workshops were announced (I don't think Neil would have liked it anyway.)
Absolutely spectacular--I was foolishly worried about our seats since we bought all our tickets relatively last minute, but we were in fourth row in the middle of one of the long sides which was perfect. I can't say enough for the staging (I respectfully disagree with Someone in a Tree in that other thread who says all of the best parts of Fun Home can be gathered from the cast album--I found the staging thrilling and unbearably moving.) The "new" small Alison was terrific I thought, and looked more her age for whatever it matters than what I've seen of Sidney on TV. It was Michael C's birthday so they had a cute singalong at the end. Anyway--the highlight of a few highlights of my trip.
We split up the next day but I had only recently found out that First Daughter Suite was playing--even being a massive LaChiusa fan, I only heard about it a few weeks back. I ended up meeting up with an ex poster from here who I've been friends with for years and his bf and we went to a matinee (which worked out as I think no one else in my group had any interest in it.) Thrilling--I loved the material but it was equally thrilling for me to see so many of my fave theatre actresses "live" for the first time and so close. Afterwards my friend took us out to a great vegetarian restaurant and for drinks (though honestly I have no idea why I was worried that we would end up in a lot of restaurants without vegetarian food.)
The next show was one my mom had asked me to choose for all of us a few weeks in advance--and given the different tastes, I was kinda nervous but Neil likes Gershwin, my mom loves dance and so American in Paris seemed like a safe bet (plus I am a huge Christopher Wheeldon fan from his ballet work.) I found i thrilling--I can quibble about some of the book (Henri's gay, right?) But I do agree with Someone in a Tree on this--it was a great example for me of just a perfectly staged musical, and a *dance* musical in the true sense of the word at that. Great performances (I had no idea that some faves of mine like Veanne Cox were in it,) great design, I am completely won over and, though I shouldn't in hindsight be shocked by this, it was the happiest surprise of my trip.
I managed to catch on my own a performance of Fool for Love since I'm a big Sam Rockwell, and Sam Shepherd fan. I didn't know the play (or the Altman movie,) and while I wouldn't rank it among my fave of his plays, I was happy to have chosen to see it (and gotten a cheap last minute ticket.)
The last show we saw, another one I was asked to choose for all seven of us, was Curious Incident. I liked it a lot but, and maybe this is because I had read the book when it came out, I wasn't quite as won over as everyone else seems to be (or maybe I was worn out of shows by then.) For me the top highlight was the use of movement and the design.
The only other theatre related thing I managed to do was something I've dreamed of doing for years. While my sister and mom and others shopped, on a whim (I should have planned an appointment weeks back,) I checked out the TOFT NYPL collection to see if I could finally view the 1972 Hal Prince Company tour video they host there--the one video they have in their huge archive I've always wanted to see, being obsessed with that production. Apparently I walked in right at the right time and honestly, while I had to quickly apply for a temporary library card, it was extremely easy--I just had to show them my university student card and they asked no questions as to why I was viewing it. Thrilling (I might make a post about my thoughts on seeing the original production--albeit with the tour cast--on here.)
Otherwise, there wasn't a lot of time. I would have liked to have seen more museums but I spent a wonderful few hours at the Frick, and managed to spend a fun night with my sister going to the various bars including Marie's Crises in the Village (which led to an... interesting encounter lol.) My biggest disappointment is I had other friends from online who I hadn't met before who we tried to make plans with, but the timing just wasn't right (and there wasn't enough time...)
I would have of course liked to have seen a few shows I missed--the one I am most sorry about missing is King and I, but actually the assortment of shows I did see seemed to complement each other--my three faves, FIrst Daughter, American in Paris and especially Fun Home all were so different from each other.
Also, after being on this forum so much, I admit I was worried about how bad New York audiences might be. Granted most of the shows I saw weren't huge tourist shows, but... The only one that seemed like it might be trouble was Paris, which was packed (3pm matinee on Sunday.) In the lobby there was a lot of pushing, etc--but honestly I didn't even hear a phone ring. We also seemed to have picked a good time to go because we had good seats for all of the shows.
I hope it'll be less than a few years before I'm back.
