-Thomas Wolfe
So it's Sunday night after my first weekend living in New York City. Work starts tomorrow and I'm feeling pretty darn good. I wanted to get my time here started with a bang, and I'd say I have.
Saturday, Dan and my studio-mate Emily headed to Times Square for some more exploring. We went to the 13 box office but unfortunately they were sold out of student rush tickets. After some lunch at the Celtic Pub, we decided to walk over to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to see if there were student rush tickets left for the Little Mermaid. There were, and although we were considering going back for Standing Room Only at 13, the ticket agent convinced us to snag the Mermaid seats.
From there, Dan, Emily and I had a bunch of time, so we worked our way north, checking out the tree and rink in Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The World of Disney, the Apple Store and the Plaza Hotel. We went over to Columbus Circle to get an NFT for Emily in Border's, and I was captivated by the light show in the Time Warner Center lobby when these giant crystal lights were synchronized to Christmas music.
Heading back down Broadway to the Theater District, we kept our eyes open for dinner and ended up at Pasta Lovers, which I actually may have been to before. I don't really know. It was tasty though, and soon it was time for the quarter's first night of Theatre!
Once inside the theater we found we had great seats toward the front of the left side of the orchestra, and we found out both Prince Eric and Ariel would be played by the understudies. I wasn't too upset, though, because all that was important was that we got to see Sherie Rene Scott as Ursula. I didn't have huge expectations for the show, but I was actually very impressed. I knew the music would be great, as I have the soundtrack and think Alan Menken hit it out of the park with the additional songs. The Ariel we saw was great and I was struck by how cute she was when she really started having fun at the beginning of the second act. Eric had a good voice, but not a whole lot of power.
Luckily, my girl Sherie did not let me down. She just lays it all out and has a blast hamming up the sea witch. She makes everything look so easy. And Flounder, man oh man, could that kid sing. He owned his part. Really, there were a lot of great characters and performances in the show, especially the Eels, Scuttle, Sebastian and Grimsby.
With those great performances, music, cool sets and special effects it was a great first night on Broadway. The show was made complete by the couple times I looked over at a little 3 or so year-old girl sitting with her parents watching the show with a huge smile on her face the whole time.
Today...well I'll just cut to the chase and say that I ended up getting a student rush ticket to Closing performance of 13. I had to wait in line for an hour and half, but I made a friend talking to the girl in line next to me who worked in costuming. It's nice to be around people who know more about theatre than I do. Anyway, I was pretty much stoked to have a ticket to the final performance of any show, let alone something as highly recommended as 13.
After I got my ticket at noon I strolled through Central Park and grabbed some lunch at a small little cafe/diner on the Upper West Side. Then it was back to the Jacobs Theatre for the show.
I was thrilled to find I had a great seat up in the Mezzanine, and have to admit the theater was mostly made up of teenage girls. For anyone who doesn't know, 13 is a musical about kids turning 13 and dealing with drama and life, and the entire cast and band is made up of actual teenagers. There was a lot of cheering during character entrances and impressive notes, and the energy in the packed theater was contagious. It was definitely a great time. The guy playing Evan was great, as was Archie, and Patrice was amazing. I'm afraid I might be in love with her.
During the song "If That's What It Is," Archie started to lose it, and I was struck by the relevance of the lyrics about putting one foot in front of the other. By the time "A Little More Homework" ended, just about the entire cast was in tears.
After some major dancing in the curtain call, the show's creator and composer, Jason Robert Brown joined the cast on stage. I've heard he's a bit of a jerk, but regardless he's one the best musical theatre composers writing today (...Songs for a New World, Last 5 Years, Parade...) and he started to cry as he said some nice words about hard work and realizing your dreams.
Those were definitely some of the most talented kids I've ever seen and I'm really glad I got to see the show before it closed.
I was already listening to the soundtrack a lot before I saw the show, so that will definitely continue. The songs "Tell Her," "If That's What it Is," and "A Little More Homework" are probably my favorites. I love the line in the latter about looking in the back of the book for the answers. It's easy to feel like we want to know where we're going and what's going to happen in our lives, but at the same time I'm glad we can't. It's that mystery that makes life so exciting.
Tonight, I checked out a church called Apostles which meets Sunday nights in St. George's Episcopal Church. It's cool because the building is a huge cathedral, quite a change from the Crossroads Auditorium. The worship was great, and the message was pretty solid and challenging. Some of the language and service was a little more traditional than I'd prefer, but the community really seems to be engaging and serving the city, which I definitely want to do. I might check out a different church next Sunday morning, but I think I could get a lot out of Apostles.
Alright, now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow work starts, which will hopefully be fun. Maybe I'll have some slow time to be able to play ping-pong or guitar hero there.
This is all still pretty surreal, especially the starting work part. I'm already beginning to fall in love with the little charms of this crazy city. I've only been here for two days. What's going on?
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