Here She Is, World

Theater Trip 2: Escape to New York

Hello again!

Call me Ace Frehley’s best solo song, because I’m back in the New York Groove! Or at least I was a few weeks ago when I took another extended trip to the Big Apple to enjoy as much theater as I could. There were some shows with limited runs or in threat of closing soon that I wanted to see, I had vacation time to use, and travel costs and theater tickets were way cheaper in the cold doldrums after the holidays. So off I went!

Well, before I went to New York, I went to Rosemont. While I could take a rideshare to O’Hare from my apartment, leaving my car street-parked for a week concerns me, and just the logistics of getting up and ready and to the airport on time make me far too anxious, so I chose a Park, Sleep, and Fly option where I could stay the night at a hotel, keep my car parked there, and take their shuttle to the airport in the morning. So that’s how I found myself on a Monday evening staying at an airport Wyndham, having dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse next door, and watching the College Football National Championship game in my hotel room, living my best middle-aged businessman, divorced dad life.

I flew into LaGuardia and took the free city bus that goes directly from the airport to a subway station in Queens. The hardest part is getting my suitcase through the turnstile and down some stairs, but I’ve always had plenty of space on the E train that takes about 30 minutes to get to 50th Street, two short blocks from my hotel.

The Civilian Hotel is maybe a little too hipstery for me and my purposes, but it’s perfectly located for Broadway shows and the staff are always really nice. We do need to have a national dialogue about hotel showers, though. Because those weird tubs with the like glass half-door are bad enough, but this one had no curtain or door on the shower at all. Just “Hello, Dolly!” No shower curtain, but they invested in heated floors for the bathroom, which was a nice luxury.

Much like my last trip back in April, I did a lot of research ahead of time so I would know which shows I should buy tickets in advance for and which I could reliably get tickets for through digital lotteries or same-day rush. Playbill.com has a thorough list of lottery and rush policies for every Broadway show. The Broadway Reddit forum is also a great resource to find out which shows have been popular, how busy the rush lines have been, and if there are any big casting changes coming up that might affect ticket availability.

The new adaptation of Romeo & Juliet starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler is a limited-run show in a smaller theater and has been selling out consistently, so I bought my weeknight ticket for that early. I also saw that the off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors was having an online flash sale a few weeks before I left, so I bought that in advance too.

The cold weather and slow time of year made in-person rush very easy and even better than when I visited in the spring. Back then, I would try to get in line around 8:30am and ended up being about 15th-20th in line for a theater’s box office, which opens at 10am. This time I arrived around 9:30am and was about 10th-12th in line, and the theaters were kind enough to let people wait in the warm lobbies instead of out in the cold. I was even able to get an amazing box seat for Gypsy after 10am after rushing another show. I had great seats for all of these, and all for $40 - $50 each.

View from box seat for Gypsy

By Saturday, I was too tired to get out for in-person rush, so I relied on the TodayTix app’s digital rush options. They have a good selection of shows to choose from, but they also all go on sale at the same time, so you have to do a bit of searching around and refreshing. It will look like no tickets are left, but someone might be holding them and then give them up. I eventually grabbed a ticket for a play I really wanted to see.

And by Sunday, I had saved so much during the week, I felt okay to splurge on a few things that I wanted to see but didn’t have rush or any good cheap ticket options.

Now for the shows:

Little Shop of Horrors - A perfect fun, first night show. This off-Broadway revival has been running for just over 5 years now, and they keep finding amazing replacement casts to keep it fresh. For them to be this far into the run, and to just now have musical theater great Sherie Rene Scott (Aida, The Last Five Years) as Audrey is so exciting. Her “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly, Seymour” were so moving. Nicholas Christopher is a new Broadway name, but his energy and physical comedy made for a a great Seymour, and character actor Reg Rogers was a perfect Mushnik.

Maybe Happy Ending - Loved this charming new musical about androids falling in love, or as the quintessential New York woman behind me in line summed it up, “It’s about robits.” Helper-bots Oliver and Claire are neighbors in an apartment complex for “retired” robot servants. Thrown together by their struggles with failing chargers and life as “no longer supported versions,” they grow closer as they navigate life and what it means for helper-bots who can no longer help and have outlived their explicit purpose. Darren Criss is very fun and gives a great physical “robotic” performance, whereas Helen J. Shen, playing a slightly newer model, gets to be a little more human and vulnerable, and her voice is incredible with the score. Also loved the whole design of this show, with the setting of a slightly futuristic Korea coming through in beautiful projections and moving sets (there’s a sweeping musical moment with some “fireflies” that brought me to tears) while Oliver’s love of jazz crooners provides a touch of swinging 60s style.

Gypsy - Not to sound like I was an emotional wreck for the whole trip, but sitting in my shockingly good box seat at the beautiful Majestic Theatre, looking around at the full house on a Wednesday night, hearing the orchestra play the iconic overture (even while people talked through half of it), I teared up a bit with awe and gratitude. I’m so lucky I got to see six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald’s powerful performance as Mama Rose. Some people don’t love McDonald’s casting because her operatic soprano is very different from the belting voice usually associated with the part, starting when Ethel Merman originated the role on Broadway. While I found McDonald’s acting incredible, I will admit that I wish she had finished the powerhouse closing song, “Rose’s Turn,” with a little more brashness. But I still gave her a spontaneous standing ovation along with the rest of the crowd. Hard to beat a classic musical starring an absolute legend.

Romeo + Juliet - I had read many mixed-to-negative reviews on this Gen Z-focused take on the Shakespeare classic, so I didn’t really know where I would land. Having seen it now, I totally get why some people wouldn’t like it, but I had an absolute blast. This is the original text, but with modern costumes, tongue-in-cheek props (the stage opens with a shopping cart full of teddy bears), and some original pop music, written by Taylor Swift’s frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff. The one constant positive I had seen in reviews was the performance of Heartstopper star Kit Connor as Romeo, and he did not disappoint. He just has that grasp of Shakespeare’s language to make it come alive, and to quote a great tweet I saw, he is in fact “one of our great yearners.” While Rachel Zegler as Juliet doesn’t make the text “sing” in quite the same way (although Juliet doesn’t really have the same poetic language as Romeo), she absolutely shines when she does get the chance to sing, and her chemistry with Connor is totally charming.

Yes, that’s a shopping cart full of teddy bears.

The entire young cast has great energy, and the use of the space in Circle in the Square Theatre capitalizes on this. They’re running around the circular in-the-round stage, spilling out into the aisles, and performing scenes up in the catwalks. The absolute highlight is the famous balcony scene with Zegler in a bed suspended from the ceiling while Connor runs around the whole theater, monologuing to people in the standing room area about his new love, culminating in a running jump to hang from the bed and then pull-up for a kiss. The second act is not as fun and feels longer, just by nature of the play, but I loved the first act enough that I went back to see it a second time on Sunday.

Sunset Boulevard - Another very stylized production of a lesser known show, but one that has been mega successful thanks to an incredible star performance. This Andrew Lloyd Webber musical adaptation of the great Billy Wilder noir film has a really rocky history, but this revival has been a huge hit. The absolute star of the show is Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond. Yes, that Nicole Scherzinger. The Pussycat Doll and Masked Singer judge is incredible. The control and power in her vocals are unreal, and then she gives such a funny, weird, and raw performance as a fading Hollywood star. I saw understudy Diego Andres Rodriguez go on for the male lead and thought he was terrific. Have to shoutout David Thaxton as Norma’s lumbering butler with many secrets. Another powerhouse voice! Besides the performances, the other major draw of this production is its unique look and design. The stage is bare and all black and the costumes are pretty basic black and white street clothes, but the “wow” factor comes from the use of handheld cameras and a giant projection screen. For a show about Hollywood and a delusional fading star, the added cinematic element makes perfect sense. Act 2 opens with an extended tracking shot of Rodriguez walking through the backstage area before emerging on the street outside where he then performs the show’s title song while strolling by other theaters, all in tune and in time to re-enter the theater through side doors and conclude the song on stage. It’s an incredible feat of production unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

Drag: The Musical - This was a super fun off-Broadway show starring some Drag Race all stars and featuring more heart than you might expect. It’s a pretty simple story about two exes who own rival drag bars across the street from each other, and the hilarity and drama that ensues. Nick Adams, who I loved in the movie Fire Island, stars as Alexis Gillmore, a drag queen and bar owner facing some serious financial problems and forced to call on her estranged brother Tom (played by Rent OG Adam Pascal) for help. Tom begrudgingly comes to help, with his young son in tow, and all three must face the past and the real reasons that led to their estrangement. On the lighter side of things, Drag Race alum Jimbo plays competing bar owner Miss Kitty, who struggles to keep her girls happily employed in her less popular bar. The most fun is when each bar’s queens cross one another and trade barbs and bars. Turns out some of those girls can’t just lip synch for their lives, they can sing too! Jujubee, Lagoona Bloo, Luxx Noir London, and - my personal favorite drag name - Jan Sport were all so much fun to watch and gave great performances. Oh, and Adam Pascal got one big rock song about being a straight guy amongst the drag queens, and it was so amazing to hear him sing live.

English - I absolutely loved this funny, smart, and insightful Pulitzer Prize-winning play about learning the English language and what all that entails. The show takes place in 2008 Iran in a class for adult learners studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language. The instructor Marjan encourages the students to only speak English in class, and we hear their stilted, heavily-accented English as they try, but when they do slip back into Farsi, the actors speak much faster, unaccented English, showing just how much more comfortable one is in their native tongue. Each student has their own reasons for taking the TOEFL and various feelings about the English language and what passing that test will mean for them and their future. The most conflicted and headstrong is Elham, played wonderfully by Tala Ashe. Needing to pass the test in order to attend medical school in Australia, Elham struggles in class and feels resentful as someone who has successfully passed the MCAT to have this language make her sound and feel dumb. She repeatedly clashes with Marjan, who goes so far as to say that she prefers herself in English, and they struggle to communicate and understand each other in any language. There are also so many funny moments pointing out the contradictions in language and how pop culture can be a way to approach the language. There’s an excellent scene where a student does a close analysis of the lyrics to Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs.”

All In: Comedy About Love - This was a really charming evening of sweet stories and funny performances from some great comedy stars. All In is a collection of stories, all about various forms of love, written by former SNL writer Simon Rich and performed by a rotating cast of big names. I had seen pretty mixed reviews of this, mainly from people who thought it was going to be more of a play than a storytelling event, but when I saw the cast for the time that I would be in New York, I decided I needed to check it out: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Aidy Bryant, Andrew Rannells, and Nick Kroll. They sit in chairs and read from scripts, but they each brought great energy and fun to their various stories. Andrew was a wonderful pirate, Lin and Aidy were perfect for a baby noir, and Nick was hilarious as the Grim Reaper…who did a little acting back in high school. Married musical duo The Bengsons provided lovely musical interludes with covers from The Magnetic Fields’s album 69 Love Songs. This was a charming, fun way to end the whole trip.

I won’t go totally into what I ate, mostly because I just tried to find decent things that I didn’t have to travel too far in the cold for, but I will say that the slow season in theater also coincides with the slow season in dining because I happened to be in town for Restaurant Week, which meant many restaurants were offering more affordable prix fixe menus. I only indulged in one of these, but I had an incredible meal at French brasserie Marseille comprised of a winter risotto, a delicious fish dish, and this lovely creme brulee.

I wanted to find a really good bagel, but all of the most popular ones were far away. I finally gave in and tried Hudson Bagel, a shop close to my hotel with decent reviews but nothing really glowing. I got their Nova special sandwich, and it was incredible! There’s a nice lesson to end on: you don’t need to find the most viral thing everywhere. If there’s a good crowd and repeat customers, then it’s probably pretty good.