broadway to the beacon

​I am writing this from my flight home from Newark to SFO. Today was the end of my two month spring stint in NYC, and the first time in an apartment we furnished and leased for a year instead of a short term, somewhat disappointing furnished rental. Luckily for me, today’s weather was hot and a bit muggy and it was as if the city was saying to me, “Go home, California girl, you know you can’t handle the humidity!”

As I try to be slightly productive and distract myself from concerns about the state of our home remodel in California on my flight home, I want to give you a full wrap-up of all of the shows (plays, musicals and comedy) we saw during April and May. 

Shows

We ended up seeing a total of ten shows: The Outsiders, Hell’s Kitchen, Just in Time, John Proctor is a Villain, Maybe Happy Ending, The Last Five Years, All the Beauty in the World, Titanique, Buena Vista Social Club and Oh, Mary! My two favorites from this list are Buena Vista Social Club and Maybe Happy Ending. If you are going to be in NY, I would urge you to see both of these. I know you will be influenced by whichever shows win the Tony Awards but no matter who wins what, please put these two shows on the top of your list. 

Here are my thoughts on each of the shows we saw:

* Both Titanique and Oh, Mary! would have been better if I had done some pre-show research. If you know anything about Celine Dion or are willing to learn, Titanique is very funny and clever. After the show, I had to google “does Celine lick her hand?” and “does Celine Dion think she was actually on the Titanic?” You don’t need to know a lot about Mary Todd Lincoln to experience Oh, Mary! but be prepared for a manic 80 minutes with no intermission to calm down and breathe. If you are uncomfortable with Abe Lincoln being portrayed as a foul mouthed, closeted gay man, this show is not for you. 

* I enjoyed The Outsiders but then saw Hell’s Kitchen two days later and it made The Outsiders seem a bit stale. The book was pivotal for a lot of people who grew up in the 1980’s and the movie was possibly even more important pop culture because it was chock full of fresh faces like Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze and Emilio Estevez.  If you were a tween like me, you could not decide which one of those actors you loved more. Flash forward 40 years later and a story about rich, white kids in their letterman’s jackets beating up on the poor kids in Oklahoma does not feel as relevant. Whereas Alicia Keys’ story of how she grew up NYC and was influenced by her single mother, talented but absent father, her neighbor who taught her to play the piano and a secret relationship with an older guy tied together with her music and amazing choreography, felt more authentic and fresh.

* All the Beauty in the World is a one man show taken directly from the book of the same name. Patrick Bringley wrote this short book about his experience being a security guard at the Met. I am currently reading the book which is better than the show but that’s almost always true. Both are intriguing as Bringley brings together his experiences of having his beloved brother die from cancer in his twenties and his attempt to manage his grief and intense need for reflection while standing guard over thousands of deeply beautiful and precious works of art. This is a quiet show and, based on the audience when we went, skews towards an older crowd.

* I do not want to give away too much about John Proctor is a Villain but I definitely recommend it. The main theme touched me very personally and I will be thinking of the choices they made with this story for a long time.

* We saw The Last Five Years with our former babysitter Ashley who was visiting NY on business from Nashville. I met Ashley when she was an 18 year old student in my economics class at Foothill College and she started babysitting for us when our daughter was just two years old. Twenty plus years later, she is married with two kids and has never been to a Broadway show. She was determined to see The Last Five Years because she loved the movie and explained to us after the show that we probably would have understood the story better had we seen it ahead of time. Nick Jonas stars in one of the two lead roles and, immediately after the show ended, we unanimously agreed that he was out sung by his co-star.

* My daughter got us fabulous seats to Just in Time, a musical about the life of Bobby Darin. Like Here Lies Love, the show about Imelda Marcos, the entire theater is used as part of the stage and the actors perform from all corners of the room. I love this innovative use of space as it makes everyone in the audience part of the production and keeps the energy level high. I will see any play with a Glee alumni as the star and Jonathan Groff was excellent in the lead role (ok, maybe not as excellent as he was as King George in Hamilton but as good as he was as a FBI agent hunting serial killers in Netflix’s Mindhunter.)

* Maybe Happy Ending stars another Glee alumnus, Darren Criss. This show is visually stunning and, although I know almost nothing about sets and stage production, I am rooting for it to win a Tony for Best Scenic Design in a Musical. Given some of the disturbing predictions about the future of AI, this story about robots is entirely relevant but also very touching. I know some of you are probably turned off by a musical about bots but take a leap. There is a lot of good stuff here.

* I feel strongly that Buena Vista Social Club is a perfect musical. The music, choreography, acting, story line were all exactly what you hope for when you buy a ticket to the theater and race through a meal to see an evening show. I am not a typical Broadway fan in that my all time favorite show is Avenue Q but I was swayed to see Buena Vista Social Club by the Tony nominations. I enjoyed the show so much, I will be playing the soundtrack on repeat for the foreseeable future – something I haven’t done since I saw Hamilton for the first time eight years ago.

* I heard very mixed reviews for Good Night, and Good Luck, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Glengarry Glen Ross. Some said they were each amazing but more people said they were a bit boring. I did happen to talk with two people (one at tennis and one at pickleball) who happened to be at Good Night, and Good Luck the night Michelle and Barack Obama attended with George Clooney’s wife Amal and they were far more blown away by these celebrity sightings than by the play itself.

​Comedy

​With our new location in Columbus Circle, I made a point of getting a bunch of tickets to see shows at The Beacon Theater on Broadway and 72nd. In an earlier post, I gave you a wrap up of Nikki Glaser and hopefully did not scare anyone off with the use of the “v” word. 

In mid-May, we also went to see John Oliver and Seth Meyers. The two of them have a once-a-month, Sunday night residency at The Beacon that will hopefully continue for a long time. If you are not a fan of Last Week Tonight, then I would suggest skipping this part of the post. I am a HUGE John Oliver fan and so are my husband and kids. We were so psyched to see John Oliver live that we had no expectations about Seth Meyers. Luckily, both comedians were really excellent. After their individual acts, they came on stage together and did a Q&A with the audience. You know someone is truly funny when they can take random questions and respond without any preparation. A three-hour show on a Sunday night is a big stretch for a lot of people but if you are a fan of either John Oliver or Seth Meyers, this is my number one recommendation for things to do when you visit NYC. 

The last show I saw during my stay in NYC was a comedian named Heather McMahan. I know this is becoming a sub theme of this post but once again I had no idea what I was getting into ahead of walking into the theater and was pleasantly surprised. Heather McMahan has a similar style to Nikki Glaser but even more self-deprecating about her lady parts. Like Nikki Glaser’s show, the audience was very female heavy and were incredibly fired up to be there and participate in the show. My daughter commented that it felt like Heather McMahan has a cult-like following and we had been missing out on the movement she is building. Given that I originally thought we were seeing Heather McDonald, a comedian I am intrigued with because she lives and frequently discusses MY valley (the San Fernando Valley in LA County), I am so glad I stumbled onto this bombastic Heather and her steam roller act. 

Finally, I need to say thank you to all of the East Coast locals that kept me company while I was on my own the last two and half weeks and also gave me so many recommendations for places to go and things to do. Adrienne, Melissa & Eric, Randi, Julie & David, Susie & Jay, Kyra, Isa & Skylar: you guys are the absolute best NYC ambassadors! To all of our visitors from California and my friends who have yet to visit, please come see us in the fall!