The Big Apple

On Thursday, March 29, mom and I flew to New York City for our annual spring break Broadway trip!! We left Colorado Springs at 6:30am and flew to Atlanta. We had an hour layover in Atlanta and then flew to New York. While waiting on the runway in Atlanta we were informed that one of the passengers was feeling ill and that we were going to have to go back to the gate so the passenger could go to the hospital. An hour or so later we were finally on our way! We landed in New York around 3:45pm and were checked-in to the hotel around 5. We quickly unpacked and changed clothes before heading to the Neil Simon Theatre to get tickets for Jesus Christ Superstar. We were able to get discounted student tickets in the first and third rows (my cousin who now lives in Astoria was going to meet us for the show, so we had 2 seats in the third row and one in the first)! After we got out tickets, we went to Ray's Pizza and had a quick dinner before heading back for the 7pm curtain. My cousin Jackie met us at the theatre for her first ever Broadway show!! It was such a neat experience for us to be with her for this special occasion!! I sat in the first row for the first act and then sat with Jackie in the third row for the second act. The show was incredible as always!! I didn't know much about the show going in to it, but was very pleasantly surprised! The guy who played Jesus was absolutely amazing! His vocal range was higher than mine!! Of course, as always we went to the stage door after the show and got photos and autographs. There weren't many other people there, so we got VIP treatment from the actors!! Such a great time! After the show mom and Jackie went to the hotel to get Jackie a jacket and I walked around Times Square to star stalk, but didn't have much luck. Instead, I went to the restaurant where some friends of mine from high school work. I was able to talk to one of them, but the other was not working. We made plans to get together on Saturday morning, and then I went back to meet up with mom and Jackie. We went out for Thai food for dinner and called it a night around midnight. It was a great start to the trip!

The first of four shows!

Josh Young, who played Judas. He has now been nominated for a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a musical!

JESUS! Well, actually Paul Nolan. AMAZING! 

A sculpture on top of a truck in the middle of Times Square. Loved this!

My beautiful cousin, Jackie. 

We woke up around 8:30am on Friday morning and left the hotel around 10am. We went to the box offices for Evita and Newsies and purchased tickets for Friday and Saturday evenings performances. Then we took the subway down to Union Square and shopped at one of the best bookstores I have ever been in! It is called Strand and their slogan is “18 miles of books.” I went to this bookshop last year as well, but this year mom came with me! After we did two bags full of damage, we took a taxi to the Tenement Museum and got tickets for a 3:45pm tour. While we waited for the tour to start, we went and ate lunch at Katz's deli, another place we went last year, but it is way too good not to go back. This is the restaurant that is featured in the famous scene in "When Harry Met Sally" and the sandwiches are just as good as Meg Ryan makes it out to be!! We went back to the museum around 3:15 and shopped in the gift shop before our tour started. The tour we chose focused on sweatshop workers and what life was like back in the late 1800's and early 1900's for immigrants. The museum has taken an old apartment building from back during that time and recreated a few of the apartments to give visitors a feeling of how immigrants used to live. It was a fascinating history lesson! We were finished at the museum around 5:15 and took a taxi back to the hotel, so we didn't have to carry all our stuff on the subway.

I usually hate when people perform on the subway and then beg for money, but these guys were good! Sorry the quality of the video is not the best! 

Probably one of the BEST bookshops I have ever been in, and I have been in quite a few! 

Pretty self-explanatory!

Inside Katz's Deli....Definitely one of the best corned beef sandwiches ever. And the pickles are to die for! 

The Tenement Museum. 

The sign leading into the tenement building. Pretty awesome how the building was so well preserved. 

We rested for an hour or so and then got ready for our second show of the trip, Evita! I was really excited to see this show because of the time Kevin and I have spent in Argentina recently. I also love the music and the show stars Ricky Martin as Che! How can you go wrong with Ricky Martin? I was pleasantly surprised with Ricky Martin, but a bit disappointed with Elena Roger who played Evita. She is an actress from Argentina who has played the role of Evita in London for the last couple years. There was a lot of hype about her, but she didn't quite live up to the hype. Maybe she was having an off night, but she didn't quite do it for me. Oh well, the show was still great and Ricky Martin was wonderful! We went to the stage door after the show and it was nuts!! Fortunately, I got a decent spot right by Ricky Martin's car! While we were waiting for Ricky Martin to come out the stage door, Marc Anthony came out! He was at the show that night and went backstage to see Ricky Martin, and we saw him as he was leaving. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him!! He was very well guarded and protected by security. When Ricky Martin came out he only signed about 20 autographs and I got one of them!! I also got a great picture! It was awesome!!  We decided to try to star stalk at other stage doors again, and this time we were incredibly successful! We went to Porgy and Bess first and got to see Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, the stars of the show! Mom saw this show back in January and I planned to see the matinee the following day, but she didn't get to see the stars because of rain and I knew I wouldn't get to see them because they wouldn't come out between a matinee and an evening performance, so we were very pleasantly surprised to see them on Friday night!! They were both so incredibly genuine! Right next to the Porgy and Bess stage door was the stage door for Nice Work If You Can Get It, a new musical based on Gershwin songs, staring Matthew Broderick. So we waited there for him and got a picture with him too!! It was a great night! It started raining so we went to Junior's to get some cheesecake before heading back to the hotel. It was about 12:30am when we got back to the hotel, but it was such a good day!!

Second show of Four!

Our poster and Signed Playbill.

The whole covered hall was plastered with these giant posters. It was pretty awesome!

Ricky Martin! Just coming out the stage door! 

He looks so adoringly at me :) 

Mom and Norm Lewis from Porgy and Bess. He is nominated for a Tony for Best Performance as an Actor in a Leading Role, and he sure earned that nomination! He was incredible!

Mom and Audra McDonald! She is also nominated for a Tony for Best Performance as an Actress in a Leading Role. Also very much earned and deserved!

Matthew Broderick!! Hopefully we will get to see this show if/when we go back this summer! 

On Saturday morning we left the hotel around 10am again and met some friends for breakfast. We met Chelsea and Ryan at Murray's Bagel's and had a delicious breakfast! The line was out the door the whole time we were there! We went back to Times Square around 12:30 to get tickets for the matinee shows. I wanted to see Porgy and Bess and since mom had already seen that, we decided to split up for one show. I got my student ticket for Porgy and Bess and then we went over to get mom's ticket for Nice Work If You Can Get It. When we got to the box office they only had rear mezzanine seats available, so mom decided to see a different show. She went to see The End of the Rainbow instead. This is a musical about the life of Judy Garland. I don't think it would have been a show that I would have enjoyed, but mom sure liked it. I loved Porgy and Bess!! The story was great and the actors were incredible!! Audra McDonald was phenomenal! It's no wonder she has 4 Tony awards! I skipped out on the stage door experience this time because I knew the big stars wouldn't come out and we saw them on Friday night anyway. Mom and I met up at the hotel and Jackie met us there as well (she came with us to see Newsies). We went to the Newsies lotto to try to get my friend Ryan a ticket, but we didn't win. We got him a regularly priced ticket instead and then went to dinner at the brewery he works at. We met him at the theatre with seconds to spare before the curtain went up. The show was absolutely amazing!! The singing and dancing was unreal! This was by far my favorite show this trip, and what a great experience to see it with Ryan!! If you liked the movie, you will LOVE the show!! We went to the stage door after the show and it was just a crazy as the Evita stage door!! It reminded me of the How to Succeed stage door last year, with Daniel Radcliffe...lots of screaming girls, although these girls were a little older. The majority of them were born in the 80's and grew up with the Newsies movie. I didn't have a great spot, but I was able to get all the autographs I wanted anyway! It certainly was an experience! After the show we went back to Junior’s with Chelsea and Sarah (friends from high school), Ryan's roommate Joseph (Ryan went home early), and Chelsea's friend Nick. We got back to the hotel around 1:30am!! It was another great day!

Chelsea, Ryan, and I. 

Mom and Ryan...Birthday Buddies! 

Show 3 of four

Crazy stage door experience! But I got 'er done!

Jeremy Jordan! He played Jack in Newsies and was incredible! Not bad to look at either! He is also nominated for a Tony for Best Leading actor in a Musical. 

Last show of the trip! From left to right: Nick, Chelsea, Me, Mom, Jackie, and Joseph. The show was a meeting point before we went over to Junior's. 

On Sunday we flew home :(. We were so sad to leave, but are looking forward to going back this summer after the Tony awards! It was s shorter trip that usual, but we had an incredible time!! I love this time I get to spend with my mom and hope that one day I can have the same experiences with my child!!

As we were walking out of our hotel room to go to the airport, the fire alarm went off! The elevators stopped working and we had to walk down 15 flights of steps. It was quite a task for mom, but she was such a trooper! Of course as soon as we made it to the lobby the elevators were back up and running. It was quite the adventure!