Each time we go to New York we try and figure how to squeeze as much out of it as possible in a limited amount of time. This past trip we successfully squeezed every last drop of NYC and made sure to make the most of it. NY was originally planned for just Grant and his parents, but he asked me to tag along so we could all be together. At the time we were planning this rendezvous I had just gotten my new job at CAMFT so I was a bit unsure of the amount of time that I would be allowed to take off. To combat this we decided that Grant would leave on Friday and I would leave on Saturday.
Grant had a pretty innocuous trip with a brief layover in Chicago before he finished in NY at night. My flight was with Alaska and it had a rocky start. For some reason, when you book the super cheap flight with Alaska they don’t assign you a seat until you are literally in front of the gate agent. This of course resulted in any decent seats being taken and only the middle seat remaining. The silver lining in this was that the couple that I shared my row with and gambled and booked the aisle in the window. Their hope was that they would have the middle themselves. Of course, when I showed up they were disappointed, but graciously allowed me to have the aisle seat.
The only other memorable moment about the travel was at the end when the flight attendant came around offering additional snacks. The “husband” asked for a cheese plate. The flight attendant then asked if I wanted anything and I said that I would take a cheese plate as well. Unfortunately, the cheese plate the husband ordered was the last one. He graciously offered to take a Protein pack instead. As a response to this goodwill gesture, I offered to pay for both mine and his. The flight attendant so moved by the actions decided to waive the fee for both items. Eventually, the pay it forward idea works on airplanes!
I arrived at 3 pm in Newark and made my way into the city. I dropped off my backpack and met up with Grant who was waiting in the lobby for me. The hotel was nothing fancy, but the location was in the heart of Time Square, which made going to the shows extremely easy. Grant had just gotten out of a show called Okay Cupid, but he commented that the show was half full and clearly lacking in the substance department. We stumbled upon this COMP ticket on Goldstar and so $12 for a show on Broadway is probably a good indicator of the quality.
Our first show was off-broadway called Contact High. It was really off-broadway in a small theater. It turned out to be more of young adult production revolving around an individual who had a fear of being touched and drugs. The two never really melded together so I am not sure why both were being addressed. My biggest complaint was that it was a small theater and they gave the actors microphones. They literally could have talked with their normal voices and the back of the audience would have been able to hear them. When they projected the walls shook and I was afraid for my eardrums. Bad singing is one thing, but bad singing at high volume is potentially hazardous! Haha.
Immediately following this we went and saw Betrayal. Originating in the West End, this story dealt with a husband’s best friend having an affair with his wife. It starred Charlie Cox as the cheater and Tom Hiddleston as the dutiful and oblivious husband. What was twisted about this performance was that the story progressed backward. So at the introduction we found the cast 2 years after the affair ended and dealing with the consequences of actions we had yet to find out about. I loved it as this was literally three people on a stage with two chairs. The acting was superb. What made it even more enjoyable was that Grant earlier in the day was able to get us rush tickets in orchestra for only $40. Well worth every cent in my opinion!
Having only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before or same day…it was all kind of a confusing blur…I was entering a point of delirium. After eating dinner we found a bakery and cookies sounded amazing. The place was called Schmuckery and they had exotic flavored cookies. Instead of getting one or maybe two Grant and I got a half dozen to have a cookie tasting party to end the night. My favorite was the coconut white chocolate, while Grant inhaled the chocolate chip.
The next morning we were slow to rise, but eventually got dressed and met up with Grant’s parents for lunch at Jekel and Hyde. It was a horror-themed restaurant that had “an actor” and animatronics throughout. Think Chucky Cheese meets some classic horror nerds fantasy. The combo was an unforgettable lunch with actually pretty decent food, which may have been the biggest surprise of all. During the lunch we procured tickets to Hadestown for Grant and I’s afternoon show as well as Tootsie for Grant and his mom to see the next day.
Hadestown was amazing. We had perfect seats in the middle of the orchestra and for whatever reason the seats in front of us were vacant (the only ones in Orchestra). Grant was excited when I point out Jennifer Tilly was there who is known for her excellent work on Liar Liar and Bride of Chucky. Going in Grant was a bit skeptical because the premise was strange. Essentially it was the story of Orpheus and Eurydice who sang a song to reunited with his love who was in the underworld. Not something that sounds exciting, but add a full band and a New Orleans jazz theme and you have an 8-time Tony winner.
The show got out around 7 and the final show of the evening was Moulin Rouge. A hot ticket item right now and sold out for months. This was the one show Grant requested to see so we wanted to make sure we got to see it. With less than hour to show time and no tickets in hand I was getting a bit nervous as this was close even for our standards. We waited patiently in the canceled ticket line with the hopes of securing tickets. Grant and I stood 6th and 7th in line when the box office attendant stated he expected there to only be six tickets. So we got out our phones and purchased last-minute mezzanine tickets for half the price they were being offered early that day. With it being an instant download we waved goodbye to the friend we had made in line and simply went from the cancelled line into the theater.
The set was absolutely amazing. The story was similar to the movie. The music was atrocious. Instead of creating their own music they utilized songs from current artists like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Adele and mashed them up to fit the story. To me…and the people around me…it didn’t work. In fact, the girl that was sitting next to me who was scoffing the majority of the first half didn’t even bother coming back for the second half. A clear disappointment, but a success to see a play that was clearly difficult to see.
Afterward, we met up with Grant’s mom, Carol, who had wanted to see Chicago instead. Not a bad decisions considering the scathing comments Grant and I shared walking to pick her up. We found her leaving the theater and then went to NY’s Little Italy for some good Italian food. Our normal stomping grounds is La Mela, which is a whole in the wall Italian restaurant that is open to 3am. This was the first time we visited this place not after getting off a plane starving so the food was good but not as good as it usually is with us starving. We all parted ways and went to bed on full stomachs.
My final morning in NY, Grant and I woke up and tried to come up with a game-plan for the day. We originally discussed going to Coney Island, but after reviewing the time requirements we decided against it. After picking up Carol, instead we walked through Central Park and after a bit of bad navigation on my part ate a restaurant in the park called Tavern on the Green. Carol mentioned that she had heard of it before, but Grant and I were clueless. Fortunately we were full as we would need the energy to climb our next stop—the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge itself was just okay in my opinion, but having climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge has caused my expectations to be abnormally high compared to others. This was the last point for me as when I got to the end of the bridge I called an Uber to get a ride to the airport. Grant went back and met up with his mom and finished the trek. The plane took off on time and nothing adventurous to report.
The next morning I woke up to several messages from Grant who was all excited about the Tootsie show he saw with his mother. He absolutely loved the show and even got to take a picture with the lead actor. Needless to say he was much happier about this musical than Moulin Rouge. In the end, I saw 4 shows in 52 hours and Grant saw 6 shows in about 70 hours so I think we maximized our time wisely and saw as much as we could in the time we gave ourselves there. Well done.
