Kathy and I have just returned from what amounted to a rather whirlwind trip to New York City. We landed in NYC on Monday morning around 8 – and we took off Wednesday night about 7:30 – so if I’m doing my math correctly, that means that we were on the ground in New York City for just under 60 hours. That might seem like a rather ridiculous proposition, but it’s better than our very first trip there back in August of 2001, when we were only there for 40 hours! On that trip, we had time for only one show: Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun. (It was the famous Bernadette Peters production which later starred Reba McIntyre, but our Annie was Crystal Bernard from the TV show Wings – she was great – and she was opposite the Frank Butler of Tom Wopat from The Dukes of Hazard, who had been in the production from the night it opened.) It was a stupendous night, and it left us hungry for more – much, much more. And when the unthinkable tragedy of 9-11 happened less than a month later, we were even more anxious to return to this great American city and have done so time and time again. And although we have taken in all kinds of tourist attractions, it is the amazing shows we’ve seen here that mean the most to us.
This last time around, we managed to squeeze three shows into two and a half days, and I am so glad because I would have hated to miss any of them. Monday night, after a poignant visit to the 9-11 Memorial and Museum, a light-hearted show like Something Rotten was exactly the kind of show we needed to see. The story is about two brothers who are struggling to create a theatrical hit while working in the formidable and intimidating shadow of the incomparable William Shakespeare. It is after getting some advice from Nostradamus (who seems to be able to look into the future) that they endeavor to create the world’s first musical. The show is chock full of clever “in-jokes” but beyond that is a hilarious book, a plethora of entertaining songs, and first-rate performers. (And the costumes were an absolute feast for the eyes!) And to top it all off, our seats were third row center.
(I took the photo of the curtain; the other two were pulled from Google Images.)
The next night we left behind the craziness 0f Something Rotten for the grace and class of An American in Paris, featuring the magnificent music of George Gershwin. We had heard a rave review of this show from Kathy’s sister Polly, so we walked into the performance with sky high expectations that were fully met and perhaps even exceeded. If you have seen the Oscar-winning film of the same name from 1951, then you pretty much know the story of the musical, although there are some mature and complex subplots woven into it such as wartime resistance to the Nazis and wrestling with one’s own sexual orientation. But the jaunty spirit of the film is here- as is the spirit of its amazing choreography. And it felt like the most decadent sort of extravagance to hear one wonderful Gershwin song after another. (It only underscored the fact that in so many contemporary shows, there are usually very few – if any – songs that leave such a strong impression that you can remember them days, weeks or even months later. Most have very little staying power, at least as far as my aged brain is concerned!) Of course, with a show like this there is the luxury of hearing marvelous songs that you already know, albeit in refreshing new arrangements or perhaps heard in a somewhat different context. And what a privilege to see and hear the exquisite Leanne Cope in the central role of Lise. There were many points during the evening when it was hard not to believe that it was Leslie Caron herself up on that stage.
(photos pulled from Google images)
Last but hardly least was the Wednesday matinee performance of An Act of God by David Javerbaum, with Sean Hayes (Jack on Will & Grace) portraying God. In the play, God has decided to come back to earth to clear up some misunderstandings that human beings seem to have about Him- and actor Sean Hayes ends up being the person whose body God inhabits. (I think God decides that Sean Hayes is a fairly lovable, unthreatening sort of guy- yet famous enough that we’re likely to pay attention.) And although the play is hilariously funny, there is a very serious message at its heart- that humankind has managed to twist some of God’s central teachings …. which is why God decides to lay out a new set of Ten Commandments. (I wish I had written them down; they included Honor Thy Children, Thou Shalt Not Kill In My Name, Thou Shalt Separate Me and State.) The play has just three characters- God, the Angel Gabriel (who reads various passages of scripture when commanded) and the Angel Michael (who goes into the audience in order to bring questions to God- although he ends up posing quite a few questions of his own…. mostly about why God allows such suffering in the world.) This is not a play for everyone, and certain Christians would likely take offense or at least find the play deeply troubling. I found it profoundly thought- provoking in the very best sense of the word, and I am really glad we saw it.
Here’s the kicker: We went right to the box office to order our tickets when our online attempts to do so went awry. And as we chatted with the friendly woman at the ticket window and mentioned that this trip was to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, she offered us two seats in the very front row- which we gladly snapped up. Well…. as the guy sitting in the front row on the right aisle, I ended up being drawn into the proceedings in a way I never imagined. I was the second audience member to whom the Angel Michael approached with his microphone to get my question. He asked me my name – I replied “Greg” in my deepest baritone – and then Michael turned back to God and said “Greg is from Chelsea and he wants to know about why you gave human beings Free Will.” (Or something like that.) Sean Hayes/God then stared at me with a somewhat pained smile before chiding me for not paying better attention at the top of the show when He went through all that – before proceeding with his explanation. A few minutes later in the play, while talking about Noah and the Flood, Sean Hayes/God hints that He will likely have to do some Wiping Out once again- but then quickly reassures us that we will be spare …… everyone except ……. and suddenly the lights go down except for a bright spotlight on me ….. “Greg!” There were one or two other brief moments when he referred to me (and I have to tell you that there was something pretty thrilling about hearing Sean Hayes address me by name from the stage of a Broadway play) but by the time we had crossed the halfway point of the play (it was 90 minutes with no intermission) I was old news and not mentioned again – which was just fine with me. But at the curtain calls, once the three actors had taken their initial bows to our standing ovation, they immediately reached down and began shaking the hands of everyone in the front r0w …. but when they got to Kathy and me, all three reared back as though we were repugnant- and they reached for the Hand Sanitizer that was suddenly onstage behind them in order to disinfect themselves. But then as they took their very last bows, Sean Hayes looked over at us and flashed us a little smile and wink- as though to say “thanks for being good sports.” Are you kidding?!? It was the thrill of a lifetime. And Kathy and I owe the world to that saucy, friendly woman in the box office who gave us those two seats- and yet another reason to love this great city.
(Below: This is us in our front row seats of the Booth Theater- and this is a shot from our vantage point of the set.)
Below: Photos from Google Image- plus a shot we took as Sean Hayes greeted fans afterwards.
P.S. – At one point during this past visit, Kathy and I created a list of all of the shows we have been privileged to see in NYC, and it is an impressive list indeed: Annie Get Your Gun, 42nd Street, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins, The Producers, Gypsy, Light in the Piazza, Curtains, War Horse, Pippin, Wicked, Cinderella, The King & I, Lucky Guy, Porgy & Bess, Nice Work if You can Get It, The Motherf****r with the Hat, The Great Comet of 1812, Doubt <me>, Aida, Memphis, Movin’ Out, 25th Putnam County Spelling Bee <Kathy>, Finding Neverland, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. And along the way, we’ve been blessed to see such amazing performers as Bernadette Peters, Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Cherry Jones, Victoria Clarke, David Hyde Pierce, Kelsey Grammer, John Lithgow, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Chris Rock, Bobby Cavanale, Leo Norbert Butz and Matthew Morrison.