What an amazing weekend! Ryan and I have always wanted to take the girls to New York City around Christmas. It made perfect sense to give Mia front row seats to a Broadway show for her recent 16th birthday. Two perfect opportunities! We headed out super early on a Saturday morning and hit the ground running when we got there.
First up was checking in to our double bunk room at Moxy Times Square. This room was hilariously tiny, but we knew we wouldn't be here a lot (thankfully).
We grabbed a slice of pizza at Ray's for lunch, and then headed over to the Broadway Theater for The Great Gatsby. This was Mia's birthday present as two of her favorites, Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada, are the current leads. We were so excited to see this!
Seriously great seats, front and center.
With our seat location, we could pretty easily see into the pit. It was really cool to watch how the conductor put everything together, so the music was timed perfectly. This show has some great songs to sing and dance along to.
Well, this show was incredible. There was only one problem: neither Jeremy nor Eva performed. Their understudies were called up even though both were scheduled to perform (we had already checked that online). I found the house manager during intermission who told me "I can't promise anything, but they should be back for tonight's show." We made an impulsive decision to give up our Hadestown tickets for that evening, and instead buy another round of Gatsby tickets. We wouldn't typically do something like this, but one, it was Mia's 16th birthday present, and we wanted it to be fantastic, and two, we (ok the girls and I) really wanted the opportunity to see Jeremy Jordan in person.
We walked over to Bryant Park with the intention of getting a bite from one of the food stalls there. It was unbelievably crowded. As in, shoulder to shoulder throughout the entire park. All of us were really put off by that and did not find it enjoyable t all, so we decided pretty quickly to leave and find dinner elsewhere. We found out there is an Al' Antico sandwich shop pretty close by. This was the place we loved in Florence, and it's often called "the best sandwich in the world," so we knew we wanted to go. It's carryout only, so we picked up our sandwiches and walked by to the hotel. They have something of a sitting area outside their restaurant, so we enjoyed our meal here. It was really yummy!
After dinner we headed back to the theater for the evening show. We were lucky that our new seats were on the fifth row. We were really hoping we'd made the right decision.
100% worth it.
Jeremy and Eva were everything we hoped for!
Really, the whole cast was fantastic.
This was a fundraising weekend for Broadway Cares, and one of the items they were selling was a playbill autographed by the entire cast. Mia couldn't resist buying this. What a cool souvenir!
We found out that you can stand outside the stage door after the show and cast members will often come out to say hello, sign playbills, and take pictures. We had to give this a try, and it turned out to be so much fun. So many cast members came by!
John Zdrojeski as Tom Buchanan
Sara Chase as Myrtle Wilson
Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby. He was the only cast member who didn't stop and truly talk or take a picture with each person which is understandable; he would have been there for hours. He was still kind and happy to chat as he walked along.
Eeek! He's coming by!
Eva Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan
Eric Anderson as Meyer Wolfsheim
Dariana Mullen as Jordan Baker
Noah Ricketts as Nick Carraway
What a fantastic first day in the city! It was about midnight by the time we got back to the hotel, and I think we were all ready for a good night's sleep.
On Sunday morning, we stopped for a bagel at "Best Bagel." It just might live up to its name! From here we walked over to The Museum of Broadway. This was a really cool museum, especially for theater lovers. You start with a short movie on how Broadway was built up and became the Broadway we know today. Then you move into the exhibits. It starts with the Zigfield Follies then moves through time to current day. There are so many costumes and props from tons of shows as well as lots of information on how the shows were changing with the times.
West Side Story pharmacy.
Neat area set up for Phantom props and costumes!
Disney was their special exhibit for now. That company knows how to put on a production.
The 70's and 80's hit. I loved seeing the design for my Broadway show which I've always loved: Starlight Express
Annie's original dress!
Hamilton costumes
Beetlejuice and Jack Kelly costumes
Lily and Ryan in The Producers office.
After walking through the show exhibits, you walk down stairs to explore a completely different side of the productions. This had tons of great items in it such as presenting how a show goes from concept to stage, makeup artists and costumers' tricks, stage manager role info, and so much about how technology is used throughout the entire production.
There is so much more to see from these few hours, but I simply couldn't fill up this whole post with those pictures. It really was a great museum.
Soon it was time to have lunch. Times Square was actually pretty quiet, so we decided to make a stop at Bubba Gump's. We had a great spot for people viewing down below. Not exactly what I think of when I consider New York foods, but man, it's always good.
From lunch we walked over to the Jacobs Theater for The Outsiders. We really didn't know much about this production other than it was the most recent Tony winner for best show. We were looking forward to it, and we were excited that we again had front row center seats.
I'm really starting to love these front row seats.
When we bought the tickets we were told we were in the "splash zone." We knew there is a fight scene that takes place in the rain, so we assumed that was the splashing referred to. We did not realize that entire stage is covered in rubber pellets, and the cast is always running and sliding around; as they do, the pellets get sprayed all over the place including all over us! We weren't wrong though. An usher came up to the front row at intermission and said "There's a choreographed fight scene in the rain. It's possible that as the actors are moving around some water or stage blood will be thrown onto you. Don't worry, the blood is totally water soluble and will wash right out."
We were completely blown away by this show. It very quickly has become Ryan and mine's new favorite show. Every one of these actors is incredibly talented. The emotion they could draw out of you was amazing. The rain fight scene rivals Phantom's Masquerade as one of the best choreographed scenes ever. We couldn't stop thinking about it for days, and we're all singing the music weeks later. We're already planning another trip back sometime soon just so we can see this show again, hopefully with the same cast.
We raced out to the stage door when this was over to meet the cast again; we are all beginning to really love this! Every single cast member that came out was incredibly kind. Each took time to really talk with each person, looking them in the eye, and having an actual conversation with them. They took their time and seemed truly appreciative of each person there. It may sound a little corny, but it was really special.
Kevin William Paul as Bob
Jordan Chin as Two-Bit
Brent Comer as Darrel Curtis
Daryl Tofa as Dallas Winston
Emma Pittman as Cherry Valance
John Patrick Collins as Sodapop Curtis
Ahh, this whole show experience was great!
We had just over an hour after this before the evening show, so we walked back through Times Square which was incredibly crowded now, but there's something pretty cool about it all lit up.
None of us were starving, so we decided to have a little snack from Krispy Kreme.
We'd heard they have some special Grinch-themed donuts; they were really cute! Lily was excited to get their Times Square exclusive donut; it looks like a big apple! These were all cute and pretty good.
Soon it was time to walk back over to the Walter Kerr Theater (across the street from The Outsiders) to see Hadestown.
We were supposed to go the night before, but we had sacrificed those tickets to return to Gatsby. Luckily we were able to buy wonderful second row seats for tonight.
Ryan and Lily had a really fun daytrip adventure to see this show over Spring Break, and they'd been telling Mia and me how great it is. We were excited to see this one and know for ourselves if it could live up to the hype. It absolutely did! I loved that this theater is a lot smaller and more intimate. It's a smaller cast, so this just feels right. The turntable on the stage floor is really cool and allows for some great scenes. And man, these actors can sing!
We were excited to go to the stage door afterwards here too. However, only two of the cast members came out this time. They apologized for the others and said "it's the end of a 5 show weekend, and they're exhausted." Very understandable. We really appreciated these two gentleman coming out. They were so sweet and took time to talk with those who stayed.
Timothy Lee from the Workers Chorus
Brandon Cameron as Orpheus
He was the same Orpheus as when Ryan and Lily came though in both that show and this one, he was the understudy. He did an incredible job though, and they enjoyed getting to tell him the story of getting to see him previously; he seemed to love that!
It was pretty late by this point, but we needed a little something to eat. Cane's in Times Square was open, so we stopped in for some chicken fingers, fries, and lemonade. Again, not exactly what I think of for New York food, but it was good and reasonably fast which is what we needed.
We knew we were leaving the next day, so we decided it was worth it to stay up a little longer so we could walk a little bit over to see the Rockefeller Tree all light up. It was so pretty! I'm glad we did this.
We were all pretty exhausted, so we slept in just a bit on Monday morning. We ate a quick bite of breakfast, and then walked over to Radio City Music Hall.
Look how beautiful this massive theater is!
We again had front row seats. I'm really digging this trend!
It might be difficult to see in this picture, but Ryan took a great shot here. It's a reflection of the theater on one of the decorative Christmas balls in the stage garland. I thought this was really cool!
We're practically onstage.
I have loved the Rockettes since I was a child. Ryan and I took Kendall to see this show when we took her to NYC for her high school graduation, and I loved that performance. We were literally on the top row of the balcony then. I couldn't wait to see this show from a very different perspective. These pictures were snuck from Ryan's lap; our actual view was not impaired by the garland at all. I loved our seats; this whole show was fantastic! The Rockettes themselves were of course amazing. However, there were several other dancers and singers that I didn't remember. They added a lot of fun to the show. There is also a really beautiful live nativity scene at the end which was really fun to see.
This is everyone taking their bows at the end. I'm so glad we saw this show!
When it was over, we hustled back over to the hotel in a little drizzle of rain. We grabbed our things, checked out, and jumped in our Uber to head to the airport. This was an exhausting weekend, but in the best possible way! We saw four shows within 48 hours, and each one was absolutely wonderful. I absolutely loved each one for different reasons. The museum was fun, and there's something exciting about being in New York City over the holidays. I am so incredibly thankful our family had the opportunity for this trip!