Day 2: Tour of Campus

Today, I got to take a tour of the Lincoln Center campus. We got to go in all of the venues, but, unfortunately, the Metropolitan Opera House would only let us visit their lobby (which was so elegant that I really want to go inside to see the house!). The American Ballet is renting the theatre for a while and performances start soon, so I guess they were in the house doing work. That didn't stop us at the Koch Theatre though! We went in and the New York City Ballet was having a tech / dress rehearsal. They were just about to start, so our guide let us stay a bit to watch the whole dance--it was very cool! I always love seeing how theatre works and shows come together! 

New Kid in the Square

 

Today, I started my job as Marketing Intern at the 

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts!

Pretty exciting, no? 

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

What show this season had the most drama? Hint: It is not a play, and its drama wasn't even a part of the script. In fact, it wasn't even in the show; it just surrounded it and kept Broadway followers engaged for months. I am talking, of course, about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. I recently had the opportunity to take in the 2.0 version of this show, complete with new book and new direction. The story pretty much follows the 1st film exactly. Yes, there is some other silliness thrown in, but no converted movie to musical follows its film 100%. Let's start with the best part: the sets. Wow. Can you say anything else? This show was visually stunning. The pop out school, the inked lined drawings, the moving movie screens, the bridges, the subway, the how-did-that-work aerial view of the street-- it was all just, well, stunning--hands down, the best sets I have ever seen. Now, let's talk tricks. Other critics have said that Spider-Man flying over the audience each time gets dull, because it uses the same flying track. Major disagree. It's cool every time he does it. Zipping over the heads of audience members with perfectly timed lights following his every move, what's not to love? The Green Goblin is the major villain now, and he is actually a pretty funny part. His interaction with the audience was priceless and his scene when he got stuck on hold while calling in his threat to the city was was the funniest scene in the show. "Bouncing Off the Walls," an acrobatic scene right when Peter discovers his power, was my favorite musical number. Filled with his new skills, Peter is literally bouncing and flipping and running around the walls before taking to the streets to show off his new found swinging and flipping abilities. Their timing was a little off though. One Spider-Man would be on his last one or two back handsprings across the stage, while the next had already started his aerial trick, causing you to have more than one Spider-Man on the stage. I did also spy a stage hand or two who were assisting with the safety clamps and landings on perches. No big deal. Also, I cannot figure out how their "webs" to catch the bad guys worked. It looked like a whole bunch of ribbons thrown in their faces, but it came out much nicer than them just throwing it without it looking like there was a device. Oh well. While, overall I did love the show, it was peppered with a few "What the hell?!?!" moments. You know what I mean right? They'd be doing something very cool and totally appropriate for a musical that costs a figure that is now over $70 million, and then they'd do something that'd make you think "What the hell?!?!" Examples? The bobbled-headed villains, the wrestling a blow up dummy match, and the creepy "I'll pull you towards me and we'll awkwardly rotate around each other in slow-mo for an uncomfortably long time" scene between Peter and Arachne, just to name a few. That rotating air scene, by the way, takes place during the song "Turn Off the Dark," so while it felt like a completely pointless song with an unnecessary character, it will more than likely stay due to it being the title song. Damn.

Stage door time! I went to get my Playbill signed and got the main bully, Aunt May / teacher, Arachne, and, drum-roll please, Spider-Man! As always, the actors were very nice and extremely thankful. I don't know how the critics will react to the new 2.0 version, but I certainly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who asked.

Movin' On Up

to New York City that is! This weekend, Daddy came with me to help move me into my place in NYC. Flights were fine--on time and everything (which is great! Daddy was super delayed when he went back). We took a taxi to my place and got settled. My room is larger than I thought it would be, and, for some reason, it has two showers. I guess we each get our own bathroom (well, sort of... there are two bathrooms with each their own shower and sink, but only one has a potty)! For dinner on Saturday, we went to Ellen's Stardust Dinner. A touristy spot, I know. But it's so much fun! (Ellen's is the home of singing waiters. After one song, a boy got up to plead for tips. He said, "We all want to work somewhere else. Guess where?" and the table next to us screamed "APPLEBEES!" He didn't seem to think it was funny, but then asked if they knew if they were hiring.). Our waiter finally got up to sing and was fantastic (he sang "Rolling in the Deep"). He took prize for best song of the night (as voted by me), and the waitress who sang "Tomorrow" gets second (close were the boys who while singing backup for a girl broke the curtain off the wall and a stern looking man had to come out and fix it).

Sunday, I wanted to wake up early and go rush a show (You have to get in lines early, way before the bo opens), but Daddy wasn't for that. When he finally got up at 11, I asked if we could go by a Spider-Man while we were walking just in case (to see how many people were there). When we got to the Foxwoods Theatre, there was a line, but not much of one. Since the bo opens at 12 and it was 11:20, we decided we'd wait to see if we could get tickets. After waiting 40 min, the line starts moving and people start coming out with tickets. We were getting so close... and I really wanted one! Finally, we get to the lady, ask for rush tickets, and she hands them to us. We got tickets to Spider-Man! What?!?! Did we really just get tickets to a sold-out show for only $30? Rushing is super awesome! After we put our tickets safely away, we head over to explore the Lincoln Center. It was cold, grey, and misty out, so our photos didn't turn out the best, but we took them any way! I also found where I am supposed to go Monday morning. After looking around the complex, we headed back to Times Square and ate at Famous Daves before our show (it was a 3:00 curtain). After the show (calm down! I didn't forget to review it, I just feel Spider-Man deserves its own post), we went to Max Brenner's for dinner, a healthy, nutritious dinner of chocolate marshmallow pizza. Yum! Then, I had to say goodbye to Daddy (after we stocked up on groceries, bien sûr), so I guess we'll see if I can handle my first day in NYC by myself! (This isn't a really good cliff hanger though, considering I lag in posting and today is actually Wednesday!)

Peter Pan Tech

Here's a shot from the last Peter Pan tech rehearsal, for which I am billed as the "Sound Engineer." Pretty fancy, eh?

(And yes, I made sure to get one with pink fluffy tutus!)

Broadway's Next Big Star

Recently, I submitted a video to a contest called Broadway's Next Big Star. I already had a video filmed that would qualify, so I figured, why not? I didn't expect anything from it, so when I went to check the result page, I was super excited to see that I got an honorable mention. I know it's silly, but it still made my day!

Stage Managing Jazz Concert

Rainy is Normal

Yesterday, I successfully rushed Next to Normal in St. Louis. For this lovely field trip, I managed to convince two other girls to come with me. It's always hard to get people to rush with because you never know if you'll see the show or not. But, I was nice, spared you the drama, and told you upfront that we got tickets (I actually managed to have 4 tickets, but we'll get there). As you can see from my lovely snapshot, it was raining yesterday. Why must it always rain when we go to shows (see Hairspray and Shrek)?  I packed us a little picnic lunch intended for the little park across from the theatre, but we ended up crowding under the lights of the marquee and watching the rain as we nibbled our nutella, Hawaiian sandwiches. When we went in to get our seats, an usher offered us and handed me tickets for floor seats (no, we weren't special, they were doing this for everyone in the balcony), but we opted to stay in our originally purchased seats (and that, my friends, is why I personally have 4 tickets for the show). The show was well performed. We were very excited to get to see Alice Ripley on tour. She won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical in this role in 2009,  so to see her in her award winning performance was a real treat! We made it back safe and sound, and I think I may have created some more future rushers!