Squish It All In

My daddy often says that when we visit cities we do more in one day than a normal tourist does in a week. This Saturday was definitely one of those days. First, my roommate and I went to the Pier to see all the ships and booths that were here for Fleet week (best booth was Wicked- I got a lip balm, and when I opened it, it was green and sparkly! Nice promo item!).

We then headed to Time Square and went by Condé Nast (where my roomie is interning), Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's (where we saw a bride walk down the aisle!), and Bryant Park. Having some time, we decided to try lotto for Wicked. Ha! There were over 200 people there easily, and they only drew for 13 tickets. Obviously, we did not win. On my list of shows to see was a play called Arcadia, so I asked her if it was ok if we went by the bo to ask about their student ticket policies (it was just two streets down). I asked the man what if they had student tickets. He said "Yes." I asked when you can get them. He said "Until 8." What? Do you mean I can get a student discount rush ticket right now at 6:40 on a Saturday? "Yes." Cool! We went ahead and got tickets, and they turned out to be in the first row of the balcony, slightly stage right. Due to the small size of the theatre, we were very close to the stage, probably the closest I've ever been to the stage (not counting stage seats for SA).

The show was very smart. I'm glad I studied it before seeing it, otherwise I feel I would've been lost. The stage door was different from others in the past. There was no line- just a bunch of people standing around. You had to make sure you grabbed someone coming out or else they got lost in the mix (I missed Thomasina, but got pretty much everyone else). I really wanted to get Raúl Esparza (tick, tick...BOOM!) and Billy Crudup (Big Fish). Raúl came out and went straight to his car; I felt sad, but then he turned and said "Don't worry! I'm just putting my bag in the car!" YAY! So, I got a hug and photo with Raúl. We were wondering if Billy Crudup would come out, but he did, and I got to snag a photo with him too! Talk about a successful stage door! Oh, and add a Broadway show and stage door to the list of all the tourist things we did today!