A Story of Melanie and the Theatre

I think I mentioned it enough that no one could miss it (I was really excited!), but Melanie, my coworker, and I went to NYC this past weekend. We left Saturday morning (hi, red eye flight!) and came home last night. It was quick, but wonderful.

Despite spending most of the time in theatres, this post will probably be reasonably picture-heavy.



We started our day in the city by taking a nap. I'm glad we did as we were out very late and Melanie doesn't sleep on planes. The first real plan on the agenda was getting lunch. Melanie has someone thinking of her. (o:


The next order of business was finding theaters. The first show we saw was Wicked. Here's Melanie in Times Square. You can see the Wicked sign telling us which way to go.


I kept seeing signs and advertisements for Ragtime. I am so, so excited to see that one as well.


We found it! We're pretty amazing.


Inside the theater at intermission. We sat next to this lady from Idaho and her friends from Pennsylvania. They were very nice people except for one of her friends didn't get the jokes until at least five seconds after everyone else got them. Then he would clap and laugh loudly to an audience that had moved on. It was really odd.

We loved, loved the show, though. Everyone was, as one would expect, exceptional. Only, we missed the stage dooring time. So that was sad.

After the show, we shopped (purses! Everywhere. Not for me, though), ate and headed out for the Linda Eder concert (which is really the reason we went out there in the first place). Fun thing about that concert, it looked really close on the map, but a $100 cab ride in the pouring rain later proved that assumption to be incorrect. The concert was held at Long Island University. Yes, in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. At least far from the city. We arrived stressed about how to ever get back, so I didn't take any pictures.

The show was also great. I wanted more Linda, but, oh well. (o: Very worth the trip, in any case.

After the show we wanted to stage door, but the people said they weren't doing that. The security guys at the actual stage door seemed to prove this was a true statement. No autographs, no pictures, nothing to show! That is now two stage door fails.


I did take this picture of a gondola statue (it was cute) as we were walking to meet our car to take us back. So this statue represents an entire concert.


The drive back was also an adventures. Still rain, still dark, and a freeway being closed. We reversed on the freeway for at least half a mile to get back to an exit. That driver was amazing. Where do people even learn to drive like this? The guy whose car is pictured decided to turn the other way and drive the wrong way down the street of reversing cars. Also he flipped everyone off as he did it, so I didn't want him to see me taking a picture because I don't love confrontation. You can see a car going backwards behind him and all the cars still on the freeway as well.


Sunday was a gorgeous day. Here's the view from our hotel. It's the City Center Theater where I saw Music in the Air last January. Happy memories (o:


Hey, look, I'm cliche! It was great.

I'd like to believe I was in love with the Starbucks on every corner. I do love their white hot chocolate. If only they had pan au chocolate, I'd have been in heaven.


Hard to see because of the angle, but I so know how tired he was feeling.


Before we left, Brooke asked for a picture of a subway (she's weird). I wasn't going to do it, but Melanie is more indulgent than I am, so here is Brooke's 57th street station picture.


We did a bike tour of Central Park. The driver had been in the country a week and certainly didn't know how to half-down focus (o: So here Melanie and I are in all our blurriness (o:


As we went along, Melanie asked me, "Have you ever been to the Pool of Bethesda?" I answered I had and it was beautiful. She started raving about the fountain. I didn't remember fountains. In fact, I remembered it being dried up. Apparently there is a Pool of Bethesda in Central Park and I thought she meant the one in Israel. I have now visited BOTH!


The fountain Melanie loves so much. With a rainbow. Aww.


He didn't get the focus idea, but I changed the aperture to give him more of a chance. He said he prefers point and shoots.


Walking to our next theatre, I saw where Ragtime will be! Again, so much excitement.


Melanie is already preparing to ring in the new year with some tacky sparkle glasses.


We found Mary Poppins! What a cool set! Laura Michelle Kelly, who is Mary Poppins, has an AMAZING voice. Those dancing animals were kind of strange. I loved how they used the set. They had the roof of the house come down and the kitchen come up and Bert walking on the ceiling and Mary flying away. I'd see it again for theatrics alone. Seeing as how I wasn't doing so hot with stage dooring on Saturday, I made Melanie come with me on the backstage tour. This was the set staircase. I only brought my 50 mm so I didn't get the whole set and wasn't willing to take tons of pictures and stitch them. (o:


With the adorable actors who played Jane and Michael Banks. She's 10 and he's 12. They're so cute!


Then with Christian Borle who is Burt. Melanie told him she saw him in Millie and then wasn't he in an eBay commercial? That got a funny reaction. I won't lie, the hair and the leather jacket makes me want to sing rebel songs from Saturday's Warrior.

Maybe it's just me.


Then with Laura Michelle Kelly. They all signed my Playbill and my life felt meaningful and validated all over again. Whew!

We then meandered through the street market where I got a gyro and Melanie looked at purses, made it back to our hotel at 5 and somehow made it to the airport at 6:20 and got on the plane leaving at 7. It was a miracle! Also a great trip. I am so excited to go back.