Believe it or not, as many times as we have been to NYC and that Paul was born and raised there, none of us had seen a Broadway play. My parents and, especially my mom, took me to a lot of plays and cultural events in general as I was growing up. Paul and Matt had always resisted when I begged to go to a play many times-every time we went to Da City. When our next door neighbors told us about all they had scheduled for their trip (see us having dinner with them on one of the other posts), I could see Paul felt a little shamed that we had never done many basic things one should do while there. Then we went to dinner with our friend Ron, also from NY, and he so put the shame on Paul about us never having seen ANY of the endless, fabulous show proffered there. Booyah.
They have three sites in the city where you can get same day tickets. It's a long line. Fortunately, or unfortunately (I don't know who had it worse), I had to stay at the hotel because we were being moved from an ant sized room to an anthill sized room and someone needed to be there for the move. So, as the line got shorter, so did the list of options and Paul was calling every 5 minutes as he got closer to the front of the line. In the end, two of the top choices we had talked about were available-Jesus Christ Superstar and Nice Work. I was the only one who had seen JCS (at the movies) but, at the last minute I felt that JCS would be somewhat intense and we really needed light. And I had seen or read about Matthew Broderick and the show and I had thought at the time it sounded good. Good thing that seeped through my fog of my short-term memory at decision time.
The show doesn't technically open until April 24th; this was a preview performance. Although MB needed to work on his moves a little more (he did well, but looked slightly labored), the talent was amazing. The music was Ira and George Gershwin, classic great songs, and the story was an amalgam of the classic 1920's bootleg stories. On top of that was the cherry that was hilarity. The first song I thought, uh-oh, Matt's not going to like this, but seconds later a huge grin came across his face. This, my friends, is the ultimate compliment; this guy is not at all easy to please. Check his clothes and, especially, his shoes. Hey, it's all new to me; I didn't have any of this with the other two-we was po and they were skateboarders who wore Chucks and torn jeans. But I digress.
The main theme here is that if you get to NY, go see it. And if you go to NY and don't let me meet you there (or go with you), you are in big trouble. Six thumbs up from here.
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