BROADWAYCON!!
Here it is, more than a week after the first-ever BroadwayCon, which I was lucky enough to attend. And due to how insanely busy the Con was, then getting back home in the post-snowstorm travel chaos, and THEN coming down with a whopper of a cold, I’m just now sitting down to journal about it.
For starters, it was amazing. Three days of being surrounded by people who not only recognize my random quotes from musicals, but can supply the responding quote without hesitation. Three days of knowing that if I were to start singing a showtune, not only would I not get weird looks, but that it would only be a matter of seconds before someone started to sing along. In a lot of ways it reminded me of attending Brightleaf Music Workshop, a summer choral camp that I went to in high school. It was three days of being surrounded by my people. And those of us who spend the majority of our lives making references that no one else gets, know just how freeing that feeling of belonging can be.
I spent the majority of the Con hanging out with people that I already knew from online communities, and it was great fun to spend time with them in person. My Con roommate was one such friend. We knew each other mostly from online contact, but had met once in person before BroadwayCon, a fact that I was sure to point out to my mother when I told her who I was rooming with. “Yeah, she’s an online friend, but I’ve met her once in person, so I’m at least 95% sure she’s not an axe murderer.” Another was someone that I previously knew only from online contact, and I only found out she was going to be at Con when I happened to see a post she made about it the day before I left for NYC, so we arranged to meet up once we arrived. The third was someone I’d met a few times in person, but I had no idea she planned to be at Con till I was filing into the first event of the day on Saturday morning, following the line I was in and passing by another line, and there she was. So bizarre to me, to see someone I actually recognized among the 3,000 BroadwayCon attendees. The four of us hung out together for all of Saturday and Sunday, sometimes attending the same panels and sometimes not, constantly texting back and forth to find out who was where. “Oh, you’re in the Stage on Screen panel? I’m coming to that one, save me a seat! Stopping for a drink first….anyone want anything from the café?”
I don’t want to go into great detail about the panels I attended, because I think it would mostly bore non-theatre people, and because I really think they’re the kind of thing better experienced firsthand. But for the record, on Friday I attended: Behind the Mask (original cast members from The Phantom of the Opera), Deaf West, East (cast members from the ASL Spring Awakening revival), and Something Wonderful (about The King and I revival). At 3:30 pm on Friday was the official BroadwayCon opening, which was presented like a mini-musical. But really, could they have done it any other way? Unlike the panels presented earlier in the day, with multiple topics to choose from in every time slot, the official opening was the only event happening at that time, so it took place in a huge ballroom with a stage and everyone was there. After that, most people stayed in the same room for two very popular presentations, History is Happening in Manhattan (cast members of Hamilton, the IT Broadway show of the moment), and 10,514,880 Minutes (original cast members of Rent, on the nearly exact 20 year anniversary of its opening).
Saturday was the busiest day of the Con, with most panels and events than any other day. Pretty sure it was also the most crowded, since some people attended only on Saturday with day passes and their number got added to those who were there for the whole weekend. There were so many events to choose from…every time slot was a choice between at least two, sometimes even three or four topics that all sounded equally interesting to me. In the end, I ended up attending The BroadwayCon Feud (Family Feud style quiz show), Stage on Screen (adapting popular movies as stage musicals), Bringing New Audiences, Your Fave is Problematic (about shows that are no longer as socially acceptable as when they were first written), Out of Town Tryouts, Broadway Sorting Hat, Why didn’t it Run?, and Songwriters on Songwriting.
The Broadway Sorting Hat was especially memorable…just imagine several hundred theatre geeks in a room, debating which Hogwarts House various musical characters would be Sorted into. It was a collision of fandoms that highlighted just how strongly the Con attendees felt about their favorite characters. At one point, one of my friends who started the panel with me got up and walked out, saying, “I can’t listen to a panel that thinks Javert is a Gryffindor. Sorry.” The discussion on Javert went on for a long time and got particularly heated, and I had a hard time keeping track of the conversation and hearing the final answer. I heard later that the final decision was Hufflepuff. *scratches head*
The next-to-last event I attended on Saturday was Broadway Team Quiz, which wasn’t what I expected. The hosts sat on stage and made comments on the Mamma Mia movie which was playing on two large screens, and occasionally asked a question which the audience then answered via text. The first person to text the correct answer won a gift certificate. As someone who watches Jeopardy every night and is always thrilled when a Broadway category is included, I wanted a real Broadway quiz show. And where else would we get it, if not at BroadwayCon?
Saturday was finished off by the BroadwayCon Cabaret, which I think was meant to showcase many different Broadway performers. But the snow which started late Friday night and continued into Saturday, shutting down much of NYC, kept away many people who were supposed to appear at Con, so in the end what we got was a Krysta Rodriguez concert….never a bad thing! She sang songs from several Broadway musicals she’s been in, and the TV show Smash, making a comment after “Broadway, Here I Come!” that I remember: “I do believe that’s the only song people sing at their high school graduations that’s about suicide. And the NBC execs still don’t know what that song is about!” I had to cut out of the concert early, because I was so tired I could barely sit up in my chair. I went up to the hotel room and crashed.
On Sunday, I woke up knowing that it was the last day of Con, that pretty soon it would all be over. I tried to take in everything, like the cosplayers who I haven’t even mentioned so far in this entry, but there were a lot of them wandering around. But there was so much going on, and so many people and so many great events to choose from, that it was rather overwhelming. I wanted time to slow down and allow me more opportunity to experience everything.
The panels I attended on Sunday were: Adapting for the Stage, Children and Art (the importance of arts education for children), A Dancer Dances (featuring three Broadway gypsies), and Smashtrax (the producer of season 2 of Smash discussing the Broadway-themed TV show), and Beyond the Barricade (original cast members of Les Miserables). The last event of the day, for everyone, was the official closing, titled “So Long, Farewell…”
I bolted out of the official closing just a few minutes early, to race several blocks across the slushy streets to the theatre where the Spring Awakening revival was playing, to try for lottery tickets to the very last performance of the ASL production. I knew it was a long shot, but just had to try, because if I beat the odds and was able to attend that night, I just knew the energy of the last performance would be something special. But the odds weren’t on my side, my name didn’t get drawn, so I made my way back to the hotel and my roommate and I went out for a nice dinner. It was the first leisurely meal we’d had all weekend, since the Con schedule was so packed that we ate on the run for three days.
We were due to check out of our swanky room at the Midtown Hilton on Monday morning, and both my roommate and I were scheduled to fly out that afternoon, but I’d been notified on Sunday afternoon that my flight was canceled then re-booked for Tuesday afternoon. I never mind staying in NYC an extra day, but I couldn’t afford an extra night at the Hilton, so I packed up and my roommate and I shared a cab as far as Penn Station, where she got out and continued her journey to the airport. I continued further downtown and checked into the same hostel where I’ve stayed the past few visits to NYC. It was a definite step down from the Hilton, but oh well. I can be flexible.
I decided to try for the digital lottery to see Kinky Boots that night, since fate (aka the weather) had decreed that I’d be in NYC for an extra night. I didn’t win the lottery but got a consolation prize of a discount on a mezzanine seat, so I took it. The streets were still an awful, slushy mess from the snowstorm, but I braved the elements and enjoyed the show. The next morning, the streets were STILL a mess on the way to the airport. I decided to use Uber Pool and shared my ride with a couple who were also headed to LGA. The Manhattan streets were a snarl of narrowed lanes and short-tempered drivers, but once we got out of Manhattan the traffic finally cleared and we all got to the airport on time.
By the time I landed at RDU, got back to my car, and drove to K’s house to spend the night, the weekend was catching up with me. I crashed early, and got up the next morning to drive myself back home to Carteret County. By the time I reached home, I was forced to admit to myself that I was getting sick. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who came home with a cold. Many people posted through the Con attendees Facebook group that they also came home sick, and referred to it as Con Crud.
At least I was lucky enough to be able to stay at home and let myself rest as much as needed till the cold ran its course, since I wasn’t jumping straight back into work like most people. And two weeks later, I’m over it and getting back into my job hunt and other daily routines.
The Con organizers say they’re already planning next year’s Con, with the formal announcement coming soon. Will I attend again next year? If at all possible, YES! I’ll plan a little differently next year, like loading up on Vitamin C for a week prior to Con and bathing in sanitizer while there. I’ll pack snacks in my bag each morning before starting that day’s events, because there is seriously not time to eat between panels and performances. I’ll try to remind myself to slow down once in a while and take pictures, because when this year’s Con was over, I was dismayed at how few pictures I had. Maybe I’ll even cosplay next year….I have twelve months to plan it.
For starters, it was amazing. Three days of being surrounded by people who not only recognize my random quotes from musicals, but can supply the responding quote without hesitation. Three days of knowing that if I were to start singing a showtune, not only would I not get weird looks, but that it would only be a matter of seconds before someone started to sing along. In a lot of ways it reminded me of attending Brightleaf Music Workshop, a summer choral camp that I went to in high school. It was three days of being surrounded by my people. And those of us who spend the majority of our lives making references that no one else gets, know just how freeing that feeling of belonging can be.
I spent the majority of the Con hanging out with people that I already knew from online communities, and it was great fun to spend time with them in person. My Con roommate was one such friend. We knew each other mostly from online contact, but had met once in person before BroadwayCon, a fact that I was sure to point out to my mother when I told her who I was rooming with. “Yeah, she’s an online friend, but I’ve met her once in person, so I’m at least 95% sure she’s not an axe murderer.” Another was someone that I previously knew only from online contact, and I only found out she was going to be at Con when I happened to see a post she made about it the day before I left for NYC, so we arranged to meet up once we arrived. The third was someone I’d met a few times in person, but I had no idea she planned to be at Con till I was filing into the first event of the day on Saturday morning, following the line I was in and passing by another line, and there she was. So bizarre to me, to see someone I actually recognized among the 3,000 BroadwayCon attendees. The four of us hung out together for all of Saturday and Sunday, sometimes attending the same panels and sometimes not, constantly texting back and forth to find out who was where. “Oh, you’re in the Stage on Screen panel? I’m coming to that one, save me a seat! Stopping for a drink first….anyone want anything from the café?”
I don’t want to go into great detail about the panels I attended, because I think it would mostly bore non-theatre people, and because I really think they’re the kind of thing better experienced firsthand. But for the record, on Friday I attended: Behind the Mask (original cast members from The Phantom of the Opera), Deaf West, East (cast members from the ASL Spring Awakening revival), and Something Wonderful (about The King and I revival). At 3:30 pm on Friday was the official BroadwayCon opening, which was presented like a mini-musical. But really, could they have done it any other way? Unlike the panels presented earlier in the day, with multiple topics to choose from in every time slot, the official opening was the only event happening at that time, so it took place in a huge ballroom with a stage and everyone was there. After that, most people stayed in the same room for two very popular presentations, History is Happening in Manhattan (cast members of Hamilton, the IT Broadway show of the moment), and 10,514,880 Minutes (original cast members of Rent, on the nearly exact 20 year anniversary of its opening).
Saturday was the busiest day of the Con, with most panels and events than any other day. Pretty sure it was also the most crowded, since some people attended only on Saturday with day passes and their number got added to those who were there for the whole weekend. There were so many events to choose from…every time slot was a choice between at least two, sometimes even three or four topics that all sounded equally interesting to me. In the end, I ended up attending The BroadwayCon Feud (Family Feud style quiz show), Stage on Screen (adapting popular movies as stage musicals), Bringing New Audiences, Your Fave is Problematic (about shows that are no longer as socially acceptable as when they were first written), Out of Town Tryouts, Broadway Sorting Hat, Why didn’t it Run?, and Songwriters on Songwriting.
The Broadway Sorting Hat was especially memorable…just imagine several hundred theatre geeks in a room, debating which Hogwarts House various musical characters would be Sorted into. It was a collision of fandoms that highlighted just how strongly the Con attendees felt about their favorite characters. At one point, one of my friends who started the panel with me got up and walked out, saying, “I can’t listen to a panel that thinks Javert is a Gryffindor. Sorry.” The discussion on Javert went on for a long time and got particularly heated, and I had a hard time keeping track of the conversation and hearing the final answer. I heard later that the final decision was Hufflepuff. *scratches head*
The next-to-last event I attended on Saturday was Broadway Team Quiz, which wasn’t what I expected. The hosts sat on stage and made comments on the Mamma Mia movie which was playing on two large screens, and occasionally asked a question which the audience then answered via text. The first person to text the correct answer won a gift certificate. As someone who watches Jeopardy every night and is always thrilled when a Broadway category is included, I wanted a real Broadway quiz show. And where else would we get it, if not at BroadwayCon?
Saturday was finished off by the BroadwayCon Cabaret, which I think was meant to showcase many different Broadway performers. But the snow which started late Friday night and continued into Saturday, shutting down much of NYC, kept away many people who were supposed to appear at Con, so in the end what we got was a Krysta Rodriguez concert….never a bad thing! She sang songs from several Broadway musicals she’s been in, and the TV show Smash, making a comment after “Broadway, Here I Come!” that I remember: “I do believe that’s the only song people sing at their high school graduations that’s about suicide. And the NBC execs still don’t know what that song is about!” I had to cut out of the concert early, because I was so tired I could barely sit up in my chair. I went up to the hotel room and crashed.
On Sunday, I woke up knowing that it was the last day of Con, that pretty soon it would all be over. I tried to take in everything, like the cosplayers who I haven’t even mentioned so far in this entry, but there were a lot of them wandering around. But there was so much going on, and so many people and so many great events to choose from, that it was rather overwhelming. I wanted time to slow down and allow me more opportunity to experience everything.
The panels I attended on Sunday were: Adapting for the Stage, Children and Art (the importance of arts education for children), A Dancer Dances (featuring three Broadway gypsies), and Smashtrax (the producer of season 2 of Smash discussing the Broadway-themed TV show), and Beyond the Barricade (original cast members of Les Miserables). The last event of the day, for everyone, was the official closing, titled “So Long, Farewell…”
I bolted out of the official closing just a few minutes early, to race several blocks across the slushy streets to the theatre where the Spring Awakening revival was playing, to try for lottery tickets to the very last performance of the ASL production. I knew it was a long shot, but just had to try, because if I beat the odds and was able to attend that night, I just knew the energy of the last performance would be something special. But the odds weren’t on my side, my name didn’t get drawn, so I made my way back to the hotel and my roommate and I went out for a nice dinner. It was the first leisurely meal we’d had all weekend, since the Con schedule was so packed that we ate on the run for three days.
We were due to check out of our swanky room at the Midtown Hilton on Monday morning, and both my roommate and I were scheduled to fly out that afternoon, but I’d been notified on Sunday afternoon that my flight was canceled then re-booked for Tuesday afternoon. I never mind staying in NYC an extra day, but I couldn’t afford an extra night at the Hilton, so I packed up and my roommate and I shared a cab as far as Penn Station, where she got out and continued her journey to the airport. I continued further downtown and checked into the same hostel where I’ve stayed the past few visits to NYC. It was a definite step down from the Hilton, but oh well. I can be flexible.
I decided to try for the digital lottery to see Kinky Boots that night, since fate (aka the weather) had decreed that I’d be in NYC for an extra night. I didn’t win the lottery but got a consolation prize of a discount on a mezzanine seat, so I took it. The streets were still an awful, slushy mess from the snowstorm, but I braved the elements and enjoyed the show. The next morning, the streets were STILL a mess on the way to the airport. I decided to use Uber Pool and shared my ride with a couple who were also headed to LGA. The Manhattan streets were a snarl of narrowed lanes and short-tempered drivers, but once we got out of Manhattan the traffic finally cleared and we all got to the airport on time.
By the time I landed at RDU, got back to my car, and drove to K’s house to spend the night, the weekend was catching up with me. I crashed early, and got up the next morning to drive myself back home to Carteret County. By the time I reached home, I was forced to admit to myself that I was getting sick. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who came home with a cold. Many people posted through the Con attendees Facebook group that they also came home sick, and referred to it as Con Crud.
At least I was lucky enough to be able to stay at home and let myself rest as much as needed till the cold ran its course, since I wasn’t jumping straight back into work like most people. And two weeks later, I’m over it and getting back into my job hunt and other daily routines.
The Con organizers say they’re already planning next year’s Con, with the formal announcement coming soon. Will I attend again next year? If at all possible, YES! I’ll plan a little differently next year, like loading up on Vitamin C for a week prior to Con and bathing in sanitizer while there. I’ll pack snacks in my bag each morning before starting that day’s events, because there is seriously not time to eat between panels and performances. I’ll try to remind myself to slow down once in a while and take pictures, because when this year’s Con was over, I was dismayed at how few pictures I had. Maybe I’ll even cosplay next year….I have twelve months to plan it.