NYC - May 28-29, 2010
I had a blast and this entry might become length, so forgive me if I get a little too wordy!
Amy and her boyfriend came to my house on Friday morning at around 5:00am. They were actually pretty much right on time, which was good for Amy. We can tend to run a little bit behind schedule. I got the final things together and we headed out to his car. We drove to the Wellington T station. We said goodbye to Brian (boyfriend) and caught the T to Downtown Crossing, and then to South Station. We made pretty good time and got to the bus terminal around 6:15.
The line for the NYC bus was pretty long, so I went to wait in line while Amy picked up our will-call tickets. Amy came back to hand them off to me and then she ran to Honey Dew donuts for us. The girl in front of us was really sweet. She was traveling alone and when she overheard Amy was going to get us coffees, she turns around and says, "Just a heads up. They make their coffee much lighter and much sweeter than Dunkin Donuts." And she was right. Amy asked for half of how we normally take our coffees and it was perfect.
They started boarding the first bus and stopped just at us. The guy said there would be another bus right away. That means we got first dibs on the seats! They boarded our bus and we were off by 7:15.
The bus ride is always the worst part. It's long, it's boring. Amy fell asleep for a while. I listened to my music. Our bus driver was a "sexy Borat" as Amy called him. His line was something along the lines of, "Please don't listen to your musics too loud." He was a crazy driver too.
We got to NYC around noon and Amy and I hauled ass up 8th Avenue to our hotel. We checked-in and got our dresses hung up and relaxed for a few. We watched a few court room TV shows and then decided we should head out to try and get our Promises, Promises tickets and to find something to eat.
We headed over to the Promises, Promises theater. When I got up to the ticket window, I asked if they still had student rush tickets ($30/ticket), which they did. Amy nudged me and told me to ask about the cast. Kristin Chenoweth had been sick for the entire week and she'd posted on Twitter the previous day that she /might/ be back in for that night. I asked the clerk, "Is the entire cast going to be in tonight's performance?"
And all he said was, "As far as I know, they are." This was around 3pm, so I thought the odds were pretty good that she'd be back in the show.
Amy and I got our tickets and walked around for a while. We found the Un, Deux, Trois Cafe and had some lunch there. It was really, really good. Our waitress was kind of a bitch. While we were eating, Amy mentioned that the waitress dropped some money. We both looked and it seemed like only a dollar fell. We brushed it off and didn't mention it. A little while later, I looked back and saw it was more than just a dollar, so I got up to bring it back to her. It ended up being about $40 or so. I found the waitress and the bitch didn't even say thank you. There goes my good deed for the day!
After lunch, we went to Radio City to buy a program for the Glee show. I wanted to get it out of the way, so I wouldn't have to fight the crowds the next day. We also did our souvenir shopping. I got my mom a snowglobe for her desk at work, a pen for my brother, and a lighter for Linda. I got a coffee mug for myself. After that, we headed back to the hotel to refresh and relax. We'd had a long day and just wanted to sit for a little while.
At about 6:30pm, we started to get ready to head to the Broadway Theater to go see Promises, Promises. We snapped a couple pictures of the theater and went inside. Amy got us some wine (that came in glasses that were reminiscent of sippy cups) and we headed up to our seats. They weren't letting us up into the mezzanine quite yet because they were still getting ready, so we waited down on the landing.
I saw this handicapped woman struggling up the first set of stairs. When she started to climb the next set, where we were waiting, I put my hand on her arm and said, "I just want to let you know, they're not letting us up there yet." I didn't want to see her trudge up the stairs, just to have them send her back down.
She flipped out; not on me, but on the poor usher at the top of the stairs. She rambles on about the lack of handicapped accessibility, the lack of elevators. Hey lady! They do have handicapped seats, you're just too cheap to get them. It says outside, it says online that they do have handicapped access in the orchestra, everywhere else is accessible by stairs.
Needless to say, they let us all up, ready or not. Our seats weren't half-bad, not for $30. They were rear, center mezzanine. Yes, the stage was little, but we could see everything just perfectly.
Sean Hayes was the title character of Chuck Baxter. He did a fantastic job. He was hilarious and there was a little bit of slap-stick comedy, which he played very well. Kristin Chenoweth was a doll. You could hear in her voice that she was still hurting for a tracheal infection, but she still sounded amazing. Even sick, her singing live sounded like her recordings. Kate Finnerin played a floozie that Chuck (Hayes) picks up at one point at a bar. She was fucking hilarious. She's probably one of the best parts of the show. I would recommend this show to anyone who's in the NYC area. It was cute, funny, and totally worth seeing.
After the show, we went to the stage door. I got a shot and signature of the actor who played the doctor who lived next door to Hayes' character. Sean Hayes himself came out and went down the whole line, however quickly, and signed everything. I snapped a couple shots of him. A little girl went up to one of the gentlemen and asked if Kristin Chenoweth was coming out. He said she'd already left, as she was sick. I won't lie; I was disappointed. I would have loved to at least gotten an autograph, but I understand.
We went back around the front of the theater to take a few more pictures. We headed back towards the hotel and picked up some slices of pizza from a place across the street. We'd eaten there before and it was just as delicious. We brought the pizza back to the hotel. We watched some Golden Girls, Amy took a shower, and we passed out around 1:00am.
My alarm went off at 9:00am and we re-set it for 9:30. Amy claimed my phone to be a liar, because it didn't look light outside, at all. I got up and pulled one back and the sun came blazing through. Momentarily blinded, I went into the bathroom to get myself together to go grab the complimentary breakfast downstairs. Amy followed suit and we headed downstairs to, what was posted to be called a "tumultuous" breakfast.
We brought the food and coffee back up to the room. For free breakfast, it was pretty good. I hopped in the shower and started getting ready. Check-out was at 12pm and the Glee Live show was at 3pm. We were all set to go right at 12, so we checked-out, checked our bags, and then decided to hit up Starbucks and go hang out in Central Park. It was gorgeous yesterday. I had heard chance of thunder showers, but it ended up being beautiful!
The park was wonderful. It was just beautiful out. We walked around for a little while, took a couple pictures, and just relaxed for a while. 1:00pm creeped up on us and we decided to go find some lunch before the show. We found another little cafe. We relaxed until about 2pm. Radio City was just a few blocks down the street, so we were really close already.
It was so crowded at Radio City. It was insane. We hopped in line and were ushered inside. We found our seats (1st mezzanine center) and then Amy went to get us some drinks. I just wanted water; she got herself a gin and tonic.
They started up right at 3:00pm. The LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) went on first. I didn't think I'd like them as much as I did. It's just amazing what they can do with their bodies. The music was epic and the videos made it more interesting to watch. I was really entertained and it was a great opening for the Glee kids.
The Glee show was SO much fun! They all had such great energy. Here are a couple of my thoughts:
They all sounded really good live. All of them. I thought Lea could have actually sounded a little better at parts, but I think my expectations of her were higher. I was thoroughly impressed with Amber. I do not like Mercedes, but Amber was just amazing live. She sounded perfect all the way through.
I was so excited for "Bad Romance" and I think that was one of my favorite performances of the night. The dancing, the costumes, everything about it was just perfect. I'm so glad they're giving Naya more vocal parts because she actually does sing very well.
In every performance, my eyes were drawn to Heather. She's such a great dancer and I was excited to see that she was the one to kill time between numbers. She's hilarious and a fantastic dancer. I particularly liked during "Lady is a Tramp" that she was one of the swing dancers. LOVED IT.
Dianna was adorable, but the girl didn't really get any recognition. When she first came on stage, everyone cheered for her, but she didn't really get to have a solo. I love her character and would have loved to have seen her a little more front and center.
I was really hoping that Matt Morrison would be there, at least, but that was alright. Jonathon Groff was there. I thought Amy's head was going to explode. She was so excited! He sang "Hello" with Lea.
I'm surprised more of the audience didn't stand up. I thought I'd read a few reviews where people said the audience would stand up and what-not. It didn't look like very many people were standing, at all.
I was very surprised to see the age range for the show. I was expecting teeny-boppers, but there were little kids at the show. Like, little, little kids. When I went to the bathroom during intermission, the lady in front of my says, "My kids are asleep by 9pm." And then I said, "And some of the topics on the show aren't kid friendly...". I was just taken aback.
We had a fantastic, fantastic time. It was so, so fun! We didn't even try to stage door because we had go pick up our bags and catch the bus back home. We stopped at a convenience store to pick up some drinks and snacks for the ride home. We missed the 6:00pm, so we had to wait until 7:30pm.
The ride home is always the longest ride. I watched an episode of The Office and a little Glee. We got back into Boston around 11:30pm or so. Brian picked us up off of the red line and I got home just after midnight.
This trip was so much fun! Everything worked out perfectly and we got to do a bunch of fun things! It's been two years since we've gone to the city and it was so great to go back. I hope we can go back later in the summer, maybe for a little longer this time.
All of my pictures can be found over here on Facebook. If you have any questions on anything, just ask :)
peace.
Amy and her boyfriend came to my house on Friday morning at around 5:00am. They were actually pretty much right on time, which was good for Amy. We can tend to run a little bit behind schedule. I got the final things together and we headed out to his car. We drove to the Wellington T station. We said goodbye to Brian (boyfriend) and caught the T to Downtown Crossing, and then to South Station. We made pretty good time and got to the bus terminal around 6:15.
The line for the NYC bus was pretty long, so I went to wait in line while Amy picked up our will-call tickets. Amy came back to hand them off to me and then she ran to Honey Dew donuts for us. The girl in front of us was really sweet. She was traveling alone and when she overheard Amy was going to get us coffees, she turns around and says, "Just a heads up. They make their coffee much lighter and much sweeter than Dunkin Donuts." And she was right. Amy asked for half of how we normally take our coffees and it was perfect.
They started boarding the first bus and stopped just at us. The guy said there would be another bus right away. That means we got first dibs on the seats! They boarded our bus and we were off by 7:15.
The bus ride is always the worst part. It's long, it's boring. Amy fell asleep for a while. I listened to my music. Our bus driver was a "sexy Borat" as Amy called him. His line was something along the lines of, "Please don't listen to your musics too loud." He was a crazy driver too.
We got to NYC around noon and Amy and I hauled ass up 8th Avenue to our hotel. We checked-in and got our dresses hung up and relaxed for a few. We watched a few court room TV shows and then decided we should head out to try and get our Promises, Promises tickets and to find something to eat.
We headed over to the Promises, Promises theater. When I got up to the ticket window, I asked if they still had student rush tickets ($30/ticket), which they did. Amy nudged me and told me to ask about the cast. Kristin Chenoweth had been sick for the entire week and she'd posted on Twitter the previous day that she /might/ be back in for that night. I asked the clerk, "Is the entire cast going to be in tonight's performance?"
And all he said was, "As far as I know, they are." This was around 3pm, so I thought the odds were pretty good that she'd be back in the show.
Amy and I got our tickets and walked around for a while. We found the Un, Deux, Trois Cafe and had some lunch there. It was really, really good. Our waitress was kind of a bitch. While we were eating, Amy mentioned that the waitress dropped some money. We both looked and it seemed like only a dollar fell. We brushed it off and didn't mention it. A little while later, I looked back and saw it was more than just a dollar, so I got up to bring it back to her. It ended up being about $40 or so. I found the waitress and the bitch didn't even say thank you. There goes my good deed for the day!
After lunch, we went to Radio City to buy a program for the Glee show. I wanted to get it out of the way, so I wouldn't have to fight the crowds the next day. We also did our souvenir shopping. I got my mom a snowglobe for her desk at work, a pen for my brother, and a lighter for Linda. I got a coffee mug for myself. After that, we headed back to the hotel to refresh and relax. We'd had a long day and just wanted to sit for a little while.
At about 6:30pm, we started to get ready to head to the Broadway Theater to go see Promises, Promises. We snapped a couple pictures of the theater and went inside. Amy got us some wine (that came in glasses that were reminiscent of sippy cups) and we headed up to our seats. They weren't letting us up into the mezzanine quite yet because they were still getting ready, so we waited down on the landing.
I saw this handicapped woman struggling up the first set of stairs. When she started to climb the next set, where we were waiting, I put my hand on her arm and said, "I just want to let you know, they're not letting us up there yet." I didn't want to see her trudge up the stairs, just to have them send her back down.
She flipped out; not on me, but on the poor usher at the top of the stairs. She rambles on about the lack of handicapped accessibility, the lack of elevators. Hey lady! They do have handicapped seats, you're just too cheap to get them. It says outside, it says online that they do have handicapped access in the orchestra, everywhere else is accessible by stairs.
Needless to say, they let us all up, ready or not. Our seats weren't half-bad, not for $30. They were rear, center mezzanine. Yes, the stage was little, but we could see everything just perfectly.
Sean Hayes was the title character of Chuck Baxter. He did a fantastic job. He was hilarious and there was a little bit of slap-stick comedy, which he played very well. Kristin Chenoweth was a doll. You could hear in her voice that she was still hurting for a tracheal infection, but she still sounded amazing. Even sick, her singing live sounded like her recordings. Kate Finnerin played a floozie that Chuck (Hayes) picks up at one point at a bar. She was fucking hilarious. She's probably one of the best parts of the show. I would recommend this show to anyone who's in the NYC area. It was cute, funny, and totally worth seeing.
After the show, we went to the stage door. I got a shot and signature of the actor who played the doctor who lived next door to Hayes' character. Sean Hayes himself came out and went down the whole line, however quickly, and signed everything. I snapped a couple shots of him. A little girl went up to one of the gentlemen and asked if Kristin Chenoweth was coming out. He said she'd already left, as she was sick. I won't lie; I was disappointed. I would have loved to at least gotten an autograph, but I understand.
We went back around the front of the theater to take a few more pictures. We headed back towards the hotel and picked up some slices of pizza from a place across the street. We'd eaten there before and it was just as delicious. We brought the pizza back to the hotel. We watched some Golden Girls, Amy took a shower, and we passed out around 1:00am.
My alarm went off at 9:00am and we re-set it for 9:30. Amy claimed my phone to be a liar, because it didn't look light outside, at all. I got up and pulled one back and the sun came blazing through. Momentarily blinded, I went into the bathroom to get myself together to go grab the complimentary breakfast downstairs. Amy followed suit and we headed downstairs to, what was posted to be called a "tumultuous" breakfast.
We brought the food and coffee back up to the room. For free breakfast, it was pretty good. I hopped in the shower and started getting ready. Check-out was at 12pm and the Glee Live show was at 3pm. We were all set to go right at 12, so we checked-out, checked our bags, and then decided to hit up Starbucks and go hang out in Central Park. It was gorgeous yesterday. I had heard chance of thunder showers, but it ended up being beautiful!
The park was wonderful. It was just beautiful out. We walked around for a little while, took a couple pictures, and just relaxed for a while. 1:00pm creeped up on us and we decided to go find some lunch before the show. We found another little cafe. We relaxed until about 2pm. Radio City was just a few blocks down the street, so we were really close already.
It was so crowded at Radio City. It was insane. We hopped in line and were ushered inside. We found our seats (1st mezzanine center) and then Amy went to get us some drinks. I just wanted water; she got herself a gin and tonic.
They started up right at 3:00pm. The LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) went on first. I didn't think I'd like them as much as I did. It's just amazing what they can do with their bodies. The music was epic and the videos made it more interesting to watch. I was really entertained and it was a great opening for the Glee kids.
The Glee show was SO much fun! They all had such great energy. Here are a couple of my thoughts:
They all sounded really good live. All of them. I thought Lea could have actually sounded a little better at parts, but I think my expectations of her were higher. I was thoroughly impressed with Amber. I do not like Mercedes, but Amber was just amazing live. She sounded perfect all the way through.
I was so excited for "Bad Romance" and I think that was one of my favorite performances of the night. The dancing, the costumes, everything about it was just perfect. I'm so glad they're giving Naya more vocal parts because she actually does sing very well.
In every performance, my eyes were drawn to Heather. She's such a great dancer and I was excited to see that she was the one to kill time between numbers. She's hilarious and a fantastic dancer. I particularly liked during "Lady is a Tramp" that she was one of the swing dancers. LOVED IT.
Dianna was adorable, but the girl didn't really get any recognition. When she first came on stage, everyone cheered for her, but she didn't really get to have a solo. I love her character and would have loved to have seen her a little more front and center.
I was really hoping that Matt Morrison would be there, at least, but that was alright. Jonathon Groff was there. I thought Amy's head was going to explode. She was so excited! He sang "Hello" with Lea.
I'm surprised more of the audience didn't stand up. I thought I'd read a few reviews where people said the audience would stand up and what-not. It didn't look like very many people were standing, at all.
I was very surprised to see the age range for the show. I was expecting teeny-boppers, but there were little kids at the show. Like, little, little kids. When I went to the bathroom during intermission, the lady in front of my says, "My kids are asleep by 9pm." And then I said, "And some of the topics on the show aren't kid friendly...". I was just taken aback.
We had a fantastic, fantastic time. It was so, so fun! We didn't even try to stage door because we had go pick up our bags and catch the bus back home. We stopped at a convenience store to pick up some drinks and snacks for the ride home. We missed the 6:00pm, so we had to wait until 7:30pm.
The ride home is always the longest ride. I watched an episode of The Office and a little Glee. We got back into Boston around 11:30pm or so. Brian picked us up off of the red line and I got home just after midnight.
This trip was so much fun! Everything worked out perfectly and we got to do a bunch of fun things! It's been two years since we've gone to the city and it was so great to go back. I hope we can go back later in the summer, maybe for a little longer this time.
All of my pictures can be found over here on Facebook. If you have any questions on anything, just ask :)
peace.