New York on Tony's Weekend!
I truly believe that every theater person I know should spend the Tony’s weekend in New York. The electricity is amazing.
I went to NY last weekend with Derek and Sean and I can’t even begin to express what a blast I had. I’m still a little awestruck at the experiences I had.
We left Friday morning in Sean’s car and had great conversation driving in. I laughed a lot. We checked into a nice room with a great view and Sean and I found something to eat while Derek went to get in line for tickets. Later, we all went to Macy’s to audition for Tony’s tickets. Basically, we chose a song from an 8-song list provided to us, and we had 30 seconds to sing and wow a celebrity judge panel (Orfeh, Mo Rocca and Tommy Tune) for Tony’s tickets. It was so much fun. A girl that Derek became friends with in line, and a girl that Sean became friends with in line each got into the 3-person semi-finals; then Sean’s friend won for the NY store. We didn’t wait around to see who won from all the stores. I saw a blurb that Sean’s friend (Heather) won the whole thing, but I didn’t see it officially; I’ll have to check online to see if I can find out.
Later Sean and I went to the hotel bar to hang out for awhile and unwind, and then went to a gay bar while Derek and his wonderful friend Liz went to see a show. I had a great time. Do you want to know the thing about a straight woman going to a gay bar? The guys are still hot, but there’s no one to flirt with. Frustrating. And kind of defeats the purpose of getting a buzz on. But Sean had fun!!!
The next day I got up early and walked around the very quiet streets of NY by myself, reveling in how different it was that way. Later Sean and I went to get tickets to see Rent. I had never seen it before, and had only owned the CD for about a month, so I was really psyched. We went for a ticket lottery, where you get there by a certain time, put your name and the number of tickets you want on a card, and then if they pull your name, you get $95 tickets for only $20! Well, we put our names in, and since there weren’t many people in line for the lottery, we ALL got discounted tickets. Ours were in the front row!!! The show was absolutely amazing. Every voice was exquisite, every performance was spot-on. And I really and truly want to play Joanne. I also think that Mark is completely Derek’s role. I will haunt him until he plays it one day. I’m still in amazement at how wonderful not only the show was, but how each individual performance affected me.
That evening, a group of us went to a cute restaurant (VYNL) where I had a delicious mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich with tomato and bacon, and homemade French fries (man, everything tastes better in New York!!!). Derek, Sean, Liz and some of their friends went out, and I went back to the hotel to stay in get some rest and quiet “me” time. I found myself still astounded at the level of performance I witnessed that afternoon, and got really antsy and itchy to be in another show, and to do my next show even better than I’ve ever done. I plotted in my mind to somehow get cast as Joanne in Rent right here on Broadway, find an apartment in Astoria, and find a job doing just about anything until they could finish the details on my Rent contract. I was really starting to believe this was what I was going to do. I need to be in NY, right now; I’m completely displaced anywhere else. NY is where my life is, and I need to figure out how to be there. All the time.
Sunday, Liz and I got up really early (but not as early as Derek and Andrew, who had the pleasure of attending the Tony rehearsals!) to stand in line to get one of the first 50 student tickets for Spring Awakening. Now, I’ll be honest with you - I had never heard of the show until that weekend, and people I met kept telling me it was amazing and a must-see. So, why not? I had yet to have seen the nominations list for the Tony awards. So, it became clear to me quite quickly that we were standing next to the stage door of actors who were going in and out, getting into costume and makeup for the Tony rehearsals. After squinting around a few minutes at newspapers and such, I realized that this show, the show I was standing in line for, was up for 11 Tony nominations! As the actors were going into the stage door, they were rewarded with applause from the people in line. It was quite exciting. Later a huge bus drove up, and shortly afterwards, the whole cast paraded out in full costume and makeup and held up thumbs-ups and looked adorably nervous as the now-longer line outside stood and cheered and applauded and whistled, and yelled out well-wishes for the hopeful good fortune that night. It was like we were all sharing that special moment with them, because here we were just waiting to get tickets for their last performance that afternoon before the Tony’s. As the bus pulled off, the cast and crew all waved to us with huge grins on their faces. It was fun.
We got our tickets for $26 and had what was called “obstructed view” seats. They were in the 3rd row on the far right, and I really didn’t have trouble seeing too much. I was very happy with them.
Once again, another amazing show. I was riveted from beginning to end. I wanted to see it all over again immediately. The performances were spot-on, moving, energetic, different, funny, sad, beautiful, just an incredible, incredible show. The cast did 3 curtain calls to an audience who wouldn’t quit. On the third call, they brought out the author on the stage with them, and you could just feel the excitement in the whole building, hoping for the best for all of them that night. What a high!
After, we all went grocery shopping for our in-room Tony party and we all watched the Tony’s together. Derek created a drinking game and had printed out the ballots so that we could try to guess who would win. There were a lot of opinions about the winners and losers that night, but I was happy that Spring Awakening got so many. It was fun for me to just sit and remember the show and try to imagine how those cast members and everyone must have been feeling from one part of the day to the next. It was so cool to have just seen the show that day, and then see them perform again and win on TV that night. Since our seats were so close, we could practically see the Clearasil-ed pores of the cast members, and then when I saw them on TV, it almost felt like I “knew” them. Weird, but true…. There were text messages and blogs about how there’s too much hype over that show. The thing that mystified me was a lot of those opinions were given by people who hadn’t even seen the show! Huh. Go figure. I have no idea what that kind of thinking is all about. I couldn’t argue the other nominations for the other categories, because out of everything that was nominated, I’d only seen one show. I don’t really “know” if they “should” have won, but I just know how cool it was to be there.
Two amazing shows in one Tony weekend in NY. I learned a whole new level of what it is to entertain people. And I can’t wait to do it again. And I can’t wait to go to NY again. I WILL get there. And I will be on one of those stages. I promise.
Thanks Derek. And thanks to Derek’s dad!!!
I went to NY last weekend with Derek and Sean and I can’t even begin to express what a blast I had. I’m still a little awestruck at the experiences I had.
We left Friday morning in Sean’s car and had great conversation driving in. I laughed a lot. We checked into a nice room with a great view and Sean and I found something to eat while Derek went to get in line for tickets. Later, we all went to Macy’s to audition for Tony’s tickets. Basically, we chose a song from an 8-song list provided to us, and we had 30 seconds to sing and wow a celebrity judge panel (Orfeh, Mo Rocca and Tommy Tune) for Tony’s tickets. It was so much fun. A girl that Derek became friends with in line, and a girl that Sean became friends with in line each got into the 3-person semi-finals; then Sean’s friend won for the NY store. We didn’t wait around to see who won from all the stores. I saw a blurb that Sean’s friend (Heather) won the whole thing, but I didn’t see it officially; I’ll have to check online to see if I can find out.
Later Sean and I went to the hotel bar to hang out for awhile and unwind, and then went to a gay bar while Derek and his wonderful friend Liz went to see a show. I had a great time. Do you want to know the thing about a straight woman going to a gay bar? The guys are still hot, but there’s no one to flirt with. Frustrating. And kind of defeats the purpose of getting a buzz on. But Sean had fun!!!
The next day I got up early and walked around the very quiet streets of NY by myself, reveling in how different it was that way. Later Sean and I went to get tickets to see Rent. I had never seen it before, and had only owned the CD for about a month, so I was really psyched. We went for a ticket lottery, where you get there by a certain time, put your name and the number of tickets you want on a card, and then if they pull your name, you get $95 tickets for only $20! Well, we put our names in, and since there weren’t many people in line for the lottery, we ALL got discounted tickets. Ours were in the front row!!! The show was absolutely amazing. Every voice was exquisite, every performance was spot-on. And I really and truly want to play Joanne. I also think that Mark is completely Derek’s role. I will haunt him until he plays it one day. I’m still in amazement at how wonderful not only the show was, but how each individual performance affected me.
That evening, a group of us went to a cute restaurant (VYNL) where I had a delicious mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich with tomato and bacon, and homemade French fries (man, everything tastes better in New York!!!). Derek, Sean, Liz and some of their friends went out, and I went back to the hotel to stay in get some rest and quiet “me” time. I found myself still astounded at the level of performance I witnessed that afternoon, and got really antsy and itchy to be in another show, and to do my next show even better than I’ve ever done. I plotted in my mind to somehow get cast as Joanne in Rent right here on Broadway, find an apartment in Astoria, and find a job doing just about anything until they could finish the details on my Rent contract. I was really starting to believe this was what I was going to do. I need to be in NY, right now; I’m completely displaced anywhere else. NY is where my life is, and I need to figure out how to be there. All the time.
Sunday, Liz and I got up really early (but not as early as Derek and Andrew, who had the pleasure of attending the Tony rehearsals!) to stand in line to get one of the first 50 student tickets for Spring Awakening. Now, I’ll be honest with you - I had never heard of the show until that weekend, and people I met kept telling me it was amazing and a must-see. So, why not? I had yet to have seen the nominations list for the Tony awards. So, it became clear to me quite quickly that we were standing next to the stage door of actors who were going in and out, getting into costume and makeup for the Tony rehearsals. After squinting around a few minutes at newspapers and such, I realized that this show, the show I was standing in line for, was up for 11 Tony nominations! As the actors were going into the stage door, they were rewarded with applause from the people in line. It was quite exciting. Later a huge bus drove up, and shortly afterwards, the whole cast paraded out in full costume and makeup and held up thumbs-ups and looked adorably nervous as the now-longer line outside stood and cheered and applauded and whistled, and yelled out well-wishes for the hopeful good fortune that night. It was like we were all sharing that special moment with them, because here we were just waiting to get tickets for their last performance that afternoon before the Tony’s. As the bus pulled off, the cast and crew all waved to us with huge grins on their faces. It was fun.
We got our tickets for $26 and had what was called “obstructed view” seats. They were in the 3rd row on the far right, and I really didn’t have trouble seeing too much. I was very happy with them.
Once again, another amazing show. I was riveted from beginning to end. I wanted to see it all over again immediately. The performances were spot-on, moving, energetic, different, funny, sad, beautiful, just an incredible, incredible show. The cast did 3 curtain calls to an audience who wouldn’t quit. On the third call, they brought out the author on the stage with them, and you could just feel the excitement in the whole building, hoping for the best for all of them that night. What a high!
After, we all went grocery shopping for our in-room Tony party and we all watched the Tony’s together. Derek created a drinking game and had printed out the ballots so that we could try to guess who would win. There were a lot of opinions about the winners and losers that night, but I was happy that Spring Awakening got so many. It was fun for me to just sit and remember the show and try to imagine how those cast members and everyone must have been feeling from one part of the day to the next. It was so cool to have just seen the show that day, and then see them perform again and win on TV that night. Since our seats were so close, we could practically see the Clearasil-ed pores of the cast members, and then when I saw them on TV, it almost felt like I “knew” them. Weird, but true…. There were text messages and blogs about how there’s too much hype over that show. The thing that mystified me was a lot of those opinions were given by people who hadn’t even seen the show! Huh. Go figure. I have no idea what that kind of thinking is all about. I couldn’t argue the other nominations for the other categories, because out of everything that was nominated, I’d only seen one show. I don’t really “know” if they “should” have won, but I just know how cool it was to be there.
Two amazing shows in one Tony weekend in NY. I learned a whole new level of what it is to entertain people. And I can’t wait to do it again. And I can’t wait to go to NY again. I WILL get there. And I will be on one of those stages. I promise.
Thanks Derek. And thanks to Derek’s dad!!!