Broadway weekend

[next_to_normal]

Happy Monday, boys and girls. I'm back from my weekend at home/in NYC, which kinda wore me out. My mom and I got up at 5am in order to take the train to NY and get there in time to hit the TKTS booth for half-price theater tickets. I've become a TKTS pro, so we were able to time it just right - I hate to give away my secrets, lol, but if you get there at about 8:55, you will JUST beat the huge crowd that shows up shortly after 9, and you'll only have to stand in line for about an hour. We were out of there by 10:05 with tickets to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was my first choice (my mom's was Cinderella, but weekend matinees probably always sell out. We saw SO MANY little girls dressed as Cinderella coming out of the theater after the show).

After TKTS, we went over to Rockefeller Center and did the NBC Studio tour, which I'd never done before. It's kind of cool. We saw Brian Williams' studio, the Dr. Oz Show set, the control room, and - most exciting - the SNL studio, where they were rehearsing for that night's show. We saw Jay Pharoah prepping the Obama press conference cold open and Kenan Thompson standing around with a giant stuffed horse, which made us desperately want to watch the show that night to find out what the freakin' horse was for. (As it turned out, the actual sketch was quite a letdown after our wild speculation.)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood was a fun little show. All I really knew about it prior to seeing it was that it was a murder mystery based on Charles Dickens' final unfinished novel, since he had the audacity to die before completing it. There's no indication of whom Dickens intended the murderer to be, so the show allows for audience participation to vote on several plot points and determine the ending. (Fandom would be proud - we voted on the couple who should get together at the end and our audience chose, of all the possible options, the twin brother and sister. LOL we <3 incest.) This is one of those shows that you see for the experience and the humor, not the music, since the songs are pretty forgettable, but not everything can be Les Mis, right? Everyone in the cast did an incredible job - a cast that included Stephanie J. Block, Will Chase (most recently hated in season 1 of Smash, this time intentionally playing a villain), and Chita Rivera, who was a total hoot.

While I was home, my mom and I also started planning our trip to San Francisco. We're going the last week in May. \o/ I was supposed to go to San Fran three and a half years ago, but ended up canceling because I was starting a new job and moving to a new city right before the trip. My parents, being callous and unsympathetic people, went without me. But my mommy is lovely and is taking me this time. :) We're planning to spend four days in the city and then renting a car and driving down to Monterey and doing some stops along the way (Big Basin, Santa Cruz). On the last trip, my parents did something similar, except they went north to Sonoma and Napa and drank a lot of wine. I'm not big on wineries, and I didn't want my mom to have to duplicate her entire trip, so we're going south instead. In terms of planning, Mom has San Francisco pretty well covered, but the rest of the trip is quite open, so if anyone has any suggestions of things to see and do, I'd love to hear them.

So that's my weekend. How was yours?

Comments

[jae]

I saw "Drood" decades ago when it was first out. Some of the songs are catchy--I could still sing "Moonfall" now, I think. I'm glad it still has an afterlife! :)

-J

[next_to_normal]

Do you recall how it ended when you went? Our audience decided that Bazzard was Dick Datchery, the Reverend was the murderer, and (of course) Neville and Helena as the two lovers.

[jae]

I don't remember, sorry. It was, like, oh my god. Twenty-seven years ago. :)

-J

[next_to_normal]

Hahaha, fair enough. I barely remember yesterday. :-P

[seapealsh]

When in Monterey, see the Aquarium. I've heard it's pretty neat. I'll be going up to see it next month.

[next_to_normal]

I have heard the Aquarium is neat. I've been to a few different aquariums, though, so I was wondering what made this one special? I look forward to your impressions.

[lutamira]

sounds like a great weekend! I bet it was nice to get out of town for a bit. And SF in the spring will be awesome!!! I'm not super-familiar with the area, but I do have a lot of family there, and one thing I always love doing is, as you are going sound on 280 out of the city, take Skyline Blvd and San Mateo road over to Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay is a little beach community, and the drive over there is all twisty and wooded and mountainy and absolutely gorgeous, AND not too long or overmuch out of the way of moving southward.

[next_to_normal]

Oh yes, Skyline Blvd is on our list of things to do, and I like the sound of Half Moon Bay. I think we'll probably drive straight down to Monterey on the highway and then meander our way back up on the twisty scenic roads, since we're leaving from the SF airport.

[ever_neutral]

(Fandom would be proud - we voted on the couple who should get together at the end and our audience chose, of all the possible options, the twin brother and sister. LOL we <3 incest.)

i'm crying

My only suggestion for San Francisco is that you take me with you. How 'bout that.

[next_to_normal]

Works for me. Get yourself to the US and you can come along. :)