Monday, December 30, 2013

NYC Day Five (and Six)

We're wrapping things up! Our last full day in New York was meant to be as busy as yesterday, but upon waking up, I discovered that I didn't want to work that hard. Daniel was only too happy to go back to sleep, so we decided to forgo an attempt at Matilda, and spent the cold, cold day being fairly leisurely at our place. I did a little bit of school planning...I couldn't help myself. We traveled further than usual for dinner, at the teensy S'MAC on 12th Street - gourmet macaroni and cheese! Dan went with the All-American, a classic, and I tried the Four-Cheese variety. So yummy.
By the time we finished, though, it was 6:30, and we needed to hop the train to get to our last show, the musical Once. But our first obstacle proved to be ourselves: we went to the wrong side of the tracks. When we realized this (and that there was no way to cross to the other side, a serious defect in my mind), we went up the stairs, crossed the street, and then went down again. But now our Metro cards wouldn't allow us access, since they had just been used a few minutes before. We talked to the MTA employee in the bulletproof booth, who said we'd just have to wait for four minutes... And then, after six minutes, when they still weren't working, he told us we'd only have to wait seven more minutes. When we finally got through the gate and onto the right train, it was about 6:47.
The train was fast, but a bunch of little things kept cropping up: the doors took over a minute to open at one stop; once we departed the subway, we went in the wrong direction for just half a block; at the theatre, the ushers took their sweet time about scanning the tickets; this show, unlike all the other shows we'd been to so far, started precisely on time, and we had arrived at 7:02. What did this all amount to? We stood in the back of the theatre for the first fifteen minutes of the show. Not a tragedy... but for $142 tickets, I was a little irked.
Anyway, once we were finally seated, I was able to get into the story. A lot of Irish swearing, but beyond that, the story was simple, the set was deceptively simple, and everything else was subtle and simple and sweet. The main actor turned out to be a standby, but was really quite good, except for completely losing his Irish accent whenever he sang. The music was beautiful, although definitely not any sort of musical theatre style. The script was smart and funny and endearing, and the actors all played their own instruments - some of them played four of five of them - very, very well. It was a lovely show. And afterward, the actors were all lovely people. They came outside in a shockingly timely manner, and everyone happily signed programs! It was weird!
Tomorrow, we plan to have brunch at Momofuku's - including their famous "crack" pie - and we have tickets to see The Hobbit at noon - our final "show" here in NYC. I fly out at about 5:30, and Daniel's flight leaves a couple hours later. We'll be back in time for midnight.
It's been quite the trip. More expensive and more exhausting than I anticipated. Definitely educational. Pippin was my favorite show by far: the combination of spectacle, story, and song were so close to perfect. But all of the shows were fun and interesting in different ways. If I could afford to do this every year (in the summer, from now on, never the winter again), I think I probably would. But I think it'll be a once-every-three-or-four-years kind of thing. I loved it, but I also found I was missing my friends and students. I'm actually excited to get back home to Utah. Wish us safe travels!! Until next time!

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