Impressions of Broadway

Our activities over the past two days have been to go to shows on Broadway.  That means, of course, you go to Times Square which just basically YELLS at you the entire time you're there.  It's always teeming, but let me tell you on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 pm, it's claustrophobic - at least for me.  I think the smartest thing NYC has done is turn the area between those two giant iconic electronic billboards into a pedestrian mall.  They even have tables and chairs set out, so people can buy food and eat or just rest for a few minutes.   I took this picture sitting on one of those chairs.  Most of the theaters fan out from Times Square, as well as the really fun places to eat on 8th and 9th Avenue.  (We've eaten at three of those places so far, and it looks like the eating choices are endless.  The competition is so fierce, it's going to be like New Orleans - hard to get a bad meal in this area around the theaters.) 

I was excited to get two for one tickets this weekend.  Ticket prices run from $75 to $400 per ticket.  Average is about $140 each.  Well, you can see that if you can get two tickets for the price of one it's a major savings.  The only shows not available at the twofer window (so far) are Lion King and The Book of Mormon - which tops the ticket prices at about $400 a ticket.  I'm NEVER going to pay that kind of money for a 3 hour performance.   Drake has cleverly found the way to the Brooklyn outlet of two for one tickets which turns out to be about 2 subway stops away.  It does take a little effort - and you can only buy for the day of the performance or for tomorrow's matinee.  Thus, we got matinee tickets for Saturday and Sunday and saved about $300 dollars.  Worth a little effort.

On Saturday we went to see Jerusalem, a play that has been nominated for Tony awards for Best Play of 2011 and Best Actor.  Even more thrilling was that my first Broadway show (on the actual Great White Way) was at the Music Box Theater.  This is a famous theater built by Irving Berlin and Sam Harris in the 1920's.  This is the stage where the Moss Hart George Kaufman plays were first seen - "Once in a Lifetime" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" - these guys are Pulitzer winning playwrights. 

What was the most surprising was not the quality of the performance - I expected that, but rather the size of the theater.  Now, I've seen Broadway plays - the traveling companies who take a mega hit (think Cats or Man from LaMancha or Rent, etc.) and bring it to Houston, Dallas, even Tulsa.  However, when that happens, the venue is always huge - thousands of seats in an auditorium type setting.  Modestly priced tickets are so far from the action that the actors seem more like dolls than people.  At least that's what it was like when I was younger. 

Ah, but the Music Box Theater is a little jewel.  There are between 500 and 2000 seats - that's actually the definition of a 'Broadway' show.  The Music Box has much fewer than 2000 seats.  What constitutes an off-Broadway show is the theater has fewer than 500 seats.  Therefore, our two for one tickets have been stupendous.  We were in the orchestra for both performances we saw  this weekend - and not in the far back either.

Today we tried a musical performance - called The Million Dollar Quartet.  It's based on the true story that one night in December of 1956, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis met Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records  in Memphis and had themselves an old fashioned jam session.  This is the 'book' for about 2 hours of early rock and roll music including Blue Suede Shoes, Great Balls of Fire, Hound Dog, Walk the Line, Folsom Prison, etc.  The actors playing Elvis, etc. were also musicians, and I mean musicians - their piano, guitar, bass and drum playing was what you would expect from New York City talent.  This is a popular show especially with people of a certain age - those about 10 years older than Drake and I remember the real people and the real performances.  My mother had a friend who actually went to see Elvis Presley perform in the 1950's and she became an ardent fan buying every record he ever made.

Bottom line:  whether it's a drama or a musical - Broadway performances are everything and more that you've ever heard.  There's a whole class of actors and entertainers who forsake the national media (TV, radio, movies) in favor of live performance in New York City.  They are about the world's smallest professional league, and they are fabulous.  I can't wait to see more of their work.