This was my first trip to New York without a distinct leader telling me where to go and what to do, and boy was it daunting! I have absolutely no skills with directions and I have not been to New York enough times to be able to find my own way around. Our first activity in New York was a scavenger hunt of the theatre district. Being so directionally confused was definitely a handicap in this endeavor; I would have been completely lost without the help from my scavenger hunt teammates! At first I wasn’t sure what the point of the scavenger hunt was, but as we progressed I found myself becoming more familiar with not only the major theatres and landmarks, but I also felt more comfortable finding my way around the city.
Before venturing to New York on this trip I had not realized how HUGE the theatre district is. There are so many productions going on in tons of theatres. It blew my mind how much variety there was. When you’re not very involved in theatre you just hear about the more mainstream, “pop culture” Broadway productions such as The Lion King and Spiderman. I didn’t realized there were productions directed towards every kind of taste and audience. Walking around the theatre district is such a full sensory experience; there is so much going on, people and sounds everywhere with an overwhelming amount of theatre marquis and billboards. Another one of Ney York’s amazing attributes is its obscene amount of places to eat, which is awesome for a food lover like myself. At lunchtime we had quite a hard time deciding on where to get food. We decided on Junior’s, a delicious restaurant famous for it’s sandwiches, as well as its cheesecake, which I sadly did not get to try. Another regret I had was my lack of picture taking, once I returned home I realized I lacked any pictures to document the trip which was disappointing.
After finishing our lunch we headed to the Marquis theatre to attend our first production of the year (as well as my first Broadway show EVER), Follies. I didn’t really know what to expect coming into it, having only been to small-scale local plays. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the show, especially being so exhausted from walking around all day, but soon enough the show snapped me out of my stupor. The beautiful scenery, costumes and amazing cast were all vital components of the performance. The first number that really caught my attention was “Mirrors” which was a combination of the ghosts of the Follies girls in their prime and their present selves. However my favorite number was “Could I leave you”. It had so much power and emotion; Jan Maxell sang it to perfection. All together it was a wonderful production and I was happy with my first Broadway experience and I’m excited to have many more!
Gina, I can't believe you haven't been to the city without a predetermined schedule. One of the things I love most about New York is that there is so much to do and most of the time even if you make plans you end up coming across something else to do.
ReplyDeleteI also felt like I learned my way around the city better with Dr. Shosh's map and being in the Theatre District alone and I really didn't know it was that big before either. I get what you mean by only hearing about "pop culture" shows when you're not into Broadway.
Lastly, I forgot my camera and didn't take too many photos either which I plan to do a lot more of tomorrow. And Follies was only the second show I have seen on Broadway and probably the only one I've seen in a decade. I'm excited for tomorrow too:)