The trip started with me taking pictures of Mike at the airport and then air dropping them to him. I just want attention. He fired one back at me. We have another 10 hours of these shenanigans before we arrive in NYC.
This trip will serve as our big together vacation for the summer even though it’s just a long weekend. We have so much Broadway packed into the trip. 5 shows in 3 days.
We are seeing A Strange Loop (11 Tony noms), POTUS, Funny Girl, Mr. Saturday Night, and Hadestown. I am most excited to see Hadestown again as it will be Andres De Shields final performance in the role he deservedly won a Tony for back in 2019. It is sure to be a special night and a special performance of what might be my favorite musical of all time.
We take a smaller jet (ERJ-175) to SFO where we catch a 777-300er to Newark. The SFO-Newark flight is overnight so we used some points to get lie-flat business class seats so we can hopefully get a few hours sleep on the plane.
Fast forward 8 hours. I did not get much sleep. There was moderate turbulence most of the flight. I didn’t do too bad considering the flight anxiety I sometimes experience. Still not much sleep. We got to our hotel around 10am, grabbed breakfast at our favorite Pret a Manger and then took a 4 hour nap.
We woke refreshed and went to grab a bite with our friend Nanci.
We headed back to the hotel where I crashed for another 45 minutes before heading off to our first show.
A Strange Loop was terrific but I think I had too high of expectations. It didn’t at all feel like a Broadway show. It felt far more like an Off-Broadway show. It used some classic (if not over used?) tropes, a writer writing a show about a writer writing a show. Mike and I didn’t quite relate to some of the themes. For example, the lead character’s family continued to be homophobic and abusive to him and both of our coming out processes, while not perfect weren’t nearly as horrific. (We both felt a lot of gratitude when discussing this.)
I was disappointed that my socks weren’t knocked off, but not disappointed that we saw this show.
We ended the night with a $.99 slice of pizza.
The next morning Mike went to get us breakfast and we dined in our room. This is how we ate our entire trip, either getting something to go or eating at a restaurant that had outside seating. COVID is still a thing and I know too many that have had both shots and the two boosters and have still gotten sick. Some precautions (masks when indoors, for example) still seem worth it to me.
POTUS is the only play (non-musical) that we saw this trip. It’s a farce about 7 women who are working hard to keep the President (who is an ass) from looking like an ass. All-star cast in this show was fantastic (Vanessa William, Rachel Dratch, Lea Delaria…) The show got more and more frantic and ridiculous as it went on. I particularly enjoyed Julie White as the White House Chief of Staff. She was brilliant. I’m really glad we saw this one. We laughed our butts off, especially when a latex glove broke accidentally and the cast broke character and cracked up a bit. Super fun.
It just so happened that a former La Mancha cast member was also seeing POTUS so we got to grab a bit with Kelsey and her boyfriend (husband…?) after the show.
What a treat to catch up with her!
Back to the hotel for a nap. We stay a a place on Broadway and 54th so it’s outside of the craziness of Time Square but only a 10-15 minute walk back the the room from most theaters in the theater district.
After naps, we headed to this show.
Gold star to you if you noticed this is the first mention of this show. We were scheduled to see Mr. Saturday Night…
…with Billy Crystal. Unfortunately, Billy Crystal tested positive for COVID and our performance was cancelled.
Beetlejuice was a fine replacement. It was frantically paced and was a bit exhausting as a result, but the staging, effects and performances were certainly Broadway caliber. Not likely a show I’ll remember for the rest of my life, but certainly glad we saw it.
A few mildly eventful things happened this day. First this blew through around 12:30pm:
Second, we visited the Playbill display on Times Square.
Another slice of pizza (I love NYC pizza) and then to bed.
Our final day started with a lovely stroll through Central Park with our friend Kirk.
Kirk is a talented puppeteer who has worked on a couple of projects with me. Mike tolerated much puppet talk as we sat by the duck pond.
After a lovely visit we were off to see Funny Girl.
There has been much Broadway gossip about this show and the casting of Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice. This show hasn’t been revived on Broadway since it was first on Broadway with Barbra Streisand. I mean, who would want to follow Babs in such an iconic roll? I loved Beanie in Ladybird (the movie that she played Ladybird’s best friend) but the girl can’t sing. I mean, she just can’t sing. And she didn’t pull the comedy off very well either. It was puzzling (and at times cringeworthy) that she got cast in a roll that so many others could have knocked out of the park. We left the show enjoying it for the most park but just completely puzzled by the casting choice. Everyone and everything else was wonderful.
Back the the room for a quick nap and then off to the reason (at least for me) of coming to NYC this time.
When planning this trip Mike discovered that May 29th would be Andre DeShields’ final performance as Hermes, the roll he won a Tony for in 2019. I saw this show for the first time last November and fell in love with it and his performance. (Really, the entire cast is stellar.) The chance to see a historic performance was just too much to pass up. Mike bought me a ticket for my birthday since the show was on the same day as my birthday!
Mr. DeShields walks on stage at the beginning of the show and immediately the audience jumped to its feet and gave him a standing ovation that lasted for a full five minutes. It was beautiful. This is one of 4 or 5 standing ovations he received during the first act. It was magical to be a part of. And I’ve course, the rest of the cast fed off of the energy of the audience and gave a brilliant performance. It is so clear to me why this clever, heart wrenching show took home the Tony for Best Musical.
At the curtain call Andre DeShields was told by the mayor of NYC that this day would now be Andre DeShields day. (I am really happy my birthday is now Andre DeShields Day.)
Everyone called for a speech from Andre and instead of giving some speech he generously sang “Believe” from The Wiz (he originated the roll of the Tin Man on Broadway.) Magical.
Seeing this show again and seeing Andre DeShields’ final performance was the most magical theatrical experience I’ve ever had as an audience member. I will never forget it.
We split pub fish and chips and a Caesar as we basked in the afterglow of such a beautiful experience. 
After a good night sleep we hung out in the hotel (thank you late check out until it was time to pack up and head to the airport. Now we sit in the United lounge and wait for our direct flight to Sacramento. (Airbus 320.)
A slight delay of our flight gets us in to Sacramento at around 11:30pm. I have an early morning show with Rachel (who has been taking such good care of our dog) in Napa tomorrow so I’m already looking forward to a nap after the show.
Thanks for for reading and joining Mike and me on this little journey. ❤️
Art’s Travel Adventures 