A Day at the Theatre 10-8-08

I know I didn't post again within the 36 hour deadline, but I am posting now.  I hope that is enough to make up for my slothfulness.  To make posting easier, I decided to continue with my journal entries about New York City!

A Day at the Theatre

Normally when Micah and I talk about going to the theater, we're talking about movies.  

Not this day.  We spent our day watching live shows... excellent live shows.  

It could have been a day for many other things as well, but we were always just a bit too late.  Let me tell you what I mean.

First thing in the morning we headed up to Radio City Music Hall.  I remember Mom telling me how she liked it so much and that the Rockettes were amazing.  We wanted to do their tour and I was excited to meet a real Rockette (Mom's influence).  Unfortunately, the length of the tour would have made us late for the show we had matinee tickets for.  We left having only seen the lobby.

Next we headed to the Cathedral of St. Patrick.  These old cathedrals are just COOL.  They make me want to go tour Europe.  Since we had already visited a cathedral in New York, Micah and I were pretty sure we could walk in, get the pictures we wanted, and walk out. 

 

Several problems arose: (1) This cathedral is WAY bigger than the other one we saw and I wanted to see all of it.  (2) Mass was in session, so we were limited as to where we could go and what we could see.  (3) Pictures are not allowed during mass.  WHAT THE HECK!!?!?  

We snuck what few pictures we could, walked around as much as we dared (which was awkward), and then we went on our way.

Lucky for me, "on our way" meant we were off to Broadway to see WICKED!! 

I'm not sure what to say besides to tell you that I LOVE IT!  I made Micah promise to buy the soundtrack for me (which he did once we were back in Utah).  I listened to the soundtrack non-stop in my car for several months.  Even now, I change out my CDs, and between each new CD I listen to the complete Wicked soundtrack at least one time through, and I listen to my favorite songs multiple times.  I LOVE WICKED!  I highly recommend it.  Micah was not thrilled to go, but was willing to humor it.  He liked it too! He said it was the best show we saw in New York.

Still in awe at the wonderfulness that was WICKED, Micah and I trekked over to Carnegie Hall. I'm going to be honest, we only went over there because every time Elizabeth tries to explain how her to spell her married name she always refers to Carnegie Hall in New York.  As with Radio City Music Hall, we planned to do the tour and familiarize ourselves with the goings on there.  Alas, the final tour had already started by the time we arrived.  We would need to return another day if we wanted the tour. (Our last days were busy enough, and we weren't that interested, so we never went back.)

Instead, we took a walk over to FAO Schwartz.  I have fond memories of tinkering around an FAO Schwarz store for hours just playing with all the magical toys.  Having seen the large piano in the movie "Big" I was expecting this FAO Schwarz to exceed the one in my memory.  I am not going to lie... I was disappointed.  There were very few interactive toys and nothing noticeably unique to FAO Schwartz.  In short, it felt like a uptown Toys R Us.  And let me assure you, the uptown Toys R Us is WAY more fun than FAO Schwartz.

The one redeeming factor was the lego section.  The life-sized Harry Potter Legos pictured here made the stop worth it.  I'm there with my "besties" Ron and Hermione, and the monstrosity behind me is the ever-lovable Hagrid.

Our final event for the day was "Stomp" at the Orpheum. Micah is a music guy.  Micah is even a drummer.  Stomp may be Micah's calling in life.  The show was longer than we expected.  It was fascinating with complex rhythms.  The people were very watchable.  We totally enjoyed it.  The cast had an overall message about the importance of music, finding music in our everyday lives, and, most importantly, fighting to keep music education in schools.  Here, here!

All in all, not a bad day.  A lot of short stops (that would have been longer if we had arrived earlier).  Two great shows.  Wonderful memories to take home.