Hi readers and other random people of the internet! This is the first written review of our theatre blog. Grace has left me in charge of writing up the reviews, so here goes!
On Friday, November 20, 2009, Grace and I saw West Side Story at the Palace Theatre. If you’ve watched the video, Grace mentioned that it was our first show. To clarify, we meant our first show that we’re blogging about. We’ve seen a ton more than this. But it’s our first blogging show. Anyway.
The whole day was quite an adventure. We arrived at the train station to catch the LIRR train into Penn Station just in the nick of time. We were running down the steps as it was pulling in, but luckily, we made it and were able to get a seat. Otherwise, the train ride in was uneventful and long since we were both hungry.
Upon arriving in the city, we decided to walk down 5th Avenue so Grace could take pictures of random New York things for a school project. While she took pictures, I kept my eyes open for random actor sightings (they happen, trust me) and a Starbucks. Unlike 7th Ave and Broadway, Starbuckses (is that even the proper plural form) are not on every corner and it was several blocks before we were able to locate one – and we even had to cross the street. However, we were able to curb our hunger with pumpkin bread (for me because I’m obsessed with it) and a double iced cinnamon twirl for Grace.
We continued to Rockefeller Center, where Grace finished taking her pictures. We saw people already lined up for SNL. At first, we weren’t sure why they were there. My initial guess was SNL, but I quickly dismissed the notion since it was only Friday. But someone had a sign saying what they were all waiting for. You couldn’t pay me enough. I looked up the host a few minutes ago and I have no idea who he is. However, Dave Matthews Band is performing, so I guess that’s why everyone is there.
Our next stop on our WSS adventure was to purchase tickets for our next show: Ragtime. Our chosen date was December 4, two weeks from the date, and we were able to get tickets in the middle of the mezzanine. I’m incredibly excited to see this show, and those reasons will be revealed in the recap of that. You’re all dying from anticipation now, aren’t you?
As you saw in the video, I was getting hungry, so we headed down to Junior’s for dinner. I’d like to point out that a random kid (I guess he was like 11) was walking by and was laughing at me during the video. I was amused by that. So, we went inside and were seated at the same exact table where we ate for Bye Bye Birdie a few weeks ago. Our waiter seemed to forget about us for most of the dinner because I was very thirsty and it took him forever to get around to coming over so I could ask for a refill of my water (by the way, did you all catch my accent in the video?). But, as always, the grilled cheese and fries were delicious.
Throughout the dinner, Grace, who was seated next to the window, observed Stalker Man. I find the idea of stagedooring a show BEFORE the show a little strange. I mean, if you’re going to stagedoor a show that you didn’t even see that night, at least do it afterwards. Then nobody even knows you didn’t see the show. Since we had time to kill, we waited around so I could see Aaron Tveit’s haircut. It wasn’t exciting because it wasn’t drastically changed. I’m just glad he doesn’t have those blond highlights anymore.
Afterwards, we killed our remaining pre-show time in the Mariott, a giant American Eagle, and then finally the theatre lobby. We saw that there was an understudy board, but it didn’t appear that any of the principles were out.
When the doors opened, we climbed up an endless amount of steps to the balcony where our seats were. Although we were so far away and the people looked very small, our location was great to watch the dancing.
When I added the little West Side Story playbill to my Stagedoor application, I gave it two stars out of five. I definitely enjoyed the show and it was nice to see something I’d never seen before and knew almost nothing about. A friend gave me the music, so I’d listened to most of the cast recording before, but none of it jumped out at me. The music itself was very pretty, but the songs as wholes (like with the lyrics) were just okay. I know it’s like theatre blasphemy, but I just don’t like Sondheim that much. I liked the Officer Krupke song though.
The dancing was definitely the best part. It was amazingly choreographed and well performed. I really loved watching them all run around and dance. As I said in the video, it was neat to see all these tough boy gang members ballet fighting. How manly and intimidating.
Although every cast member had magnificent dancing skills, the vocals were not as awesome as I expected them to be. Matt Cavenaugh was good, but not as great as I thought he would be. Same for Josefina Scaglione, who was good, but not what I expected. However, for 21 years old, she’s still pretty talented.
Karen Olivo, in my opinion, did not disappoint. We both missed seeing her in In the Heights by about a week, so this was the first time seeing her live. I thought her dancing, singing, and acting were all wonderful, but I might be a little biased because I think she’s awesome anyway.
I thought John Arthur Greene as Riff was pretty good, and, if I had to pick a favorite character, I’d probably go with Riff.
As for the show itself, I liked the story. I’d never seen the movie, so all I knew was that it was similar to Romeo & Juliet (which I didn’t like either of the times I read it in 8th and 9th grade). But I liked the idea of it. It was rather tragic, and I felt bad for Maria at the end. She lost her brother and her boyfriend. However, the whole love story was a little crazy. Like, they look at each other from across the room, walk up to one another, and start making out. Then like two songs later they’re in love and want to get married. Really? That was more than a little bit unbelievable, but otherwise it was a good, yet heartbreaking love story. And, unlike in Romeo & Juliet, Maria has to live with it.
When the show ended, we went to the stagedoor. There weren’t a lot of people there. But we were the first in the line. The barricades were in a weird spot. I thought I was going to fall and die because there was a teeny tiny piece of cement for me to stand on and there were steps right behind me. But luckily, I didn’t fall and die.
We got most of the principles, except Tony. He walked out and went the other way, so after that we left.
Riff was very nice and funny at the stagedoor and I think the pictures we got are relatively amusing. I always get a kick out of the actors who don’t exactly smile.
Karen Olivo also came out. I told her she was incredible (because she was) and got a picture. She was very nice too!
I also got a picture with Josefina Scaglione. She looks like she’s taller than me in the picture, but she’s definitely a lot shorter.
So, after we left, we decided to stop and get a big cookie with M&Ms in it. It was disappointing and not soft and good. Tragic. But I ate my half anyway while we sat in a Starbucks in Penn Station waiting for our train.
The train ride was uneventful, but when we got back to our dorm, we did run into some random drunk guys in the elevator who asked us where we partied. Then one of them tried to help me carry the case of water I was carrying (it had been sitting in Grace’s car for a week) and seemed rather offended that I can, in fact, carry a case of water by myself. So, after that ordeal, we retreated to our room and made our first video blog.
Sadly, we didn’t have any random actor sightings, apart from seeing Aaron Tveit and other Next to Normal cast members going into the show. But those don’t really count since it’s almost like a stagedoor. We did, however, see two guys in tuxedos. And they weren’t even together. One was walking through Shubert Alley and the other I think was in Times Square. I think random guys walking around in tuxedos are just as noteworthy and almost as exciting as random actors. Right?
Anyway, that’s a recap of our first blogging show adventure. We might be posting other random things in the meantime, but check back in two weeks for our review of Ragtime. Hopefully it’ll be even more exciting than this one!
Thanks for reading,
Sarah
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