So I recently attended the Broadway Teacher's Conference in New York City. Basically teachers (from elementary to high school) come from all over the world (this year Switzerland and Australia were the furthest) to attend workshops from Broadway professionals and attend shows. I arrived a day early so I could do my own stuff. Here is Day #1.
After a lovely red eye flight (thanks Jetblue) seated next to an elderly woman who was as still and silent as a stone- even though her tv was set to wrestling the entire flight. Even when everyone else turned off their tv's to try and sleep, her tv stayed on watching wrestling- even though she slept the entire flight.
After arriving bright and early (6:20am) at JFK, and grabbing my shuttle (30 minutes later), me and 6 other passengers were headed to Manhattan. I was next to a really nice couple from Australia who were in NYC for the first time. hey asked a lot of questions about Broadway shows and I hope whatever I recommended to them, they liked. Otherwise, it could sully their entire opinion of Americans.
I was dropped off at my hotel (the Wellington) on 55th and 7th where I got a room upgrade (to the top floor, with a balcony overlooking Times Square). The room wasn't ready so they held my bags and I was off to check out The Book of Mormon musical.
It was 8:20am and already pretty warm. When I got to the O'Neill theatre, there was already a line formed for Standing Room tickets. I sat down next to a film student from Columbia (cinematography emphasis) when the stage manager (or someone official) asked me to continue the line on the other side of the sage door. I was lucky because when I sat down, I was protected from the sun from a street barricade.
I sat down and read the new James Bond book, listened to my Ipod as I made friends with other people that joined the line behind me (a teacher from Canada attending the same conference as me, a mother of 2 teenage girls from Southern California, a guy from mid-town Manhattan who wanted a ticket for his birthday...etc). Around 10:00am there were over 50 people in line.
Since this was a Wednesday, they were doing standby for both the 2:00pm matinee and the 7:o0pm evening show. They came out and told us that they didn't know how many standing room tickets would be released at 1:00pm but if you didn't get a ticket then, you could stay in line until 6:00pm to get a standing ticket for the 7:00pm.
At noon they had all of us fill out papers for the lottery- around 100 people entered the lottery with 12 names being drawn for $27 front row seats. I didn't get them but at 1:00pm, I got my standing room ticket.
After grabbing a gross turkey sandwich, drinking a Coke to stay awake during the show, watching a homeless woman grab bread out of the garbage can to feed pigeons, I saw The Book of Mormon musical at 2:00pm.
I really liked the show (I'll do a separate entry for it)- and it was definitely worth the $27 I paid- but to pay $477 like someone did in the cancellation line? No.
After that, I checked into the hotel, showered and went off for a nice dinner.
After dinner was War Horse at Lincoln Center. I had gotten a seat on the 3rd row, but the way the theatre is, I was right next to the stage- so close that I got brushed with some of the horse's tails.
In short, the play was breathtaking with amazing puppets and a great story. The man next to me was uncontrollably sobbing at the end of the show.
I then went and grabbed some cheesecake from Carnegie Deli and it was off to sleep.
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