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New York City: Times Square and Broadway

No.  I didn’t go to BlogHer.  It has been two months since I got back from New York City and I am just now getting around to blogging about it.  .  I started keeping a travel-journal this trip, so I wrote down little bits and pieces of my days away from home every night.  The Tony Awards took place while I was in NYC and the buzz around Broadway the week prior was a little intoxicating.  Everyone was talking about whether Alfred Molina or Denzel Washington would with for Best Actor (Denzel).  What would win Best Musical? (Memphis)  And how could “Red” not take home the Tony for Best Play? (It did.)   Needless to say, it was a good week to see six or seven Broadway shows.

Billy Elliot is set in a small town, the story follows Billy as he stumbles out of the boxing ring and into a ballet class, discovering a surprising talent that inspires his family and his whole community. A joyous celebration of one boy’s journey to make his dreams come true.  I have loved this show from afar for several years now and jumped on the chance to see it on Broadway.  The kid who played Billy was fantastic and I loved the general message of “Hey, it’s okay to be different.  It’s okay to follow your own heart.  And really, if you play your cards right, it can bring you and your family/friends/community closer together.”

Fences is the story of Troy Maxson, a man torn between the glory of his past and the uncertainty of his future. Emboldened by pride and embittered by sacrifice, Troy is determined to make life better for future generations, even as he struggles to embrace the dreams of his own son.  Playwright August Wilson wrote 10 plays about the African-American experience in Pittsburg, each tackling a different decade.  Fences, set in the 1950′s, is perhaps the most famous, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1987.  That same year James Earl Jones won the Tony Award for Best Actor and just a few weeks ago Denzel Washington won the same award for the same role and his costar, Viola Davis, won Best Actress.  Also–for the more stiletto-minded, there was a write-up of Fences in the last issue of Vogue. I actually stood in line at the box office to purchase standing-room only tickets to this completely sold out performance, and then I stood at the back of the theater for the entire show.  I absolutely loved this performance, particularly Viola Davis, who plays Washington’s long suffering, patient, humorous, loving wife.  She is a powerhouse.  Her character is rock-solid, unflinching and strong.  She has a monologue near the end of the play where she expresses her own frustrations with marriage but reminds her philandering husband that she can be frustrated and hurt and stressed and still keep her vows.  It was beautiful, it was heart-wrenching, and it brought me to tears.

In the Heights tells the universal story of a vibrant community in Manhattan’s Washington Heights – a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind. Winner of a grundle of Tony Awards in 2008 I expected amazing, wonderful things from this show.  And to be honest, I was a little disappointed.  The story was wonderful, the singing and dancing fantastic, and leading man Corbin Bleu was so charming I found myself a little swoony over him.  However, the character I related with the most was the one who was dead-set on moving away from the barrio and making her way in the world, away from the life she had always known.  Coincidentally, this is not the point of this neighborhood-based musical…I felt torn, wanting to love the story but knowing my heart was cheering for this young Latina to move downtown and give herself a fresh start.

Next to Normal concerns a mother who is struggling with her bipolar disorder and the affect it has on her family. It also deals with drugs, suicide, death and grieving a loss.  In 2009 “Next to Normal” won a grundle of Tony Awards and also the Pulitzer Prize for theater.  I think I must have gone in with wonky expectations–it was great, it was really great, but I didn’t love it.  They addressed some very pertinent themes, but I didn’t love it.  People around me were sobbing the entire second half, but I didn’t love it.  I think there were a few acting snafu’s that I just couldn’t overlook–and in the end it was a great show that just didn’t live up to the hype I had in my head.  Which isn’t necessarily the show (or the actors) fault. 

Memphis is kind of a cross between “Dreamgirls” and “Hairspray” and follows the story of one of the first white DJ’s to play “black music” in the 1950′s complete with the racism, hate and amazing soul music that would come along with that plot.  I actually loved this, and I was so pleased when it won the Tony award for “Best Musical.”  I stood in line for student-rush tickets and scored an amazing seat.  The cast was electric, the music was fantastic and I loved the the way the intricacies of such a politically-charged plot were handled.  Nothing was glazed over, but I didn’t feel like I was being beaten over the head with propaganda either. 

Red is a straight-play that reveals the personality and inspiration of Mark Rothko as he prepares a large commissioned work of art for the Four Seasons restaurant.  He interacts with his assistant, Ken, and they discuss art, life, love, death and philosophy.  “Red” was by far the most moving show I saw in New York and also won a pile of Tony Awards.  If you don’t already know who Mark Rothko is, I suggest you take a moment to educate yourself .  If you are too lazy to click the link, then just know he’s a Russian-born abstract painter who I absolutely love.  The entire show takes place in his studio while Rothko and Ken discuss the paintings he is working on, his processes, his inspiration, his views on art and culture and literature and philosophy and people I just sat there and let the words rush over me.  I think a full third of the show is quotable in these beautiful bytes of insight, such as “There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend…that one day the black will swallow the red.”  The basic message from “Red” is that we must live spherically, that we must continue to learn and seek knowledge on a variety of subjects in order to be complete human beings.  One cannot understand painting without also understanding history and religion; one cannot understand live theater without also being versed in literature and politics. 

[Editor's Note:  The rest of this trip, and the others I took this summer, will be posted in rapid-fire succession over the next several days.  You've been warned.]

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