The Shows of NYC

So a trip to NYC is not complete without seeing a show or two (or in my case, 3).  I love live theater.  Lurve, people.  We didn't want to spend a fortune on tickets, so we checked around to see what we could find rush tickets (AKA last minute tickets).  There is of course the TKTS booth if you must, but believe me...you're not getting a great deal there.

We found out that Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark had what they called "hero seats."  Firefighters, Police Officers, and Military received the best seats in the house for a mere $39.  I looked it up online, and saw that these seats would have cost $211.  While we weren't planning (at all) to see this show, we figured it would be nice to support it because they were the only show to do something like this.

This show had a lot of controversy before it opened.  Spiderman and other characters literally flew all around the theater, and there were a lot of injuries, etc. that happened.  The only place you can see it is in NYC, and the seats we had were right in front of a landing pad that the characters stopped on as they were flying around.

Me outside the theater.

It was definitely a kid oriented show, and the set was staged as kind of a living comic book.  I am a big superhero fan, and it was fun to see, but I'm not so sure I would recommend it to those without kids, unless you can get rush or hero seats.  It was definitely worth at least that.
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The second show we saw was Jekyll and Hyde.  It was opening night, and we were super stoked to get rush tickets!  They were only $32, and we set in the eighth row to the left of the stage.  We felt super lucky to be a part of their opening night.  I always buy programs at shows that we see, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that my program was autographed just for opening night.

The show starred Constantine Maroulis (from American Idol) and Deborah Cox (Grammy nominated R&B singer), so we expected to at least hear some great voices.  The show received some harsh reviews saying that it would have been a better fit for Vegas, but Joel and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The singing/acting was phenomenal, the set was visually stunning, and the songs are still stuck in my head (partially due to the fact that I also bought the soundtrack).  I would definitely recommend this show.  It's only set to run 13 weeks, but hopefully it does so well that it stays on.  This was a really entertaining show.

Steven Van Zandt (from the Sopranos) totally sat in our row!

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We tried to get rush tickets to both Once and The Book of Mormon,  but struck out (like my baseball reference?  Go Cards!) every time.  After our final defeat , we walked to the theater next to where Once was showing and tried to get tickets to a play called Orphans.  It starred Alec Baldwin, who is a fave of Joel's, and Ben Foster, so we thought we'd give it a try.  These were the cheapest rush tickets ($30), so we hoped that we got good seats.  Well, dreams come true, because we got the front row of a balcony!  I've never sat in the balcony, and was super stoked to do so!

I know there is a lot of press about Alec Baldwin getting snubbed by the Tony's, and he really did do a good job in the show.  I don't know that it was Tony worthy, but Joel and I were very wrapped into the storyline, and the actors did a great job of keeping us there.  And I was very happy to see that Tom Sturridge received a Tony nomination.  He was amazing in this show.  Although it wasn't exactly the happiest plot of a story I've seen, the cast did great at livening it up in spots.  Overall I would recommend it.  And hey, celebrities are a happy bonus, right?

Me in our box!