NYC Day 7

This wasn't really a day in New York, since we got up at 5 to get to the airport for 6:30, but I'll call it Day 7 anyways. It was another great flight with Philippine Airlines, and it was very empty! Me and the hubs had our own row to ourselves.

Lunch!

And hello Vancouver - rain! It was an amazing trip to New York, we just love this city!!

NYC Day 6

Ok, they weren't joking around with the blizzard warnings. The rain, sleet, snow started overnight and the city is covered. It's a lot less than they had anticipated for Manhattan, at least, but it's still pretty bad. All flights in/out of New York have been cancelled. ALL of them. Yikes!

Our flight was moved with plenty of notice. So we managed to book another night at the hotel we were in, and also managed to catch a bit more of the city.

Amy took us to the Stardust Diner.

The wait staff serve you AND sing! They were swamped in there, since many people couldn't get into the city because of the snow.

Look, I finished my pink hat so me and the hubs are matchy-matchy!

The city still had a lot of people in it, but almost no car traffic. It was weird. Lots of snow plows and things though, making it impossible to cross the streets around big snow banks. It was a soggy mess, but magical at the same time - snowing in NYC!

We thought we might be able to get in the cancellation line for Hamilton or Dear Evan Hansen. But alas, everyone else had the same idea and there were line ups around the block. So we booked a ticket for Amelie ($59)!

Went back to the hotel to warm up a bit, and then went to a place called Latitude for happy hour before the show.

Amelie was very whimsical and charming, a lot like the movie. Phillipa Soo was perfect. It was another show, like Waitress, that had all sorts of diversity on stage, which was great to see: old, young, black, white. We didn't recognize the composers, but the music was very good and catchy. It's another show that's 100 minutes no intermission, and we thought it could have been whittled down a bit more to maybe 90 or 95 minutes. That could have been us though, exhausted from trading through the snow all day. It was still in previews so who knows, it might be tweaked a bit more. The theatre emptied out the side audience boxes and put the orchestra in each box, so it was cool to watch them up close. All in all, a really solid "extra" show that we got to see because of the blizzard!

NYC Day 5

It's Monday in the big apple. This is the day we started hearing about the impending blizzard and storm that would be hitting the east coast. It was so bad that our friend Julie caught an earlier flight home to Toronto, so she wouldn't get stuck. It was hard to believe because it was such a gorgeous day.

We walk through Central Park.

And posed with some famous statues and fountains.

And then we went to the Met! I love this place!

CK loves the Egyptians.

And I love the Greeks!

We both love the paintings.

Doesn't this look like something out a movie, an artist at work?

They had a Seurat exhibition on.

It was the closest we got to Sunday in the Park with George.

Look at the blue sky! How can a blizzard be on the way?!

We stopped and had a coffee at a little place in Central Park on our way back to the hotel. We had to have a soda, because they couldn't make any coffee - their pipes had frozen over. Okay, maybe that's a sign of the blizzard on the way.

Tonight's show was Miss Saigon!

This was the only show we bought before leaving Vancouver. We used the TodayTix app for a $55 ticket, but they added a $12.50 surcharge to each ticket - ouch!

No matter, it was AMAZING. It was in one of the biggest theatres in the city, the Broadway Theatre, where I saw Sister act in 2011.

Get this: there is a very famous helicopter scene about half way through Act 2. There is a REAL helicopter that lands on stage and then takes off again. It's high drama, with the ensemble downstage all trying to get on board before the American GIs take off without them, and the character of Chris searching for Kim. It was so tense and well done, and then - they stopped the show! They announced having technical difficulties and told the audience - over 1700 of us, it was a full house - to sit tight and wait. They were still in previews at the time and again, it's a huge technical sequence. I timed it - 7 minutes passed and they were back at it. Cleared the stage, cleared the ensemble and reset for the next scene. It was amazing, Broadway at its finest.

Phew, we earned our sleep tonight, over 15,000 steps!

NYC Day 4

This morning we left Amy's place...

And checked into the Da Vinci Hotel, a few blocks up. Still very close to Times Square. Small,quiet and clean, it served us well.

Still cold but look, a break of sun up there!

This morning we were determined to get tickets to Dear Evan Hansen. We tried standing in line and getting tickets at the box office, no luck. We tried the TodayTix app, sold out. So today we tried Stub Hub. The tickets are supposed to go down the closer you get to the show. But for this show, they went UP - look at that, up to $469! Come on!

So instead we saw the Waitress matinee with Jessie Mueller, who was finishing her last 2 weeks of the show.

The tickets were only $32 because we got standing room only. We were so close! Totally worth it, I would stand another 2 and a half hours for Jessie Mueller!

Our spots also happened to be very close to the lobby, where they were baking a real pie. OH BOY it smelled good. The show was amazing, probably our second favourite of the trip, after Come From Away. It's a very sweet story, also based on a movie, and Jessie Mueller was perfect. The music is very Sara-Bareilles-esque. We love her. And it was a real ensemble piece, with strong performances across the board. The other good thing was that there was such diversity in the cast: black, white, old,  young, skinny, not so skinny. It was really great to see.

We met Amy in between shows for dinner.

We went to a place called the Brazen Tavern on 44th Street. It was so great to be able to spend more time with Amy. She is living an amazing life in New York!

Hello, here we are in Time Square, wrapped up like eskimos.

Then we toddled off to our second show of the day - Beautiful, The Carole King Story ($65). I didn't get any pics of it so our ticket stubs will have to do. This was a wonderful show, and we missed it in 2014, when Jessie Mueller was playing the lead. This time we saw Abby Mueller as Carole King, her sister! She was fabulous, really looked and sounded like Carole King. This was the second time we siblings on stage, the first was in 2014, when saw Hunter Foster in Bridges of Madison County, and then Sutton Foster in Violet.

Beautiful was really, really wonderful. A really polished show with quick changes and a gorgeous set, including a full grand piano on stage. And it was an intriguing story, I knew some things about Carole King but not everything. And of course, every song is like seeing an old friend. Just lovely. 

NYC Day 3

Good morning NYC! Today we got up and met Julie for some brunch.

Then we walked into town, briskly - so as to generate some body heat!

We saw the matinee performance of Come From Away. We have been hearing so much about this show and it did not disappoint. It's written by Canadians, takes place in Gander, Newfoundland, and was created and workshopped in Toronto. It. Was. Amazing. 100 minutes, no intermission - just pure heart and story and music. Gah we loved it!

These were our seats - first row mezzanine. We paid $47, a good deal because they're partial view seats. A bit of the band was cut off during the show, but they came downstage and played down front, so we got to see everything. I hope this show wins the Best Tony award because man, was it every wonderful.

Back to Amy's house to nap, then out for dinner at a place down the street from her apartment called House of Brews.

They had this awesome beer that we tried, the Schlaffly White Lager.

Then we headed out to our evening show, A Bronx Tale ($65).

It's based on the movie, which we had never seen. A solid story, and there's a little boy who's the protagonist for about the first half of the show. I love seeing kids on stage. Great performances and music my Alan Menken, who is a genius. It reminded us of Hairspray, and we enjoyed it very much. Almost as entertaining were the people sitting around us, who had come in from the Bronx themselves, perhaps. They were very loud, funny, and good natured. A great two-show day in NY.