Yes, part 1. This was a full day, y’all, we did TWO shows. And I ain’t trying to have another 5000-word blog post again. There will be a part 2 featuring: AI Pasta, “Grief Camp,” A Lil Sweet Treat, and 30 Rock.
Day 1: Dutch Babies, Sunset Boulevard, and street meat
Day 2: Oh, Mary, The Tenement Museum and A Taste of Florida
Now, I don’t want to brag or anything, but I think I wore the cutest outfit on Day 3 in New York City. Here it is before I forget (there will be actual photographs later, including one that i posed for if you can believe it):
- Black lightly lined leggings (i would like to find another color legging or tight to go with this outfit, but the only other color i can think of is army green and i do not want to do that, so I am open to suggestions from fashion experts)
- A bubble gum pink dress that I bought when we first moved to Michigan, and haven’t had the opportunity to wear yet. It has puffy sleeves and a slyly open back.
- Black and rainbow striped socks. At first, I fretted that they didn’t match, but we compared the pink on the socks to the pink in my dress, and it was a near-perfect match. It made me happy because I gave myself a private goal of incorporating horizontal stripes into each of my outfits during this trip.
- My green and pink Fjallraven sling. I have quite a few products from this company, and they are each the best example of their kind. I brought different pieces with me on this trip: the aforementioned bag, a purple Kanken backpack with rainbow straps, a yellow bottle sling, and my iPad sleeve. When I find a company whose products are well-made, ethically made, and colorful, I’m on it. They are also durable as hell. I’ve filled my backpack with rocks and didn’t worry that it couldn’t handle it.
- The same shoes from the shoe guy that I wore this entire trip. I still love them.
Ok, but onto our day:
We woke up, still giddy from the high of “Oh, Mary!” the night before. We had one thing for certain on today’s schedule: a matinee of “John Proctor is the Villain” with orchestra seats. Everything else we planned to leave up to the adventure goddesses.
That means that the first thing we did upon waking up was check all the apps for cheap tickets or rush tickets to a couple shows we still wanted to see: “Hadestown”, at the recommendation of D and “Sunset” again so we could bring Caleb to see the technical and lighting spectacle… and so Aubrey and I could see the entire thing again. We also looked at some other stuff like “Dead Outlaw” and ‘Floyd Collins”, which is based on a cave explorer whose museum we visited when we moved up to Michigan.
We also looked off-Broadway to see if anything hit our brains just right. We also looked weirder and almost bought tickets for a live Japanese Game Show behind a secret door. It was unfortunately sold out, but on the list for next time. We looked wide and far and had some options, but nothing hit us hard enough to buy tickets yet.
So we set our sights for “John Proctor.”
But First, Breakfast
Look, during this trip we slipped into so many little bodegas for a variety of reasons that I can’t keep track of one from another. This morning’s bodega, though, I KNOW gave me an utterly delicious breakfast sandwich. Ham, cheese, egg on a croissant? It’s the melty, savory goodness that I can’t even find at a Coney Island up here. And I don’t normally love croissants, so this one must have been exceptional.
I know, between the pizzas and the pastas and breakfast sandwiches and whatnot, you’d probably think I fed myself terribly when I was in the city, and well, you’d be right. I love trash food, y’all. But also, I eat pretty healthy at home. Ya girl deserves a treat.
And here’s what I did differently than I would have in the past. Like, the very recent past. I didn’t keep eating because the pizza was delicious (it was SO delicious). I didn’t order another cocktail because the people I was with did. I didn’t feel forced to eat the final slice of pizza that was left. I ate until I was full, and that was that.
It’s the move, y’all. I feel like we did a decent amount of snacking between the random bar stops, street meat, and bodegas, so I got to try a whole variety of flavors instead of stuffing myself full of one or two.
But also, if I LIVED in New York City, I’d be a healthy eating motherfucker. Fresh fruit 24 hours a day? A bodega Caesar on demand, just a short walk away? GIVE IT TO ME.
But alas, I am only visiting, so we took our bodega breakfasts to go and walked our asses to the subway.
The ride was uneventful, as I recall and we made it to the theater on time, where a jolly ticket taker made both Aubrey and I feel right at home, boisterously complimenting both of our outfits and guiding us into the theater where we had a communial experience at…
John Proctor is the Villain
This play was girlhood on stage, and it moved me so much. This was the first show we had non-balcony seats. We were in the orchestra, with tickets that were marked “obstructed view”. It wasn’t so bad, though. We just missed some detail on the classroom couch area. No big plot points lost or no visual gags missed.
Not that the view was important to this story. It was the words, and the music and the emotions that were important here.
Now, you might recall from a previous NYC Blog and Logan and I’s “Rehearsal” podcast that I have a BIG PROBLEM WITH STANDING OVATIONS. They are done so frequently now that I feel like they are cheapened. Is this me shaking my fist old woman style at the sun? Yes, and I am very passionate about this topic.
“Sunset Blvd.” blew me away the first night. I’d never seen anything like it. I only standing O’ed reluctantly, feeling forced by the rest of the audience to stand up. Look, it was spectacular, yes, however, standing ovations should be motivated by passion, not peer pressure.
Same thing at “Oh, Mary!”. I laughed, I cried, I was moved, I was horrified, I was delighted. I ran the gamut of emotions. At the end, I clapped and hollered and cried a little bit because I was just so happy to experience this magic. I wasn’t propelled by passion out of my seat, gasping and clapping at the artistry I just witnessed. But I did stand up once everyone else did, because I didn’t want to be mean, you know?
At “John Proctor”, I couldn’t stand up faster. I was still kind of sobbing at the end, and there was no stopping me from bursting out of my seat. This play was the most moving thing I’d ever seen. I wasn’t the only one crying either.
Here’s the description from the experts:
Five young women running on pop music, optimism, and fury, are about to shed light on some of the darkest secrets in their one stoplight town. From playwright Kimberly Belflower, Tony Award®-winning director Danya Taymor (The Outsiders), and starring Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN is “an urgent new play about a group of students battling for the right to be the narrators of their own lives” (The New York Times).
Essentially, it’s about a high school class reading The Crucible during the height of the #MeToo movement, which is directly affecting their town.
Look, I knew going in that this was going to be excellent and especially relevant to my own life, because I also read The Crucible in high school at a one-stop light town in Georgia.
While we were waiting for the show to start, the playlist was bumpin’, indicating we were in for a true journey. Here is the playlist I listened to the whole time I wrote this blog:
God, it was good. I could gush about it forever, but there were a few surprises that I don’t want to give away. So, I will say this:
- It was set in 2018, and the dialogue drove that home
- So did the fashion
- So did the music
- In fact, this play helped me understand/appreciate the music of both Lorde and CHappell Roan more than I did previously.
- The first word spoken in the play is “sex.”
- This was a YOUNG PERSON show, which is fantastic. Broadway shouldn’t just be for the oldies, you know?
- The cast was phenomenal
- I am Beth (Fina Strazza) minus the religion
- Fina Strazza is a star, and I felt every single word that she (as Beth) said, and even a few things she didn’t
- Amalia Yoo was just as good and is gonna be a star
- Sadie Sink was great, but I don’t know if I’d’ve called her the lead. This play is a true ensemble.
- There was a moment when I thought the audience was allowed to join in. I was thisclose to releasing a guttural scream.
- What a communal moment this play was – an entire theatre gasped at the exact same moment it was exhilarating.
About a quarter of the way through the play, I was hoping they had the script for sale in the lobby. They did, so I bought it. I wanted SO MUCH from this merch. All of the merch for the shows we saw was great, but “John Proctor” seemed to fit the show the best. They had a set a pencils that I’m mad I didn’t get and a “coven” necklace that I was thisclose to buying for myself. This play changed something in me, y’all.
I did get the script, a magnet, and a journal that says, “I contain frickin’ multitudes” because I do, dammit.
Then, when I got home to read it, it changed me again. I cried more reading it than seeing it. One, because I am in a safe, private environment, and two, it’s incredibly well-written. I’ve never cried at a stage direction before, but this play has multiple instances where that happens. I’ve read it about 4 times since returning home and I’m a mess after every single one.
Here’s an example they shared on their Instagram:
This is such an important play. If a theater near you puts it on, please go see it. It opens up an important conversation that many of us are already having, but brings it to different levels. Before heading to Broadway, it was workshopped at Rollins College in Orlando. Currently, community theaters can apply for rights to perform this play, which is quite unusual for a new play on Broadway.
I hope so many community theaters put it on. I cannot stress how important this play is.
In fact, I think it should be taught in school along with The Crucible. I read in the 90s in Georgia and it looks like they were still reading it in 2018. It puts that play through a different (non-male) lens that I think is quite important.
Especially since this is the first result when I search “John Proctor is the Villain”:
Blech. I hate it. And not just because it’s an AI Overview piece of shit. And if you click to read more, you’ll see something like this: “Despite his flaws, Proctor’s actions are driven by a desire for self-respect and to defend his wife, making him a tragic hero rather than a villain.”
Isn’t this just his ego leading him?
If you can’t go see the play, I recommend buying a copy to read.
Here are some random thoughts (no spoilers) while I re-read the play:
- I’m so glad I don’t have sound aphantasia because then I would miss hearing this play in the voices of the actors. It’s like I’m there all over again.
- I feel the feels and hear the words, I just can’t see the things and that’s okay for this one.
- I forgot how angry this made me and how early
- Not, like, anger at the characters.
- Just the world we live in.
- This play feels so much like my high school. I imagine this play happening in the rooms I first read The Crucible in.
- “I cannot wait to shine over this sad empty town”
- I wonder if the learning make up early in life is a Georgia thing?
- The stage directions are perfection
- my single complaint: “thick as thieves” felt out of place
The View
Before heading into the play, we spied a sign across the street: “The View: Elevated Dining”.
When we got out of “John Proctor” with many pieces of merchandise in hand, we whirled around and wondered what to do next. We wanted to pee and get something to drink, so we looked up and down the street and then at each other.
“Should we go to ‘The View’?”
That’s what we did. We walked into the lobby of the Marriott Marquis like we knew where we were going. In fact, someone asked us if we needed directions, and we confidently said no.
And luckily those who asked us if we knew where we were going did not see us royally fuck up our entry through the revolving door. Don’t ask us how we did it. It just happened.
Then it took a while for us to find the elevator bank. That’s all we really needed to look for, right? We were going up! To see ‘The View’, right?
Oh, first, before I tell you what we encountered when the doors to the elevators that we eventually found opened, I need to tell you about the thing that was stalking me all over New York City:
Advertisements for this show were EVERYWHERE. One of the subway stations that we frequented was completely “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” themed. There were ads for this show on, like, every block. It also felt like every ad we got on YouTube was for this dang show. I could NOT get away from it.
So, we found the elevators and got in, and we were stumped when the buttons only went up to, like, floor five. Not much of a view, I thought to myself. We got out of the elevator and were greeted with the actual theater that this damn Stranger Things show is taking place. And it wasn’t like a cute lil sign, it was more like a complete reskin of the entire floor of this hotel.
I whirled around and looked for a sign pointing us in the direction of The View. We found it and we followed the arrow.
“Looks like we did need help, after all,” Aubrey said.
“We’ll find it,” I giggled.
We did not. I asked someone and they pointed us in the direction of the View, but also told us that it didn’t open until 4pm. I was only 3, so we decided to just get a drink at the regular bar, and a lil snack, and take them outside to enjoy the view. Which wasn’t bad at all, y’all.
The cocktails were yummy too. I had some tequila something, but I don’t remember what. We also got some stellar bullafo chicken bites for a snack. It was the perfect pit stop while we decided what to do next.
We evaluated our options and decided on something I pitched that morning, which was inspired by Steve Martin (his writings, not his comedies, though one could argue they are one and the same).
Christie’s Art Auction
If I haven’t told you before, Steve Martin is one of my favorite novelists. His works are written spare and elegantly and feel very emotionally mature. They, oddly for a male writer, make me feel seen and feel good about being a woman. I’ve read Steve Martin’s books many, many times over.
Recently, I reread “An Object of Beauty,” which is all about the art world in NYC. I fondly call this book “A nOb joB”, which is how Steve Martin would refer to it on Twitter when it was being marketed. It’s a fascinating book (with pictures) that taught me bunches about the inner workings of the art world and art itself.
One thing that I remembered from this book was the fact that regular people like you and me can walk into the auction houses like Christie’s or Sotheby’s to view the art that is about to go up for auction. So, I did a little bit of research and found that Christie’s had a showing happening right then, and it was only, like, a five-minute walk away from where we were currently sitting.
So, we walked to the auction house. Y’all, this was one of the hidden gem highlights of this trip for me. First off, it was free. Second off, I’ve never seen a higher concentration of masters in a single place. And I’ve been to my fair share of museums, y’all.
Even better, these were lesser-known works that aren’t meant to be shown in a museum or high-profile place like that. These paintings and pieces of jewelry were priced to sell: for folks to hang in their home or business. The artists ranged from Renaissance to contemporary.
The prices also ranged. They went from neverinamillionyears (MILLIONS) to, oh man, I could totally do that after I sell my first book ($10k).
I felt a little afraid to take pictures inside this gallery. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe it’s because I get in trouble almost every time I go to a museum for getting too close to the art or similar. Or maybe because my brain just told me it felt wrong. I do wish I had a visual memory, so I could remember all the gorgeous things we saw that day.
We stayed so long they had to kick us out. Luckily, we’d seen everything in the space, which took us about an hour. We even took time to spend a few extra moments with some of the pieces we liked best. I will make this stop every time I visit NYC, cause I know I’ll be nearby (on Broadway) and I love me some art, especially when it’s free to view.
Next up, we made our way to 30 Rock, which we passed on our walk to the Art. But that’s not till part 2, folks!
