Everyone seems surprised that I had never visited NYC before. Hell, with my lifetime Broadway obsession, even I am amazed.
As I sit here on my stoop, eating a bagel straight from the City (more on that when we get to Sunday), I can no longer say that.
But I can say that I’ll be back. And I already cannot wait.
The Flight
So, on Thursday, I woke up earlier than normal, and I didn’t have a panic about what I packed because I made a very detailed list and checked things off as I packed them. When I say “very detailed,” I mean I had an outfit planned for each day of the trip. Horizontal stripes were involved in all of them.
Here’s the Thursday fit check:
- Comfy jeans that are almost too big for me now. I will keep wearing them, though because I hate buying pants.
- Boxers! These are great for travel day underwear for me.
- Black and white tinyhorizontalstriped Third Man Records shirt.
- Black cropped lightweight hoodie with a skull and the word “detroit” in delicate script.
- Black and white fat horizontal striped Stance socks (left sock black, right sock white).
No pics, because I do not enjoy photos of myself, still.
I take a Lyft to the airport, breeze through security, and hop on my plane: Spirit Airlines, nothing fancy. Kiss from a Rose was playing over the airport speakers before I boarded and I took that as a good sign. If you’ve been watching this season of Game Changer, you will understand.
One thing to note here: Right before we took off, I sent off a message to the SNL folks to try to get on the standby list for Saturday’s taping or dress rehearsal, with the hopes that at some point in our Saturday adventures we’d be spending time with beloved character actor Walter Goggins (yes, I know his name is actually Walton Goggins.)
Back to Thursday, though.
The part I was most worried about was putting my big, fat, burgundy travel backpack in the overhead luggage. You know what? It went fine! Nothing to worry about.
My flight was uneventful. I, of course, listened to the “Challengers” soundtrack and it got me hype for my first visit to the city.
Then came the next part I was worried about: finding Aubrey and doing public transportation. The Spirit Airlines terminal at LGA is a dream to navigate. There was a weird statue of the Hulk or someone though:
Short walk and I was deposited out into the NYC sunshine. I wandered around for a few minutes and then saw Aubrey! She was also in stripes, but hers were pink, thicc, and horizontal.
She cute.
Also, there are no pictures because we really focused on experiencing things rather than documenting them. (We did write up a full list of all the things we did during some of our Sunday downtime.) And you know what? I think this was a good choice on our part because we had some full days, y’all.
New York City Public Transit
Okay, so Aubrey arrives, we get on the bus and immediately my OMNY account didn’t appear to work. “We’ll troubleshoot when we get back to my place,” Aubrey said… and we did.
The bus ride from LGA to the subway took about 45 minutes, and there was only one time when my bag slid away from me on a wily turn. A friendly fellow traveller slid it back to me, and I gripped the handle the rest of the way to the subway.
We transferred from the bus to the subway and, y’all, it was both exactly like and completely different from the way it’s depicted on television and in movies. I know they aren’t the real world, but they are the only previous experience I have with ‘em.
The subway is dirty and loud, but it’s also alive and a feast for the eyes. I got so many good fashion ideas simply riding the subway. Most of them seemed casually thrown together, but ended up as perfectly balanced outfits.
I was also happy to see how many horizontal stripes wearers there are in the city.
Then we get off the subway and walk up some stairs, and I’m thrust into the sounds and smells of Aubrey’s neighborhood in Washington Heights. It was so vibrant—hustle and bustle everywhere, and not a chain business in sight.
I was in heaven.
I should mention that the weather was fucking gorgeous. Like mid-70s and sunny and just a glorious day to see NYC for the first time.
We get to Aubrey’s building and the tilework is stunning. Sure, it’s aged, but it’s tiny mosaic tiles. Ugh, I can’t wait to bring my good camera back and take some artsy pics of them. The whole building is full of details that the people who notice things, uh, notice.
Up we go in the tiny elevator! I’ve never been in an elevator this small, y’all.
Then we got up to Aubrey’s floor, which is full of once-stunning, now-painted-over details, much like the lobby. It’s such a vibe. I love it.
Her apartment is the same way: full of personality. Fantastic art on the fantastically swirly texturtally painted walls. An adorable kitchen and a bathroom with a fuck ton of natural light. It’s adorable and I love it.
I put my bags in my room and she showed me around and then we focused our attnetion on lunch. There was a new Ducth Baby place she wanted to try and I’m down for anything so that’s where we headed.
Dutch Babies and The Joker Stairs?
It felt great to walk and talk and catch up and it was just a lovely joyous feeling. We did, however, find ourselves climbing a verysteep hill, and then confronted with a very tall set of stairs.
“Are those the Joker stairs?” I asked.
”They certainly look like the Joker stairs.” Aubrey replied.
They were not, but for the rest of the trip we called them the “Fake Joker” stairs and I think that’s what we’re calling them forver, right?
And the Dutch Babies were out of season. Like, literally. There were only two Dutch Babies on the menu at a restaurant called Dutch Baby. One was sweet and one was savory. Aubz and I are sharers so we got one of each.
The savory was kale-heavy with a poached egg and some sort of sauce. The texture was almost like french toast. The sweet one was like apple cinnamon and pumpkin? Would have felt right at home in the fall, but felt very out of place on that sunny spring day. The texture on the sweet one is phenomenal – crispy edges and a curst that felt weighty, not flat.
Mostly an eh experience, but that’s okay, Not everything can be totally awesome all the time, you know?
At one point in our walk, things got quiet. I was just taking it all in and, like I said, steep hills and stairs. But I didn’t want Aubrey to think I wasn’t enjoying myself, so I said, “Oh, hey. I spend most of my days completely alone, so I am not used to talking much. So if I’m quiet don’t think I’m not enjoying myself. I am!”
And I felt good about that.
Then we got back to her place and started getting ready for that night’s big plans: seeing my first Broadway show.
Broadway: Sunset Blvd.
The only reason I even wanted to see this show in the first place was because I wanted to know how Nicole Sherzinger got blood all over herself.
“I want to see how she gets bloodmouth,” I’d tell Aubrey every time I was making the case for this to be our Thursday night show. We waffled a lot and had a lot of options, but this is ultimately where we landed. I’m thrilled with this decision.
But, first, a little history.
From my knowledge, “Sunset Blvd.” is considered to be one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s worst musicals of all time.
Now, this might be because my chorus teacher in high school always tried to get me to sing “With One Look” for auditions, and based on what I knew of Glenn Close’s performance at the Tonys that summer, it was not my vibe at all.
So I resisted.
But then I did a bit of research about the show, because “blood mouth” can’t be reason enough to see a bad show, right?
- Nominated for 11 Tony Awards!!!!
- WON 7 Tony Awards!!!
Okay, so maybe only *I* hated it.
Then I look into it a little more. Only two musicals were eligible for Best New Musical that year. Of course, the one by Webber is gonna win. There were only TWO nominations for Best Actress in a Musical. Of COURSE, Glenn Close is going to win. THERE WAS ONLY ONE NOMINATION FOR BEST ORIGINAL SCORE WRITTEN FOR THE THEATER. OF COURSE IT IS GOING TO WIN.
It did not, however, win Best Director. And it absolutely should not have.
Because y’all, I might have spoiled myself and seen the best Broadway show of my entire life first. And it is 100% due to Jamie Llyod’s stunning vision for this show.
I had no idea what I was in for with my first Broadway show. Our seats were in the balcony, but I was unprepared for the sheer number of stairs we would have to climb. There were employees along the way rooting us on, saying things like, “You’re almost there!” and “You’re getting so close!”
We were at the St. James Theater for this show. I don’t know why I wasn’t, but I wasn’t prepared for how beautiful all the theaters were inside and out—even the show we saw off-Broadway!
Finally, we arrived at our seats, and I was almost vibrating with excitement. Aubrey and I continued our conversation until the lights dimmed and our lives changed forever.
I am not exaggerating. Aubrey, who has grown up seeing shows on this scale, told me that it was the best show she’s ever seen.
I mean, me too.
At intermission, we kind of just sat there in stunned silence for a moment. Then I told her the story of how much I hated “With One Look” in High School and kind of blocked this show from my memory until I heard it again.
But this time I loved it. It was feral and raw, and Nicole Scherzinger is a goddess of the stage.
I could wax poetic about the stage production of this magical show for days and days, but here, I will let the preview do the talking, and then I will point out some things:
This one is from the London production, but it is the exact same vibe.
Things to note about this production:
- There are no sets.
- These are the costumes.
- There is one costume change, and it happens on stage.
- Cameras with gimbals are used visibly onstage to great effect.
- There is a massive screen at the back of the stage on which these cameras are broadcast.
- This is live. In real time. Not pre-recorded.
- The lighting is such that this screen looks like a black and white movie.
- As does the stage.
- The lighting is a character unto itself.
- As are the cameras.
- At one point in the production, the house goes completely black.
- It feels suffocating.
- It really works.
- Tom Francis is going to be a massive star.
- Nicole Scherzinger is so much more talented than I ever anticipated.
- She growls.
After discussing how much we loved every single aspect of this show and comparing how many times we had each teared up, we settled in for Act 2, which brings us to…
The Walk
The opening of Act 2 begins with Tom Francis, our incredible Joe Gillis, in his dressing room.
Interesting choice, I thought to myself.
Then, he continues through the backstage area where he visits other dressing rooms, including Nicole’s, where we see a gun. Continuing through the backstage area, our Joe interacted with a variety of different characters, including a standee of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a dead monkey, and a woman holding a live chicken. (we eventually figured out the purpose of each of these.)
Then Tom Francis is outside on the street singing.
Like, I knew “The Walk” happened. It is one of the big parts of this show’s press, I just didn’t know how or where or when and had even partially convinced myself that it already had happened and was just lost on me in the confusion of all the cameras.
I also didn’t know how electric it would feel.
How this ballsy walk-and-sing-down-44th-ave would translate to the stage.
How emotional it would make me, thinking about just how many people it takes to make this happen, LIVE, every single night… and twice on days with a matinee. (60 people, according to the Sunset Blvd. Tiny Desk Concert).
I didn’t know how effective it would feel in the story.
Throughout the show, the characters rarely addressed each other, but instead focusing on the camera or directly performing to the audience itself. This really drove home who or what was important to each character.
I cannot rave about this show enough. On the ride home, we kept saying how the story didn’t matter, the music was made better (nee incredible), and this once-considered-trash-in-my-brain show was the best thing we’d ever seen.
It was a high unlike everything I’d ever felt. We both felt it. And we both felt like we might want to come up to the theater one day and watch Tom Francis do The Walk live outside the theater. Is that even allowed? Maybe we will find out.
The Aftermath
Of course, since I’ve been on my way home and now that I am home, I have been listening to little else other than the “Sunset Blvd.” Original Cast Recording. It is the entire play, and it brings me right back there.
And now that I’ve sung along with Nicole a few times, I can say that, yeah, my chorus teacher was right… I can nail this song. Just not Glenn’s version.
Oh, and I did go back and listen to some of the Original Broadway Cast recording to go compare and see if I still hated it.
Y’all, it made me actively angry. It’s not good. It’s not. I was yelling at my speaker. I’m so glad no one else was here.
Yes, I got souvenirs (one was ordered online and delivered because I didn’t want to worry about transporting it myself):
- One moody magnet
- One Cast Recording on Vinyl
Oops, I forgot.
Now, here are some things that I forgot to include from Day 1 that didn’t make it into the story proper, so I will just list them here:
- Bathroom Moment:
- After we got out of Sunset, we headed to the bathroom, where we were met by a whole gaggle of similarly stunned women. “What did we just see?!” we exclaimed to each other with glee. “This is the best thing we’ve ever seen,” we all agreed.
- It was beautiful and felt so special.
- Street Hot Dog:
- Before seeing Sunset, we swung by a hot dog cart for Baby’s First NYC Street Meat.
- I got a small hot dog.
- I didn’t know there were sizes.
- I got mustard on it.
- It was good.
- I adore hot dogs.
- Celebrities in Attendance:
- There were two celebs being amazed by Nicole and Tom at the same time we were:
- Daniel Radcliffe
- Margot Robbie
- Bodega Breakfast Sandwich:
- On the way home, we swung by a bodega for some food.
- I ordered bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant.
- I was very excited.
- It was not great, Bob.
- It’s okay, though. I also got some NYC chips.
- They were good.
- Socks:
- Aubz and I have the same favorite brand of socks.
- Stance.
- Times Square
- I seent it.
What a fun day to relive!