In planning this journey, I felt it would be a shame for my dear wife to go to NYC and not see a Broadway play. When we began to look at the possibilities for this, two realities surfaced.
1) The Yankee folks are proud of their play seats. The REALLY good seats cost miles more than I've ever spent in forty years of concert-going, seeing and enjoying some of the greatest bands/artists in the history of music.
I mean, when Daddy took me to Tara stadium in the early 1960's to see Ernest Tubb, we didn't pay NEARLY as much for our bleacher seats as the Broadway play crowd does.
So, we had to search for & find the least expensive seats in the theater. As most of you may know, I married an accountant - the daughter of one of the all-time, more "frugal" spenders of all of West Tennessee.
Need I say more?
2) As we looked at the current plays showing on Broadway, I was somewhat disappointed. I mean, there was not a John Wayne, Peter Sellers, or Crocodile Dundee re-make in the bunch. Neither were there any re-makes of the timeless guy-flick classics: "Full Metal Jacket," "Blazing Saddles," or "Terminator."
So, we "compromised." Sarah got us tickets to see, "Mary Poppins."
I know, I caved. I mean, whaddayagonnado?
Our seats were in the lower part of balcony-center, about the third or fourth row from the balcony over-hang. The place seemed full, at least at first.
If I told you how much we paid for these seats, versus how much more the poor folks on the floor paid for theirs, you would understand why I made the preceding comments in reality #1.
As one might guess, the theater was filled with children.
During act one, the kids in front of us were showing the leftover signs of all the chocolate they must have consumed earlier in the day at Dylan's Candy Bar. And, their parents were not attempting to corral them in any way. This made for a lot of stretching, adjusting, and moving around in one's seat just to be able to see what was happening onstage. Parents - please remember that your children are not the only human beings on the planet. Please teach them and train them to be considerate of others - especially at public events.
The seats in the Mary Poppins theater were not made for fat boys, nor for folks with longer-than-normal legs. Put those two together, and you will have a sense of the unmitigated misery experienced during the first act of MP. At the intermission, I went looking for, "alternative seating."
Praise be! The Lord doth provide!
The last five rows way up high in the theater were totally vacant. The ushers did not seem to mind. And so, this old man stretched out, took off the shoes, wiggled his toes, and tried to pretend he was all laid out in his man-cave-recliner back home. It worked! The second half of Mary P. was SO much better than the first.
Comfort is a play-goer's best friend.
Everything about the play was outstanding! The special effects, the costumes, the audio, and especially the acting. Everyone in the cast was supremely talented. Most of them were superbly trained and gifted singers. The young actress that played Mary Poppins was every bit as good as the matron of that role - Julie Andrews.
Other aspects of the production were exceptional, and added to the overall impact of the play. For instance, Burt walked upside-down on the ceiling of the theater stage facade - WHILE he was singing. Given the major role of the diaphragm in singing, this was amazing to see!
In addition, Mary "flew" through the sky (with the aid of an almost invisible cable harness) with the greatest of ease. The climactic final scene has her flying away over the crowd below. Every child in the theater L-O-V-E-D it!
The supporting cast of actors and actresses knew their lines perfectly, and projected them as true professionals always do.
The sets were excellent, and the transport & interchange of them was slickly done with a series of elevators, conveyors, and other hydraulic devices. It was a neat thing to see all of the technical and mechanical aspects of staging such a production.
Broadway, if you'll forgive the pun, really has its act together.
The cast received a rousing standing ovation at play's end - as well they should.
The girls anticipated that I would be miserable, grumpy, and in an all-fired hurry to leave at play's end. Thy were pleasantly surprised when they found that their assumptions were markedly - off the mark. They had no idea about how I had made myself "at home" in the vacant upper rows of that old theater.
Go to NYC. Go to Broadway. Go ahead and spend the money. Get the good seats - or even one of the boxes on either side. Enjoy what is paraded before you. The actors are pouring their hearts out. They deserve the recognition of an audience's hearty applause.
After only a few hours, you'll be on your way to the subway once again. A few dollars poorer, yes. But, a lot more in tune with how Broadway gets its much-deserved reputation.
Thank you, Sarah & Debbie, for allowing this old Southern boy to tag along with you to a Broadway play. He thoroughly enjoyed it!
And, as a result, he may not even change channels the next time this classic, old movie comes on TV - regardless of how "frumpy" Julie Andrews looks in that outfit.
Chim-Chim-a-Nee!
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