Plot Monkeys

I am writing this blog from aboard a charter bus, somewhere in New Jersey, on Sunday evening. This weekend, I had great fun chaperoning my 10th grader’s field trip to NYC with her drama club. My older daughter got to come, too, and we’ve had a fabulous (though exhausting) time!

Those of you who are regulars know I’m a big Broadway fan. Well, my girls are, too, so we were really excited about making this trip. The entire group had tickets to two shows–two very new, very exciting, very talked-about shows.

Our day started off yesterday trying to unload tickets for one of those shows.

The drama teacher had purchased a bulk amount of tickets, but where weren’t enough kids who signed up to attend, so she was stuck with about a dozen extras for each performance. So she and I stood on a street corner hawking our wares. Fortunately, she’s a good friend of mine from many years ago, and we had a great time prostituting ourselves…I mean, our tickets, to anyone who’d walk by.

Well, until the cop came.

I’d gone into a store, so I missed her being hauled up the street, but believe me, the kids filled me in as soon as I came back. Apparently there’s some law in NYC that you can’t scalp tickets right outside a venue, you have to be at least 1000 feet away. Who knew? Anyway, the NYPD officer kindly let her off with a warning, and we were able to get rid of all Saturday’s tickets for half the cover price each, so the drama club recovered over $500 of the money they thought they’d lose.

What did we see, you’re wondering?

First up, Saturday, was “The Pirate Queen” which is a brand new musical by the composers of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. Those are two of my all-time favorite musicals…and I actually slept in the “real” pirate queen’s (Grace O’Malley’s) castle, which is now a B&B in Ireland. So believe you me, I was prepared to ADORE this show.

I didn’t.

I hate saying that…but I just didn’t. It was okay. It might have even been good. But I was expecting so much more and I walked out of there struggling to remember a single strong number, and laughing with my 18 year old over how awful and cheesy a lot of the lyrics were. There was no brilliant “Bring Him Home” like from Les Miz or “I Swear I’d Give My Life For You” from Miss Saigon (though one song in Pirate Queen blatantly ripped off a line from that one.) The staging was great, special effects great, costumes amazing, performances top rate…I just didn’t like the music, itself.

What a disappointment.

Fortunately, Sunday went MUCH better. We went to see a new musical called “Spring Awakenings” which is taking Broadway by storm. I honestly had expected to dislike this one…or at least be uncomfortable seeing it with a bunch of teenagers. Because the show is a very dark story of a bunch of teenagers suffering with puberty-inspired insanity. There’s graphic masturbation, sex, partial nudity, suicide, sexual abuse, abortion…sounds pleasant, huh?

But oh, my God, it was amazing. Just had me bouncing in my seat, laughing, crying my face off, and leaping to my feet when it was over. Think Rent with teenagers…but much more poignant. Anyone who ever went through puberty or raised a teenager can relate to this song. And when the hero is caught red-handed and confronted by his schoolmaster about something he’d done, and he and the cast break into a huge number called “You’re F***ed”, the whole house erupted, including the elderly couple sitting right in front of me!

After the show, we were supposed to go meet up at the bus, but because the show didn’t run too long, I stuck around with my two daughters by the stage door. The rest of the group & teacher went off to shop before the deadline, but the three of us stuck it out and were greatly rewarded. We met cast member after cast member, and the huge payoff came at the very end when the two male leads (both adorably hot young guys not much older than my teenage girls) came out, autographed, chatted, and posed for pictures.

As you can imagine, my daughters are still walking on clouds. This moment was, for them, what meeting Hugh Jackman after Boy From Oz, was for me.

Here’s the proof:

And I am the hero Mom of the year.

So, that was my big Broadway weekend. It was loads of fun, it was exciting and exhausting. I love just talking around Manhattan, soaking in the flavor of one of my favorite cities in the world and capping it off by seeing–and meeting–the original cast of the musical I here-and-now predict will win this year’s Tony Award was absolutely the icing on the cake.

Now, I know Julie is a musical nut like me (read above for my recommendations on Pirate Queen, Jules…lol) and Janelle likes them and Carly loathes them…how about everybody else? Anybody interested in them? Anybody see any shows that truly wowed them…or didn’t?

Please tell me I’m not the only one around here who lives my life as a Broadway musical. (lol…you might remember my blog from that name from last year!)