I'm going to the city that never sleeps March 10-15. SO EXCITED.
Whilst in the city, these are the productions I'm dying to see:
Macbeth done differently than ever before:
Sleep No More is very different from most theatrical experiences in that the audience does not sit in a seat and watch the performance onstage. Five floors of the McKittrick Hotel have been converted into a giant performance space. Audience members enter wearing Venetian masks (to keep their identities a mystery to performers) and are free to investigate the dozens of rooms as they please. The many rooms are elaborately designed, and the various spaces include luxurious bedrooms, a fancy hotel bar, a psychiatric ward, a stable, a forest and more. The actors roam the hotel (sometimes individually and sometimes in groups) to perform different scenes. Audiences are encouraged to follow different actors and watch the scenes unfold in any order. Guides are available to help audience members if necessary.
How I Learned To Drive
How I Learned to Drive explores the complex relationship between Li'l Bit and her Uncle Peck, as a series of driving lessons progresses from innoncence to something much darker.
(Can we talk about how much I LOVE Norbert Leo Butz and Elizabeth Reaser? Please?! Their closing matinee is my first full day in the city. MUST GO)
A rock musical set in Hollywood in the 1980s, when it was all about big chords, big dreams and big hair! Rock of Ages explores the pursuit of dreams and tells its story through hits from iconic groups and rockers of the 1980s.
(Andre is in this. I would LOVE to go see him perform and then get dinner, Stephanie did just that while she was there.)
Starring Alan Rickman (enough said)
In Seminar, four young writers are thrilled to be participating in a private seminar taught by the brilliant but unpredictable Leonard, an international literary legend. But as Leonard deems some students more promising than others, tensions arise. Sex is used as a weapon, alliances are made and broken, and it’s not just the wordplay that turns vicious.
In Seminar, four young writers are thrilled to be participating in a private seminar taught by the brilliant but unpredictable Leonard, an international literary legend. But as Leonard deems some students more promising than others, tensions arise. Sex is used as a weapon, alliances are made and broken, and it’s not just the wordplay that turns vicious.
Porgy and Bess tells the story of Porgy, who lives in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina, and his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her pimp, and Sporting Life, a drug dealer. The musical features the classics "Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "I Got Plenty of Nothing," and "It Ain't Necessarily So."
(I basically want to BE Audra McDonald, so you know, this is a MUST)
War Horse uses puppetry to tell the story of young Albert and his beloved horse, Joey. At the outbreak of World War I, Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France, where he's soon caught up in enemy fire and on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself in no man's land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a mission to find him and bring him home.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert tells the story of Tick, Bernadette and Adam, a glamorous Sydney-based performing trio who agree to take their show to the middle of the Australian outback. They hop aboard a battered old bus (nicknamed Priscilla) searching for love and friendship and end up finding more than they ever could have dreamed.
Stick Fly follows the LeVays, an affluent African American family who come together to spend a weekend at their stately Martha's Vineyard mansion. The adult sons, aspiring novelist Kent and golden boy plastic surgeon Flip, have each brought their respective ladies (one black and one white) to meet the parents. Food, drink and Trivial Pursuit tangle with class, race and identity politics in this contemporary comedy of manners.
(50% of this cast are some of my favorite film and TV actors. Dying to see this)
(This will be in previews while I'm there and opens the night I fly out. I would love to see a preview performance)
Set in New York City at the turn of the century, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged "newsies," who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what’s right.
AND, OF COURSE:
The Book of Mormon centers on two young Mormon missionaries sent off to spread the word in a dangerous part of Uganda. Their tale is told alongside the founder Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
(Pretty good chance the only way I'll get tickets to this is Standing Room Only, not sure how desperate I'll really be for that.)
Of course, I'm only in the city for 5 nights, and my flight gets in too late to catch any shows on Saturday (Except for the 11pm start time of Sleep No More). So 4 nights for shows, and 5 days for matinees. Not that i'm ONLY going to be seeing shows while I'm there. I'm not made of money. I FOR SURE want to do Sleep No More and How I Learned to Drive. Other than that I'm super flexible, though seeing Audra in Porgy & Bess... that would be incredible.
