New York Chapter One: Nothing is Too Wonderful to be True, 01.14.2006 at 23:14

You want an update? You got it!

Dedication: to my partner in crime,Courtney, henceforth known as Cee, Courtney or the Mistress of the Pants.

I figure the best place to start is why on Earth I went on a relatively short-planned jaunt with an elljay friend clear across America, to a huge strange city? Well , my dear Cee, has this year and the year past become very close to me. She’s shed light on a world I had only touched, provided me with people, thoughts, views and words that have changed my life. She’s exposed me to Rent and Wicked, and both have had an effect on my life, made me try and not hold back. Not only has she done that, she’s been there for me to listen and to be enthusiastic. This adventure was for her, and damn I had fun, but I’m just as thrilled that she got to do something she loves. Because there IS no day but today, as they say in Rent. And that’s utterly true. Another part of this that I went for the fantastically talented Broadway actor and new love of mine, Norbert Leo Butz. We bought tickets two months ago for his current show, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and last week when he was taken off the show for vocal cord trouble we were both distraught.

Sunday: Got up too early, had nasty horrible flights. Got so sick in Houston I didn’t want to get on the plane to NY, but thank God, I had no choice. (After being in NY I now know I will brave ANY REPEATED pukings to be back in The City). Anyway, I arrived at LaGuardia airport in New York, nervous as hell. Would she really be there? Would she like me? I walked past security and saw a girl holding her cell phone and sitting against the wall. She broke into a huge grin, stood up and we hugged. Instant friends, two lovely dedicated people. We headed out to baggage claim to get my stuff, yapping all the while. We got a bus over to Manhattan shortly after. We had been told that the bus would drop us off at our hotel. Yeah, right. The bus dropped us off at the bus station. In the middle of Manhattan. At about 8 pm. We had to conquer our fear of NY at night right quick after that. But thanks to the map Cee had, we got to our hotel just fine, seeing at least 4 theatres on the way, including The Majestic (home to Phantom of the Opera!) and the Imperial, where we were to see “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, the center force of this entire trip. We got to the hotel, checked in and settled in. Then we broke out our Christmas presents for each other. Courtney gives awesome presents. I got two books, “Charming the Prince” and “Heather and Velvet” (kilted Scotsmen. She knows me too well) and three! DVDs. Some I love Lucy episodes (classic), a season of the TV show “Gargoyles” (it’s a childhood comfort. Plus just awesome) and eee! Two Vincent price movies! I also got a beautiful Lotr poster, with the entire cast, a phantom poster! After that, and since we were starving and no longer afraid of New York after dark, we walked down a block to the Friday’s restaurant that was there and ate. We then retired, but didn’t go to sleep. We were way to wired. We watched anything we could find, and played the Pants game. For anyone who doesn’t know, the Pants game isn’t really a game, it just involves taking a well known quote or lyric and replace a random word with “Pants”. Endless fun arrived with this, especially seeing how it was about 2 am and everything is funnier at two am. I still want icons! We finally conked out around 2: 30 am, as the adrenaline had finally worn off.

Monday morning dawned. We slept. I slept until about ten am (not shabby for getting to sleep at 2!), missing our hotel’s continental breakfast. (That would become another running theme) We headed out for the day, not sure where we were going. We wandered awhile, down the avenues and down the streets, our heads craned and positively drinking up the sights, the buildings overhead, the towers, the people, the smells. So fantastic. Just to be able to wander, to discover something, to have everything so new to the soul was something I quickly became addicted to. I miss it still. We finally got into Times Square. Funny story. Our hotel is actually practically a block from Times Square. Only when we set out in the morning, we went the other way and thus didn’t know it until we circled around after walking across. Manhattan. I love being lost sometimes.

Once we looked around Times Square, took photos (of the billboards of course!) we decided to stop at the huge Toys R Us. Right when we walked in, we see a Ferris Wheel. Yes, I said Ferris Wheel. I don’t know where you come from, but where I come from we don’t have Ferris wheels in our Toys R’ Us stores. So as we’re staring at that, a store worker comes up and asks if she can take our photo with the Ferris wheel in the back, as if we were at some huge amusement park. Both Cee and I are highly amused by the fact that they take photos in a Toys R Us.

I want to break here to say that Courtney is amazing. She is hyper, observant, awesome and very connected to her lighthearted inner child. Anyone who knows me, knows I do well around people like that, because if left alone, I will not be like that. She brought out the bounce, the child in me. She was Roger/Maureen to my somewhat icy Mark. I heart her for that.

The toy store was amazing. We played, we bought Bertie Botts beans. We played. We took half of the entire trips photos in the toy store! It was fantastic. We each bought a small stuffed dog, Courtney’s was a black poodle, mine was the softest husky puppy I’d ever had. And more fun commenced. I love that store. If we had one like that here, I’d be in it all the time. Also, we bought the Disney Trivia game for the late night amusements.

After we wondered in there for awhile, we went wandering again for food. After stopping to peruse a menu, I noticed a door to a restaurant that disappeared a level below. I walked over, and we looked t the menu. Both of us found something good, and that, combined with the fact that I wanted to see what it was like inside we went below for lunch. They had the best shrimp ever, and the best bowl of soup I’ve ever eaten. (Okay so I’m a food person!)

After that, we went wandering, looking at the theatres and mentally toying with the ideas of buying tickets. Cee’s father, bless him, had offered to transfer money to her so that we could go see another show. She wanted to see Beauty and the Beast, but they weren’t playing any shows until Friday or Saturday. I wanted to check out Phantom of the Opera, since, how often was I going to be in New York? It became my obsession, and I knew Courtney would hardly object to seeing Phantom. We walked to the Majestic and after a few moments thought, I plunked down my credit card for two front mezzanine seats. Did I care that I had just charged two hundred dollars? Not at all! I was unbelievably happy. After that, it could only get better! We walked around as well, since I had paid for the Phantom tickets, Courtney’s dad’s offer still stood. We then consulted the map, and headed for the Nederlander Theatre, venerated home of Rent. Make a long story short, we got Rent tickets too. And then, on our way back, I was talking about Sweeny Todd, and Courtney smiled and suggested we go check it out. Well, you can just guess. She humored me and we got tickets for that as well.

We came to New York thinking we would only see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at 2 on Wednesday. Now we had a show Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday afternoon, and Wednesday night. It was Insane. It was also heavenly and fitting. Only Courtney and I would go to New York, and spend our entire time seeing shows. We were perfectly happy about it as well, no problem. Stay in the Theatre District all day? You got it! We were unbelievably happy.

Later on that night, we went to Rent. Our seats were on the floor, a little to the right of the stage, but still good seats. What can I say? Rent was a fantastic experience. To see the show with someone who loves it even more than I do was amazing. We were so excited, and it wasn’t even the original cast that we love so dearly. Our leads were good. Our Mark, played by Matt Caplan, was so hyper, I wasn’t expecting him to jump around and be so vibrant. He was highlight for me of the show. Once we were out of the theatre, I couldn’t help but start singing “La Vie Boheme” and Cee jumped right in with me. We sang Broadway songs, on Broadway, at the top of our lungs and almost no one looked at us weird.

Hi, I think I’m in heaven.

We stopped off at McDonalds for some light chow, and carried it back to the hotel. We made our obligatory calls, to parents and in my case, boyfriend to let them know New York hadn’t eaten us alive. Probably no one we called understood how excited we were, but that didn’t stop us from telling them anyway! After all our calls were made, we turned on the TV and started a round of Disney Trivial Pursuit. (WEDGIES!) Halfway into it, Courtney had a rather interesting idea. Instead of just not getting to move when we missed a question, wouldn’t it be fun to blindly reach into the can and pull out a Bertie Botts bean and eat it? This made me far more nervous, for I knew that she knew more Disney trivia than I, but I was game, I knew I had a good stomach.

To make a long story short, it didn’t last long. Bertie Botts beans at 1 in the morning
suits NO ONE. Heh. But it was fun to watch the faces we’d make when we lost! We finally slept around 3 am. Amazing that we could sleep at all. That room was sickeningly hot. Even I was hot. And I like to be warm when I sleep. I normally sleep with four comforters. I slept with a sheet in NY.

Tuesday was equally amazing. We made use of our vacation properly, and didn’t leave the hotel until almost 11:30. Cee wanted to wander a bit, but I was dedicated to going to see the NY Public Library. I worked at a library for three years, I love libraries!

Holy cow. I thought the bibliophile in me was going to try to conceive children with the library. First of all the place was simply architecturally beautiful. Marble carvings and statues abound. I’m not used to having marble in my libraries, okay folks? I was in heaven. After taking lots of photos, I headed in. Inside the library they were featuring an exhibit on illuminated medieval and renaissance manuscripts. Hello, nurse! Cee and I had to stop ourselves from drooling on the cases. Our words were hushed with awe as we gazed on the brilliant, amazing, detailed manuscripts from centuries past. The colors on these would shock you, they were as vibrant as anything that could be printed today. We hardly had time to explore the other exhibit rooms of the library, one of which included an honest- to-God Gutenberg bible!, before we had to head back and get ready for the show.

We had dinner at an amazing 50’s style diner, where the wait staff were aspiring and/or actual performers on or Off Broadway and they took terms performing during the meal. I want to go back there someday.

Phantom of the Opera. On Broadway. There is so much to say, so much I will always hold dear in my heart about this show. The mirror. The music. Being with someone who understood it all. The surprises it held even for me, mannequins and fire. One highlight was that from our seats, we were able to watch The Phantom walk on the catwalks above the main stage. I was utterly and completely in love, as anyone who knows me well knows I understand the Phantom’s character perhaps a little too well. The production was lush and beautiful, and heartbreaking. When Christine reaches for him but he misses it and turns, my heart wrenches. I cried, actually teared up during the end, the last haunting notes of “Masquerade” whispered by a man with a broken heart. There’s more to say, but it’s really too personal.
I lived another dream of mine. And God willing, I will do it again.

Wednesday dawned without us. We slept thought it, again missing continental breakfast. I dragged Cee up and out on a search for a post office. We found one and settled to eat. I had the best calzone of my life. Calzones are forever ruined for me!! The Imperial Theatre, and the entire reason we had come, lay ahead.

We arrived at the Imperial Theatre all in due time and lined up to get inside. We chatted idly, and sang “Great Big Stuff” and reveled in knowing that was one of the few places where no one would mind.

Then something struck our eyes. The board where they usually announce if a main actor will not be performing that night was empty, which would normally signify that no understudies would be going on. Cee and I immediacy have a faint sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, Norbert would perform that night, despite his vocal troubles. We went in, got our programs and playbills and sat down at our front row seats. There was only about half a foot between us and the stage, and that half foot was the orchestra pit. We were looking slightly up at the stage. The view was magnificent. We opened our programs to find the notice put in that the role of Freddy Benson, Norbert’s role, would tonight be played by his understudy. So our hope was defeated again, but we hadn’t really expected him to show up. We settled back to enjoy the other actors.

Cut to three songs into the show. We’re both actually enjoying the show greatly. John Lithgow and Gregory Jbara are show stealers. (Greg is my new pet/obsession. Andre/Muriel forever!) When from off stage left, we see an actor come striding across the stage towards us. We look at him for a few second before it sinks in. The hairline, the nose, the outfit and that grin that stole our hearts. It was Norbert Leo Butz. In person. A half foot from us. We stared, the shock numbing us, the “oh my GOD IT CAN’T BE” factor turning us into fair caricatures of two village idiots. All we can do is stare and pinch each other, unable to believe after the ups and downs that the reason we came was right in front of us, dazzling us. He proved one thing, something that vibrated within us both, that NOTHING is too wonderful to be true.

The show flew by. John and Norbert looked at us funny a few times. I suspect it’s because they could see us mouthing the words! The show flew by, grandiose and hilarious and wondrous, and soon it was over.
Only…not quite.

For those that don’t know, after a Broadway show, some of the actors will come out the stage door and give autographs for the fans who are willing to wait there. Needless to say, we were trying to run to the stage door. We made it, stood in the rain.

Did we get his autograph? Oh yes! Cee got her musical bible, The Last Five Years soundtrack, autographed by both Norbert and Sherie Rene Scott, which made her smile to no end. I got no less than four of the cast’s autographs, including Norbert, John (who is bowing out of the show Jan 15) and my new actor love Gregory Jbara. I was beyond excited.

We couldn’t stop smiling as we headed to dinner at our Italian restaurant we had fallen in love with on Monday. It didn’t stop. We were then off to see Sweeny Todd, which was a bit anticlimactic after the exhilaration of seeing, and being so close to Norbert. Sweeney Todd was a brilliant show, even if I wasn’t sure I would like it at first. Tobias was the best. Boys in straightjackets=yum. Seriously. Dark humor and revenge are always good.

After that, we retired to the hotel room. We never slept though. I had figured that if I didn’t sleep that night, I would be so tired that with a little Benedryl, I would be able to sleep all the way home and thus avoid the nastiness of planes.

I was okay, until around 3 am, when I crashed. Cee didn’t let me sleep though! Which was good. So four am we moved, got dressed, checked out and hailed a taxi at 5. We didn’t know how long it would take to get to the airport, so we wanted to have plenty of time. We ended up getting there too early, but it turned out to be a blessing, as I had been put on a different plane due to delays.

I don’t want to talk about Thursday morning. It didn’t make me happy. Ask Cee, she’ll tell you, I delayed going though security as much as I could. I did not want to leave NY, her, our hotel room. None of it. It felt like leaving home.

Slept all the way home. Got home, turned on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, looked at my program and missed New York.

I’m deliriously happy about my adventure, but I miss exploring the wonder of New York with Courtney. There’s more than what I’ve said here, little jokes and things that are ours, and ours alone.

Someday, I’m going to live there. I daydreamed about it today. I don’t know how, when or how, but I want to live there.

Photos to follow when I get paid and get them developed. For now, I sleep and dream of the city I now consider my future home.

To days of inspiration!