New York, New York

Oh, New York, New York!

In one year from today we will live together 

You and I (and my love) 

And we will eat delicious foods

And be a part of wonderful theatre

And walk down your myriad of streets

And travel in your subways 

And marvel at your architecture

Just three short days this trip

Three shows - two Broadway, one off-

The remarkable talent to strut across the stage 

Stories told through song and dance and music

The sort of irony

That each show I’ve seen this time around

Strongly references/is set in

The UK 

Tomorrow I fly back across the Atlantic

But first,

Tonight, Matilda

To see a show I’ve seen

A hundred times before? 

Literally

Over six months 

In London

Eight shows a week

The routine of front of house

Bruce’s scene

Time to get ice creams for interval 

Counting money and re-stocking ice creams

During Mr Wormwood’s song about telly

And the swings

Back inside in time for 

Miss Honey to wander forlornly and to see

The acrobat and the escapologist! 

Revolting children the cue to 

Get out to the kiosk before the ensemble comes tearing out to change in the corridor 

Ready to be Russians 

When I grow up reprise

The cue to have the merch ready

For the outgoing

Tonight

I am just another patron

The thrill of being seated next to a friend 

From the other side of the world

Six years since we have seen each other? 

A total wonderful coincidence 

The lights grow dim

The opening is slightly different

No school bell

The orchestrations are ever so slightly changed

A slightly longer beginning

The tempos are different

The opening seems slower 

The parents’ singing more articulate 

The chokey song

Definitely slower, perhaps even by half

The set and costumes are the same

With minor adjustments

The fabrics more shiny 

More glitzy for Broadway

The wall of the Wormwood’s living room

A shiny green

The ducks seem bigger

Matilda’s bedspread, not just plain blue

It has texture

Some costume pieces are lined with glittering sequins 

The school desks are imprinted with letters on the inside

The chalkboard is enormous 

The English accents are excellent 

The show translates well

The laughs are big

The audience is very receptive 

And yet at interval

I’m shocked to discover the people around me are lost

Two patrons ask me what is going on

They can’t understand it 

I can’t understand them

In the second half the man across the aisle is bored and reading messages on his phone 

I want to punch him in the face 

At the end of the show

Standing at the stage door

I meet an aspiring actor

He is 17

He is auditioning for 19 drama schools in the fall

He has no idea what he is in for 

(Maybe, MAYBE, I should take everything I’ve learnt, and, and put it in a show!)

The fact that he has 19 drama schools available to him to audition for makes me laugh

Back in my day

Where I come from

We only had three drama schools to audition for

And only two had a musical theatre program

I love being in New York

I love walking through Times Square

It is everything I’m against 

With it’s blatant commercialism 

And wasteful energy consumption

And tourist-filled seediness 

And lack of trees

And yet I love the damn place 

I love seeing shows here

I love the quintessential New York smell that is hot pretzels and air conditioning vents and hot concrete and subway all mingled together 

I love the multitudes of people 

(And another hundred people just got off of the train)

Who come from EVERYWHERE to be 

HERE

I love that the Bronx is up

And the Battery’s down

I love that there are a million songs about New York

That get stuck in my head as I walk its streets

And they capture perfectly how I feel about the place 

(Oooooh, New York! Living in a town that is famous as a place of movie scenes...)

I love the people I can meet here

I love the pulse/vibe/energy

It is always alive

Never for a moment quiet or resting 

New York, New York

It won’t be long now 

The end.