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.
