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. 

Empire State of Mind

Today I cried watching this video
Then downloaded the song
And with Alicia on repeat
Ran 5km
Despite the snow still on the ground
And recalled that the next adventure
Is just around the corner

The end.

Mary Poppins She Wrote

Mary Poppins came into my life

Because she floated daily

Into our loungeroom

The VHS watched and rewound and re-watched

So endlessly 

That the tape eventually died 

There has always been Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane

The toys have always flown into their cupboards with a click

Julie Andrews has always been Mary Poppins 

Years later 

On an excursion for Writing History

A pre-honours class in research and writing

The librarian at the State Library has pulled out a stack of papers 

Random examples of the items held there

The letters of P.L. Travers 

Did you know that the author of the Mary Poppins books,

Upon which the movie was based,

Was an Australian? 

That there were disagreements between the original author and Disney

(Corporation betraying the Writer) 

Graduation, a world trip, heart break, meditation, later

I was running in a park

And found a statue of Mary Poppins

(Unveiled by my aunt!) 

To commemorate that P.L. Travers had lived in Sydney

Just a few blocks from my house 

Another time

Listening to Mornings with Margaret

A fascinating interview with Valerie Lawson

About the biography she has written 

The thought, “I must read that”

Filed away and forgotten 

Later, in London 

Wandering through the library 

And Valerie Lawson’s Mary Poppins She Wrote 

Sitting there on the shelf

And from the woods of Virginia I read

P.L. Travers

Never identified as Australian

Had left and, but for one short visit, never returned

Felt New York was her spiritual home 

Hated the movie 

Never found love

Never found peace

Was eternally searching 

Knowing the postscript is delicious 

And heart-breaking

And joyous 

Where do I fit? 

I’m no P.L. Travers

I haven’t even been published yet

And yet something stirs

Identifies 

And today,

The sky is blue.

The end. 

A Weekend in New York

On a whim I decided to go to New York for the weekend
It is entirely possible from London
If one has a flexible schedule and a willing credit card
So I booked the trip
And flew to New York on the Friday afternoon
And I stayed at my friend's house in Queens
And looked after his cat

I saw a Broadway show
It was even better than the cast recording
It made me laugh and cry and filled me with joy
Then I went to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
And melted at all the resources they have available for free
I met up with beautiful friends who inspire me
I met five young sailors in Times Square
And the wonderful, delicious musical stereotype of it all thrilled me
New York, New York, it's a...

On Sunday afternoon I went to a recital at Steinway Hall
And watched Walter Hautzig, at age 90, play delicious pieces by Mozart, and Schubert, and Chopin
The walking stick hiding his nimble fingers and lightness of touch
As he played I thought about how musicians from centuries and countries far away can be brought to life right here, right now, through patient learning, through dedication
He talked about learning Chopin's Ballade in G minor at age 16
And how when he was ready to perform it at his school in Vienna
The soldiers marched in and the world fell apart
And Mr Hautzig decided that they could never take away his music
And they didn't
And he ended up working with my great-grandfather in Baltimore
One from Shanghai via Spain via the Philippines
One from Vienna via Jerusalem via New York
And I ended up working with his granddaughter
An Australian in Connecticut
Completely separately, amazing coincidence of strange happenstance
Or are we drawn to the same people in each life time?

Going to the airport, it was chilly
The rain kissed a gentle goodbye
There was even a rainbow
I boarded the plane
And suddenly I was back on the Tube wondering if I had dreamt the entire thing

It's a Wonderful

And people are here from all over the planet speaking all their myriad of languages and think of all the hours worked to get here all the emotional upheaval all the planning the working the wishing and praying and suddenly you are there in Times Square and your heart just sings at it all and your inner child is practically climbing up your inner organs and screaming dear Lulu! THIS IS WHERE WE BELONG! OH HOW I LOVE IT HERE! And your adult sensible self thinks, oh god. New York?! Times Square?! It is grimy and full of advertising and pandering to mass consumption and the massive energy use of the place and the people everywhere. And surely this is not paradise! But oh my! Another hundred people! NYC with all your shiny lights and endless billboards and theatres on every corner and crowded streets and vendors selling hot dogs and pretzels and the stands with the men selling prints of paintings of the shiny lights and endless billboards and theatres on every corner and crowded streets and vendors selling hot dogs and pretzels. And everywhere you look is a sign advertsing a show! And theatre is number one! And you’ve just come from a Broadway show and here you are walking down Broadway to the subway at 42nd Street and it is wonderful! It’s true what they say, the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down and the people ride in a hole in the ground, New York, New York, it’s truly wonderful brilliant amazing makes your heart and soul sing! 

LA-NYC-MA-ACK

And you find yourself on a mountain. And over to your left is the Hollywood sign, unfocused and blurry not from romantic screens over the camera but from the haze that covers the sprawling city. But still the view is pretty and surprises you because there is more green than you ever expected or remembered from your last time in this place. And then you are sitting in a chair that gives you a massage while one lady buffs and files and paints your nails while another buffs and files and paints your toenails and suddenly you are in a restaurant which serves the best quality food and it makes you happy to know that there is a place that values organic whole foods too. It even has a name here. Macrobiotics. And you spend time with friends and you play games with dice in red cups and you work together to save yourselves from the sinking island and capture the treasure and escape before it's too late and because there are more of you playing you can't quite figure out how to do it and the game sinks you twice.

And suddenly you are on the other side of the country watching the Tony Awards in Brooklyn. And it is nice to be with people who have even been to see some of the shows, let alone know what the Tony Awards are. And then you are standing on the High Line, a disused railway line that is now a garden. And it really is delightful to walk above the New York hustle and bustle and be amongst the greenery. And then you are in Central Park, and the Frick Museum, and then you are walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and you find yourself in a little shop drinking hot chocolate spiced with chili and cinnamon and nutmeg because although it is the beginning of summer this afternoon is a little cold with a constant drizzle of rain and it is perfect weather for spicy hot chocolate and little hand-made chocolates.

And then you are in Boston. And you are with your cousin. And although she is several years younger than you, and you grew up continents apart, she gets you. She understands. She is like you. And it is nice to be with a kindred spirit. And you eat pizza with goat's cheese and fig and caramelized onion. And you sit in an Irish-style pub and listen to an Italian musician sing convincing drinking songs, and everyone around you is banging the table with their hands and singing and laughing and even thought the room is dark the mood is light and you enjoy your red wine and your gorgonzola melt and singing and laughing with the rest of them. And then you are in Salem and you marvel at the history of it all and when did that history become a tourist attraction? The cemetery with its old graves makes you shake your head in wonder. A grave from 1692! And you look out at the lake behind Kassie's house and marvel at all the events that have brought you to this place, this whole year-and-a-half of events, and you are glad that you are here with this beautiful friend overlooking a beautiful lake.

 

And then you find yourself on Nantucket. And you are with Los Titos de Nantucket. And they make you feel so at home, so welcome. And although there are many memories here, you feel OK. And it surprises you to feel OK. And it makes you feel better. And you wander around town and feel joy in all the flowers and the prettiness of the place. And you are walking along the beach looking out to the Atlantic. And all around you are shells - the flat mother-of-pearl ones are Indian currency. The round stripy ones are scallop shells and remind you of the Camino, but these are smaller. There are rocks and shells of every colour and the sand alternates between soft and rough and you watch a seagull picking its way through a fresh crab. And as you get closer, the gull picks up its lunch and moves further down the beach, lest you try to steal his catch of the day. 

And you breathe in the salty air. And on the ferry you toss two pennies overboard, just past the lighthouse, to make sure you will return. And as you approach the lighthouse you inspect the pennies and discover that there is a penny for each of the years your sisters were born, the older and the younger, and you think that is a nice touch of coincidence. Your family are with you wherever you go. And you hope that by throwing those pennies up into the air and sparkling down into the water below, they will draw your sisters here, and bring you back too. To this pretty place where you have so many friends and so much delight. 

Jason Robert Brown

And one day you find yourself in a theatre surrounded by a bunch of avid theatre nerds and you are all there because in time and space you have sat listening to the original cast recordings over and over and some of you have performed in amateur productions of his shows and the music is what gets you. And although it is not a large venue, it is entirely intimate and you can hear his breath and the plosive p’s and b’s and t’s and feel the pressure of his pinky hitting the top notes of the piano. And he excudes so much energy so much passion so much life as he plays and sings the songs you know so well but suddenly tonight they are new because the brain that wrote them is performing them in front of you and you wonder how he can possibly still be sitting with all that energy surely he must be floating surely the way he taps his foot so insistently that the whole auditorium can hear it feel its pulse surely he must need to stand but his back is straight and there he is sitting playing the piano and singing. And he is utterly marvellous. The way the music is driving and full of vigour but the lyrics are melancholy and funny all at once and the whole room is transported to intimate worlds far away in the land of America but still so familiar it could have been your own living room. You have had that conversation. You have had that heart break. You have felt that loneliness. You have shared that laugh. The magic of watching the craft come to life. Feeling like you are there as he writes the notes the chords the lyrics  the song is created in front of you before your eyes inside your very ears. And all there is is a piano a microphone and a man in a spotlight. And it is lovely. It is breath-taking. It is music. The end. 

19 Lovelies

Just because it is the nineteenth day of the year, and the nineteenth day of the month, here are nineteen things inspiring me at present...

1. My job. I love getting paid to watch a profesh musical every day. It is amazing.
2. Being in a new Australian musical, Wonderland. Working with beautiful, lovely, talented, and awesome people.
3. Seth Rudetsky. Whenever I am down, sad, or lonely, Seth is there with a deconstruction to remind me that someone is as obsessive about musicals as I am. Perhaps even more so.
4. MusicalTalk. Every episode I learn something new. It inspires me to learn more, to get my hands on every musical ever recorded, and to watch everything that comes out.
5. The absolute plethora of musical activity happening in Australia right now. Carnegie 18, Jersey Boys, Wicked, Hairspray, Mary Poppins, Xanadu, Rock of Ages, Doctor Zhivago, Legally Blonde... We are not a cultural wasteland of despair.
6. My beautiful friends. You know who you are. You are amazing.
7. Playing flute and learning new music.
8. Watching people rally together to help each other in the flood crisis.
9. Singing in front of an audience. Singing at home. Singing in rehearsal. Singing lessons.
10. Writing every morning for half an hour.
11. Knowing that I'm moving to London to study musical theatre.
12. Knowing that I'm going back to summer camp in June.
13. Going back to the markets and seeing all my lovely vendors again. Eating beautiful food.
14. Nemo, my regular "The Big Issue" vendor, who always has a smile and a story about the current issue
15. Running weekly morning meditation sessions in Glebe and sharing what I've learnt and knowing that  others are benefiting too
16. Amy Krouse Rosenthal and her 7 things. Always Trust Magic, Beckon the Lovely, Connected, Do, Empty Spaces, Figure it out as you go, Go to it.
17. Researching, writing, and recording episodes for Flusical with Flick.
18. Going to dance class and being surrounded by beautiful, talented people, and being pushed to be better
19. Breathing into the moment and trusting that it will be ok.