Harry Mary and Sutton are a Wonderland

I begin this blog entry with a picture of where this particular adventure began...

... Aubrea's 17th birthday party.  In this photo, I am presenting her with a gift from my dad.  You can't see it, but that poster, along with frills and the like, has three golden tickets - each to a different Broadway show.  That's right... my dad decided to take my mom, Aubrea and I to New York for a weekend!!!  Needless to say, we were ecstatic!  My dad's plans were as follows: fly to NYC, explore the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Discovery Museum, see Mary Poppins, Anything Goes and Wonderland.  I doubt that I will do my experiences justice, however I intend to document at least how I felt as I enjoyed each event.

When we arrived at the Discovery Museum, Aubrea and I prepared the cameras with every intention to photograph every thing we saw.  Unfortunately, picture taking was not aloud.  Figures.  None-the-less, we entered into a waiting area which we walked right through (we were the first to arrive... again, figures.)  After getting our pictures taken in front of a green screen (the background was Hogwarts in the photo), we proceeded to meet a British bloke (bloke seems fitting), terrific accent and all who invited us into a big empty room... empty except for a stool and a hat sitting on it.  This bloke invited us one at a time to sit on the stool and as we did, he would ask us, "Whaht's ya naim?" and "Wheh ya from?" and then "Wha' howse would ya laik ta be pu' in?" Following which, he placed THE Sorting Hat on our heads and the magical hat evaluated our personalities and placed us in one of the four houses at Hogwarts.  After my sister, who was put in Hufflepuff, was placed, I sat on the stool and when the bloke asked me what house I wanted to be in, I replied, "not Slytherin, not Slytherin"... I was put in Ravenclaw!  Mom was put in Hufflepuff and proudly, Dad was put in Gryffindor.  Each seemed fitting to me... it's for real, guys.  :)

After this we were let loose to explore each exhibit which would include anything from the actual costumes the actors wore (couldn't touch them I'm afraid) to wands and other props. 

Here's an example of the many exhibits... this is Hagrid's Hut.  We got to sit in that chair, which was deliciously comfortable. 

lots

of

magical

stuff!!

We spent all morning there, bless my parents hearts.  I don't think they knew the kind of die-hards their daughters are... it was amazing.  Once we were finally finished, we walked into the gift shop, I bought a Gryffindor notebook (inside I knew I should've gotten the Ravenclaw one... hehe), a platform 9 and three quarters post card and a terrific Harry Potter T-shirt that they were only selling in children's sizes... child's large, here we come!  What a stupendous experience.  

 

We had tickets to see Mary Poppins the day after the HP Exhibition and for the hours before the show started, the excitement in my parents, sister and myself grew and grew.  However, the anticipation to see this show began long before we arrived in New York.  The musical has been a favorite of ours for years.  Ever since my brother, Guy, and sister, Megan, saw it in New York, we have been dying to do the same.  So we arrived quite early, spending our time doing this...

and this...

and this...

... until we were let into the theatre.  As we walked inside of that historical theatre, I began to weep.  I get choked up still just thinking about it.  I am sentimental, it's true... but the New Amsterdam to me represents the sacrifice and determination of the earliest American thespians.  I know that I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now were it not for them.  Not to mention, it is just stunningly beautiful.

Some of the boxes above... I was dying.

As shown in this next picture, we had seats on THE SECOND ROW!!  Needless to say, the emotions for me were at an all-time high... :)

This is what the curtain looked like... not actually sure if we were supposed to be taking pictures or not... oh well. :)

Ashley Brown, the original Broadway Mary Poppins, was to be our Mary and Gavin Lee, who created and originated the role Bert in London and Broadway, was to be our Bert.  I was thrilled that these two just happened to come back to the show right when we were going to be in New York and that we would get to see them so up close.  The two of them met every single expectation that I had.  It was a joy to watch Gavin Lee have fun with the conductor (I'm not sure we would have been able to see their funny relationship any where else).  He also ad-libed at times when his mic was not on and we were able to hear him then also.  What fun!  Ashley was nearer perfect than practically... she was exquisite.  I found myself sorrowful when she left right before intermission and elated when she returned shortly after the second act had begun. 

After all is done - The Banks family is happy and together; Jane and Michael are practically perfect, as she vowed would come to pass - Mary is alone on stage.  With tears in her eyes, she sings to the tune of Spoonful Of Sugar, "With every job, when it's complete, there is a sense of bitter-sweet.  That moment when you know the task is done - though in your heart you'd like to stay, to help things on their way... you've always known... they must do it alone."  Spoonfuls of tears were more like it.  My emotions could not be contained.  What a performance.  One performance I didn't know I'd enjoy so much was that of Laird Mackintosh, George Banks.  I bought every word he said and loved his performance so much that his was the bow I stood for first during the bows.  Of course we all stood up.  It was practically perfect. 

The next day, we went to the Steven Sondheim theatre to see the matinee performance of Anything Goes.  My favorite Broadway actress of all time, in the photo above, is playing the leading character, Reno Sweeney.  Her name is Sutton Foster.  I consider myself one of Sutton's biggest fans... I could say aaaa lot about her, but to be brief - she originated the roles Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jo in Little Women, Janet Vandegraff in The Drowsy Chaperone, Inga in Young Frankenstein, and Fiona in Shrek the Musical.  In aspiring to be just. like. her... I pretty much know everything about her.  But enough about how creepy I am.  I SAW HER PERFORM LIVE!!!!!  All caps and exclamation points do not do my elation justice.  The actual show Anything Goes was great!  For sure not my very favorite show ever, but I was well entertained by the story.  For me, it was Sutton that made this an enormous high-light.  Having only seen Sutton Foster in various youtube videos, and a couple Tony performances, she was better than I ever thought she was.  She has so much control.  After being center stage, perfectly executing a difficult tap dance break, and having spot on comedic timing, she ended the title song (Anything Goes) with belting an E... like not the E right above middle C... the one an octave higher than that.  Yeah.  Sutton Foster, in my opinion, is the biggest and best triple threat alive.  I hope I will never forget how astounded I was.  

Guys, I like my Dad.  haha!

That night we saw Wonderland, a new musical with music by Frank Wildhorn... cool, right.  Definetely right.  While, I wasn't very impressed with the leading woman who played Alice, the rest of the actors  seemed well cast and I found myself very entertained.  Because I knew very little about this show, I entered the Marquis Theatre with very little expectations. 

Ok so there in the center is Alice, not so good right?  But to her left is the "White Knight" whose fellow knights join him in numbers reminiscent of the Backstreet Boys or N'Sync... being a child of the 90's, I ate those songs right up!  On the far left, we see the "Cheshire Cat" played by Jose Llana who was in the original cast of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee... cool!  He was hilarious!  The fellow to Alice's right is the "White Rabbit" and he was not my fav. but there were funny references to how Disney owned the rights to "I'm late, I'm late!" so he'd say, "I'm tardy, I'm tardy!" or "I am not punctual, I am not punctual!"  And then on the far right is the "Caterpillar" whose "legs" are not photographed... they consisted of about 10 - 12 girls with "legs" all exposed and they were some pretty wicked dancers. 

Right?!

My favorite element of this show was the costumes.  The costume designer was Susan Hilferty... the lady that got the Tony for costuming Wicked.  I sure did like those costumes.  Funny and creative and themed.  I ate it up.  There were some really fun elements in the show and some that didn't quite do it for me... we'll have to see how this one does (it's brand new).  But I liked it for the most part!  Ps. Karen Mason, played the Queen of Hearts, was incredible.  The best performance of the night, in my opinion.  :)

In ending this blogpost, which has been far too long and detailed, I want to answer a question I have asked myself for a long time.  I think I finally have the answer.  Last night as I watched Harry Potter 7 part 1 with Aubrea, I was crying.  Dolby died - it's sad.  But really?  Why was I crying?  Dolby is an elf (don't exist) who helped Harry and died... Harry's not real.  As I thought about this, I realized why I get so emotional.  Why thinking about Mary Poppins and Sutton Foster and worlds that don't exist make me cry. 

It is because I love things that suggest that there's more to life than what we see.  I don't expect that a letter from Hogwarts will be delivered to my house for me, or that I will ever become a great like Sutton Foster... but I do know that we can make of this world what we choose to.  Perhaps a practically perfect home life with our family and friends or a wonderland that helps us remember what's really important.

"Life is out there waiting...

... so go and get it...

...grab it by the collar...

...seize it by the scruff...

...once you've started living life you just can't get enough!"

"Anything can happen, it's official.  You can choose the super or the superficial.  Sally forth the way we're steering.  Obstacles start disappearing.  Go and chase your dreams you won't regret it.
Anything can happen

Anything can happen
Anything can happen if you let it!"