Summer Fun: Broadway!!

It was our Broadway weekend!  We were in the city to see Phantom of the Opera, last year's Christmas present.  We had Saturday night tickets instead of matinee because we wanted to see Sierra Boggess as Christine, having watched her on the Royal Albert Hall 25th anniversary Phantom performance.  We also waited til summer so we could see Norm Lewis, the first African-American Phantom on Broadway.  And was it worth the wait!  We loved the show.  Lewis was phenomenal--rich, warm voice that could also handle the high bits and his interpretation of both the needy and angry aspects of the Phantom was spot on.  I think I might have liked him better than the others I've seen (I saw Phantom in 1990 in London!  It is one of my very favorite shows.)  Bud, who can play some of the songs on the piano, was mesmerized by the music and the stagecraft, staring wide-eyed through the whole show.  Sis liked it, too, though she was sitting further from me so I couldn't watch her reactions.  Afterwards, we "stage-doored," which involves waiting, Sharpie marker and programs in hand, for autographs and pictures.  Sierra Boggess actually came out quite quickly and signed the kids' programs and stood for a picture with us and others before getting in her car.  Norm Lewis was later, after we talked to "Carlotta" and "Monsieur Fermin," but he graciously talked, signed, and stood for pictures with everyone.  Bud gushed, "You were awesome!" and Lewis fist-bumped him.  So cute.  Sis is quieter but he stooped to talk to her.  Such a thrill!  It's great to be able to take the kids to Broadway shows and other activities in the city.  I love the city; Mama, a native, does too.  It also reminds me of how Gommie took me to dozens of shows on tour in Houston, to museums, to historic sites, to festivals--it was such a gift of art, history, and culture, involvement in a broader sphere beyond suburbia; we try to do the same.  Thanks, Gommie!  Maybe next time you come to the northeast, you can take the kids to a show--they've mentioned Matilda!  

We did some of our other favorite things:  we ate at Sapporo's off Times Square--Japanese ramen shop (Bud likes the seafood Tokyo Ramen, I like the vegetable ramen, Sis gets the katsu and gyoza.  Mama got some spicy noodles.  And we love their egg and potato salad with this great dressing.); we went to the M&M store (so many new flavors--raspberry, coconut, I wish they had orange chocolate); and Juniors for cheesecake, egg creams, and breakfast the next morning.

And we stayed in our favorite place, with an incredible view of Times Square; I could even see my old street.  Hard to believe I moved to NYC 21 years ago, to 44th Street exactly 19 years ago.  Mercy, how the area has changed.  Mama and I talked about the old stores and restaurants--Phantom of Broadway (which was where Toys R Us is now; there's actually still a Phantom of Broadway down 43rd), the Virgin Megastore, the Sam Bok Korean grocery on 43rd, Fresco Tortilla, the Thai restaurant, the Greek diner--and people, like the man who danced salsa with a doll in the subway station, the Sons of Israel or something like that who would wear  robes like the Three Wise Men in a play and spouted identity politics and religion on the corner, the old couple who ran my local pizza place.  There were the Coca-Cola sign with the straw that went  up and down, the steaming Lipton cup of soup, the huge Cats billboard with just the eyes at Winter Garden.  I love my old stomping grounds, even though they are quite changed.

We'll actually go back in a few weeks to see another show.  And we'll hang out in Times Square again.

Summer Fun: First Full Day

Friday was our first full day of summer, if you count summer essentially as no school.  Bud woke up at his usual 6:30 a.m. weekend time, while Sis purposefully slept til 9 a.m.  I was in between.

Before Sis awoke, Bud practiced his "Penguin of the Opera," an idea we had the night before to have him stage the musical with our collection of stuffed animals.  And he did an amazing job.  Below, you'll see Amy the bunny as Christine and Tango as The Penguin, in the "Angel of Music" scene, first in the mirror and then in the boat on the lake, and then the "All I Ask of You" scene on the roof of the Paris Opera.  Besides taking these stills, Bud has been practicing some of the score on the piano.  We then spent midday watching the 25th Anniversary Phantom at the Royal Albert Hall.  It's a good thing we've purchased tickets to the Broadway production later this year!

I love how Bud took the picture so you only see The Penguin in the mirror, just like in the stage show.

The boat is an upside-down cat scratching apparatus; Bud ingenuously flipped it over.

[No Name] appears as Raoul

When Sis woke up, we headed outside to play, it being a beautiful (cool for June) day.  I even did some weed-eating while they planted some seed packets they received from church as part of Stepping Up.    We also had the first of our many summer picnics, this one from the deli, sitting under the Japanese maple out front.

We ran errands midday--deposit at the bank (with lollipops!), party foods from the big store (and two new books--one Lego, the other a crafting felt project), and then we headed to the Y to join as a family in order to swim!  Surprisingly, Bud didn't want to swim, but Sis did, in the deep end even, for about an hour.  We stopped for ice cream on the way home.

Evening was spent eating the lobster that Ma, Gong, and Goo got us in Maine, as well as prepping for their birthday party.  The theme was Doctor Who, minimally, since it was mainly an ice skating party.  But we did make inspired "TARDIS in the Time Vortex" cupcakes, complete with blue-gold-white swirl and tilted TARDIS on a toothpick!  Sis helped frost while Bud and Mama made the decorations.  I think they came out rather well:

The inspiration

Our creation

I had promised them a water fight and so, stripping off my good shoes, I snuck up on them while they were swinging and doused them with the hose.  They got me back, pretty well, since we have two hoses and they're faster.

And then it was pretty much bedtime.

A really good start to our summer fun, considering we can check off two or three things off our list!

(And look, no mention of computers!!)

Singing Down Memory Lane

It all started when Mama watched Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary at Royal Albert Hall  when she was sick.  Then we watched it together.  And then Bud came in during the Masquerade scene and loved the costumes and the song.  He begged us to let him watch.  So, the next day, we all watched all of the first act and some of the second.  The kids were entranced and sang snatches of the songs all the next day until we finished the show.

Right now, they are watching it again.

They've found the soundtrack on our iPod.  They've dressed their critters up as various characters and done a puppet show with them.  Then they acted it out themselves, though they want the full soundtrack with dialogue!  Earlier this morning, I was Christine to Bud's Phantom and we sang "Phantom of the Opera" together.

For me, it's quite a walk down memory lane.  I was obsessed with the musical in high school, just as Mama was obsessed with Les Mis.  I listened to it, read the novel, read about the production, and longed to see it.  And then in 1990, on my way to Tunisia for a summer of archaeological digging, Gommie and I traveled via London and saw the musical on our last night there!  We were doubly glad to be there because we'd had a stomach virus most of the time we'd been in England.  It was phenomenal--not just the show, which exceeded my every expectation, but the beautiful old theater where they even sold ice cream in the (very narrow) seats at intermission!  I sang the songs the rest of the summer.  A few years later, I saw it again in NYC.  (See, they come by obsessive tendencies honestly!)

But I haven't really paid it much mind since the late 1990s.  I really didn't like the movie.  At all.  And since it wasn't Mama's favorite, we rarely listen to it.  I think for awhile it was a bit baroque for my taste.  Now, I'm as excited as the kids to revisit it.  And I still know every lyric of every song!  I especially like the 25th Anniversary celebration at the end, with some of the original Phantoms and also Christine, though Michael Crawford didn't sing (Colm Wilkinson, of Les Mis fame did, though, which sounded strange to Mama) and Sarah Brightman seemed aged compared to the young ingenue Sierra Boggess, who is actually in the role here in NYC for the next couple of months.

I'm tempted to take them to see Phantom of the Opera soon.  Lion King first, though, and then Les Mis when they are much older.  And later still, La Boheme since they're interested in opera; then Rent!  But, yes, Phantom of the Opera.

Until then, they're already planning to be the Phantom and Christine for Halloween!  Think they sell child-sized white half-masks?