New York City- July 2008

We only had enough time for a quick two night stay in New York this time, so we left very early Thursday morning. We got to the city at about 1:30 and headed straight to Pigalli's for lunch. While there, we had our first celebrity sighting of the weekend--Laura Bell Bundy (the original Elle in Legally Blonde) was dining a couple of tables away from us. Of course, wonderful Jose- the sweetest waiter in the world- greeted the girls like old friends and we had a delicious lunch. For this trip, we used our Hilton points(35,000 points a night) to stay at the Hampton Inn on 51st and 8th- this is a very nice hotel and a good place to stay for a theater trip because it's so perfectly situated.

Thursday night we saw Damn Yankees at New York's City Center. It was part of their Encore Series where A-List performers do a short run (3 weeks) in a well known play. It is a sort of summer playhouse for the best of Broadway. This production was just so much fun. The story is the Faustian tale of an aging man's dream of being a baseball star. The devil was played by the wonderful Sean Hayes of Will and Grace fame, and he was hilarious. It was his first time being on the stage in New York, and he delighted the crowd. I hope he comes back for a longer run on Broadway soon. The temptress Lola was played by Broadway and TV star Jane Krakowski, and she was great to see on stage. She is beautiful and has a smile that could light up all of 42nd Street. The show used the original choreography which Bob Fosse created for Gwen Verdon - the original Lola. Not all the dance routines worked as well for the shorter Jane. Fosse used a stylized kind of shoulder rolling that is supposed to be sexy, but just didn't seem to work for her. Using the original choreography was a very brave move for the director and was well executed by the cast especially the young ballplayers. The show stopper for the CBs was the wonderful Cheyenne Jackson from Zanadu. He played the young baseball player, and he is so charming and relaxed on stage--on top of that he is incredibly handsome and has a wonderful voice. The CBs really enjoyed this classic show from the 1950's, and it was great to see Sean, Jane and Cheyenne perform together.

After the show we met our friends, Casey and Ben, at a local beer house and finally got to meet their roommates, Kara and Melissa. They are wonderful kids and we had a ton of laughs. Eagle-eye celebrity spotter Leslie saw one of our favorite people- Jonathan Groff from Spring Awakening and Hair- in front of the bar with some friends, and I had to be subdued so I didn't run outside and say hi. Casey was egging me on but, like usual, Leslie was the voice of reason and sanity!

Friday morning we headed over to the South Street Seaport to take a look at the NYC Waterfalls Project. We took a one hour boat ride on a Zephyr to see the waterfalls and the other sights in the East River like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was a beautiful, sunny day and a perfect day for a boat ride. This is the most touristy thing the CBs have ever done in all their NYC visits, but we decided that a public arts project of this size was worthy of a visit from the CultureBuddies. We were not disappointed at all. The view of the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge alone was worth the cost of the trip. The Zephyr was full of new Americans as well as tourists from around the world and there is something quite moving about everyone racing to one side of the boat to take photos of Lady Liberty. It's a wonderful view of our favorite city.

Around 6:00, we headed to Central Park with the fixings for a picnic with Casey and Ben before seeing the Public Theater's latest production of Hair. We had incredible seats (thank you, Casey!) and watched this 41 year old slice of history. Isn't it hard to believe that this show is 41 years old? It was lots of fun with hippie clothing, drugs, free love, and draft card burnings. We got to see our friend Jonathan Groff again in his first role since Spring Awakening. He was wearing a long crazy wig and played Claude- the hippie who is drafted and who sings some of the best songs of the show. All in all, we had a good time and loved being with our pals Casey and Ben in such a beautiful setting. The play did seem a little bit dated, and at times, it seemed like the actor/singers were playing dress-up, but the second act had more bite to it. The closing scene of the character Claude laying dead on the american flag in his Army uniform was quite powerful.

Saturday we had a first class breakfast at Pigalli's and, as I was walking over to MOMA, I ran into Jonathan Groff again coming out of the gym. How weird is that? Three times in three days the CBs see a favorite Broadway star. We chatted for a few minutes and he mentioned seeing us at Hair the night before. We chatted about his Spring Awakening costar Lea Michelle who is playing in Les Miz in the Hollywood Bowl right now. He is just such a nice person, and the CBs will see him again this fall at Playwright's Horizon. He was amazed when I told him that the CBs had made a special trip in to the city to see his final performance in SA. He said he really appreciates our support and asked that we stop by when we see his show this fall.

After hanging around and doing some major people watching Saturday afternoon, we caught the matinee of [title of the show]. It's a very funny and clever little musical with a cast of only four and one musician. The show is a musical about the process of writing the show the audience is actually seeing. It's clever and fun and the cast is very talented.

We took a late bus home and ended one of our shortest trips to the city. Three fun musicals and three sightings of Jonathan Groff. When we opened our Sunday Times, who did we see but Jonathan Groff . . . Very cool!