By the middle of the week, I was exhausted from spending all my days on my feet looking at things hung on walls, so I couldn't exactly wrap my head around going to yet another museum, even though I really wanted to. I did, however, still want to get student/rush tickets for Evita. Why Evita? It was one of the few interesting-sounding musicals playing this week. That's about it, I knew nothing about it. However, I made it to the box office a bit too late and couldn't get a ticket, so while refueling with a snack at the Times Square Starbucks, I realized I still could make the Newsies rush ticket lottery if I hurried. After elbowing through the crowds of times square at high noon (more people than you'd think), I made it to the lottery with 1 min to spare! There were only 30ish people waiting for tickets, so chances were good, but one never knows with ticket lotteries! I ended up getting one, which was awesome! and the show was excellent! I didn't really know the story, nor had I seen the movie, but the show was fun, entertaining, and well performed. They got the Tony award for best choreography for a good reason - all of the actors were incredibly athletic and excellent tappers. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'King of New York' tap scene, which if you have a few minutes, you should watch here:
While waiting for Newsies to begin, I made my way to the NY Public Library, as they always have the most interesting exhibits in the hallways and I do love the Rose Reading Room. I will say, though, that after the quality time I've spent in our Reading Room here at the UW, I do prefer the architecture and grandness that is present at the UW, but both are incredible to spaces to spend time in. The library always has some exhibits going on and this time they was a photography exhibit, Echoes of Silence: Philip Trager, Early Photographs, 1967-83, that contained some incredible images of NYC.
The next day, I made sure to get up extra early and found myself again in Times Square, waiting for an Evita ticket. It apparently was one of the most popular musicals last year and stars Ricky Martin (yes, that Ricky Martin, the latino pop star), so I thought I would check it out. Weirdly, I got the same exact seat number as the lottery ticket for Newsies! The show was excellently performed, however it left me confused as to why a musical like Evita was created, because it seems to celebrate a women who was highly manipulative and didn't actually help her country much, if at all. The actress who played Eva Peron was very good and the creators moved the story in time with her costume changes - she came out in a different wig almost every scene - as we barreled through her whole life story. Martin's character of Che also confused me, until I realized he's kind of the narrator. I actually looked up the story line in wikipedia during intermission because I was confused enough during the show... I'm sure other people will appreciate the show more than I did, but it was still an excellent Broadway experience. The crowd here was distinctly more mature and fluent in spanish than the Newsies crowd!
Also, though technically it wasn't on Broadway, I took advantage of a $7 Tuesday night ticket+popcorn deal at the East Village Theater and took myself to see Les Mis! It was most excellent and I actually really like the way it was shot - with the extreme close ups - as it doesn't seem to me to be a musical that has a large need for a stage. The actions all seemed somewhat limited (no group dancing here), so the ability to see the emotions playing across an actors face was much appreciated. I'm guessing that should I ever see this in a traditional theatre, I may not be as emotionally affected, because I'll probably be on a small budget and won't spring to get good enough seats to see the actor's faces.
