Instead of giving you a full play-by-play of my entire trip to NYC, a la my previous post, I'm going to tell you about one particularly magical day....
As mentioned here, in advance of the trip I made arrangements to go see Boyfriend's childhood best friend in Phantom of the Opera. I got tickets for myself, Lisa and Laura for the matinee show. Knowing I would have some time in the morning, I made plans to meet a friend of mine from high school and his wife for brunch.
So after a much-needed good night's sleep at Rachel's place in the financial district (those red-eye flights just keep getting increasingly rough for me), we took the subway to Union Square. As she left to go get a haircut, I wandered around in the farmers market for a bit. The fall produce was so colorful! Distracted by taking photos, I almost literally bumped into my friend and his wife. We went to Chat n Chew for brunch which was delicious - all three of us ordered the exact same meal - some kind of veggie fritata special. It was great to catch up and hear about what they've both been up to recently. The last time I saw them might have been their wedding in 2009!
Once we finished up I hopped back on the subway over to Times Square for the show. After picking up the tickets I wandered a little bit more. When at one point I stopped to take a photo, a giant promoter-y type guy yelled over to me,"Want to see a funny show tonight?"
To which I replied, "I am!"
"What are you seeing?" he asked, to which I replied (without even trying to hide my bubbling-over excitement):
"SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!"
This part of the trip was a somewhat last minute addition to the itinerary. Thanks to a good friend of mine with some super amazing connections, I was able to get 3 tickets to the dress rehearsal. The host that week was Emma Stone, who I absolutely love and have what I like to call a "girl crush" on, and the musical guest was Coldplay, a band I've enjoyed for many years. Plus, I'm one of the few people I know who actually still watches SNL regularly every week. So needless to say I was REALLY excited. Anyway, the giant promoter-y guy was notably impressed and told me to have fun as I went on my way. "Oh, I will my friend, I will."
Laura and Lisa met me outside the Majestic theater just in time for the show - which was fantastic. I'd only seen the Joel Schumacher movie and the silent film from 1925 so it was a lot of fun to see it performed live. And of course, the star of the show in my eyes was Monsieur Andre, a.k.a. Aaron Galligan-Stierle. After the show was over Aaron had us meet him backstage and he gave us a tour - we not only got to see the costumes, the wigs, the trapdoors & everything hiding below them, but we also got to actually go onstage. We even snuck in a picture with the famous chandelier. As someone who used to perform in every every school play and still gets emotional during any standing ovation at a theater, it was absolutely surreal to be standing on a legit Broadway stage. |
| that's Aaron on the right! this poster hangs on the outside wall of the theater |
After the show we walked a couple blocks to Havana Central where we had an absolutely fantastic (and surprisingly fast!) Cuban meal. Aaron filled us in on more secrets of the stage, signed our playbills - how cool is that?! - and then bid us adieu.
As we made our way over to Rockefeller Center and got in line for the show, I started realizing what a big fan of it I really am. I remember sketches going back to the very early 90's, and am familiar with others from before I was allowed to watch. I attempt to imitate Kristen Wiig's Judy Grimes and Garth & Kat on a regular basis, and actually cheer out loud whenever Stefon is on. Most recently this video made me so badly want to move to NYC just so I could try to work on the show:
A) How much fun does it look like they're having?
B) Jina and I have decided that we HAVE to get this (and all Robyn songs) for the Wii Just Dance game
C) MUAAHAHAHAHA GOOD LUCK GETTING "CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND" OUT OF YOUR HEAD NOW!
Anyway, the show was an absolute f*ing blast. It was fascinating watching the crew switch out the sets and set up for the next sketch in what seems like just a few short seconds. They're incredible at what they do. And they do a few more sketches during the dress rehearsal to see what sticks and what doesn't so we even got some extra show! And I think the Crying to Adele's "Someone Like You" sketch will go down in SNL history. They were very VERY clear about not taking any photos whatsoever in Studio 8H so I don't have any from the show, but we did get this beautiful scene when we emerged:
What a perfect NY night.
But it wasn't over yet! Since Rachel was soon-to-be leaving New York she and her roommates decided to throw a party that night. So after SNL Lisa, Laura, and I made our way back down to the financial district to join the fun. They had Just Dance going on the Wii (I rocked it if I do say so myself) and lots of yummy food & drink to nibble and sip. It was cool to meet so many of Rachel's friends. By the time the last of the guests left around 2:30 am I was completely exhausted. Never had an air mattress looked so inviting.
I'm pretty sure I woke up the next morning asking myself, did that all really happen? Well, it did, and I'm so happy it did because it's days like those that I will never ever forget.
