For my Christmas present mary bought two tickets to see Keith Jarrett because I said I liked his music. Well we went and saw it at Carnegie Hall, the review I posted a couple of weeks ago.
Being New Yorkers we sometimes take the culture events we have before us for granted as I also do even though I worked in the theaters for about 40 years. Certain shows I’ve seen but I never got around to see Phantom of the Opera. Maybe knowing it was a love story made it hard to imagine going to see with someone who I wasn’t romantically involved with.
Now i am romantically involved so it’s time. I called a friend of mine who I knew worked on the show to ask how the cast was, sometimes the quality slips on some shows after awhile. But jack said they were ‘excellent’ so I asked if he could get me tickets. ‘Sure just give me the date.’
I picked the evening performance of January 26, 2011. Little did I know another northeaster snowstorm was on its way? We’ve been hit with way too many of them this year and this one was the worst so far. After listening to the weather reports reporting how bad the storm was predicted to be we decided to bring Shadow into my city apartment in case we got stuck and couldn’t get back out to the house.
We drove in early that evening put the car in a garage and I cooked dinner for us, then dressed and off we went into a nice calm evening. We walked down to the Majestic Theater fairly easy; the city wasn’t too messy considering all the snow we’ve had. Found our seats in the orchestra row L 104, 105 right in the center of the house and settled in. Mary & I were excited and I always do enjoy the theater.
The show was wonderful, even though I am not a big fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber music, theme and repetition. But I’ve got to admit ‘The Music of the Night’ is a pretty catchy and powerful theme. The singers were all wonderful.
During intermission mary and I talked about bringing the grandchildren up to Kids Night on Broadway and what show they might enjoy. It’s a buy a ticket for the Kid and the adult gets in free. February 6- 10, 2011. See www.nycgo.com for more information
The scenic design of Phantom is another thing in itself. Just magical what with all the fog effects simple backdrops lit well, Pity this art of scenic painting backdrops is becoming or has become a lost art. Shows don’t need massive scenery and effects to work. Nobody leaves the theater whistling scenery nor humming effects. Oh did i say candles everywhere.
Phantom works or else it wouldn’t have lasted this long and bought so much joy to so many people. Yes I had a tear in the last scene when Christina kisses the Phantom and goes off with Rahoul. It’s sad when love cannot be consummated and some people are left behind alone. But here in the theater we don’t need to have the Disney ending. They don’t catch the Phantom and burn him to the stake there is only…….. well i won’t say in case you want to see the show. But for me a happy ending all the same, tear and all.
It was during curtain calls that we learned that January 25, 201 was the 23rd year anniversary performance of the show and Hal Prince was sitting in the audience, cue spotlight to pick him up. I didn’t see him as everyone around us was standing up and mary can’t see over the people anyways but she thought he had a green hat on.
When we got to the lobby the snow was coming down at an 45 degree angle driven so hard it hurt ones face. Silly us we walked home and mary went and got the car and we all piled in heading across the river. We didn’t want to get stuck here in the city but it was a treacherous white knuckle ride home at 5 to 20 mph up the snow covered west side highway which hadn’t been plowed. We almost got stuck on the on ramp to the George Washington Bridge but mary rocked us out of it. Scary few moments.
When we got home the plows had been by and the driveway was blocked which mary had to shovel out while I pushed the snow blower around the driveway so we could drive up.
I guess it was about 4-6 inches of snow by then. Shadow stayed in the nice warn car with the flashers on. We all piled into the house around two am. Getting home took longer and was scarier than the show but all in all it was a lovely evening.
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