A Weekend in NYC

If someone asks me what my favorite place to visit is, I don’t even have to think about the answer. New York City has been the answer since I went for the first time in 2015. I have been six times since with the most recent trip being last weekend. My parents and I try to visit once a year with the intention of seeing as many Broadway shows as possible.

I know, I know it sounds like we don’t take advantage of all the activities in the city but honestly, we just love Broadway that much. The first time I went, we toured a lot and only saw one show. Each trip since we have started touring less and less. It’s not that we don’t care about the other things in the city, we just have a goal while we are there that doesn’t leave room for lots of touring.

The goal: as many shows as possible, as affordable as possible.

Before booking a trip we try to pick at least two shows we’d like to try and see. Anything else is just a bonus. Something unique about this trip is that Tony Award nominations were just announced. This helped us narrow down our picks because we knew we wanted to see some of the shows nominated for Best Musical.

Our main pick for this trip, however, was Sweeney Todd. We have wanted to see this show since it was announced in 2022. The cast looks amazing (Josh Groban and Jordan Fisher, yes please!) and it’s an iconic show. I like seeing new shows but I won’t turn down the opportunity to see a great revival.

Spoiler alert: we did not see Sweeney Todd. We did see four amazing shows though.

Our first stop on Thursday, after our hour-long cab ride from the airport, was the Sweeney Todd box office. It was across the street from our hotel so thankfully it was a short walk of disappointment after we were told they had basically no tickets for the entire weekend. The few tickets they had were for $250 and we would all have to sit separately.

That did not work for us. We had a number we were willing to pay and that was way more than our number.

I feel like this is a good time to mention that we rarely buy tickets in advance. Tickets almost always cost way more when you buy them in advance and waiting to buy from the box office makes it possible to avoid fees. The unpredictability of not having any real plans makes the trip more fun too!

Sweeney Todd is one of those shows that you should probably buy in advance but where’s the fun in that?

We decided to walk a few streets over to the Nederlander Theatre, home of Shucked. When we first walked up I was worried we weren’t going to be able to get tickets. The lady at the box office was able to find us three tickets in the orchestra. The funny thing about these tickets though was that they were not together. We sat one behind the other in three different rows but we got the tickets for a great price! Our view of the stage was almost perfect as well.

Shucked is one of the five shows nominated for Best Musical and it was hands down my favorite show of the weekend. It’s all about corn, it's filled with one-liners that will keep you laughing for days, the music is fantastic and the cast is outstanding. I could talk about how much I loved this show for hours. It’s probably my second favorite show I’ve ever seen, right behind Hadestown. If you are looking for something fun to see, this is the show for you. I have a whole debrief for this show planned so stay tuned!

Friday morning we got up to rush Some Like It Hot. If you don’t know what rush tickets are, they are discounted tickets sold by Broadway box offices on the day of the show. You have to be there when the box office opens and this usually means getting in line an hour beforehand. Depending on the show you might have to get there even earlier but this trip an hour before opening was perfect.

Every show doesn’t have rush tickets but this season, there are a lot of shows offering these discounted tickets. There’s no way to know how many discounted tickets that a theater will sell so it's better to be there early to secure your place in line. You can’t pick your seats and usually they are obstructed but for $40, I’m not complaining. Our tickets were aisle seats in the second row. The only time you couldn’t see was barely 30 seconds at the beginning of the show.

Besides seeing amazing shows for a discounted price, the other fun part about rush is standing in line. You have at least an hour to get to know the people around you and every time we do it we meet someone interesting. At Some Like It Hot we got to meet a woman who lives in the city who's seen the show 5+ times (not to mention all the other shows she’s seen). She has rushed every time so she’s always in the front of the audience. The cast of the show knows her by name now because of this and at the stage door after the show, every cast member made a point to stop and talk to her. I want to be her one day!

Some Like It Hot was a great show. It is nominated for 13 Tonys, one of those being Best Musical. This is the most nominated show of the season and it was easy to see why! The dancing, singing, and music are top-tier. The cast is stacked with amazing performers. It truly felt like classic Broadway. The show is based on the movie from 1959 but the creators did a great job bringing it alive in 2023. My favorite part was the fact that I knew absolutely nothing going into the show so everything was a surprise and it honestly added to the entertainment value.

Saturday meant another chance to rush but it also meant two shows. Saturdays on Broadway feature a matinee and an evening show. We chose New York, New York (another Best Musical nom) for our evening show. That’s where my mom and I waited in line because rush only gives two tickets per person and we needed three. We decided to split up for the matinee show so my dad was standing in line across the street at A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond musical. He got his tickets first because he was second in line. When he joined us at New York, New York I left and ran a few streets over to Bad Cinderella.

I entertained the idea of waiting at Sweeney Todd to see what would happen but when I saw the line I quickly changed my mind. Bad Cinderella is closing in three weeks so it was not hard to get a ticket. I got there five minutes after the box office opened and I only had to wait behind one person for a ticket. I got an aisle seat in the front mezzanine for $30 and I have no regrets.

I went into Bad Cinderella with low expectations because I had let social media and critics form an opinion for me. That’s my one regret. If I knew it was going to be as great as it was I would have splurged on the $50 orchestra seat. It was everything I love about Broadway. Fun and fast, with large production numbers, insane costumes, and ultimately just an entertaining story. Were there some quirky moments I could have done without? Yes, but that’s true for tons of shows. If anything it added to the experience. I have so many thoughts about this show so expect a debrief about all my feelings later.

We closed our trip with New York, New York. It was nice finishing a trip to my favorite city with a show dedicated to it. It follows a collection of artists in 1946, all with big dreams in a big city. This show is also based on a movie and it felt like I was watching a movie. It's hard to describe my feelings about this show other than simply saying I really liked it. The story was great and the cast was amazing. Despite being a new musical it felt like an old show, and I mean that in a good way. It was all very classic.

We sat in the front row and only once could we not see. This was at the very end of the show when the orchestra rose from the floor and covered the stage. Other than that it was cool getting to see all of the actors up close. It makes it possible to really read their expressions.

This is our second trip post-COVID but this one felt like life before COVID. I didn’t mind wearing masks or showing vaccine cards if it meant I got to experience live theater but protocols prevented stage door from taking place in 2022. Stage door is one of my favorite parts of live theater. You stand outside after the show to meet members of the cast and get autographs and pictures. I love getting to talk to the performers and express my gratitude for the amazing job they are doing. I was afraid it wouldn’t return after COVID but it did so I soaked up every minute of it.

In the cab back to the airport we tally our total cost of tickets. For three people seeing four shows, it costs us $537. That's roughly $180 a person for the whole weekend. One of us couldn’t see Sweeney Todd for that so I think we made a good choice not seeing it despite wanting to.

We just got back and I’m already planning the next trip. Maybe we’ll make it back before the end of the year. Back to the Future is opening at the Winter Garden Theatre soon and I think it’s going to be a must-see. Until then I’ll be listening to my favorite cast albums and dreaming of my favorite city.