Student Blog: My Adventures in New York City!

Last week, my mom told me she wanted to take a trip since she had a few days off from work in the coming days. Naturally, I suggested we go to New York like the good theatre kid I am. To my surprise, she was ecstatic about this! My mom loves to shop and so when she told me there’s a street in Manhattan where tourists can buy “designer” handbags and other “luxury” items, it didn’t take much convincing to agree upon New York as our next travel destination. 

Now, the next plan of action was figuring out what Broadway show we wanted to see. For a while, it was between Fat Ham and Sweeney Todd. Even despite my last blog post saying that Fat Ham was next on my watch list, we went with Sweeney Todd. Last semester at school, I took an Intro to Drama class where one of the units was on Hamlet and so we encountered a lot of other texts and media about Hamlet, one of them being Fat Ham. We watched the 2021 digital film of Fat Ham, so on account of me already knowing the plot and my mom being less interested in plays than musicals, we opted to buy tickets for Sweeney Todd. 

Last Thursday, we arrived in New York City at around 10 o’clock in the morning. First we dropped off our luggage at our hotel and then we asked the concierge about the best subway route to get to Canal Street. The last two times my mom and I visited New York, we caught ubers and lyfts to get around and that quickly became very expensive, so this time, we decided to do what the locals do - catch the subway. Following our concierge’s instructions, we boarded the train to Canal Street for just a little under $3 each! 

Since Canal Street is located right in the middle of New York City’s Chinatown, quick and delicious food shops and markets lined the streets. After eating some delicious onigiri and crab kabobs, we headed down Canal Street. Like I said earlier, my mom is a shopper and I am definitely not, so I held her bags as she bought a few handbags and clutches. After about an hour and a half, we stopped in Starbucks to figure out where we would go next. Scrolling through my instagram feed, I saw that a few people in my theatre group had visited The Museum of Broadway just a day before. An idea popped into my head. I immediately went to the museum’s website to see that they offered student tickets for just $29! I knew where I was going to spend the next couple hours. 

Once we got back to our hotel, I purchased my ticket to go to the museum, which was conveniently located very close to where we were staying. My mom, not as much of a theatre fan as I am, said she was fine not going to the museum, so while I taking pictures of the exhibits for West Side Story, Rent, and Company, my mom visited Times Square and took pictures of the different pride displays they had up since NYC pride was coming up.

Next to seeing a Broadway show, The Museum of Broadway is every theatre kid’s dream. You’re transported through time as you meander your way through the immersive and educational exhibits that are themed either by the decade or the musical. There’s theatre references on every corner - The Wiz exhibit has a yellow stairway that leads you into the next exhibit. You get to see many interesting and fascinating pieces of history like the original scripts and drafts of some of Broadway’s most beloved musicals, original costumes and model boxes, preserved props and replicas, and more. 

 

My favorite exhibit wasn’t even an exhibit that pertained to any specific musical. Towards the end of the tour, there’s a space where you get to see the behind the scenes making of a Broadway show. The whole exhibit honors the creatives, the techies, the professionals who work behind the curtain to make a Broadway show come alive. There’s a stage manager’s podium, rigging systems, a lighting and

sound board, props tables, musical compositions - it’s just so rich with endless amounts of hard work and talent and skill. As a lighting designer, I really appreciated this one because so often, the ones who work off-stage are the ones who receive less recognition, less kudos for their craft. I would 100% pay $29 again just to see this exhibit alone. 


 

After the tour, I bought a little Alexander Hamilton funko pop keychain in their gift shop, and walked back to my hotel. At this point, there was about an hour and a half left to spend before our 7pm showing of Sweeney Todd. My mom and I figured it would be best to get in line by 5:45pm to beat the rush of people, and we were absolutely right because we were the very first people lined up at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Around 6:20pm, they started letting the audience enter the theatre, and by 6:30pm, they let us find our seats. 

Our seats were up in the mezzanine, about eleven rows back, but they were great seats nonetheless! We took our obligatory playbill picture and chatted about how awesome it is to see Josh Groban live on stage. Then, the show started and that’s when my world was changed forever. 

We absolutely loved it. I have to say, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is now definitely one of my favorite shows. My TikTok algorithm must’ve known I’ve seen it because Josh Groban’s “Epiphany” is all over my for you page. Funnily enough, my theatre group proposed to perform Sweeney Todd back during my sophomore year of college. It would’ve been my very first lighting design role and my very first theatre production ever, but it lost to The Last Five Years. 

We managed to find our way out of the theatre and to the stage door once the show was over. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and get my playbill signed by many of the cast including Josh Groban and Gaten Matarazzo!

After a long day of Broadway, walking, and NYC living, we went to sleep, but the activities did not stop there because the next morning, our concierge recommended we check out a place called “Pick-A-Bagel” for breakfast. 

The food at Pick-A-Bagel was incredible, delectable, and absolutely delicious. I ordered the “Two of Each” which was two pancakes, two eggs, two strips of bacon, two sausage patties, and a cup of coffee, while my mom had a sausage egg and cheese breakfast sandwich on a croissant. You get so much bang for your buck. I left out of there on a full stomach with ample amounts of leftovers. I am definitely visiting “Pick-A-Bagel” on my next NYC trip. 

After breakfast, we had time to spare since the bus was set to pick us up at the Javits Convention Center around 2:30pm. We decided to check out the Hershey’s store next to our hotel to see what sweet treats they had inside. I bought a Hershey’s s'more, but since there wasn’t anywhere to sit in the store, my mom and I walked to Times Square. 

Since it rained during the night, we weren’t allowed to sit on the infamous red stairs as it was blocked off, so we sat on the side benches on the edges of the square. As I ate, performers captured the stage as they went through their sound check in preparation for Pride in Times Square, which was scheduled to happen later on that day. One standout performance was Mary Kate Morrissey’s “Defying Gravity.” Her actual performance popped up on my for you page that night and she absolutely crushed it! I've linked it here!

My amazing trip to New York came to a close as my mom and I boarded our bus to take us back home to Delaware. My time in the big apple is something I’ll never forget. All in one day, I walked down Chinatown, traveled through time, and stepped foot on Fleet Street!

Until next time, NYC <3