On Sunday July 14th we celebrated my birthday (a bit late) with a wonderful NYC adventure. Matt had surprised me with tickets to see Newsies on Broadway and we’d been planning the day out for at least a week. The last time we were in the city it had been freezing cold, this time was not quite but almost the total opposite. There was a nice breeze, when you could catch it, but the muggy temperatures were a bit overwhelming at times.
Our first stop was supposed to be a Street Fair on Lexington, but when we arrived at the location there was absolutely positively no street fair. I had taken a photo of the computer screen with the address and we had it right, but no street fair. Instead we walked a bit farther in that direction and visited the Horace Greeley Statue since we were about to go see Newsies. Alas, we didn’t know there were TWO statues of the man and went to the closest, but not the one we wanted to see. It was still a nice little park though. Next time we will actually go to Newspaper Row.
From there we moved on to Times Square and were totally touristy by wandering Toys R Us, the Disney Store and sitting for a while on the big red steps over TKTS. It was nice to not feel rushed. We didn’t over plan the day, so we had time to just relax and enjoy the madness. I absolutely loved going up the escalator in the Disney store, see below for reason!
Also, there were Minions! Lots of minion posters made me happy.
For lunch we went to Virgil’s BBQ and from the moment we walked in I was happy. Cool, quiet and good music. For a restaurant just off of Times Square at lunch time, Virgil’s was surprisingly quiet and a great meal. The hush puppies (one of my most favorite things) were amazing, and they had Boylan’s Soda (orange for me!). For lunch I had hot dogs with cheese and fries, which were also delicious and Matt had a beef brisket sandwich which he said was incredible. We’ll definitely be back.
We ate lunch a little later than planned, but it worked out because we were able to get in line for the show not too long after. They brought out the merchandise (try saying that without an exaggerated New York accent after watching Newsies) and I bought a program and a tote bag. I have programs for nearly every single Broadway show I’ve seen. It’s my thing from when I was a kid. I’m only missing two (The Sound of Music and the Beach Boys musical) because the shows weren’t around long enough to print them. I have the Playbills though!
Ah, the show itself. They made some random song lyric changes, changed around a character or two and Jack was no longer a cowboy. But the show was fun, the staging was awesome and the voices were good. I liked some of the changes and additions and disliked others. I wish the actor playing Jack had been a little less “angry young man” too. But I liked the show. Was it the best show from a movie ever? No, not really. But it was good and I had fun, which is the important thing. I particularly loved the sets. There were three sets of fire escapes that moved around the stage and were used to really good effect. There was a really cool old fashioned cartoon like chase going on on them at one point too. I loved that they used digital projections for some backdrops and for showing the newsies putting together their paper at the end.
Walking back to Grand Central I saw the sun shining through the trees of Bryant Park and was happy.
All in all, a fun day in New York City.
When’s the last time you went to New York? What did you do there?
fallenpeach 