Broadway Show #1

Cory and I purchased tickets for two Broadway shows, and the tickets for the first show, "ONCE," were for  Friday, our first night there. 

Quite a line had formed when we arrived, but it didn't take long for us to get into the theatre and get directions to our seat.

 Our seats were in the Mezzanine and were very good. As we were making our way, however, we found something very unusual happening on stage.  Several musicians were center stage playing Irish Pub music, and audience members were also on stage where they had been able to purchase a drink and then stand and listen to the music.  The musicians for the show ("orchestra") were entertaining the audience with rousing music, as if they were really in an Irish Pub in Dublin, which is the setting for the play. Several people were taking pictures, so I snapped a couple as well.  Very unusual to have that opportunity.

Eventually, the audience members were slowly moved off stage, but the music continued.  Then the main character came through the door and joined the musicians, saying he was just out having a cigarette, but he wanted to play a piece too.  That was the actual start of the show, but the transition was seamless.  The story is about this young man who has quite a talent for writing and playing music, but has lost his girlfriend and has lost his mojo.  He was even planning to sell his guitar.  That's when an Irish girl, who was really impressed with his song, steps in and insists he does not give it all up.  Their conversation is funny and engaging, and the audience gets acquainted with them and their past lives.  The musicians stay on stage the entire show, and each one of them also become a character in the scenes that follow.  (When they are not in the scene, they are playing the music on the outside edges of the stage.)  The rest of the story is about how their relationship gets him back his mojo.  You wonder: will the guy get the girl?  Turns out, it's a bitter-sweet ending.  It was so well done, and the show won a Tony for the Best Musical 2012.  What a thrill to be there!

Thus ends the first day in NYC...