We started our theatre season off with a bang. I bought tickets to the limited engagement of 'Of Mice and Men'. It starred James Franco (Spiderman) as George, Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids, IT Crowd) as Lenny and Leighton Meister (Gossip Girl) as Curley's Wife. They first started advertising for the play shortly after we moved. Since it is one of my favorite books, I knew it was one we would definitely see. Scott had never read the book but he knew enough about it that he was really looking forward to it.
It was INCREDIBLE!!!! The entire play was completely riveting and well worth the money. The entire cast did a powerful and fantastic job. O'Dowd's Lenny was so incredibly heart wrenching and warm, you couldn't help but be completely drawn in by his presence. He WAS Lenny. He made you laugh and cry and basically he brought out all the feels. The play ended on such an abrupt note and they immediately brought the cast out. It was so difficult because you just needed to ugly cry in private, but you couldn't!
I wish it hadn't been such a limited engagement because I would definitely go see it again! This was definitely the perfect way to start off our tour of Broadway shows! What an wonderful play!
One of New York's favorite past times is Free Shakespeare in the Park. They have an amphitheater in the middle of Central Park and every summer they put on 2 Shakespeare plays. One at the beginning of the summer and one at the end. This year they performed Much Ado About Nothing! This is one of our very favorite plays and were hoping we would get to see it.
Once I started looking into the getting tickets, I realized that it probably wouldn't happen. Since the tickets are free and it's a fairly small theater, it's really difficult to get them. You can either get up at 5am the day of the play and wait in the park all morning until they start giving out tickets at noon So, that was off the list, NOTHING will get me up that early. Or, the second option is to enter their daily virtual lottery. So, I did it a few times to no avail and was told by my friends that it's basically impossible to win those tickets, hundreds, if not thousands of people put their names in.
Well, 2 Sundays ago, we were on our way to church and it was the very last night of the play, so I put our names in the pot, because...why not? But I didn't expect to ACTUALLY get tickets. As we left church, Scott checked his email and WE WON!!!!! We actually won the tickets! We were so excited we were jumping up and down in the middle of Madison Ave.
It was the PERFECT night for a play, low 70s, no humidity and we were ready to be entertained. We also saw two 'celebrities' from two of our favorite shows! John Glover played Lionel Luthor in Smallville and he was playing Leonato in the play. Then, as we were waiting before the show, we were standing right beside Christine Sutherland who played Buffy's mom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer!! Needless to say, we were COMPLETELY geeking out!!!
Anyway, the play was AMAZING. It was probably the best play we've ever seen. We still can't stop thinking about it! The comedic timing was spot on, the acting was incredible, everything was just perfect. I sat there in awe of how awesome that night was.
I wish that I could post photos of the plays, but there is this pesky thing called 'Copyright Infringement'. Grrrrrr....
Here's to more wonderful plays!!!
Lauren Marie
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