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Published: June 13th 2017
Geo: 40.7528, -73.9853
DAY THREE
BLOW US ALL AWAY!!
UPDATE: Our tickets to “Hamilton” proved authentic and we got to see the show tonight! Awesome! Wow! It blew us all away. More later.
Our day began early again, as we were heading to the plaza of The TODAY Show. We had elaborate plans: small NYC skyline snow globes which Gary Wurdack carefully attached to wide headbands. And we had a gold star-shaped poster sign that read: “The TODAY Show outshines even HAMILTON.” We were convinced we would make it on the show. We did not.
When we arrived at 6:15, we were very far back in the line. We waited a long time, cleared security and found we were not in the primary television viewing area. Our choices were: 1). Stay where we were, where we all could lean on a barricade, show off our headbands and have our cute sign noticed. We were assured by staffers that we would be viewed on the second hour of the show. 2). Move to the primary territory by the window, but be 5 or 6 deep. We opted for the first. Bad decision.
We got to meet Charlie, the black lab who is the Veteran Support Dog "The TODAY Show" is raising. He even licked Debby's face. We adored him. The team of hosts came to the plaza several times but none came to visit. Miley Cyrus was on in a bizarre red-checked Kansas farm girl look. She didn't bother to come out.
The mobile cameras ran most of the length of the outdoor audience, but never quite to us. At 8:30 we were advised to move toward the big window where there was now more space as people left. It seemed to us the booms definitely took us in, particularly at 8:55, so we just hoped we made it and would look for ourselves on DVR playback when we returned home.
We were all thinking we never made it on TV but late in the day, Sue McLaughlin Mayes sent a Facebook message saying she saw us. We were pleased..
We were disappointed we didn't make the big time (front and center with the camera focused on us and our cleverness) but we had ourselves a lot of laughs, of course. When the show was over, we went back to Bouchen Bakery for coffee and pastries, seated in the window taking in the third hour of TODAY.
We bought
tickets to a double-decker bus ride in Times Square (BigBus) and headed downtown for a city tour of lower Manhattan. We really enjoyed it and learned a lot about the city's history, the neighborhoods, the architecture and 9/11, of course. It was a hop on/hop off bus so we exited near Wall Street so Kathy could take in some of the city's most famous sights … Wall Street, Battery Park, The Statue of Liberty, etc. We did our own little “Hamilton” tour, stopping at Trinity Church, getting our photo taken at Alexander Hamilton's tomb. Eliza and Anjelica are buried nearby.
We then went in search of Fraunces Tavern, recommended by Suzanne Neimann, where Washington and Hamilton raised a glass to freedom. It's the spot where Washington bid farewell to his troops. It was wondrous to see and the food was quite good. The ambience alone made it worth the difficulty we had in finding the pub.
We walked to Battery Park and took in the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from the pier. We boarded another BigBus headed up town to finish the tour. This particular segment had little going for it or perhaps our tour guide failed to mention them.
Our tour guide heading south was very informative; our guy heading north only talked about his personal history. Thumbs down.
After a caffeine boost at Starbucks, we returned to the condo to put up our feet. We are verging on exhaustion. But we march on.
At 6 pm we had dinner at Gallagher's Steakhouse, recommended by Florida neighbor Anne Grutkowski. It was divine. We tested a range of things on the menu, from crab cakes to steak. Everyone was pleased, although it is pricey while at the same time “reasonable” for an upscale NYC restaurant. We are not in Kansas any more.
By 7:30 we were passing through the turnstyle at the Richard Rogers Theatre. We all held our collective breaths as the usher scanned the UPC of the first ticket. We sighed and celebrated when the scanner approved our admission to
“The Room Where It Happened.”
The show was as superb as we had hoped it to be. The staging/set, the lighting, the costumes, the music ... all mesmerizing.
We had just two of the show's original cast members: Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton. We had hoped to see Christopher Jackson as George Washington but he had the night off.
We did get to see the new permanent replacement for Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr: Brandon Victor Dixon -- outstanding! Most of my traveling companions thought the cast was top notch across the board, but agreed our Hamilton (Michael Luwoye, understudy for Javier Munoz) had a very good voice but lacked the star quality of Lin-Manuel Miranda and his new replacement. My friends liked the new Anjelica, Mandy Gonzalez; whose voice is strong but I think she lacked the magic of Renée Elise Goldsberry.
Don't get me wrong – I loved the show; it was all I had hoped for and more. And I could see it all over again tonight. I will definitely be buying tickets when it comes to St. Louis. It's in my top three ever Broadway musicals, along with The Lion King and Evita.
Hamilton reference: Blow Us All Away
“Hamilton” did, in fact, blow us all away. The line is a reference to song #39, sung by Philip Hamilton just prior to the duel where he is killed. The lyric:
I shoulder his legacy with pride, I used to hear him say that someday I would blow us all away!
Hamilton reference: The Room Where It Happened
This is my favorite number in the show. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has called it one of the "best songs he's ever written in his life.”
"No one else was in the room where it happened," Hamilton's Aaron Burr, sings. "No one really knows how the game is played/ The art of the trade/ How the sausage gets made/ We just assume that it happens."
The only three people who knew what happens were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, who struck the so-called "dinner table bargain" where the federal government would assume all the states' debts and the national capital would be relocated to the Potomac River.
The performance is a show stopper. Burr's envy gets the best of him … and the number shows the best of him.
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boni
non-member comment
You are all troopers. I would have not survived day two. Im in Chicago and I can barely do my three things a day. Glad you are safe. Quite concerned.