And I'll trip the light fandango!

I began my NYC adventure with a bus ride on Friday afternoon, and I had the good sense to rent a movie on my iPod – I chose The Proposal, because apparently I’m going through a bit of a Sandra Bullock phase after seeing The Blind Side over Thanksgiving. It was great fun, especially the scene where she dances to “Get Low” with Betty White. Priceless.

I arrived at Sarah’s lovely (and conveniently located! So close to Grand Central!) apartment, where I vigorously reunited with Matt and Sarah, then headed out for dinner. We went to this great Japanese place, Umi Sushi, where we all had gorgeous sushi rolls (mine was salmon avocado with spicy salmon + caviar on top = YUM). We galumphed to the Walter Kerr theater (which I had never been to before – such a pretty Grecian-looking ceiling!), where we sat for a bit and got ourselves quite excited for the theater to come.

Said anticipatory excitement hovered on multiple levels. First of all, it was my first Sondheim musical on Broadway. As with many things in life, I appreciate things more when it takes me a little bit to warm up to them (you know when you’re teaching Hebrew school and you finally connect to the kid who’s annoying at the beginning of the year? That’s what Sondheim was like for me.) I spent the majority of college resisting Matt’s vigorous attempts to get me to love Sondheim, but I finally cracked when we watched the Patti LuPone/George Hearn concert of Sweeney Todd. Anyway, since then I’ve fallen in love with Merrily We Roll Along and Sweeney and Follies, and I’ve begun to really appreciate the genius of his lyrics (I like them ALMOST as much as I like Cole Porter, which is really saying something).

So needless to say, I was excited about the Sondheim-ness. Add to that the presence of Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the cast, and I was fit to burst with excitement. From the waltz that began the show to the beautiful reprise of Send in the Clowns at the end, I was entranced. Everything was so artfully done – the staging was clever and fluid, especially in A Weekend in the Country and the Glamorous Life, the costumes were out-of-this-world exquisite, and the acting and singing were really just fabulous.

Matt and I had a little out-of-body holy-crap-is-that-actually-her? moment when Angela Lansbury started singing, and rightly so. Her comic timing was impeccable, and her take on Mme. Armfeldt was spot-on. Catherine Zeta-Jones made Desiree into this wonderful, manipulative, sympathetic character. I never really got the deal with Send in the Clowns before, and I think that’s because it really only makes sense in the context of the scene. Or perhaps she just acted it so well that it finally made sense to me. Either way, it was wonderful. Other favorites – everything that the miserably hilarious Charlotte said had me in stitches, and Frederik was just perfection. I could go on talking about this forever, but I’ll stop for now.

Afterwards, we waited by the stage door, and saw Alexander Hanson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and then headed to Margarita Murphy’s to meet up with Missy and David for drinks and catching up. That was ridiculously good times, especially since Sarah and I decided to play our game of making themed playlists (remember the very successful Beltin’ Broadway Babes?) Well, we did that, but with Old Lady song and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist Songs, and Pep Songs . . . great success. Matt and Sarah and I crashed WAY later than my usual bedtime, and woke up semi-early on Saturday morning . . .oy.

We brunched at a cute diner near Sarah’s, where I had an avocado/tomato/cheddar omelette (which I’ve since recreated v successfully at home), and then we said goodbye to Matt (after creating another great Broadway playlist – traveling songs!). Sarah and I spent the afternoon in because it was cold and rainy, and she introduced me to Psych, which is fast becoming my new favorite show, and we watched The American President, one of my top ten favorite movies of all time.

Saturday evening I bundled up for the intense cold, and headed down by NYU for Indian dinner with Mat, Sarah, Katherine and her roommate! The food was a little spicy for me, but it was SO nice to catch up with them. Afterwards, we bundled into Katherine's apartment, watched the Gordon 3 video (oy.), and then went to a bar down the street for Yoni's birthday -- I got to see a bunch of Deis people I haven't seen since graduation, which was really nice.

Alltogether a perfectly wonderful 36 hours of friends and theater and music and food -- NYC is good to me :)