The End Of The NY Adventure, And Life In DC

The NY adventure went well.

Friday night, after the first preview and expected rounds of drinks at the bar just down the street, I went with the General Manager, the Sound Designer and others to a party being thrown in the Museum of Natural History. It was a blast, despite the odd "buy tickets to get drinks" system that did not seem to be working particularly well (we just slipped the guy at the table some cash). We went to the planetarium and watched the Cosmic Collisions show, narrated by Robert Redford. An interesting experience while somewhat less than sober.

Of course at all such events I feel fairly out of place. I kept waiting for one of the staff to come up and say, "Sorry sir, but you are not nearly hip enough to be in here."

Saturday morning was a bit murky. I woke up about an hour and a half before my alarm, probably because I was so excited that the GF was coming in that night. I packed up my stuff and left the keys for the whacko landlady, then headed to the theatre to go over focus with the person who will be responsible for maintaining the show through it's run.

After the matinee I checked into a hotel in midtown, and took a nap. Then was the evening performance, then back to the hotel for, you guessed it, another nap.

The GF was coming in on a bus at around 2:00 AM, so I left the hotel around 12:30 to get a bite to eat and meet her at Port Authority. While I was walking around the block, I had one of those quintessential NY experiences. A guy came up to me and tried to sell me Ex. I so love NY.

Her bus arrived in NY on time, but because the gate into the station was closed, they ended up circling the block for the better part of half an hour waiting for a guide to get them in a different route.

Sunday we saw a matinee of The Drowsy Chaperone which was fabulous. I cannot gush enough about this show. It is this sweet, mildly self deprecating ode to musical theatre and it's ability, when really good,I to transport us out of this at best tedious and at worst soul crushing experience that is daily life. I cried a little at the end.

Afterwords was dinner with D and R and a friend of theirs, then the evening performance of Beyond Glory. We finished the evening having cocktails with the other designers at the hotel, and saying farewell to the Sound Designer, who lives in Portland, and the Projection Designer who is from Chicago.

On Monday we checked out of the hotel, and then headed for Coney Island. A friend had tod me they were closing the attractions there to build condos or something, so I figured we should go see it before it was gone.

The place was delightfully tacky. We rode a roller coaster that actually aggravated an old back injury, took a turn on the Wonder Wheel Ferris wheel, rode some other ride the name of which
I can't recall (I think the name was shaken out of my head by all the twisting around), and even watched the Coney Island Side-Show. We finished up with hot dogs from Nathan's. Then was the long bus ride back home.

I am endeavoring to settle back into life in DC.

The past couple of days have been about trying to straighten up the cave and putting out a few fires in work life. I am trying to take it easy this week, as much of a vacation as I can manage. Next week the madness starts again as I finish up with my last three shows of the season and start prepping for the top of next season, which is much fuller than it has ever been.

Peace in yer crease.