Last I told you all, I had seen Matilda. My Broadway experiences have really racked up since then. Whenever Scott and I both have a day off and a free afternoon, we head down to Broadway. Since our first expedition, we've been three more times. Here's how they went:
Trip 2
We, of course, started at the Book of Mormon lottery. This musical is number 1 on our list. But it was packed, as usual. The "Lottery Dude" did his schtick, as usual. The jokes were the same and I did not find them as amusing the second time. Scott did, somehow. Maybe he thought the louder he laughed, the better his chances were of getting picked. Who knows. Needless to say, we didn't get the tickets. It rained, we headed elsewhere in search of cheap broadway glory. We found it at Jersey Boys.
Trip 3
Where else would we start besides the Book of Mormon lottery? We had a good feeling that day. This was our time. The guy with the megaphone repeated his jokes, Scott laughed, and our names were not called. We were familiar with the taste of disappointment served by the hands of the" Lottery Dude."
Next stop was The Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. This was one from Scott's list, but all the standing room and rush tickets were sold out. Not to fear; being the pessimists we had become through this process, we had a Plan C already in place.
A new musical called Hamilton had just opened for previews and lottery tickets were only $10! Apparently the rest of New York got the memo as well because the mob gathered at the lottery rivaled the numbers of a Trader Joe's on a Sunday afternoon. The crowd was so large, the cast even thought it was exceptional, and emerged from the side door to greet us and take a few selfies before the lottery drawing. Someone yelled out enthusiasm for "Hamlet." I couldn't tell if they were joking. Scott and I were not called. Big surprise.
Fear not, fair reader! Scott and I headed to Plan D: whatever we could find. We meandered down the street that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime played on. I loved this book and had heard a few good things about the play. However, a theater with a long line and bright blue signs caught Scott's attention along the way. He read one sign aloud, "'100 minutes of pure comedy gold.'" That was all he needed. Next thing I knew we had seats to It Shoulda Been You. We read the synopsis and reviews while in line to get to our seats. The reviews were mixed and it was about a wedding. If I wanted to go to a play about a wedding, I would go to Mamma Mia. But we kept our spirits high.
We weren't disappointed. While snacking on smuggled Peanut M&Ms, we laughed the whole time. The songs were fun, the characters endearing, and plot twists abounded. We left agreeing it was our favorite musical so far. Then we went to Shake Shack for the second time in 24 hours.
Trip 4
Now this may come as a shock, but Book of Mormon was our first destination. By this time, I could practically do the "Lottery Dudes" jokes for him, but he complimented my dress when I plopped my ticket in the bin, so my hopes rose higher than usual. This was our 4th time at the lottery, and our 4th time hearing the exact same lottery jokes with the exact same inflections as usual. Scott laughed harder than he ever had before, and I started to worry if these lotteries were taking a toll on our sanity. Do I need to even bother telling you we didn't get tickets?
Kicked to the curb by Book of Mormon once again, we went looking for sloppy seconds. Gentleman's Guide had balcony tickets available, but they clocked in a little over our budget. We departed with plans to return if we didn't find anything else. We passed a theater playing Something Rotten. The title of the musical grinned out at us in a childish font, and an artist had scribbled cartoon drawing all over the theater. More people than normal stood in line at the box office. Scott and I knew nothing about the musical except for one favorable review from a friend. We assumed the play catered to a slightly younger demographic, but going on the one review, we hopped in line anyway. We reached the front of the line after noticing most of the people around us were, if anything, older than us. The tickets were only a few dollars cheaper than those at Gentleman's Guide, and since we knew nothing about Something Rotten, we wondered if we would rather leave and take our chances at getting tickets at Gentleman's Guide. However, the line behind us was long, and we needed to reach a decision quickly. Crunch time. Scott stalled at the ticket booth while I dialed the box office at Gentleman's Guide to see if the tickets we turned down earlier were still available. The man at the other line of the 800 number said droned on and on about how he couldn't tell me about the balcony seats, and began to give me instructions about getting to the theater to inquire about them while Scott frantically motioned to me from the box office window. "Yes, thankyouverymuchbye," I cut the overly helpful man off. "He couldn't tell me," I said to Scott. He bought the tickets and if I'm being honest, both of us felt slightly regretful. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I kept saying. I felt guilty for turning down the tickets to Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder so quickly earlier. Scott graciously waved my apologies away. But I knew he had wanted to see Gentleman's Guide badly. On our way to get pre-show drinks, I quickly scanned the internet for reviews of Something Rotten, hoping our snap decision would pay off. The only thing I could discover before taking our seats in the very last row of the theater was that this play was about Shakespeare. Next thing we knew, a man was on stage singing about the Renaissance.
To wrap up this long and rambling post (sorry), here's a summary:
Lotteries participated in: 4
Lotteries lost: 4
Musicals seen:4
Average ticket price: $35
Musicals ranked in order of preference: Something Rotten, It Shoulda Been You, Matilda, Jersey Boys
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