I have traveled to New York City over the years for work primarily and a few times to upper-state New York to visit family but had not taken the time to experience a Broadway show in the heart of New York City. My experience stipend this year was used to fly to The Big Apple and pop into a few Broadway shows.
I will say as I write this that the best part of my experience was taking my son Zachary with me and watching him experience the big city. He has been my “theater kid” since he was very young. He is always singing, dancing, playing piano, and telling me he wants to be an actor when he grows up.
We flew into LaGuardia airport and managed to catch a bus and then the subway into the heart of Manhattan. We stayed within about a 5-minute walk to the different theaters we would be attending. This was great because it meant we did not have to ride the subway late at night after the shows. On the downside of things, we were in the busiest section of New York City and it was almost always chaos when you would exit the hotel onto the street.
We took the subway every day to explore different areas of the city, enjoying the famous New York-style pizza, pastries, and all of its different cultural aspects. In the evenings, we would head to the theaters for our shows.
The first show that we saw was the “MJ Experience” (Michael Jackson). It was an amazing show in the beautiful Neil Simon Theater. The show focuses on the creative musical genius of Michael Jackson and how his life shaped his music career.
Our second evening was spent at the Lena Horne Theater watching “Six”, which is a musical about the six wives of King Henry VIII. Each wife tells her story about her time with the King. Most of their stories end badly, so if you do not know the history of King Henry VIII, then I would recommend the show as it will likely make you want to learn more about this part of English history.
Our last show was “Lion King” at the Minskoff Theatre. If you see no other show in your lifetime, I would highly recommend Lion King to most people, as it has beautiful costumes and staging, with very catchy music (Elton John). Visually it is one of the best shows I’ve seen as the actors transform themselves into African animals and even the landscape has a human element.
I am very grateful to Sprious for the experience stipend and for the time off to visit such a fun city. I am also very grateful to have been able to see the city through my son’s eyes.