broadway…

One of the best things about Nick being a student at NYU is that we get amazing discounts to Broadway shows.  So far we’ve been to see Avenue Q, Oleanna (with Bill Pullman & Julia Stiles) and tonight was “next to normal”!  It was fantastic!!!!  but very emotional…  It was about a woman (& her family) who became bi-polar after the death of her 8th month son 17 years ago.  She & her husband got married because she was pregnant with her son and then he ended up dying of an intestinal blockage.  Her son, Gabe, is present throughout the play and toys with his moms mind through song.  The actor who played Gabe was PHENOMINAL!!!  He stole the show!  The couple had another child after the death of Gabe, a daughter, and she is deprived of her mothers love / attention / devotion / and so on because her mom is too self-absorbed with grieving for her son.  The play chronicals her struggle with treatment & how it tears their family apart.  By the end of it, I was in tears bawling  (as was most of the audience)!!!  It is my favorite play so far!  As we were leaving, I told Nick that the next play he picked had to be a little bit more lighthearted, I can’t take the sobbing…  This weekend we are going to see Carrie Fischers autobiographical one-woman show “Wishful Drinking” about her adventures in Hollywood, substance abuse, & mental illness.  It’s supposed to be funny, but we’ll see…

We have been going to shows on weeknights and are usually rushed because Nick has class most nights, so we end up running to catch the play!  Since it was a lazy Sunday & we didn’t have to be crammed for time we made sure we left early and got uptown in plenty of time & walked around the surrounding streets where other plays were showing.  We walked by the Theatre where Jude Law is playing in Hamlet and there were barricades up and people congregating so not knowing what was going on, but thought it was important, we decided to stick around…  AND we saw JUDE LAW!!!  He came out of the theatre and signed some autographs and got into a black Escalade and was driven away.  Pretty cool!!!  If I can figure out how to post the video I will!  :)