New York, NY | June 9-11, 2012 | A surreal dream where Wynsor and I went to the Tony Awards.
Work won a the Regional Theatre Tony Award so we had the opportunity to purchase tickets to the show. I toyed around with the decision- do I spend $250 on a ticket plus travel and hotel to see the Tony Awards? Then I thought, when am I going to have this opportunity ever again? Decision made. We were allowed to bring a guest, so I asked Wynsor if she wanted to come along since she loves musicals as much as I do. Of course she jumped at the chance.
Then! Work announced that a few board members had donated money so that nine staff members could go for free and have their travel paid for. I submitted to the lottery not thinking my chances were great and after a few people ended up dropping out, I won a spot! Icing on the cake. So we purchased Wynsor’s ticket and rode up on the Megabus so travel would be cheap. We booked into a Holiday Inn through my dad’s Hilton points- one free night, one paid night. All in all not too shabby.
Prior to leaving, I knew I wanted to see Newsie’s. As one of my favorite childhood movies, and nominated for a ton of Tony’s I had to see it on Broadway with the original cast. Wynsor had never seen it!! She had no idea what she was in for, but since the cost of the ticket was so high I paid for part of her’s since she was paying to go to the Tony’s. So we were set to see Newsie’s but were unsure what other show we might take in while in town.
We left on the Megabus at 8am from Union Station, grabbing some Au Bon pAin snacks for the journey. 12:15 we rolled into the city, anxious to drop off our luggage and head over to Newsies for the matinee. It was everything I hoped for and more. Wynsor loved it. Jeremy Jordan was awesome. The set was awesome. We had a blast. Newsies will always have a special place in my heart. 🙂
Afterwards we headed over to the TKTS booth to check out what was available for our evening show and settled on Peter and the Starcatcher- a prequel to Peter Pan. Incidently on our way to grab some mid-afternoon food we passed Christian Borle (Tom Leavitt from Smash and star of Peter and the Starcatcher) outside of his theater. First star sighting! and the tally would continue over the weekend.
Lunch as eaten at Room Service on 9th St. I’d been before with Zac and loved it, so thought it a good place to take Wynsor to. We ended up eating next to Cote de Pablo (Ziva from NCIS) who spoke in Spanish the whole time with her friend and had a real issue with Wynsor’s purse and its hanging placement. It took a bit for me to realize who she was since I was sitting directly next to her and didn’t want to turn and start when Wynsor was trying to point her out. Star sighting #2!
We decided to walk up to the Beacon (where the Tony’s were held the following evening) to see if anything interesting was happening and what the theater looked like. We passed by the Lincoln Theater Center on the way and on the return trip I ran into Loehmann’s to get cute shoes to go with my fab Rent the Runway dress for the Tony’s. We also walked past Christopher Plummer on the street! Sighting #3! Returning to the Theater district we headed to Peter and the Starcatcher, discovering that Geraldo Rivera (star sighting #4) was also taking in the show that evening. Another great choice! The show was exciting, full of music and movement even though it was technically a play. Christian Borle made a fantastic Captain Hook.
Leaving the theater, we saw John Lithgow (sighting #5!) coming out from his show across the street. We then headed over to Vinyl to meet up with Zac with drinks and some nibbles. Super fun place with great drink names and even more awesome bathrooms- each one was decorated with a musician and played their music while you were inside. Loved it. Good day in New York.
On Sunday we decided to take it easy since it was Tony’s day! We started to wander up toward central park, stopping in Magnolia Bakey for a cupcake. It was completely empty thanks to the Puerto Rican Pride parade going on a few streets over. Perfect opportunity to have a cupcake- even though it was still technically breakfast time. 🙂 Once we got to Central Park we had a hard time actually walking around since most of it was blocked off to keep the pride parade from swarming the area. But we got a few good shots of the bow bridge and fountain area. Lunch happened at the Fairway Market and Restaurant. Delish and conveniently placed directly across from the Beacon so we could do some people watching.
After lunch we decided to wander around the Beacon area to see if we could catch any stars. Success! Candance Bergen we arriving for rehearsal. (Final sighting until the Tonys!) We took some shots of the entry way and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the main event. Yay for fab dress and awesome updo that I did myself. We jumped in a cab and then headed back to the Beacon. The Tony’s were amazing. It was completely surreal to be sitting in an award ceremony with so many famous actors and actresses that I usually watch on TV!! I took a bunch of photos below of the performances and the winners I liked. 🙂 I of course had to buy a T-shirt since I’ll probably never get to watch them live again. AWESOME!
As if it couldn’t get any better. Shakespeare had a special after-party for staff, guests and board members at the Renaissance Lounge overlooking Times Square. I laughed to myself when we walked in- could this night actually have been happening to me?! Again so surreal. We had quite the assortment of appetizers and drinks were covered so we made the most of the experience. Then the actual Tony award arrived. Many many photos ensued after that. Getting to hold it = amazing. so amazing. After the after-party, a few decided we didn’t want the night to end 🙂 so we headed out to a few bars in the area to continue the celebration. A late night indeed – 4:30a.m. taxi ride back to the hotel and we went straight to sleep. What a night!
The next morning we packed our bags, ate the lovely free breakfast Holiday Inn has to offer and then make it back to the Megabus stop to head back to DC. A wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience that I’m so glad I got to have.
Thanks STC for winning a Tony! And New York, thanks as always for an amazing weekend!
chasing every adventure 