4, 3, 2, 1 Recap In New York City
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This past Mother's Day weekend was one of the best. Why? Because I spent the weekend in New York City with my favorite (and only) daughter, Jessica. Jessica has been obsessed with musical theater since she was five years old. An example of her enthusiasm for the theater: she won a show tunes trivia contest at age eleven on a cruise ship against several women in their 50s. Jess currently lives in Los Angeles and found a ridiculously cheap rate to fly in for a week to our hometown, Chicago. I decided to sweeten the pot and suggested using miles to fly us to NYC. We used Magellan Luxury Hotels to find a hotel. If they find a lower rate, they adjust your price per night. My rate went down twice! We thought we were staying in Times Square, but oops, I made the res for the Grand Hyatt. It worked out great - it's just a typical KarenLee Poter move to book the wrong hotel. Here's the 4,3,2,1 Recap of our phenomenal weekend in New York City:
- 4 Amazing Broadway Shows: 1) "Fish in the Dark" - Larry David's Broadway debut! Really funny & a great combo of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld. Great acting with similar characters as the two TV shows. Stood in a mass of crazy fans and waited to meet Larry after the show. I asked him if he had advice for any budding standup comic. His response: "Yeah, tell him to pick a different career."
2) "Something Rotten" - Our favorite due to it being so irreverent and funny. It references minimally 30 different musicals. The music is fun and goofy. The acting, singing and dancing is amazing. I think it should win the Tony for best musical and Brian d'Arcy James should win best actor - just saying. 3) "Fun Home" - my least fav of the four, but it's still really well done. It takes on two heavy-duty topics: suicide and lesbians. The two women next to me were crying, hugging and making out afterwards. I literally had to interrupt their embrace to allow my daughter to get to the bathroom since there was no intermission. Once again, terrific acting and music make this a really good Broadway show. 4) "Hand To God" - one word: INSANE! I can't express how bizarrely funny yet emotional this play is. It tackles subjects like religion, the devil made me do it, and self- mutilation - in a humorous way. Did I mention puppets are involved? The Steven Boyer and Geneva Carr also should win Tonys if I had a say in this year's awards. - 3 Delicious Meals: Russ and Daughters a family-owned shop of high-end smoked fish, caviar & New York-style specialty foods since 1914. Orgasmic is the first word that comes to mind after biting into this lox and bagel delight. We even met Mark Russ the owner. We went to Nino's 46 for some pre-theater dinner great Italian cuisine. We ate Mac and Cheese bites and Orecchiette with wood roasted chicken. Ok, I admit this wasn't on my raw foods diet, but what the heck, I was on vacation! Radiance Tea House had some of the finest dumplings I've ever tasted. We ordered too much food , so we took a to-go bag of baby eggplant with chili and gave it to a hungry guy on the street. One sad thing I noted was that Mr. Softee Ice Cream is no longer in NYC. Apparently they've been bought out.
- 2 Chicks Singing: We rarely spend any ALONE time so we did some mom/daughter bonding, walking and singing. Yup, we ended up in two bars. The first, Whitman & Bloom is a cute bar where one of Jessica's friends -
Casey Breve sang as his father played the piano. Casey is a contender on next season's America's Got Talent. Make sure to watch him because he truly has talent. Here is a link to his latest single. Jessica and her friends took turns singing with Casey. It was an awesome night. The other bar is one of Jessica's favorites - Marie's Crisis. This is a crazy venue where throngs of people sing show tunes (full soundtracks) at the top of their lungs around a piano. It's a trip! - 1 Dead Rat: Yes, we found one dead rat while walking down the street.
- Here is the poor soul.
