#1 and #2, 6 December 2006

[originally written 07 December 2006, with a few small edits]

So, yes. The juicy details you have all been waiting for. Oh, God. So much wonderful.

Well, as some of you have been already made aware, I had to scrap the idea of taking the bus, as it was Not Plausible. To wit: The last bus leaves New York at the Port Authority at 11:30 at night. At 11:30? I was at the stage door. (More on that later, I promise.) So that was definitely not going to work out, especially since the next bus only departed New York at 8am the next morning. Greyhound had already been ruled out, as the one bus to New York seemed to take nine hours. So... I drove. Before leaving town, I stopped at McDonald's to get myself a nice breakfast: Sausage, Egg, and Cheese McMuffin and orange juice and a hash brown. Mmm... one of my favourite breakfasts.

I drove to Newark, to ride the PATH commuter train from Newark-Penn Station. This was fairly straightforward to get to: take 222 North to Allentown, and then I-78 West towards Newark, and then hop on McCarter Highway (or Route 21) for a couple miles -- you honestly CAN'T miss Penn Station from the route I used, because there were signs everywhere. "For Penn Station, use Exit __." "For Penn Station, keep right." "Penn Station ->" I mean I saw at least four signs during the last four miles. The difficult part was navigating around the station to find a sufficient parking spot. I finally did, at the Edison Park & Lock 24 Hour Lot across from the main entrance to Penn Station. When I got to the parking lot, I had a nice surprise: attendant parking. Thank the gods for that: if you'd SEEN the state of this parking lot, you wouldn't've wanted to self-park either. Holy shit. So, anyway, I told the attendant who parked my car that I'd be back somewhere between 1am and 2am, most likely, and off I went.

The PATH commuter train is very easy and quite convenient, especially during the day. It's pretty full, but that's really not a problem. In fact, I'd definitely use the PATH train again, the next time I go to New York City. It took me a few minutes, once on the platform, to get my bearings and figure out what I needed to do. The general idea is you want to get yourself a ticket, and then hop on the train. Which seems obvious, but first I had to locate a ticket-buying machine. Single-ride fare is $1.50 -- highly reasonable for a half-hour train ride into New York City. And then there are two trains at Newark-Penn Station, so it took me a few minutes to figure out which one. One of them was the... shall I say, more long-distance train, as it had departure/arrival times on a TV screen above my head, so I got on the other train. It was, in fact, the correct one. I got to sit next to a nice, soft-spoken Indian girl for part of it. I took the train to Journal Square, where I changed trains in order to get up to 33rd Street.

So I got out right on Broadway, in between 33rd and 34th Streets. And walked up a few blocks. The streets were ridiculously crowded -- especially where I walked past Macy's. Just... whoa. And then of course there were your usual sidewalk newspaper stands, hot dog stands, vendors selling silk ties, Salvation Army bell-ringers, a man playing a steel drum, and people handing out flyers for a variety of events. Then of course there is the traffic in New York. I almost got run over by a bright-red two-decker bus. This seems to be a regular phenomenon, when I go to New York: either a cab or a bus almost runs me over. Obviously he didn't succeed, as I'm sitting here telling the tale. Just...aaah: the noise, the smell, the people, the whole atmosphere of New York gives me joy. I love New York.

It was just after one when I found Marianne at the Broadhurst. We stood around for awhile, got munchies from a bagel shop, and made fun of the pictures of Simon Bailey on the walls of the Broadhurst. I do, in fact, have a photo of one of those giant posters: the shot of Enjolras from behind, waving that flag. Mmm, Enjybutt. :D It's too bad they don't have photos of the current cast. Aaron Lazar deserves to be on a 20-foot poster out on the street, dammit.

Also, on the way from the 33rd Street PATH station to the Broadhurst, I nearly ran into a guy who looked like Martin Pasching: the guy was shorter than Martin, but had the same fluffy hair and the same blue eyes. Not as cute, though. XD Heh.

So, yes. On to the actual show. Marianne and I somehow managed by an odd twist of fate to get tickets right next to each other. Second row, center orchestra. Holy crap. The theatre is small and rather cramped. The guys sitting next to me may or may not have been gay -- the guy I was sitting next to used my leg as an armrest for part of the show, checked his text messages during OMO, and was wiping off tears at the Finale.

Anyway, the show was phenomenal. Everyone was great, with the exception of Daphne, who just damn well sucks. Argh. Definitely need to see this revival when she's out in March. Everyone else? A-mazing. Alex is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. You can't tell his age but his Valjean is so emotional. Also, he spits a lot. Norm. Oh, Norm. I loved Norm. I particularly enjoyed how they did up his hair. Heee. Daphne... ergh. She just does not fit the part. AT ALL. Celia Keenan-Bolger has an excellent voice and is a great actress, but I am not a fan of Eponine and I never have been, and I think Celia also looks slightly crazy. Which, as Eponine, is canon -- but a little unsettling, heh. Ali Ewoldt has a beautiful voice and is very cute. Adam. Oh, Adam. I have not liked him before I've seen him, and he is absolutely adorable as Marius. And his voice is so, so much better than I'd expected. Drew Sarich, as I may or may not have mentioned before, I did not expect to like. I have heard him in other places (sound bytes of Lestat, for one, as well as some other stuff which I can't remember off the top of my head), and did not like what I heard. But as Grantaire? Amazing. I even liked his voice. I loved the way he picked on Marius during Red and Black, and I also enjoyed the way he kept looking at Enjolras during Drink With Me. The ensemble was great, too. There was a bald!Bossuet... and I'm pretty sure that was 'Ferre reading under the barricade during Bring Him Home (♥!), and Courfeyrac seemed quite slashy. Also, most of them were quite cute. :D I have to say I really liked the Gavroche in the matinee. Forget the kid's name, but he was cute and very cocky and very Gavroche. Now, let's see... who am I forgetting... I wonder. ;) OH YES. Aaron. Oh, Aaron. I ... am so much in love with his Enjolras. So very much. Not only is he DAMN SEXY, but he's so... Enjolraic. His voice, his tone, his body language, his expressions, his very demeanour all exude this aura of 'I AM ENJOLRAS'. and... aaaah. His range of emotions are just... Mmmmm. The way he's so subdued, almost reverent, during the opening lines of Do You Hear the People Sing?... the determination during One Day More... and the raw emotion -- I can't quantify it, some sort of almost-desperate furor -- during the Final Battle gave me such chills as I have never had before. I mean, it's obvious that I have a great big (innocent nonetheless) crush on Aaron, but I'm looking at this as how he does as Enjolras, and the role seems to come so naturally to him... Enjolras fits him so perfectly. Just... yes.

There was one minor flub during the show -- a random gun fell off the barricade, when it's pulling apart for the final time, and Alex kicks it off to the side when he's dragging Marius through the sewers. Or maybe two, if you count Ali tripping up one of her lines right after the Plumet Attack scene -- which wasn't major, but it was noticeable (at least by me).

One of the really great things about sitting so close to the stage like that is getting to see everything up close. Like after Gavroche's death, the barricade revolves around to show Aaron bent VERY SUGGESTIVELY over the barricade. I mean... whoa. :D

Oh! Aaron is also one of the judges during Who Am I? :D He's so cute in that scene.

Really great show. It's nice to sit up close -- got a real close look at Aaron, for one thing. (God, he wears tight pants. :D) And just... yes. Marianne and I made snarky/pervy/amused comments throughout the whole thing.

We ran pretty much right to the stage door after the show; we actually stood right next to it. We talked to the actors, some of them -- neither Norm nor Alex seemed to have come out after the matinee show (or if they did, much much much later) -- and that's when we got our photos. Marianne has more photos, of course -- she got Ali, Adam, and Aaron -- whereas I just wanted Aaron. :D The pics turned out fairly well, for the most part -- I don't look like utter shite in that pic with Aaron. Which is obvious, since I actually posted it. But eeeeeeeeee. He's so adorable. :D (I showed my mom the pic this morning, and she goes. "Oh, wow. WHO is THAT?" Hee :D Yes Mum, that's Aaron.)

So then we had time to kill. First, though. FOOD. McDonald's was a no, and the pizza place was out since Marianne can't eat pizza (sadness, indeed), so we visited the Hard Rock Café. Pretty much a burgers and fries only joint, but it played loud rock music. A lot of BAD music -- New Found Glory? My Chemical Romance? UGH. -- but some good ones too. Like "Run to Water" by Live. :D I ♥ Live so very much. Also, we had a waiter named Julian. And halfway through dinner I caught him kissing his boyfriend. Which just further reinforces my firmly-held belief that everyone named Julian/Julien HAS TO BE GAY. I have never met a straight man with that name. I swear. But he was really nice. Also during dinner, she brought out her copy of the Brick, with the colour-coded sticky notes. And we had a good time entertaining ourselves by opening up to random pages and perving on book!Enjolras. :D

We still had quite a bit of time after that, so we found this little store, called Colony, which was chock full of sheet music. Marianne found a shiny: the complete vocal score of The Secret Garden (Broadway version). It was $110.00, so there was absolutely no fucking way either of us was going to buy it. But.... SHINY. I found a couple shinies, too: another Les Mis Piano/Vocal -- with Red & Black! And the Chess book. :D I LOVE CHESS SO MUCH OMG.

And now, back to the Broadhurst for the evening show.

This is where I had my front-row mezzanine seat. :D I sat next to a Scottish lady and a tall, blond, and somewhat pretty Jersey guy. The Scottish lady said the last time she saw the show was thirteen years ago in Edinboro -- 1993! Which means she might've seen Philip! :D I didn't ask her, though. And the guy who sat next to me saw it several times before, so we discussed it a little bit. I mentioned how excellent the cast was, so he asked me if I'd seen it already, and I said, "Oh, yeah, earlier today." And he said, "That's... uh, bizarre." I made up some lame excuse, dunno why. Am an obsessed fangirl, what can I say. I told him I intended to come again a few weeks later. We talked about people who saw the shows a lot, and how that'd be implausible to come so often for this one because of how expensive it was.

The show itself -- even better than the matinee. I hardly believed it but every member of the cast outdid their matinee performances. EVERY MEMBER. Even Daphne, who sucked slightly less. But... mmmm. So amazing. Drew was even slashier in the evening show than the morning one, he was so much more, uh, affectionate with the other barricade boys. Aaron was even sexier, and Adam's and Ali's A Heart Full of Love got such thunderous applause -- the guy next to me said during intermission that normally he hates that song but he was just blown away by their performances in this one. The energy was amazing. I was really, really tempted to start applauding Enjolras while he was draped suggestively over the flag in the death scene, but I didn't, mostly because the people I was sitting next to probably already thought I was crazy enough. Heh. But I may do that next time I see the show, especially if it's as good as that show. Which it probably will be. Holy God. I totally gave Aaron a standing ovation at his curtain call for the evening show, though. :D

So, I pretty much ran to the stage door, and was one of the first ones there. The police apparently set up barricades, which makes sense. Marianne and I got signatures from the cast -- she got significantly more than I did. Aaron, Ali, and Adam recognised us from earlier that day, heh. I even talked to Aaron a little bit... he's so sweet, honestly. I love him so very much. When Aaron got to the end of the line of fans -- it took me several minutes to actually catch up the nerve to do this -- I ran up to him and asked him for a hug. :D He grinned and obliged. SO I GOT TO HUG AARON LAZAR AND NOW MY LIFE IS COMPLETE YAY. Oh Zeus, I was puddle of fangirl for the rest of the night. Still am, in fact. :D Oh, man. I so totally have to go again, if just to see Aaron again, and see if he remembers the random fangirl who saw the show twice on the same day and asked him for a hug after the evening show. :D

Norm took bloody forever to exit, I think he was actually the last one to come out. In a fit of geeky fangirly sleep-deprived boredom, we wrote: "Aux barricades, citoyens!", "Patria Woz 'ere" and "Vivent Les Peuples" on the metal barricades separating us from the stage door. I took pictures of said graffiti, so as soon as I can get those pictures touched up enough (so one can actually SEE the writing; it was hard to make out on the previews on the camera, so I might need to brighten 'em up a bit), I'll post those too. :D

So, after the show, we walked around a bit until we found a Starbucks on Times Square which was open 24 hours. Mmm, venti hot chocolate. We then walked about a bit, spilling our hot drinks all over ourselves, and then we decided it would be best to locate Marianne's bus station. We found the right place, and while there... I met a very nice cab driver. I asked him about getting back to the PATH train station. He offered very kindly to drive me DIRECTLY to Newark, where I was already parked, for $50 + toll. :D Got me there much faster... rather than spending one or two hours navigating PATH, it took twenty minutes to get back to my car.

I had to wake up the parking lot attendant so that I could get my car. For fourteen hours of leaving my car there, it only cost $20. That really isn't all that bad. So then came the fun part.

Leaving Newark. Oh, now that was a barrel of fun. I spent literally half an hour driving around Newark hopelessly lost. I hate one-way streets. I asked a gas-station attendant, who responded in broken English that he wasn't sure, he was new to the area, and that it might've been that way. I went that way, and ended up on I-280 West. Well, better than anything, really -- at least I was going in the right direction. I followed that all the way to the end, and then got on 80 somehow. At this point, I was down to about 3/8ths of a tank of gas, so I stopped at this Exxon. Another gas station attendant, with a nice Russian accent, gave me VERY straightforward directions back to I-78 West, and filled my tank for me, and chatted a bit with me about how much he hates it when people pull up to the station and don't even get gas or buy anything. Seriously, if I just wanted directions, I'd've just walked into the store. But I figured gas would be a smart idea. Which it was -- I might not actually have made it all the way home without filling up.

After that, I was pretty much home free. I spent the rest of the ride home listening to my mix CDs and eeeeing about Aaron. :D

And I got home about 4:30am, posted the picture of me and Aaron, and fell into bed.

Best New York City trip ever.


Photos from the day:
Aaron Lazar and me.