| Two tickets to see Les Mis March 24: | $186.50 |
| 11 hours parked in Hoboken: | $25 |
| Two PATH One-Way tickets: | $3 |
| One full tank of gas: | $18.50 |
| Aaron Lazar remembering my hug: | priceless |
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard.
I left a little bit after ten. Had this been a normal commute to NYC, I should have gotten to the theatre with about half an hour to spare. But not this time. Now, I have to mention that I'm not a very patient driver, especially with time constraints on my commute. So when traffic is going less than the speed I want to be driving at, I tend to yell and shout and scream. 222 up near the exchange onto 78 was ridiculously congested for mid-morning on Saturday, so I had about a ten-fifteen minute delay from there. 78 itself was uneventful, except for the bastard who tailgated me while I was doing 85. He later zoomed off at well over 90mph, and about five minutes later I saw him pulled over the side of the road with a cop. :D Ain't karma a bitch? So then when I was getting close I noticed my phone was getting calls, and while I picked up to answer it I accidentally took the wrong Rt 1-9. Here I'm going to stop -- for those of you who are unfamiliar with driving in North Jersey, I should explain this. North Jersey around NYC is basically 75% ridiculously complex highways, tunnels, bridges, and overpasses. In order to get to Hoboken from points west, one must take 78 Express, then take the exit 58B from that onto Rt 1-9 North. Rt 1-9 North splits off into the Express and Truck routes right before Jersey City and the bridges. They will both take you to the same place, but the Truck 1-9 N is about ten-fifteen minutes out of the way. I, as you may have guessed, took the Truck 1-9 North. Seriously, North Jersey roads are the spawn of Satan. So then I got into Hoboken and parked a little bit after 1pm. I was slightly miffed as I'd really wanted to be in NYC at that time, but figuring that if I rushed and got onto the train right away, it wouldn't be a big deal; I should've just gotten there right before the show, with enough time to get in and get settled in my seat and turn the audio recorder on before the lights dimmed. Except the Fates weren't done jerking me around. When I got down to the PATH train station, there was a train waiting there so packed full of people that I wasn't sure I could get on it, so I decided to wait for the next train. It was just departing, either way. PATH normally operates every 6-10 minutes in the afternoon, so I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Except I was wrong and I kicked myself for the next few hours for not sucking it up and packing onto that train. Because PATH decided that March 24 and 25 were good days to do rail maintenance, so the Hoboken<->33rd Street line was partially closed down, and running every twenty minutes instead, and doing a transfer at 9th Street. "Every twenty minutes" really equates to "every thirty minutes", because it needs a minute or two to dump off the departing passengers, and then it sits there for about five minutes or so while the incoming passengers get on. So, I missed the train that left at about 1:10, and got on the train that left about 1:30. The train ride from Hoboken to 33rd Street is about twenty minutes I got onto 33rd Street at 1:52. The walk from 33rd Street up to the Broadhurst Theatre on 44th street is about a ten minute walk if the crosswalks are good to you and there isn't much foot traffic and you run a bit. It took me fifteen minutes due to the massive crowds of people and the crosswalks not being particularly nice. I ran up to the theatre about 2:07, got my ticket, missed all of the Prologue, but was seated afterwards and the people I sat between weren't too annoyed by me disturbing them.
Laaa. Right after I got off the train I called Marianne to see what the understudy board was like and to let her know I was very late. The conversation went something like this,
Jenn: GAH DAMN PATH TRAIN I AM NOT HAPPY.
Marianne: Well, you're about to be even more unhappy...
Jenn: oh god NO. Please tell me it's not Drew.
Marianne: Yeah, it's Drew. And Megan for Celia.
Jenn: *faceplant*
I seriously almost turned around and went back home, but decided that since I was there in New York City already and went through THAT MUCH TROUBLE just to get there in the first place, I decided to run down Broadway and get there and see it anyway.
As for the understudies... Drew was slightly better than he was last week, but only vocally, as his acting is still atrocious. He's like, CAPSLOCK ENJOLRAS!111! Which is so, so, so wrong. He bounces with glee when little Gavroche brings the news that Lamarque is dead, and he screams and shouts through most of the barricade scenes. He's extremely impatient with Marius during his love-impassioned spiel during Red and Black to the point I wanted to smack him and tell him to sit down. He isn't a terribly good singer, he doesn't have much breath support, his vowels are almost painful to listen to, and he doesn't hit all his notes cleanly. He did do fairly well on "they will come when we call!" but his final battle, "until the earth is free!" was awful. THAT LINE IS NOT MEANT TO BE GROWLED, DREW. His American accent is still overdone, and he opens his mouth way too wide, he's way too hyperactive, and he moves his hands and arms and legs way too much. He's still a good dangling Enjolras, though: in fact as soon as he shut his mouth during the final battle, his performance improved about tenfold: waving the flag, fending off the National Guardsmen on the opposite side of the barricade, and dangling -- all of which he did quite well. Marianne later compared him to Simon Bailey. XD And Megan... Marianne didn't like her that much, but I don't like Celia that much, either. Megan's voice is better than Celia's, but Celia's a much better actress. *shrugs* I'm not an Eponine fan by any stretch, so it takes an extraordinary Eponine to get me to say more than a few words on the subject. Stephen Trafton was on as Grantaire, and I liked him well enough. I still liked Matt Clemens' R better, but Stephen was good. He wasn't nearly as entertaining as the drunk in Master of the House as Drew is, but he was pretty good about assaulting Marius during Red and Black. New Gavroche, replacing Jacob Levine is Zach Rand. I liked Zach, but then I liked Jacob too.
Also the guy I was sitting next to, he was an older gentleman, he reminded me a lot of Jerry Orbach actually. He didn't give me much personal space and kept using my leg as an armrest. :P
The matinee BCEFA speech, Lea gave it this time. Drew was one of the bucket-holders in the lobby, and I decided, on spur of the moment, to go up to him. This was actually sort of funny, in retrospect, and went something like this:
Jenn: DREW! *lays a hand on his shoulder*
Drew: ...Yeees?
Jenn: Are you going to be on as Enjolras tonight, too?!
Drew: No, sorry. I'm not.
Jenn: ....aaaw, darn. Thanks, though!
It's hard to appropriately convey the bubbly excitement via lj, but oh man. He was nice about it, though. So I ran out and told Marianne, and we decided that it would be a great idea to just hang out until the evening show.
Cast members are recognising us now. Ali says hi to us when she walks by; I think Adam recognises us even if he doesn't say anything; Dan was a bit excited when we said hi to him; and I have a feeling Drew remembers us now. XD This is not to mention Aaron but that's a story from the evening show, so that can wait until later. :D As for me, I'm getting better at recognising which people exiting the stage door are cast members, and who they actually are.
When Drew came back out the stage door, one girl asked me to take a picture of her with him, and Marianne quickly said, "Sure, but only if we get a picture next!" So we did, even if it is... not the most flattering picture of either of us. And he said to us that he would be "back on as the drunk" for the evening show, and Marianne made an aside, "Hahaha, yesss. Back as the slashy drunk," which we presume he heard. XD
After that, we decided enough with the stage door, since after Drew came out, we didn't think anyone interesting was left. So we went back into the theatre to buy tickets for the evening show. They gave us back orchestra on the left side, next to each other. Marianne found she'd left her wallet in the theatre, so we went through the stage door and backstage into the theatre to get it. I was tempted to take a left upstairs into the dressing rooms on our way back out, but restrained myself. ;) (Maybe next time.....)
So after that we went into this theatre/hotel near 8th Street so we could pee, and then to an ATM so Marianne could get money, and then we wandered around looking for a place to eat that was not McDonald's, pizza, burgers only, or Thai. We found this cute little diner, Euro Diner I think it was called, and I honestly wouldn't mind going back there, the food was cheap and it was a pleasant, relaxed, casual atmosphere. After eating we wandered around. Up and down 8th, and Broadway, and 7th. It must have been fundie day on Saturday, and we picked up some fundie brochures. One asked us if God loves us, another told us to avoid the 666. Highly amusing. I still have them. XD Also, we went into this porn store and giggled at the French and German porn DVDs for about ten minutes, and got weird looks from all the guys in the store. XD And then it was back to the Broadhurst for the evening show.
There were no understudies other than the fact that Stephen Trafton took over for Doug Kreeger. The seats we had for the evening show were orchestra, far left, Row O. We were basically on the far left aisle. It was an interesting view. I actually saw most of it; Marianne had a slightly obstructed view due to the people in front of us. Some things that were all the way in the back of stage right weren't visible to us, but most things that occurred on that side of the stage -- notably, Drew as the drunk in Master of the House -- were very, very visible. I tried to remember interesting things that occurred during the show, but the fact is I spent as much of it as possible squeeing over Aaron. (Damn, he's adorable in that judge's costume. ♥) Although... oh, Drew. He does some pretty wild things during Master of the House -- landing in people's laps, staggering all over the place, getting into brawls, but this time he completely outdid himself and grabbed Chip across the table for a full-on snog. At that point we just died, and were pretty sure that Drew heard the slashy remark and took it to heart. And moving on to Look Down, I have to say it was such an immense relief to see Aaron walking onto the bridge alongside Adam. (He's much nicer to look at than Drew is, at the very least.) Aaron is just better than Drew in every single way: Aaron is a better actor by far, a better singer by far, better looking by far -- and he wears the pants and the vest so much better.
I feel I have to note: Aaron sounded a little different on Saturday night than he usually does. Vocally, he's still excellent and capable of producing aurgasms, so don't think I'm challenging that. But he sounded different, a little more gruff at times, or like he needed to clear his throat. It's just something I noticed, not that I'm complaining in any way mind you because I think he was having a great night. Just a little different. I absolutely adore the way he changes his phrases and gestures subtly every single time. I absolutely adore how differently he and Drew interact every single time -- for example, during Drink With Me on Saturday night, Aaron just shoved the bottle back at the frenchboy who offered it to him, and went to cuddle and whisper with Drew for a few seconds before climbing back onto the barricade. Awww.
We were also 90% certain that Drew kissed Adam full on the lips while he's molesting him during Red and Black. Neither of us got a particularly clear view, but from what I saw and from what I know of Drew, it was probably the case. I saw Adam's O_o face afterwards, though. XD Drew plays off of all the other barricade boys really well, and they seem to enjoy or at least humour him when he's being slashy, so it's definitely really fun to watch. I don't have any problems with Drew whatsoever as long as he's not Enjolras. Really. Drew's really nice in person, and his R is excellent -- but as Enjolras? Argh. XD
The show was pretty damn good on Saturday night -- Marianne and I had wanted to applaud dangling!Aaron, but didn't manage it. The crowd may have been receptive to it, but... eh. Definitely going to do it on his final show, and perhaps one of the weekends in between. Because I am almost definitely going up every weekend until the 24th. Planning on next Saturday matinee again (in case of Drew doing another Saturday matinee, I can then stay and do evening for Aaron in the evening. Yay, backup plans. :D).
There was a pretty sizeable crowd at the stage door. Said hi briefly to Drew, and Dan greeted me warmly and wished me good night before running across the street. :D We said hi to some other cast members, there was a huge crowd for Lea, as usual. I elected to stand far down from the barricades to a) avoid the Lea crowd and to b) give Aaron's other fangirls a chance before appropriating him for a small chat. XD
Aaron came out near the end, and he definitely does have a lot of fangirls. He got a bunch of pictures, and almost left with his family/friends before talking to us. But then he noticed us and went, 'Oh, I'm sorry ladies, I didn't see you there.' And then he says, "So, wait. How many times have you seen the show, anyway?!" We both stammered out some answers. Me, I temporarily forgot how to count -- Aaron does that to me. Haha; when he's standing a foot away most of my higher brain function just ... disappears -- so I just said "...not enough! :D" And Marianne said, "Oh, we were here for the matinee, too -- but went, 'But where's Aaron and Celia?!' so we saw tonight's show too!" And then he says to me, "And I give you a hug every time, don't I?" AND JUST GAVE ME A HUG. I wasn't going to bring it up this time, since he seemed to be in a rush to be with his friends/family, but HE HUGGED ME. :D He's very sweet, really, and I told him so. :D He's terribly nice and quite huggable, I do assure you all. :D So we waved goodbye, he said goodnight and I said, "See you next weekend!"
And I just flailed for awhile after that. I'm still flaily. Just. Eeeee. :D
So then it was time to leave, sadly. Fortunately the train was not nearly as packed as it was this afternoon, since I got a seat. I only had to wait about five minutes for a train, got a seat, and did the transfer at 9th Street. At 9th Street I got onto another train for Hoboken -- the car number I was sitting in? 666. Oh, I snerked. It must have been the fundies; I sat on 666 for about ten whole minutes, rather than avoiding it!
Driving home wasn't a big deal. I finally followed the right route home, however the correct way home does involve the New Jersey Turnpike, so thank Zeus for my EZ Pass. I left the Hoboken parking garage at 12:35 and got home... about 3am. I would have gotten home about 30 or 45 minutes sooner, but not long after I got back into PA, I hit a lot of patchy and very dense fog. So dense I could hardly see where the lines were right in front of my car. Not a good time to be going above 45 mph, I can assure you. Stopped for gas at the Wawa in Wescosville -- only stopped there because I had to pee and didn't want to wait another half hour until I got to the Sheetz in Moselem Springs. The Wawa pissed me off. It was selling gas at 2.61 unless you prepaid in cash, which would get you the price of 2.55. Evil bastards! I have never seen that done before. I should've waited until I got to Sheetz, because its gas was 2.55 without any stupid gimmicks.
ASo that, my friends, was March 24th's NYC trip. Aye, I'd say it was the best one so far :D (despite Drewjolras. Ahem.)
Photos from the day:
Me, Drew Sarich, and Marianne.
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