If you live anywhere in the U.S., you can probably relate to the headache (and backache) caused by recent weather events. SoCal friends: stop bragging about your sunshine! In case you didn’t get buried in it, a huge storm hit the New York area late Wednesday night and stretched through Friday morning.
As fate would have it, we had tickets to see Wicked on Broadway at 8pm Thursday night. New York’s theater district almost never shuts down for weather. The show must go on. The theaters make a larger profit in bad weather because they don’t refund cancellations. Then they resell the seats at a reduced price to those brave souls who venture out.
We ventured out.
Before I tell you the story, you need to know about a special little girl in my life. My niece. She’s a happy, optimistic, lover of life. If you tell this sweet 3 year-old you’re taking her somewhere- anywhere works- she declares that it’s going to be awesome. Everything in her world is awesome. She laughs long and loud. She especially enjoys competition, yelling “I win” after a round of Uno. She follows it up with an “in your face” comment aimed at her competitor (grandpa).
I love her positive outlook. The three of us (the Adventurer, my Mom and I) made the decision to adopt my niece’s attitude about everything for the entire day. If you know us in real life, you know this is monumental. We refused to be cranky about the inconveniences in our path. The roads were awful. The trains were delayed. The Adventurer was still fighting off a sore throat and cold. The weather forecast called for more snow, ice, and freezing rain.
This was going to be awesome.
We sloshed through icy water and filthy slush on every single street corner from Grand Central Terminal to our restaurant of choice (gluten free!) on 9th Avenue. The wind and rain assaulted us. Our feet were soaked up to our ankles and throbbing from the cold.
The restaurant -Nizza- was awesome. They set out GF bread on the table as soon as we sat down and it wasn’t flaky, dry or rocky. It was moist, heavenly strips of goodness. Every dish was delicious. My phone died before the food came, so I have no pictures to show you the beautiful meal. Here’s a very dark shot of the Adventurer and I enjoying the warmth of the candle lit restaurant.
Enjoying an amazing GF meal at Nizza, NYC
As we finished our dinner, we noticed out feet had thawed out enough to stand comfortably, so we set out for another long walk to the Gershwin.
What can I say about Wicked? Hmmm. Well. It was awesome, of course! (Is this getting annoying?)
The Adventurer absolutely loved every moment. She played the role of Elphaba last December in Newtown, so she knew a fair amount of the show by heart. It was a bit of a thrill.
I loved the story and how it intertwined with the Wizard of Oz. Oh and the flying monkeys that swung out above the audience? Possibly my favorite part of the show. They reminded me of the first Broadway show I attended as a child: Peter Pan. I remember thinking Sandy Duncan had the best job ever, flying out over the audience every night.
We sloshed back to GCT and the icy water soaked our feet again. For the record, we were all wearing boots. We would have needed fly fishing gear to stay dry in the Manhattan slush puddles.
The train car we chose was full of loud, drunk college students but the Adventurer still managed to dose off. She missed the display when a couple of ladies of the evening (what’s the PC term for hookers?) boarded the train at Fordham Road and walked the aisles a couple of times, but whatever.
By 1 am we were back at Mom’s house, exhausted, feet frozen and sore. Somehow I was famished and completely dehydrated. But we all agreed:
We won this.
In your face mother nature!
Now excuse me, I have to go shovel the freshly fallen snow while singing loathing, loathing, loathing, which I cannot get out of my head. Here’s a clip of the fabulous (current) cast of Wicked performing What is this Feeling on the Today Show:
