cornrelish being on her working vacation in Long Island and New Jersey- as close as she's been to me in months- we decided we'd go into NYC on Thursday, the only day free with our relative schedules. A morning drive went smoothly, and I beat her to her hotel before she arrived from the airport. Off to New York City we went in Meefer, my '99 Escort. Upon procuring NYC's lovely $28 parking.. :P we wandered towards a late lunch of Sushi.. which Kristy enjoyed far too much.. we went to our first stop, the Museum of Television and Radio. Rather atypical for a museum, it was more of a library, with a great many TV and Radio shows available. Between us, we selected a Danger Mouse 5-parter, a behind-the-scenes Muppet Show special, an Animaniacs episode with skipping problems, and Crusader Rabbit. Crusader Rabbit had very much the feel of Rocky & Bullwinkle beta version: Black and white animation and much jerkier, lesser humor, but the same sort of continuing-plot episodic construction.
From there, we walked down to Times Square.. a bit of a hike, especially for Kristy's Flordiaan self. She was dressed fiarly warm, but I ccould tell we needed to get indoors often as possible. Hersehy's stoore and some pizza made for good stops. and then, onto the show. The Lion King. On Broadway. Spoilers to follow..
Every good thing you have heard about the show, is quite true. The costuming was done with amazing quality, and the unique mask methods worked well, if.. sometimes to a bit of mental filp-flopping. The actor and the suits, masks, and puppets sometimes seemed the same.. and sometimes two distinct elements, in their attmept to bridge human and animal. There were different approaches taken with different characters.. the hyenas seeming the most 'suited', the lions the most 'human', and puppetry work for Zazu and Timon. The Scenery and set I cannot say enough good about.. they worked things with incredible versatility in that, in a wonderful blend of simple lines and agressive coloration.
The music was done very well.. some new spin given to old songs, some new fresh songs including the wonderful "He Lives in You". The changes to the plotline were modest, except for a Scar/Nala subplot that covered 2 musical numbers to minimal real effect. Singing and acting, done well, with Zazu, Puumba, and Rafeki the real standouts.. of course, being comic relief, they're audience favorites, but they fulfilled those comic roles all wonderfully.
And of course, Kristy scoring the best possible seats in the theatre.. expensive ones, but worth every penny.. made it even more enjoyable. :) Darnit, she rocks. ;)
After the show, we made it back to the car, and, after only a modest amoutn of getting lost on the way back to her Hotel room, crashed for the night. Despite an alarm-clock scare, She made it to her working day and I back on the road. White Castle and Ikea were my stops on the way home.. both fine, fine places to be. Picked up a lamp at the latter but need to go back to exchange the bulbs for properly-sized ones. :P
And that was Thursday and Friday. Very nice times indeed.
--Chiaroscuro