Going Back to My Week in NYC, September 2-9

 I saw 7 plays while I was in New York:  Come from Away, Katie, Miss Saigon, Annie (in Westchester outside of NYC),   Prince of Broadway, Dear Evan Hansen and Groundhog Day.  I enjoyed all of them.

I've already talked about "Katie" in a separate blogspot.

Seeing Annie was special because an actor I met on the Camino de Santiago  last September was playing President FDR in the show.  He invited me to join him and other actors in the van to Westchester and got me a free ticket and lunch.   It was the nicest dinner theater I'd ever been to although the dinner was lunch!  The play was also the best production I've ever seen of Annie.   John-Charles made a great FDR!

Before Jonathan and I saw Dear Evan Hansen, a friend of his invited me to go behind the stage, where she works getting actors' clothes ready for each performance.  (The actor in Dear Evan Hansen really cries every night, and there's evidence of this on the sleeve of his shirt, so that's one item she deals with.)

Here are some photos of my stay in NY!  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/upl135l8ficrn0v/AABcOr2YaVi-FSQ6RNPk0eJBa?dl=0

Among the people you'll see are my nephew Karl, whose July birthday we celebrated at Blossom on Columbus.  When he lived in SF, he loved the fog, so I brought him an article explaining that the fog has been named Karl!

Sunday morning it was raining, so I borrowed Jonathan's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center umbrella.  Unfortunately, I left it in the theater, and when I went back for it, it hadn't been turned in.

On Sunday Jonathan and I had lunch with Jim Canning (who was in the original cast ofGrease) and his wife at Saju's, a French restaurant near the Schoenfeld Theater, where we saw Come from Away.    We then ate at Mother of Pearl with Jonathan's girlfriend Diana and their friend Daniel, who live in Brooklyn.  The food was beautiful and all plant-based--delicious and kind to animals and the environment.  

You can see Diana and Daniel showing their surprise at finding a pay telephone on the street!

Then on Monday Jonathan and I went to Book Culture, near his apartment, and then met Diana and had lunch at Sweetgreen before taking a walk from 72nd Street to 106 to the Conservatory Garden--English, Italian, and French!  We stopped at the Shakespeare Garden as well as at Turtle Pond. 

I learned that the lamp posts let us know what street we're near in case we get lost in the park!

I'd read about Seneca,  the village of black property owners that was destroyed to build Central Park, so that sign interested me.  I also like the subway signs like the one you see here--and the menus!  Here were are at By Chloe.  

That was before the 9:00 PM performance of "Katie," where Jonathan, Isabelle, Thomas, and I saw Miguel, watched his engrossing play, and participated in the talk-back.  

Then you see the actor I first met a year ago and his husband, who's both acted in plays and directed them.  They have a show-filled home!  

You see the actors all lined up to be picked up for the 45 min. ride to Winchester, a dinner theater.  (It turns out that Bill and Hillary Clinton were there the week before I was.)  The guy you see in the van is the actor who played a major part in Annie; I thought it was great that he was also driving us!  

In the last two pictures you see me in the subway near Jonathan's apartment, where I'm holding the programs from the past week.

I was caught in the rain one day and decided that if I had to buy an umbrella, I'd get a New York one, however tacky.  I thought I was buying one that said, "I LOVE NEW YORK."  Instead it said, "NEW YORK LOVES ME."  I was embarrassed, but a man I met on the street assured me, "Yes, New York does love you," so I was relieved to find it was mutual.