Our last full day here in the city. So sad. We’ve had such a phenomenal time, done so many things and enjoyed so much of this trip. After getting tickets for tonight’s performance, we headed all the way south one last time for our Dialog in the Dark experience. Dialog in the Dark is basically about getting people to experience parts of New York as if they were blind. It’s all about touch, hearing, spell, and texture of the world around you. We “visited” Central Park, took a ride on a “subway,” “shopped” at a supermarket, and crossed a “busy street.” Along the way, we learned to use our canes and to be more aware of all the cues that we miss all the time in our normal experience of the world around us. All of the guides at the exhibit are blind or severely visually impaired so they can take you through “their” New York. It’s a really interesting concept and was a unique “tour” of New York City that was different from anything else that we’d experienced this week.
Columbia University was next on our agenda. Audrey’s dad went to school there so we thought it’d be cool to take a look around and check out the area. Lots of old, beautiful buildings, giant libraries, stuff like that. For lunch, we went to a local Ethiopian restaurant where you eat with your hands and, apparently, the food is pretty legit, partially judging by the number of people there speaking unrecognizable African languages. I wasn’t a fan of the food, but the experience as a whole was very interesting- I’m glad we did it.
Around Columbia
Taking pictures around Columbia
How I spent a lot of the trip
Ethiopian food
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is located just a couple of blocks from Columbia. It’s the largest cathedral in the world, and could easily fit the entire Statue of Liberty under it’s main dome. I’ve visited a lot of Cathedrals while traveling but none quite like this. The size alone was overwhelming (it’s as long as two football fields). While we were wandering through, there was a choir concert going on. The way the voices just floated up in that space gave it such an ethereal quality, echoing off the hundreds of panels of intricate stained glass. Around the outside wall of the cathedral are tens of smaller chapels, each with their own style and feel. Audrey especially loved wandering through all of the art and things that were hung on the walls. The whole church was really quite something.
St. John's
Glass in St. John's
More food: the Momofuku Milk Bar. So much sweet, so much delicious. It took us a while to find, but it was so worth it. We got Candy Bar pie (carmel, chocolate, peanut butter, and pretzel), Crack pie (buttery custard on an oat crust), and a pile of cookies for later including the Compost cookie (chocolate chips, butter scotch, potato chips, oat, pretzels, coffee grounds). Yummmmmm.
We took the long way back to our next show, stopping by the Lincoln Center, the New York Apple Store, FAO Schwartz (the coolest toy store ever), and walking down Fifth Avenue, not understanding how anyone could ever spend that much money on anything ever.
Other things Audrey loves? The Muppets
Lego Captain Jack Sparrow
The Big Piano at FAO Schwarz
Tonight’s show, and our last show for the week was How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Again, we had amazing seats (7th row, orchestra) to watch the show. It’s a “jazz hands show,” full of big flashy dance numbers, “ba-dum-chh” jokes, and everything else that makes a classic cheesy stereotypical musical. Nick Jonas was playing the lead- not particularly impressive, but fun overall. I loved the set, the “big” songs, and the atmosphere of the show. It’s all about this kid climbing the ladder in the business world, but through a series of strategies and good fortune rather than relevant skills. Cheesy and a lot of fun.
We decided that our last night in the city would be our fancy dinner night. We went to Sardi’s, a famous restaurant in the theater world. Its walls are covered with caracatures of years of famous Broadway stars, about 1400 in total. “You know you’ve made it when they put your picture up at Sardi’s.” Besides the food being amazing, it was a lot of fun to look around and see who we could pick out.
Delicious dessert at Sardi's
Audrey snuck pictures of the Sardi's walls
We were sitting next to a table with a husband and wife and we had caught bits of their conversation that clued us in that at least one of them was a pretty big deal in the theater world. In their conversation with their friend, we’d been able to catch their first names, but couldn’t figure out who they were. While we were ordering dessert, Paige, the woman at the table, turned around and commented on something I’d said and we chatted for a just a moment before going back to our own conversations. I said bye to them when we left, wished them a good night, and left still wondering who we’d just been talking to. When we got back to the room, Audrey googled the bits of information we’d been able to collect. The wife was Paige Davis, former host of TLC’s Trading Spaces (a show I used to watch a lot). She’s also made a couple of Broadway appearances. Her husband was Patrick Page, one of the top American classically trained actors and a big deal on Broadway- the Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original Scar in The Lion King, and currently the Green Goblin in Spiderman.
Our time at Sardi’s was mostly spent doing our own version of the Tony awards, thinking through the shows that we saw this week and coming up with our favorites and least favorites in lots of made up categories. We saw 7 Broadway shows: Porgy & Bess, Godspell, Anything Goes, Once, Seminar, Other Desert Cities, and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Here the notes that we made on our own awards. Where there were ties, we didn’t try too hard to resolve them so there are plenty of categories with 2 or 3 winners. Oh well.
| Audrey | Megan | |
| Best Show | Once | P&B, ODC |
| Favorite Show | Once, P&B, ODC | Anything Goes |
| Best Male Lead | Alan Rickman, Hamish Linklater, Norm Lewis | Hamish Linklater, Alan Rickman, Norm Lewis |
| Best Female Lead | Audra McDonald, Stockhard Channing | Audra McDonald, Stockhard Channing |
| Worst Show | Godspell | Godspell |
| Least Liked Show | H2S | Once |
| Best Featured Actor | Brother (ODC) | Brother (ODC) and Crown (P&B) |
| Best Featured Actress | Aunt (ODC) | Aunt (ODC), Partner in Crime (AG) |
| Best Ensemble | Once | Once, Seminar, ODC |
| Best Score | P&B | Once |
| Favorite Score | Once | Godspell, AG, H2S |
| “Weakest” Lead | Nick Jonas | Nick Jonas |
| Most shocking plot twist | OCD | Godspell |
| Best Book | Once | None |
| Gut wrenching moment | Crown & Bess on island | Audra doing crack |
| Tear Jerker | End of ODC | Crown & Bess |
| Can’t breathe | Alan Rickman’s monologue | Alan Rickman’s monologue |
| Goosebumps | Falling Slowly in Once | Falling Slowly in Once |
| Best Set | Seminar, AG | OC, H2S |
| Best Costumes | AG | Godspell, H2S |
| Best show design | Once | Once, H2S, Godspell |
| Flashiest moment | Tap dancing (AG) | Tap Dancing (AG) |
| Best Audience Moment | Woman at P&B | Crown’s bow |
| Worst Audience | High schoolers at AG | High schoolers at AG |
| Stage door high | Audra McDonald | Alan Rickman |
| Stage door low | Godspell | Alan Rickman again |
| Best View | Seminar | Seminar |
| Worst View | Godspell | Godspell |
| Best Publicity Design | Once | Once, ODC |
Too bad nobody actually cares about our opinion. Hahaha.