Booth theatre

Greece update: Today I’m still on Mykonos. Probably at the beach!

After lunch at Yoshiono we high-tailed it to the Booth Theatre to see the matinee showing of Next to Normal, one of Ricky’s new favorites. The outside looked like any other building for the most part, only decked out in Next to Normal posters and large headshots of the cast.

We had the least expensive seats in the house but one of the bests views of the stage I’ve ever had. The theatre is tiny tiny! Apparently all of the theatres in the city are comparably sized. We were running just on time for the show and sat down shortly before it started. Another benefit to being in the back row is that we were able to place a bag on the ledge directly behind us!

The set of Next to Normal is one of the more interesting ones I’ve seen. Wicked still probably takes the cake, though. It was set up kind of like a tic-tac-toe board, with nine distinct squares. Four of them were occupied by the orchestra, fully visible to all theatre-goers, and the remaining five were used by the cast throughout the show. Ricky is going to comment saying that the cast did go into some of the orchestra squares, but they primarily used the others. What I found pretty neat about the set is the doors they used to close squares and create the illusion of more or less space. Depending on the lighting, the doors looked like a house or even like the lead female’s face. Each level was connected by two stairways on either end that the cast used throughout the show, fully utilizing all of the vertical space.

After the show Ricky had to get the official play book and poster, so we waited in line for that. It was drizzling a lot earlier so I asked for a second bag to cover everything and the cashier said he’d only give it to us if we recycle it. I was amused by the comment. We finally made it outside and rounded the corner to get to the stage door to meet some of the cast. We got to meet a few. I’ll let Ricky comment more about that when he gets to reading this!

That pretty much wraps up New York City. We walked around a bit after the show and saw Rockefeller Center and a couple other landmarks but didn’t have much time since we had to catch the bus back home. Next time we’ll spend the night so we have more time.