Well after we bid farewell to our incredible wedding team and guests, we decided to recover in style by hitting the Annual Broadway Flea Market on Sunday. And it was incredible – running over three blocks, there were stalls with everything you could possibly think of for sale from Broadway – set, props and costume pieces from various shows; autographed everything from posters and photos to clothing to set and costume design sketches; there was art and collectibles; baking, books and badges – everything! We even managed to find an artist who creates bears in the likeness of Broadway characters, including Hedwig! Very cool. The main feature of the event is a big auction selling things like walk-on roles, meeting the stars for lunch, getting your own pair of kinky boots! …just to name a few. The auction items all start at $1000 bidding and everything in the auction and at all of the stalls raises money for Broadwaycares.org which is an equity organisation raising money for Aids. Such a great cause and an awesome annual event!
Chels and I are SURE that if we actually lived in NYC permanently, we would now have a house FULL of all sorts of exciting memorabilia that we came across. I guess I should be greatful that our sensibilities stopped us from purchasing things that would fill up our suitcases! But one very special item that we couldn’t resist is an original print artwork by an artist called Brian Strumwasser, who is a Broadway makeup artist that creates images in his own spare time. He had created a few sets of First Edition prints for the Broadway Flea market and Chelsea and I are now the proud owners of #18 out of 200 prints of Lena Hall from Hedwig, including her autograph. Considering this show had such an affect on us and has stayed on our minds the whole trip, not to mention the fact we actually got to meet Lena Hall herself, after seeing her incredible performance, this is a special piece of art that we will definitely be framing and proudly displaying on our return home.
Following an exciting weekend, we ended Sunday with a show…
Broadway Show #13: Motown
Where: Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Seats: Mid Mezzanine
Favourite number: ABC
Rating: 6/10
The music of Motown is great and it was really interesting learning the history of this label. But outside of the music, there wasn’t much story to engage with so it ended up feeling a bit dull and a bit long. Highlights for me: definitely the set design – this show has heaps of money invested in it and includes a lot of hydraulic moments with the set shifting all over the stage. It also felt like every time they sang a new song (and there are at least 60 songs in this show), a new set would appear on the stage! So that was pretty amazing. The other highlight would have to be the boy who played a young Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson (Nathaniel Cullors). He had a great voice and was such an awesome dancer! I can’t get over how talented these people are, especially the kids!!
Yesterday we ventured out to Queens to the Yankee Stadium to see our first American sports game – baseball. The stadium is enormous and everything screams Yankees. Not only is the memorabilia and clothing all themed but all of the stadium food you can buy is branded with Yankees. Pretty cool. We found out as well that we were part of history as the Yankee Captain, (Derek Jeter – #2) who has played with the team for 20 years, is playing his last four home games before he retires and we were there for his fourth to last! Didn’t really mean much to us to be honest but we met a bunch of Americans who had travelled miles from other states just to see him play and then every time he appeared on the pitch, the crowd gave him a standing ovation and chanted his name over and over until he was off the field again.
We had a really good night! I still can’t believe Chels sat through a whole sports game and actually enjoyed it! I mean, this is the girl who used to read Harry Potter while my cousin Elle and I watched the Rugby World Cup games! She was totally into it, singing along and chanting with the crowds. I think our future could have some fun sports-watching time in it!
And of course to top the night off, the Yankees won! So we got to catch the subway home with all of the die-hard fans celebrating another good game!
Today we’re off to make the wedding license all official with the sign-off from the City Clerk and then we’re off to the first show of the week!
T x
Run away with us 