A few weeks ago I went to New York City. This was the trip I was supposed to take the week when my father called to say my mother was going to die and I had to cancel. In fact, the trip I was supposed to take was much shorter -- a few days -- but when I was able to reschedule some time after my mother died, I decided to go all out and do what I love most, attending a lot of theater performances in New York City.
It was a phenomenal trip. I stayed in three different hotels, each close to the performing arts venues I was going to visit at the time: first in Brooklyn close to BAM where I saw A Little Life and Hamlet (A Little Life in Dutch, directed by Ivo van Hove, the production was gorgeous but the topic is so depressing that I had, like many other attendees, to speed-walk to the exit at intermission, and Hamlet in German with a zany energy that was invigorating), then on the Upper West Side where I saw the NY Philharmonic and Don Carlo at the Met as well as Straight Line Crazy in midtown (the performances besides the Wednesday matinee were sold out, given that Ralph Fiennes was starring in the title role), and then in Midtown/Theater District where I had to get back to the Upper West Side to see the Paul Taylor Dance Company (hotel snafu) and I also saw the musical Into the Woods (definitely a Broadway staple, although it is more touristy than the sort of New York entertainment I usually seek), The Piano Lesson (with Samuel Jackson in a play directed by his wife and also starring the son of Denzel Washington, and I have been so out of the New York theatre scene over the past few years that I didn't even realize the woman with Jackson in her name was Samuel's wife and the man with Washington in his name was Denzel's son, until they made their entrance on stage and Samuel Jackson got a lot of applause but the man with Washington as his last name also got a lot of applause and it wasn't until intermission that I realized why), and Death of a Salesman, which was phenomenal although the review in the New Yorker tried to convince you otherwise.
I wish I could have found the time to go to the Whitney for the Hopper exhibition and to the Metropolitan Museum because I will love the Met no matter what is on display, but I already found myself lucky to take this trip after all the darkness that befell my family over the past few months. New York City theater exhibits a level of innovation and creativity that other cities just cannot display if they want to satisfy their customer base, and I always leave the City feeling refresh and exhilarated. I hope to be back in the spring/summer for a couple of key theater productions. We will see if I can make it happen. In any case, I went back to my daily life with more energy and creativity than I had had in years. I am so happy I was finally able to take this trip. My mother would have been proud.
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