Where did you spend this 13th anniversary of 9/11? Jonathon and I spent it in New York, the Big Apple, that happening town. We had our fiancé, Genevieve, with us, as well, so the romance was high in between the high powered business meetings. The meetings went very well, not sure how much else I can share, or would be appropriate to share here, so I’ll leave it at that. I’m not trying to tease, just honestly bad at judging such things. But in between those creative and productive meetings, we took time to enjoy the City that Never Sleeps. Considering the great food we got at odd hours, that may even be true. If you like great food, and Italian in particular try Villagio, 40 Central Park south. We ate there twice and everything from wine to desert was fabulous. They also had wonderful staff that made you feel welcome, even when the three of us stayed late and closed the place down the second night. Thanks to all the staff there that helped make our first New York trip as a “couple” even more special. Hopefully next trip we’ll have Genevieve’s husband, Spike, with us and our fourple will be complete.
When we realized we would be in New York on the actual day of 9/11 we tried to think how to commemorate it. Thanks to the wonderful, and Tony award winning, James Monroe Iglehart, who is amazing as the Genie in Aladdin, we decided to see the show. He is beyond brilliant as the Genie, seriously it’s a performance you really owe it to yourself to try and see. The rest of the cast is great, too. The staging was complicated and they made it look effortless. The choreography was fun and innovative, and then there’s the costumes! I have never seen so many quick changes on stage, and all done so fast and smoothly that it took us a few minutes to go, “Hey, that dancer was on just seconds ago in a different costume. How’d they do that?” Thanks to James inviting us back stage, and the charming and talented stage manager, Sarah, we had some of our questions answered. Far from taking away from the magic, knowing the technical details made it all the more amazing. Since I’m claustrophobic there were a few entrances and exits that James and some of the other cast members do that I would have had trouble doing, but they made it all look easy. I haven’t seen the other Tony award winning shows, but if there is better staging, choreography, and costumes on Broadway right now, I’ll have to see it to believe it.
It was all great fun, but we chose to attend Aladdin on 9/11 because that was the only thing that had ever made Broadway go dark. Not two world wars, not the Great Depression, nor all the “wars” since have darkened The Great White Way, until that awful moment YEARS AGO. So, to commemorate that anniversary, and to celebrate that we are all still here, our country still stands, and that Broadway keeps doing one of the things that America excels at, entertaining, we wanted to see a Broadway musical on 9/11/14.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are the three inalienable rights listed in the Untied States Declaration of Independence. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll be happy, just that all people should have a chance to try for happiness, it’s up to the individual to catch it for themselves. Well, Jonathon, Genevieve, and I chased and caught it in New York this week. I hope you and yours were able to catch some happiness, too