I actually had a free night on this trip to NYC so I took advantage of it and caught a Broadway show. Before I arrived, I scoped out a couple of potential ones where I could get rush tickets, Chicago was my first pick because it is a well-known musical, has been running for a long time, and actually had Sunday night showings. The unfortunately things was that their rush tickets were sold starting when their box office opens, which since they had a Sunday matinee, meant that rush tickets would have been selling for more than 5 hours by the time I got there.

Fortunately for me, when I got to the box office a little past 5PM, the lady said that it was a little slow that night and gave me another seat for the same price ($37). I didn’t bother checking out TKTS or the other discount ticket places so I don’t know how that price compares. I felt I got a decent seat though. The only other theatre show I had seen on Broadways was Rent in 2007 and I remember that one of the reasons why I enjoyed it was because the theatre was small and intimate. I got a Row H orchestra seat so I was pretty close to the stage and it felt similar (however, upon exploring the theatre during intermission, I saw that it was very big – there were huge number of seats in the mezzanine). I was on an angle, but it didn’t take away too much. The people to my right also had rush tickets, so if I got there sooner, I could have had more central seats. However there were about 6 seats to my left with worse views in the row so I can’t complain.

I felt the story was great. It was simple to understand and I understood the singing. It made sense and drove the song & dance. The play focuses on 4 characters and I think they were all excellently portrayed. It felt like all the actors were playing parts they were born to play! In fact, because Chicago has been running since the 90s, some of the actors have been playing or reprised their roles that they played in the 00s. They were definitely pros as after doing the same show for so long, it didn’t felt they were dialing it in (plus there were no understudy substitutes on a Sunday night!)

I seem to remember that the music of Chicago garnered a lot of praise. I didn’t think the songs or music was that intriguing; although it fit well with the dancing and story. It was interesting that the orchestra was part of the set, and the conductor was actually used extensively as a “4th wall” character in the show. Another thing that is striking was that the set is super simple – there is no set! There are basically no costumes either – everyone was wearing sheer black or no clothing. The only tools were lights and a couple of simple props. It goes to show how strong the story is when they didn’t use gimmicks and I was still entertained.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: nyc, theatre