Sunday, October 19, 2008

First off- a little shameless exploitation....
A little exciting news. I have been on a self promotion bender as of late, and beyond the blog I went out and bought a domain. One week later, I have gotten it to link to my website. SO- WITHOUT FURTHER ADO- you can now find me at MalloryCyr.com

I'm pretty excited about it! hopefully it will serve it's purpose and make me famous. Riiiight. It's a step in the right direction of being pro-active if nothing else, and is a lot easier to tell people than blablalbla...dot blogspot.com! It has links to all my blogs, and more info about me, and what's going on in my life. I'd love feedback, so if you'd like to see anything else on it, let me know!

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Besides that- as some of you know (or anyone who doesn't live in a box knows) Last weekend, the sister and I took a spontaneous venture to our beloved city once again.
It was kind of random, and I bought the tickets before I knew how I was getting there, but in the end it all worked out!

Let me back up a little bit-

When my mom was in her one act play about a month ago, Colin called me from NYC where he was seeing In the Heights (he attempted to make me jealous...but really just because he was jealous of my recent events...come on now) He told me there was all kinds of promotion for the opening of Jason Robert Brown's new show, "13," and we needed to see it together.
I had promised Jason's bass player I would make an attempt to see it, so I decided to try to make it happen.

A couple of weeks go by, and I discovered a sample recording of the show, which I then shared with my sister, who in return got addicted to the show as well. I can't really blame her, seeing as how the show is about being a teenager and although we can both relate to the story- it's probably more her show than mine. I then realized I couldn't see it without her, or I would not be allowed to come home. I explained the situation to Colin and we decided to go ahead and look for tickets.
Five Row G discounted tickets later, we had to figure out how to get there.
I attempted to comprehend bus and Amtrak schedules, and even looked at how much it would be to just get a driver to go down so we would be on our own schedule and feel a little safer, but it ended up being more than the tickets to the show, so we decided to forgo that.
In the end, the third person on Colin's end wasn't able to go, so we decided it would make the most sense for me to invite someone and be able to have them drive down.

Enter other BFF- city loving fashionista, Shannon. She agreed to drive down and was almost as excited to get out of the State of Maine as I was. We were good to go.

Of course the anticipation was the worst part, but Maisy and I both just dove into work and made the time go by.
Finally, it was Friday morning- 10/10, 13 day!
Everything went as planned [for once], and we were out the door by 9:30. It was definitely an early morning but nothing a quick stop for Falleriffic Pumpkin Spice lattes at the first rest stop couldn't fix! Divas gotta have their Starbucks.


The drive wasn't actually too bad. The foliage was brilliant, and it was just so wonderful to be getting out, and being able to leave behind everything that was stressing out, even for just a little while. After the mandatory Auntie Anne's pretzel stop and listening to the entire 13 recording once through (it was only released a few days before we left! Exciting!)

We arrived at Colin's apartment in New Haven, piled into yet another car, and headed into the city!

In the meantime, my Blackberry was just about exploding with people who found out I was coming into the city and wanted to see me, or Broadway folks who had already seen the show and were wishing us a good trip! It is so nice to be loved :-)
Maisy and I put out the question of what we were doing for dinner, and nobody had any specific desire to go anywhere so we suggested Ellen's... of course, since they knew we were coming and we just can't possibly go to the city without at least making an appearance there.

Nobody disagreed, so we parked the car, and navigated through Times Square. At this point it still felt completely surreal. I couldn't believe I was back in the city, where nothing else matters except being there, in that moment. Before we knew it we were at the door of Ellen's Stardust Diner and barely had to wait to get a table, even though it was packed, since it was Friday evening at that exact time when everyone is getting dinner before their show.

We ended up upstairs, which was different, and not as thrilling as being on the first level, but it was definitely still enjoyable- and now we can say we have sat up there.
As always, the food was great, and they did all the right songs like they really did know we were going to be there (well, they did..but like they knew what was just RIGHT for that moment). They sang Don't Stop Believing by Journey, and FOOTLOOSE! Come on now... it was too funny. We had an amazing dinner, with delicious drinks, ran into people from Maine who were seeing a show that same night, and it was ironic and lovely.

After eating, we headed over to the theater, which is actually a blur, but we weren't far away at all. As we were approaching the Jacobs Theater, I thought I heard someone say my name.
Lo and behold, there was the FABULOUS Mary-Mitchell Campbell, from our camp affairs. I had dropped her an email a few days before our trip, but figured it was short notice and she wouldn't be able to see us. Then, not only was it a fabulous surprise to see her, she told us where to go to meet the writers and musical director after the show. She was seeing another show, so she had to go on her way, but we went inside and in the process of finding our seats walked right by JRB himself. Of course we didn't figure it out til we were past him, and by then the show was going to start so we all just willed him to stay for the entire performance so we could see him after.

The show, was INCREDIBLE. It was relevant, and powerful in so many ways. I am 99.9% sure that everyone in our group could relate to that show in some way. Some more than others.
It was one of those moments, that was just so perfect. Seeing the perfect show, at the perfect time, with the perfect people. I haven't had one of those moments in so long. I just wanted to hold onto it, or not breathe or blink so that it wouldn't end.

Of course, like all of those moments, it did end, but the night was not over yet. We jumped up from our seats immediately after the curtain call to see if Jason was still there, and because we all had willed him to stay- he was! We got his autograph and chatted for a bit. I told him we were friends of MMC and thanked him for producing such an incredible work.


That show is something that has needed to grace Broadway for some time. In a past MySpace Blog I had said I had hoped something would come along for this generation since RENT is gone. Well- something has. And for that we can thank Jason Robert Brown.

After we talked to him for a bit, we purchased the essential tshirts, and headed to the stage door to meet the cast of amazing, talented kids who also put in the time and commitment to make this show a reality. Now this was incredible too, because Maisy & I of coursed shoved our way to the front a la Les Mis, but when the cast was coming out, they recognized HER.
This show is unique in that there is a myspace type site where people can network and talk


about their theater experience and the show. Maisy had written a blog about coming down, and people who were in the show remembered her. It was so cool to see her interact with them. She had found her people.

After I met the kids in the cast I went over to our special stage door with Colin, to meet the aristic team of the show. Tom Kitt was the musical director who had also done Next to Normal which we saw in March when we were in the city. He said it's playing again in DC (which I did know) and if we happen to be able to get down there somehow, to let him know, and he would hook us up. He was so fabulous, as was Dan Elish who wrote book of the show. They were both awesome as were all the kids.

After all of that we were far from tired even though it was about 11:00 so we headed to the nearest Starbucks (which of course wasn't far) and debriefed and laughed and began planning the next trip. Shrek the Musical opens on December 16th! Might be a possibility. I really want to go around Christmas. As many times as I've been to the city, I don't remember going around Christmas and it's my goal. So we'll see.

Finally we decided we should start heading back since we still had the drive back to New Haven, so we went to get the car and headed home.

The next day of course came much too soon, we packed our stuff, got breakfast and coffee at Dunkin Donuts so we could make it through the day, and depart to the northernmost part of New England.

However-
we were on the Mass pike when Shannon said, "So...do you guys have plans for the rest of the day?"
We didn't, so she said, "I really don't want to go back to Maine yet."
Of couse we couldn't argue with that, so she went on "Who wants to go to Boston!?"






The vote was unanimous, and the diva road trip decided to conquer two cities in two days! After a quick makeover in the parking garage of Saks Fifth Avenue, we did some shopping on Newbury St, where I finally had my introduction to the LUSH store and we tried on accessories that were more than several months rent, but it was so much fun.









We had dinner at a fabulous upscale restaurant, window shopped a little more, then decided it was time for the three Dorothies to go back to Kansas.

Maisy slept the whole way home, and we all felt like it had just been a dream. But we knew it couldn't have been because Maisy had the t-shirt. It was another adventure that had been just what we all needed and refueled us, and put things in perspective to face the real world once again.

Who knows what will happen- but we also just sent in Maisy's resume (which is extensive even in comparison to the kids in the show) and head shot to the casting director of the show....so keep all your fingers crossed and send good vibes! You never know til you try right?


On that note-

FALL 2008- HERE I COME.
Change is in the air, I'm ready to move forward, so let's do it!

you know you love me.

xoxo





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Now playing: Green Day - Time of Your Life