A theatre buff’s guide to musicals and plays in NYC

The task: see as many shows as possible in three days in New York City.  The players: two British Columbians on a work assignment in Toronto. The result: mission accomplished!

A couple of hams taking a bite out
of the Big Apple

This trip on the first weekend in May came together rather quickly when Erin McInnis and I decided to hit Broadway one more time before we’re in full TORONTO 2015 Pan Am Games mode. No visits to the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building or museums on the agenda for this trip. The focus was theatre. Thanks to Erin’s research, we had our hit list – past Tony Award Winners, a revival and this year’s Tony nominees – and every show at a discount.

Tip 1:  Go to the TKTS Discount Booth at South Street Seaport for same-day discount tickets for evening shows and next-day tickets for matinees.

Tip 2: Once you purchase a ticket at the flagship TKTS location in Times Square, keep the stub and jump the queue into a short-cut line the next day. We met two locals from New Jersey in the line-up (who said they grew up with the real "Jersey Boys") who had just discovered this benefit.

It took some work, but we saw five shows – three evening performances and two matinees. Here's a quick recap of the revival, play and musicals:

On the Town  You can’t go wrong with this classic about three sailors and their 24-hour adventure in New York, New York (it’s a helluva town).  It’s a Tony 2015 nominee for best musical revival.

 

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder:  The 2014 Tony winner for best musical. This is a quick-paced, funny, operetta-style story of an heir to a family fortune who sets eliminate the relatives who stand in his way. The relatives are all played by the same actor. 

It's only $17-cocktails on a Saturday
evening at the historic Algonquin

It’s Only a Play:  This one is totally Broadway – a play about the aftermath of the opening night of a play. It’s a treat to see pros Nathan Lane and Stockard Channing exchange barbs. I was looking forward to seeing Matthew Broderick, but his alternate was on the stage for this performance. Of note in this show is 2015 Tony nominee Micah Stock (featured actor).

Something Rotten.  This show is filled with comedy, big show-stopping numbers and moving sets as we discover the birth of the musical in the Shakespearean era. There’s nothing rotten to report here with 10 Tony nominations this year including best musical.

Avenue Q  Winner of the 2004 Tony for best musical and best score. A story of discovery, social issues and acceptance, told with music and puppets.

 

On Monday, with no matinees available, it was time for a walk in Little Italy and along the Highline. This is worth seeing as it is a great example of urban renewal. The Highline is an out-of-use railroad trestle that’s been transformed into walkway – a trail above Manhattan.

 

 

Side note – I wasn’t overwhelmed by the hoopla and fan experience around Madison Square Garden for a Rangers playoff hockey game. I expected more! And no, we didn't spend $250 to see the game.

 

 

Fine spring weather in May. Perfect for a Sunday walk in Central Park. The best time to visit NYC!

 

Planning is underway for another NYC task – how many shows can one see in 48 hours? I may find out in September.

 

Chicago – home of the skyscraper

I found this descriptive quote in a brochure that sums up my view of Chicago – “the city of broad shoulders and vertical dreams.”

View from 360 Chicago, top of the John Hancock Tower

 

Most of my spring 2015 trip to this Great Lakes, mid-west city (I was taken to task by a native of Chicago when I called it a city in the east) was focused on discovering the volume of tall buildings.

Willis (Sears) Tower in the centre

So, why does this “second city” ("second" to New York, "second" built in the same site) have so many skyscrapers or cloud busters?  After the great fire of 1871 wiped out the Chicago, the landscape was a blank canvas. It became the centre for innovative architects with towering ambitions who participated in many contests to build recognizable landmarks.

The construction continued through the 20^th Century with modern office towers, company headquarters, mail-order distribution centres and eventually condominiums (Marina City – the first urban residential city within a city in 1963) stretching the skyline along Lake Michigan. 

The theme – taller was better. For a quarter century, the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) was the tallest in the world. 

Trump Tower on the Chicago River

 

Marina City

 And in this century, the building hasn’t stopped with the latest triumph – the 98-storey Trump Tower. However, I was told by my local tour guide that the large TRUMP letters gleaming onto the Chicago River are a source of controversy for the locals.

 I took two walking tours, an architectural river cruise and a trip to one of the observation decks in the sky – great ways to see, explore and learn more about Chicago’s vertical masterpieces.

Speaking of masterpieces, the Art Institute of Chicago is filled with famous paintings and works from around the world.

 

 For a Canadian, one of the best Americana experiences is a baseball game on a sunny afternoon. The 101-year-old Wrigley Field is the iconic place to do that.

 

 Chicago is no slouch when it comes to live theatre with plenty of choices. I took in two plays – a comedy/drama and a musical.

 As the song says – Chicago is my kind of town.

 

 

 

 

Discovering the backbone of America’s revolution in Boston

Old and new in Boston


With championship pro-sports franchises, an historic tea party, a famous pie and chowder and the setting for a top television comedy, I wasn’t sure what my focus would be, when I booked a trip to Boston.

Granted, visiting Boston at the end of winter after a month of record-setting snow storms probably didn’t give me the most positive impression of the city, but I found a hook for my tour. I made it my mission to discover the Freedom Trail.

The State House

Billed as a “one-of-a-kind American experience,” the Freedom Trail links a cluster of buildings and historic sites in downtown Boston that celebrate the American Revolution.

With the spirited and engaging storytelling by tour guide Brian of Free Tours by Foot, I learned about the key activities of more than 200 years ago leading to America’s independence such as the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Paul Revere’s messenger ride in 1775.

 The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile, red-lined route linking 16 historically significant sites – meeting halls, churches and graveyards. Promotional material says “every step tells a story.”  The red-brick line was a little difficult to follow at times when it disappeared into a pile of snow.

Other highlights of this trip:  great coffee and Italian baked goods in the North End (Little Italy); a tour of the Samuel Adams brewery; a Celtics basketball game at the TD Garden; a surprisingly enjoyable Blue Man Group show in the theatre district; a quick walk around the Harvard University Campus and sampling four bowls of clam chowder. 

Old North Church

Bunker Hill Monument

 

Harvard campus
 

Predictably, I did make a stop in the bar that inspired the Cheers TV sitcom. Nobody knew my name.

A year-end look at eastern skylines

The Manhattan skyline from the Empire State Building in August

2014 has been a year of discovering cities in eastern Canada and the U.S. 

From Halifax to Detroit and from Ottawa to Washington, D.C., I had the opportunity to visit nine cities in the region this year. 

For this blogpost, a visit means at least one overnight stay. My excursions in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New York, District of Columbia and Michigan totaled 23 hotel room nights this year – 26 if I include a January trip to Las Vegas, but that’s another story.


I described all my trips in detail in various blogposts this year. So for a recap, I chose to take another look at those adventures by focusing on my photos of skylines of the east.


U.S. Capitol with the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Toronto skyline from the Beaches - first warm day in May

Quebec City with the St. Lawrence River in June

July in Niagara Falls, without a view of the falls

A July cruise along the Ottawa River provides a view of the Chateau Laurier Hotel and Parliament Hill

Fine late September weather in Montreal

Thanksgiving weekend in Windsor



GM headquarters dominates the Detroit skyline in this Thanksgiving weekend view from Windsor

On the ferry in Halifax Harbour on chilly November Sunday afternoon

A November visit to Detroit revealed an empty Woodward Ave. waiting for revitalization





Historic Halifax

Halifax has been on my list of places to visit for years in order to see the spot where my parents and sister landed decades ago to start their life in Canada.
 
As more than a million people did between the end of World War 2 and 1971, my family arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax.

Unfortunately, Canadian Museum of Immigration is closed for renovations.  But I was able to imagine what my father, mother and sister felt when they arrived in Canada after a long boat journey across the Atlantic Ocean. 

The experience is shown in a new statue called The Emigrant.  The bronze and marble monument depicts an emigrant leaving his home country to start a new life in Canada.

Speaking of the Atlantic, I certainly had a great stroke of luck when I signed up at the visitors centre on the harbourfront for a tour of Peggy’s Cove.  I showed up for my 2 o’clock tour to find that I was the only participant. Only in Halifax, would a tour run for just one person!

 

My guide, Blair Beed, is a Halifax historian.  He runs Dtours Visitors and Convention Services. For $40, I enjoyed an excellent adventure along the shore to Peggy’s Cove with its rugged coastline, fishing village and famous lighthouse.  What a way to experience the Halifax area with a one-on-one conversation with a great storyteller.

No visit to Halifax is complete without sampling the local seafood.  I did my part with five bowls of fish chowder.  Every bowl was different with a variety of creamy textures and flavours and seafood.  My highlight meal was a lobster clubhouse sandwich at the Stubborn Goat Gastropub.

There must have been more than a half a pound of lobster stuffed into the sandwich!

In addition to seafood, Halifax is home to fine beers including the famed Alexander Keith’s.  Another benefit of travelling in the low season, only half a dozen folks were on my tour of one of the oldest commercial breweries in North America. So we had plenty of fun participating with the actors who took us back in time to the mid 1800s to learn about Keith and the brewing process.  The tour included two glasses of beer. 





Joseph Howe statue at Province House

And as I do in capital cities, I visited the legislature. Legislators have met every year since 1819 in Nova Scotia’s Province House, making it the longest serving legislative building in Canada.  As I was the only tourist on a rainy Monday afternoon, the commissionaires let me wander around the building. 

Inside the N.S. Legislature

I learned about Joseph Howe, a newspaper editor who was acquitted of libel in 1835. He is noted in history as a defender of freedom of the press and a champion of responsible government in Nova Scotia.

In the words of a popular folk song, here are a few more pictures as I say "Farewell to Nova Scotia!"

 

Georges Island in Halifax Harbour

 

Farmers Market on a busy Saturday morning

  

The Halifax skyline