New York City
We start our journey in the LAX airport, new Target backpacks strewn next to our chairs, coffees in hand, listening to some woman talk about her (or maybe it was her sisters? I don’t really know) birthday plans in New York. Tabitha sat next to me while I called my core family members, updating them on our travel progress.
I called my father, I called my mother, I called my brother, and I called my sister from another mister. Though it only took the third call to realize that I had neglected to tell any of them that I was traveling to multiple coasts on our excursion. In one case he had never heard that I was leaving LA in the first place. Whoopsie!
Finally we started to board making sure to take some preflight aids to ensure we would get through this flight stress free. Cue one of the weirdest flights of my entire life. Nothing really happened and Delta was great, surprisingly. I, however, was intermittently falling into a coma. Every time I shut my eyes it was the deepest REM I had ever experienced before suddenly waking up to a drink from a stewardess and conking out immediately after. Tabitha had similar snoozes and our 8hr flight in which we were supposed to dedicate some of our time to Ramen and Rosé research (ie movie watching), quickly became a passive battle. There went our plans of going to a comedy club when landing. Instead we got through JFK, waited in a very concise but cold taxi line, and made our way to our hotel.
The Lexington from the Autograph Collection is quite honestly one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in based on vibes alone. Ladies, Gentlemen, and Scoundrels of the world: Tabitha Thomas knoooows how to pick a hotel!
The revolving door, a staple New York will never get rid of, introduces you to two beautiful prints of Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin.You then walk into a wide open space looking up to a balcony of the second floor, leading into a restaurant in which velvet furniture is the M.O, and is so sure you’re there for a good time that its vending machine has rows of mini champagne bottles. Jazz permeates the halls. The elevators each have gorgeous murals of 20s-esq abstract men and women that make you think of bepop melodies.
But alas everything is too good to be true, as I forgot the most New York hallmark of it all: tiny rooms. Now I knew this was kingly compared to some NYC hotels but for my Los Angelean soul it was a little cramped. Also there was no microwave which really upset me. I didn’t realize until then that I had such a close relationship to reheating food.
After setting down our bags and choosing our sides of the bed, we doordashed two mediocre Italian meals and two very necessary bottles of wine to make it through two poorly made sequels (go listen to them if you haven’t already).
We made it through the movies…well, one of us did. I fell asleep during Hocus Pocus 2 and was forced to watch it on the taxis the next day as we rode to Green Kitchen meeting our long time friends Hannah and Hunter. Hannah being the reason for this entire trip in the first place.
Hannah Bialous’ birthday is no joking matter so Tab and I flying out to celebrate it was entirely necessary, and we just missed them. We caught up over coffee, orange juice, and waffles learning about their new lives in the big apple. P.S. Everyone in the Brooklyn area go catch our boy singing his heart out with the Gallery Players in Peter and the Starcatcher!
We wrapped up brunch agreeing on when to meet up for our evening plans and caught yet another cab to Gotham Productions. It’s a work trip, duh ;)
Gotham was great by the way. Super professional, lovely studios, and one staff member was geared with a sailors hat so you know who the captain was. Overall chill vibes and when we go to New York you’ll probably catch us there again.
Now you know we work hard, and we definitely play hard, sometimes at the same time, so we went back to the hotel, got glammed up, snapped some photos as evidence, and bopped on down to Brooklyn for some gluten free dinner, a la Hannah, at WILD.
Our dear Hannah is celiac so gluten was out of the question and WILD answered the call. We had some delicious truffle penne pasta with sauce so good, I forgot all about my sweet love affair with glutinous flour. When suddenly a new lover entered my life! A little dense but god was he rich. Mr. Brownie Divine. Ooh the brownie was complete with chocolate chips, chocolate sauce, and raspberry compote, mmm mh mmmm. My greatest love of New York. That is until the next time.
We ate, we toasted, and made our way down further into Brooklyn to grab some drinks and pop another gummy aid.
We found ourselves at The Gibson. When you think of a bar you probably imagine something very close to The Gibson. It can be summed up as classic. From its wooden countertop and stools to the universal dartboard and foosball table. The only thing that could make this more bar-like would be a cowboy walking in through saloon doors with a six-shooter. But this is the east coast, so we’ll give ‘em a pass. Tab of course ordered her cosmo, me a rusty nail, and we got a whole lot of quarters to challenge the birthday girl and her beau to the closest thing to football I will ever understand. I’m gonna be honest I have no recollection of who won, but it was a good night and Hannah seemed to have a happy birthday, so scores shmores. We wrapped up the evening with a quick pic of me with a sloth mural (maybe my favorite picture of the trip) and headed back uptown.
HANNAH’S B-DAY PT. 2
We got started a little late and so we brunch right across the street from the hotel at The Lexington Brass. In the lobby of a different hotel it had an almost navel vibe mixed with city spirit and I had one of the best Omelets of my life. Now I am not normally an omelet girl but this egg white, spinach, mushroom, and feta concoction was well balanced and delightful. We caught up even more, telling them the tea of LA, before we all got ready for the most awaited part of the trip: Broadway!
But first a few pit stops: Barnes & Nobles to feed our ever growing library. Starbucks to feed our ever growing caffeine addiction. The Disney store to feed our childhood. And Bareburger to just feed us.
Then it was the show.
Into the Woods at the St. James Theater was everything you want this show to be. There are a lot of people in the world who don’t truly understand Sondheim nor this show specifically. They say he cares too much about showing off, the entire 2nd act should have been cut,his music is just ugly, and much more. I am of the opinion that this show is incredibly hard to pull off, but when done well can be incredibly thought provoking and beautiful. To make it work, you have to have strong individuals that make an even stronger ensemble. Sadly not everyone in this show was giving it their all so it did suffer in parts, but those that did were engaging, funny, and moving in their choices.
Stephanie J. Block is an absolute Queen, in the baker’s wife's clothing and navigates the ups and downs of this role with tact and dexterity. Montego Glover as the witch was wild and glamorous. Gavin Creel and Alex Joesephy Greyson were as funny in their prince hood as they were regal and swoon worthy. The real star of this show though is the simple but imaginative puppetry. The giant’s wire boots were inspired, giving just the taste of this being but with so much movement that it felt real. The cluster of birds for Cinderella were simple yet wonderful. And Milky White was probably the most tear invoking of all. The real wonder of this show is that you can really run wild with how you present it but it has to be done in a way that holds the grittiness and true human experience to teach adults what the Grimm brothers were trying to teach children. It had its problems, yes, but it’s a monster of a show and there hasn’t been a perfect production of it, nor will there be, for a long time. This came closer to most though.
We finished the evening off with one last meal. A tradition of many Broadway goers: cheesecake at Juniors.
We strolled back to the hotel, said our goodbyes and the next morning Tab and I boarded a plane too early in the morning saying goodbye to New York.
