Went out and saw another show: this time Hamlet. I'm guilty of being a doctoral student in theatre and not being that familiar with the show, and since I've started putting money aside in order to see more shows, I figured why not go all out and see it on Broadway?
Why yes, that is Jude Law as the title character (that, admittedly, helped me make the decision to go!). And yes, he is very hot in person. He's a very physical actor, which I think helped this play connect with it's audience, but...I was surprised at his anger. There was a lot of anger in the character and while I feel that, I expected a greater range. But it was still great. Ron Cook as the gravedigger was AWESOME. Geraldine James played a great Gertrude. At first I didn't feel Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Ophelia, but she played crazy very well. The set design and sound were dark and eerily moody, and the lighting was PHENOMENAL. Absolutely breathtakingly stunning. Perfect. Worth far more than the $35 ticket price for the lighting alone.
Lots of folks have been asking me about shows and ticket prices, and although I am not the most experienced of NYC theatrites, I did have a good mentor. The best place to check out everything about Broadway and Off-Broadway is Playbill.com. You can also get show times, theatre locations, and ticket prices there, and you can get cheaper tickets if you call ahead. Many shows offer student rush tickets, significantly discounted tickets that you can get day-of by asking for them and presenting your student ID. Some shows (like Hair, which I will, unfortunately, be seeing tomorrow) have a lottery for discount tickets. If we don't win tomorrow, I will pay $20 for standing-room only. Yes, that means you stand for the duration, but I hate Hair and I will NOT pay $60 for lousy seats for a show that I hate but that I feel obligated to see because we are reading it in class next week.
The quality of the discounted seats varied. For Finian's Rainbow our student rush tickets were at the front of the orchestra, house right, what I thought were really some of the best seats in the house (although productions of this scale are almost always designed to look pretty good even at the back of the house). Those tickets were $27. Tonight's student rush tickets for Hamlet were $35, and the seats were in the middle right of the balcony. The seats were EXCEEDingly uncomfortable (a lot of the old theatres are, although the worst by far was BAM); my knees were literally pressing into the back of the seats in front of me for the entire 3 hour show...and I'm short! Imagine how the tall people felt... Each row is more expensive than the one behind it, and Hamlet has been set for a limited run, until December 6th, so it's clear that the student rush tickets are more pricey and not as good because the show expects to make a lot of money in a very short time. And while there were certainly open seats at tonight's production, they were few and far between, so it looks to be meeting it's goal. I am sure 1/2 of the audience was there because Jude Law's face is all over the advertising.
I only had to go a few hours ahead of time to get rush tickets (in fact, tonight I had been planning on getting there 2 hours ahead of time, but I didn't even leave the house until 5:45, and didn't buy my ticket until about 45 minutes before curtain). I probably could have showed up a few minutes to curtain and gotten the tickets, but the seats would have been worse. But I am sure for some shows it really helps to show up at noon, or to line up at the kiosk on the northern part of Times Square and buy them that morning (ask KMJ for more details, as she's the one who stood in line at that kiosk-to no avail-last spring). I like to make sure I have my tickets and then head over to 9th Avenue for dinner. There are lots of good little restaurants that are only a little overpriced there. So, this is how I recommend you do Broadway. Thanks to Donatella for all the advice!
Oh, also, tonight after the show I was the impatient walker, darting around all the slow gawking that was happening in Times Square. I got to my train and was just hanging around when I struck up this conversation with these two guys. One was from LA and the other from NYC, they both worked for this investment company and were hanging around the city, trying to find a place for a party. They were super fun, and one was very cute. I wish I had gotten his number, but he got off so soon! Alas!
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1 comment:
omg Jude Law!
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