Mean Girls on Broadway

On Wednesdays we wear pink. And we also go see Mean Girls on Broadway. Let me tell you it was SO FETCH. It was probably my favorite day of the year so far. And that’s only because October 3rd hasn’t happened yet.

For those of you who are lost, you should really brush up on your Mean Girls movie quotes. From here on out, I promise to tell you about my experience and not just quote the movie. My experience was AWESOME. Really. You guys know I set annual goals for myself, and the best way to make your goals a reality is by telling people so you stay accountable. In this case, I told all of my friends that I wanted to see 3 Broadway shows so they would invite me with them. TADAA my plan worked! Well, sort of.

My good friend has a way better memory than me (or is better at setting alarms on her phone), so she remembers to enter the lottery online to win tickets to Broadway shows almost every week. She even enters for shows she has already been to. Two weeks ago, she won tickets to see Mean Girls on Tuesday. Unfortunately, she asked me if I wanted to see it, and also asked her coworker, and we both said yes. I told her it was fine and I could go another day. Little did I know, another day would be THE NEXT DAY. And better yet, it was WEDNESDAY!

The way the Broadway Lottery works, for the non-New-Yorkers among us, is that you enter online, and then you find out the day before if you won. The tickets aren’t free, but they are drastically reduced. In this case, they were $47.50 each. The main drawback is, you never know where the seats will be, or if they will be together. Also, the person who wins the tickets needs to be present with their ID to pick them up. My friend, even though she won the lottery, said I could pick someone else to go with since she had already seen it. I picked my sister, and she was thrilled to join me even though she hadn’t even seen the movie. (She doesn’t even go here!!) My friend went to the theater to pick up the tickets and be my sister’s and my official Mean Girls photographer, and then left to go home. What a good friend, amirite??? She’s no Regina George. Plus, we got lucky. The seats were together and they were orchestra row R.

Even though my sister hadn’t seen the movie, she had me, Mean Girls trivia extraordinaire, to coach her through the experience. I explained how OBVIOUSLY we needed to wear pink. I took out all of the pink in my dresser (literally, I laid my shirts out on my bed and sent pics to my sister) and asked her which I should wear so we could match. True to her word, my sister showed up in a bright pink dress and a light pink, sparkly scarf in her hair. We both had packed snacks, like professional show-goers. In my sister’s bag – chocolate covered raisins (in a Ziplock bag so they didn’t make noise, duh), and a bottle of water. In my bag – cut up pieces of apple, lifesaver gummies, and chocolate mint bark thins. We were ready for show time.

It was SO GOOD. Like… one of my favorite shows in the past few years, and I have seen a LOT! And better yet, my sister loved it and she didn’t even know the story beforehand! She said it reminded her a lot of real high school dynamics (she works in a school), and she especially liked Damien, both the character and the actor, who she recognized from when he played one of the elders in Book of Mormon.

It was a fun experience for me to see a familiar story acted out in real life, and I loved the addition of the musical numbers. I had a bit of trouble understanding the words when Regina sang, and when I said that at intermission to my sister, she said the same thing. Actually, she may have said it first and then I said, “omg me too.”

But by far, the funniest part of the show was Aaron Samuels, the main character’s love interest. I am pretty sure that they didn’t cast him thinking he would be the funniest part, but… let me explain. On any given day, it doesn’t really matter if you can sing. And most of the time, you can’t even tell if someone isn’t a fantastic vocalist. But when you’re on the stage of a Broadway production, surrounded by amazing vocalists, it should be a prerequisite. And if you CAN’T sing? Let’s just say, people notice.

Poor Aaron Samuels, though, or I should say, poor Cameron Dallas… he was TERRIBLE. I mean really really bad. In the first Act, he only sang a few lines. And at intermission I said to my sister, “what is going on with him? Is he sick? Is he really bad? Did you hear that?” So, we did some research in the Playbill. Usually, the playbill is filled with paragraphs of stage credits for each leading person. Shows in high school, shows on Broadway, traveling productions in the US and abroad… this guy? He has 20 million Instagram followers. And zero stage credits. We had a serious a-ha moment. He was cast because he is an influencer!! It made so much sense. There were screaming girls in the audience, all in attendance to see their favorite YouTube sensation. No matter at all that he couldn’t carry a tune to save his life and there are thousands of starving actors in NYC dying for their big break. Honestly, it pissed me off. But also, it cracked me up.

In Act 2, he sang a lot more. There was even a scene that was supposed to be a quiet scene in a bedroom, but it was difficult not to gawk at how bad of a singer he was. The entire theater was tittering and talking, and at first I thought people were making fun of him, but NOPE. It was his teeny bopper fans fawning over him! When the show ended, they jumped out of their seats to give him a standing ovation and rushed the stage door to try and grab selfies with him. Meanwhile, I googled him to figure out what his talents were that got him 20 million followers. They were definitely not singing or dancing. (Spoiler alert: they don’t exist. But he did struggle with addiction and started a charity about that.)

UPDATE! I saw it again! I was saving this blog to make sure I posted it on a Wednesday, and in the interim, I actually saw the show AGAIN! After attending the show, my sweet emoji-bf who was out of town told me he was so jealous. To my surprise, he said he had always wanted to see it. I knew he loved the movie but I didn’t think he would be interested in the showtunes version, but I was wrong. 6 days later, my friend won lottery tickets AGAIN and of course I said yes!! And I attended the show with him and he loved it.

Overall, the show was a GREAT time and I would recommend it 100%. Take yourself, take your boyfriend, or take your kids, especially if you don’t want to be a regular mom, you want to be a COOL mom!

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Lottery Winners! The Lion King on Broadway

I had the most “New York” experience yesterday. I had plans to go to the gym after work and have dinner with a friend. Then in the morning, my friend texted me to say she won lottery tickets to see The Lion King on Broadway. For $30! Easy decision. I texted my friend from the gym and told her I had to cancel because… duh. I apologized profusely and told her I’d probably be pissed if I were her but… COME ON! No choice here.

A little background: My friend enters the lottery for shows all the time. I’m talking, multiple times per week. And she has won a few times, too! However, she usually wins on Mondays and Thursdays, which is when I teach Spin classes and I can’t get a sub at the last minute. Also, she has never won for The Lion King (supposedly it’s a tough one to win) and I have been wanting to see it for DECADES. Literally it’s been on Broadway for more than 20 years. I quickly replied “YES!!” to her text and Venmo-ed her $30.

I knew that security would probably check our bags, so I left my gym bag at work and just brought my wallet, keys, phone and book for the subway. It took me 27 minutes door to door from my office. So New York! I also stopped at McDonalds on the way because the show started at 7 and I knew I’d be starving by the end. I got 2 chicken selects for $2 and ate them while I waited in the box office line. Very classy with my McDonalds on the Broadway line. Luckily, I was not alone. The people behind me were also lottery winners and they were scarfing down a street meat hot dog and slice of pizza. I also smuggled pretzels and tootsie rolls in my coat pocket in a non-noisy Ziploc bag.

My friend was running late and I was worried they wouldn’t let me pick up the tickets because they were very explicit in the email confirmation about needing photo ID. My friend who has done this a lot told me to try because sometimes they don’t care. They didn’t care! I just showed them the email on my phone and they handed over the tickets.

We got to our seats 1 minute before the show started, and unfortunately the tickets were for the VERY last row. Literally no one was behind us. My experienced friend said that every other lottery she’d won were Orchestra seats, not Mezzanine and she apologized. However, the seats were smack-dab in the middle. Also, it became apparent we actually were lucky to be up above. First of all, The Lion King has two pits of drums in the upper levels, within the front pillars on either side of the stage. It was very cool to be able to see straight into the pits, and watch them do the percussion, which has been described as “the heartbeat of the show.” Also, there were a lot of musical numbers with choreography and formations that were awesome to see from above, sort of like how the Rockettes are better to watch from the sky (Thanks Macy’s Parade for teaching me this). Also, at the beginning of both acts, there were birds and actors that came out from all of the doors, even in the mezzanine!

The show was amazing, everything I expected and more. I loved how the actors were one with their costumes. Like how the zebras not only made the zebra props move like animals, but they also moved their own legs like zebras. Or what I expect zebras would move like. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one IRL. And those giraffes… on two sets of stilts?? Color me impressed. Young Simba didn’t have the best voice in the world, but he is probably 10 years old, so that in and of itself is impressive. And Rafiki? WOAH. I went to look her up after the show because I was curious about the accuracy of the language in the show, and sure enough, it’s very accurate. Tshidi Manye, who has been playing Rafiki for more than 20 YEARS is from South Africa and is featured on the original movie soundtrack. Also, throughout the show, she speaks five of the 11 official language of South Africa (English, Zulu, Sotho and Xhosa). Wtf. That is awesome.

It was such a fun experience, even from the back row. Sometimes I complain about the hot subways, or terrible service on the subways, or hot weather, or bed bugs, or sirens, but sometimes, New York is AMAZING. Who else except New Yorkers gets to decide that instead of Spin class, they are going to attend The Lion King on Broadway for $30? No one. It was a good New York day.

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