I spent the better part of my day on 45th Street…not in Philadelphia…but in NYC…in the heart of Broadway…I thought about going to NYC today yesterday…and I promised myself if I woke up this morning with plenty of time to catch the New Jersey Transit…round trip to NY is less than $15.00…a bargain for sure…went to bed last night at around 2:00…listening to the news…I’m sure I quickly fell asleep…when I woke…I barely opened my eyes to look at my phone…what time is it?…8:15…if I could get myself out of here by 9:30 I can definitely go to NYC… see two shows…maybe see Ben and Allegra for dinner…so I bit the bullet and got myself together…ate a banana to take my pills…took an Ensure with me for the road…chocolate, of course…last night I got the schedule for trains from Hamilton to NY Penn Station and back…that’s how I figured if I left here at 9:30 I could catch a train and be in NY at 12:00ish…which I did…left the house with my flimsy “backpack”, took my book…to read on the train…I only had to wait 15 or so minutes before my train came…I always sit upstairs when it’s a double decker train…only a few stairs up…as many if I go down…it went pretty quickly…read a bunch of pages of my book… which I’m been reading since we went to California for Thanksgiving…I’m a slow reader…and don’t read very often…walked up to TKTS…was in line that went fairly quickly…you can now buy tickets for the matinee and the evening performance at the same time…you don’t have to come back at five for the evening performance…I asked the woman who helped me when that changed…she didn’t know…as it’s been that way since she worked at TKTS…I went to see Suffs on Pam’s recommendation…the new play about the women’s struggle to get the vote…and the second play…i’ve been wanting to see since last year…my new knee has made going to NY a reality…I walked over 4 miles today…the Best Musical Tony 2022…Kimberly Akimbo…a 7:00 performance…I would get home before 12:30…I got my tickets…and decided to go to McDonald’s for a fast food lunch…on the corner of Broadway and 45th…I could just roll over there to the Music Box…unfortunately, it was disappointing…couldn’t sit…so had to stand…after walking all that way…anyway…Suffs from Wikipedia: “Suffs is a stage musical with book, music, and lyrics by Shaina Taub, based on suffragists and the American women’s suffrage movement, focusing primarily on the historical events leading up to the ratification of the nineteenth amendment to the United States constitution in 1920 that gave women the right to vote. It premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in April 2022.
The show is scheduled to premiere on Broadway on April 18, 2024, following previews beginning on March 26.”…I saw the last day of previews apparently…it opened originally Off Broadway in 2022…from Wikipedia: “The musical was initially going to open its world premiere production at The Public Theater on April 6, 2022, but the preview the night before as well as the opening night were cancelled due to a large number of positive COVID-19 cases among the cast. It began previews on March 13 and was initially announced to run until April 24, but was extended three times: first to May 1, then to May 15, and finally to May 29…it moved to Broadway in 2024…”In October 2023, it was announced that the show would transfer to Broadway in spring 2024. The show began previews on March 26, 2024 with an official opening scheduled for April 18 at the Music Box Theatre. Among the producing team is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and activist Malala Yousafzai. The show is directed by Leigh Silverman. In January 2024, full casting was announced. Most of the Off-Broadway cast reprised their roles with Kim Blanck, Emily Skinner, Laila Drew, and Anastaćia McClesky joining the cast. The production has a new creative team with choreography by Mayte Natalio, scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Lap Chi Chu, sound by Jason Crystal and Sun Hee Kill, orchestrations by Michael Starobin and music supervision/music direction by Andrea Grody. At the time of the show’s premiere, Taub will become the second woman in Broadway history to “to write the book, music, lyrics, and star in her own musical”…it was very good…but I thought it took a short time in the second act to finally get the 19th Amendment ratified…women struggled to get the vote for decades…I thoroughly enjoyed this play… loved the staging…and the performances…loved the songs…all women cast with a few playing men’s roles…like Woodrow Wilson…didn’t realize Shaina Taub was a one-woman band…meaning she wrote the book, the music and the lyrics and starred in the production…amazing…in the meanwhile, I had texted back and forth with Ben and Pam and Julia..Ben would meet me for dinner at 5:30 at this taco place…Allegra would join us when she could…ended up her taxi driver was stopped by the police and given a ticket…and she had to get another cab… she did finally get there…the restaurant was on 43rd…close enough for me to get there…I had an hour before I was to meet Ben…I went to have a piece of cheesecake at Juniors ( on 45th Street ) across Shubert’s Alley from Kimberly Akimbo…I had a cactus taco and a carne asada taco on corn tortillas…guacamole…and a $3.50 small bottle of diet coke…I bought the bottle home…for my collection…Ben and we ordered Allegra pork tacos on flour tortillas..we were almost done when Allegra finally got there…and they walked me back to 45th Street and the Booth Theater…where Kimberly Akimbo was playing…I had heard that it was closing soon…and found out it will close on April 28…so I was more than happy that I finally was seeing it…I had no idea what it was about other than it was Best Musical and the woman playing Kimberly, Victoria Clark, had won the Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 2022…and Bonnie Milligan who plays Aunt Debra, had also won the Best Featured Actress in a Musical Tony…it actually won 5 Tonys…Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score…from Wikipedia: “
Kimberly Akimbo is a 2021 musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, and lyrics and book by David Lindsay-Abaire. It is based on Lindsay-Abaire’s 2001 comedy of the same name.
The show tells the story of a lonely teenage girl, Kimberly Levaco, who suffers from a condition similar to progeria that causes her to age rapidly, thereby giving her the appearance of an elderly woman, and how, according to Playbill, “[f]orced to maneuver family secrets, borderline personalities, and possible felony charges, Kim is determined to find happiness in a world where not even time is on her side.”
The show’s premiere production opened Off-Broadway on December 8, 2021, at the Linda Gross Theater in Manhattan; it was critically acclaimed, with the performances of Victoria Clark, Justin Cooley, and Bonnie Milligan, Lindsay-Abaire’s book and lyrics, and Tesori’s score all receiving praise. The off-Broadway production won Best Musical prizes at the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Awards.
The show then moved to Broadway, opening at the Booth Theatre on November 9, 2022 (with previews beginning on October 12). The Broadway production also received critical acclaim, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Victoria Clark), and Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Bonnie Milligan).”…it was wonderful…and I sat next to Cheryl from Marblehead, Massachusetts…an actress who was in town to audition for a part…she is a lucky actress who has worked steadily…and on the other side was a girl from Australia…who had visited San Diego, Boston and New York and was going home soon…and 18 hour flight…so far away….I remember meeting a couple from Australia who were on a 3 Month “sabbatical”…if you’ve worked for the same company for 10 years you can take a 3 Month paid vacation…she was not on that…but had been traveling around the US for 2 weeks…she was on her way back to Los Angeles first then on to Australia…Kimberly Akimbo did not disappoint…loved it…and happy I finally saw it after two years of wanting to see it…waited outside the stage door and got my Playbill autographed by Victoria Clark, Bonnie Milligan, Justin Cooley ( Kimberly’s “boyfriend” ), Steven Boyer ( Kimberly’s father ), Fernell Hogan II ( Martin, a student and friend of Kimberly ) and Michael Iskander ( Aaron, a student and friend of Kimberly )… great show…wonderful…walked back to Penn Station…Ben had brought me an umbrella just in case…rain was in the forecast…it did rain but while I was in theater…I got to Penn Station in plenty of time to catch the 10:38 to Hamilton…but for whatever reason, they were only using one track for incoming and outgoing trains…it took them forever to board us…and then we sat on the train before we got to go…best laid plans…I didn’t get home until 1:30…texted Pam and Ben and Julia that I was on the train…when it left and then when I got home…found a dime and three pennies…
and the Senate dismissed the sham impeachment of Mayorkas…ridiculous…
Art Salazar 