Last Sunday, my roommate Katie and I took on the Big Apple. As two PC students enrolled in the American Musical course, we are required to see two musicals this semester. One of them being professional and the other could be a college production. If you aren’t a musical connoisseur, you may be unaware of how expensive this assignment is. Rather than breaking the bank for a show we weren’t really interested in seeing at the Providence Performing Arts Center, we decided to play Broadway Roulette and have a shot to see the critically acclaimed shows that are currently playing.
How Broadway Roulette works is first you pick the day you want and how many tickets that you need. You can buy tickets for the next day or up to three months in advance. Then you select your preferences. Select a musical or a non-musical (play) and eliminate up to 4 shows from your “spin.” You will not receive tickets to any eliminated show. On the day of the show, you will receive an email and text notification with the show name and time and your pick up instructions.
Katie and I received our text around 9AM telling us that we were seeing Kinky Boots at 2pm. We had heard that it was a great production but we had no idea what it was really about. I knew that Cyndi Lauper had written the music and lyrics and so I thought it was about a music performer and her signature boots… I was way off! Kinky Boots is about a guy named Charlie whose father dies and the family shoe business is thrust upon him. With the growing popularity of cheap imported shoes, Charlie needed a brilliant idea to save his family business and the jobs of his friends. In searching for this big idea, Charlie meets Lola, a drag queen who keeps breaking her high heeled boots and EUREKA! Charlie got his big idea and decided to begin manufacturing Kinky Boots! The stiletto heeled boots that can bear the weight of a full grown man. The music and dance numbers were fantastic, it is definitely one of the best productions I have ever been to. After the show, we waited outside the stage door and got our playbills signed by most of the actors. Including Kirstin Maldonado, Grammy-award winning member of the a capella group Pentatonix who played Lauren.
Other than the show, we didn’t have a plan for New York. We strolled around and popped into the M&M Store and Hershey World (are you sensing a theme?). Unlike Katie, I don’t get the opportunity to go into the city very often. It was really nice to have someone who knew where she was going (and where all the bathrooms were). All in all, this was well worth the trip to the city. Our professor was so impressed that we went to Broadway for his class that I’m like 85% sure we are going to get an A.