Quick update: I found out yesterday that I am nominated for a Daytime Emmy as part of our directing team at Young & Restless!! Y&R received 23 nominations in total and I am so proud of all of our departments. While I’ll be sad to miss the ceremony in mid-June, it will be televised on HLN in the U.S. and you can bet I’ll be following along on-line from Australia! Big congratulations to all my hard-working co-workers and friends on other soaps who received nominations as well… like my recent travel companion Allison, who is nominated with the General Hospital directing team. Exciting times all around for our industry!

Okay, back to regularly scheduled programming…!

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Last March I spent a few quick days in NYC to see some theater (of course) and catch up with friends.

Here’s an iPhoneography account of my time in the city.

My first show of the trip is the new musical Hands on a Hard Body, which has since ended its run. My thoughts, in a nutshell:

This is a last-minute selection after I discovered The Flick wasn’t doing a Wednesday matinee at Playwrights Horizons. I purchased a ticket on TDF the day before and it ends up being in the fourth row. I have an open mind and somewhat low expectations.

It turns out to be such a moving experience for me. I have tears streaming down my face by the closing number, which is surprising given that this show is centered around a truck.

A lot of people have compared it to A Chorus Line, as each character steps forward to have their moment among the ensemble.

The first song is called “Human Drama Kinda Thing” which sets the tone for the whole show. Each number tells the story of these individuals instead of using them as pieces to serve a larger plot.

I love that it’s about real people and not everyone looks like your typical Broadway chorus girl/boy.

There are a lot of catchy country and gospel songs, a few of which I plan to download when the music becomes available.

I worked with Janet, one of the understudies and dance captain, on a production of West Side Story in L.A. back in 2009. I loved emailing her after the show to tell her how much I enjoyed it.

At the time it was still in previews and I spied lyricist Amanda Green in lobby (daughter of Adolph Green of the Comden & Green team).

Afterwards I meet up with my good friend Carrie at Cafeteria for a delectable dinner. I order the salmon BLT and didn’t regret one bite. Shout out for their yummy sweet potato fries, too.

Then Carrie and I see Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella! I’ve waited decades to see this show on Broadway.

My thoughts:

I grew up watching the 1965 Leslie Ann Warren version on a well-worn VHS tape. The Rodgers & Hammerstein score wired itself into my brain at age five. There’s no way I would miss this first-ever Broadway production.

Aside from a few issues, it does not disappoint! Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana have glorious voices and each song is a pleasure. I particularly enjoy Victoria Clark as Crazy Marie / Fairy Godmother.

Highlights: the impressively quick costume changes ON STAGE; I want to press pause and rewind in slow motion to see how they do it (I hear there are magnets involved). The show opened two days earlier and there’s great energy in the house (and lots of tiaras in audience). It’s a fun family show.

I do not love the new plot twist with a political bent (“the people need to be represented!”). It’s clunky and not well woven into the story and actually unnecessary. I enjoy the other aspects of Douglas Carter Beane’s reworked book — like how he flushes out the stepsisters into two distinct characters.

I also attend a bonus show — my friend Sarah alerts me via text message that songwriter Joe Iconis will be performing and hosting an open mic night that very evening for new works by singer-songwriter types at the hip cabaret spot 54 Below. It doesn’t start until nearly midnight, but I’m game!

This is a much-welcomed surprise to my NYC theater plans… Studio 54 is a venue I’ve been dying to visit. Joe Iconis (who wrote ‘Broadway Here I Come,’ recently performed by Jeremy Jordan on SMASH) hosts the evening. This is particularly fun because a mere four days earlier I sat in a near-empty theater in L.A. with my friends Jen and Stanton, listening to an actor perform this very song on the piano, and now suddenly I have a chance to see the songwriter himself perform it! This whole evening is an unexpected delight and a glimpse into what my life might look like if I lived in NYC. Sarah and I stay until the performances wrap up at 2am (I never stay out that late) and it’s nearly 3am by the time I get back to my friend Carrie’s place. This is after taking a red-eye the night before, but the experience is definitely worth bleary eyes.

The next morning I meet up with Sarah again for lunch at Popover Cafe, which serves popovers “the size of my head,” according to Sarah. (I can vouch this is accurate.) They also serve strawberry butter. Delicious!

That evening I visit Bare Burger in Astoria with my friend Carrie.

I love these fun shots of Carrie:

We scurry over to Second Stage and catch the first preview of the off-Broadway production of The Last Five Years.

My thoughts:

This is another show I’ve waited years to see return to New York. It was first produced in this city right around 9/11 and closed after a short run. But the music took off and has enjoyed a long shelf life at regional theaters and universities. The fact that it’s a two-hander with relatively minimum stage requirements opens it up to low-budget theaters. Plus it’s a great character study about two halves of a couple, told in a non-linear plot (Jamie tells the story of their relationship in forward progressing time and Cathy tells it in reverse).

The show’s composer and lyricist, Jason Robert Brown, takes on directing duties for the first time with this show. We’re at the first preview and just before curtain he sits in the center house with a woman who I presume is his assistant director (she takes notes throughout).

There’s a palpable buzz in the theater for this first preview that is fun to witness. I actually planned my trip back east around the timing of two things — this show and my cousin El’s due date! (Incidentally, the baby makes his entrance 10 days late. Christmas can’t come soon enough so I can meet little Everett!)

Back to the L5Y — Betsy Wolfe makes excellent choices in this production, especially with her fresh delivery on several lines. She gets big laughs all night. And she works her way out of one very wrong note during the marriage song. Adam Kantor is serviceable but no Norbert Leo Butz (then again who is — Norbert is such a unique presence in theater so perhaps it’s not a fair comparison).

The staging is simple and keeps the songs front and center. I don’t love the monitors. Scenic design is by Derek McLane (who did this year’s Oscars and also last month’s The Gift at the Geffen Playhouse in L.A.).

Also, we get a concrete at Shake Shack.

It begins to snow as we walk through Times Square en route to Grand Central Station.

(I actually snapped these photos earlier in the day when I dropped my luggage off at the Grand Hyatt, hence the sunlight streaming through the windows.)

New York, I love you. I’ll be back before long.