Of Broadway & Hollywood...

Last Tuesday I had the most amazing time in life.I had been meaning to go watch a Broadway musical for over a year now and yet it hadn't happened.Being a student, i resort to the philosophy of simple living and high thinking (which of course I do not believe in but my purse is compelled to right now).So that was it.A year of checking out the website and seeing favorite shows play and leave ;I was still not ready to take the plunge.
But now it was that time of the year again-holiday season ! And people do crazy things during the holidays.When Nan came visiting and we decided that since she had come all the way from west coast it dignified a visit to the Broadway.And I was in no way an unwilling participant.Have heard about it from teenage years how big Broadway was and how sometimes hollywood stars did shows too.You get to see real live talent.
Having decided that yes we are finally going to a B'way screening, we were now grappling with the decision of which show ? Chicago ?No.We had already seen the movie.All My Sons ? Naah looks too serious.We wanted to come out happy like we always do in Bollywood multiplexes.And being women,we are especially suckers for sweet happy endings which makes us go Awwwwww !!
So after a lot of researching and reading tons of reviews, we settled on either Mamma Mia or 13.I had seen Mamma Mia the movie and it was quite good. 13 looked fresh , enthusiastic and peppy.A middle school musical in the lines of High School Musical.
I never knew I would do so much research for a show.On Broadway or off Broadway ? Orchestra or Mezzanine seats ? Online booking or shipped tickets ? Your credit card or mine :-) ?
But finally we decided 13 be it.And we were not disappointed.The cast was aged between 12-16 and they were talented , young,fresh and confidence literally oozed out from every dialogue , every song, every dance step.
The lead role Evan was played By Graham Phillips (whom we later clicked in our blurry camera phone).It is about a jewish boy growing up in NYC and how he has to move to a small town in Indiana coz his parents split.He has his Bar Mitzvah' coming up and he wants the cool kids from school to come over to his party.In order to make his way into the group he tries all kinds of tactics which miserbaly fail and how in the end he realises that they are not worth it.He just sticks to his real frens otherwise labelled losers in the middle school fraternity.
We loved every bit of it.It was like young adoloscents bringing sunshine to the stage that night and the show ended with a standing ovation.The stars of the evening came out and we clicked pictures of the talented babies and also realised at 13 we had absolutely no talent nor the knack for anything extraordinary.Wonder if I have any now ? Ahem..Ahem..Moving on.
As soon as we were done , somebody said Katie Holmes was performing next door and Tom Cruise had come to pick her up.We rushed.Now the thing is we women love Tom Cruise and especially Top Gun even if we were infants when it was released.We happen to fall in and outta love with him as a part of growing up.Ask any girl who grew up in the nineties.But now my part of growing up fantasy was here and I had to have a look..And my first celebrity spotting too..Went gaga over him just at his glimpse..My brush with the glitz and the glitteratti...I felt like singing "I am so lucky" with stardust raining over me but i guess that was the B'Way side-effect...
So having notched up double bonuses of B'Way and H'Wood we made our way home like two contented purring cats..My year had just ended with a big bang !

~A, still on cloud 9...