Sinigang

SO I WAS IN NEW YORK with a friend over the weekend. We got tickets to see the Mel Brooks hit musical "The Producers" (That’s another review). We arrived in NYC pretty early on Saturday after a three and a half hours car ride from Boston. We figured we’d check out other theaters and see if we can get good enough rates to watch more shows. Summer has officially started and NY has more visitors these days than any other season, tickets are hard to come by unless you’re willing to pay premier seats that could go as high as $400.00 per person for a show (or scalped tickets at even ridiculously higher price for good shows). Since the shows we were interested in were all blocks away from each other, we decided to split and just call if there are seats left on the particular theaters we were at. First stop for me was of course "Three Days of Rain," which will play only until Sunday, June 18. As expected tickets we’re sold out (unless I was willing to pay for premier seats!!). But I kept pressing for cheaper seats, until the ticket guy said- "here’s the deal, we’re selling ‘Standing Only’ tickets two hours before the show on a first come first serve basis. If you want it, you have to be in line way ahead of the two hours." Those words sounded music to my ears and I was excited. "How much?" I asked. I was calculating, if orchestra tickets are at $112.00. Standing tickets must cost half of that! Shoot, $60 bucks! But what the heck, I’d take my chance. I want to see Julia Roberts in flesh! And then the guy answered, "$26.25." Holy Molly!! For a fraction of the seated seat, I get to watch the show! You bet I’ll wait in line!! I called my friend. It was 10am. I said I’m waiting in line until they open the sale at noon time for the matinee at 2pm. And so after 2 hours of waiting I got our tickets to watch Julia Roberts! That’s only the icing on the cake as I later find out. We had lunch and then it was time to see the play.

To my surprise, they do ‘Standing Only’ tickets all the time and we’ve never heard of it. They don’t advertise it of course and tickets we’re very limited to only about 20 people or less! Our tickets were numbered so each ticket had a specific area where you stand, it’s not the "you’re on your own because you’re standing’ type of ticket. It was well organized.

The usher was very friendly with us when we were in our place at the back. More than friendly that I was going to tell her to shut up already! She kept telling me what "Three Days of Rain" was all about! In my mind, I was like "look lady, I’ve read all the reviews of it all right and I know the boring story by heart by now, so shut up!" I just smiled and asked, "does Julia sign autographs after the show?" OH boy, was I glad I kept my temper with her- otherwise, I would have never known! She says "yes, Julia is very kind and accommodating, just today she came out to talk with us and have our pictures taken with her and blah, blah…" ("Lady. Tell me what to do!!") Finally after a long talk, she tells me what I wanted to hear. I stood there for the whole first act. A 15-minute Intermission came. That same usher came to us and directed us to 2 empty seats at the near center!! She says, "these seats are available, you can seat here for the remaining act." That lady was surely an angel! We endured the next hour pinching ourselves from sleeping (there were parts in the play that even the three characters looked like they were falling asleep themselves!) As soon as the curtain fell, I was dashing out of the theater to head for the backstage door!!

Outside, there was a barricade in the backstage door near the street and a few people, showed my ticket and I was in! What were we doing there? Waiting for the actors to come out and sign autographs!! It was a rather long wait but nobody seemed to mind! This was the cake! I would have never known where to go for authographs had we been sitting. I would have never talked to the usher at all and by the time we got out of the filled theater, Julia would have left by then or the guards wouldn’t let me in -not a chance for an autograph!!!

Meanwhile, Julia’s bodyguards were making sure everybody were behaved. Only the ones inside the barricade were allowed to hang around the area. They were practically shoving and driving people away. The guy made some funny ground rules like, "Julia has her own pen, do not give her a pen. Don’t ask Julia to smile for you- she’s tired, Don’t ask her any questions- she won’t answer. Don’t ask her to pose for you for a picture, she doesn’t have time. Take as much pictures as you want but don’t push, if this barricade even moves, Julia is out of here!" So when Julia came out, the whole crowd just went silent. I’m not sure if it was because of what the bodyguard said, I think it was more of a shock, mouth agape in a state of amazement that THE Julia Roberts is in fact in our midst! I was star-struck!! To quote Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, "it was surreal but nice!" She looked almost ‘mortal’ in gray shirt and striped gray pants and flipflops! She signed about 5 playbill (the play’s souvenir program) in my side and she was gone! Just like that, stayed about a minute on each side to sign autographs! And not even her own signature!! She never signs her own name in autographs, she just scribbles- so we all got different scribbles of Julia but we were happy!! Damn, this stupid phone cameras!! I was fumbling with it and panicking that I won’t get good shots of her. See my friend had to get our digital cameras because we were asked to deposit them before the show. By the time he got it, Julia was gone!! We were only able to get Paul Rudd’s pics in good quality. Bradley Cooper didn’t even show up!!! Paul Rudd actually stopped and smiled for me in my phone camera! He was so nice, stayed and signed (in his own name!) and chatted with the group.

Satisfied with our first day, my friend and I took an early start Sunday morning to conquer the unconquerable, the most popular show in broadway this season- The Jersey Boys! We went to the theater 3 times on saturday to see if there are available seats for the Sunday show or if somebody cancelled out. The line was always long there and the same answer, "we’re sold out, try tomorrow!" So we did. Crazy as we were, we went to check the theater at 9am! Wow, three people were already in the seemingly abandoned street- sitting by the theater. It is going to be a looong day for us. We talked ourselves in for a quick breakfast near the theater. At 9:30 I asked my friend to go and fall in line while I finished breakfast. I didn’t want to take any chances, slow eater as I am, that by the time I finish- ten people are already in line! We were 7th and 8th in the line!

  As the time progressed, more and more people were showing up! Around 11am, the ticket guy separated the "Student Rush" and "Standing Only" group. The ticket center was about to open. They accommodated 12 students, no more and seven, SEVEN "standing only" tickets!! We were 2 and 3. We bought our tickets at 1pm!! It was fun, insane and ludicrous! But we got in! We had a fabulous time standing! And did the same thing head for the door as soon as it was over and got myself an autograph and a picture of the BIGGEST MAN IN BROADWAY this year! If you’re a theatre buff like I’m becoming to be, be smart- go for the standing only or student rush tickets. You can stretch your one orchestra ticket easy to watching 3 broadway shows in the end! I can’t wait for my next Broadway experience and you bet, I’ll be waiting in line!