We were supposed to get to New York Thursday night, but all flights out of RDU airport to NYC were canceled. So, we got on an early flight Friday morning and were at our hotel in the heart of Times Square by 11 am.
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| Seeing a Les Mis cab as soon as we got there felt like a good sign. |
Once we checked in, we headed out into the city and to
Eataly. Eataly is a huge Italian store filled with markets (for cheese, bread, meats, seafood, anything!) and restaurants. Both times we've been to the Pizza and Pasta restaurant, I got the homemade gnocchi with lamb ragu, which is absolutely delicious. We also had to visit the brand new Nutella bar, which has pastries and cookies filled with Nutella -- perfection! I would definitely recommend grabbing a meal at Eataly next time you're in NYC.
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| Eataly |
Our next stop was Zara, but on the way there, I spotted a Club Monaco and darted in before anyone could stop me. I had been mourning that I would never get to see the
collaboration between Club Monaco and Emily Schuman (of
Cupcakes and Cashmere) in person, but I did! And let me tell you, these pieces are beautiful and oh-so-soft.
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| Club Monaco & Emily Schuman collaboration |
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| Club Monaco & Emily Schuman collaboration |
We finally made it to Zara and once there, I never wanted to leave. The three most prominent trends I noticed (which were confirmed by my recent trip to H&M) were Hawaiian prints, high-waisted shorts/skirts, and overalls. I purchased a
beautiful red midi skirt that I can't wait to pair with striped shirts.
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| Hawaiian print trend |
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| Me at Zara! |
After Zara, we caught a taxi back to the hotel, ordered some room service, and got ready to see Newsies! Full review (and talk about stage door!) is under the cut, but let me say that it's an incredible show and it was so great to see an alumni from my school on Broadway. If you are in New York and only have time to see one show, I would definitely recommend picking Newsies.
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| Stage Door of Newsies with John Michael Fiumara, Corey Cott, and Adam Kaplan |
We saw Newsies with an incredible cast including Corey Cott, Liana Hunt, Jeremy Greenblaum, Adam Kaplan, and John Michael Fiumara. To be honest, we picked Newsies because we thought that my sister, Hannah, would enjoy the dancing. My entire family ended up being pleasantly surprised because the show has a gripping storyline and a fantastic cast. It was definitely our favorite show that we saw!
Newsies has an incredible energy to it that made it one of the best theatre experiences I’ve ever had. The set pieces are incredible and the dancing is mind-blowing. The costuming is great (which makes since because the costumer also did Bonnie & Clyde). The boys are all so incredibly talented, I couldn’t even fathom it. I love that the show opens in such an intimate moment (with the "Santa Fe Prologue"), which is a stark contrast from most shows I’ve seen. It really drew the audience in right away.
Corey Cott was absolutely fantastic. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of him, because I’m used to hearing Jeremy Jordan (swoon) on the cast album, but Corey blew me away. His “Santa Fe” had me in tears. I thought that Liana Hunt was great as well (and looks like an angel in person), but her “Watch What Happens” wasn’t quite as good as Kara Lindsay’s. The rest of the cast was great too, particularly the little boy who played Les.
My favorite interactions were definitely Corey and Liana’s. They had great chemistry as Jack and Katherine and the bit before “Something to Believe In” had the audience rolling with laughter.
Newsies was definitely the best stage door experience I’ve had since meeting Alistair Brammer after War Horse. They have a great set-up with the barricades set up around the entrance to the theatre so that the boys can come out one door, go down the line, and go back into the theatre at the other door. It’s also entirely under the overhang so it didn’t even matter that it was pouring down rain! We got a spot about in the middle of the barricades, which was great because it was prime picture taking area.
The entire cast was so lovely and grateful. Liana is so much more beautiful in person than she is on stage and Corey was super sweet. I got to meet John Michael, who is a good friend of my friend Stephanie, and Adam Kaplan, who graduated from my university two years ago. Adam was super adorable and even jokingly complained that we didn't bring him Cookout!