My mother’s friend David, a self-described show queen, always sees as many broadway shows as he can when he comes to New York City. 

This time, he invited my mother and me to tag along. 

The first show that we saw was Cats: The Jellicle Ball, a remake of Cats that recreates the gay balls of the 80s and 90s. The actors were voguing across the stage, their asses moving like jello. They were doing the most intense dancing you’ve ever seen, while making it look effortless, then slinking, cat-like, across the stage. The whole show was an enjoyable assault to the senses, onstage and off, as theatre-goers shouted things like “YES BITCH” and “YES QUEEN” at the performers. Everywhere people were flapping their fans to the beat of the music whenever they heard something that they liked. There was nothing but pure joy and energy in the audience. 

(I recommend watching the documentary Paris is Burning before seeing this show in order to get context about the different houses and mothers).

The next day, we went to see Masquerade, an interactive remake of The Phantom of the Opera. It was like being in a haunted house and a musical at the same time. We went up and down escalators, being waved through the building by ushers, as the show churned around us. I sat close enough that the phantom’s cloak touched me more than once, as did Christine’s dress. 

It was an interactive performance in which we drank complimentary champagne as a violinist played the ouverture, were handed flowers to throw at the performers, and wore masquerade masks. I waltzed with one of the performers and during the freak show segment, a woman hammered nails into her nose, and then selected me from the audience to pull out one of the nails. It truly was deep in that woman’s nose: I can attest. 

Everyone had flawless singing voices. This play was also an assault to the senses, but the kind where you feel immersed in the dark world of the show, inhaling dry ice.

If you’re not already familiar with the plots of Cats and Phantom of the Opera, don’t try to follow the plot of these musicals.

They were the definition of “no plot, just vibes.”

After that, we watched Chess, starring Lea Michele. 

The story was told mainly via narration and had no set pieces. There were soporific ballads, clunky chess metaphors, and attempts to modernize its political commentary by making snarky jabs at Trump and Biden. I zoned out during nearly every song, not interested in whatever they were singing about. Chess is the kind of musical where they start singing a song two seconds after the previous song has ended and if they need to explain something they do it through a musical number. 

Parts of it were enjoyable, like the Russian dancing and the One Night in Bangkok number but overall, Chess was my least favorite show of the weekend.

Following Chess, we went to see Death of a Salesman, starring Nathan Lane as Willy Loman. 

Attention was PAID.

It was the creme della creme of Broadway theatre with Laurie Metcalf playing Linda in a play written by Arthur Miller. Lane nailed every monologue, his face turning beat red as he shouted through his miserable life.

The car and dirt were on stage the entire time, foreshadowing his looming death. Spoiler: the salesman dies.

It is an existential play that questions what the point of life even is. It covers universal themes about the human condition, with an American lilt, as it depicts how unattainable the American Dream truly is. This production used modern costumes and props that convey how little has changed in corporate America since the time that Arthur Miller was writing about.

I found Willy Loman to be a complicated and largely unsympathetic character who represented much of American life at the time through his role as a salesman, living a meaningless life and then dying a meaningless death.

Nathan Lane as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller on Broadway: it doesn’t get any better than that. 

For our final performance, we watched Operation Mincemeat, the number one musical on Broadway. 

It has a gender-bent, replacement cast and a Nazi hiphop musical number that takes you VERY much by surprise. There were two second costume changes in every scene. A few times I blinked and missed the wardrobe change. Every one of them could sing and dance and had flawless comic timing. As if that wasn’t enough, they all had phenomenal chemistry. 

It was funny, but poignant as it talked about the human cost of war. The theater was full of weeping patrons during a musical number that explores the personal consequences of warfare. 

It was the perfect note to end our broadway tour on. 

But wait, there’s more…

A few days later, because I hadn’t had enough theatre, I went to see The Play That Goes Wrong with a friend.

As the title implies, a theater troupe is putting on a play– a whodunnit set in the English countryside– and everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. The entire stage falls apart around them, people get knocked unconscious, and bodies are dragged away, but the show must go on. The stage manager and the light and sound guy are integral characters in the show, trying to keep a sinking ship afloat. The show is all physical comedy, bordering on parkour at one point. The audience was losing its mind, shouting at the actors on stage the entire time. I laughed so hard I cried. 

All in all, it was an amazing week of theater. I laughed, I cried, but overall I enjoyed.

I had the chance to see six different shows, each one completely different from the last, but all of them were feasts for the senses. I was able to witness some incredible talent all around. 

My favorite was easily Operation Mincemeat, followed by The Play That Goes Wrong, Death of a Salesman, Jellicle Ball, Masquerade, and Chess in that order. Hopefully, if you’re in New York City soon, you’ll be able to attend some spectacular shows as well. 

(I’m holding out hope that I’ll be able to see Megan Thee Stallion in Moulin Rouge)

The Tragic Queen,

Raquel

P.S.: Check out my latest blog post on a different New York City experience from when I attended The Experts Only Music Festival