Back to Broadway!

Last weekend we returned to Broadway. It felt as amazing as we imagined it would be.

New Broadway restrictions include having to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test before even being allowed inside the theater. Once inside masks had to stay on, except when actively eating or drinking.

You know what -- EVERYONE followed these rules. Everyone was excited to be back in a theater. No one complained or cheated (i.e., wearing their masks around their chins instead of covering their mouth and nose).

I'll admit "Pass Over" is not the play I imagined would be our first one back to Broadway. The last non-musical I remember seeing on Broadway was "Arsenic and Old Lace" in the mid-1980s as part of a high school field trip, or maybe it was "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (same high school group). The subject is gritty -- two young black men constantly calling each other the N-word, and a white man who plays a stranger in the wrong part of town, and returns as the "po-po" (police). It is thought-provoking and deep, not light and fluffy.

But the feels of being in a Broadway theater. Hearing the pre-show announcement that we are among the first audiences back in a Broadway theater. Knowing this is historic. Reasonable ticket prices helped, too (tickets started at $39, but we ended up paying more because those tickets were for handicap seats). 

Still, before I bought tickets to the August 15th show, I read a review after it opened to previews on August 4th. The play was written by Antoinette Nwandu following Treyvon Martin's murder in 2012, and rewritten during the Trump presidency when it played at Lincoln Center. Both versions had darker endings. I read a quote where the playwright said she can only write what she can envision. In one version, one of the black males was murdered by the police. Following a pandemic and a new administration, she sees a more hopeful and optimistic future for black men. It is the type of play you just want to turn to your neighbor and talk about it -- especially if that neighbor knows more about theater or the culture than you do. It begs for a talk back. If the show makes it to McCarter, or someplace local, I hope to see it again and have that opportunity.

I was struck by the lighting, and felt it would really photograph well. I was happy to see this link to a Playbill article with some pictures.

The curtain call thunderous. The cast came back for another bow. 

We left the theater and walked up to Times Square, where I bought a souvenir ticket.

With owner, Tim.