Seeing Hamilton

 A day to go see Hamilton on Broadway. I have been waiting six years to say I went to see Hamilton on Broadway, and today is that day. It starts with a jingle of the alarm, a slow roll out of bed, and then all of the cobwebs are shaken loose as Mario informs me that we have all of 20 minutes to make the bus we planned on taking into the city this morning. That's twenty minutes to wake up, get ready and run out the door, because on top of that, the bus is a 10 minute walk from the hotel. 

Sure. Let's do that.

Needless to say, we have no breakfast, no juice, no coffee, and though Mario can start the day on empty, I cannot. As soon as we arrive at Port Authority Bus Terminal, I head to the nearest Hudson Store for bottles of fruit smoothie. We never got to the grocery store last night since our dinner(our delicious dinner) had us coming back to the hotel too late, so the fridge was empty, and we had nothing quick to grab on the way out. The sweet hit of fruit soothes me, and I can feel my mood changing immediately. We head to the subway.

So what do you do on a day that you are going to see Hamilton? Nothing can possibly live up to the magnitude of that show, so it's all just a time-filler until the 3 pm matinee, right? Not unless your time-filler happens to be an unauthorized Banksy exhibit. But first, bagel breakfast sandwiches, egg and cheese and bacon, made up fresh at a deli in Tribeca, where we sit on the back side of the salad bar, stuffing our faces and sipping really good coffee, and watching the news on a screen at the back of the shop. We wander the neighborhood a bit, admiring the architecture and analysing the clouds for rain, and then make our way to the gallery on West Broadway street.

Back to Banksy: we managed to find this discreet little show online, organized by some private collectors, and telling of the month he spent in New York in 2013, creating a new artistic installment everyday. Mario and I don't particularly like modern art, but we DO like Banksy - we appreciate an artist whose work is controversial because it questions the system by making fun of the system. You don't need to read the explanation provided by the museum to understand the artist's agenda, you can figure it out by understanding the message in the art, and with Banksy, it's usually as plain as the nose in the middle of your face. It's bold and colourful and straightforward, and also makes great posters and t-shirts - though I'm sure that was never his intention.

Being so close to Chinatown after we exit the Banksy show, we just wander for a bit, because what else do you do when you have tickets to see Hamilton? You pass time until the show starts. We pass through sidewalk markets overflowing with all kinds of fruit, ripe and delicious and begging to be bought. We stop for Vietnamese coffee-flavoured ice cream at one of the oldest shops in the area, and avoid the crowds lining up for cheap Hong Kong cuisine at the place next door. Down one of the pedestrian alleys, we cross through a small neighbourhood festival when some young men are teaching hip-hop steps to the audience. We stop instead in Columbus Park, the heart of Chinatown, to sit down for a bit. We watch an elderly man sit down and carefully remove his musical instrument from a cloth bag, preparing it and the accompanying bow to play for passersby. He sets up a tiny amplifier, a waving cat statue, an open instrument case on the ground, waiting to be fed. Further in the park, the wail of a high-pitched singer floats on the air. Women sitting around a picnic table yell as they slap down playing cards aggressively. This is Sunday in Columbus Park, and we love the atmosphere.

Finally comes time for us to catch a subway uptown, to Times Square and the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Because when you finally get to see Hamilton on Broadway, you DO NOT want to be late! Thought of getting a quick snack, a slice of pizza or something else, cross our mind, but in the end, we still have big chewy chocolate chip cookies we bought last night after dinner and never ate, so we snack on those while we head along Broadway to 46th street. The queue is already gone, and people are heading right in. A quick security check, as is the norm everywhere here, where I begin enumerating the contents of my pack, including 4 fresh ripe mangoes I couldn't pass up in Chinatown. I get a laugh, and the warning, "As long as you don't eat them in the theatre!", and we are in the lobby, and down the hall, and installing ourselves comfortably into tight wooden seats. 

Of course, what other reaction could you possibly have when, seeing Hamilton on Broadway for the first time, than pure amazement? The show was energetic and emotional, the actors brilliant and lively, the music so catchy that I was singing bits of every song all at once. I have gotten into the habit of searching for the seats on the far right or left of the theatre - the view may be slightly obstructed, but we can often gets better seats close to the stage at a cheaper price. This proved the best bet for the Hamilton tickets, we ended up sitting in the first row of the second orchestra section, and were at the same level as the performers' sightlines, so when they were singing to the audience, they were looking right at us. And when we were at last let out the side door into the sun and heat of the city, I had a tear in my eye from the last number. Wiping it away, I dragged Mario down the side of the theatre to the stage door, and the possibility of meeting the actors, and the moment did not disappoint. 

Jacob Guzman (John Laurens/Philip Hamilton)	Trey Curtis (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson)

Only a small group had gathered; It is Sunday, so some of the roles for the matinee are played by swings or understudies, who are no less fantastic and impressive, but are sometimes not the names or faces being sought out.  At the same time, they are the ones who don't get on stage quite as often, and therefore maybe don't get the thrill of meeting the throng of fans outside...Either way, they are many who exit the yellow door and join us, chatting and signing autographs. We have a good laugh with a couple of them, as a little boy next to us is sporting a rather dapper jacket in a teal blue and gold snake skin print. He gets all the attention, and we all joke together at how amazing he looks and how he is generally showing everyone how to dress dapper. We catch sight of the actors playing James Madison and Thomas Jefferson sneakily run across the street behind us, but later notice Jefferson coming back, and call to him to come join the fun, and he does! It's such a amazing moment to witness such greatness on stage, and then see how down-to-earth and real the people behind the characters are.

So, how can top a performance of Hamilton? Well, you can't, not really, so we catch the next bus back to New Jersey and the hotel. Almost. When I booked this hotel we are staying at, I did a quick Google street view walk-around, to see what was interesting or noteworthy in the residential neighbourhood surrounding it. I found a small Italian deli called Natoli that seems to be part convenience store, part deli, part restaurant, offering everything from Chicken Parm sandwiches to cold pasta salad to take-away pizza to toilet paper and breakfast cereal. And the reviews are great, so we take a walk, browse the menu and come away with a great dinner to eat back at the hotel. In the little park behind the hotel, tucked away between the two sides of the highway, we tuck into fried broccoli rabe with garlic, tangy grilled vegetables, and super-thick pieces of what they called "Gramma Slices" - cold tomato pizza topped with tons more garlic and fresh basil, and served with a tub of warm tomato sauce for dipping. It's all so good, and homey, and well-made and delicious, and we vow to return again tomorrow, maybe for pizza, maybe for fried calamari that I spotted on the menu. After all, it's only a 10-minute walk from the hotel, and that's the dangerous part.