NYC Part V - On Broadway

Our New York weekend adventure continued on Saturday night with our attendance at a Broadway show.

How do you feed a group of 270 people at one time in New York City? The planners of this trip faced this challenge, and they met it well. Since the group was from Plano, TX (a suburb of Dallas) the organizers chose the Dallas BBQ, of course. The restaurant was in Times Square, and since many of us had tickets for a show, the location was perfect.

We took over the entire second floor, packed into long tables. When we sat down, pitchers of water, lemonade, iced tea, and soda as well as bowls of coleslaw were already in place. When most of us were seated, service began. We each received a large plate with a rack of ribs, quarter chicken, French fries and cornbread—far too much for one person to finish. We passed the plates down the table, like a family meal.

We sat with Kim and Maribeth, but we also had the chance to meet a few of the other choir members. When one of the gals discovered we were authors, we enjoyed a long conversation about writing. She said she wanted to read some of our books, so we were pleased.

During the meal, we heard a commotion behind us, and turned to see Michael W. Smith. He had stopped by to welcome the group to NYC. He seemed like to be as nice a guy as we had expected. We were all pleased to see him.

For dessert, ice cream sandwiches were passed down the table. Larry ended up with two since Kim didn’t eat hers.

Prior to the trip, we were given the opportunity to purchase tickets to a Broadway play. We selected Aladdin. We prepaid for the tickets, and Kim picked them up before she left Texas. We had a little time before the show, so we walked down a block, then crossed the street where we could get a good look at the marquee.

The temperature was still just above freezing, so we waited in the entrance until we could take our seats. A stand with a lamp had been set up, so of course, we had to pose while rubbing it.

We had a long wait, but the doors finally opened, and we found our seats.

We had expected this show to be an expansion of the play we had seen several times at Disney’s California Adventure, but it was somewhat different. We were especially fortunate because we saw the original Genie, James Monroe Iglehart, in one of his last performances before he left the show. We enjoyed it very much, and now we can say we’ve seen a real Broadway show!

Next week: Worship at the Brooklyn Tabernacle on Sunday morning.