Theather District: The Must-Sees

With so many spectacular shows to choose from in this big city, it's can sometimes be hard to pick out what shows to go and see in your short time here. Here's a list of a few of our must sees while here in New York City:

Aladdin

To all Disney lovers out there this is a must see, this show brought the magic of Disney to the Broadway Stage. This is one of the newer musical you can find in New York, it hit Broadway in 2014. Director Casey Nicholaw took on turning this Disney classic movie into a hit musical. This story is about a street boy named Aladdin trying to win over the beautiful princess Jasmine. He comes across a magical lamp that contains a Genie, he uses those wishes to help him win over Jasmine. But he gets caught up in all his lies and the genie ends up in the wrong hands. Whats going to happen to the town of Agrabah? Will Aladdin get the princess? You’ll have to check out this musical to find out. One of the best things about this play is how family friendly it is, anyone of any age can see this and have a good time. The star of the show was the one and only James Monroe Iglehart who plays the role of the Genie. The reason for that is he adds in his own humor and interacts with the audience, it was something I’ve never seen a Broadway actor do before and it was amazing! Everything about this musical is truly magical, the costumes, the singing, and the special effects. There were some parts in the play like the magic carpet I questioned how can they possibly do that. So do yourself a favor and go see this magic for yourself.

Phantom of The Opera

Broadway's longest running musical still has it, this is a classic and is guaranteed to blow you away. This musical is based off the book written by Gaston Leroux in 1909, but it didn’t hit the Broadway stage until 1988. This story is about a Phantom and his obsession for opera singer Christine. He tries to get closer to her saying he’s her angel of music but she seems to be falling in love with her childhood friend Raoul. Will the Phantom succeed or will Christine see through his tricks? By going to this play you are seeing nothing but the best talent, all of the actors have beautiful voices with amazing ranges. The Phantom is played by no other than James Barbour and his performance will leave you speechless. Not many performances have done that to me, but James did. The costumes and props are also incredible, I felt like I was taken back in time and actually apart of this time period. Everything about this play was incredible, even though it’s an older one they still knock it out of the park. One tip to score amazing seats for a cheap price is to enter the lottery tickets online. The tickets are only $28.00 and are usually down up front in the orchestra section. Me and my friend have done this and been lucky and so have a lot of other girls in our group so your chances are pretty high. Cheap seats for an amazing show what could be better?

SHE LOVES ME

Okay future BYU New York Experience participants, I am going to give you some advice right now that you absolutely must follow. Are you paying attention? Here it is: go see She Loves Me on Broadway. You will LOVE it. I am a big fan of the classic musicals, so I was a little unsure when I went to see this new, yet very popular production. My skepticism was replaced with the pure joy and satisfaction that this production brought! A little background on She Loves Me: It first hit the stage in 1963, at a time when it didn’t quite fit into the Broadway scene at the time, which had an emphasis on massive, production-number-heavy shows. The musical is based on the play Parfumerie, by a Hungarian playwright by the name of Miklos Laszlo. The 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, is a spinoff of this musical and follows a similar storyline, so if you have seen that movie, this overview might sound familiar to you.

The musical is centered around the complex relationship of a man, Georg Nowak and a woman, Amalia Balash, who are love-struck anonymous pen pals, but in person, cannot stand each other. They work together at a parfumerie, where they constantly drive each other up a wall, yet when they return home and write letters to their anonymous “dear friend”, they are completely in love. When these star crossed anonymous lovers finally set up a time to meet in person, George realizes that the woman he is meeting is Amalia, and doesn’t go to meet her. He then begins to win her over as Georg, instead of “dear friend”, and in the end when he reveals that he has been this “dear friend” that she loves all along, there is a very happy ending. This musical made me laugh out loud, it made me joyful, it made me yearn for the relationship between Georg and Amalia to succeed, and it made me want to go buy the musical’s soundtrack, with all of its catchy songs. My heart swelled when Georg, performed by Zachary Levi, gloriously sang “She Loves Me”, and “Vanilla Ice Cream” will have you swooning right along with Amalia, who is performed by Laura Benanti.

Not only does this musical have a fascinating storyline and catchy songs, it also has the most amazing cast! One could not find a better individual to play Georg Nowak than Zachary Levi, who is famously known for his role as Chuck in the hit TV show “Chuck” and as Flynn Rider in Disney’s hit film Tangled. Laura Benanti has a wealth of experience on Broadway, along with being a Tony-winning actress. The icing on the cake of this musical was without a doubt Jane Krakowski, who portrays the silly blonde, Ilona Ritter, in this production. She is an acclaimed actress who is known for her portrayal of Jaqueline Vorhees in Netlix’s hit “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock. I was astounded that these individuals, particularly Levi and Krakowski, who are mainly actors first, were such amazing Broadway stars. Their voices singing voices, stage presence, and acting make this production so extraordinarily superb.

If I were to rate this musical on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the best, it would definitely earn a solid 10. I highly recommend that all of you BYU students take the time and spend the money to go see this musical. It is oh so worth it!

**Side note: If you wait after the musical for the actors to come out, they are so kind and so down to earth and they take the time to sign each person’s playbook, chat with you, and take photos with you. We even got Zachary Levi to film a dance video with us!