"New York is Very Culturally Competitive"

This week I went to two performance and almost went to a third, but I'll explain that in my next post. One being the Juilliard Senior Dance Showcase on Monday and the other being Mary Poppins on Broadway on Friday.

Juilliard Senior Dance Showcase

Eight of us from the Comms intern group waited outside for standby tickets for about an hour. Thankfully we got into the show and had some good times while waiting. One of my favorites being Sharlene, wearing my skirt (I brought jeans to change into) as gloves/shawl I'm not quite sure.

The show was good, it was modern dance. Some of it was weird, but some of it was just amazingly beautiful. There was this one that was hilarious called "Girl with a Microphone." It didn't have as much dancing in it as the others but it was more like a mini-show and was very funny. I'm also in love with a black man from Brooklyn named Nigel. He had one of the most graceful, powerful dances I've ever seen.

Mary Poppins


I've really wanted to see Mary Poppins but every time I've gone to the box office they were not doing student rush tickets and I cannot afford it unless there is. At the end of the work day on Friday I got a text from a girl in my ward "Do you want to come to Mary Poppins tonight for $30?" I replied that I was interested but found out that someone had claimed it before me. Rita (a new intern for LDS Public Affairs) and I were going to see if we could get rush for Hairspray when my friend texted to say we could try to get our own rush tickets for tonight. So we decided to give it a try and we got them! Plus we sat next to our friends.

I had really high expectations for Mary Poppins. I'd read reviews stating it was the best of the Disney's on Broadway. Well my high expectations were met! It started a little slow, but I quickly fell in love with it. By the end of the show I felt like a little kid again, seeing the film performed live just for me.

I was first impressed with the amazing set and props! They had a lot of set changes and they were all done so timely and efficiently. They did so many changes while two floor to ceiling pieces crossed stage when the two intersected a huge piece of scenery would APPEAR! I was just amazed, with that and the house. And the magic of Mary Poppins, I couldn't figure out how they did a lot of it. It was fantastic.

Next the song and dance numbers impressed me; the new songs were fantastic and the arrangements of the old were all awesome. I just bought the new rendition of "Step In Time" on iTunes and I also liked the new songs "Practically Perfect" and "Anything Can Happen."

I also really liked how they developed the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Banks. It really added to the story. It gave additional layers of depth as to why Mary Poppins is needed to help bring this family together.

It's so good, I really loved it. I was so mad I had to leave for about 5 minutes of the second act to "be sick." It brought me joy to see so many happy kids and adults at curtain. I really appreciate having something on Broadway an entire family could enjoy.

It's so hard to compare Disney to Shakespeare and throw in Abba when trying to pick my favorite show thus far, but if it can be done and I had to, I think this is my favorite.