NYC: So many song lyrics I could use as a title

Hello all!

Well, if you didn't know already, I am spending my summer interning in New York City! So I figured why not get the blog back up and keep tabs on what I do while I'm here in NYC. I've only been here a week and I LOVE it. So much is happening in this city. There's always stuff to do and people rushing around. It's always been a dream of mine to live in NYC ever since I was like 10, so it's just kinda surreal actually being able to spend an extended amount of time here.

I'm staying in a dorm that's not like fancy or anything but it works for everything I need. I basically only sleep there anyways, but I get my own room and 2 meals a day! Besides, I think it's the cheapest place to stay in New York. Since I've been getting acclimated to everything (working full time por ejemplo) I haven't gotten to do that much fun stuff yet, but hopefully this weekend I can get into my enormous NYC to do list.

Last week I went to the Empire State building. This is one of those things that I was thinking I would just skip, but my guide book said it was one of the best night views of the city so I figured what the heck. It's open until 2 am so I figured I could miss some of the crazy long tourist lines and get a fantastic view of the city. Well, I think every foreign tourist had the same idea as I did. Crazies. It was super crowded but I still got a cool view of the city.

Last Friday I went and saw Sondheim on Sondheim. It's a revue I guess you would say, or a tribute to the career of Stephen Sondheim and this opened in honor of his 80th birthday. There's no plot, so I can't really critique that or anything. Basically it went through his career and the actors sand some of his songs while a Stephen Sondheim would offer his own information about how he wrote it or how it evolved or whatever on a screen that was on the stage. It was really cool getting to hear how certain songs developed. For example, "Being Alive" from Company went through 3 different revisions, radically changing the ending 3 different times to be what it is now. Being somewhat (but not really) a musician, it was cool to hear how Sondheim writes and hear directly from him about his music and shows.

The singers in it were pretty good. Mostly I think they just needed headliners for something like this since it focuses only on music and no plot. Some of the people in it were Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty), Tom Wopat (42nd Street, Guys and Dolls), Barbara Cook (Music Man, Oklahoma), Norm Lewis (Les Miserables, Little Mermaid) and Leslie Kritzer (Legally Blonde). PS Barbara Cook is older than Sondheim. And she did pretty well, all things considered. Anyways, it's closing soon, but I would recommend it for anybody who loves music in general or wants to learn more about Sondheim the man.

BIG NEWS. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. My friend Whitney who has lived up here and worked in theater for a few years got me tickets to the TONY AWARDS DRESS REHEARSAL! Whitney, I love you. I'm am soooo excited! This is one of those things that I never in my life would have thought I would get to do. PS if you don't know what the Tony's are, quit reading my blog. I will get to see Kristen Chenoweth, Angela Lansbury, Sean Hayes, there's a TON of famous people performing and presenting. I'm so psyched! Will update more on that after Sunday.

PEACE!