2001: AN AFTERMATH VISIT TO NEW YORK by Jorge / posted November 2001

Unless you're a witch, no one can ever predict the future. So when my longtime companion and I started planning our next New York trip we could never have guessed what would happened at the 11th of September. So we booked our Broadway tickets on advance, including two for THE PRODUCERS.

After the September tragic incidents, everyone (family, friends and colleagues) tried to convince us to cancel our trip, even we were worried about it. The anthrax threat, a war going on, FBI warnings and so on. Probably only crazy people would be travelling on this dangerous days, so I guess we're crazy.

We started thinking that what the terrorists really wanted was for us no to go to the United States, so we should really go. We should show them that they can't rule the world by fear and so we did our planned trip. And I'm glad we did it!

First stop was Chicago. A city we had never visited before and that surprised us for being so quiet. Its gothic buildings and the famous The Loop gives it a sinister atmosphere and the sights by the lake Michigan were really beautiful. One of the reasons we chose that town was to see Chita Rivera in the new Kander & Ebb musical THE VISIT; unfortunately this new musical was kind of poor and I doubt it'll ever reach Broadway.

Next stop, New York!

I simply love this town; it has everything I'm passionate about. I've to confess I was expecting to find it in a dark mood and with less people than usual. For my surprise the city looked as usual. Crowded streets, smiling New Yorkers and all the glamour and glitter it's famous for.

A walk through Central Park was simply delightful and I wished I could live in that glorious town; maybe one day… who knows?

At evening I lived all the excitement of the Broadway shows. Five musicals in five nights and the pleasure of meeting some of the stars at the stage door, I even took pictures with some of them (just click in the word pictures and you can see them). With the exception of THOU SHALT NOT, that was a big disappointment, all the remaining shows were really great.

The terrific 42ND STREET, one of the best musicals I ever seen, the exciting THE FULL MONTY, better than the movie, the delicious URINETOWN, that was a pleasant surprise, and the big hit THE PRODUCERS, of which I was expecting more.

Another highlight of our staying was a tour of CABARET at the Studio 54. A friend of mine has a friend who's part of the cast and thanks to them we could visit the backstage and even walk through the stage. The cherry at the top of the cake was meeting the great Carole Shelley and had a little talk with her. Memories are made of this!

So this was a really great trip and I sincerely hope that all this war against terrorism will end soon, without further tragic incidents. Anyway, we're already dreaming of doing another New York trip next year.