Broadway for Kids

Broadway for Kids
by Bill Frankel

With TV, videos, DVD’s, Nintendo,Playstation 2, Gameboy, online gaming, downloaded sample games, cheat sheets, not to mention excess homework, roller hockey, basketball, youth baseball, the Yankees in the World Series for the Fourth time…the Giants in the Super Bowl,The Devils in the Stanley Cup finals again the boat show, and a fishing trip or two now and then with dad, its easy to forget that we live within an hour of the greatest theater in the world!

First of all, our children love a Broadway show as much as any of the above preoccupations. We try to have a family trip to a NY show on the calendar for sometime out in the future. It helps us remember and we get to plan a day in the city and a show into our calendar. This doesn’t always work. This year we planned a trip to see Annie Get Your Gun with Cheryl Ladd. My son and I saw the first half and left my wife and daughter at intermition to go to the Giants first playoff game. How would I know I would get tickets from a business friend and an invitation to bring 10-year-old Alex along? Cheryl was great and Alex asked the other day if we could go back to see the second half. I explained we’d have to buy tickets again see the first half again and that Annie would now be Rebba McIntyre.

We all went to see Seussical10:54 AM 01/16/2004 instead. This was a last minute idea. We drove in to make better time on

Sunday of the Presidents day holiday weekend. There was no traffic and we where in town quickly and parked in a rather expensive lot in the theater district. All in all if we had taken the ferry we would have been twenty minutes later. Going home we where in traffic for an hour getting back through the tunnel. Take the NY Waterway’s ferry from Port Imperial if at all possible. Its fun and takes the pressure off the day. There is a free bus to where you want to go and everything rolls along. So anyway we parked and went over to Tkts and the guy team waited on line, a very long line. The girl team went to the theater, to check if tickets where available. In about 20 minutes the cell phone rang. While we were standing still waiting for the possible half priced tickets full price tickets where already in hand and we were on our way to the one o’clock matinee, You win some and loose some. But always check out TKTS.

We liked Seussical. It wasn’t Disney…but what is? To tell the truth I’m Disney’d out. While Seussical was not nearly as slick as The Lion King or as grand it was perfect Dr Seuss. Children love the Cat in the Hat, the Whos, Horton the elephant, the star of this show, and all the other characters. They all knew the stories. The Richard Rogers Theater was full of happy kids including ours. Seussical was better for the 7 year old then the 10 year old but he seemed thrilled at the end as well as long as we could go eat? Seussical does have the best website on Broadway.

Now back to the Disney Trilogy. I am no theater critic but The Beast was the best. Beautiful from beginning to end. At 5 sitting in the audience Alex wanted to know if this was a video. I said no it was real. At intermition he would not walk down to see the orchestra pit with me. I said, “why not”? He said there was a beast down there somewhere. The Lion King? What can you say but spectacular. A Hyena attacked my leg and scared all of us sitting in the last row of the theater. Aida was less grand and more adult well done and not required viewing for young children as “The Trilogy” might imply.

Don’t miss the opportunities being so close to the city bring. The Bronx Zoo, The Museum of Natural History, Yankee Stadium, (also accessible by ferry) and Broadway. These are the day trips that lifetime memories come from.

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