Wednesday, June 3rd - The Ballet & King Geoffrey

Another culture day!

But first more yoga – a morning class which while good, neither the structure of the class or the teacher jived with me in the way the other classes had. However, she did help me with my shoulders which was much appreciated – as a matter of fact, all of the teachers have ... I think my shoulders must send out a beacon or something – help me, help me, help me …

Back to the hotel to change and then up to the Metropolitan Opera House – I was going to the ballet! It was the matinee performance and it was packed! I studied ballet for many years as a child/teenager and used to see many of the productions that came to Vancouver. But I've haven't been to the ballet in years and years – and I've missed it! This was the American Ballet Theatre's new season and it was a series of ballets all to Prokofiev's music. A good mix of different pieces all beautifully danced. I was sitting beside a woman who was an incredibly devoted fan of the ballet – when the season was on, she attended EVERY performance – seriously, she'd been there the previous night and was going to be back later for the evening performance and then again tomorrow etc. etc. The great thing for me, was that she knew everything about the company, the dancers and the ballets – we had great chats through both intermissions and I appreciated the performance much more thanks to her.

From there, I headed to Broadway. After dinner in a traditional busy NY deli (very, very hard to be vegetarian ...) I was off to see Exit the King at the Barrymore Theatre with Geoffrey Rush, Susan Sarandon, Lauren Ambrose and Andrea Martin. It was simply put, a fantastic production! The play is a political satire written in the late 60s and just as relevant now … It is about a king who has been in power just a touch too long, say 300+ years or so if I recall correctly. So long in fact that his kingdom has decayed to such an extent that it only exists as far as the back of the theatre and it is time, long, long overdue, for the King to die – which happens over the course of the 2 hours. Sound familiar anyone???

Geoffrey Rush was simply superb – he won the Tony for his performance and it was incredibly deserving. And the rest of the cast was brilliant – well Susan Sarandon may have been the weaker link, but the pop culture fan in me was still thrilled to see her perform live. I was sitting about 6 rows from the front (much prefer to be up close for a play) and I could see everything - the expressions on their face, the makeup starting to drip a little from the exertion of an incredibly physical performance and the occasional 'off camera' glances between the cast during the production. It was great.

My NYC culture days reminded me how much I really do enjoy it – and miss living in London – though I never saw as much as I should have there. I just need to get out there and enjoy the theatre and ballet that come to Vancouver ... and get to New York more often!