Kat had extra tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and asked if I wanted to go. I bought a bus ticket to NYC the next day and headed up to NYC the day after that. It was as simple as that!
8:00-10:00AM // I caught a bus into the city. Usually I travel to NYC with friends and have headphones in, so I never interact with strangers on the bus, but this time I went myself and I didn’t have my headphones in to listen to music or podcasts because I was trying to save my batteries (I had anticipated charging my phone on the bus, but the outlets at my seat weren’t powered on). And so, I found myself chatting with the stranger sitting next to me the whole way (by his instigation). At one point he found out I was around college age, he asked what year I was, I said I had actually graduated, then came the inevitable question of what I was interested in pursuing, I explained that I was a computer science and linguistics double major but was more interested in design, he told me I seemed stressed, I said it was because I was, and he reassured me that I didn’t need to be.
10:30AM // Kat and I didn’t have a plan for NYC except for lunch followed by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Part 1 followed by dinner followed by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Part 2. We’re both pretty jaded by NYC, except for shows and museums. To kill time before lunch, we browsed the Amazon Bookstore and had coffee, got bubble tea from Gong Cha in Koreatown, and sat at Greeley Square Park. When it finally came time for lunch, we headed back to Koreatown for Abiko Curry.
12:30PM // En route to NYC, I found out that Kathleen and Poonie, friends from both middle school and high school, were in NYC for the summer and the following year and rooming together! It’s so crazy to think how we all started in the same place, went off on separate adventures, and were now all in the same place again. Luckily both of them were free for lunch, so I invited them to join us. In the photo is Kathleen, me, Kat, Ann, and Poonie. After lunch, we said our goodbyes, and Kat, Ann, and I headed over to Lyric Theatre for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
2:00PM // I had read the playscript just two months ago, which made watching the play even more exciting. I heard that although most hardcore Harry Potter fans were apprehensive when reading the playscript, most still enjoyed watching the play because of special effects. And let me tell you, the special effects were so magical! Even though I knew it couldn’t be real magic and that it was all light play, it still felt magical. Kat, Ann, and I wondered if the audience in the balcony had the same magical experience from their angle as we did from ours, as we were sat in the Left Orchestra section, aka the first section of seats on the first floor! Another thing that added to the mystical feel was the soundtrack, which I loved. It reminded me of Rajaton, and I later found out that it was composed by Imogen Heap. In retrospect, I had recognised “Hide and Seek” used in the play. Interestingly enough, the Harry Potter main theme from the film was never used. Leaving the theatre, ushers handed out button pins as souvenirs.
4:45PM // The break between Part 1 and Part 2 was a perfect slot for dinner, but we weren’t very hungry, so we sought a place we could have a small snack at and sit at for awhile. On our stroll, I picked up my favourite honey roasted cashews from a Nuts 4 Nuts vendor, and then we found ourselves back in Koreatown at Grace Street. I got myself an iced Vietnamese coffee and we shared black sesame snow ice with condensed milk, mochi, red bean, and strawberry.
7:30PM // We got a second Playbill for Part 2, and leaving the theatre we got another button pin souvenir too! Kat, Ann, and I mused about how awful it would be to only see Part 1 or only see Part 2 or see them in reverse order. Thankfully we saw both parts (sat in the same seats too) and didn’t have to worry about that. Concluding thoughts: Moaning Myrtle and Scorpius Malfoy were my favourite. Myrtle’s voice transitioned between her high-pitched girly voice and aggressive/lustful groaning voice so perfectly and so like in the film. She’s the ultimate fangirl. And as for Scorpius, I actually didn’t like him so much at first because I thought that he was too much of a loud try-hard, whereas I had pictured him as a small, scrawny, meek character when I read the playscript, but as the play went on, he became my favourite dork. I almost felt like he had more of a role in the play than Albus did. I was also looking forward to Snape, but didn’t like how Snape spoke so fast in the play. To be fair, Alan Rickman did such a brilliant job and it’s unfair to compare.
I’ll be back in NYC on Wednesday, also for a show, this time for Dear Evan Hansen, again thanks to an extra ticket from Kat. I can’t wait!
Where would you go with 12 hours in NYC?
PS: a weekend in nyc (matilda & an american in paris), thanksgiving in nyc