I made another trip to NYC! Like last time, Kat had an extra Broadway ticket, this time for Dear Evan Hansen. Back when we were roomies, I remember there was a period of time when she would wake up playing the soundtrack, which is how I first learned about the show. And now we would finally get to see it for ourselves! But before the show, I made a stop at The Met. Georgina’s mom Barbara had been inviting us (“the squad”) to visit her at The Met for years (we’ve stayed at their apartment for the last three Thanksgivings!), but I never got around to it. Until now!
11:00AM // Upon arriving in NYC by bus, I bought a Metrocard and hopped on the metro, determined to make it to The Met as quickly as I could. According to Google Maps, it would be five stops on the C and a short stroll through Central Park. At the fourth stop, I got up from my seat to prepare to get off at the next stop. Behind me, I noticed that the lady I was sitting next to had taken up conversation with the small group of people I was now standing next to. One of them was wearing a Lorde Melodrama tour shirt. The lady was asking the person wearing that shirt about it, saying that she was curious because she didn’t recognise it and she was Lorde’s sister. Ummm, I was sitting next to Lorde’s sister on the metro?? As I got off the metro, the group of people had plopped themselves down where I sat and were excitedly snapping a selfie.
12:00PM // Because I knew that Poonie was free in NYC this summer, I invited her to visit The Met with me. I arrived earlier than her so I waited outside on the steps, reading Final Girls by Riley Sager and munching on raw bars and dried mangoes. Because I never really know what to do in NYC, I really enjoy slow moments like this, where I can sit somewhere for an extended period of time, read a book, and dip in and out of the city. I’d take sitting in one place over running all around NYC any day! Having to weave through slow walkers is the most frustrating thing.
12:30PM // Barbara met us at the reception, and the first thing she pointed out were the domes in the ceiling. We would be going right above that ceiling to tour the imaging studio! She showed us so many cool things, but there were four things that especially stuck out to me.
First, she explained how The Met believes in documenting artworks as objectively as possible. One of the implications of that is that they don’t believe in going back to photos and colour correcting them, because that process could be influenced by our own cultural biases and then not accurately represent the culture from which the art came. Rather, they believe in calibrating their cameras with targets so that the photos they take are colour correct and don’t then need to be colour corrected.
Second, we got a look at the process of colour restoring an Asian tapestry. Tapestries are photographed from the front and back. When looking at the back of tapestries, it was discovered that the backs show so much more of the original vibrance of the tapestries, because they hadn’t been as exposed as the fronts were. So to digitally restore colour to a tapestry, colours are identified from the photo of the back of the tapestry, and then layered onto the photo of the front of the tapestry.
Third, we were shown some photogrammetry projects in the works, i.e. creating photographic 3D models of buildings and artifacts. The processing power required of these projects is huge because so many photos are taken, and each photo is incredibly detailed, which means several large files. In fact, The Met isn’t always able to process all their data, but they document everything anyway and save it for when technology catches up.
Fourth, we got to take a look at a few stone bifaces out of exhibition. I personally don’t know very much art history (okay fine, I don’t know any) or history in general, so there was a lot of explaining to be done for me. Because the particular collection of stone bifaces we were looking at were so large and had such precise edges, it was determined that these were not practical tools, but could have been sculptures. They were in awe about how those stone bifaces looked like beautiful modern sculptures. To be honest, if they hadn’t said that, I would have just been like, “cool rock!” I’m glad I had people around me who could teach me how to properly appreciate it!
2:30PM // By the time the tour ended, Poonie and I were starving. Neither of us had lunch prior to The Met, so it wasn’t surprising. We decided to dip out of The Met, grab a quick bite, and then come back to look at the exhibitions; the ticket Barbara nabbed for us let us go in and out of The Met for three days. After a quick Yelp, we found Cafe Sabarsky, a German-Austrian cafe with two dollar signs. We should have known that two dollar signs in NYC means more than two dollar signs in any other city. Poonie and I each ordered our own drink, and we also ordered one of their cheapest sausages and one of their desserts to share. When the sausages arrived, we looked at each other for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. They were $14. Just the sausages. I mean, and the small bread basket.
3:30PM // Then it was back to The Met!
We had seen a photo of “Ugolino and His Sons” by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux in the imaging studio, so it was cool to see it on exhibit in the European sculpture court. I’m always fascinated by soft shapes captured in hard materials.
Around the corner was the Arts of Oceania exhibit, and as soon as Poonie and I saw the “Skull Hook (Agiba),” we burst out laughing. It’s my favourite! Only someone who defeated an enemy could carve one of those sculptures, and at its “feet,” enemy skulls would be placed.
And of course, we had to check out the Heavenly Bodies exhibit. The background music they played was epic and I was all. for. it. Besides the incredibly ornate gowns, I also really appreciated how particularly the curators chose the wigs for each mannequin.
5:30PM // We were nowhere through with The Met, but it came time for dinner with Kat, Ann, and Kevin. We chose Yiwanmen and it was so good! It’s a small Taiwanese restaurant (though located in Little Italy) and I had myself a bowl of braised beef noodle. The beef was so soft. I kept saying to everyone, “omg the beef is so soft! Is yours soft? It’s so soft!”
On a sidenote, there’s so much around Little Italy! Like, all the Instagram spots! Cha Cha Matcha! Milk & Cream Cereal Bar! But we had just finished dinner and I was sooooo full. Otherwise I definitely would have hit up Cha Cha Matcha.
8:00PM // I’ve listened to the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack several times, and I don’t mean just in the background; I really listened for the words to try to discern the plot and imagine the show in my head. But it was a new experience watching them performed. I thought I knew what was going to happen, but I never could have predicted the emotions. The theatre was filled with sniffles. I was trying so hard to hold my tears back, but when it came to “Words Fail,” I couldn’t anymore. I didn’t sniffle though! Just a small stream of tears.
Taylor Trensch (playing Evan Hansen) wasn’t the best singer but he absolutely smashed “Words Fail,” which makes me think that he’s actually a great singer and could be as technically on point for the other songs as he was for “Words Fail” if he practised his vocal control a little more. Before the show, Kat told me that she was really looking forward to Taylor Trensch, giving me a heads up that although he’s not the best singer, he’s a great actor. He could totally be both!
My second favourite song was “Sincerely, Me.” It was so playful, which you can get a taste of from the soundtrack, but with the choreography it’s hilarious!
As for the production overall, it was quite simple, especially after watching Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was super extravagant. Kat and I wondered if we would have noticed the simplicity of the set if we hadn’t watched Harry Potter and the Cursed Child just a week ago. Despite the simplicity, the stage did feel a little cluttered. Technology and social media plays a bit of the role in the show, so imagine some of those screens projected in the background. However, we understood the symbolism of that, especially when it got to the end of the show. It could have been executed better, but it was still a fantastic show overall. The most important thing was the feels. “Words Fail” is reason enough to see it ╥﹏╥
What’s your favourite Broadway show? What show have you been wanting to watch?
PS: 12 hours in nyc (harry potter and the cursed child), a weekend in nyc (matilda & an american in paris), thanksgiving in nyc