Several months ago I learned that they had made a Broadway musical based on the full-length animated feature from 1997, Anastasia. I quickly scoured the dates that Anastasia the Musical was being shown at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City and learned that it would indeed overlap with one of my Philadelphia trips! I got a quick confirmation from my friend Danita that she was interested in seeing it and was available over a weekend I was in town, then booked us tickets for August 19th. We drove up Saturday morning after breakfast to park and drop stuff off at the hotel before we made our way over to the American Museum of Natural History.
This museum occupies a special place in my heart. I’ve always loved dinosaurs, and when I was a kid I visited my grandparents in north New Jersey. They brought my middle sister and I up to NYC for the first time and this museum is where I saw my first dinosaurs. My first impression? I thought they’d be bigger. Now, this was the 80s and since then we’ve learned much about dinosaurs, including discovering even larger ones that my kiddo self may have been more impressed with. During our visit this time I got to see the Titanosaur, a cast of a 122-foot-long dinosaur finally given the scientific name, Patagotitan mayorum just days before our visit. It was in a very large room, but it didn’t quite fit. In addition to wandering through the history of mammal fossils and more, we saw a show in the planetarium.
After the museum we stopped in to Heartland Brewery and Chophouse for beer and a huge pretzel snack and dessert before the show. It was a hot summer day in New York, so I was appreciative of the time we took to pause.
And then it was finally time for the evening show. Much waiting in line before finally getting into the theater. Inside the Broadhurst is lovely!
I hadn’t ready anything about the show before going in, so I wondered what they’d do about zombie Rasputin and his little bat sidekick. Turns out, they replaced them both with the more historically accurate and less fanciful Bolsheviks. It worked out well, and I totally have a crush on the Bolshevik general Gleb Vaganov. “The Neva Flows”? My new favorite song from the original cast recording!
After the show we grabbed another quick bite before a very late walk back to the InterContinential New York Barclay. On Sunday morning we enjoyed brunch at the nearby Lexington Brass before driving back down to Philadelphia. In all, an awesome weekend and allowed for a calm closing to my Sunday before getting back to work.
More photos from our weekend here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157685760317003