Fair warning, this blog is a bit of a cop out while I avoid actually writing about Angels. But it occurred to me as I was writing a review blog about The Destiny of Me that actually it was worth writing about the trip to New York as a whole. Because unlike normal holidays, this turned into something of a pilgrimage.
My "journey" for want of a better word to my PhD and therefore with Angels, is very much tied up with New York City, and my relationship with theatre, both with Broadway and Angels. I'm also, in my research slightly obsessed with theatre and place- both the physical theatre spaces, and the 'ghosts' of shows past, and the fictional physical places of these plays.
My PhD then was dominated by Angels in America and Rent, both plays which are tied to New York as a place. Both filled with places I've been able to visit in the 'real world' over the years, and both with places that no longer exist either (such is the world, and New York). Theatres related to them also have become fond memories, filled with their own ghosts. I've not yet set foot in the Nederlander since Rent moved, more by default than design, but it will be an odd day when I do.
My journey to loving theatre, and to these plays is tied to a trip to New York with my Mum. So returning, with her to Angels was important. It was actually our first solo trip together. In mid December of 2003, and we went to the TKTS booth in Times Square, and because Mum had seen Hugh Jackman on TV talking about it, booked for The Boy From Oz. My obsession with that show is best documented another day. But that show made me fall in love with musical theatre, and so theatre in the broader sense. I became a Broadway kid, posting on message boards, hoarding information and dreaming of my next New York trip. Boy from Oz was also my first 'AIDS play'. (it being about Peter Allen, who died of AIDS). My thoughts on it as an AIDS play, again are another piece.
Broadway became an obsession, and also my gateway into the world of theatre.
But also New York. And so this trip became a bit of a pilgrimage for both theatre, and the history of the epdidemic I'd studied, been immersed in and become an activist of sorts through. All these stories and histories of my life and the lives I'd studied.
Always a little bit stagey, we tried to go to the Natrual History Museum (failed, crowds, kids ugh) but the whole way there I was singing 'Can we go see the Dinosaurs' from The Last Five Years.
The day after seeing Angels
My "journey" for want of a better word to my PhD and therefore with Angels, is very much tied up with New York City, and my relationship with theatre, both with Broadway and Angels. I'm also, in my research slightly obsessed with theatre and place- both the physical theatre spaces, and the 'ghosts' of shows past, and the fictional physical places of these plays.
My PhD then was dominated by Angels in America and Rent, both plays which are tied to New York as a place. Both filled with places I've been able to visit in the 'real world' over the years, and both with places that no longer exist either (such is the world, and New York). Theatres related to them also have become fond memories, filled with their own ghosts. I've not yet set foot in the Nederlander since Rent moved, more by default than design, but it will be an odd day when I do.
My journey to loving theatre, and to these plays is tied to a trip to New York with my Mum. So returning, with her to Angels was important. It was actually our first solo trip together. In mid December of 2003, and we went to the TKTS booth in Times Square, and because Mum had seen Hugh Jackman on TV talking about it, booked for The Boy From Oz. My obsession with that show is best documented another day. But that show made me fall in love with musical theatre, and so theatre in the broader sense. I became a Broadway kid, posting on message boards, hoarding information and dreaming of my next New York trip. Boy from Oz was also my first 'AIDS play'. (it being about Peter Allen, who died of AIDS). My thoughts on it as an AIDS play, again are another piece.
Broadway became an obsession, and also my gateway into the world of theatre.
But also New York. And so this trip became a bit of a pilgrimage for both theatre, and the history of the epdidemic I'd studied, been immersed in and become an activist of sorts through. All these stories and histories of my life and the lives I'd studied.
Always a little bit stagey, we tried to go to the Natrual History Museum (failed, crowds, kids ugh) but the whole way there I was singing 'Can we go see the Dinosaurs' from The Last Five Years.
The day after seeing Angels
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