"When You're Home" (IN THE HEIGHTS)

Magical is how I would describe this year's birthday. There was nothing that I had not done before--dinner with friends, a little karaoke over the weekend, and I knew I would take in a show on my actual birthday but it was the show that made it so special. On my 30th birthday, I had asked 12 friends to help me with the ticket lottery for the musical WICKED which has been a sell-out show since it opened. The lottery for that show attracted hundreds of people so I thought I would increase my odds and have 12 friends put their name in the drawing. Well, we came up empty-handed and I ended up not seeing a show at all that birthday, I called it an early evening on my 30th birthday. Quite sad.

Fast forward four years and you have today, my 34th birthday. I enjoyed a wonderful dinner celebration with friends this past Saturday and received many messages sending best regards through websites, emails, phone calls, and voicemails. I was thinking of what show I should see, basically a favorite that brings me great joy, such as Hairspray, Altar Boyz, or Spring Awakening. Broadway is a lifeline that puts me in a special place where emotions run high and escapism can be achieved. But a new show has come from the horizon to take most of my attention--IN THE HEIGHTS. I saw it a few weeks back from the front row through the ticket lottery they held where everyone basically won a ticket because not that many people had shown up. I loved the show and returned a couple of weeks later after a couple of lost chances at the lottery by buying one of the cheap tickets which put me in the last row of the theatre in the rear mezzanine section, second seat from the wall. Again, I found new things to love about this show and appreciate it even more.

So today I was bouncing around ideas of which show to see but I really wanted to see ITH again even though I had just seen it last Thursday. That was how powerful the show had stayed with me from the music to the choreography to the design elements to the amazing performances. This well-received new musical was becoming a big word of mouth hit and tickets were getting harder and harder to come by. The ticket lottery is a cheap way to see it but you take that risk and hope for the best. My co-workers said they would help me with the lottery so I figured I would give it a shot and be prepared with a back-up plan if I didn't get a ticket. I got 10 friends AGAIN to put their name in the drawing where there were about 70 other people trying their luck in this ticket lottery and I must be cursed or something because AGAIN I did not get a ticket. I was a little disappointed but not surprised and I'm sure the look on my face was more of an indication of disappointment. So I thanked my friends for trying and I headed back to the office.

Since it was a Tuesday night, a lot of shows had early curtains (7pm) so I wasn't even able to find out if other possible shows had any tickets left. It looked like I was going to have a repeat performance of my 30th birthday. After sulking for a few minutes, I looked online to see if ITH even had any tickets available. They had full price tickets available but I thought that was out of the question. See I have only ever paid full price for a theatre ticket twice before and that was 7 years ago, they were momentous occasions in my theatre history--the final performance of Heather Headley in AIDA and the final performance of MISS SAIGON. After a few more minutes, I kept trying to rationalize paying the $110 ticket price (I see a lot of shows through comps and mostly do either SRO or rush to see my favorites). Then it finally hit--it was my birthday so why not just treat myself. So I went to the box office and said that if they had a decent ticket then I would pay the big price. They had a single seat on the sixth row in the middle of the row, it was a true heavenly sign. So I bought the ticket and was ready for the show.

When I got to the theatre, I took my seat and could not believe the amazing view I had of the stage, it couldn't get any better, eye-level with the stage. I kept admiring the simple set design and going through my pre-theatre ritual--prayer of thanks for an amazing opportunity to see my beloved Broadway. The show started and laughter, joy, and tears flowed throughout the show, reminding me of the transformative power of theatre. At the final scene, the leading man, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is also the composer and lyricist, had tears in his eyes and I was happy to have taken the last two hour journey with him. ITH is my new highly-recommended show.

It was a magical night on Broadway to celebrate my birthday.