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Ba ba ba da ba ba ba ba da ba ba ba ba da ba ba. Oh my God. Hey, it's me, Mickie Jo Theatre everyone. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. If you're just meeting me now for the first time, I am a theatre critic, pundit and content creator based in the uk. But for the second time this year, I am so excited to tell you that I am going to be traveling to New York specifically to go and see a bunch of Broadway shows. So. So if you've been watching my videos for a few months, you will know that earlier this year, back in March specifically, I went to New York for the first time. This was my first time ever traveling on a long haul flight. My first time going to the us My first time traveling outside of Europe, which is particularly funny to think about because a few months later I ended up on a spontaneous flight to Brazil to go and see Wicked. But the start of this year, I was so excited to tell you that my stagey boyfriend, Aaron James and I were so excited to be planning our first ever trip together to New York City. And at the time, I was planning this like it was the trip of a lifetime. We went for two weeks, we ate so much amazing food, we saw over 20 different shows, we made some great lifelong friends. The whole thing was this incredible, incomparable experience. And certainly when we were planning it, I didn't think we would be able to go back anytime soon. However, something happened on that trip that basically meant we had to. But first, let me tell you about the sponsors of today's video skillshare. Skillshare is this incredible online learning community that allows its creative and curious members the opportunity to attain a wealth of new skills with thousands of online classes. Their aim is to make the creative life possible for everyone around the world. Skillshare offers classes in a wide range of topics, from graphic design, illustration and photography, to music, marketing and productivity. Skillshare also offers carefully crafted pathways that will take you from beginner skills to expert knowledge. Something which I think is particularly exciting for anyone looking to upskill one of their hobbies into a full creative career. For anyone interested in doing what I'm doing, they also offer courses in not only video creation for social media, but YouTube specifically. Personally, I was so excited to see that they offered specific classes in Adobe Premiere Pro as editing software. That's the software I use to edit all of these videos. It also happens to be a hugely advanced piece of software I knew I wasn't using to its full potential. And skillshare taught me techniques I was able to implement in some recent videos where I had to do a lot more editing. Some of the things that make skillshare unique is it offers a learn by doing approach to teaching where each member can create and share a project after completing a class, as well as the fact that it's an on demand platform with stackable lessons that allows members to learn at their own pace no matter the skill level. So if this has sparked your interest and you're ready to turn one of your passions into a prowess, click on the link in the Description. The first 1000 people to use it will get a one month free trial on Skillshare. Explore your creativity with Skillshare. Now, where were we? So you may remember that on one day of our two weeks in New York, we traveled over to Governors island to participate in the Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS Spring Fling 5k race, an amazing charity event that you all helped me raise over $10,000 for, which made me biggest fundraiser of the event and meant I got first choice of an amazing selection of prizes. Erin and I talked about it and we reviewed all of the prizes that were options and I don't think I've told anyone this publicly before, but the one we ended up picking was a one night stay in Margaritaville Times Square. This is a resort style hotel. It's tropical, they serve a lot of margaritas, RIP Jimmy Buffett. By the way, it's possible the vibe of that hotel may have changed in the recent days, but we won this one night stay and it's valid for any day within the calendar year of 2023, basically guaranteeing that if we wanted to use it we would have to go back the same year. Which is kind of why we picked that prize because we were like this will force us to make a return trip and then we actually have to do it. We knew there were a couple of shows coming in the autumn, the fall that we wanted to see, so that was a great way of committing ourselves to a return to Broadway. And we're both so excited about it now. Last time when I announced that I was going, I did. So I think about two months before we flew. This time around, I'm telling you, two weeks before we fly, or just over two weeks. We are flying out for another two week stay at the end of this month. We were planning on doing a shorter trip this time around, but then just more and more things got added to it. So we're going for exactly the same amount of time that we went for earlier this year and I'm not mad about that whatsoever and neither should you be because there is so much content coming on this trip. If you think the last time we we wanted to reserve a certain amount of it for just us experiencing New York for the first time, obviously. I made vlogs here on my channel. If you haven't seen those already, you can go watch those. I reviewed a bunch of shows this time around. We've had that kind of awestruck thing and we know a lot more about the city and we've been able to make a lot more plans. So this one we're considering much more of a work trip. Aaron's going to be working internationally like he did the last time anyway, but. But I have lots of video ideas of stuff I want to film specifically in New York. So much Broadway based content, seeing hopefully just as many shows as we did on the last trip and bringing you even more reviews. So there is so much for you to look forward to here on my channel and I am so excited to share it with you. I thought briefly about not even announcing it this time around and just showing up on Broadway and like doing a live or dropping a video to be like, by the way, we're back in New York, kind of like I did when I went to Sao Paulo. But I'm sharing this video for a very good reason, which is on both of my international trips this year, I've had messages from people after I left saying, oh, I wish I'd known in advance that you were going to be here. So this is me putting it out there for anyone who wants to see us while we're in New York, for any producers who want to get in touch, PR people, whatever it may be. We are going to be in New York for two weeks at the beginning of October. Message me, email me mickeyjotheatremail.com get in touch. If you want to set anything up, I'm available to go and see shows and review shows, to go to events, press events, workshops, whatever it may be, interview opportunities with performers, creatives, whoever you may be. Very excited to make myself as useful as possible to the theatre industry and the Broadway community while I am there. So for those of you who are just excited about the content, let me tell you about some of the shows I'm specifically planning to see this time around and the one show that basically forced me to go back. So some of you have guessed this already and some of you have asked me on Lives and I've either kind of skirted around the question because I wanted to reveal it when the time was right or I've just pretended I didn't see you asking the question. There is a musical taking place in New York very soon that has forced me to go back to the city. I am talking about the last ever Stephen Sondheim musical. Here we are. So this is the last show that he was working on prior to his death. It's going to be premiering later this month at the Shed, which is an Off Broadway venue at the top of the High Line, I believe. I think we walked past it. And while I have seen a European premiere of a Sondheim show before, because I saw Roadshow at the Menier, I have never had the chance to see a world premiere of a Sondheim show. And now that sadly he's no longer with us, I will never get that chance again. So I could not pass this up. Stephen Sondheim, if you don't know, is my almighty. He is, in my mind, the greatest musical theatre composer, lyricist, I think of all time. And relative to a lot of Broadway prices, including other Sondheim shows that are currently on and are going to be opening soon, I didn't think ticket prices for this were that bad. So when it went on sale, you best believe I bought a pair of tickets and we are going to be seeing it in New York. I'm so excited. I'm beside myself, honestly with excitement about that one. Shout out to everyone who specifically asked me on Live if I was going to go and see that show. Of course I'm going to see that show. I'm not missing this. I also think that that might be a hilarious night to use our one night stay at Margaritaville because I don't know if anyone else in the world is like seeing the new Sondheim musical world premiere and then staying at Margaritaville. I just don't know if that's a combination of things that will ever be done by anyone else in the history of time, honestly. But that is not the only Sondheim musical that is going to in New York, because another show that's about to transfer to Broadway is the revival of Merrily We Roll along, starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendes. And I will be there if it kills me. Tickets for this one are a little bit more elusive. I'm gonna reach out and see if I can get there in an official press capacity, but candidly, I doubt that that's going to be possible. Same thing I had earlier this year for Sweeney Todd. It was right when it was opening. It was super popular. Everyone wants to go and see this show and I'm considerably less important to than a lot of the loftier critics, which is fine, which is to be expected. But I will be seeing Merrily if it kills me. So we may have to shell out four super expensive tickets. I'm willing to spend a lot of money on this show because it's Merrily We Roll along, which is one of my favourite Sondheim musicals. I know it's not the most acclaimed of his work. I've also been lucky enough to see this revival before when Maria Friedman first directed it at the Menier Chocolate Factory like a decade ago. So very excited to see it again and who could say no to this cast? I'm so excited about getting to see Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff on stage. Erin is the biggest Lindsay Mendes fan from her days vlogging for Broadway.com in Wicked, so we're both going to want to see that show and honestly the timing of those two is what really started to make us feel like we would inevitably have to plan another trip to New York. But there are a lot of other very exciting things happening simultaneously. Gutenberg is a new musical that's about to start previews starring Andrew Reynolds and Josh Gadd reuniting them from the original Broadway cast of the Book of Mormon. I know very little about this, but I am super intrigued about it, so I'm going to be trying to see that while I'm over as well. I think that one has its official opening night while we're there, much like Bad Cinderella opened while we were on our trip last time. I will say it feels a lot more positive to have a visit being motivated by a show I am really excited about in a positive way, I. E. The new Sondheim musical rather than my March trip, which was really necessitated by Bad Cinderella, which I was excited to go and see, but not necessarily for the right reasons. And while I'm on that topic, shows I'm sad to have missed on Broadway because they opened and closed in between my two visits this year, Grey House and also the Britney musical Once Upon a One More Time. I heard fun campy things about it and it had really cool merch that I wanted to buy. But back to the shows I will be seeing, there is also Here Lies Love. I didn't see this when it was at the National Theatre here in London, but I am so excited to go and hopefully get standing tickets. I like a semi immersive kind of a staging. What they've done to the Broadway Theatre looks super cool. It's turned into this disco dance floor situation. There are so many shows doing a similar kind of pseudo immersive thing right now in London with the revival of Cabaret and Guys and Dolls. So very intrigued to see Broadway's answer to this growing craze. But we are not just planning on seeing musicals. Oh no, there are a couple of new plays we're also very intrigued about. Pearly Victorious, I think has just started previews. This is star Lesley Odom Jr. And again, I know very little about this play but I'm already hearing great, great things. So particularly excited for that one. Also Jar Jar's African hair braiding and the Cottage, which has this amazing all star cast and supposed to be very funny. And much like our previous trip earlier this year, we're going to be looking at some Off Broadway shows as well. There's this new Dracula comedy that's just opened at the New World Stages. Any excuse to go back to the New World Stages. Erin and I will be right there. Andrew Keenan Bolger is starring in it. Big fan of his. Never had the chance to see him on stage. Honestly, is it really a trip if you're not seeing an ex Newsies cast member in something? And also this is potentially very embarrassing. But up there with my most anticipated shows is the Sesame street musical Off Broadway. This is coming back. It wasn't open when we were there earlier this year and we were honestly devastated about that. But it is going to be open in October. So excited to go and make friends on Sesame Street. They have a dangerous amount of merch because I might leave that theater having bought all of those plush toys. Honestly, you all know what I'm like. This is very possible. I love the Muppets. Both of us love the Muppets. I love puppets. I love the Sesame street characters. I'm so excited about this show. I'm not above a little bit of childhood nostalgia. I'm very much excited about this. And it's the same producers of the Winnie the Pooh musical that we love so much here in the uk. Now, speaking of Off Broadway, obviously we're trying to see as many new shows as possible and those are the ones I'm going to be reviewing here on my channel. As long as they are out of previews and I'm able to actually review them officially. But since our trip, Erin and I have also talked about which shows we would want to go back to if we had the chance. And because we do want to prioritize new stuff and stuff that's going to be in contention for next year's Tony Awards. We try to limit this and so there are just five shows that we loved so much we would go back. I'm gonna let you guess which ones they might be now based on what we said we liked when we were in New York last time. They are Titanique and Little Shop of Horrors, both off Broadway. Both have a lot of exciting new cast members since the last time we went. Meanwhile, on Broadway we have the revival of Sweeney Todd that I enjoyed last time but was so busy analysing I didn't really get to drink it all in. So I want another chance to see that production, especially if it's not necessarily going to come to the uk, even though it should. Another one which hasn't announced any plans to transfer this year's Tony Award winning best musical, Kimberly Akimbo, which we loved, and of course Shucked, which is coming to the uk. But we love it so, so much. We can't go to New York and not see Shucked. And then schedule permitting, believe it or not, there is space for a few more shows after all of the above. We might try and tick another couple of long runners off the list. So in March we saw Chicago and we saw Moulin Rouge and Hadestown. This time around I would like to finally see Aladdin. Unbelievably, I never saw Aladdin when it was at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, but it's now become a long runner on Broadway. It's been open for a really long time and it's at the New Amsterdam Theatre, which is a venue both of us just really want to see. We've heard amazing things. We learned a lot about its incredible history while we were at the Museum of Broadway. And once again, they do do really great merch. You can buy the merch from Aladdin. I believe in a couple of other places. I think they sell parts of it at Theatre Circle and like at the Museum of Broadway gift shop they have some stuff. Also one Shubert Alley as well, I believe, but it's not quite the same experience as seeing the show. And apparently the Broadway version of Aladdin is a fuller staging than the version that we're about to have touring around the uk. And then something that we were really close to seeing last time but didn't quite get the chance is 6. Now if you know me, you will know that I love six. I've been seeing this show many times since I first saw it at the Edinburgh Fringe in a giant purple inflatable cow and I think it would be the best ending of that arc of its success, to get to see it at the Lena Horn Theatre on Broadway, because this show has come from these humble beginnings and achieved so much. It has gone on to this global domination and I have to go see it on Broadway. It has to be done. Unbelievably, I have a few more shows planned alongside that things that might take me a little bit out of New York. I don't want to tell you all of them because they might not happen. They're kind of just vague plans at this exact moment in time and I don't want to get you excited about something if I can't necessarily deliver. However, I will say we're really going to try and see in some capacity the Great Gatsby at Paper Mill Playhouse, which is going to be starring Broadway favourites Ava Noblezada and Jeremy Jordan as well as a very exciting supporting cast who have recently been announced. This show starts previews on the last day that we are free to go and see a show. I need to organise all of the logistical stuff, but hopefully we will get a chance to see that. And if I do manage to pull off all of the other theatre schemes I am working on, then New Jersey might be one of three other states that we visit on our trip. I will let you guess in the comment section below what the others might be, but those officially are all of the shows that we're considering seeing on this next New York trip. If there's anything I haven't mentioned that you would like for me to review that I've never reviewed before here on my channel, pop it in the comments down below. Let me know what shows you want me to see on Broadway. I'm hoping this time around we won't feel like we have to spend all of our time doing stuff in the city. So I'll be able to get a few more reviews out. I'll be able to get the reviews out a little bit faster. I'll be doing more first impressions videos for channel members. I didn't do as many of those as I wanted to do last time because we were so busy before and after shows every night. But you will also be getting even more vlog content. So I'm still going to be making vlogs around the trip here on my channel, but my lovely, wonderful stagey boyfriend Aaron James has recently relaunched his YouTube channel and is making specific theatre trip vlogs. So hopefully every show we see in New York there will be a specific theatre trip vlog over on his channel as well. So you can see for specific shows what it's like going to that theater, what kind of merch they have. We'll try some of the themed cocktails. All the same stuff we were doing last time, but in separate videos for each show, which I'm hoping makes it easier for people to find. So if you haven't already, make sure to go and head over to Aaron James YouTube channel and subscribe to him so you don't miss out on any of those videos. Now, I said that those are all of the the shows that we're seeing. But there is one other big theatrical event that coincides with our trip. I am talking about the Broadway Flea Market. And we came so close to accidentally telling you that we were going to this a few weeks ago on YouTube live. I think someone literally said, like, oh, you should totally go to the Broadway Flea Market. You'd love it. And at this point, we'd already, like, booked the flights. We knew we were going to be there. We'd made extensions of plans about it. We'd done all of our research, we had chatted with friends who were also going to be there. But because we weren't ready to divulge all of this yet, we had to play dumb and be like, I don't even know what time of year it is. When is the Broadway Flea Market? I forgot that was a thing. We totally didn't. We're totally going to be there. I'm very excited to tell you about it. So if you have no idea, the Broadway Flea Market is another event for BCEFA Broadway Cares. It's a massive charity fundraiser where shows and performers and closed shows will be selling a bunch of exciting limited edition things that you can buy and help raise money for charity. And given how much I love the West End Flea Market, which is significantly smaller, I feel like not only are we going to have a great time documenting this, because I'm going to be there with my vlogging camera showing you as much of it as I can. I feel like we could spend a dangerous amount of money on Broadway merch already. I barely fit everything in our two suitcases coming back last time. I have no idea how much space we're going to need coming back from the Broadway Flea Market. I may just take an empty suitcase to Broadway and wear the same outfit every day. Honestly, like, you know, I'm practically not going to do that because I like dressing up for shows too much. But I probably should. I really probably should. So if you're also planning to Be at the Broadway Flea Market, comment down below, let me know, get in touch, message me, email me and hopefully I will see you there. And if you do see us at any point in New York, give us an oh my God hey and come and say hello. Speaking of which, last time we had this amazing meetup, we didn't know how many people were going to be there, but we had this fantastic turnout. It was so great speaking to all of you. For those of you who were at the meetup earlier this year in Central park, hopefully we'll get to do another one again on this trip, ideally with some other content creators. Again, as far as when and where it will be, keep an eye on my socials over on the X that used to be Twitter, on Instagram, on threads because a lot of our day to day plans are still a little bit up in the air and it would be a good idea to wait for things like a weather forecast. So we will try and do a meetup again, but bear with me for the exact details. What else did I have to tell you? I've made no notes on my phone so I don't forget things. Ah, we've arrived at my favourite section. So this is a part of the video that I like to call food. I'm excited to eat because while I am thrilled about going to see Broadway shows, just thrilled about being in New York, I would be lying if I told you that the first thing we talked about after booking flights wasn't all of the New York food we were going to eat. So some of these are places we went to last time that I've been desperate to go back to and scarcely stopped thinking about. Others are places that we didn't get the chance to go to, like Ellen's Stardust Diner. So we've been to the Theatre Cafe Diner which recently opened here in London, but we are very aware that Ellen's Stardust Diner is the iconic musical theatre themed diner with singing waitstaff. I've seen so many great clips of this on socials and I feel like we absolutely have to go on this trip. We planned to the last time. We kept moving it to different days and then it just didn't end up happening. But this time hopefully we will head to Ellen Stardust Diner and I will try and do a vlog of it for the channel as well. If you have no idea what this venue is like and want to learn more about it. Places that we did go to last time that I'm excited to return to, Magnolia Bakery I think is where I had this amazing, like banana pudding thing that they're famous for. It was near Rockefeller Plaza and I discovered this way too late in our New York trip because I became obsessed with it. Similarly, black and white cookies. Oh my gosh, we loved these. And when we were at the meetup up, someone, some amazing person brought Aaron some gluten free black and white cookies and now we can't work out where they came from. If this was you, first of all, thank you so much. That's such a thoughtful and lovely thing to do. Second of all, where did they come from? We will be going back to the Hershey's store to get Aaron another giant Reese's Pieces peanut butter cup because I have never seen him happier in his life than when he was eating that. He's also learned to get one of those at the start of the trip because grazing on it will last him two weeks. Of course, I'm very excited about all of the New York pizza options. We went to Joe's Pizza last time and it was like 3am after we went with friends to Marie's Crisis and I didn't have a slice and only afterwards did I find out that Joe's Pizza is like iconic. So this time around I feel like I need to try Joe's Pizza. We also want to go back to Emmy Squared pizza. This is not really iconic New York pizza, but it was delicious and gluten free. Finally, you are not doing Broadway right if you don't hit up Schmackery iconic cookie place that does a rotating cycle of flavours so they're going to have different choices than when we were there in March. I'm so excited and one of the greatest spots on the planet, Junior's Cheesecake. I am so ready to have more different types of Junior's Cheesecake. I can't even tell you if we're going to Kimberly Akimbo again. We can get Junior's Cheesecake right after because it's right next to the Booth Theatre where that show is. But also, realistically, we will just walk to Julia's Cheesecake from wherever we're seeing a show on Broadway because it's that good. But I feel like that's everything that I have to tell you about this upcoming New York trip. I haven't started packing yet. I haven't even bought the suitcase that I want to take with me because we need to buy bigger suitcases so we have as much space as possible pre flea market purchases. I want to buy a new pair of shoes to walk around the city in. I haven't even really checked what the weather is going to be like. It's occurring to me right now in this moment. I have lot of planning to do and I have a lot of stuff to sort out here in London and a lot of other events to go to in the meantime. But I'm so excited and I'm so glad that I get to talk to you guys about it now because keeping this secret has been killing me. People from other parts of the world who have been messaging me and telling me that we should come to your countries as well. Australians. Don't worry, I see you. I am still working on it. But I do want to say thank you everyone for watching all of the Broadway videos that I made the last time because basically the success of those means that if that's an ongoing thing, we can hopefully keep returning to New York regularly multiple times a year in order to review all the shows over there and keep making Broadway content, the idea of which is really one of the great joys of getting to do this YouTube channel full time and something I had dreamed about but certainly didn't think would happen this quickly. So thank all of you again for watching these videos and making that possible. Finally, if you are a New York based content creator and want to do anything collaborative, let me know. If you are working with any shows, doing any kind of influencer marketing, get in touch. Right now my schedule is full in terms of the shows I want to see, but in terms of actually nailing things down and getting things confirmed, it's a little bit sparser and I certainly have a lot of time in the daytimes as well. So I'm very open to content pitches and if you're just excited to watch these videos as a viewer, let me know what kind of New York content you want to see. Do you want to see us doing challenge videos running around Broadway? Do you want to see tours of different theatres in the New York area? Let me know any and all Broadway video requests that you have for this channel. Thank you so much for watching today's video. I hope that you've enjoyed, I hope you are as excited as I am about this upcoming Broadway content here on Mickey Jo Theatre and I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Micky Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watch watching have a Stagey Day. Subscribe.