Matt Doyle at Rockwood

Monday night, I headed down to the Lower East Side with my friend Chris to see Matt Doyle perform at Rockwood Music Hall. Matt is a singer-songwriter and Broadway performer, and I’ve been following his career for over five years. He got his start in Spring Awakening before moving on to Bye Bye Birdie and War Horse. He’s also been on Gossip Girl and starred in the film Private Romeo. Matt’s two EPs, Daylight and Constant, feature soulful and intimate songs that are based on his own experiences.

I’ve seen Matt perform many times, both on Broadway and in his own concerts, and every time I watch him, his talent blows me away. The harmony of the music and the emotion and power in his performance are both intoxicating. Matt is also incredibly sincere and grateful for those people (including me) who come out to see him again and again. He’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and I love going to support him in any endeavor he does. Check out some of the songs from Monday’s show below, with a special sighting of yours truly (the lime green in my shirt gives it away)!
 

Yesterday, Matt returned to Broadway as Elder Price in The Book of Mormon (AKA the hottest ticket on Broadway!), and I couldn’t be happier for him. It’s one of the most brilliant shows I’ve ever seen, and I know he’s going to be amazing! I’m going back to see the show again in January, and I can’t wait to see Matt's performance! Take a look at the new Elders courtesy of Matt's Instagram!

Cotton Club Parade: A Transforming Theatrical Experience

On Thursday, my friend Tim and I had the pleasure of attending a performance of Cotton Club Parade at New York City Center. The show is part of its Encores! program, which brings back very limited runs of classic musicals, and takes the audience into the world of 1920s jazz when Duke Ellington performed at the Cotton Club in Harlem. 

I initially bought the tickets so I could see Amber Riley perform in her New York stage debut. She’s best known as Mercedes Jones on Glee, and she has one of the most incredible voices I’ve ever heard. I’ve watched the show since the pilot and I’ve seen her live three times, but nothing prepared me for hearing her on Thursday. Amber was, in a word, FLAWLESS (the only word I ever really use to describe her). Her voice is perfect for the jazzy undertones and the soulfulness of the music, and her three songs were stunning. At one point towards the end of her first song, I leaned back into the headrest of my seat and just listened because I was so overwhelmed by the moment.

This overwhelming feeling carried me through the rest of the show. Before Thursday, I knew my way around 1920s jazz and Duke Ellington, but Cotton Club Parade served as my entrance into a new way to experience music. In my mind, the entire event was almost like a religious experience. The brassy music made me realize the transformative power jazz music has and the feeling of living in that world. I spent most of the show swaying in my seat and letting the drumbeats and horns pass through my body. That power was only emphasized by other outstanding performers like Adriane Lenox, Christopher Jackson (In The Heights), and Joshua Henry (American Idiot, The Scottsboro Boys). I left the theater feeling invigorated and energized. 

Our already fantastic evening got even better when we ran into Kevin McHale (AKA Artie Abrams, the kid in the wheelchair), who was there to support Amber and was sitting in the row behind us. Tim and I met Amber shortly after that, and both of them were really nice. Even though I’ve met or interacted with celebrities before, I was totally flustered and rendered speechless by the experience. It’s a completely different scenario when you’re talking to people you’ve watched on your television for almost four years (basically my entire span as a college student). If I ever met them again, I would tell them how amazingly talented they are instead of stumbling for words that were any bit meaningful. But aside from that, my time at Cotton Club Parade was outstanding. I was introduced to a brand new world of music and I got to meet two of my favorite celebrities. Not a bad way to end a pretty decent week!  

The Marvin Award – A New Family Tradition

It’s really amazing to me that Thanksgiving is eight days away, and I’m looking forward to spending the holiday watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and eating a ton of food with my family. This year, our Thanksgiving dinner will have a new family tradition – the presentation of the Marvin Award.

The Marvin Award is affectionately named for my 85-year-old grandfather, who is still sharp as a tack and plays golf once a week (although rumor has it he sometimes takes the golf cart where it doesn’t belong). The idea for the award jokingly came about because Grandpa leaves crumbs around his seat every time he eats. It got to the point where my mom started to put towels on his chair so he wouldn’t stain her dining room furniture!

This summer, we finally decided to make the Marvin Award a legitimate competition just before our first all-inclusive Levy family cruise. It quickly became a highlight of the vacation. As the week passed, my family created a set of rules to help us decide who the nightly winner would be. Here are some of them:

• You’re not allowed to clean the area surrounding your plates/personal space as you go. That’s cheating!
•  Bread causes a lot of problems in terms of messiness, so we had to think up new ways to avoid crumbs flying around the table. Some of us buttered the top of the roll instead of opening it up, and others (like me) held it over our plates and were extra careful.
• If a waiter showed up after the meal with a crumb catcher, we had to evaluate the standings before he or she cleaned up the table.
• If someone spilled something in your space while attempting to fill their plate, that’s your problem. It’s your mess!
• Should the server make a mess in your space, that also counts as your mess. My mom won the Marvin Award at a Brazilian steakhouse because the guy holding the meat made a mess around her plate.

Different family members have different opinions of the Marvin Award. My cousin Jillian and my dad are proud repeat winners (or offenders), but others (my aunt, for example) weren’t too pleased about winning. As for me, I ALMOST won the coveted trophy once, but then someone turned out to be messier than me that night. I have a feeling I’ll win it eventually, though. It seems that, without reminder, the trophy shows up at every family gathering, regardless of location.

The Marvin Award is really a no holds barred competition, but I hope no one assumes that this is all that happens at family gatherings. After a while, most of us forget that there’s an ongoing competition in the middle of dinner. Everything about it is all in good fun, and it’ll certainly make Thanksgiving that much more exciting this year!

Chasing Pavements: Post-Sandy Adventure on NJ Transit

Now that Sandy’s come and gone, I hope that everyone is safe from her wrath. My thoughts and prayers are with those who lost everything, and hopefully they can start rebuilding their lives. I was extremely fortunate, as my house was one of the few that didn’t lose power, even though most of my town is still without it.

I came home for the weekend so I could vote, so Monday I had to take New Jersey Transit into Manhattan to get to my internship. I’m a seasoned commuter and have never experienced anything but a minor delay with the trains. However, Hurricane Sandy threw the mass transportation system into a tailspin. It was probably one of the greatest travel adventures I’ve ever experienced!

The rails just eroded away on this track!

The train I normally take was down because of lack of power, rail damage, and fallen trees, so I had to travel two towns over to catch the 7:23 AM train to Secaucus, where I would transfer to get to Penn Station. Everything was running smoothly until we were almost at Secaucus; the train stopped for a good 40 minutes waiting its turn to feed into the station! When we were finally able to exit the train, we were met with hundreds of other people who were trying to accomplish the same transfer. After a series of unfulfilled promises and an hour of waiting, an empty train finally arrived to take us to New York.

An incredibly crowded Penn Station.

By the time I arrived at my internship, it had been exactly THREE HOURS from when I began my journey! Thankfully, the ride home was uneventful, but the entire morning was a stressful experience to say the least. I appreciate that New Jersey Transit tried to open up as many lines as they could, but I think they underestimated the demands that would be placed on the system.

So where does Adele’s song “Chasing Pavements” come in? Sometime between when the mysterious empty train that was promised to us for a good hour showed up and when it left the station, I realized that it was the perfect theme song for the day. I longed to escape the rails and tunnels that held me hostage for the morning. I’m pretty sure I had it on repeat for a good ten minutes on the ride into New York.