Theresa Heskins (New Vic Artistic Director) blogs direct from the bright lights of Broadway where Around The World In 80 Days is taking to the stage…
Around The World in 80 Days opens in New York’s Theatre District later this month. Theresa Heskins writes from the first day in the Big Apple with the company of the New Vic’s much-loved show…
Despite fears that our journey would be like the play, we all arrived safely in New York. And are surprised to discover it’s just like on telly and film. There are traffic enforcement officers in white gloves whistling and waving traffic; there is steam coming up through vents in the sidewalk; there are endless bagels to be eaten; Times Square is like that first scene in Blade Runner with all the massive adverts (but no flying cars yet). Surprising things so far have been the lack of supermarkets on street corners (there is a business opportunity here for Tesco, I feel) and how courteous everyone is.
Our theatre is right in the thick of it: we have Wicked and Aladdin opposite us, and Harry Potter is our next door neighbour. Everything is up in lights, LED billboards as far as the eye can see, and as we walked down 42nd Street we were thrilled to discover that includes us. Our theatre, the New Victory, has an LED announcement blazing round it’s canopy, announcing:
Around the World in 80 Days
From Newcastle-under-Lyme, England
We all feel really proud to be representing our area and the New Vic here.
The theatre itself is New York’s oldest continuously operating theatre, it’s ornate and gorgeous, but has also been very well modernised backstage.
Today we embark on technical rehearsals for the show, and hopefully will surface 14 hours from now hopefully having got through act one.
I wish we could have bought all our audiences with us to experience our much-loved show on international shores and see ‘Newcastle-under-Lyme’ up in lights on 42nd Street!