This seems so long ago now, but I will try and remember it!
Shock and horror, we actually did something different this day. We crawled out of bed at a time that I do not remember (I think probably like 11:00, actually) and instead of times square, we went to central park. Now, I expected central park to be big. I don't think I expected it to be HUGE. I mean, I had heard that is was really, really big, but really, it's ridiculously so. I also didn't expect it to have things like castles inside of it.
It was much more over grown than I thought it would be too. Some of it seemed almost rainforest-like. I imagined it was going to be more like a really (REALLY) big rich suburban lawn. Mown grass, trees that are cut down very frequently, concrete paths, that sort of thing. Some bits were, yes, but there was a fair chunk that seemed to have been left alone. there were still clear paths everywhere, but sections were fenced off and were wild.
Something that may be baffling to my American friends is the amount of excitement I felt when I saw my FIRST SQUIRREL EVER. THEY ARE SO FLIPPING ADORABLE I JUST WANT TO TAKE ONE HOME. I'll be able to pass it through customs as a cat, right? Many photos and videos were taken. I heard someone passing by say "What are they filming? Oh, it's a squirrel" and then they kept walking. I don't understand. I still get excited about our wildlife! Even if I see it every day!
We wandered around for a bit and tried to find food. It took us a while, and when we finally did it was expensive and didn't look very good so we retreated from the park and ended up in the olive garden again. I very much brushed over the park - we were there for a couple of hours I think, but pretty much all we did was walk around. It was a park, it was pretty, there's not really much else to say about it!
Olive Garden was good, as always, so with full bellies we decided that we would, again, as usual, go to the Disney store - but this time with the intent of buying things! I didn't mention this, but day four in New York we bought all the things we wanted for ourselves in the Disney store. We couldn't do presents and things for ourselves (I'm sure there's a better word for that, but it's 1:00am and different rules for grammar and words and things apply after midnight) in one day, so we split it up.
Buying things you've been looking at for days is always really satisfying. I spent far too much money on items I won't talk about at risk of present spoiling. That was day four though and this is day five. Day five was present buying time! We had given the option to some of our friends who we know are particularly into Disney stuff to send us money and we would buy them what ever they wanted. Previously we had taken over 100 photos of the merch they have there so our friends could decide. We ended up with about 90 dollars worth of presents JUST with the money people had given us. We ended up with two huge bags full of stuff (day four was three...) and at that point we decided we were definitely, definitely going to need another suitcase. Yep.
Suitcases in tourist shops are expensive, so it took us a while to find somewhere in times sqaure that was selling a smallish suitcase for less than 40 dollars, but we did it! A lot of the shop keepers in NYC are really, really pushy. It's quite frustrating - I just felt like yelling at them a lot. After we bought the suitcase, that was pretty much our afternoon then was the time for the Lion King.
After walking in the wrong direction for 10 minutes or so we ended up just asking another theatre where on earth the show was playing at. I was convinced the show was on 50th, when in fact it was on 44th or something. (Actually, that's something that is handy about New York, or Times Sqaure at least, the streets are all numbers! It's excellent!) It turned out that the theatre was about a minute from where we had started from in the wrong direction, so that was a little annoying. Honestly we'd been walking so much in New York that it really wasn't that bad.
Finally we reached the theatre and my word, this, this is what I imagined a broadway theatre to look like. It was gorgeous and huge. Our seats were right up the back (second last row) which I was a little annoyed about at the start, but of course once the show started they were fine seats and I got lost in the magic of Disney coming to life.
I did not expect to get emotional at all in this show apart from maybe when Mufassa dies (Spoilers, I guess? But really, if you haven't seen the Lion King then you deserve to have it spoiled. Go rent it now and watch it. Or download it, whatever, everyone should see that movie) but not in the first five minutes. The whole feeling of my most watched childhood movie, actually, probably most watched movie ever, coming to life was insane. The circle of life started playing and the actors came in in the most amazing animal costumes I have ever seen and by the time they had a flipping elephant come on the stage I had tears streaming down my face. I can't even explain what it felt like to see it come to life. The amount of times I have imagined how that scene would work in the show was nothing compared to what it actually was. The orchestra was beyond great and the choir was just gorgeous and everything about that moment seemed so perfect.
The whole show was just excellent. The costumes were amazing - seriously brilliant, apart from, oddly enough, the lions. They weren't bad by any means, but they just weren't up to the same standard as I thought a lot of the other costumes were. They had these, like Lion hat looking things on their heads, which at one point Mufassa actually takes off. I didn't understand the reasoning behind that. Like, what, are you suddenly not a Lion anymore? It didn't make any sense.
Since the whole show was great I feel like I could write a million things about why it was good, but because I, unreasonably so, wanted it to be perfect, I feel like I can only tell you about the negative things about the show. It was fabulous though as a whole and 95% of it I fell in love with.
There were a few scenes where there was very unexpected african songs that really added nothing to the actual Lion King story or play. It seemed like they just sort of could stick it anywhere and it would have had the same impact. The songs were beautiful, but unrelated. I thought it didn't mesh well with the show. There was an act like this where the choir/dancers came out in what looked like rich african robes, which didn't fit with the outback african feel at all. Definitely could have done without it.
The other thing I wasn't impressed with was the acting and singing of the young Simba. I thought from his performance that e was about seven or eight. He was eleven though, and after seeing Tade play billy elliot so brilliantly at eleven, I was unimpressed with Simba's (I've forgotten his name) skills. He wasn't BAD but he also wasn't up to broadway standard, I thought. Maybe Toowoomba standard (which contrary to popular belief, really isn't that bad).
Like I said though, the show, overall, was brilliant. I loved it.
That was the end of that day and now I am in LA and VidCon is tomorrow and I will TRY and post. I suspect I will be rather busy there, so if I don't I'm sorry. I'll try and remember everything that happens so I can give you a recap. I hope this was understandable. I'm really, really tired at the moment.
GOODNIGHT, LOVELIES.
Tara
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