Every music student at SBRHS eagerly awaits this day — the day they visit Broadway in New York City.
Students from History of Broadway class, Show Choir, Concert Choir, and many other musical activities in this school took a trip Saturday, May 20 to see the musical Waitress on Broadway. I was one of these students.

As a lover of musicals and a student of the History of Broadway class, I jumped at the chance to go to Broadway and see a musical. The musical Waitress is the story of a woman who makes pies in a diner and is entangled in a loveless marriage that results in her getting pregnant and falling in love with her married OBGYN. While the musical wasn’t well-known to me, I still begged my parents to pay the $175 for me to go- who doesn’t want to go to Broadway?

Students going on the trip arrived at the school for 5:00 Saturday morning, and wouldn’t arrive back in Somerset until 2 the next morning. We were in for a long day.

Over 100 students and chaperones took two coach buses to New York, and stopped midway both times at a service plaza in New Haven, Connecticut. From there, it was another two hours until we finally reached New York City.

Upon entering New York City, we attended a workshop at 54 Below and spent time with a Broadway understudy and vocal coach and learned the background vocals to a song from the musical we would be seeing. From there, our large group broke down and one group ate at Gotham Pizza for lunch, while another group ate at Five Guys.

Several blocks worth of walking brought us to Times Square, where students were allowed to shop and go sightseeing. We were able to visit iconic stores such as the two-story M&M store and smaller stores such as Theatre Shops in Theatre Circle. Musical students were also brought to the only statue in Times Square — that of George M. Cohan, father of the Broadway musical and American patriotic music.

After hours of roaming the crowded streets of New York City, it was finally time for the part we had all been waiting for: the musical.

There was already a small line outside of the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, but it tripled in size with the addition of the SBRHS music students. A half hour in line later and we were granted access to the theatre- one of the smallest in New York. Immediately the smell of freshly baked pies hit us in the face, which wasn’t too out of place as the musical we were about to see was about a woman who makes pies. The source of the aroma came from the small pie-filled mason jars on sale for $12 from workers in diner waitress outfits. Flavors ranged from classic American apple pie to salted caramel chocolate. Unfortunately, I was unable to buy one as I was saving my remaining money for a souvenir.

The musical evoked a large range of emotions from its audience, as it was an amazing story. After all 100+ SBRHS students and chaperones had exited the theatre, it was a long walk to our next destination that resulted in me panicking in the middle of Times Square. But we made it to the Subway, and after a few moments of confusion and slight panic, we had boarded a train in groups. From there, it was another walk to our final stop: The Jekyll and Hyde Club.

The restaurant was loosely based around the musical Jekyll and Hyde, a take on the classic tale of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. To be truthful, the ambiance frightened me initially. The décor was that of Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll’s evil and corrupted counterpart. Fake skeleton’s were everywhere — including the ceiling — and creepy music that sounded like it came from a gramophone played. Actors visited tables, ranging from a man who was an aristocratic sociopath who played card tricks to a fisherman with a puppet of a distorted “cat.”

After dinner, we boarded the buses and were stuck in traffic leaving the city. This traffic added two hours to our journey, so it was roughly 12 in the morning when we stopped at the service plaza and after 2 when we finally arrived back at the school. Like I said, we were in for a long day.