Editing a Front-Page New York Times Story, Then Winning a 'Beautiful' Broadway Lottery

I had plans for tonight: Visit the Frick Collection, an art museum that offers free admission on First Fridays, and maybe take a Staten Island ferry ride.

Scratch that — around 3 p.m., I found better plans.

I won my second Broadway lottery today for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

Vanessa Carlton stepped into the role of Carole King at the end of June, her first time on Broadway. I wasn’t originally going to see this show (as much as I’ve had the chance to see, I can’t see everything!), but with the woman who sang “A Thousand Miles” and “Ordinary Day” leading the cast, I was intrigued.

I entered the lottery this morning, and won on my first try (and it isn’t an easy one to win, either)! Now if that luck could extend to the Hamilton lottery, which I’ve only been entering on a daily basis for a month and a half …

After picking up my ticket from the box office, I discovered a had a fantastic view. I was in the second row, right next to the piano Carlton plays as Carole King.

This theater had some of the roomiest, comfiest seats I’ve seen on Broadway (Ample leg room? What’s that?!). It was so roomy that people could walk past me without me having to get up, which was wonderful.

I didn’t know much about King prior to tonight, but I was looking forward to learning. Life-story musicals that focus on a specific person are fun to see even if you know nothing about that the person, because that’s kind of the point — you’re there to learn their narrative!

The audience definitely skewed older, and I was one of the youngest people in the room. King is clearly popular with a certain generation, but that definitely doesn’t mean I didn’t also enjoy the production.

The first half was great — the musical struck the right balance between narrative and renditions of King’s hits. The relationship between King and her husband Gerry Goffin, as portrayed by Carlton and Evan Todd, reminded me of the relationship between Ronnie Miller and Will Blakelee in the Nicholas Sparks novel “The Last Song” (it didn’t hurt that Todd looks like Liam Hemsworth, who portrayed Will in “The Last Song” film adaptation).

Some of my favorite songs from the evening were “It Might As Well Rain Until September,” “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “Take Good Care of My Baby,” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” And I didn’t realize King wrote “The Locomotion,” a song I DEFINITELY knew prior to tonight.

I was impressed with how seamlessly Carlton portrayed King in different eras of her life — she looked so young initially, then through a combination of makeup and wigs looked like a different actress by the end of the play.

I was excited for the second half after a fantastic first, but while the first act mastered the balance between song and narrative, the second skewed far too heavily in favor of song. The narrative moments were much few and further in between — paradoxically, the musical’s pacing slowed down when the lineup of songs sped up (hello, rapidfire barrage of jukebox tunes). By the end of the second act, we’d entered all-out concert territory.

There was, however, one particularly impactful narrative moment: When King left Goffin after taking him back over and over and over. Her walk out the door got the biggest cheer of the night!

As for Carlton, she definitely has a pop rather than a Broadway voice. But this isn’t “Phantom of the Opera,” so no Kelli O’Hara-esque belt required. Carlton had strong chemistry with Todd, and her acting was strong, especially for her first time on Broadway. Down the road, I’d love to see Sara Bareilles play the role of Carole King — she’d kill it.

In other amazing news today, I got to edit an A1 politics story for Sunday’s New York Times paper! It’s still neat to see edits I make to stories show up in print — even though I’m not writing articles, I’m doing so on a micro basis. Still loving my job, if you can't tell. :)

Food world was also good today: Check out this sesame pancake with Peking duck from Vanessa’s Dumpling House (where the spicy shrimp wontons I ate earlier came from). The crust is crispy like deep-dish pizza, and the duck inside is uber-buttery.

I’m headed to the Brooklyn Museum tomorrow (home of Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party”) for free first-Saturday admission, and will likely take a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall, home to the Tony Awards and the Rockettes. Then I’m seeing “Ink” on Broadway Sunday afternoon. Thank goodness for the Manhattan Theatre Club’s fantastic cheap student ticket program!