In Which a “Gentleman” is The Bane of My Existence

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A Gentleman'S Guide to Love and Murder, broadway, Bryce Pinkham, entertainment, Entertainment News, GGLAM, Lauren Worsham, Lisa O'Hare, NYC, Today Show, Tony nominations, tony nominees

I should probably write about this experience while it’s still fresh in my mind. Those that know me well will know that I’ve been absolutely obsessed over A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder for roughly the past 4 months. I feel like today was sort of the peak, though hopefully not the culmination of my love for the show.  (I’m listening to the soundtrack as I write to get me in the zone.)

For those of you that don’t know, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder or GGLAM, tells the story of Monty Navarro (Bryce Pinkham), a young man that finds out he is a member of the D’Ysquith family–an old english family–and 9th in line for the earldom. Monty sets out to work his way to the front of the line in a rather, er, unconventional way. Jefferson Mays does a wonderful job of portraying nearly all of the D’Ysquiths, dying eight times a night! Honestly, the british humor is what sells the show for me. Lauren Worsham and Lisa O’Hare are positively spectacular as Phoebe D’Ysquith and Sibella, respectively.

Let me just note that we do just love Lisa O’Hare in pink. She is absolutely stunning.

I’m still in awe of the gorgeous sound that Worsham produces. She’s this tiny little thing and yet every time she sings we’re hit with a jaw-dropping effect. Like…how does she do it?! (#newidolalert)

Anyway, enough sap.

(Not to defeat the huns, sorry.)

I’ll start at the beginning.

The Today show is doing the “Best of Broadway” this week. Monday featured Violet, Tuesday brought in Bullets over Broadway with Zach Braff, and Wednesday had GGLAM. Upon seeing that the performances were outside (after fawning over the Violet performance), we decided that we would go to the Wednesday performance.

This was after the fact that we picked Tuesday night to rush Violet. In retrospect, we probably should’ve thought this through. But, our motto for this week, as it’s our last week here before we leave for the summer, is “#noregrets”–and boy, did we live up to it in the last few days.

The excitement for the day started at about 7 am on May 6th.

Yes, day. I got up to rush Violet, in the hopes of seeing it once more before our impending departure. Miraculously, we got tickets. So we saw the 8 o’clock show, got home by 10:30 and decided to get to work.

This was not before heading down to our school’s cafeteria to partake in the annual tradition of “Midnight Breakfast” for finals week (“Midnight” breakfast is a lie. It should really be called “Ten PM Breakfast”).

We took our food back up to our apartment and broke out the markers, construction paper, and glitter glue. For the record: the floor looked like an arts and crafts store had exploded on it. If we’d had feathers at our disposal, those probably would have made it on as well (But, I digress).

It was at about 2 am, as we were putting the finishing touches on our “We ❤ Bryce” poster, giggling like children as we glued on the little pictures of Bryce, that we decided that sleep is for the weak. In all honesty, we might’ve had a bit too much fun making the signs…

Our roommate, Caroline, hand drew the GGLAM logo for us on the heart. How cool is that?

This is our pride and joy. Seriously, we love the faces.

Since we had decided to leave by 5 am, and we finished at 2:30 am, we figured those 2 hours of sleep, that we could have (and probably should have) gotten in, were just not going to happen. I blogged and Carolyn worked on a computer program while we played my playlist of upbeat morning songs. It was a lovely two hours.

I might have dozed off a few times…

Running as though on a schedule, we were out the door by 5 am. Despite our large signs, the security guard in our Lowenstein building judged us. We don’t blame him. We felt just as crazy as the look that he gave us. I, Sara, was up before the chickens. I’m surprised that pigs didn’t fly (Kudos if you got my GGLAM reference there).

By 5:15, we were, surprisingly, the first people in line at the Today Show. We were shocked but quite pleased. Not long after that, the orchestra and cast began arriving for soundcheck. One violinist came over to admire our orange sign in excitement. We were glad that at least someone appreciated the work we put into it.

We were confused that there was no one in line. We were the first ones to arrive!

At about 6, Lauren Worsham and Bryce Pinkham arrived. Lauren was the one to point out our green sign to Bryce. I almost died when Bryce waved at us excitedly! Seriously. I could barely tweet about it. I even forgot to add the hashtag to GGLAM (Facepalm, I know. Sorry. I was sleep deprived).

Again, the, now infamous, green sign.

Once they let us into the barricaded area for the audience, we were fully prepared to be right at the front so that our lovingly made signs could be right in front of them. The orchestra got a kick out of both signs, Mr. Violinist happily pointing out the orange sign to the everyone. We were quite pleased that many whipped out their phones to snap pictures of them.

Mr. Violinist is right next to the chimes. These guys sounded great!

As the cast returned inside after the soundcheck, Bryce waved at us again (Yes, we freaked out again). It was awesome. And then the waiting began.

Our view from the front of the line.

Amusingly, at one point, the other people in the barricades turned towards the large windows behind the taping of the show, while we (unknowingly) stood completely engrossed in the soundcheck. Sure, we probably looked like dorks, not scrambling to get a glimpse through the windows. But honestly, priorities, man.

Soundcheck

We got to shake hands with Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, and Matt Lauer. Not bad, if you ask me.

I got a selfie with Savannah!

Back to the important stuff. The show began to hand out wristbands for audience members to sit in the 40 chairs set up in front of the stage. I’m sure it’s not difficult to imagine how quickly we agreed to sit there. I was not first in line for nothing!

The lady in line next to us was kind enough to ask if we wanted to take a picture with our signs. YES!

So we did some more waiting. At about 8:30, the cast came out again, this time in their costumes. They came over to the audience to shake hands and greet people–they started with us. Again, I will note: IT. WAS. AWESOME.

Shaking hands and greeting people.

Bryce didn’t really know how to respond to our green sign, though Lauren and Lisa got quite the kick out of it. Honestly, the faces are our favorite. We love it when he makes weird faces (Read: Bryce, you can do no wrong. Also, your hair is fabulous).

Now for the best part!!! They moved the wrist banded audience to the seating area. And Showtime.

I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures while they were waiting to go on:

Lauren danced a little while waiting. It was adorable.

I’m actually really glad that they didn’t show the audience’s faces and just the back of their heads on TV because otherwise the entire nation would have seen the ridiculous grin that I (undoubtedly) had on my face during the entire performance. Carolyn sat beside me looking dumbfounded the entire time (I know this because I glanced over to her at one point and nearly burst into giggles at it).

This might possibly have been THE highlight of my week, if not month…dare I say year? Even as I sit on my couch, after finally getting 7 hours of sleep, writing this, I’m still a little giddy over everything (Carolyn just got up, right as I finished that line. We were, and still are, quite tired and emotionally exhausted). If I could do it all over again, I would most certainly do it all over again.

They are just so cute! All three of them!

We have plans to rush GGLAM on Saturday. The orange sign might come with us, as we’re hoping the cast will sign it so that we can put it up in our apartment next year (maybe). As for the adorable green sign…maybe we’ll take it, too? Ask Bryce to sign it and put it up in our room? I dunno. It’s pretty special.

Thanks for actually sitting through my ramblings! Warm hugs to all of you!

Stay tuned for the impending GGLAM Update!