A Theater Nerd’s Guide to A Showcation in New York City

His eyes met mine as he sauntered towards me. He then paused, directly in front of me, staring at me as if into my very soul. “We are wearing the same color,” he purred in the cadence audiences know so well. André De Shields spotted me in the front row of his intimate performance as Tartuffe, wearing a dress that mirrored his character’s all-red ensemble —  a fact I knew from the show’s promo images. It was my not-so-subtle cosplay of the day with the hope that in this petite house, he would somehow notice. It worked; he did.

As a theater critic and journalist, I attend many shows. From houses of 30 in Chicago, storefronts to massive historic spaces. Heck, even at the end of 2020, I spent about 90 minutes chatting with De Shields by phone for an article in a now-defunct arts magazine. Yet, I sat in a fully illuminated room surrounded by 99 other people in a 400-year-old library, lost for words as this actor I so ardently admire brought me into his world: à la Molière.

In all ways, Chicago is my theatrical home, but New York City is a poignant reminder of how art itself can be a destination. When we travel to engage with art, we expand our horizons in ways that are more profound than we could imagine. Over the course of several days, I ventured to 17th-century France with Tartuffe, the 1970s with Liberation, the late 1990s for Beau the Musical, and back to the present day for Beetlejuice and SIX. I know – that’s a bizarre line-up. From a basement bar to ornamental historic theaters, I love when my annual journey to NYC runs the gamut. Something I hold steadfastly is that a show can move you from anywhere. Without a star-studded cast and massive budget, a show can still be life-changing.

NYC is the perfect example of this, though many visitors won’t get far past the glitz of the central theater district. The more often I visit, the more obvious this reality becomes. Back in the Fall of 2024, in a Junior’s off 45th Street, I overheard a tourist loudly complaining at the next table over: “I don’t get why Broadway is such a big deal if there’s only one show playing on Broadway.” They had just seen Back to the Future: The Musical at the Winter Garden Theatre, one of the only theaters literally on Broadway — the street. It had never occurred to me that Broadway’s reputation precedes it in such a way that people assume it’s like the Las Vegas Strip with everything in exactly one place. 

Even if it was, Broadway is hardly the be-all and end-all of the theatrical arts in a place like NYC. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a repeat (or in this case, three-peat) glitzy Broadway offender. Considering that it was my third time seeing both Beetlejuice and SIX on this most recent visit, I have little room to talk. Yet it is elsewhere, away from the brightest lights of Broadway’s marquees, that I’ve often found the most comfort in the arms of theater in the Empire State. If I hadn’t ventured away, how would I have ever seen De Shields waxing poetic as the cunning Tartuffe, Patrick Page embrace his knowledge of villainy in his All the Devils Are Here, or see a rarely-produced I Can Get It For You Wholesale starring Santino Fontana and Judy Kuhn?

I couldn’t have. The fact is, each of these off-Broadway productions was far and away more affordable than anything on Broadway — lotteries, rush tickets, and seats in the nosebleeds notwithstanding. Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows aren’t usually major tourist selling points, though they are nothing to shrug off either. If you want an affordable showcation without having to rely on the luck of a lottery or rush ticket, take a look around. There is certainly no shortage of excellent art being performed in NYC.

The best way to enjoy a theatrical trip to this city is to go with an open heart and mind. I can promise just as magical a time at a folksy musical like Beau the Musical in an off-Broadway bar/lounge setting as I can anything in the Theater District. There is nothing quite like a small theater house in full view of the actors, almost as if you, too, are part of their world. 

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