Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Fleas I Got This Year

So, it's been a busy week for me!  Finally a chance to sit down and take a breath!

Well, last Sunday, as you know, was the 26th Annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction.  It was my 6th visit to the event, and one of my favorites!  Here in no particular order are my thoughts on the day:

From breakfast at the Edison (yummy, fast and cheap) to shopping the flea market to seeing Once to dinner at Dallas BBQ, it was great to spend the day with my two besties!


  • About that breakfast at the Edison: they make some awesome home fries!
  • About dinner at Dallas BBQ... amazed at the chicken wings!  How big are those birds, anyway?...dismayed to find a "B" in the front window...
  • The weather was pretty perfect - sun, a small breeze, no humidity.  I wasn't sweaty one minute! (I'm known to sweat during a blizzard!)
  • Biggest moment of confusion: watching them take down the A Christmas Story sign at the Lunt-Fontanne, and bedazzle the place with Motown: The Musical regalia... we asked around, people seemed surprised, too.  Later, mystery solved: Motown made a commercial the following day.  


The Wicked booth made the most money this year: over $17K!

  • Biggest improvement to the event: Even more booths in the Times Square pedestrian mall, and, even better, moving the Grand Auction out there, too.  More room to move and breathe.  It made it feel like there weren't as many people there.
  • Best Booth: TIE: Newsies: Best Keepsake for the money: $5.00 for a photo with a Newsie (or more than one Newsie), and overall the best selection of collectibles, reasonably priced: trading cards, signed Playbills (opening night and current cast), signed showcards, signed props, and the cutest salesmen on Broadway.  And Evita: Personal collectibles from cast members for sale, handmade gifts (the moustache candles were cool), plus a signed photo of Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett.  And, if you timed it right, Max von Essen would sell it to you!


The Newsies selling cool Newsies stuff!

  • Great star-gazing, not just at the booths and autograph lines, but shopping with the rest of us.  Sighted: Andrew and Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jan Maxwell, Will Swensen, Steve Kazee, Ben Fankhauser and  Kara Lindsay among others!
  • Best Bargain: $1.00 showcards at the Triton Gallery booth.  The selection was great this year, and throughout the day, too.  Turns out the only purchase I made: posters from Baby, It's You!, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Clybourne Park, Rock of Ages and my favorite poster from 2 seasons ago: Wonderland.  Plus: An Opening Night poster for All My Sons!  I saved $95.00 on the first five!
  • The Thing I'd Have Purchased If I Had $100 in My Pocket: An original Opening Night gift created by a cast member of Bring It On: a deck of playing cards featuring backstage photos, production photos, unused production photos, and personal photos.  And some of them autographed, too.


The Bring It On gals - those cards are the 2nd item from the left!


  • Best Time at the Flea Market: Watching a complete section of the Grand Auction, from the witty repartee of the hosts, trying to describe the items, to the actual auction.  I watched a guy named Matthew part with well over $3,000 in less than 10 minutes.  His bounty: two framed signed posters - Angels in America  and Falsettos, and a framed, signed series of original costume designs for the Evita revival.  Good for him, and even better for...


Check out this shot with Rebecca in the background.
Do you think it'll actually happen?


  • Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.  This year's even was record-breaking: $681,829 for Sunday, and a total of over $9.87 million over the 26 events.


OH!  And Once was even better the second time!  Bravo, cast!


Before you go...
  • ...have you voted in this week's HOT or NOT? ANNIE, Part 1.  CLICK HERE. 
  • ...have you checked out this week's FACE OF THE FUTURE?  CLICK HERE.
  • ...have you checked out MS. BROADWAY SEPTEMBER 2012, CHRISTIANE NOLL?  CLICK her picture in the right hand column to see more and to hear her sing from Ragtime!
  • ...have you VOTED in this month's THEATRE POLL? CLICK your answer on the poll in the left column!
Jeff
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1 comment:

  1. It is my goal to one day attend the Flea Market. I have to time a vacation to the city AND have enough money to spend. A difficult feat. But one day it will happen.

    ReplyDelete

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