When I found out that the Royal Shakespeare Company was bringing Shakespeare’s King Cycle to New York with David Tennant playing Richard II, I started planning. David Tennant is my favorite actor and this was my chance to see him onstage. I quickly joined the Brooklyn Academy of Music (where the King Cycle would be playing) so I could hopefully get a ticket immediately after they went on sale.
The season tickets went on sale first. Since I don’t currently live in NYC, that wasn’t an option. I needed to wait about a month before the single tickets went on sale. BAM members still had an advantage over the general public, however. As soon as I was able to purchase a ticket, I also booked my airfare, hotel, and the rest of what I had come up with while planning.
Since I had lived in New York City for several years back after university graduation, I planned four nights in NYC followed by six nights in Edinburgh and six nights in London. Being able to investigate and book everything online is an enormous plus. I got all of the air travel, train travel, and airport transfers, all three hotels, and several day trips booked as planned.
This was April of 2016 and several of the presidential hopefuls were in NYC, which tied up traffic considerably. It took two hours to get from LaGuardia to the hotel at Times Square. I was so glad that I had booked a shuttle transfer instead of a cab. I was also glad that I didn’t have anything important planned for that first day.
As I was checking in, I asked about a car service for the following night when I would be going to the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theatre to see Richard II. They said they would get something arranged and let me know. When I got to my room, I called and confirmed my Super Shuttle to get me to the Newark Airport in four days. Although the plane wasn’t leaving until 8pm, they said they would be there at 2:35pm.
Then I spent some time walking around the neighborhood and getting re-acclimated. I hadn’t been back to NYC for several years and a lot had changed.
Breakfast was included at the hotel. So the following day after breakfast, I took the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Before entering the museum, I went around to the park and found the statue of Alexander Hamilton that one of his sons had placed there. I had also tried to get a ticket to Hamilton, but had been unsuccessful.
After grabbing a map of the museum, I set off to see the Egyptian Art. I am a huge fan of ancient Egyptian art. The Met also has a temple that they moved in pieces to the museum and reassembled it. I spent a lot of time in the Egyptian section.
Then came Byzantine Art, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Arms & Armor, and Medieval Art. The Arms & Armor included Middle Eastern and Asian as well as European. The dagger second from the bottom in the photo was similar to one that I bought while in Jordan, though mine was without the gold and jewels.
After lunch (which was in the museum cafeteria), I had enough energy to tackle Greek and Roman Art. There was a bust of Alexander the Great, which I thought resembled Brad Pitt. They had a very intact statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa that I really liked and some cool Roman armor. Then I took the subway back to the hotel. I never did get to any of the paintings.
The driver who was taking me to the Brooklyn Academy of Music had felt that we needed to allow for quite a bit of time to get there. So he picked me up at 6pm for a play that began at 8pm. He was right. It was a little after 7:30pm when we arrived at the theatre. The play went for three hours. He would be back to get me when it finished, but we exchanged phone numbers just in case. Good thing. He had some traffic to deal with to get back to the theatre and I needed to wait a bit.
The seat that I had managed to get was on the end of the second row and essentially on the stage. I was often very close to several of the actors in the play, including David Tennant. I was absolutely mesmerized by the entire production. The acting by all was superb.
The photo I have included here from the play was not one that I took myself. In NYC, it is illegal to take any photos inside the theatre itself, even when nobody is on the stage. I just include it to give an idea of the play. It was said at the time that this was the other production, besides Hamilton, that was completely sold out.
Next time – a Hop-On/Hop-Off tour of Lower Manhattan and a harbor cruise
View from hotel window 
Hamilton statue 
Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Egyptian art 
More Egyptian art 
Egyptian temple 
European armor 
Turkish helmet & sword 
Middle Eastern daggers 
Byzantine mosaics 
Medieval art 
Medieval statue 
More Medieval art 
Pereus & Medusa 
Roman armor 
Alexander the Great 
BAM Harvey Theatre 
Interior of theatre 
Shakespeare’s Richard II