Lottery Winners!

Every summer the outdoor Delacorte Theater in Central Park puts on a Shakespeare play and one musical.  Each show runs for about two weeks.  This is a public theater which means that most of the tickets are free---for a price.  The price you have to pay is that you must stand in line the day of the show to get your tickets.  Most people begin lining up about 4:00 a.m. and tickets are distributed at 1:00 p.m. for that evening's performance.  There is also a virtual lottery and you can sign up each day and hope that you win which gives you two tickets for that evening's performance.  I have signed up for the virtual lottery almost every day for the four summers we have been here and never won.  Last year we wanted to see Al Pacino in "Merchant of Venice" but ended up paying for tickets when they produced it in a theater on Broadway in the Fall.  It was fabulous.  This year we wanted to see the musical "Into the Woods" starring Amy Adams.  I signed up for the lottery each day and each day got the memo "Thank you for entering the virtual lottery.  Unfortunatley blah, blah, blah...."   So I set aside my Wednesday to join the others standing in line.  On the Monday previous to that I signed up for the lottery out of force of habit and at 1:00 I saw the magical words "Congratulations, you have won two ticket for tonight's performance of Into the Woods."  As luck would have it, Paul didn't have to work late and it was a spectacular summer night.  I like to even say there was a hint of fall in the air.  Paul met me at the theater and we were guided to our fabulous seats on the aisle and about 10 rows up.  It doesn't really get any better than that.  The show was really well done and as is often the case with Sondheim, the music and themes in the show are quite haunting.  The lyrics are worth reading because you can't catch every joke and every poignant thought because it moves so fast. 
Another thing we really enjoyed about the whole experience was that it felt so much like we were watching this show with our neighbors.  Not many tourists spend the time waiting in line all day to get tickets, so you really do get mostly local people in the theater and there was just a nice feeling.  It really did feel like we were part of a community.   We all felt like winners. 
(PS--No picture taking allowed! Sorry)