Today we experienced the highlight of the Arts and Entertainment program: the annual trip to NYC Broadway! Bright and early, the group headed to Hamilton Train Station around 9 a.m. to catch our train to Manhattan. We got seats all next to each other on the train and had a great time bonding with one another while we were there!
We arrived at Penn Station and went to Moynihan Train Hall to get lunch. From ramen to halal food to pizza, there was a ton of selection. However, there was not a ton of seating, so many of us opted to dine on the floor in small groups.
We also ran into MFS alum Haila Desai ’24, who was on her way to a college Model UN conference in Virginia. It was so fun to see a friendly face and catch up with her, especially since she was one of the group members’ peer leaders from their freshman year.
After our lunch, we headed to the theater. There were many other school groups there who were excited to watch the show as well! Our show began around 2 p.m.
Watching the show was amazing! Although we were not able to see many of the original cast members, like we had hoped, the understudies for the performance were spectacular. Since all of us read The Great Gatsby for Fitzgerald in 10th grade English class, we were all familiar with the plot and story. It was really cool to see the musical adaptation of the story; different from the typical book-to-movie style rendition of stories that often leave out major components and details of the book, we thought that the musical added elements to the original story through song and dance that transformed the plot and made the story even more interesting.
The costumes were all so intentional; the party guests always wore big flamboyant headpieces with flapper dresses marking the period of time, the Roaring Twenties. Champion golfer and feminist progressive Jordan Baker almost only wore pants and a collared shirt throughout the entire show, and docile Daisy could only ever be seen in beautiful float dresses that resembled her soft and elegant personality. The costume choices really added historical depth and personality to the show.
After the show ended, we headed back to Penn Station. Walking through Manhattan was lovely; it was a perfect city day, with the weather around 70 degrees. Although when we made it to the train, there weren’t many seats for us to sit in all together like on our train ride to NYC before, so we made friends with commuters going home from work in NYC on the train and sat next to them.