Hi!
I have just graduated high school and a friend and I are going to new york city at the end of this month for 4 days. We have both been before several times so we have done the typical touristy things already. Since we are going on our own, we want to do some stuff a typical tourist wouldn't normally do that is inexpensive (if possible) and enjoyable. Any suggestions???

P.S. We are TOTAL theatre junkies, and we are going to see spring awakening. So...anything that could relate to theatre would be awesome!

The Museum of the City of New York, 5th Ave. at 103rd St. has a great collection and exhibition of theatre related memorabilia. $5 admission with student ID.

If one of you is 18 or younger, you can get REALLY cheap tickets through this program.
http://www.highfivetix.org/Aspx/Even...owItWorks.aspx

The shows (mostly off off broadway ) are $5 and museums can be can be $5 for 2 people on weekdays!

On line and when you get to NYC look at Village Voice and Time Out Ny. There is a whole world of theatre including revivals of classics, experimental and performance art. It will change your outlook on the theatre.

Same is true for msuic and films. there are a number of Indie film theatres.

Please note when you start to go other types of theatre besdies Broadway, some nisghts you will be rewarded, others confused or annoyed. But that is the experience. You will often see actors on the way up, those on the way down and well known performers who are just using their theatre chops.

Try the website NY.com, it is a great resource, but never go by the info they provide, go to the link they provide directly to the venue's own website so that hours & admission are the most current info. Ex: If you like museums, go to the link for each. You can see when museum admission is free or reduced & when they have free music eves with admission.
Neo mentioned Mus. of the City of NY. Right across from it is Museo del Barrio, $6, very cool & they have a list of local restaurants, The Mexican one a few blocks away is unbelievable! A really fun time, great fresh made-as-you-order food, & cool atmosphere for under $20 sans liquor. The food cart around the corner from MOMA won a Vendie Award for the 10 best in the city. falafel, lamb, platters for about $4-6. seriously great. On the street across form MOMA is a food court of sorts, the chinese one is good, authentic & cheap.

For shows, I still have the best ticket price availability luck with Ticketmaster, even with fees. I hear 39 Steps is a blast. Wicked is great fun & surprisingly hip. Also, as mentioned, if you go to official websites for the off-bway shows you can actually get discount codes or print coupons. Also, for music, try The Town Hall, and SOB's ( Sounds of Brasil). Also, check the free concerts in the Parks. Timeout NY as mentioned is a great source, also the front pages of The New Yorker give who's at the clubs etc. Have fun!

NeoP - glad to see your recommendation of the MCNY. Isn't that a great place? I had never heard of it until a couple years ago when some of my partner's work was included in an exhibition. We are now on the mailing list and hear about some of the great exhibitions and programs.
Another place that is really neat is the tenement Museum on the Lower East Side.

There are some backstage tours. There's one for Wicked called Behind the Green Curtain if you google it. There's also a behind the scenes tour at Lincoln Center, Radio City and I think someone gives one of the theater district but can't find it right now.

Nymag.com has a visitors guide that lists free stuff.
http://nymag.com/guides/cheap/walkingtours/

If you're staying overnight, I hope you realize many hotels require you are 21. Check it out.

Most hotel require you to be 21 to check in. And any that allow under 21s may well put a hold on a large amount on your CC - for possible damages.

Do you have a place to stay yet? It's awfully late to be looking for a decent place for the end of this month at any sort of reasonable rate. Or are you looking at staying at a hostel?

yeah i am staying with a family friend in manhattan. i can't really remember where exactly she lives, but the lodging is all taken care of.

You might want to take a look at this:

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/special.php

Some things tourists never do in NYC:

Take a chance on an off-off Broadway play

See a movie on the lawn of Bryant Park

http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/film-festival.php

See the installation of Anish Kapoor sculptures at the Gladstone Gallery

http://www.gladstonegallery.com/kapoor.asp?id=1122

Peruse the collection of joke notebooks kept by comedians and theatrical gags at the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center

http://digital.nypl.org/lpa/nypl/abo..._gag_books.cfm


Congrats to all the grads!

zeppole, I hate to burst your bubble but THIS tourist has done three of those four things. I have no idea who Anish Kapoor is though.

The performing arts library is a treasure. I started to mention the Jerome Robbins exhibit there for this post, but looked it up and saw it is gone. There is a current baseball one, if that appeals to Sammy and his friend.

Good for you! Which was your favorite gag from the collection?

Since you ask -- none of them. The suggestion for the joke books was one I had read several years ago in a "theatre what to do for free" list. I didn't spend much time with the joke books -- mainly very dated and dull. I just didn't get the point, and didn't have a clue who any of the writers were -- many of them Yiddish performers, in fact some were unreadable to me.

But I quickly discovered the song books instead, often with handwritten notes by composers from Broadway shows. I was fascinated by seeing things like "too slow, needs picking up" written into the margin of a Cole Porter manuscript. Or where one word was crossed out and another inserted. Fascinating! Since that first trip to the performing arts library, at least one trip there each visit is required. There's always something to see.

But I guess what this shows is that since some of these things have been on "what to do for tourist" lists for years, it's not unlikely that many have been done by many tourists -- particularly the seeing a movie open air at Bryant Park and even off-off Broadway plays. Why wouldn't tourists have done those things? Although I admit many don't.

By the way, the performing arts library has changed drastically in the past few years. When I saw those books and manuscripts, one signed in and entered an area where they were stored, and you could sort through them. Now, if I'm not mistaken, you pretty much have to look at them all on microfilm or something else more technically advanced. I haven't done much browsing on a screen as I think you need to do these days. I understand the reasoning -- just not as "hands on".

I had no idea the theatrical gags at the library were on lists of what to do for free. Really? I'm surprised.

Anyway, you seem to be overreacting to my suggestions to Sammy. I have no idea if he is or isn't among the few tourists who've falready done these things, but if so he won't do them again! No harm mentioning them, I think.

But you bring up a good point about your reactions to the theatrical gags (although it does sound like you got on the wrong end of it to start), and the digitalization of the collection, and I would caution Sammy and the grads that this particular venue can strike many as a pretty dry way to spend time in New York, so they might want to stick to livelier recommendations.

The Kapoor installation at Gladstone might really appeal, however.

It's great to know tourists find and enjoy that library.

Sorry, I didn't mean to 'overreact'. I think they were some good suggestions. It's just that I'm often amused by the suggestion that all tourists don't know anything or that many haven't sought out the unusual. When your items were listed as things tourists "never do" -- I thought, "according to whom?" Just judging from the many, many posts of people asking for the "non-touristy", one can logically assume that many tourists are looking for a lot more that the Empire State Building, ground zero, and the Statue of Liberty!

Oh, I see. Yes, I should have said "mainly never do" or something less absolute. I do know some tourists go to NYC just to see Anish Kapoor sculpture!

Still, you've made me more than a little concerned about recommending the digital collection at the performing arts library to a group of teens, even ones mad about theater. (So scratch that, Sammy!)

But I do hope people Sammy's age would be adventurous about going to shows that don't get reviewed, and think it fun to see a Billy Wilder movie for free in the park, and get curious about the galleries in Chelsea. All cheap, and much of what keeps NYC afloat intellectually, along with the flood of tourist bucks that get spent on corporate entertainment venues.

Oh, I think teens could handle the "digital" collections at the library far better than this tech ignorant oldster can. Piece of cake for them.

Sammy, if a gay rap musical has any appeal, go see Bash'd.

Yes, but the content and venue might be overly sedate for grads just released from the confines of high school, and out on their own on the town for 4 days.

Maybe dancing down the street with garbage can lids on their feet is more like it! Free, theatrical and interactive to the max.

Phew! That took me a moment. I thought you were talking about Bash'd content and venue being sedate. Wow!

OK, I'm with you now. Sitting a library doesn't sound so exciting -- I agree.