I have something of an admission. I hesitate to go far as calling it a confession, because most of my friends are already probably aware of this, and I don’t feel much shame in it anyway. I have never seen a show on Broadway. Yes, I’m aware that as an actor this is probably some kind of crime against humanity, but I have three excusesreasons for this:

1. It’s too fucking expensive.
2. All the discount/rush ticket offers are never at a time I can make use of them because I’m usually working or doing a show of my own
3. It’s too fucking expensive.

As a drama nerd growing up in London, I was lucky enough to get to see many amazing plays in the West End through my school or as birthday presents, so it’s not as though I’ve never seen a full-scale production in my life. It’s just that, since moving here six years ago, I’ve never had the money or time to see anything on Broadway.

Of course, the Disney-fication of Broadway has not helped, as I’m not the world’s greatest musical theatre fan to begin with. Big shiny Disney shows aren’t exactly geared towards me. However, there have been some fantastic plays produced recently that I would have loved to go and see, but never quite got around to it. It’s hard enough getting to shows that my friends are in, and paying for the $15 ticket price, before I get to finding money for $100 tickets.

This weekend, however, I was very lucky to see some of the best in classical theatre for the Rachel-friendly price of $0. The Royal Shakespeare Company are in New York for the summer, and are doing five (yes, five) Shakespeare plays at a purpose-built theatre in the Armory on 66th and Park Ave. They have replicated the RSC’s home in Stratford inside the Armory, and it’s a sight to behold. There was a preview show of their Romeo & Juliet yesterday, and as it’s a kind of final run-through before opening night, with the tech crew still finessing lights, they let those in the know in for free so the actors have an audience to play to. One of Hank’s old friends from his drama school days in London is in the RSC company and gave us the heads up at our gig on Saturday night, so I dragged myself out of bed before I really wanted to because there was no way in hell I’d miss some free RSC.

The production is lavish and beautiful, with some standout performances (the Nurse and Mercutio were my two favourites) and really wonderful moments. The production concept is an interesting one – it doesn’t completely work (in my humble opinion) and could be a little clearer in its intention, but the quality of the acting and the understanding of the text is superb. R&J, up until all the killings start, is a very funny script and they played those laughs brilliantly, avoiding mawkishness or foreshadowing the coming tragedy. That made it a pacey and enjoyable production, that takes a huge turn into darkness with the death of Mercutio. There were a couple of very English in-jokes in the show too, which provoked a huge laugh from me and hardly anyone else. One of the actors I met commented afterwards that they are always pleased when those get a laugh, as it means they know a Brit’s in the audience.

The other thing that made me really enjoy the show, for purely personal reasons, was the glorious range of accents. There was London, Northern Ireland, Scotland (two different Scottish accents), Birmingham, some kind of Dorset/vaguely South Coast accent, Welsh and a smattering of nondescript Southern accents. The thought crossed my mind that the Northern Irish Mercutio & mega-Scottish Tybalt might have been hard for some people to understand, but I was loving it – it’s rare for me to hear so many different examples of awesome British accents in one place these days. I could almost have been seeing the show at home in Britain.

They will be doing more of the free previews for their remaining shows this summer, and I’m determined to get to as many of them as possible. I highly recommend doing the same if you’re able to – the RSC is an incredible company. It’s also inspired me to want to put the time and money into seeing some more large-scale theatre, so I’ll be starting to save my pennies and look for ticket deals to the few shows I’m interested in. If anyone can get me free tickets to War Horse, I’d be much obliged.