Where-To-Go Wednesday - New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwartzman Building and School of Rock - The Musical

What: New York Public Library, Stephen A, Schwartzman Building

Where: 476 5th Avenue

             New York, NY

Who: All ages

Mom's view: Children will love the giant lion statues outside the New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwartzman Building. The Lions were given the names Patience and Fortitude by New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia back in the 1930's. Older children will also love the original Winnie the Pooh animals which are on exhibit in the Children's Center. Younger children might be upset if they are expecting to see toys that look the Disney Winnie the Pooh characters because these toys do not look exactly like those familiar characters. Over the summer, when we visited the library the Winnie the Pooh animals had been sent out for repair. Instead there was an exhibit on PL Travers, author of Mary Poppins, including her doll and her umbrella which were both inspirations for aspects of the books.  The Winnie the Pooh animals were expected back after the summer, however, we are not sure if they have returned or not as we have not been there since the summer. For adults and maybe some older children, there are free library tours given twice a day (at 11:00am and 2:00pm) Monday to Saturday and once a day (2:00pm) on Sunday. On the tour you will have the opportunity to see a lot of the beautiful artwork and architecture of the library and learn a little bit about its history.

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We were given free tickets to School of Rock - The Musical for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

What: School of Rock - The Musical

Where: Winter Garden Theatre
             50th St. & Broadway
             New York, NY

Who: 10 and up

Mom's view: If you want to see a group of extremely talented kids strutting their stuff, go and see School of Rock - The Musical. These kids do everything. They act. They sing. They dance. They play instruments. Not only that, they do it all extremely well. The show is definitely Andrew Lloyd Webber's best show in years. It is pretty true to the movie version of School of Rock with additional songs by Mr.  Lloyd Webber and Glen Slater. Here, unlike in most Andrew Lloyd Webber shows, the show does not consist of mostly singing with very little dialogue. Although, there are a lot songs in the show, there is a lot of spoken dialogue as well. Accordingly, if you don't like all the singing in a typical Andrew Lloyd Webber show, don't let that stop you from seeing this very enjoyable show. This is a show where the songs will stick in your head long after you've seen the show. If you loved the movie and you don't think the show could even compare to that, go see it anyway, and there is a good chance you will like it. The show is definitely at least equally as good if not better than the movie. Even if you loved Jack Black in his role of Dewey Finn in the movie, and you do not think that anyone else's performance could possibly do justice to the role, you will still enjoy Alex Brightman's performance. He is that good. The dancing mostly consisted of a lot of jumping around. Other than that, there is much more to like than to dislike about this show. Although even younger children would probably enjoy the music particularly rousing anthems like Stick It to the Man and the title song, the show is recommended for children 10 and up due to inappropriate language and/or situations. Again, it is very much like the movie so if you've seen that let that be your guide as to whether you think the show would be appropriate for your children or not. If you haven't seen the movie, just know that it was rated PG-13. However, over all, the show is definitely a good choice for anyone who wants to see a really good fun show.

And that's Mom's view. Tune it to tomorrow's Talking Topics post for Melia's view of the New York Public Library Tour and School of Rock - The Musical.

Photo credits: All School of Rock - The Musical photos by Mathew Murphy