Where-To-Go Wednesday - NBC Studio Tour and The Commedia Cinderella

We were given a free NBC Studio Tour for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own based on our experience.

What: NBC Studio Tour

Where: 30 Rockefeller Plaza
             New York, New York

Who: Tweens and up

Mom's view: If you want to walk the same hallways, as Matt Lauer and Jimmy Fallon and other NBC personalities, this tour is for you. Who knows, you may even run into one of them. Even if you don't this tour is both interesting and fun. Not only will you learn how NBC Nightly News is put together, but you will have a chance to visit the set. You will also visit one or more of the sets of the NBC Talk shows that tape in New York including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Myers and/or the Saturday Night Live set. It depends which shows are taping at the time of your tour as you will only be visiting the sets of shows that are not taping at the time of your visit. You will also learn interesting facts about NBC and its history. You will even get to put together a mock talk show along with your fellow tour guests which will be recorded and e-mailed to you. You won't need your camera because you are not allowed to take any pictures on the tour. You will need comfortable shows as you will be doing a lot of walking. This is not a good tour for young children as for the most part it is not very interactive and it does involve a lot of walking and a lot of listening to information. The information is interesting for adults and older children but not so much for little kids. Tweens and teens would probably enjoy the tour especially the last part when you get to make the mock talk show particularly if they are interested in going into television journalism some day. For more information or to book a tour go to http://www.thetouratnbcstudios.com/.

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We were given free tickets to the Commedia Cinderella for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own based on our experience.

What: The Commedia Cinderella

Where: Soho Playhouse

             15 Vandam St.

             New York, NY

When: July 16, 2016

Who: All ages

Mom's view: If you think fairy tales are too sappy, you have never seen The Commedia Cinderella currently playing at the Soho Playhouse in New York City. This show, full of references to other shows as well as movies, other stories and famous quotes, is definitely not just for children. It may be possibly be the funniest version of Cinderella every presented on stage. It is like one of those old cartoons where the story is enjoyable for young children, but a lot of the jokes go right over their heads and are meant for adults and/or older children. While the basic story is the same, Cinderella is a slave to her stepmother and stepsisters, her fairy Godmother casts a spell on her and sends her off to the ball to meet the Prince, the Prince falls in love with Cinderella and tracks her down by her lost shoe; this Cinderella is not like any other you have ever seen. Because of that young girls who are particularly fanatic about the Disney version might not enjoy the show. However. if you like your heroines with a little more spunk, and you want to see a Cinderella who is not just meekly sitting around wishing for her prince to come, but is active, feisty and has a mind of her own than you will love this show.  This Cinderella is a much better much more modern role model for young girls than has been presented in previous versions of the story. However, even if you are not looking for a role model for your daughter even if you don't even have a daughter, it's just a really fun show, and a greatly entertaining way to spend an hour or two.

And that's Mom's view. Tune in to tomorrow's Talking Topics post for Aurella's view of the NBC Studio Tour and The Commedia Cinderella.

Photo credits: Any and all NBC Studio Tour photos supplied by NBC

                      Any and all The Commedia Cinderella photos supplied by the RagTag Theatre Company