The Broadway Princess Party was actually a few days ago on Sunday, but "ten minutes ago" is a reference to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, a Broadway show whose songs are featured in the Broadway Princess Party. I just wanted to make a reference.
Anyway, the BPP is a cabaret concert series tour created by musical director Benjamin Rauhala and Broadway's original Cinderella, Laura Osnes. Basically, it's a bunch of talented, awesome Broadway stars singing songs from Disney princess movies and musicals and other movies and musicals that feature princesses. Joining Osnes in song on tour are Broadway's original Jasmine (Disney's Aladdin), Courtney Reed, and Broadway's original Belle (Disney's Beauty and the Beast), Susan Egan, who also voiced Megara in Disney's Hercules.
My sister and I have known about the Broadway Princess Party for about a year now after discovering Laura Osnes after watching Bandstand on Broadway last summer. We watched a plethora of the videos from previous parties on YouTube and thought it was so fun. Most of the parties have happened in New York as many Broadway stars are based there, but the show has gone on tour in the past with quite a few stops in California. The show may sound vaguely familiar if you read my June favorites post, which included a fun mashup featuring Laura and her former co-stars Corey Cott (Bandstand) and Jeremy Jordan (Bonnie and Clyde).
I remember when my sister, Ashley, found out they were bringing the party to Chicago (or rather, the suburb of Schaumburg). I was coming up the stairs after washing dishes after breakfast, and Ashley came out of our bathroom with a huge smile on her face, which was weird because who comes out of the bathroom that happy? Long story short, I asked her about her evident happiness and she told me that the Broadway Princess Party was coming to Chicago. We were so excited and bought tickets ASAP. There was no way were were missing this!
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| The wooden letters we decorated |
The merch table was busy and crowded, so after 10 minutes or so, I went back to my sister in line. She told me a funny little story about how someone thought she was with Courtney's family. I joked and told her she should have (jokingly) said that we were with Adam's family because we're all Filipino.
When I was waiting in line to get seated for @BwayPrincessPty, someone came up to me and asked if I was with @RhodesReed's family. 😄 pic.twitter.com/axYOyZFhbF— Ashley Rosario Wijangco (@wijangco12) August 19, 2018
Not long after, someone came to the line to scan our tickets, and I somehow lost my receipt paper ticket in between getting it at the box office 20 minutes ago and getting back in line. Luckily, the guy said it was fine and let me go anyway. So shoutout to him! Then the line got moving, and people started sitting down. We knew it was a sold out show, so the place was already pretty packed by the time we were ushered to our seats. Because it was just me and Ashley and the show was sold out, we had to sit with a couple we didn't know at a small table for four. It was a little awkward because we didn't know one another and we were in a rather small space, but it was fine.
After an hour or so of more waiting, it was finally time for the show to begin! The lights were dimmed, and Ben, who's dubbed the "Fairy Godfairy" because he makes the magic happen, came out to the keyboard to begin the show. He started talking about how he adored the Disney princesses growing up and wanted to work with them, and now he does. Then the princesses, Laura, Courtney, and Susan were introduced and sang a little intro song, welcoming us to "join the party."
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| Courtney Reed, Laura Osnes, and Susan Egan singing, welcoming us to "join the party," with musical accompaniment from Ben Rauhala |
I don't remember every single song they sang, so I won't write out the entire setlist but rather discuss the highlights and my favorite parts.
Near the beginning of the show, Courtney talked about how she's from the Chicago suburbs, so this was a homecoming show for her. Many of her family and friends were sitting right in the front, including her adorable little nieces. She mentioned how different it was for her nieces to grow up with ethnic Disney princesses, like Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Moana, to look up to. As a fellow Asian-American, I appreciated that and could relate, and it meant a lot during the historic week of Asian/Asian-American representation with Crazy Rich Asians and Netflix's To All the Boys I've Loved Before coming out not long before this show.
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| Courtney Reed |
The songs Courtney sang included "Reflection" from Mulan, "Beyond These Palace Walls" from Aladdin (the Broadway musical), "A Whole New World" from Aladdin with her former co-star Adam, and a song from The Greatest Showman. Fun fact about her solo song from Aladdin: Courtney basically asked the Disney legend Alan Menken to write Jasmine an "I want" song because so many other Disney princesses get to sing a song about what they want ("Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid is one example), but Jasmine didn't. Also, obviously The Greatest Showman is not a princess movie, but Courtney loves The Greatest Showman. She even had a Greatest Showman-themed birthday party just the week before.
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| Courtney Reed and Adam Jacobs singing "A Whole New World" from Aladdin |
Even though he's not a princess, I really enjoyed watching Adam sing. As I briefly mentioned before, he's Filipino, so to be able to witness a Filipino-American Broadway star's talent in person was amazing, especially because he originated the iconic title role of Aladdin!
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| Adam Jacobs singing "Proud of Your Boy" |
In addition to singing "A Whole New World" with Courtney, he sang "Proud of Your Boy," a song that was cut from Aladdin the movie but included in the musical adaptation, and "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella with Laura. Adam actually once played the prince in a touring production of Cinderella!
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| Adam Jacobs and Laura Osnes performing "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" |
Hearing the voice of Megara from Hercules and Broadway's original Belle was wonderful! While Disney was holding auditions for Hercules, Susan was currently on Broadway starring as Belle. She talked about how the Disney producers and casting people wouldn't let her audition to be the voice of Meg even though she had already been working for Disney because they insisted the role wasn't right for her because she was Belle. They saw her as Belle and no one else. After some persistence, Disney eventually let her audition, and she got it! So that was a great little anecdote about not giving up and a funny line about how when she played Belle, she was acting.
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| Courtney Reed, Susan Egan, and Laura Osnes during "Don't Say I'm in Love" |
Although people don't typically think of Meg as a Disney princess, Susan sang "Don't Say I'm in Love" from Hercules with Laura and Courtney as her muses. In addition, she was Mother Gothel from Tangled and sang "Mother Knows Best" to Laura as Rapunzel. That was definitely such an entertaining and funny performance. And of course, she sang a beautiful Beauty and the Beast medley.
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| Susan Egan singing "Mother Knows Best" to Laura Osnes |
In addition to Adam Jacobs, there was another special guest at this Broadway Princess Party. They held an "Unleash Your Inner Princess" contest on social media two weeks before the weekend of the show. To enter, you had to sing "How Far I'll Go" from Moana, "Almost There" from Princess and the Frog, or "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. The winner of the contest would get to sing at one of the Broadway Princess Parties during the weekend.
The Chicago winner was an 18-year-old named Grace Pichler who's actually from Wisconsin. She got to sing a solo, so she sang "Part of Your World" and was amazing! I couldn't believe she was only 18. Fun fact: she's off to University of Wisconsin Stevens-Point this fall, which is where Laura Osnes went to school! What a coincidence to sing with her college's most famous musical theatre alum!
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| Susan Egan, Courtney Reed, Laura Osnes, Adam Jacobs, and Grace Pichler singing "God Help the Outcasts" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame |
Last, but certainly not least, is the lovely Laura Osnes! Obviously, she sang quite a few different songs, but my favorite thing she performed was the "Cinder-epic medley," a medley of songs from multiple shows/movies that feature Cinderella, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Disney's Cinderella, and Into the Woods. I honestly don't remember everything she sang because I've watched a lot of the videos from previous BPPs on YouTube, so I can't recall if I saw just the video online or if I also saw it in person. But I've loved Laura's voice since I first watched Bandstand last year, so she could sing the alphabet and I'd be happy about it. She may not be an actual Disney princess like Courtney or Susan, but I sure think she should be.
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| Laura Osnes |
Before I move on to the meet and greet, I want to talk about my favorite group performances. Susan, Courtney, and Laura all sang "Let It Go" from Frozen near the end of the show because no princess show is complete without a song from Frozen! Hearing three Broadway queens sing such a recent and iconic song was beautiful, especially because Idina Menzel (aka Elsa herself) is a Broadway queen. So it's kind of like it came full circle.
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| Susan Egan, Courtney Reed, and Laura Osnes singing "Let It Go" |
The show was so entertaining and full of amazing music and singing as well as humor, but it actually wasn't my favorite part of the night. Of course I loved witnessing Broadway stars sing some of everyone's favorite Disney songs, but the meet and greet was better than I could have asked for.
So after the show, anyone who bought VIP meet and greet tickets went into a room next to the little lobby where merch was being sold to meet Ben, Laura, Courtney, Susan, and Adam. I'm not very good at estimating the size of crowds or amount of people, but about 100 were in line for the meet and greet. Ashley and I are were maybe 20 people before the end of the line, so we had a bit of a wait. Fortunately, it seemed to go pretty quickly despite a lot of picture taking and autograph signing.
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| Adam Jacobs, Courtney Reed, Susan Egan, my sister Ashley, me, Laura Osnes, and Ben Rauhala |
While we were excited to meet the Princess Posse, we were also nervous. As socially anxious introverts, meeting new people is not easy, even if they're people we want to meet. And we like to plan things in advance, what to do and when to do it, to be prepared. Everyone else in line just wanted to take a picture and/or get autographs, which we also wanted of course, but we also had gifts to give everyone, which made things a bit more complicated. We were in line trying to figure out what order to do everything in: Gifts then sign then pictures? Gifts then pictures then sign?
Before we knew it, it was our turn to meet them, and they were so astonished and surprised when we each handed them a gift. I gave Adam's, Laura's, and Susan's while Ashley gave Courtney's and Ben's. Laura said, "Oh my gosh, guys! Really?" And I said, "Yes, we love giving presents!"
Courtney's birthday was just the week before, so she got an extra gift. We got Courtney the letter, a Jasmine Funko Pop! keychain, and a pink travel mug that said "don't let today be a waste of makeup" with a gold lip print on it. The mug matches the letter we decorated for her so well. The gold lip prints reminded us of Courtney's retail company called Gagged Chokers. (Check it out because everything is so cute! It's a must if you love pink and/or glitter like me.)
Apparently when Adam took his letter out, he saw that we wrote "FILIPINO PRIDE!" on the back and said "Mabuhay!" which is a Filipino greeting. His letter was covered in a galaxy print because "A Whole New World" reminds us of the starry night sky. In the midst of the mini chaos of opening gifts, I heard Susan say "Look at your letter! Look at your letter!" to the rest of the Princess Posse, which was so funny, cute, and heart-warming because it showed how she really liked it, appreciated it, and thought it was great. Because she's Broadway's original Belle, we covered Susan's letter in red rose-printed paper.
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| Team SCLAB! |
When they all saw they had letters, they were like, "We have to take a picture with them! We have to spell something!" So they spelled "SCLAB" because those letters don't actually form a word. So they arranged themselves to spell "SCLAB" while Ashley and I just joined the ends. Adam was like, "Oh yeah. You guys have to be in the picture, too!" I remember hearing somebody (probably someone in line) say something along the lines of "Aw, that's so cute!" and I have to agree that our picture is pretty cute.
To detail everyone else's letters, Laura's is a blue/green/yellow mermaid print because it reminded us of these mermaid leggings we've seen her wear on Instagram, and Ben's was covered in paper that had music notes, staffs, and music related words because playing music is what he does! Laura and Susan also received Funko Pop! keychains of their respective princess characters while Ben received a fun Disney themed Family Feud game box. We wanted to get Adam something else other than the letter but unfortunately couldn't find anything else to get him.
Then we took a picture without the letters and got some Playbills signed. Ben was impressed that we had a color Bandstand Playbill and a black and white Playbill. Apparently this all took longer than we thought and longer than everyone else because the people working at the venue said they had to keep the line moving, so Ashley got a quick picture with Laura, and we left the meet and greet room.
Because we were rushed at the end, I forgot that we wanted to take a Filipino picture with Adam, and I didn't get to take an individual picture with Courtney like I wanted. But it was fine because Ashley and I weren't in a hurry, so we figured we could stick around and wait until the meet and greet was over to take more pictures with them before they left. Plus, I really wanted to show Courtney a picture of my pink unicorn plush with the Gagged Chokers card.
A few weeks before the show, I posted a picture of me in my Gagged #GIRLGANG sweatshirt and my unicorn with the Gagged card on Instagram because I wanted to show off my new pink sweatshirt, and my pink unicorn plush matched the holographic print on the back perfectly! Plus I know Courtney loves unicorns. The Gagged Instagram shared my pictures on its Insta story, and so did Courtney! So I wanted to let Courtney know that I was the one with the unicorn she reposted and loved.
There weren't too many people behind us in the meet and greet line, so we just waited in the lobby by the merch and Gagged pop-up shop to kill the time. We started a nice, funny conversation with Courtney's sister, Tiffany, who was running the Gagged pop-up. From tracking online shopping packages to unicorns to her daughter running around the venue, I really enjoyed talking to her.
After maybe 15 minutes or so, the Princess Posse was done with the meet and greet, and Laura, Ben, Courtney, and Adam came out into the lobby. Courtney was busy talking to all of her family and friends that came, but we saw that Adam was about to leave, so we tried to take a quick selfie with him before he left. After he said his goodbyes to the Posse, he came over to us, and we told him how we're also Filipino and wanted a Filipino picture. So we took a terrible quality selfie, but it was better than nothing! Then he said "Salamat!" which is "thank you" in Filipino.
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| Ashley, Adam, and me |
Then one of his bags broke and fell over, and his suitcase fell over, which I picked up for him as he got his other bag. Tiffany then came over and commented on his suitcase, which was embroidered with the Aladdin logo for the tour production, to us: "Can you tell he was in Aladdin?" and we all shared a laugh.
The only thing left I wanted to wait for was to show Courtney the picture of my unicorn and take a picture with her. She had lots of family and friends there, so we awkwardly waited in the midst of them all for her to finish talking to everyone. At that point, no one else who wasn't working the event or Courtney's friends/family was left but us, so I was honestly surprised no one tried kicking us out, looking at us funny and wondering what we were doing, or something.
After a little while, Courtney was free to talk to, so I went up and showed her my picture, asking her if she remembered it, and she did! So I told her that's my picture, and she told me again how she loved it, thanked us for the gifts and the support, and said she loved it all. It was so nice to hear, and it made me so happy knowing how much she enjoyed it all. Then I got to take a quick picture with her, and then we said goodbye and good night to her and to the magical night that was the Broadway Princess Party.
Sunday night was such a magical night I will never forget. On top of the fun and entertaining show, my sister and I put a smile on the Princess Posse's faces and showed them extra love and support with the gifts. Making people feel loved and appreciated is something Ashley and I love to do, and even though we don't really know Ben, Laura, Courtney, Susan, or Adam, I'm glad we got to meet them all and thank them for a memorable night.
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| Courtney and me |
After a little while, Courtney was free to talk to, so I went up and showed her my picture, asking her if she remembered it, and she did! So I told her that's my picture, and she told me again how she loved it, thanked us for the gifts and the support, and said she loved it all. It was so nice to hear, and it made me so happy knowing how much she enjoyed it all. Then I got to take a quick picture with her, and then we said goodbye and good night to her and to the magical night that was the Broadway Princess Party.
Sunday night was such a magical night I will never forget. On top of the fun and entertaining show, my sister and I put a smile on the Princess Posse's faces and showed them extra love and support with the gifts. Making people feel loved and appreciated is something Ashley and I love to do, and even though we don't really know Ben, Laura, Courtney, Susan, or Adam, I'm glad we got to meet them all and thank them for a memorable night.
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