What a charming show this was. It’s an homage to New York City & its iconic Empire State Building. It's easy to take for granted just how a lot of our iconic buildings got built. It's easy to forget that people sacrificed a lot, even life to get our famous skyline to life.

The musical follows Sylvie, the daughter of a worker who died during the construction of The Empire State Building. We are in 1976 and she sees the building as horrible reminder of her fathers death. Her daughter wants to become a construction worker as well making it all much worse. We go back in time with her as she goes through her fathers belongings and is taken to the construction site itself. We get to know the people who worked hard to get it all finished in time. Whether they were Irish, polish, or Italian we meet a melting pot of individuals.

What I found interesting was the history I admittedly didn't know especially about the Mohawk who were prominent in the construction of this building. They were famed for their skywalking which helped get the building sky-high faster. Its a nice history lesson. I enjoyed that a lot as a person who loves to dig into history once she learns something new.

While the score and the book sometimes felt a bit overstuffed there's something there that someone looking for a show off-broadway will love. If you want something with a lot of heart and a crazy hard-working cast that represents New York in a wonderful way I think this could work.

This one plays now into September at New World Stages.

@empiremusical

#empiremusical #musicaltheatre #offbroadway #newworldstages