Theater Day

First thing this morning I saw a tweet from one of the New York twitterers about the TKTS service (see post below), which I already knew about, but read anyway, and it said that Wednesday was a matinee day, so I decided to run up to Times Square since the 2 pm show tickets go on sale at 10 am. The TKTS booth is "under the red stairs" and you have to look at the sign to see what's available. I got tickets for "9 to 5", and the line got really long behind me, so I recommend getting there by 10:15. Also heard some women saying that the Wednesday matinees were busier than the Saturday, don't know why.



Times Square is pretty wild, lots of people roaming around. Didn't know of a good place to eat, and had 3 hours, so I boldly went to a second destination; took the R to Barney's (59th and 5th stop, the store is right there at 660 Madison and 60th) and got to see Central Park East for the first time this trip. Had lunch at Fred's Cafe at the top, so elegant and tasteful. Sauteed Chicken Livers, Cold English pea soup, and tea, seemed fitting, and appropriately light yet sustaining for an afternoon at the theater. As I left around 12:30, there was a huge line of lunchers, so get there early, too! Barney's is great just to stroll through and admire the sparsely-arranged, bizarrely-expensive, but beautiful designer things.


The Marquis Theater is in the Marriott Hotel at 45th and Broadway; my seat was great, and the show was terrific fun, though it turns out it's closing soon. You can read reviews here. It was so cool to see Alison Janney, whom I love, in a singing/dancing role! She's not great at either, but she cuts a fine figure, and definitely held her own. Broadway is Broadway, as long as there are sets and lighting being whirled around, and live people doing stuff, I'll be amazed by it. My view of the stage; you can't tell from the pic, but there are old-fashioned phone handsets hanging down. The show was about 2.5 hours long, and we debouched back onto a drippy, rainy Times Square. Major weather stopped plane flights, but it really blows in and out fast.