Today was pancake morning in the Wyndham's owners lounge so while Darcy and Tom were up and out early to score tickets to see a straight play that Darcy thought interesting I went up to the thirty-third floor to eat some cakes.
I was the only person interested apparently in scoring pancakes and when I entered the kitchen where the employee was "cooking" I immediately saw why. She had two devices that looked like George Foreman Grills with quarter size pancake holes in them that she was filling with pancake mix. There was all sorts of toppings to put on my pancakes from syrup to sprinkles and chocolate chips, but I just had mine with butter and a side of syrup.
There was no coffee to accompany my pancakes and when I inquired as to this missing link she told me the coffee was downstairs in the lobby. Because that made perfect sense.
Fortified by my free breakfast, I returned to the room to find the other two back, the third dressed, and we headed out into the city. We HIKED to Times Square so Darcy could do some shopping in a few of the shops specializing in Broadway, and then we headed off for show #5 Groundhog Day.
I'm not a big fan of the movie. I mean, it was fun, but I couldn't imagine how they would make it into a musical. Grandma and Darcy's theater peeps had suggested Waitress, but since we won the lottery for these tickets we hit this show instead and it turned out well. It was good. The set was amazing with a revolving stage floor and tons of scene changes. It was the biggest cast out of the five musicals we saw and the lead was easy on the eyes and a good singer.
There was a lot of humor in it and a lot of surprises and I enjoyed it more than I enjoy the movie version. Darcy and I were in the mezzanine, second row. It would have been great seats, but like most of our seats we had tall people in front of us and we spent considerable time moving left and right to peer between them. Tom and Madison were on the floor, but farther back from the stage and said they were decent, but they couldn't see the stage as closely as we could.
We grabbed dinner in between shows and then HIKED to the next theater for our final Broadway show. Darcy had chosen this one in researching and none of her NY theater pals had seen it. I looked it up and agreed it would be a good one and we voted for The Play that Goes Wrong over Waitress.
We loved it! It was hysterical. The premise is that a college theater group somehow lands on Broadway and everything that can go wrong does. The show never stopped. It started a half an hour before the play was scheduled to start while people where coming in to be seated. The ticket lady had warned Darcy to be there early and so we expected it, but I don't believe many people did.
The two college kids, one on sets and one on lighting, show up on stage to fix a few things like a door that won't close and a loose board. The set girl in overalls kept hiding her face from us using different props. The lighting guy kept getting frustrated. He had his set up in the balcony to our right and would periodically appear upstairs to mess with lights and sound. They pulled a guy from the audience to help out and had him doing hilarious things like holding items on the wall and trying to lift a tool box that wouldn't come off the floor. That was all great fun, but the play itself was just fun, fun, fun.
It was a murder mystery, but everything went wrong with the play from the props to the set to the actors getting knocked out and dragged off stage. As the audience, we couldn't stop laughing. Madison and I were laughing so loud that the guy next to Darcy at intermission commented on how loud we were, but frankly, I couldn't help it.
At intermission things were happening everywhere. Madison went to the bathroom and one of the actors went to purchase candy at the bar with the college drama teacher running after him telling him he couldn't be off stage in costume. Darcy went to get a drink and another actor was out there running around telling people to stop laughing that the play was not a comedy and very serious. In the theater where I stayed the lighting guy went through the audience from the orchestra, to the mezzanine, to the balcony looking for a lost dog and shouting at people regarding all sorts of things. I think had he come near me I would have played along with him. I wondered later if sometimes the audience shouted out things to the actors on stage because it was that kind of play.
We agreed it was a great show to end our NY Broadway visit. We spent more time in Times Squares shopping and then we HIKED back to the Wyndham for the night. The next morning we had to check out and store our luggage, but since we weren't leaving until that evening we agreed to tour the Empire State Building.
It wasn't far from our hotel so off we set to HIKE there. It was packed with people. We forked over the money to ride to the 86th floor, but the elevators drop you off at the 80th floor first where there are exhibits of the construction that was all quite interesting. There are windows everywhere for viewing, but after ten minutes an employee began yelling at the top of her lungs, "People! Stop! Head to the 86th floor and see this view from outside. See this view from outside instead of windows!" I not only found her screaming annoying, but I also didn't appreciate her acting like we had stopped here on purpose when they dumped us on this floor. I later decided that they do that to keep people moving in sections. Whatever. It was still annoying and I ignored her and went when I was damn well ready.
Then of course we headed to the 86th floor and found the shrieking lady was correct. The view from outside was spectacular. It was crowded, but there was plenty of room to be up close to the railing to take photos. So many people were taking selfies which I thought silly since there were all sorts of safety features to prevent people from climbing and falling. To take a good photo you had to put your camera lens through those safety wires, but I took a selfie just to see what all the fuss was about.
Yeah. Not a good pic. Compared to this:
I got to see the Statue of Liberty up close through one of those binocular devices which were on each side of the building. We spent about two hours in the building before leaving and eating lunch at a deli where a guitarist played and sang next to our table. I kept singing along with him and clapping when he finished and he kept smiling and thanking me. Darcy and I gave him money when we left.
We took an Uber back to the Wyndham, and because he was the best Uber driver we had had this entire time we hooked him up to Uber us to the airport. He entertained Tom with all the information on Uber and becoming a driver so this will just fuel him to push me in that direction, something he has mentioned previously.
It was a great trip to the city, the best I've had out of my three excursions there. Darcy did a wonderful job with the choosing of the Broadway musicals and the last show and other than not having Grandma with us, it was a grand trip.
Unfortunately, by the time we landed I was sick. I blame all the HIKING.
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