So Wednesday, June 13th I awoke to hear nothing but rave reviews of our hotel's breakfast- especially the oatmeal- from my father-in-law. According to him, you did not need to eat anything else the entire day it was so delicious.
Since we had originally planned to go to Top of the Roc in the morning (and had changed it because of weather and the early hour), we instead had students (and any adults) who needed help getting tickets for a show of their choice for the Wednesday matinee.
Other than two of my students getting surrounded by hoodlums who forced them to buy a cd of their music (we found out about this after the fact- they were ok- and learned the lesson of moving like a shark on the streets of NYC- don't stop- ever...), we had students pick up lottery and rush tickets to:
Harvey (starring Jim Parsons from Big Bang Theory- rush tix for $29)
Ghost (front row lottery tickets for a ton of kids for $29)
Wicked (an alumni that said she never won anything won front row lottery tix for $30)
One Man 2 Guvners
Spiderman
Potted Potter
Other Desert Cities
All great (and cheap) tix. After everyone got squared away, we were off to Nougatine with Brent and Amanda Cox. After making a quick reservation (and killing time in the Time Warner Center waiting for lunch to open) we sat down (for our first time at a table instead of the bar...) and had their awesome $30 3 course lunch. My meal was pea-themed (except for the strawberry dessert) and was awesome. Jackie had shrimp and all of it was so pretty we didn't want to eat it. We also got words of wisdom from our waiter after seeing him almost (but not) drop expensive looking wine glasses, explain it with the phrase "everything's an almost".
Then it was off to see One Man 2 Guvners. In short, it was brilliant. From the 60's style costumes, sets, band (that opened the show and played music in between scene changes to the plants in the audience and the improvisation with the real audience...it was in short one of the best plays we've (and I think I include Jackie) seen. Not to be missed is James Corden's Tony-winning performance as the lead character who just wants to eat. Also brilliant is Tom Edden (as the 80 year old waiter) and Oliver Chris as Stanley Stubbers (who has great one-liners).
Floating on clouds of laughter, we were off to the East Village to Ed's Lobster Bar. I had heard about this place online and thought it was a New England style lobster place (standing at a bar). While it was decorated with nautical themes, it was NOT a cheap eat at the counter kind of place- instead it was expensive--but throwing caution to the wind, Jackie and I shared a lobster bisque and a lobster roll- both were awesome. We also all loved Amanda Cox's lobster galette. Everything is better covered in potato.
Then it was off to the not as awesome Evita. Now, I've seen the live show before at PTC and really enjoyed the staging of it. When we first arrived at the Marquis, I surprised by the line at the ticket booth- everyone must be wanting to see Ricky Martin. Then we learned that Ricky was sick that night--so everyone (and I mean pretty much everyone in the balcony which is where we were) went and exchanged their ticket. After being assured by our sassy usher that we were seeing the better Che and Eva (Elena never performs Wednesday nights- but I don't think our usher meant better than Mandy and Patti), our group pretty much sat by ourselves in the balcony.
Positive things: That set was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen in my life. Seriously it looked like a million dollars up there.
As for the rest, it felt like the Cliff's Notes version of the show-though some dance moves were cool, I never felt emotionally involved (or even why I should care) with the story. And heaven help you if you weren't already familiar with the story. But our usher was hilarious and fun with our group.
After that, it was off to Top of the Roc. Now, having done both Empire State and Top, I always recommend Top of the Roc. I think the views are better because it's less crowded and you get awesome shots of the Chrysler Building, Central Park, bridges, Empire State and Jersey. At night it was fun to see the lights of the Freedom Tower all lit Red, White and Blue. I prefer it during the day, but going at night was pretty spectacular.
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