On Broadway

The lights are really brights mostly because you're near Times Square which is crazy.

Julie and I saw two Broadway shows. 

Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Julie and I got tickets for this play through TKTS. The drill for TKTS is that you arrive several hours before shows begin, wait in a long (but fast-moving) line in the middle of Times Square, and get tickets at whatever price TKTS tells you.

We got matinee tickets for a Saturday show. Tickets to our first choice, Newsies, were $141, so we declined. Tickets for Cat On a Hot Tin Roof were $77 each and we got those, paid with a credit card. Despite the long line, rain and being surrounded by the craziness of Times Square this was easy as pie.


The theater was zany, without a ton of space. But we had amazing seats. Orchestra. Dead center. The play was good. It was also really long. The set was beautiful, the costumes were gorgeous, Scarlett Johansson was fantastic. 

Newsies
As long-term fans of Newsies -- a Disney musical movie from 1992 with a cult following -- Julie and I really wanted to see this. The tickets are a hot commodity and priced as such.

On Sunday, after dim sum in Chinatown, Julie and I headed back to Times Square. We entered the lottery for Newsies tickets. This was better than TKTS for two reasons: it wasn't raining and cute young men in Newsie caps answered our questions. The lotto is free. We entered at 12:30, took a walk around the non-Times-Square area near the theater, and returned for the lotto. For the lotto, the cute young men in Newsies caps drew names and the crowd waiting cheered when their names were called. Of the 30 or so people waiting everyone got tickets (not all together), but Julie's heard that there are times when only 5 or so tickets are up for the lotto. We paid $30 each for tickets, in cash, and went on our merry way until curtain at 3 p.m.

We walked to Midtown, walked by the original Macy's & Madison Square Garden, returned to the theater where we saw a long line before the doors even opened, got a beer, then waited in line to get inside. The line into the theater was odd and around the block, but totally worked. We got inside and to our seats quickly. The bathroom line during intermission was similarly strange-but-fast. 

Newsies as a play was delightful. The songs we knew and love were terrific. The dancing was amazing. There was tap dancing, flipping, hand stands... OH MY! These broadway fellas know what they are doing. There were a few new songs, which were nothing exciting, but overall Newsies met serious approval from the both of us. 

Hooray!

Here are Julie and I on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.