Diary for Daniel Tours America


New York day 6: Broadway show

2008-07-23

Today was spent mostly in darkness.  My first stint was during a musical on Broadway.  I saw Mamma Mia, a musical set to the songs of Abba, at the Winter Garden theatre on Broadway itself. 

On Monday I`d visited the discount ticket stall to try to pick up a ticket, for any show, at a discount rate.  It turns out that they sell the super-great $120 tickets at half price, and do not sell the cheaper tickets at all.  So rather than waiting all day for the ticket stall I went to the box office of a show that I really fancied.  There I looked into getting the super-cheap, standing-only tickets, purchasable only 2 hours before the curtain.  In the end I decided not to risk missing  the opportunity just for the sake of $40, so bought a regular ticket.  And I am very glad I did, the place was full to the rafters.

The show was excellent, I thoroughly recommend it for anyone who likes good music and dancing.  By the encore I, indeed everyone, was dancing.  I won`t ruin the plot, but will say that the songs fit perfectly with the narration without feeling like they were forced.  Three main characters, a Yank, and Brit and an Aussie, were  very funny.  The guy doing the British accent did an excellent job, but the Aussie sounded like the typical "American doing an Aussie accent" - ie. terrible.  Surprise surprise, the British character turns out to be gay, a recurring light-hearted joke that the Yanks like to pull.

 

After this I went to meet up with a couch-surfing girl who`d answered my "help!  need company!" plea.  She had free cinema tickets and we saw American Teen (very good) before going to Chinatown for some tea.   I`d never before tried "bubble tea" or "tea eggs".  The former is a delicious hot or cold creamy iced tea-like drink with tapioca at the bottom, sucked through a wide-bore straw.  It tasted great but felt like eating frog-spawn.  Tea eggs are vile and taste neither of tea nor eggs.

We were caught in a brilliant thunderstorm on the way back and were soaked to the bone - not a problem normally, as the rain was warm, but stepping onto the air-conned train made me freeze.