After a business trip in Connecticut, Bex drove down and spent the night.
Even though she was in NYC just about 12 hours we made the most of her trip. She got here right as I was finishing up with my work for the day. It was crazy hot and humid but she was a trooper and we both wanted to go to dinner and a show. We decided not to buy tickets ahead of time but to go to TKTS and see what we could get that night. (TKTS sells 'day of' Broadway show tickets at a discounted price - often at 50% off of the full price.) We arrived at the TKTS booth about 6:45pm - by 6:55pm we had two front mezzanine tickets to 'American Idiot', purchased at 50% off the normal ticket price. Needless to say, we were totally excited.
The show started at 8pm, so not quite enough time for dinner but enough time to get a drink and a snack. We found a bistro type cafe close to the theatre and enjoyed a Greek style tapas plate and a couple of drinks. The tapas plate was perfect - a plate of warm pita slices served with 3 dips and a couple of stuffed grape leaves. The star of the dips was a caviar dip - I'm pretty sure it was just caviar eggs blended with cream cheese. The dip was salty and creamy and delicious.
We headed to the theatre and settled in for the show. The show was amazing. Everything for the set stays on stage the entire time and the orchestra also sits on stage the entire time. The orchestra is made up of a keyboard, a guitar, a bass guitar, a violin, and a cello. The musicians are spread around the stage and they don't interact with the actors but they are definitely part of the show. The backdrop for the show is full of video screens, during the musical pieces they flashed various video clips that made statements to backup the lyrics. The video editor must have spent hours getting the timing just right on all of the clips. The cast is pretty large, with at least 20 different actors and actresses. They were all young and full of energy. They are moving, dancing, and singing the entire performance. The Green Day music is woven in to the performance seamlessly. Even though the music would appeal to a younger audience the themes covered are very adult with very adult situations - not a place to bring your 12 year old unless you wanted to spend the rest of the night answering questions.
The 1/2 off tickets were a bonus but we both felt we would pay full price to see it again - it was just that good.
After the show we headed down to Fish for some late night seafood. We finished the night with a little bit of gelato and then headed home. Bex was up at 6am to head out to JFK - she was gone before the cats even knew she was there.
It was a great night and I can't wait to head down to Broadway and visit the TKTS booth to get more discount show tickets. (Michael is headed to Oregon later this summer - you know I already have plans for at least one show while he is gone.)
