New York, New York, it's a hell of a town...

When last I wrote we had left D.C. and our wonderful friends behind for the bright lights of Broadway, Times Square and the great city of Manhattan. We arrived Tuesday afternoon after an uneventful, yet nice train ride. We took a short cab ride to our Hotel, The Milford Plaza. We went to check in, and were told that our room wouldn't be ready until 3:00. With an hour to kill we decided to take a walk around Times Square and find some lunch. After having a super lunch we headed back over to the Hotel to get our room key and get settled before our first show. At this point it was about 3:30. The woman told us our room still wasn't ready and could we return after 4:00. This was getting ridiculous. We got the 3:00 thing, as that's normal check in time, but now we were told after 4. We decided to wait it out in the lobby. At about 10 minutes after 4 Jeff went to check on the room. It still wasn't ready. Jeff started to say something about the delay when the manager walked up and told the woman to provide an upgrade. We got to the room only to find that they had just given us another room of the same type that we reserved. What a ploy. This is not a place I would recommend staying. The shower wouldn't maintain any hot water, the room was musty and old and the overall hotel is under construction and the people aren't very friendly. Anyway back to the important parts...



Once we got settled we showered and headed to our first show. This one was a surprise for me. If you remember in my last post I mentioned that I heard Robb say something about Laura Linney? While, I now know why he said her name. Jeffrey took me to see the preview of Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Laura Linney.

As the show is still in previews it isn't perfect. Although the female cast was spot on. I have never seen any iteration of this show, so it was all new to me. Linney was phenomenal. I have always loved her and really enjoyed seeing her in the role of La Marquise de Merteuil. It's hard to describe this character without ruining the plot, but she was spot on. The male cast had a lot of work to do. The lead, Ben Daniels (Le Vicomte de Valmont) was really great until the second act. The fight scene was laughable, and not done well at all. I only hope that they continue to work on this and other areas. In one month this show should be flawless.



After the show we went back to the hotel and spent a great deal of time discussing the show. Jeffrey being a very skilled actor had much better points then I did, as I am easily entertained and don't look as deeply as he does. We woke up the next morning, had some breakfast and got dressed for our first of two shows. After picking up the tickets for the Matinee of November, starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf we grabbed a slice of New York Pizza. We then proceeded to the theater to see David Mamet's new play. I don't believe that I have laughed so much, or enjoyed theater like this in a long time. If you get the chance to visit NYC this is definitely a play I would recommend. Nathan Lane plays a fictitious (although the character resembles my interpretation of GW) President. Laurie Metcalf is his Lesbian chief speech writer who has just returned from China after adopting a little girl with her partner Daisy. The show just goes from there onward. It is hilarious!!

After the play we headed back to our hotel to rest a bit before dinner and our evening show.



We had a wonderful dinner and headed over to the Shubert for Spamalot. Clay Aiken (from American Idol fame) is currently playing Sir Robin, and I have to say that I was prepared to hate his performance. I assume that because I had such low expectations that was the reason I really enjoyed his performance. This is Monty Python at its best. It is hysterical with great bits and overall great performances. We know the music, as it's something we own and have listened to a few times. Seeing the production was just extremely fun. It was kind of funny to see the people that come back again and again. As we were trying to exit the theater the woman sitting next to me asked if this was our first time seeing the show. I told her it was and she went on and on about how many times she had seen it, how she brought her daughter the previous Saturday for her sixteenth birthday, and purchased a picture with Clay Aiken. It's that time of year where Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS collects money at each performance. Clay was offering signed Polaroids for $250.00 each to raise money. I have to assume that Spamalot is raising the most money based on the number of people purchasing these pictures. We were not included. Anyway after escaping the lady we headed over to Sardi's for dessert. We had a nice dessert, a good cup of coffee, and some New York Theater history. All in all a fantastic day and evening.



We woke up late the next morning and showered and packed getting ready to check out of the hotel. Once checked out and our bags stored we headed over to Central Park for a little Geocaching. We found a couple of fun geocaches, took a couple of travel bugs and headed back to Times Square for one final cache before we got a cab to the airport.



All in all we had a fantastic vacation (to see a couple of pics check out Robb's BLOG here), and are glad to be home. We spent all day yesterday resting (I slept most of the day) and are refreshed and ready to start the weekend. It's back to work Monday, which is a good thing. New boss (again), and new challenges ahead of me.