Day 274: Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Port to Port:  New York City

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0       Stayed At: Mooring

Mile to Mile: Our goal today was to see a Broadway show. Unlike most of the towns we have been through on the Great Loop, NYC has dozens of theatre choices from comedies to musicals to love stories. Well, we picked one that covered all the bases. I had found out some months ago that the play “Once” was showing Off-Broadway in NYC to rave reviews. “Once” is one of our favorite movies. It tells the story of a musician in Ireland (Glen Hansard) trying to make music and how he goes from playing on street corners to finding his muse (Marketa Irglova) to forming a band and making a demo disk. The music is amazing, the story is funny and there is even a love story mixed in – something for everyone.

We decided to stand in line for rush tickets to either the matinee or evening show. A lot of other people had the same idea. As luck would have it, the guy in front of us got the last two cheaper rush tickets so, instead of taking our chances and wasting more time in line, we just sucked it up and paid the price to get for the 2:00 pm matinee. Since we were down in the theatre district, we wandered around looking at the sights, did a little window shopping in Times Square (what a zoo) and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood.

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the theatre and get in line. In turned out (for future reference) that a couple people were trying to sell extra rush tickets because their plans had changed (we recognized them from this morning) so we could have saved $50 but you never know. Maybe next time.

This beginning of this play was interesting. They had a bar set up at the back of the stage with a bartender (the story takes place in Ireland) and the audience could go up and order a drink and stand around on stage while everyone was getting seated. Soon some of the actors started playing music on stage just like they were jamming. Them they played a couple of songs as the audience members onstage watched. Soon they cleared out the stage and the story made a smooth transition to the first scene of the play as the lights went down. Very creative.

Suffice it to say, the play was amazing. It was funny, the music gave us the chills and the story was inspiring. The actors were also wonderful musicians and played all the music live. What more could you ask for.

After the play, we spent a little more time in Times Square, had some ice cream sundaes at McDonald’s and headed back to the boat. Cindy took the subway and I walked the 2 miles back taking pictures along the way. Thankfully, the river was calm and we relaxed in the warm sunshine on the boat as the rest of the city made its way home from work. Only a little over a day before the kids start arriving. We can’t wait.