I started the day a little later than I expected – thanks to the best night’s sleep I’ve had all trip and also totally sleeping through my alarm. but hey this is generally recommended behaviour when you’re on holidays.

After a cup of hotel-room-coffee-maker-coffee (could be worse), off we walked, heading upward to 54th street.

Our destination: 54 Below

54 Below is a small cabaret/supper club. It gets its name because it’s its in the basement below former legendary disco night club Studio 54. (Incidentally, Studio 54 has been turned back into a theatre again). Anyway. It’s a beautiful, intimate space, very cozy and cool.

We were there to attend the Big Broadway Drag Brunch hosted by Marti Cummings. We kicked off with a non-alcoholic cocktail which was a tasty as it was pretty.

When it comes to brunch, in the city that never sleeps I guess calling a 1PM show ‘brunch’ isn’t the biggest stretch of the imagination. The brunch itself was magnificent – much better than I was expecting for what I thought was primarily a music venue.

For an entree (Australian verison of entree, not the American version of entree) – Baked Brie, warm and gooey, with nuts, herbs and a whole clove of roasted garlic, served with delicious crusty bread… every bit as good as it sounds.

Washed down with a ‘Flight of Mimosas’. First, I didn’t know a mimosa could be more than champagne and orange juice (uncultured swine that I guess I am), and secondly, who knew a flight of mimosas was even a thing? Well it is a thing, and a tasty thing at that. There was traditional, tropical, guava & lychee, and pear. Which rhymes with Cher. Which rhymes with Share. Which we did.

For mains, posh smashed avo with an egg on it. And “chips” or salad.

Last but not least, cinnamon rolls for Perry, and a trio of gelato flavours for me.

Then … on with the show! Our host, miss Marti Gould Cummings, ridiculously funny, smart, sure knows how to work a crowd and boy can she sing! She introduced a few other folk on to the stage, all of whom did a great job.

Everything was live – all accompanied by a pianist on stage – no backing tracks, just the piano and the performer, with both were for them to hide, they all sang great and god the whole things was just hilarious, primarily thanks to Marti. I was not sure what to expect going in to this show but my expectations were blown away – both by the food and by the performers – so very glad we went, that was some brunch! It was just brilliant.

Like all good brunches this went for nearly three hours, after which we went from 54 Below to 54 street level and back into the craziness of manhattan. Even a little bit of extra crazy with it being Easter Sunday, with trucks and megaphones which, I think, were supposed to be preaching messages of love, but sadly it was just all about hatred. It’s very odd indeed. On the plus side, seems like Jesus isn’t a sound engineer coz they were all so distorted (their sound, not just their views) that they were borderline incomprehensible, so that was a bonus.

It may be the seventh day but no way did we rest – we had to go pick up the washing we put in yesterday, mission accomplished. On our walks though New York this time, one thing we’ve really noticed this time around is that there we weed, like, everywhere. I guess it’s been legalised, you can smell it more here than in Amsterdam or Seattle I think. And lots of people on street corners chanting “smoke smoke pre-rolled smoke” – whether that’s legal or not, who can say, and I’ll leave it up to someone else to find out.

Because there’s no rest for the wicked, it was time to see another show tonight. This time, keeping to today’s theme, it’s “Drag – the Musical”, at the New World Stages up on West 50th St. On the way up there, and on every other walk we’ve taken in New York, I guess it’ll come as no surprise that the drivers here love tooting their horns even more than the people in Boston do. It is just like every TV show you’ve ever seen set in New York (except maybe Hello Dolly, which didn’t have much in the way of cars). The other New York TV/Movie cliche – steam rising from the streets, is also true:

It happens because in addition to water, electricity and (I assume) gas, steam is also delivered to building throughout Manhattan, piped into radiators for heating. And since many of those pipes are probably over 100 years old, you get leaks. OK that’s enough learning for the moment, back to the matter at hand: Drag – The Musical.

Bloody hell it was funny! It was great seeing a couple of stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race, e.g. Alaska Thunder-(children, avert your eyes)-fuck and Jujubee. The whole cast did a great job. The show was heaps of fun, though it did at times lapse into being a tiny bit message-y (unsurprising, drag queens have been through some shit, ok?) , and the high drama bits felt a bit too high drama to really fit the tone of the show, but that’s just being picky. Overall, it was a hoot, and again, so very glad we were lucky enough to get the chance to see it. Vocal performances were stunning, comic timing on point, hair and makeup were of course perfection – for a drag show it just has to be, right?

Oh let’s learn one more thing – and off-broadway production doesn’t have much to do with how far away it is from Broadway (coz it wasn’t that far). Instead, it’s to do with the size of the venue. Because this venue is smaller in size, it’s an off-Broadway production. So there you go.

And off we also went, via a shop where we picked up some cheese to add to the hummus and bickies we already had at the hotel, and that was an easy dinner.

Now for the important bit – publishing this entry, falling asleep, and seeing what New York brings us tomorrow.