We started the day by heading up to Ellen’s Stardust Diner (no not that Ellen) on the off chance that maybe the queue wasn’t ridiculous. But, sure enough the queue was ridiculous. It’s a cafe where all the staff are theatre performers so they’re always doing Broadway songs through the restaurant, sounded like a bit of fun, but not when there’s an hour (or more) wait.

And while we were walking through Times Square, who did we (almost) bump into, but Nichole Scherzinger, doing a piece to camera, probably promoting Sunset Boulevard (sadly we couldn’t get good tickets for this one so we gave it a miss)

With the Stardust Diner ruled out, guess what’s right across the road? Din Tai Fung! Sweet! Nothing wrong with an early lunch, so in we went, and wow … this was the poshest (and hugest) Din Tai Fung I’d ever seen.

Also I think the priciest – I think the prices in USD were more than we used to pay in AUD. But hey, they also did cocktails.

We were hungry so no food photos, but everything was delicious. After lunch, it wasn’t tooo long til our matinee show. Perry went back to the hotel to change and I took a bit of a wander around this more northern part of midtown – I stumbled upon the massive Louis Vuitton building, which looks kind-of surreal.

Since I was in the neighbourhood it would have been rude not to pop to the 5th Avenue Apple Store just to see how it’s going. At the moment, it’s kinda covered in scaffolding or something to protect it from building work nearby, and they’ve added a bit of colour to the big cube, bit still recognisable as the big glass cube Apple shop.

Inside it was a bit different too – the glass stairs replaced with metal, but the stairs still work so hey can’t complain.

After wandering around and somehow successfully not buying anything, it wasn’t long ‘til it was time to meet up with Perry at the theatre. So I jumped on the M train this time, at 59th st, for a very quick trip down to 49th st to the theatre. Easy peasy.

Today’s Matinee?

Hadestown, at the Walter Kerr theatre. A more modern interpretation of the story or Eurydice and Orpheus, something something underworld something, Greek mythology? Sorry I’m a bit ignorant about it – so on the plus side, it’s all quite fresh to me I guess. We could not have been more front and centre.

This was another show with the band on stage, which was pretty cool to see (and hear). The show itself had plenty of great, strong performances, Philip Boykin as Hades had so much presence, and an incredible bass baritone voice. All the cast did a great job, singing, dancing, and some playing instruments as well. A lot of talent on one stage. I just checked the Playbill and this was only the second time that KC Dela Cruz had played Eurydice. You’d never have known it – she was fantastic. And I can see how Eva Noblezada (from Cabaret last night) would have excelled in this role too.

The show itself … I mean, it was good, but I didn’t love love love it and wouldn’t rush to see it again. It was a little bit plodding in parts, and the songs, whilst conversing the right mood, I can’t say I can remember single one of them a few hours later. As a whole it just didn’t stir my soul, y’ know?

After that, Perry went back to the hotel to rest and I had a very small adventure – buy some deodorant. Exciting, yes? But the point of mentioning this very mundane thing, is that at the pharmacies, all the deodorant, and much of the skin care stuff, is all locked away in cabinets and you have to press a button in the aisle so someone can come along and unlock it for you. Guess there’s a bit of shoplifting going on? Anyway, mission complete, and don’t worry New York, I will not be stinky. 🙂

After spending some time in the underworld during the day, tonight it was time to go back to Paris, because we haven’t seen Moulin Rouge in enough cities yet. After Sydney (twice), Melbourne and London, it was time to see how it goes on Broadway.

We squeeeezed into our tiny cabaret table seating , which isn’t so much right in front of the stage but more inside it, behind the big ‘Moulin Rouge’ neon sign. Once you’re in the seat, the walkways of the stage close around you – so except for emergency that’s where you are staying no matter what.

One aspect that I found very different to the Sydney, Melbourne, and London versions, was the crowd. Every staff member you’d walk past on the way in made it super clear that there are to be no photos of videos taken of the performance – you know, the standard stuff. For this performance there’s a bit of ‘pre show’ where some cast members come out before the lights come down, to parade around and help set the atmosphere. What the atmosphere was really like though, was many, many calls of “No photos! Stop taking video! Put that phone away now!”, as it seems pretty much everyone completely ignore the ‘no photos, no video’ rule , which is a tiny bit sad.

It started off with the usual riot of sound and noise and colour and movement – it sure does have a fantastic opening to set the scene and bring up everyone’s energy levels.

There were a few notable people in the show tonight, I guess the most obvious being Boy George, taking on the role of Harold Ziedler. I try to say this tenderly, and with respect, but … it did feel a little like was mostly phoning it in, not exactly giving his all. On the flip side, I guess he has been doing 8 shows a week for quite a few months now, so it is perhaps understandable that his singing voice really was somewhat ragged. Still, he’s an icon, so what can ya do. I guess pretty much all was forgiven right at the end of the show, where they altered it slightly to include a few Culture Club songs, which was lovely and brought a massive cheer up from the crowd.

The other notable was the woman playing Nini – Samantha Dodemaide. I thought she looked familiar, and more sounded familiar as her Australian accent rang through the theatre loud and clear. Sure enough, she played Nini in the Australian production, and Moulin Rouge over here is her Broadway debut. You go girl!

Unlike the last few shows we’ve seen this was a tradition big musical – tons of sets, lots of props, must be a bit of a storage nightmare. But as we know from the Moulin Rouge movie – more is more, and it all works well to set, and tell, the story.

Was it the best Moulin Rouge I’d seen – not sure. The leads were amazing but I don’t know if the intangible connection between the two characters was so strong – nothing I can put my finger on as they both gave fantastic performances. Glad I had to opportunity to see it again, that’s three continents now, how many more can we manage 🙂

Happily, this time the theatre was only a few streets away from the hotel, so not too many crowds to battle through to get back after a big day. Who knows, might do it all again tomorrow!