The day started very abruptly, with our new non favourite thing – a fire alarm. Luckily this was around 8am. It went off a few more times intermittently, before an announcement an hour later stating they had found the source of the alarm and there’s nothing to worry about. A bit after that I popped out to the local Bluestone Lane for coffee then back to the hotel. I think New York is starting to take its toll – even after the coffee I’m still exhausted. It’s a drizzly day today – our first in this whole trip, so maybe that is not adding to the motivation to get outside just yet. We’re both just really tired. And the thought of a stupid-early start tomorrow does not currently spark joy 😀

I do t have much to show today so here’s a photo of an interesting building we can see from the hotel.

Today we had a matinee – The Great Gatsby, with Sarah Hyland (of Modern Family fame). Very happy to say that this is by no means a bit of “stunt casting” – she’s a great singer in addition to being an accomplished actor. The show itself has some small echoes of Moulin Rouge in so far as “more is more” – it starts with some spectacular numbers, featuring incredible gold sparkling 1920s costumes. The production is sumptuous, lavishly luxurious – and one point a whole large rolls Royce (or two) drive around the stage. Great dancing, including some tap, and even though I know nothing about lighting design the way they made some of those spectacular costumes glimmer and shine and glow was nothing short of amazing. All that and some pyrotechnics too – a maximalist approach st its finest. The second half maybe slowed and flagged just a bit, but I guess that’s down to the source material. Still a fantastic show, brilliantly produced, really enjoyed it.

After that it was time for a late lunch or early dinner at Olive Harden, because why not. And also because it was delicious. Our waiter had been to melbourne once so regaled us with his best “cheers mate!” at every opportunity 🙂

After that, real life intrudes, as it was time to get back to the room and start packing up our home of the last 7 or so days. We haven’t really bought much so it wasn’t too difficult – surprisingly most shows now don’t even offer programs, so we have a lot less of those than we thought we would. We’re still leaving with a respectable stack of Playbills though.

Tonight’s show was “Pirates! The Penzance Musical” – with David Hyde Pierce and Jinkx Monsoon. It’s been only slightly modified, and set in New York because … reasons? It now also features the characters of Gilbert and Sullivan themselves. But not to worry, it all works so well. Jinkx is just brilliant as always, as is David Hyde Pierce, who can do “I am the very model of a modern major general” at 100 miles an hour without batting an eyelid.

I’m writing this at interval on my phone coz I’m not doing my usual job of updating the blog before going to bed. Reason is, we’re up at about 4am tomorrow to get out of here (aww) and fly on to our next destination(yay!), so I’m gonna need every minute of that very short sleep that I can get. This also means even less proofreading than usual so apologies for all the bits that make no sense 🙂

See you tomorrow in another country. Goodnight!