USA: Chapter 4 - Broadway

Finally I had completely adapted to NYC time. Perhaps that's just because yesterday's walk took too much out of me. Or perhaps it's simply because it'd already been 3 days. Anyway, we had to be in Times Square by 12nn today, because I was going to meet Lai there.

He's on a work and travel program to New York, Long Island to be precise, and he was on off today, so we arranged to meet up. And there's no place as central as Times Square, as far as New York City is concerned. Well, plus the fact that Times Square was on today's itinerary.




We reached Times Square punctually - Lai was a little late, perhaps 5 min. But hey, Long Island isn't near to Manhattan. Meanwhile Pammie went to queue to buy tickets for herself to watch a Broadway play. I decided not to because I wanted to perhaps hang out with Lai, rather than spend a few hours and many more dollars watching a musical.

However, two things happened. First, Pammie was declined buying the tickets; they only open the counters at 2pm. Second, Lai was interested in watching a Broadway Play too. So, merely for the experience of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch a play on Broadway, I agree to catch it.

But, as I said, we had 2 hours to kill before the counters opened again. So we walk around,



and return to Shake Shacks. With Lai, this time. And this time, I have proper photos.



By the time we return, at 1.45pm, there was already an insanely long queue outside the TKTS counter. You'd almost think we were in Singapore queuing for Hello Kitty (remember that craze?). But - as mentioned in one episode of 'The Noose' - queuing does have benefits i.e. meeting interesting people. We queued in front of a friendly old white lady; I think at that time the obvious conversation starter was the weather. Sweltering heat, by the way. But can't complain too much; the people in the other queue were actually in the sun most of the time, while our queue was mainly under the shade. Still hot, though.

Now, the amazing thing about old people is that they usually have such interesting stories which they are more than willing to share. But I think her stories were a level up.

She used to be - get this - a broadway dancer. In Broadway. In fact, her theatre was St James's. Later, coincidentally, we would get tickets to watch our play at that very theatre. So one can imagine that frail old lady was once jumping around and dancing as the new generation does now. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back to the queue. There was a tout selling tickets to Wicked there. Wicked is a play, by the way. Supposed to be very good. But you can't buy it at the counter. Why? Because TKTS counters sell discounted, last minute tickets; those that can't be sold at higher prices. So Wicked is never on the board. I pitied the tout; he was sitting on a fold-up chair under the hot sun trying to sell tickets.

Interestingly enough, apparently what he is doing is either perfectly legal, or the security don't care him (ahh, Singlish...). I think someone questioned his credibility before buying tickets from him and HE, the tout, called out to security.

We finally bought the cheapest tickets on sale - to Hair - a show about the hippie (counter-cultural) movement during the Vietnam War. So we now had a few hours to kill before 7pm.

After that we walked for a bit. Originally I had intended to visit the Empire State Building - and go up - because well, its an iconic part of New York City. But it was too far downtown so we decided to skip it. According to Lai, it's not that worth it. I mean, similar logic applies to why you don't go up the Statue of Liberty - you don't have a very nice view of the Empire State Building from the top of the Empire State Building.

The Top-of-the-rock offered a better view. Plus it was relatively nearby. However, in the end, the price to go to the top of the rock was too steep for Lai or Pammie. I thought perhaps if the views were that good, it would be worth going up, but I thought better of it. No point going up alone, I thought. Flashback to 'no point having such an awesome view and no one to share it with'

So we contented ourselves with the views from the bottom of the rock.


Pammie wanted to see Grand Central Station, so we went there after visiting the bottom-of-the-rock and stoning there for awhile. Upon reaching the station, it becomes quite apparent what is so amazing about that station. It didn't really resemble a train station, more so a grand dining hall.




And again we rested there, sitting on some seats in the basement of this fascinating building.

After that, Pammie wanted to go shopping and I didn't, so we split, agreeing to meet up at 6.30 outside the theatre. I wanted to see the United Nations building, having built it so many times playing Civilisations.


However, it was quite disappointing ultimately because the UN building closes to visitors at around 4.30. And it was already 5pm by the time we reached there. So we decided to just walk over to the Singapore Embassy nearby - so patriotic right?

Actually Lai wanted to know when the National Day Makan session was going to be held this year.

But the embassy, too, was closed. So we trudged back to Broadway after that double disappointment.

The queue outside St James's Theatre was already quite long - I can't think of any reason why, since it wasn't free seating. Perhaps shear enthusiasm about catching the play.

Bursting with this enthusiasm, we joined the queue. And Pammie joined us from her shopping escapade soon after. I think she bought a dress and was very happy about it.

The climax of today - the broadway show!

Stepping into the theatre lobby in itself was a grand experience - I felt like one of those pretentious snobs from the Titanic. Cool shit feeling, by the way. I say my good fellow... Ahh...

Anyway we were shown to our seats - $61 gets you that service at the very least. And suddenly I felt caught in the moment. I was going to catch a Broadway show!


Sadly, and obviously, no photos allowed during the play; and I'm not going to spoil the story for anyone. But what I can say was that, it being on the counter cultural revolution in America, was quite interesting. Just last semester I had taken a module on Film and Religion that caused me to never be able to look at a film in the same way - at least some bit of close reading was bound to happen, even if I were watching an ordinary film.

This, however, was no ordinary film. It was a musical. On the hippie movement.

This is significant because on of the films we studied for the course was Jesus Christ, Superstar. Which is also a musical on the hippie movement. So it was very interesting (and relatively easy) close reading the play.



I explained the close reading to the other two, at least my interpretation of the film, over dinner. Dinner was kebabs again. Not comparable to the one at Walls Street, but the dining experience made up for it. We sat munching our dinner, surrounded by the lights and billboards of Times Square, sitting comfortably at a table.