New York 2019: Saturday Part 2: Showtime, Wandering around, and unfortunate events...

Shwarma mmmm

Sarah & Jordan outside the temple

We decided to make our way to the Vivian Beaumont Theater to pick up our tickets. We arrived early, so we wanted around Lincoln Square looking for one of the kebab food trucks that had been so ubiquitous around Central Park the day before. Finally, we found one and ordered shwarma sandwiches. As we turned around to find a place to sit and eat, we looked up and discovered the angel Moroni: we'd been wandering around the block surrounding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple for half an hour!

Shwarma food truck for lunch

Our shwarma was tasty! We couldn't finish the whole thing but made a valiant effort. With a little difficulty, we found the Today Tix reps and claimed our tickets, then headed inside. We loved the intimate size of the theater--we felt like we were right there by the thrust stage. As we perused the playbill, we discovered Henry Higgins was played by Harry Hadden-Paton, AKA Michael Charteris from seasons 1&2 of The Crown! Eliza was played by her understudy, Shereen Ahmed (who, a week later, was cast as Eliza in the national tour). Mrs. Higgins was played by Rosemary Harris, 2019 Lifetime Achievement Tony winner (and mother of Jennifer Ehle, Elizabeth Bennet from the BBC Pride & Prejudice).

Sarah & Jordan at My Fair Lady

The show was absolutely wonderful! Although it had been years (decades?) since we'd seen the 1964 movie, we really loved it. The choreography, the sets, the full orchestra and especially the actors' talent were just breathtaking. The chemistry between the actors and the humor from the secondary characters (especially Col. Pickering and Mrs. Pearce) were delightful. The staging and the ending gave us much to discuss and tease out for weeks afterward--and of course we've been breaking into song at regular intervals!

The only bad thing was that Jordan's contacts acted up and she had a hard time seeing during the second act. BOO.

After My Fair Lady, we found it was raining lightly. With a pit stop at a Duane Reade to get saline to fix Jordan's contacts (whew!), we set off to find a restaurant the Internet recommended.

And once we got there, we changed our minds. We weren't actually hungry for a full sit-down meal.

Ample Hills Creamery at Gotham West Market

We realized we were close to another hope-to-eat: Ample Hills Creamery in Gotham West Market. There we ordered a sundae with a scoop of ooey gooey butter cake ice cream and butter pecan brittle ice cream on a slice of warm ooey gooey butter cake with hot fudge and whipped cream. After that description, we probably don't need to elaborate on how good it was, but everything melded together into a buttery, sweet, creamy, chewy, warm, cold ball of amazingness. (I know, I should be a food writer.)

Ample Hills Creamery ooey gooey butter cake sundae

The offender

Next, we made what would prove to be a critical error: we wandered up the street to a bodega/deli and ordered sandwiches for dinner. Because #dessertfirst

Then we talked to Israel to get directions on how to get home after the show. Unfortunately, when we walked to Port Authority, we discovered the recommended bus would leave before Wicked was over. So we scrapped that plan and continued on our way to the Gershwin Theater for our next show. The performances were excellent and the parts were very challenging. The show was great, but we had pretty much fallen in love with My Fair Lady, and it remained our favorite.

The stage at Wicked

Getting back to Newark proved to be much more confusing our second night, as we seemed to have no memory of how we got to the right place in Penn Station the night before. Many, many people were waiting around for the commuter rail track to be announced and there was a bit of a rush to squeeze down the narrow escalator to board the standing-room only train. Violence was averted, however, and we took a Lyft back to our house.

Where food poisoning from the sandwich descended upon Sarah. YIKES.