Foot Torture & The Phantom

Day 3

This was a rough day for me. I was up literally all night, running to the bathroom. This is where using shared facilities became a big ol' pain in the booty (*HAHA* Pun intended!).  Because every time I needed to go, I had to jump up, put my robe and slippers on, find my room key and get down the hall before it was too late. Not a fun night. By morning I just felt like curling up in bed and crying. BUT that certainly wasn't an option because we had stuff to do! *haha*

Even though I didn't feel the slightest bit like eating, we had already scheduled a place for breakfast so we went ahead as planned. Ellen's Stardust Diner is a restaurant with singing waiters and waitresses! It was a lot of fun. They sang mostly oldies but there were a few Broadway and Christmas tunes thrown in, too.

 

After breakfast we went to the Sony Wonderlab, which Jeremy had read about online. It was supposed to be an interactive museum where you could get a glimpse at their new technology and gadgets. Well it ended up being more of a children's museum where most of the exhibits were broken. Then we did some random shopping, including a trip to FAO Schwarz and the Disney store on 5th Ave. 

Eventually we headed back to the hotel so we could change for dinner and a night at the theater. Remember my little black dress find? Well this is the night I broke it out! And the heels...oh dear, the heels. I know that you ladies who wear them all the time will laugh at me, but those shoes about KILLED me. My feet already hurt due to the walking we'd done all day. Add the heels and by the end of the night I really could barely walk. It was horrendous.  Jeremy and I were just laughing as these women would power walk right by us wearing stilettos, and there I was wobbling on glorified pumps. But alas, I looked pretty...when standing still. ;)

We were originally going to eat right across from the theater at John's Pizzeria, which is set inside this old, ornate church and was supposed to be really stunning. But when we got there they were closed for a private party! How rude! So much to me chagrin, we ate at Junior's Famous Cheesecake instead. *tsk tsk* You all know how much I hate cheesecake. ;) Thank God my appetite had returned enough for me to down a piece of New York Style cherry cheesecake. DELISH! Oh, and check out my hubby in his adorable "Newsie" cap that I insisted he wear. Isn't he cute? 

 

So onto Phantom!! I was so excited I could have wet my pants. The theater was absolutely GORGEOUS! It is the exact theater that the show has been playing in since it opened. (Sidenote: We were both surprised at how intimate the theaters on Broadway are. They're really quite small...even a seat towards the back wouldn't have been that bad.)  Our seats were amazing! 

So, the show. First, it was unbelievable to see this story that I have memorized play out before me live on stage. The sets were just massive!! The costumes were beautiful!! It was just fascinating. The chandelier goes straight up above the audience (and crashes accordingly) which was impressive. HOWEVER....*sigh* We had the luck of being there on an unofficial  Understudy Night. We had like three little pamphlets inside our playbill saying "So&So will now be So&So and Such&Such will now be Such&Such and This Guy will now be That Guy."  I think the only "real" cast member on stage that night was Cristine. (And she was good!) But the Phantom...ooooooh the Phantom. He was just about as nasal and whiney as he could be. He was very disappointing to me. Of course, I'm used to Gerard Butler's portrayal which, from what I hear, is a bit gruffer than any Broadway Phantom has ever been. But that's what I'm used to, so this guy was a FAR CRY from that. All in all it was a wonderful experience, but I would have liked to replace the Phantom with just about anyone...hey, maybe the guy who was REALLY cast to play him! *haha*