The first evening of sub zero temperatures dawned sunny.
I venture downstairs to check the weather before we head out. It’s cold
At around 11am it’s only 2 degrees.
We’ve got a busy afternoon planned meeting colleagues from a major supplier I work with.
The first part of the afternoon kicks off with a visit to Moulin Rouge. We meet David and Gabriela outside the theatre. It was a chilly walk from the hotel and the streets are heaving with people around Midtown and Broadway.
We do the usual security and bag search before checking out tickets and taking our seats.
A very efficient staff member is going around telling people not to take photos. I speak to her and let her know that I’ll be using my phone as a magnifier as I’m vision impaired. She’s ok with that and also let’s me know the show is audio described.
Wow. I didn’t know that. Mardi and I go downstairs and locate the person with the devices for the audio description (AD). She shows me how to operate the device and we head back to our seats.
The show starts.
It’s an assault on your senses with so much going on. Glitzy outfits, dancers, staging, lighting and upbeat loud music. The AD is fantastic and I’m able to follow the show’s characters and what’s playing out in front of me.
The AD is pre-recorded and perfectly timed to intersperse with the dialogue and singing. We need this in Australia.
After two and a half hours the show concludes with a final singing and dancing spectacular. We are both thoroughly entertained but also exhausted on a sensory level, particularly Mardi, whose autism shuts her down for a little while until she recovers. The show sampled more than 50 pop songs:
https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/moulin-rouge-broadway-soundtrack-full-list-of-songs.html
After the show we meet up with David and Gabriella for a drink before heading out to dinner.
We enjoy a festive drink in the bar downstairs from our hotel, Cafe 123. It’s a lovely bar, restaurant. We sit at the bar and enjoy a few drinks and talk shop for a while.
We then walk to our restaurant. STK Steakhouse. We are expecting a quiet steakhouse. But when we arrive it’s feels like chaos. And noisy chaos at that.
There are people milling about at reception and dozens of people just standing around. The music playing is very loud and it’s difficult to hear what’s going on. We are told our table isn’t quite ready and are asked to stand near a bar. We do so for 20 minutes or so before after a couple of inquiries we are finally seated. Apparently the pre-theatre crowd is holding things up.
We take our seats. It’s an awkward table arrangement and difficult to talk. The music is still blaring and the ambient noise of the large busy space doesn’t help.
Despite all that is going on around us we order some delicious steaks and sides and enjoy some very nice food.
We don’t linger though as the space is so oppressive. So we head out and walk uptown a little. It’s warmer now that it was in the morning. So I walk with David and Gabriela back to their hotel on 48th while Mardi goes back to the hotel.
After we say our good byes I wander a few more blocks taking some photos. Christmas is now in full swing following Thanksgiving. There are Christmas trees in almost every building and street based oversized Christmas decorations line 6th Avenue.
I slowly work my way back to the hotel. Mardi had made her way back a few minutes earlier. She’s feeling a bit sick and in need of some rest. We’ve been non stop since we got here.
It’s quite late. Almost midnight and we call it a night.
