STAND

My, my, did I stand yesterday or what? Yesterday was a test of my hip flexors, arches, and my NYC endurance. Would I give up after a few hours of standing on a concrete sidewalk? Totally wiped out after a Bikram yoga class??? Noooo!!


Last week, it was a city wide "quarantine" due to the Hurricane Irene hysteria that I added to my collection of shared NYC experiences. How I ended up in the crowd of theatregoers spilling out onto the the street in front of the Eugene O'Neil Theater began with an early afternoon yoga class on the Upper West Side.


From the class, we hopped on the express train to Times Square, and proceeded to make the long tourist filled walk down eighth avenue. We were walking to our destination, Worldwide Plaza, an outdoor seating area on 49th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue. Being in the theater district, we started talking about what else, Broadway shows that we wanted to see. My slicko friend Jeff, said "You know we could try to see Book of Mormon."


Book of Mormon is sold out until 2013, it's the "hottest ticket" on Broadway. The chances of getting tickets on a Friday night was zero percent. However, for us, ZERO was a magical number!


We walked to the theater at around 4:45, and saw a dozen people sitting on the ground, in a line close to the stage door. Jeff already knew the ins and out of the lottery, which wouldn't start for another 45 minutes. The line that had formed was for standing room only tickets, which would not go on sale until an hour before the curtain, or 7pm. This standing room only line was only back-up, we wanted those lottery seats! Twenty two were available, at $35 dollars apiece, for the front row of the orchestra, and the box seats on the side of the stage. The alternative, standing room only, were $27 dollars, for a ticketed space at the back of the orchestra.


Standing room, by the way, is so cool. Orchestra, for the same price as balcony or mezzanine. Works for me!


To be continued.