28 Hours in New York City

After our plans to travel to Maryland for Fourth of July weekend fell through, Drew and I (side note: maybe I should have named this blog Drews Do Things…) decided to spend a night in New York City.  I’d given Drew tickets to see Sleep No More (more on that later) for his birthday, so this was the perfect time to visit the city and see what sort of mischief we could get into!

We took Metro-North into Grand Central Station, arriving around 1:30pm — just in time to grab a slice of pizza and race to Times Square to the TKTS booth to check out their current ticket options.  After pricing ourselves out of a few shows, we settled on Perfect Crime, a 1987 murder-mystery play chosen by Drew based on the criteria of it not only being the longest-running Off-Broadway play in NYC history, but also because the play has consistently been given exceptionally low ratings by reviewers.  To give you an idea of the show’s popularity, we scored front row (and very affordable) seats to the show a mere hour before show time.

After wandering through the M&M and Hershey stores in Times Square, we made our way to the theater, rode the rickety elevator up the fourth floor, and made our way to our seats after chatting briefly with the awesome greeter/bartender/snack bar attendant.  We waited anxiously for the show to begin, shoving Swedish Fish into our mouths and giggling about the fact that the theater was only about 1/4 full to help pass the time.  I don’t want to ruin the story line, so I’m going to leave it at this:

If you haven’t seen Perfect Crime, go see it.

As much teasing as I’ve give it, and despite the fact that the family behind us got up at intermission, never to return, it was an entertaining show and well worth the price of admission (which is much cheaper than most other plays you’ll find in the area).  The plot was interesting, the banter entertaining, and Catherine Russell, the lead actress, knew her character inside and out (she’s missed only 4 of the show’s over 12,000 performances since opening in 1987).  At the end of the show, they hand out a FAQ sheet to clear up any lingering questions you may have, but Drew and I found that we were able to follow the plot and piece it all together at the end perfectly.  For me, part of the fun was the confusion I felt at the beginning — it’s a mystery, I don’t expect to get it all right away! — and being able to try to solve the mystery myself as the show went on.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Broadway Bagel and made our way to our hotel, the Broadway Hotel & Hostel (don’t let the names of these two places fool you: we were approximately a 20-minute ride from Broadway and Times Square).  After a brief snafu with our reservation in which the receptionist kept asking if I was sure my name wasn’t Nikita, we were given our room key and embarked upon our second rickety elevator ride of the day.  Fun fact about me: I hate elevators, especially elevators that creak and squeal as they move and briefly stop between floors.

Our room was a double with two Full beds and a private bathroom.  The room was clean, with a TV, two bath towels, shampoo, soap, and cold air conditioning, but (spoiler alert) the beds weren’t super comfortable.  For the price we paid, this wasn’t a deal breaker, and I’d definitely consider staying there again despite this.  We also realized that there were no facecloths in the room, so we’ll bring those along with us if we end up staying there again in the future.

After a few set backs involving contact lenses and the slow elevator, we made it to The McKittrick Hotel for Sleep No More at around 7:30pm.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I really don’t want to give away the process of the night because being able to discover it with few expectations was really fun.  Basically, we waited outside for about 15 minutes before being entering to check in.  I had to check my purse and then we waited for a while longer in the Manderley Bar, where we sampled absinthe for the first time, before being let into the “theater.”  If you haven’t been before and go with someone else, don’t expect or try to stay with them for the entire evening.  Drew and I stuck together for about 10 minutes before losing each other as I sprinted off after an actor and he stayed behind to check out the scenery.

If you haven’t seen Sleep No More yet, go go go!  This was by far one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had and I can’t wait to go back.  Drew and I compared notes at the end of the event and there were parts of he saw that I never stumbled upon and vice versa.  It’s such a unique experience and definitely worth the time and money.  It’s not for those expecting a stereotypical theater experience with seats and a stage, though — although there are chairs, beds, and other seating built into the explorable set of Sleep No More (Drew saw a girl curled up on a bed reading a prop book at one point), you’ll most likely spend most of your time on your feet rifling through shelves or chasing after the actors.  Drew and I each got separate “3-on-1” experiences with different actors that were neat experiences in addition to the group scenes we saw and the sets we were able to investigate.  I can’t wait until my next trip back.

The McKittrick Hotel is very close to a few entrances to the High Line, a garden built on top of an abandoned raised subway line, so after the show we spent a few minutes enjoying the foliage and beautiful night.  It really is an amazing experience being up among the treetops in the middle of New York City.  Before wandering back to our room, we capped the night off with some late-night breakfast at a diner near our hotel.  It was an exhausting but fantastic day!

Drew and I started the next morning off with bagels and fresh scallion cream cheese from Broadway Bagel.  The place was packed and the bagels were delicious!  We walked towards Times Square as we munched, eventually giving in about thirty minutes into the hour walk to Times Square and hopping on the subway.  After wandering through a few shops (like the Disney store, hooray!), we were fairly exhausted and decided to make our way back to the Grand Central Station.  We grabbed lunch at the same pizza place we’d eaten at the day before, grabbed two giant and delicious M&M cookies for the ride, and snagged seats on the train back home.

Our trip was a whirlwind of about 28 hours between departure and return, but it was a blast!  If you find yourself in NYC in the near future, be sure to check out Perfect Crime and Sleep No More – I doubt you’ll be disappointed.