This morning we headed over to the Rockefeller Center, a complex of 19 commercial buildings, the largest privately owned complex in the world. Constructed by financier John D. Rockefeller in the 1930’s, the original 14 elegant art deco buildings have been joined by 5 newer not so elegant buildings. This ‘city within a city’ was the first commercial project to integrate gardens, dining and shopping with office space.
Our target today is Top of the Rock, an observation deck spread over the 67-70th floors of the GE Building. From here there are great 360-degree views of Manhattan, especially uptown over Central Park and downtown to the Empire State Building.
As we were starting to lose feeling in our extremities from the cold and windy conditions on the 70th floor, we descended to street level to further explore the Rockefeller Center checking out the Sunken Garden, an outdoor restaurant during the summer and an ice-skating rink in winter surrounded by flags representing members of the United Nation and past the home of the NBC Today Show (hello Mum!!).
That done we headed over to the NY City Center to try our luck in scoring some tickets to ‘A Gala Evening with Kristin Chenoweth’. To the uneducated, Kristin Chenoweth is an amazingly talented actress/singer who has appeared on stage, television and screen. She is probably best known (to us at least) for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked.The only tickets left were $25 partial view seats in the nosebleed section or, Sponsor tickets for a little bit more…..well a lot more…..but less than $300.01 (US dollars). Being sensible, we chose the Sponsor tickets. It was soon revealed that these tickets entitled us to attend the Pre-Show Reception (gotta love free drinks!). Luckily we had packed our good underwear!
Tickets in hand we made our way to Columbus Circle, one of the few circular roads in Manhattan, and jumped on the subway uptown to West 72nd Street. Located here across from Central Park is the Dakota Apartments, famous for being the home of John Lennon and unfortunately the site of his assassination. It was also featured in the Roman Polanski film ‘Rosemary’s Baby’.
Crossing Eight Avenue we entered Central Park exploring Strawberry Fields, dedicated Lennon, and The Lake before continuing south down The Mall. Central Park was incredibly green and lush with many of the flowers in full bloom for spring.
Returning to our hotel to freshen up, we returned to the NY City Center and after almost being denied entry, we were soon mixing it with New York’s finest. I don’t think we stuck out too much and were in no way the most casually dressed (that’s for you lady in the flip-flops!).
After an hour of sipping Chardonnay with socialites, it was time to take our seats. Just before the show, in walks HUGH JACKMAN, and his lovely wife Deborra-Lee Furness. They were seated 4 seats away from us….well, 2 rows forward and 4 seats across.
Back to the show, two words Kimmy….amazing!! Kristin Chenoweth is an incredible talent, beautiful, funny and boy can she sing! We were so glad we stumbled upon this show and had the opportunity to see it. Totally worth the ticket price.
Leaving the theatre, we accidently on purpose bumped in to HUGH JACKMAN and Deborra-Lee and said a quick hello to our fellow Aussies. A great way to cap off an amazing day in New York.
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