Manhattan Went Dark, But at Least I Had Fancy Pancakes

The Great Blackout hit NYC this evening.

Around 7 p.m., Broadway marquees went dark, Radio City Music Hall turned off its glam, and people got stuck in subway cars and elevators around the city.

I’d originally planned to watch Manhattanhenge (a.k.a. the Manhattan Solstice, when the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of the street grid) from the Top of the Rock, but since Rockefeller Center lost power due to a transformer fire (as did the rest of the city), no elevators were going up this evening. The staff said they’d honor our tickets for future times and dates of our choice, though. So, I’ll be back soon!

I’d arrived about 15 minutes after my reservation time, as I had to get out and walk from the subway at 40th Street and 8th Avenue to Rockefeller Center (located at 48th Street and 6th Avenue) because service was suspended on the N-R-Q-W lines due to what I assumed was yet another signal failure this week. (So many subway delays lately!) So, I at first blamed The Great Blackout on the subpar subway, but it turned out the entire Manhattan power grid was affected.

In a stroke of luck, I live on 2nd Street, and the affected area was only around 44th Street and above, so I still had power at my apartment. At least the blackout made for some cool photos — democracy may die in darkness, but The New York Times doesn’t! (Only by about two streets, though -- it's on 40th and 41st Streets.)

When I stopped by the office to grab my laptop, I got to have a secret fire stair adventure, as the elevators weren't working. I didn’t even know we had stairs to the third floor! (I mean, I knew we did, but no one ever uses them, so I didn’t know where they were. They lead out on the street in an unmarked entrance by a loading dock.)

And you know it’s bad when The Shake Shack is out.

Most Broadway performances were canceled this evening, including "Phantom of The Opera," which became Phantom of The Blackout. It was a great night to be a taxi driver or halal cart vendor, though!

I hadn’t bought a ticket for any shows tonight, fortunately — I started today with a matinee performance of “Fiddler On The Roof” in Yiddish (!) at Stage 42 after scoring a $30 rush seat this morning. This was the first time I’d seen “Fiddler” in any language, and now I’m eager to see it in English for comparison's sake.

“Fiddler” was a lot funnier than I expected — Steven Skybell as Tevye is hilarious as the Jewish father of five daughters who consults with a matchmaker, God, and his own psyche in his attempts to find them husbands (encountering clashes between tradition and innovation along the way). There are also serious tensions between the Russians and the Jewish villagers that menace the domestic action, but much of the plot highlights Tevye’s unorthodox way of reasoning through decisions and then his creativity in rationalizing them to his wife.

Strangely enough, this musical reminds me of “The Book of Mormon,” which I saw last winter in Indy when it came through on tour. Both musicals highlight a creative interpretation of the teachings of a religion and have a funny (and catchy) dream sequence (see “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream”).

As for the Yiddish, English subtitles are projected on the curtains on each side of the stage. Since I’d never seen Fiddler in English, I spent a considerable amount of time reading them so I’d know what was going on. But I almost need to see the musical again to fully appreciate the Yiddish and just watch the actors now that I have a firm grip on the plot. My overall take: Mazel-tov! (Yiddish for congratulations!)

On a side note, Stage 42 reminds me of The Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in Carmel — if you’ve been there, you know what the auditorium I sat in today looked like.

After “Fiddler” and my failed attempt to ascend to The Top of the Rock, I scoped out Manhattanhenge from 55th Street and 2nd Avenue on my way to take a cable car ride to Roosevelt Island to watch the sunset (the Queensboro Bridge tram station was far east enough not to be affected by the outage). Ta-da!

Then I watched the sunset from a Roosevelt Island bank. It was delightful.

Then came my fire stairway adventure at The New York Times, and after grabbing my laptop, I headed home for the evening on the 6 train from Grand Central, as my normal D line from Bryant Park was still down.

Finally, today in food: Before all the darkness, I started my morning with a delicious stack of matcha soufflé pancakes from Taiyaki NYC (yes, they were just as glamorous as these).

The East Village has so much great food that I’ll definitely miss. Can you believe I have less than a month left in this city? It feels like I just arrived!