'The Ferryman,' Antique Subway Cars, and a Leaning Tower of Blueberry Cheesecake Pancakes

Today started off with me lining up outside the Jacobs Theatre box office when it opened in an attempt to score a rush seat for “The Ferryman,” which closes July 7. This was the one play my New York Times editor told me in May that I had to see while I was in New York. I lucked out and got a great seat in Row F of the orchestra, which was marked partial view – but definitely was not! If I had been a few seats over, it would have been, but I could see everything perfectly. On the West End, if they say obstructed view, they mean obstructed -- I remember some of the seats they sold for Phantom of the Opera in London were in front of poles!

After buying a ticket for the evening performance, I headed to the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn. It baffles me that Brooklyn isn’t its own city – it’s three times the size of Manhattan, has a population of more than 2.5 million people, and would be the fourth-largest city in the United States if it were, in fact, a city. But I digress: Back to the Transit Museum.

I walked through a lovely tree-lined avenue on the way to the museum from the Metropolitan Avenue subway station – it was refreshing to just find a bench and chill for a few minutes.

The museum is located (to no one’s surprise) underground inside a former subway station.

The third rail on the track level is still live to provide electricity for the many, many historic subway cars. It costs $10, but the museum is definitely worth the price of admission. I spent around two hours there walking through the subway cars and buses and poring over old, new, and artsy subway maps.

Fun fact: Mapmakers used to prefer a horizontal orientation for Manhattan, which makes looking at old maps fascinating.

I also came across a neat map by Rebecca Solnit that pays homage to significant women in New York City history by overlaying their names on the subway network based on where they lived, worked, went to school, etc. Now THAT’S something I wish they sold in the gift shop.

Another fun tidbit I came across: Look at this “Spicy Notes and Gossip of the Car Equipment Department” page of this old Interborough Bulletin! Let’s check out what’s up today:

Abhorrent neckwear with colors “even the rainbow never saw”! Oh, the horror! So spicy!

I also learned this gross fact about fare evasion and what the phrase “token sucking” means. Yes, they actually coated turnstile slots with hot pepper sauce as a deterrent.

Here’s an old turnstile that has both card and token slots before the MTA switched exclusively to cards (and they’re soon planning to go cashless).

After climbing through the fleet of old subway cars, I picked up a miniature model of my D line train in the gift shop (which, like the Natural History Museum shop, was strangely affordable!).

I also got a MetroCard replica magnet for my fridge – it’s going to be so weird not having one of these in my pocket all the time.

After visiting the museum, I hopped on a train to Smorgasburg Williamsburg, a massive outdoor food festival with nearly 100 vendors that takes place riverside on Saturdays in Brooklyn.

I grabbed this leaning tower of blueberry cheesecake panckes from Fluffy’s NYC. It was just as sweet as you’re imagining.

I also saw some lovely graffiti as I walked through the area, some of it even in progress!

Williamsburg has a reputation for boasting the best street art in NYC, and it did not disappoint.

I had plenty of time to get back to Midtown Manhattan for “The Ferryman,” until I didn’t. Weekend construction meant the L line I needed to get back to Manhattan from Williamsburg was only running every 20 minutes, and a train had just pulled out of the station when I walked in. It was actually more like 30 minutes – UGH. But I made it back just in time!

“The Ferryman” was the fourth play I’ve seen on Broadway this month (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “King Lear,” and “All My Sons” were the others), and, to be honest, it was my least favorite. The play is set during “The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland in 1981. Quinn Carney is a former terrorist with the Irish Republican Army who’s now settled into the life of your average rural farmer. His wife is sickly, there’s a gorgeous woman in the house whose husband has been “missing” for 10 years – you get the idea.

One big criticism I have: Though the play is nearly three-and-a-half hours long, a significant number of the characters aren’t fully developed, particularly the children. I came away from the performance not even knowing half their names, much less being able to pinpoint traits that distinguish them from one another. To be sure, well-rounded characters do exist (Quinn and Caitlin immediately come to mind), but it’s hard to care about the characters the play doesn’t give you time to get to know.

A second criticism: The script is bloated. There are plot digressions that I filed away mentally for later reference, as I was sure they’d become important, but in hindsight were just deleted-scene worthy. The play gave me whiplash: A scene would drag on for 10 minutes that felt like 30, then a 30-minute scene would have me glued to my seat for what felt like five. The script needs a tighter edit.

I was reminded of “As I Lay Dying,” The Diary of Anne Frank,” and “Oklahoma!” at various points in the "The Ferryman." (Strangely enough, “Cursed Child” the past two nights called to mind “A Doll’s House Part 2,” based on the similar way it imagines a future for J.K. Rowling’s classic characters.)

And though "The Ferryman" was my least favorite play I’ve seen on Broadway thus far, that by no means is me saying it was bad (it won a Tony for best play earlier this month, after all!). It just wasn’t my cup of tea, as I found the narrative interludes interminable and the cast of characters overwhelming and often underdeveloped. That is to say: When it’s good, it’s great. When it drags, it drags on forever.

My two standout performances were those of Brian d’Arcy James as Quinn Carney and Fionnula Flanagan as Aunt Maggie, particularly the latter.

I recognize that I’m in the minority here, as New York Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Beast critics have all raved about the play. “The Ferryman” won a Tony. But I expected to like it a lot more than I actually did, and to me, it doesn't rise to the level of a “must see.”