My favorite traveling companion is without a doubt, my wife Janet. Together we’ve visited 42 states, 15 countries, and dozens of cities. Every once in awhile, we like to travel with friends or family on our adventures. For the past five or six years, we’ve joined Mark and Maria for a celebrity theatrical adventure. Beginning in 2017 we’ve seen Bette Midler in Hello Dolly, Renee Fleming in Carousel, Jeff Daniels in To Kill a Mockingbird, and Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker in Plaza Suite. When Hugh Jackman announced he’d be doing The Music Man, it seemed like a no brainer that this would be our next celebrity sighting. Then COVID hit, and the show was delayed. When it reopened, tickets were wickedly expensive. When it announced it would be closing in February, I knew we couldn’t wait any longer. I found some great tickets online in the orchestra section, and we made our plan for Thanksgiving weekend. M & M were thrilled, and I left dinner plans for them.

Each time we visit NYC, I try to see something new or different. My new place this year is The Drama Book Shop. I could spend a lot of money there, but I didn’t. I especially liked the book sculptures that wrapped around the store.

Of course, no trip to NYC during the holidays is complete without our annual trek down 5th Ave to see the department store windows decorations. This year’s winner for us was Bergdorf Goodman.

They were followed closely by Macy’s.

I think Saks 5th Ave and Bloomingdales tied for last, but both were fun to see.

Midway through our walk, we stopped at St. Patrick’s. It’s always nice to get some peace in the middle of all the holiday rush!

After a short break in M & M’s hotel suite to rest our feet, we ventured out again to Estiatorio Milo’s on 55th St. for dinner. Milo’s is a Greek Seafood restaurant that is a local favorite. You start at the fish market to select the types of fish to prepare. Our fishmonger helped us select a mild sea bass, as well as some scallops and prawns. The scallops were served Ceviche style as an appetizer. The prawns were steamed whole with a glass of brandy on the side. The idea was to cut off the tail and eat it like a lobster tail while soaking the remainder in the brandy. Once finished with the tail, then you suck out the brandy doused innards. I’m up to trying anything, but a small slurp was all I could handle. Maria wasn’t too fond of hers either so we let Mark guzzle all three. Janet didn’t even order one. Finally the bass arrived, and it was marvelous!

The food was certainly memorable, however the real story was where we were seated. Mark had made special care to make reservations early and he wanted a table by the window. Unfortunately someone arrived earlier without a reservation and ended up at the table he preferred. We were seated in the middle of the section instead. At one point of the evening, Maria and Janet noticed a very familiar face at the table behind us. Maria asked our server if it was indeed Nichole Kidman, to which the server replied, yes, you’re seated in the VIP section. You have no idea who is seated around you at this very minute. We can only guess that the lady who took Mark’s table outranked us by a few million dollars. We remained on our best behavior and acted as though we were VIPs ourselves, just enjoying a meal at Milo’s!

The show was amazing. Hugh Jackman is extremely talented and fun to watch. Though not as worldly renowned as the Wolverine, Sutton Foster is a very large name on Broadway and she endowed Marian Paroo with much more cynicism and wit than previous interpretations I’d seen. It seems they make a habit of trying to make each other laugh at some point during the show. Both succeeded and the audience loved it. At the end of the performance, Hugh addressed the audience to raise funds for Broadway Cares, and HIV/AIDS charity. He started the bidding for his straw hat, autographed by him and Sutton, for $1000. The bidding quickly made it’s way to $13,000 when the final bid was made at $100,000. There she was, Nicole Kidman taking the winning bid amazing her friend of 30 years. It turned out, that was the largest single donation to Broadway Cares ever.

To say we were star struck for the evening would be an understatement. Even though we’re in NYC often, it’s rare you see a famous person in a restaurant or just walking down the street, or is it? Once, while walking past Rockefeller Center we passed Katie Couric. Who knows how many VIPS we’ve encountered, we just weren’t paying attention. Anonymity in a crowd is one of the things most desirable in a city. Maybe that’s why I like cities so much. Well, there are certainly many opportunities in New England and the Northeast for that to happen!