Saturday, September 27, 2025 – seeing a Broadway play, our pre-cruise Happy Hour in Chelsea, followed by dinner.
Our Knight in Shining Armor (a.k.a. Bob) ran across the street and picked up breakfast for our Princess (a.k.a. yours truly). Seriously, New York bagels are hard to beat.
Bob had the poppyseed bagel and I had the sesame one, each with plain cream cheese.
Said KISA also got out the iron and ironing board and ironed our shirts for today’s engagements.
Kevin, Eric, Bob, and I left early for today’s matinee and Bob and I got a slice of pizza before the show, as we hadn’t had lunch and it was a 2.5-hour show.
This was such a fun, hilarious, and entertaining show. We’re so glad our friends Kevin and Eric suggested we see it together, because it’s not one that Bob and I would have chosen on our own.
This play was a perfect complement to yesterday’s play, giving us the full range of what’s possible on Broadway.
Yesterday’s show, Art, was a purely dramatic endeavor and today’s was all music, singing, dancing — all the flash and glitter of quintessential Broadway.
Immediately after the play, we took the subway down to Elmo in Chelsea.
BearCruise had a happy hour at Elmo, which had a great turnout, and we met a lot of the guys that will set sail with our group tomorrow.
Regretfully, there were problems with the venue — the said they’d have a separate area for us and didn’t, they said there’d be happy hour drink prices and they weren’t, and then they started a “BearCruise group tab” that they assumed Al (our organizer, cruise director, and friend) was going to pick up. Problem was, Al never authorized such a thing, and he quickly nipped that in the bud, and we headed to another bar down in “the Village.”
and speaking of Barbra and her Brooklyn days, I sat on a stoop in her honor.
Full disclosure: Not her stoop, just a stoop
We had a fun, fun time at The Monster Bar.
For over 50 years, this legendary establishment has provided a fabulous, welcoming establishment for gay New Yorkers, LGBTQ tourists and visitors & yes, even the occasional heterosexual to enjoy the wild laughter song and community of Greenwich Village.
This place did what we affectionally refer to as a “gay pour,” or if you’re from Raleigh and remember “The Borough days,” a “Liz pour,” both of which is to say strong, strong drinks.
After the 1 train uptown to our 42nd Street stop and while walking back to our hotel (totally inebriated), we ran into yarn activists. Bob and I had never heard of such a thing (Kevin & Eric had) and I’m sure I spent at least the first 5 minutes trying to figure out what these people (a guy and a girl) were talking about.
“Yarn activists” are individuals who use yarn-based crafts like yarn bombing and craftivism to express political or social messages, raise awareness, or make a public statement. This can range from guerilla installations on public objects to large-scale protests and symbolic acts like knitting pink hats for Women’s Marches or creating tempests representing climate change. The practice draws on a long history of craft as a form of protest and can be used to comment on issues from environmental concerns to social justice.
And finally, BearCruise thoughtfully provided us with a list of gay bars in mid-town Manhattan not far from our host hotel, and although we didn’t use it, I’m including them here for posterity.
9th Avenue Saloon – 656 Ninth Ave., New York, NY 10036, US. 40 year old gay bar. Open Friday 3 pm – 4 am. Saturday 2 pm – 4 am.
Industry – 355 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019. Open 5 pm – 4 am. 2 for 1 Happy Hour all drinks 5 – 9 pm.
Flaming Saddles Saloon – 793 Ninth Avenue, near 53rd Street, New York, NY. Open Friday 3 pm – 4 am. Saturday 2 pm – 4 am. CASH ONLY. Dancing cowboys on the bar.
Atlas Social Club – 753 9th Ave, New York, NY, United States, New York. Opens at 4 pm. Vintage sports theme.
DBL (Dive Bar Lounge) – 667 10th Avenue near W47th St
Red Eye Night Club – 355 W 41st Street, NY, NY 10036. Open 2 pm – 4 am. Coffee bar by day, Espresso Martinis at night. Live shows, night club.
Boxers NYC – Hell’s Kitchen – America’s Gay Sports Bar – 735 9th Ave, New York, NY 10019. Opens at 4 pm. Rooftop, basement, terrace spaces.
Hush – 348 West 52ND ST. NYC. Buzzing hot spot catering to gay men with drag shows & live
entertainment, plus classic cocktails. $ 3 off all drinks 5 – 9 pm.
Friday, September 26, 2025 – a day in the city and seeing a Broadway play.
We joined Kevin and Eric for breakfast at a place called Bagel to Sandwich, which Eric had found on an app he uses to find places that have gluten-free options. Bob had 2 eggs and cheese on an onion bagel, and I had 2 eggs and cheese on a croissant and we both had tap water — all for a mere $24.
The 4 of us caught the 3 train uptown to Central Park, where we sat and people-watched for a while.
Neither Bob nor I understood anything about this ad on the train:
Apparently, this is an ad by Sunday for Dogs brand dog food that touts their own brand while simultaneously dissing a competitor’s brand, The Farmers’ Dog.
It reminded me of my work in Red Hat‘s marketing department; we never tried to differentiate our brand by bashing a competitor’s brand — and I liked that.
We walked 6 blocks to the Music Box Theatre, where we had second-row-center orchestra seats to the 7 p.m. performance of the limited run of Art.
The only thing on the closed curtain before the play started was this simple white square in the middle toward the top, which alluded to the (arguably) completely white painting that was the impetus of the events in this story.
I’m really at a loss for words (you know that’s a small miracle) to describe how much I enjoyed this play.
I wasn’t familiar with Bobby Cannavale (although Bob was, of course), but he was a tour de force in this show, second only to James Corden, who was absolutely incredible. And it’s not that NPH wasn’t good, but his character was more quiet and subdued (comparatively). With that said, he was a master at facial expressions required of his character.
After the show, we got hot pastrami sandwiches at the same place we had dinner last night, Berlina Café, across the street from our hotel. I thought of both my mom and dad while there. Mom loved pastrami sandwiches and Dad loved Narragansett beer.
