New York New York: Day 3

After breakfast we went to Museum Of Modern Art which was bleedin' shut! We wandered down 5th Avenue trying to find HMV but it looks like it has closed - how did THAT happen? At a bit of loss we wandered into Rockefeller Plaza and noticed huge posters for the "Top Of The Rock" observatory deck. 

I had wanted to go into the Rockefeller Building to see where Diego Rivera's mural was so we went in and sure enough, we found it was the opening day of the deck! That was probably why the staff were hugely chatty & helpful but it was exciting to be there on it's opening day and it wasn't at all busy.

After the fab ascent in a glass-topped lift up the 70 floors - the lift shaft is lit up with bright colours and a film is projected on the roof as you zoom upwards - we stepped out onto the lower of it's three levels and we both were fairly gobsmacked at the amazing views the large window-enclosed terraces provide.

Great views of both uptown and downtown - and this time you get the Empire State Building in your photographs! We had to share the top level with tv crews queueing up to use Central Park as their backdrops in pieces to camera - Tim Vincent yet! - but it was a wonderful way to spend a morning!

After dinner at the Italian restaurant next door to the hotel, we went to see our first show WICKED at the Gershwin Theatre. Stephen Schwartz's score has one too many self-motivating songs likely to be covered by Celine Dion or American Idol contestants and the show seemed curiously empty despite it's bombastic score and special effects.

However the two leads - although similar in voice - gave it their all and there was scene-stealing support from Rue McLanahan as the scheming Madame Morrible and Ben Vereen as The Wizard. It was great to see Vereen finally on stage, a Fosse star from PIPPIN and ALL THAT JAZZ and 'Chicken George' in tv's "Roots".

The audience too were quite bizarre: the first act closer found them screaming and yelling, and their reaction at the curtain calls was like the second coming, or first going.