05 New York & Washington April 2011: Day 2 - Wednesday, April 13 - Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo / Peter and the Starcatcher

Eggs with cheese, coffee, salad - again.
We ran for the LIRR again - but this time for the 12:20.

Robin Williams, Brad Fleischer, and Glenn Davis

This time we were bound for the Richard Rodgers Theater on 46th Street to "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" by Rajiv Joseph, starring Robin Williams. He's the tiger, shot and killed in his cage early in the show by an American soldier because he was attacking a soldier dumb enough to offer his arm into the cage. I wondered if I'd see Williams again in the show - but he was there a lot - as a ghost. Several others of the cast become ghosts, reflecting on life and eternity. Perhaps morbid, but always entertaining.

Also in the cast - unknown to me - are Arian Moayad, Glenn Davis ("24", "The Unit", "Jericho"), and Brad Fleischer ("24", "Prison Break", "The Unit", "Law and Order", "Jericho").

After the performance, the cast made an appeal to leave money at the door for AIDS, or purchase a signed program for $40. Also, Williams played auctioneer for a signed photo of the cast. Bidding began at $300 and with $50 increments ended with two audience members paying $500 each to get a photo. As the auctioneer, Williams was again what we grew up expecting, having fun, especially with the audience member who was scratching his head, NOT bidding $450 dollars.

We went into Madame Tussaud's Wax Works, NY for $33 each! (with discount, and with tax). Fun, took lots of pictures, but wouldn't recommend it unless you felt rich. I guess two old retired teachers felt rich enough. Five small floors of wax figures, plus a "4-D" show of the original Wizard of Oz. It was well-edited into 15 minutes. The best part was reviewing the original cast and settings. The 4th "D" - gimmicks of shaking chair, misting, air bursts - not terribly exciting, as was not the slight bluriness resulting from the 3-D - effected when 3-D glasses view the results of computerized separation and 3-Deification(!) of close (main) characters. But we got into the photos. Had to get our money's worth: