No Lights, Or Shows, On Broadway

On Broadway last night, the show did not go on.

Twenty-two shows shut down because of widespread power outages that darkened New York City, much of the Northeast and parts of the Midwest and Canada.

Marquees that were normally blazing were dark, and the half-price ticket booth in Times Square was nearly deserted. One pair of tourists who had tickets for a performance of "Gypsy" said they were just outside, people-watching instead.

And the after-show hot spots are making the best of it as well. The proprietor of one of Broadway's most popular theater hangouts said she was serving drinks and nuts because the kitchen couldn't function.
Losses could be big for theaters. The show "The Producers" could lose nearly $120,000 for Thursday night alone.

With no power to charge the high-tech room keys at the Marriott Marquis, 83-year-old Bob Roberts fluffed his backpack for a pillow and sprawled out for the night amid the sea of evacuated guests on the hotel's asphalt driveway.

Just down the street, Times Square was dark and the lights were out on Broadway. Roberts was asleep in minutes.

"He doesn't worry about anything," said his 83-year-old wife, Margo, sitting on her suitcase and cracking jokes to make the best of being stranded in a hot city with no place to stay before the couple's cruise to England.

At hotels across the city Thursday night, managers were turning away guests because they couldn't charge the magnetic card keys used to enter rooms. Others filed up the rooms — and any other available space.

New York Palace guests claimed floor space in the hotel's ballrooms and meeting rooms. At the Warwick, a steady stream of stranded walk-ins had to be turned away, said manager Wanda Chan.

"We can't sell rooms with no water and no power," she explained.

On the sidewalks outside, lines at hot dog stands were 10 deep as thirsty customers snatched up the last of the cold drinks. Many of the other stranded tourists and business people, some of whom had climbed down many flights of stairs when the power went out, were scouring the city for something harder to drink.

Jack Roberts, manager of the Heartland Brewery a few blocks north of Times Square, was turning away sweaty patrons as he worried that his huge vats of beer were going to go bad. But bars that stayed open were doing big business, serving drinks swiftly as their ice melted.

The crowd at Blue Fin on 47th and Broadway spilled out into the lobby. At Sophia's Italian restaurant a few blocks away, manager Ronnie Hossain joked about jacking up the price of tonic water.

He had to close the kitchen and cancel the performance of Tony and Tina's Wedding, but the bar was packed.

Michael and Maureen Morlath of Yardley, Pa., came in off the dark street to find a bathroom at Sophia's. With no way out of town, they settled into a pair of barstools.

Ashley Harrison, who lives in the Houston area, and Hayley Fulbright, of Wilmington, Del., slumped on the floor of the Marriott Marquis' dark lobby along with dozens of other long-faced visitors. "We're a little freaked out," Harrison said.

They had planned to leave the city Thursday afternoon, but their car was trapped in the hotel's garage.

"We took pictures of Times Square not lit up," Fulbright said, as she sipped a warm Sprite.