We’ve just come back from the theatre across the street from our hotel, where Patrick “Captian Jean-Luc Picard” Stewart was playing as Macbeth. Of all the shows in the area ranging from The Lion King To Spam-A-Lot, we decided to go all high-brow and get a little culture in us…

We didn’t have much time to wash up and get ready between arriving “home” from down town and seeing the show, so we had to eat locally. Bearing in mind the disaster of last night’s Irish Pub travesty, we picked something a little less likely to give us stomach problems and went to an Italian called Bond 45.

Like a restaurant out of the best Italian gangster movies, this place vibed like it was the 1930’s in true art-deco style. You could almost sense that the local don was watching you over CCTV, but instead of fat Italian gang bosses messily eating spaghetti there were out-for-dinner-and-a-show tourists, dressed to the nines and lapping up the mussels and linguini. We had the best meal of our trip here so far, and our waiter was friendly and conversational, dispelling any paranoia I might’ve had about earning the don’s displeasure.

Back out to Times Square and into the theatre, and there was definitely a buzz about the place. It was an old-fashioned sort of place, the kind you wouldn’t expect to find amongst all the flashing neon and three-story high video screens around the area. After a short queue, we started the long trek up to our balcony seat, climbing three sets of stairs before sitting down. Thankfully the view was good for which makes a change for most seats in “the gods”.

Of course, what I’d forgotten about Shakespeare was that in order to understand what’s going on, you need to either be an English literature student (of which I haven’t been for 20 years), or well versed in the intricacies of his colourful “language”. Despite a compelling performance from Patrick Stewart himself, neither of us understood a word of what was going on, which was a shame as the early 20th century soviet-style production looked stunning.