Woke up this morning and headed down to Starbucks.

That’s the first test - see if my system can handle coffee. It did. So far, so good.

About an hour later, headed back to Un Deux Trois (yes, again) for brekkie and in the hour between that and Starbucks, some people covered the sidewalk with 9/11 memorials.

After that, I knew that Rob was seeing shows today, so I thought I’d head over to TKTS - a Times Square institution that sells same-day Broadway tickets for reduced prices. I mean, have you ever really been to NYC if you haven’t stood in line at TKTS?

Got two tix - matinee and evening - for “MJ” and “Little Shop of Horrors”. I was bummed about missing Little Shop the other night, so I’m making up for it tonight. But there were hardly any matinees today, so I figured I just see the evening show. But one of the hawkers in the queue pointed at my shirt and complimented me on it.

We had a bit of a conversation and he asked me what I was planning to see. I told him Little Shop and he said, “there are a couple of shows with a matinee that still have tickets.” I said I wasn’t really big on seeing any of them… and he said, “You have to see MJ. It will blow your mind.” So when I got to the ticket window, I took the guy’s advice (he’s a Pete and Bas fan, after all) and got my ticket.

Full disclosure: I’m not a big Michael Jackson fan. I only knew about a third of the songs in the loooooong setlist. And my lord, the man himself was a hot mess. BUT: The impact he had on music, on concert performances, on music videos, and on dance itself can’t possibly be understated. In that regard, he was a force of nature and this being Broadway, I was sure it would be worth seeing.

Understatement.

Holy cow, what a show! I expected basically a musical montage, like watching a concert of his greatest hits. What I got was a history lesson about why he was the hot mess that we all remember. They were not at all kind to his father, as was expected, and the Jackson 5 flashbacks were amazing because that kid was in the big afro wig playing his younger self was better than the lead who played adult Michael. Astonishing.

The other thing I wasn’t expecting was for it to be emotional. There’s a song most of you know called “I’ll be There” and the lyrics are basically a love song, “just call my name, and I’ll be there…”

But in the show, it’s not Michael who sings it and it’s not that kind of love song. It’s sung by his mother to his child self after a particularly abusive episode with his father. She’s offering him a lifeline. I know that I can’t stop what’s happening to you, but I can help get you through it. Powerful.

Then, halfway through the song, the dad re-enters and snatches young Michael away from his mother as if to say, “she can’t help you, boy, I own you.” And as soon as young Michael disappears behind the door, current day Michael picks up the song without skipping a beat and they finish it as a duet. A mother’s love is always going to win out. On the switch, there were gasps and hands up to faces, and the Columbian guy sitting next to me muttered, “aw, fuck me” and started looking for a handkerchief. It was an emotional sucker-punch that I was not prepared for, but it was the highlight of a show full of highlights.