July 13, 2019

You gotta think that the poor saps who just forked over $500+ a pop for tickets to see "Hamilton" on Broadway were a little peeved. Because just before showtime, Broadway went dark. I mean, really dark.

A power outage crippled the tourist-filled heart of Manhattan just as Saturday night Broadway shows were set to go on, sending theater-goers spilling into the streets, knocking out Times Square’s towering electronic screens and bringing subway lines to a near halt.

Con Edison and New York City officials said electricity was restored to customers and businesses primarily on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just before midnight.

The New York City Fire Department said a transformer fire at West 64th Street and West End Avenue affected hundreds of thousands of customers along a 30-block stretch from Times Square to about 72nd Street and Broadway.

Ironically, the outage occurred exactly 42 years to the day of a blackout that left most of the city in the dark. Mayor Bill De Blasio was campaigning for the Democratic nomination in Iowa today, but kept New Yorkers abreast of reports from Con Edison and New York City Emergency Management via his Twitter account.

The temperature in Midtown at the time of the outage was in the mid 80s; with humidity, it undoubtedly felt much warmer. Not the time for losing air conditioning.

But New Yorkers took the blackout in stride:

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