W. 53rd Street to be renamed 'U2 Way' this week only
U2 on Monday kicked off a five-performance stint on the Late Show with David Letterman - and today NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to rename a section of 53rd Street in the band’s honor.
And why not, as the band was sent out Monday afternoon to shovel snow (see clip above,) from the street, which divides Letterman’s Ed Sullivan Theater from the Roseland Ballroom, where the audience is held on cold days before entering for the taping.
Today the mayor will temporarily rename part of West 53rd Street at Broadway as “U2 Way,” according to the Associated Press.
For the Monday night show, taped starting at 4:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, the band appeared onstage only at the very end of “The Late Show.” The in-studio audience got only an extra couple minutes of seeing the band on stage before Letterman introduced the Dubliners.
During that final commercial break, 20 or so crew members took apart the back of the Letterman set (including the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges,) and rolled in U2’s giant drum kit and other equipment. Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra played “Desire” as Letterman and others milled around his desk. The music equipment set up, the set and bridges were slid back into place and Adam Clayton, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. walked onto stage smiling and heading for their instruments. Bono entered a few minutes later and as “Desire,” he shook the hand of one of the CBS orchestra players.
Still off camera, Bono ambled out in a sort of a good-natured gorilla walk to the front row of the audience and shook hands and high-fived anyone who could reach him. He returned to the back side of the stage, smiling as Letterman introduced the band.
The one song was played - and that was it. Show’s over and the audience shuffled out.
Letterman actually tapes two shows on Monday (the second starts at 7:30 p.m.,) and then one show a day Tuesday through Thursday. Tickets are free and can be acquired months in advance, but (like NewYorkology,) many of the people at Monday’s taping happened to be walking down Broadway on Sunday afternoon and signed up for “free tickets.”
If you want to try to get tickets for this week, a Letterman staffer told us your best bet is to go to the Ed Sullivan Theater this week between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and fill out the form (which requires you name your one guest.) On Monday, audience members had to show their government-issued id cards several times and had their names checked on several lists.
And although the Letterman website says “we do not allow cell phones, pagers, cameras, sound recorders or other recording devices in the theater,” this was not enforced. Staff did stop people from taking pictures in the Ed Sullivan lobby and in Roseland, but they were nice about it and only warned that if you did try to take a picture during the performance, security would probably remove you from the show. There was also an announcement not to use cell phones while standing in line in Roseland, but staff made no attempt to enforce that as dozens of people checked e-mail and such.
In addition to the Letterman gig, there are rumors that U2 may play other shows in New York City this week.
