Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
Have you ever had the chance to meet and party with your favorite celebrities? Want to rub elbows with A-list movie stars, politicians, historical figures, and international icons alike? If you haven’t and you want to, then the place you need to go to isMadame Tussauds Wax Museum. With locations all around the world (Amsterdam, London, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York), Madame Tussauds’ celebrity wax figures attract people of all ages.
Tussauds New York museum dominates 42nd st. Times Square. For $31 a ticket ($28 if you’re a student), the museum provides a decent amount of fun. It is a very interactive and accessible environment. Nothing is roped off so you can pose and do all sorts of wacky things (i.e. kicking Larry King in the testicular area, dancing with Charlie Chaplin, punching Muhammed Ali, etc) and take pictures.
The interaction is not just limited to “meeting” and taking pictures with the stars. At the museum’s first exhibit, RuPaul’s “Opening Night Party”, you can mix music with Usher and dance your heart out. After all the dancing, you can also try your hand at singing too. And who better to sing for then Simon Cowell himself on the American Idol stage? Choose your song and brace yourself for Simon’s “helpful” critiques. Not into singing and dancing? Maybe sport is more of your thing. If so, you can always join the horde of mostly young boys in the Yankees room and play a game. Take a turn off the Yankees room and enter the world of Superman. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s YOU! With a green screen behind you, you’re free to do some flying of your own.
Another exhibit to enjoy is the “Chamber of Horrors”, which is like the rides at the amusement parks. You’re expecting a scare so you prepare yourself for it but with the “Chambers of Horrors” no one is prepared for the actual live actors popping out at you. Finally, you can get “hands-on” at the last stop of the museum, the gift shop, where you can buy not only expensive souvenirs but also a wax of your own hand.
Aside from the entertainment value, the museum is also visually appealing. RuPaul’s party is grandly decorated, even decked out with a fountain. The “History Gallery”, where all the historical wax figures of Napoleon, Gandhi, Washington, Lincoln, etc are located, is surrounded by Grecian and Roman columns that give the exhibit an air of dignity. The Pop Culture room is alive with vibrant pictures on the wall.
The wax figures themselves are eye-catching but in a hit-or-miss sort of way. Some of them had a real likeness to the stars (Bill Clinton, Oprah, Princess Diana, Michael Jackson). While with others, you simply couldn’t tell who they are trying to portray (Madonna, James Dean, Jon Bon Jovi). But whether or not the figures look like their namesake, the work itself is still quite impressive as they do look like real humans especially in pictures.
Overall, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum is worth a visit at least once. The interactive and energetic environment provides you with a lot of fun. The only bad thing is that they don’t have more exhibits as it only takes about a little more than an hour to go through the whole museum. But thanks to its great location in Times Square, there’s plenty of other things for you to do.
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:08 pm
It seemed that you had a lot of fun in there. Is there anything else besides wax figures? And is it really worth it to spend $30 for a museum that takes you less than half an hour to walk around? Now, after reading your post, I want to go there. But gosh, I hate the price.
September 23rd, 2007 at 1:50 pm
it’s pretty much just wax figures. $30 is a lot but i figure you’re probably only going to go there once so when you have a little extra cash around (like when we get our Peter Vallone stipend thing) you might as well have a look. and it takes a little more than an hour to go through it.