Getting to Broadway From the Upper East Side: The Q to 57 St-7 Av, One Stop
The fastest way is the Q, one stop
The Q from Lexington Av/63rd St is the fastest way to a curtain from the East 60s. The station entrance is on Third Avenue at 63rd Street, about two blocks from our door on East 62nd, and the ride to 57 St-7 Av is a single stop of roughly three minutes. Come up at Seventh Avenue and walk south: 50th Street is about four minutes on foot, 45th Street about eight. If your theater is west of Eighth Avenue (the Gershwin, the Neil Simon, anything on 46th past Ninth), stay on for one more stop to Times Sq-42 St and walk from there.
Every route, with honest timings
| Route | Where you board | Where you get off | Door to seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q, one stop | Lexington Av/63rd St | 57 St-7 Av, walk south | 20 to 25 min |
| N, one stop | Lexington Av/59th St | Times Sq-42 St | 25 to 30 min |
| R or W, local | Lexington Av/59th St | 49 St, in the middle of it | 25 to 30 min |
| 4/5/6 plus the S shuttle | 59 St | Grand Central, shuttle to Times Sq | 30 min |
| M31 or M57 bus | Second Ave, then 57th St crosstown | Seventh Ave at 57th | 25 to 40 min, traffic depending |
| Taxi across the 65th St transverse | your front door | 45th and Eighth | 15 min at 3pm, 30 plus at 7pm |
| Walk | East 62nd Street | 45th and Broadway | about 35 min, 1.6 miles |
The walk is genuinely pleasant if you have the time. Cut down Park to 57th, west past Carnegie Hall, then south. It's the same walk we do when the weather's good and we'd rather not stand on a platform.
When to leave
Leave 45 minutes before curtain and you'll be in your seat with time to spare. Most evening shows go up at 7 or 8, matinees at 2, and houses stop seating latecomers until a break in the show, so the 45 minutes is worth building in. On a Wednesday matinee day the 57th Street crosstown traffic is bad from about 1pm, which is exactly when a taxi stops being the fast option and the Q starts being the only sensible one.
Getting back afterward
After the show, walk east to 57 St-7 Av and take the Q back to Lexington Av/63rd St. It's the same one stop in reverse, and the platform at 57th is a lot calmer than Times Square at 10:30pm with three thousand other people who just saw a show. If you'd rather ride, the eastbound taxi line on Eighth Avenue moves faster than the one on Broadway, and 57th Street eastbound is usually clear by 11.
Where we fit into this
We're on East 62nd Street between Second and First. Two blocks to the Q, a quiet block to come home to at midnight, and no lobby to walk through when you get back. That's the whole pitch for seeing a show from up here: you get the theater district for the evening, and quiet blocks for the night.
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