Holiday Inn

The new Broadway musical Holiday Inn stars Tony nominees Bryce Pinkham and Megan Lawrence, along with Megan Sikora, Corbin Bleu, Lee Wilkof and Lora Lee Gayer. The musical, which began performances September 1, features music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, inspired by the 1942 film. The Broadway production is directed by Greenberg, with choreography by Denis Jones. Performances were recently extended through January 15, 2017. The show features over 20 classic songs from the Berlin catalogue, including “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” “Shaking the Blues Away,” “Easter Parade,” “Cheek to Cheek” and “Heatwave.

Halloween at Maria's- Di made the lack-o-lantern.

Albert Nobbs

I have no idea what I was expecting from this movie but found it quite haunting and so quietly portrayed. Glenn Close is subtle and her character such a self effacing person searching for happiness. Life in 19th century Ireland was so bleak for so many.
It was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Beginning to Bump In

 I was wondering when they would begin to put up the advertising for the new show coming to the Walter Kerr Theatre next door to us.
On my way home I was just in time to see them putting in place the signs for the new show starting in previews on April 4.

As you can see it is going to star Edie Falco, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ben Stiller.

Sunday Fun day

 Having spent the day yesterday working and preparing for the week I was "free" today to do really fun stuff and I have had such a great day.
Headed off around 9:30 to Grand Central to do my final photo shoot for my photography class and I was so lucky... first to have a good view on the way of the Chrysler Building- you can be lucky sometimes.

I had the opportunity to capture a range of people using the train station and looking around. Most other days I have ended up with photos of people on their cell phones but today the focus ended up being people taking photos.
Once I have decided (at class this week) which photos will be in the exhibition I'll post them here. But here is just one of the ones from today.

 And then I spotted (along with just about everyone else in the area) this vision...

 He seemed to be having his breakfast- it took him forever to complete his repast so quite a few opportunitieis to take photos and I think I have some good ones.

 I actually saw him here at Grand Central about 4 years ago I think it was. I need to look back through my photos to work out when it was.

Having completed the photo shoot I went to see The Importance of Being Earnest at the Roundabout theatre. When I was booking my season tickets months ago I did register my complaint about a man playing the role of Lady Bracknell- I objected to a man taking away from a woman one of the great parts in theatre for older women. Having registered my complaint I still went along o see Brian Bedford direct and play the role of Lady Bracknell. The production is lovely- the period costumes gorgeous, the set great and the performances and delivery of those wonderful Oscar Wilde lines really well done. So in all I have had a great day and a great chance to see people dressing up in lots of spots around NYC.

The working week

 The walk to work continues to have its moments. Today it was the autumn leaves. Glimpses of them in Central Park. I may miss them as looking up 7th Avenue when I emerged from the subway at 57th Street the tree tops looked as though there were lot with colour in them. I doubt though that I will get to the park before the weekend.
I got off at a different stop because I thought I'd got to Lee;s Art store to see if they had the stencil book that Dina has suggested in her new Art Journaling 103- Composition and Colour. Not to be- perhaps I'll order in on line.
I have yet to start doing some of the pages that Dina suggested we experiment with ,what with bookclub last night  and then free tickets to a play tonight, there has been no time.
However I have cancelled going to the writing group and hope to get stuck into some of it tomorrow night.
The play was Perfect Harmony. The Theatrermania promo for it says...
Before there was Glee, there was something we like to call Perfect Harmony. Where competition trumped everything. Where victory knew no limits. Where even the most innocent act could be seen as something treacherous, and no good deed went unpunished. This quirky, wickedly funny and mildly twisted comedy will bring you back to a time when navigating the brutal halls of high school was the most important thing in the world. Friendships are tested, loves are lost and won, and really high notes are sung. Oh, and the show contains tons of your favorite 80s pop songs. 

It ran for 2 hours without an interval- we got quite a few laughs.

A day in the theatre

 This seat is where I spent most of my day.


I went to see "Gatz" at the Public Theatre.

Advertised as "A theatrical tour de force, Gatz is conceived as a single six-hour production in which an ensemble of 13 actors bring to live every word of the novel with no text added and none removed. Gatz is a one-of-a-kind theatrical event defined by its radical commitment to one of the 20th century's greatest novels." Here's a link to video clips and photos.
The advertising goes on to say "Gatz is best experienced in a single day and we strongly encourage you to see it that way. Part One is Chapters 1-5. Part Two is chapters 6-9. There is a one-hour meal break between Parts One and Two." So I took their recommendation and took myself to the Public Theatre and I am soooo glad I did.




The show was fantastic in its conception and delivery. The actors remarkable in their capacity to do such an intense piece and maintain it in strength of performance and consistency of delivery. The spontaneous, immediate and genuine standing ovation at the end of 8 hours and 15 minutes (this includes the meal break) was certainly an indication of how the entire audience felt.

 The dinner break not only gave me time to stretch my legs but also time to wander , ever so briefly, through another section of NYC. I chose this restaurant.



It was daylight when I went in but getting dark by 7pm. Autumn is upon us!

  

Further evidence of autumn- the plentiful harvest being celebrated?! This little pumpkin was near the doors to the bathrooms at the restaurant.

Wednesday at the theatre

My subscription to MTC (Manhattan Theatre Club) has begun.
The first play of the season for me was The Pitmen Painters.
It is s based on the true story of a group of British miners who discover a new way to express themselves and unexpectedly become art-world sensations! It is described as "an arresting and witty salute to the power of individual expression and the collective spirit".
It did explore these themes while telling the sotry of the group of men in Britain in the 1930's & 40's.
The play itself was brought to NYC from London.

There are lots of images on the MTC website.

It was a good production and I enjoyed the night out.

Spreading the love- at the theatre

Handed over the wondrous symbol of love to Annie just before we started to watch "A view from the bridge" starring Scarlett Johanssen and Liev Schreiber.

The flower's receipt was great as was the show!

Sundays

My usual Sunday includes time when I reflect on my week by taking out my weekly planners and my diary and my reflecting journal and looking back over my weekly goals. I decide what has worked out and what was a complete disaster. Then I create new goals for the week hoping to address the parts of my life I mucked up during the previous week and move a bit further forward with my annual goals.
This week I set myself up for the second week in a row in my bedroom rather than at the dining table. I had been to the gym and felt truly virtuous. Then it struck me that perhaps the photo of the day should be me doing my reflecting so I set the camera up on the window ledge and here I am!
The day seemed to fly by and at 3pm we (Sue, Margie, Annie Julia and I) went to see A little Night Music. It is on at the Walter Kerr Theatre (the one next door) and is starring Catherine Zeta- Jones and Angela Lansbury. What a wonderful way to spend a cool Sunday afternoon. The show was great and so were the performances.
Truly wonderful!

Bye Bye Birdie

I really enjoyed it!

I have never seen a production of it other than the movie. The colors and the staging was really good fun. The young kids in the cast did a great job.

A night at the Opera

I knew last weekend that this was going to be a busy week. Having been to work and then to some training on using the interactive whiteboard Sue and I came home and straight to Hurley's for a quick tea. Cooking was beyond us as I also knew I had tickets for Aida. I wasn't too fussed about being on time or if need be leaving early. I wanted to pace myself and enjoy the evening as well as be capable of working the next day!

The St Malachy's church bells were ringing before I left the apartment. I caught the 104 bus up to the Lincoln Center and was seated in my seat before the auditorium lights made their ascent! The snowflake crystal chandeliers are truly lovely .

The production of Aida at the Met is splendid. The sets, the costumes the music in that glorious auditorium. It was a wonderful evening's entertainment.

I still struggle with the squat, rotundness of some of the singers- in this particular production there seemed to be more than the usual smattering of them.

Not all the entertainment for the evening was contained on the stage. At the first interval a man, seated about four rows in front and to my right, stood up and turned around to the people behind. It was as the stage curtain closed and the lights had yet to come on in the auditorium- he bent slightly and yelled at the person behind "Would you turn that thing off!" That got all of our attention. Turns out the guy behind had some electronic thing that kept beeping and annoying the "yell-er"- I just hope it wasn't a pace maker or life support system that the man wanted turned off!
At the first interval I walked out and looked at the refurbished fountain and the lovely view that is the Lincoln Center at night.

On my way back in to the theatre I passed an usher selling DVD's and a patron said to him "Are you getting your ties back?" The usher in an open necked shirt replied yes in the winter. I remarked to the usher that it was obviously an important aspect of the patron's visit to the opera.


The next act was splendid .... the synopsis doesn't prepare one for the lavishness of the production.

Musing on Monday

Having achieved the impossible- I am packed and nearly ready to head off on the cruise! Just a couple of days work to get through first. 

But before heading off on our little sojourn I wanted to be sure to catch up on my blog and even more importantly catch some theatrical events in case i missed them .

So I headed to the theatre again this time to see God of Carnage. Despite its title it was very funny and I did enjoy the evening. Not as great a piece of theatre as was A Steady Rain

but it was vastly entertaining. The highlights for me were-

1.  how did she manage to vomit so spectacularly on stage and
   
2. the removal of the cell phone and thrusting it into the vase of flowers- both the action itself and the audience response- many male voices groaning and "oh no-ing"!

I know I have given away a number of things that happen in the play but... it was great to see Jeff Daniels (again), James Gandolfini, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden. A great team. I can imagine Hugo Weaving the in Jeff Daniels role and Pamela Rabe in Marcia Gay Harden's role in the Melbourne production. It was a good way to begin a week!

A Sunday Stroll

Decided to start to start the day with a stroll and check out the venue for the Video Music Awards- Radio City Music Hall. 

Walking along 48th St towards 6th Avenue the view just capture my imagination

The poster and image of John Lennon juxtaposed against the New York skyline appealed

The signs of the times... 

not being too active on Twitter myself but it obviously now requires much more acknowledgement and technical support!

On part of my journey back home this phalanx of police officers were getting their orders for the day. I guess they were to manage the crowds expected for the awards. 

The "first lost hat of the season"- lost hats, scarves and gloves are a part of winter which is obviously fast approaching.

the walk over the rest of the day required washing and packing and then the first of the Fall season theatre events. 

A Steady Rain stars Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. The play is a new American play by Keith Huff and tells the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and their different harrowing accounts of days that change their lives forever. It was fabulous! They were both so powerful on stage- in command of the audience.... and not just great to look at but fabulous to watch them tell the story. The story itself was violent and amazing how one can  feel and experience the violence and be horrified by it without actually having to see it.

 

Cultural Saturday

Is there a better way to spend your Saturday than exploring the Arts with you sister? It was a lovely day... it began slowly and then into the city by train having parked at the station. We met up with Bridie and Sean (niece and boyfriend) and Tom and Cresten (Bridie's brother and mother) in the foyer of the Victorian Arts Centre. I love the entry to the Arts Centre- the arch and the water wall. Having looked at the queue we decided lunch was the best option and thus fortified we ventured into the queue which snaked around in the Great Hall. The ceiling of the Great Hall is always inspiring and such a treat. It wasn't all that long in the queue and we were into the next queue to get through the door to view the Dali- Liquid Desire exhibition. It is a wonderful exhibition with works from around the world- it ranges through the wondrous and the bizarre and was truly worth the effort and the cost. The catalogue is huge and going to be worth dipping in to over the coming weeks.
The train journey home gave us time to browse through the Age newspaper- a great article about Anthony La Paglia.

A bit of a relax at home and then back in to the city and a park right in front on the new Melbourne Theatre Company theatre complex. Michele and I had decided to have dinner there in the new restaurant. We managed to get a table and some photos of the diners?!
Obviously Script is the name of the restaurant and the food was good tasty although a little expensive but we expected that.
We went to see the play The Man from Mukinupin an Australian play that has had mixed reviews. It was a tad challenging in the staging and the concepts it addresses but I am glad we stayed to the end as rounded off well and explored racism and other issues and concepts well.

The play certainly rounded off a day of the arts well.

Some work and play

Taking photos during the day is a good idea as then one can remember what one did! Having had a snowy day on Wednesday it was with a little trepidation that I headed to work but fortunately I managed to avoid slipping on the icy footpaths. It is a hazard when the built up snow melts during the day and then overnight freezes on the footpath. I was able to add a photo of a lost mitten to my collection of photos of lost winter garments (all two of them).
After a really full day of demonstrations and debriefing of teachers I headed to the office for a meeting/ study group discussing aspects of leadership. It was a good discussion and we got decided on a direction for our work which made the time spent much more useful than some of our other meetings as a group.
Sue and I then headed downtown to The Blue Note for a Holly Cole evening of entertainment. We were booked in to the early show which meant we could be home at a reasonable hour and be ready for work the next day.
Holly Cole was great but the problem was the crowd. A tour group from some Italian tour company arrived and had many of the best seats. There were 150 of them so significant in the space. We had a good spot right at the front against the stage so great view but the tour group proceeded to talk very loudly all the way through the entire performance. Despite having been asked by management, the tour operator and the rest of the patrons, to be quiet nothing seemed to faze them and they obviously weren't there for the music but merely to say they had been to the famous New York jazz venue.
In spite of all this Holly Cole sounded great.

Snowy Saturday

The day dawned clear and chilly then the predicted snow arrived late morning and continued throughout the day.
Sitting up in our aerie that is our apartment we were able to watch as buildings and streets were beginning to have a smattering of snow then later more and more snow. It wasn't a huge amount or really even a lot but enough to cover car roofs and to block our view downtown and up town giving a feeling of disconnection from all around us.
I spent that day drifting from one thing to the next although I did manage to get the Christmas tree down earlyish without too much mess of pine needles in the apartment. The corridor leading to the trash room is another matter but then they vacuum there regularly so the pine needles will disappear as if by magic. The red ribbon and bow are gone from the front door and the magnetic figures are back on the door much to everyone's amusement.
As it is Saturday it is pizza night. We only established this concept last week! Rather than head out and spend heaps of money on a meal out we are making our own pizzas. My contirbution to it all is to talk to Sue while she constructs the pizzas using the non stick trays I brought back from Australia. We know they must be in shops somewhere here but be blowed if we could find them so just as easy for me to bring them back given that I was going to be at home over Christmas.
Our meal plans have gone very well and we had mentioned the pizza idea to a friend and she said she'd love to come along! So last night before Anne and I went to the theatre Ann S arrived and Sue was busy in the kitchen whipping up our tea of delicious pizzas made from really fresh ingredients. It was really relaxed and we sat around chatting until Anne and I had to dash off to Studio 54 on 54th St to see Pal Joey, part of the Roundabout Theatre Season.
I didn't know the story of Pal Joey at all, the plot description says Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, PAL JOEY is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson, in the hope that she’ll set him up in business.
Vera Simpson is played by Stockard Channing whose performance was fabulous. She looked and sounded fantastic and really commanded the stage. Her rendition of Bewitched bothered and bewildered was stunning.
Martha Plimpton played Gladys Bumps and is wonderful- I always enjoy her performances and have been lucky to catch her in a few things.
I'm ashamed to say I knew none of the rest of the cast but the show worked really well and I thoroughly enjoyed the "return of Rogers and Hart's famous cad"!

Next door

It is not really next door as the the door next to our apartment but it is th building next door. It's the Walter Kerr Theatre and that's where A Catered Affair is playing. I finally bit the bullet and got organized to go, and go I did today. Ticket and keys in my pocket I took the elevator to the lobby and headed next door- the queue to get in was snaking back to our buildings door and was pretty slow moving so I went back into the foyer out of the sun and waited in the cool lobby watching to see when I could get in quickly.
The synopsis of the play does little to indicate the pathos of the story.
A Catered Affair is set in The Bronx, 1953. Funny, heartbreaking and oh so human, the musical reveals relationships strained to their limits when a couple must decide whether to spend their life savings on a family business or to launch their only daughter's marriage with a lavish catered affair. Harvey Fierstein's book and John Bucchino's score seize the opportunity to explore the meaning of family and the need for love, both new and reawakened.

It is a musical but the songs blend in with the dialogue far more than other musicals and in the case of A Catered Affair I think it works really well. I cried as did the woman next to me who sniveled significantly after one particular moment.
The costumes were great especially the bridal store's sales assistant and the wedding outfit for the bride. The set was an interesting depiction of NYC life (read the Bronx) but I found it confusing in some aspects and a little difficult to suspend belief with a couple of the scenes especially the conversations through windows and then moves on to the fire escape but despite all this it did bring me to tears.

As for the audience they almost brought me to tears too! I can't imagine why anyone would choose the moment after the mother has sung an amazingly emotional song to stand up and leave. They were mid row down the front- the cast must have noticed and the show was nowhere near over. The leaving meant half the row stood up too and a woman near me (other side of the aisle) chose that moment to rummage in her glad bag for a lolly to suck on. Glad bags make almost as much rustling noise as lolly papers- I know we all needed comfort after the song but this was ridiculous.
Some poor bloke about four rows back found it all too slow (the show that is) and nodded off but also managed to snore fairly loudly. Then there was the mother and teenage daughter in front of me who insisted on showing their love for each other by arms around the neck playing with hairstyles and flicking hair to get comfortable resting on each others shoulder.

All this however does not dim my enjoyment of the show. I thought it was great despite the critics saying it wasn't up to snuff. I think it worked really well and was worth the wait.

Until today.....

Until today I had never visited the New York Botanical Gardens. I'd organised to meet Yuisa and look around- I have to say I'd forgotten the Little Italy in the Bronx part of our arrangements.
The trip on the D seemed ot be taking forever but it was only an hour from door to door.
As is likely ot happen we were waiting at different gates of the gardens. Yuisa was at the conservatory gate and I was at the pedestrian gate. Thank goodness for cell phones.
We eventually met up and have become members of the gardens as it has exchange rights with other gardens in NYC.
Anyway we headed in to this vast domain that is the NYC Botanical Gardens. I had forgotten one of the reasons I anted to go was that the exhibition through the Gardens was Henry Moore's sculptures. Twenty of them .
Henry Moore, died in 1986, he is quoted as saying that “Sculpture is an art of the open air, and for me its best setting and complement is nature. I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on, the most beautiful building I know.”
And so we saw a vast number of the 20 sculptures in the best possible landscape. They was really magnificent and the titles added to the event- variations on reclining figure basically.
However we walked around the gardens and made our way to the Rose Garden that was past its best but was still beautiful. It was very hot however- I kept sweating like a pig for most of the day.
Yuisa wanted me to see Little Italy in the Bronx- we walked to Arthur Avenue and to one of her favourite restaurants for lunch. She said the lobster ravioli at Umberto's Clam House was her favourite and I can see why- it had chunks of lobster in and around the ravioli. A delightful meal- we walked back to the Metro North stop and I was back at Grand Central after 15 minutes on the train.
A great day out despite the heat- I noticed on the way home that it was 93 no wonder I was sweaty.

The country girl

It hadn't been my intention to see this play as it's review hadn't been all that fantastic but the draw card really was Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand. I hadn't realized that Peter Gallagher was in it too.
Julia organized the tickets and we were sitting in the 3rd row in the orchestra- in spitting distance of the action if at a fairly acute angle.
To see Morgan Freeman demonstrate his craft at such close quarters was fantastic. The theatre had a few empty seats which was a pity and doesn't bode well for the run of the play.
I didn't really enjoy the story but the actors were fabulous. The range of conniving and mood shifts in many cases ever so subtly that Morgan Freeman made in his role was a joy to watch. The subtlety of his drunkenness was truly realistic.
Frances Mc Dormand played her role with great finesse, and sympathy for her in staying with her husband (Morgan Freeman) was gradually developed with the understanding of his foibles. Peter Gallagher was forceful, supportive and nasty in turn.
The fact that it was a play about an actor and a play made it doubly interesting for me. So thanks to Julia I had yet another great night at the theatre.

A Liaison

It was indeed a glorious opportunity to see Laura Linney in the Roundabout production of Les Liaison Dangereuses. Last time I saw it was at Melbourne Theatre Company and I'm sure it was John Stanton in the the role Le Vicomte de Valomont (just checked and yep he played the role).
The costuming was fabulous- those frocks of Laura Linney's were frocks to die for. The set was an interesting use of curtains and curtaining and I liked the final scene where it had all fallen apart and so had the set and curtains.
The NY Times review described the opening as "hedonism becomes a gravitational force in Ben Daniels’s compelling turn as an 18th-century libertine in “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,”I couldn't agree more he was glorious and believably tormented by the change in his feelings and relationships- unlikeable but still understandably in a difficult place even if it is of his own making.
Laura Linney was described by the NY Time as having "established herself as an actress of peerless emotional transparency, capable of conveying a multitude of conflicting feelings through minimal means.
Here she is required to wear a mask of hypocrisy, and it doesn’t fit.' Unfortunately I have to agree but she is so beautiful and so wonderful to watch in all she does. Her program notes had "Jindabyne" listed first in her list of films- perhaps that was from most recent to earlier but great to have an Australian film listed in the program.
Despite all that I did enjoy the play and didn't have the nasty egg eaters near me or struggle with the temperature of the theatre. It was a good afternoon at the theatre.