Mostly a NY Theatre Binge
Lollapuzzoola was on Saturday, but I actually went up to New York on Thursday. That gave me four opportunities for theatre going (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon), as well as time to do something on Friday during the day.
I chose Some Like It Hot for my first show of this Broadway binge. It’s been a long time since I saw the movie, but I think they stayed fairly true to it. Except, they added a racial aspect (by making Jerry / Daphne black), because you can’t make it just about cross-dressing in this day and age. This is still a bit problematic since it isn’t as if San Diego was actually integrated in 1937, and certainly not at the Hotel del Coronado. When Jerry proclaims that being Daphne let him find his true self, that’s all fine - but he’s still black and still going to experience racism. Still, the score is nicely jazzy and the dancing is wonderful, so it made for an entertaining evening.
By the way, I had googled ice cream places in New York and had seem excellent reviews for Amorino on 8th Avenue at 45th. This is very convenient for theatre going and, given that it was hot out, I couldn’t resist. I tried the blood orange and lemon basil sorbets on that visit, and both were delicious and refreshing. I’d say they were comparable to my experience at Bertillon in Paris, which is extremely high praise.
I hadn’t made any specific plans for Friday, but I happened to see a Facebook ad for the Small Is Beautiful exhibit, which looked interesting. So I made my way downtown to check it out.
There’s a mildly annoying audio tour, as well as a bit of a scavenger hunt. But the real point is to look at a wide range of miniatures by several different artists. Here are a few examples.
You probably thought that raisins were made from grapes, but what if it’s the other way around?
This is Candy Beach by Miniam. It’s 1:87 scale. Of course, either the polar bears moved south or the penguins moved north or one or the other is suffering from bipolar disorder.
An early mobile phone by Frank Kunert.
This piece by Vincent Bal was one of my favorites.
This is part of something called the 1,000 Feathers Project by NV Illustrations. It’s less than an inch across.
The incredible thing about this origami piece by Juho Konkkolais that it was made from one piece of paper, with no cuts or tears, just folds.
All in all, it was an interesting exhibit and was worth about two hours.
Since I was already downtown, I walked over to Yonah Shimmel’s and had a kasha knish for lunch. Which was not nearly as good as they used to be, but better than nothing. Then I walked down to The Mysterious Bookshop and might have spent a little bit of money there. I made my way back uptown and rested for a little bit before theatre binge installment #2.
That was Just Like Us, Alex Edelman’s one-man show about his experience as a Jew going to a white supremacist meeting. I’d wanted to see this show since I first heard of it and, since it was closing the next night, this was my opportunity. A lot of his humor has to do with his family and growing up in Boston. My favorite joke was “I grew up in a particularly racist part of Boston. It’s called … Boston.” Anyway, there are more serious questions there about whether or not Ashkenazi Jews can be considered white. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining show, though the narrative structure could have been stronger.
I’ve already written about Lollapuzzoola. I licked my wounds and headed off to indulge in theatre binge, part #3, which was Good Night, Oscar. Apparently Oscar Levant really was let out of a mental hospital for a few hours in order to appear on the Jack Paar show. Sean Hayes gave a remarkable performance as Levant, including a stunning rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. (Hayes was a classically trained pianist before becoming an actor. And it's a piece of music I love even without its mental association with United Airlines.)
I also want to note two other things:
1) I did not immediately recognize the name of playwright Doug Wright, but he wrote several other fine works, including I Am My Own Wife and the book for the interesting but underrated musical Hands on a Hardbody.
2) Lighting is not something I usually pay a lot of attention to, but it was used particularly effectively here in the scenes where Levant is wrestling with his mixed feelings about Gershwin.
I just spent some time Sunday walking around midtown Manhattan. In the afternoon, I had tickets for the fourth and final installment of my theatre binge. That was Shucked, which is an extremely silly but riotously funny musical. The premise is that there’s a small isolated community that is entirely based on corn, until the crop fails. One girl, named Maizy, sets out to get help and, in Tampa, finds a fake podiatrist when she sees an ad for a corn doctor. There’s a long history of shows in which a grifter comes to a small town and both saves the town and redeems himself (think The Music Man or 110 in the Shade) and this fits the pattern. But the jokes are so corny (come on, you know I had to say that) that the audience just can’t resist getting caught up in the fun. Plus there’s a powerhouse performance from Alex Newell as Lulu. Overall, this was a lot of fun.
Finally, I went back to Amerino and tried their signature cone, which gets you three flavors of gelato, sculpted into petals of a flower. Here, the outer layer is inimitable (chocolate hazelnut), the middle is strawberry, and the innermost is dark chocolate. It was delicious.
My trip home went smoothly. Catching up from being away a lot, not so much, but that is something I’ll write about soon.
I chose Some Like It Hot for my first show of this Broadway binge. It’s been a long time since I saw the movie, but I think they stayed fairly true to it. Except, they added a racial aspect (by making Jerry / Daphne black), because you can’t make it just about cross-dressing in this day and age. This is still a bit problematic since it isn’t as if San Diego was actually integrated in 1937, and certainly not at the Hotel del Coronado. When Jerry proclaims that being Daphne let him find his true self, that’s all fine - but he’s still black and still going to experience racism. Still, the score is nicely jazzy and the dancing is wonderful, so it made for an entertaining evening.
By the way, I had googled ice cream places in New York and had seem excellent reviews for Amorino on 8th Avenue at 45th. This is very convenient for theatre going and, given that it was hot out, I couldn’t resist. I tried the blood orange and lemon basil sorbets on that visit, and both were delicious and refreshing. I’d say they were comparable to my experience at Bertillon in Paris, which is extremely high praise.
I hadn’t made any specific plans for Friday, but I happened to see a Facebook ad for the Small Is Beautiful exhibit, which looked interesting. So I made my way downtown to check it out.
There’s a mildly annoying audio tour, as well as a bit of a scavenger hunt. But the real point is to look at a wide range of miniatures by several different artists. Here are a few examples.
You probably thought that raisins were made from grapes, but what if it’s the other way around?
This is Candy Beach by Miniam. It’s 1:87 scale. Of course, either the polar bears moved south or the penguins moved north or one or the other is suffering from bipolar disorder.
An early mobile phone by Frank Kunert.
This piece by Vincent Bal was one of my favorites.
This is part of something called the 1,000 Feathers Project by NV Illustrations. It’s less than an inch across.
The incredible thing about this origami piece by Juho Konkkolais that it was made from one piece of paper, with no cuts or tears, just folds.
All in all, it was an interesting exhibit and was worth about two hours.
Since I was already downtown, I walked over to Yonah Shimmel’s and had a kasha knish for lunch. Which was not nearly as good as they used to be, but better than nothing. Then I walked down to The Mysterious Bookshop and might have spent a little bit of money there. I made my way back uptown and rested for a little bit before theatre binge installment #2.
That was Just Like Us, Alex Edelman’s one-man show about his experience as a Jew going to a white supremacist meeting. I’d wanted to see this show since I first heard of it and, since it was closing the next night, this was my opportunity. A lot of his humor has to do with his family and growing up in Boston. My favorite joke was “I grew up in a particularly racist part of Boston. It’s called … Boston.” Anyway, there are more serious questions there about whether or not Ashkenazi Jews can be considered white. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining show, though the narrative structure could have been stronger.
I’ve already written about Lollapuzzoola. I licked my wounds and headed off to indulge in theatre binge, part #3, which was Good Night, Oscar. Apparently Oscar Levant really was let out of a mental hospital for a few hours in order to appear on the Jack Paar show. Sean Hayes gave a remarkable performance as Levant, including a stunning rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. (Hayes was a classically trained pianist before becoming an actor. And it's a piece of music I love even without its mental association with United Airlines.)
I also want to note two other things:
1) I did not immediately recognize the name of playwright Doug Wright, but he wrote several other fine works, including I Am My Own Wife and the book for the interesting but underrated musical Hands on a Hardbody.
2) Lighting is not something I usually pay a lot of attention to, but it was used particularly effectively here in the scenes where Levant is wrestling with his mixed feelings about Gershwin.
I just spent some time Sunday walking around midtown Manhattan. In the afternoon, I had tickets for the fourth and final installment of my theatre binge. That was Shucked, which is an extremely silly but riotously funny musical. The premise is that there’s a small isolated community that is entirely based on corn, until the crop fails. One girl, named Maizy, sets out to get help and, in Tampa, finds a fake podiatrist when she sees an ad for a corn doctor. There’s a long history of shows in which a grifter comes to a small town and both saves the town and redeems himself (think The Music Man or 110 in the Shade) and this fits the pattern. But the jokes are so corny (come on, you know I had to say that) that the audience just can’t resist getting caught up in the fun. Plus there’s a powerhouse performance from Alex Newell as Lulu. Overall, this was a lot of fun.
Finally, I went back to Amerino and tried their signature cone, which gets you three flavors of gelato, sculpted into petals of a flower. Here, the outer layer is inimitable (chocolate hazelnut), the middle is strawberry, and the innermost is dark chocolate. It was delicious.
My trip home went smoothly. Catching up from being away a lot, not so much, but that is something I’ll write about soon.