Making space for an American literary legend

Dorothy Parker once said that she didn't care what people wrote about her, as long as it wasn't true.  Well even if I'd wanted to oblige her, I simply can't lie about my admiration for one of my favourite authors.

And I'm not alone in the esteem in which I hold Mrs Parker and her work, as evidenced by the full house for tonight's performance of "Dorothy Parker's Wicked Pen", at the mid-sized Symphony Space theatre on the Upper West Side.  We were treated to a great evening of readings and reflections on the mind of one of America's greatest wits.

Dorothy Parker was born in 1893 and grew up in New Jersey and on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  After stints with Vanity Fair and Vogue, she started hanging out more frequently at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, with the writers who would eventually start The New Yorker.  Mrs Parker was on the magazine's founding board when it began in 1925, and she continued writing for them until 1957.

It's no secret that Mrs Parker was plagued by problems with men, money, and alcohol - all to varying degrees.  Ups and downs aside, what tonight's concert really drove home was that Dorothy Parker was a sharp writer.  Fragile maybe, and even a bit broken in parts, but she was popular amongst her friends and admired for her craft.  Case in point:

OBSERVATION
If I don't drive around the park,
I'm pretty sure to make my mark.
If I'm in bed each night by ten,
I may get back my looks again.
If I abstain from fun and such,
I'll probably amount to much;
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn. 

But I am always particularly impressed to know that Dorothy Parker was also a woman of firm convictions.  When she died in 1967, Mrs Parker left her literary estate to Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and it is now held by the NAACP.

With introductions by writer and Time Out New York contributing editor Matt Love, tonight's performance featured talented actors reading excerpts from Dorothy Parker's magazine columns and prose.  Indie movie legend Parker Posey read "The Sexes"; Stage and screen actress Heather Burns read "Bohemia" and "In The Throes: The Precious Thoughts of an Author At Work";  Broadway veteran Mary Louise Wilson performed "From the Diary of  New York Lady" (my favourite - and it had the audience in stitches); and film actress Hope Davis closed the show with "The Standard of Living".  I wasn't familiar with any of these stories, but it was lovely to have them read by familiar actors.  They brought such animation to the work but delivered many of the lines in the dry, cynical way that you can just imagine Mrs Parker would have done.

Dorothy Parker American Gin

The New York Distilling Company was at the theatre tonight too.  They sweetened our theatre-going experience by mixing free drinks with Dorothy Parker American Gin.

Now normally I'm not a gin drinker, but the evening seemed to call for it, so I had a cool gin & tonic before the show started.  Very refreshing, and it has definitely tempted me to tour the distillery  in Brooklyn at some point in the not-too-distant future.  But when I do, I shall have another favourite Parker-ism foremost in my mind:

I like to drink a martini, two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table, after four I'm under my host.