Turning deep dish pizza upside down

We've discussed once before the unique nature of the Chicago hot dog, but I would have to say that deep dish pizza is the fast food for which Chicago is the most famous.  And rightly so - it's cheesy, it's gooey and it's SO filling.

Our time in Chicago was pretty short this time, and we were so busy during the days that I made the potentially controversial decision not to feed my parents deep-dish pizza while we were in town.  Instead, I took them to a place where pizza is theatre, a place where the concept of ooey-gooey pizza is literally turned upside-down.

The Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company is located in a converted townhouse in the leafy suburb of Lincoln Park, and the cash-only business is worth every good review it gets.  They don't take reservations though so if you're hungry, I'd recommend you show up either just as they open, or right before they close.

Not heeding my own advice, we arrived around 6.30pm on a Saturday night, amidst the hustle-bustle of the dinner rush.  I fought my way past the throngs of people to register ourselves with the maitre d'.  He didn't write anything down - not my name, not my phone number, nothing.  How he possibly remembered who was who is still beyond me.  We purchased a couple of drinks from the bar and waited in the warm, cosy vestibule for the maitre d' to come and find us.

An hour or so later, we were finally seated and confronted with the food menu.  I don't know why they bothered giving us a menu at all; I mean, we knew exactly what we were there to enjoy.

The half-pound pizza pot pie is the most inventive and delicious pizza I have had in a really long time.  It's an individual serving, and includes "triple-raised Sicilian bread-type dough; a homemade sauce consisting of olive oil, fresh garlic, onions, green peppers, whole plum tomatoes and a special blend of cheeses; sausage made from prime Boston butts; and doorknob-size, whole, fresh mushrooms".  I mean, come on.  How could you go wrong?!

But the thing that makes this pizza so special - and so theatrical - is that it is baked in a bowl, with the crust-side up.  So when your pizza pot pie is ready, the waiter brings it over and inverts it at your table.  The ooey-gooey cheese settles into place on the surface of your bowl-shaped pizza, and it is an utter delight to behold, and to gobble up.

 

With apologies to the deep dish purists but when it comes to pizza, THIS is the taste of Chicago for me.  I definitely recommend you visit The Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company.  Sure, the name is a mouthful, but so are the amazing pizzas!

Old-school plays in mint condition

Image source here

Founded in 1992, New York's Mint Theater Company is dedicated to bringing old, often neglected plays back to the stage.  The tiny theater space is located on the 3rd floor of a rather unremarkable building on West 43rd Street. But inside, there isn't a bad seat in the house.

Since the company was established, Mint has staged about 30 plays and yesterday I went along to see its latest production, Fashions for Men - a charming, character-driven comedy by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar.

Old-school haberdashers used to be a place for men to buy their fashion and accessories: gloves; coats; scarves and the like.  But life, on and off stage, gets decidedly more interesting when you introduce women into the action too.  So Act 1 of "Fashion For Men" opens in a haberdashers in Budapest in 1917 that caters to a colourful cast of male and female characters from all walks of life.

In a post-play discussion with the company's dramaturg and scholar, Dr Maya Cantu, we were reminded that even though the play is set in WW1 Europe, Molnar makes no mention of these outside influences in his play.  There's no hint of strife or sacrifice and as one critic put it, the play really does feel like it's taking place "inside a snowglobe".  Indeed, no external or "real life" influences interfere with the action at all.

And maybe that's what helps "Fashion For Men" retain its appeal across the decades.  It's not frozen in time - it could probably be set anywhere, at any point in history.  The characters are certainly credible.  The protagonist is Peter Juhasz, owner of the haberdashers, and the quintessential nice guy.  Never seeing the bad in people, he's constantly being taken for granted by the other characters - they take his money, his emotional energy, and his time.   Around him, we meet the unfaithful wife, the deceptive co-worker, the wise older man, the skirt-chasing aristocrat, and the conniving ingenue - all of whom capitalise on Peter's good nature to achieve their own end game.  Such saintly goodness has led critics to describe Juhasz as "unworldly" and even "pathetic", but I think I share NY Times critic John Corbin's assessment of Juhasz as "a character conceived with the most exquisite grace and sympathy".

As the three-act play unfolded on a series of beautiful old-timey sets, I do remember thinking that Molnar's 1917 Hungary is a lot like 2015 New York City.  There are pushy-shovey people galore out there who will try and take advantage of you if they think you'll let them.  And while his kindness can sometimes be frustrating in the face of such blatant exploitation, ultimately Peter Juhasz sees his fellow characters for who they are, but he stays true to who he is.  He doesn't stoop to the mercenary level of others and because of that, when Peter finally realises his happy ending, you know the audience is proud of him.

NYC loves the lad from Liverpool

It's no secret that New York has a special place in its heart for John Lennon.  On December 8th, 1980 the music legend was shot and killed in front of his residence, The Dakota on West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side.

For the next five years afterwards, Lennon's widow, Japanese-born artist and musician Yoko Ono, worked with local landscape architects to designate a quiet zone across the street in Central Park, and the infamous Strawberry Fields site was dedicated on 9 October 1985.  But Lennon's memorial doesn't just belong to New Yorkers.  In fact, 121 countries around the world have declared Strawberry Fields in Central Park, with its "Imagine" plaque, to be an official Garden of Peace.

Image credit here

Peace activism was certainly a very prominent part of Lennon's life with Yoko Ono.  Indeed its a very strong theme that British-Australian artist John Waters explores in his wonderful production of Lennon: Through A Glass Onion, showing at the Union Square Theater on East 17th Street (until 22 February 2015).

Now I grew up watching John Waters on Australian TV, and he seriously hasn't changed a bit.  I'd probably watch him read the phone book though, so I'm a biased reviewer.  It is therefore quite reassuring to me that the critics at the New York Times felt as positively as I did about this production.

Waters does not impersonate Lennon during this show, but he does tell his story in a first-person narrative.  And Waters has been performing Glass Onion since 1992, across Australia and in London's West End, so he's had plenty of time to polish it up.  While Waters belts out excerpts from some 34 tunes on guitar and maintains his strong vocals throughout, piano accompaniment and harmony is provided by the excellent Stewart D'Arrietta, whose theatre pedigree includes a recent stint as musical director for The White Album Concert at the Sydney Opera House.

The show plays without an intermission, but if you're a fan of the Beatles, or the magic combination of Lennon & McCartney, you'll love this play.  I came away thinking it's just the kind of retrospective production that I could imagine Lennon doing, had his life not been so dramatically cut short.  The tale Waters spins is frank, and at times rather humorous - but always very self-effacing.  The songs complement the plot and as such, their lyrics take on a poignancy you might not have previously attributed to them (such as in the case of "Julia"about Lennon's mother, and "Beautiful Boy", about Sean Lennon - the son that John wasn't sure he and Yoko would ever have).

The show revealed Lennon to be a talented, complex, thoughtful man who loved his wife and his family, and had great times making music.  But it's clear that John Lennon always knew there was more to life than being a rock star.  Indeed, the Lennon/McCartney song "Glass Onion" pokes fun at those people who were inclined to look too deeply for meaning in Beatles lyrics.  In Lennon's mind, there were much more serious issues to be concerned about in life.

Throughout the show, I remember thinking how much I wanted to buy John Waters and Stewart D'Arrietta a beer afterwards.  But I think what I really wanted to do was to pull up a barstool alongside John Lennon.  It will forever be a shame that on that cold December evening 14 years ago, we were all robbed of the chance to ever do that.

Should I stay or should I go?

The T Schreiber Studio and Theater was founded in 1969 to strengthen the dramatic arts in New York City.  The Studio and its adjacent theatre have won countless industry awards for their classes, scene studies, and workshops.  The company also puts on small-scale theatrical productions that are fertile grounds for stage and screen actors, directors, and playwrights to hone their crafts.  And did I mention this gem establishment is also located in my neighbourhood of Chelsea? Another excellent selling point, if you ask me.

Take a look at the Studio's alumni page, and I'm sure you'll recognise a number of the famous faces that have come through the doors over the past 45 years (Edward Norton, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Peter Sarsgaard, just to name a few - and they also serve as Honorary Board Members now).  I also love that the company maintains a page on its website called "Look Who's Working!", to track the career development of their peers.  A wonderful, supportive idea!

You'll be relieved to learn that I don't have any desires to tread the boards myself any time soon; rather, my purpose for visiting the Studio and Theater tonight (tucked away on the 7th floor of an unremarkable building) was to see "Philadelphia, Here I Come" by Irish playwright Brian Friel.   It's the first play in the company's 2014-15 season and I ended up sitting in the very front row, almost eyeball-to-eyeball with the actors in such a small theatre space.  I loved every minute of it.

The play was written in 1964, and is set in a small town in Ireland.  It takes place on the night before a young man leaves his home (and his widowed father) to join his aunt and uncle in Philadelphia.  The relationship between father and son is already pretty strained, and the young man's impending trip weighs heavily on both of them.

Family dynamics aside, if you've ever left home and gone somewhere new, you will relate to this play immediately.  The clever thing is that two actors actually play the young man.  One of them performs his physical self and interacts with the other characters, and the other actor is the young man's inner self - voicing all those things the young man thinks and feels, but would never say aloud.

For me, the play really made sense.  I have felt the push-pull of knowing you need to leave home, but not being able to articulate a decent reason why.  Just like in the play, right before a trip I've also specifically noticed those "lasts" - the last time I'll sleep in my own bed, the last time I'll hang the laundry outside, the last time I'll play with the dog.  And just like the young man in the play, I know how it feels when ordinary moments suddenly take on real gravity - like you're committing them to a film that you'll replay in your mind over and over.

The original Broadway production of "Philadelphia, Here I Come" opened in 1966 and ran for over 300 performances.  It was nominated for two Tony Awards and a film version was released in 1975.  The cast in this latest production have rich material to play with - tragic, comic, and a pleasant Irish brogue to boot.  All the actors did a wonderful job in their roles.

I'm so glad I finally discovered the T Schreiber Studio and Theatre, and I'm going to get myself on their mailing list, to be sure!

Rescue me, take me in your arms

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (or NYMF) is an annual event dedicated to providing artists with affordable ways to stage professional theatre productions for fellow actors, industry leaders, and audiences.  Currently in its 10th year, NYMF is renowned in this City as a launching pad for new musical theatre productions, styles, and talents.

For the most part, NYMF productions are staged in theatres along 42nd Street.  Tickets are usually around $25 each, so they're much less expensive than a mainstream show. There is so much variety on offer too, so for producers and audiences alike, the NYMF is an excellent festival to experience.

The cast of "Rescue Rue"

I went along to my first NYMF production yesterday, the second-to-last performance of a great little musical called Rescue Rue, showing in the Pershing Square Signature Theater on West 42nd Street.  I've been to this theatre before and I've always really liked the venue, because there isn't a bad seat in the entire building.  The shows are usually short-runs but they're always thought-provoking and impressive productions.

Not that I needed any further incentive to see "Rescue Rue", but it is being stage-managed by my friend, Caskey Hunsader.  Caskey has worked on a lot of theatre productions in the past, both behind the scenes and onstage, but he is also the creator and star of the fantastic web series called "Fat Guy" and he also hosts the Broadway interview series, "Standing By".  It was great for me to be able to support Caskey's latest project in person.

Rue finds her "furever" family

"Rescue Rue" is inspired by a true story, and is a musical fairytale that features a little dog named Rue who is abandoned by her human owners and left to fend for herself.  In her lowest moments, Rue meets her Fairy Dogmother and makes a special wish to live happily ever after, whatever it might take to get there.  Rue's search for her "furever family" leads to a stint in the dog pound/shelter, where she meets some new canine friends who encourage her to stay optimistic and to keep her eye on the big prize.

Squish and Rue

What I especially loved about "Rescue Rue", and as you can see from these photos, is that the show borrows from the style of "Avenue Q" and has live actors doing puppeteering on stage.  The performances are so seamless that you find yourself watching the puppets and actually forgetting about the human performers.  The puppets are beautiful though - really great quality - and the 7 human actors who bring the show to life are all amazingly talented - excellent voice actors and singers, energetic dancers, and a great ensemble cast.

You might get the sense from this description that "Rescue Rue" is a show for kids, and you wouldn't be wrong.  But like most kids shows, the dialogue and humour works on two levels, so adults have just as much to gain from seeing the production.  Indeed, there were only a couple of kids in the audience yesterday, and even though you could hear them fidgeting in some parts, they were totally engaged in the plot, the songs, and they loved all the characters.

Real Rue meets Puppet Rue

And at the end of the show, the cast gathered just outside the theatre to meet the audience, and particularly to have photos with the kids.  The real-life Rue, who inspired the whole story, was also there and she was an absolute hit.  Such a placid and beautiful dog, quite content to meet her adoring fans.

I was also really pleased to learn that "Rescue Rue" staged a performance this morning particularly for kids with autism, for whom going to the theatre can often be an overwhelming experience.  That the production company and the cast made a special effort to make "Rescue Rue" accessible to these kids and their families is a real gift and makes the show all the more special.  This was part of the Autism Theatre Initiative and it's such a wonderful way to encourage kids and adults on the autism spectrum to get along to the theatre and enjoy a great performance.

I'm not sure what the future holds for "Rescue Rue" beyond the NYMF, but I thought it was a great show that deserves every success.

[With many thanks to the "Rescue Rue" team for letting me share these photos with you.]

Big stars, bright lights, and baby's first after-party

Image credit here

"Christopher Plummer glances down from the stage. Even though the spotlight is undoubtedly in his eyes, I feel sure he is looking right at me. I've never been in a staring contest with Captain Von Trapp before, so I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do. Perching on the edge of my seat seems a good idea, so I do that and cup my hands together under my chin. I gaze back up at Mr Plummer with wide eyes. There's a grin plastered on my face that I hope conveys "earnest excitement", but it must miss the mark because before I can do anything about it, the Captain turns his attention elsewhere and the spell is broken."

I had multiple star-struck encounters like this on Monday night, but that's what happens when you're eight feet away from the stage at The 70th Annual Theatre World Awards, held at the Circle in the Square Theater just off Times Square.   Each year, these awards celebrate twelve "promising personalities" whose debut Broadway or off-Broadway performances were significantly reviewed during the current theatre season.

My attendance at this event was entirely accidental of course. Earlier in the evening I'd actually been stuffing my face at the Taste of Times Square food festival a few blocks away.  But when the text came in from a friend, inviting me to be his "plus one" at a theatre event nearby, I did not hesitate.

And when it occurred to me that we were both guests of first-time Tony Award nominee Mary Bridget Davies (MBD) the Broadway Bubble settled around me and didn't burst for hours.  I walked down the stairs of the theatre, settled into my seat at the tiny cabaret table, arm's length from the stage, and tried my best to belong.

Because I had to be dreaming, right?  I mean, did I really just watch Chris O'Dowd and Zachary Levi face the paparazzi and give interviews?  Was that really Zachary Quinto who bounded past me and up to the stage to present an award to his friend and colleage?  Did my friend really just say "Oh my God, we have better seats than Bryan Cranston!", and it was actually true?  

If there was ever a night to pinch myself in New York, this was it.

Before long, Mary's name was called and she went up to the stage to collect her first World Theatre Award for her powerhouse performance in "A Night With Janis Joplin".  The show has finished now but it was clear that Mary had made an impression.  She has definitely arrived. Mary's acceptance speech was heartfelt, honest, and had all the hallmarks of someone who put her heart and soul into sharing Janice Joplin's story in the most authentic way possible.

And then of course, there was Mr Plummer, who is looking pretty good for an 85 year old (but really, does he ever age?).  The theatre erupted when he was awarded the John Willis Award for a Lifetime of Achievement in the Theatre.  His acceptance speech was funny and articulate, and generously recognised all the people who have come before him in the theatre and all the new talent in the room (and beyond) who were finding their way now.  He even had the good grace not to grimace when the pianist played "Eidelweiss" to escort him off-stage.  And through it all, I just beamed.

And as surely as night follows day, my first-ever awards ceremony was followed by my first ever after-party.  This one was held on the rooftop at the historic Copacabana.  I'm not sure if Barry Manilow would still declare it "the hottest spot north of Havana" but I can assure you of one thing, those guys know how to buffet!  So much amazing food was on offer and an open bar to boot.  When we left a few hours later, the DJ was playing Michael Jackson and I could never fault that.

The events of Monday night will stay with me for a really long time to come.  I was so honoured to be included in MBD's winning evening, and to help her warm up to her very first Tony Award ceremony on Sunday.  My fingers and toes will remain crossed for her!

Bryant Park celebrates The Bard

I was thirteen and had just started high school when I met Shakespeare for the first time.  Mrs Mac introduced me to him via The Enchanted Island, an anthology of stories adapted from Shakespeare plays that was published in 1966 but which still resonated nearly thirty years later.  When my hormones were a complete mess the following year, “Romeo and Juliet” made perfect sense to me.  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” offered just the right mix of fairy magic and human relationships for a romantic fifteen year old.  At sixteen I studied “Macbeth”, that dark and bloodthirsty tale of single-minded ambition that showcased Mrs Millar’s Scottish brogue to best effect.  And then in my final year of high school, as I grappled with making serious decisions about my future, I felt a natural kinship with the brooding Prince of Denmark in “Hamlet”.

If what they say is true, and the prime ingredients for a successful relationship are timing and chemistry, Shakespeare and I seem destined to be together for a long time to come. 

The Bard has actually been a big part of my life since those high school days.  On stage and screen, in productions professional and otherwise, I’ve devoured his work.  Seeing “Henry IV” Parts 1 and 2 on the same day at The Globe in London remains one of the best experiences of my life.

Here in New York there is no shortage of opportunity to rekindle a relationship with Shakespeare.  You can visit Central Park any time and walk around the beautiful Shakespeare Garden (behind the 79^th Street Transverse), or once a year they have a celebrity-studded “Shakespeare in the Park” festival that is free to the public (but gets hugely crowded).  And for something completely different, you can even see a raucous production of “Drunk Shakespeare” in a small theatre just off Times Square.

The sets really aren't fancy

But if you find yourself in Midtown over the next few months, why not do what I did and be a groundling in Bryant Park, located just behind the New York Public Library?  During this summer season, The Drilling Company (a New York-based theatre group) is staging free Shakespeare productions in Bryant Park and tonight was their second-to-last performance of “Hamlet” (the curtain falls on May 31).

That Shakespeare has never been staged in Bryant Park before is not the only reason that tonight’s production was special.  This play is part of the Drilling Company’s “Shakespeare in theParking Lot” series and as its name suggests, it would normally have been performed in a public parking lot on the Lower East Side.  It’s the Drilling Company’s way to make Shakespeare more accessible to people, and take it out of fancy theatres with elaborate sets.  But when the Bryant Park Corporation contacted the company and invited them into greener space for this year’s series, The Drilling Company decided to breathe new life back into their 2011 hit production of “Hamlet” and share it with an uptown audience.

Pre-show entertainment

According to the Drilling Company’s website, their “intrepid, bare-boned productions have become a New York tradition” and it wasn’t hard for me to see why.  This was a decidedly modern take on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.  The title character is as madcap and dysfunctional as ever, and in keeping up the pretense of being crazy he torments the confused and naïve Ophelia.  But in a stroke of genius, Polonius is cast as a psychoanalyst-type character and when he’s not nagging his children, he’s making many of his observations about Hamlet into a tiny tape recorder for later playback.  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take selfies with the Royal Family, Queen Gertrude is rarely without a glass of wine in her hand, and King Claudius delivers his lines so casually and conversationally that you actually forget you’re hearing Shakespeare.  In fact, none of the actors spoke in that over-enunciated way that we’ve come to expect from Shakespeare.  The performances were relatable, accessible, and really engaging.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
meet the Danish Royal Family

My only regret about tonight was that I forgot to bring a jacket.  When the sun went down, it was quite cold sitting out there in Bryant Park with no protection from the wind.  I definitely learned my lesson for next time.

Speaking of which, the Drilling Company’s next Shakespeare performances in Bryant Park will be “Twelfth Night” (July 10 to 26) and “Othello” (July 31 to August 16).  Performances start at 7pm, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.  Shows are only on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights so make sure you book your calendar.

** NEWSFLASH**  This article is also going to be published on the CityElla website in the next few days.  Please visit this great New York site, whose contributors are also keen to share their NYC stories with you.  Many of them venture where I'm too scared to tread (like nightclubs and dating sites), so it's definitely worth a look!  **

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.

Poetry inspires serious vocal talent

The Melodia Women's Choir was founded 12 years ago and specialises in performing rarely-heard music and commissioned works for women's voices in many different styles.

Last night and this afternoon, the choir performed The Poet's Song, a number of works inspired by great poetry through the ages.  One of my very talented friends was performing in her first season with Melodia, and I went along in support.

The Mary Flagler Carey Hall is downstairs at the Di Menna Center, a modern performance venue (for decidedly un-modern music), and home to the Orchestra of St Luke's.  According to the description outside the Hall, Mary Flagler Carey "cared deeply about the training and well-being of orchestral musicians" and when she died, her family trust named the rehearsal and performance space in her honour.  As 4pm neared, the waiting area lounge grew more congested, and I gazed around the room at the people of all ages who clearly shared Mary Flagler Carey's passion.

While the Melodia Women's Choir is supported, in part, by public funds they rely heavily on private donations too.  But trust me when I tell you, this group is not an amateur production.  The choristers and the musicians accompanying them are top-shelf performers with excellent pedigree.  All-black attire, staring almost unblinkingly at the conductor and obeying her every direction.  Taken independently, they are impressive.  But put them together, and they are a slick ensemble act.  

And what struck me most as I read through the program is that singing and playing instruments are an add-on to the lives of these talented women.  They all have regular 9-5 jobs and their involvement in the Choir is partly because they love it, but also because their lives have always had a creative outlet of some kind.

Today's program marked the end of the choir's current season, and they won't perform together again until around November.  As their farewell gesture, their season-ending performance ran the gamut of Biblical and sacred themed poetry, to Shakespearean orchestral work, a jaunty tarantella instrumental interlude, a couple of nonsense poems, and a rousing finale of musical theater and jazz numbers.   The enthusiasm of the audience, combined with the acoustics of the venue made for very rousing applause at the end.

I was really proud to have the chance to hear my friend sing today, both in a brief solo and also as part of a group.  While no reminder was needed, the Melodia Women's Choir is nevertheless an excellent example of the breadth and depth of the talent that resides in this amazing city. 

A decidedly British evening in New York

It was pouring with rain when I left the house this morning, it rained all day, and it was STILL raining tonight when I returned to the 59E59 Theater to see my third Brits Off Broadway production of the season.

The show I saw tonight is called “Peddling” and it was written by, and stars, Harry Melling, who you would immediately recognise as Dudley Dursley from the “Harry Potter” movie franchise (and who, incidentally, looks much more rugged and grown-up than that IMDB profile photo would have you believe).

At the time of purchasing my ticket, all I knew of Melling’s play came from the simple yet compelling plot description in the theatre brochure:

A peddlar boy wakes up in a field, somewhere in London, surrounded by the burnt and empty remnants of the night before. With no memory, he knows he must go back to 'the very start of it all.  His attempts to retrace events lead him on a haunting journey where everything comes into question: his life, his world, and his future.

This NY run has only just started (it goes to May 18) and I have to confess, it’s pretty adult material but I thought the 25-year old playwright and actor handled it really well.  I lived in London for only 7 months but the neighbourhood I spent most of my time in was brutalised during the recent London riots.  I remember seeing the stores I shopped in with smashed windows, and broken fixtures and it was all so sad.  As tonight's play progressed, and I watched Melling's character slowly succumb to despondency and aggression and teeter on the edge of violence, I wondered whether the London riots had in fact inspired his material.

I am always very impressed by actors who can carry a one-person show.  To my untrained eye it requires a special kind of skill to take the audience with you and hold them there for the duration of your production.  But that’s exactly what Melling was able to do tonight, and though the theatre was only small, it was full and the applause at the end was heartfelt.  As people left, I could hear them muttering to one another about how impressed they were with his performance, and his interpretation of the character.

The down-side of seeing theatre shows at night is that I’m usually too wired to sleep straight afterwards, so before heading home tonight I trudged through the pouring rain to the opulent St Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue for a cocktail at its famous King Cole Bar.

I actually didn’t think the hotel would let me in, given that I was wearing black rain boots and had the bedraggled appearance of someone who had been rained on all day (all true).  But they didn't just admit me, the bartender gave me one of the reserved tables right in front of the bar, all to myself!  Such treatment!

The King Cole Bar is famous for a couple of reasons, but particularly because in 1934 it produced the world's first Bloody Mary.  However at the time, the hotel's patrons were a little too upper-class to call it that, so the drink was sold under the name "Red Snapper".  Indeed, you can still order one at the bar today - but for the less refined amongst us, the King Cole also offers a huge menu of Bloody Marys to cater to everyone's taste - Scotch-based, tequila-based, some with clam juice, some with extra spice...it's a treasure.

Had it been brunch, or a weekend, I definitely would have indulged in one of the many Bloody Mary options.  But being a weeknight, and in such beautiful surrounds,  I spoilt myself with an "Astor Midnight" cocktail, made with Stoli blueberry vodka, lavender syrup, limoncello, and Roderer sparkling brut.  I was not at all disappointed - it was a perfect choice.

The other thing that makes the King Cole Bar famous is the historic mural behind the bar. It actually contains a secret and the only way you find it out is to appeal to the generosity of the barman to tell you.  If you're nice to him, he'll give you enough information to let you sniff out the details.  And trust me, when you do learn the secret, it will change the way you look at the mural.

Once my cocktail was finished, and knowing that the rain was showing no signs of abating, I offered my seat to CNN political correspondent James Carville, who had just walked in.  I put up my hot pink umbrella, and in the decidedly British weather, I splashed through the puddles on the long walk home.

I hope you didn't mind my bending your ear

If you're looking for a slice of vintage New York, you need go no further than the corner of Third Avenue and East 55th Street, where you will find the original PJ Clarke's saloon.  There are other PJ's franchises dotted elsewhere around the City, but back in 1884 this Third Avenue treasure was called Jenning's Bar.  Then it changed hands and was called Duneen's, and they hired Patrick Joseph Clarke as a bartender in 1902.  He bought the place ten years later, and gave his name to the Third Avenue location, which has remained largely unchanged ever since. 

Legend has it that songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote "One For My Baby" while propping up the bar here, and it's the perfect tune for a place like PJ's.  The bartenders are friendly, the drinks are strong, and the patrons are the convivial bunch you'd expect from such a New York City icon.  Perhaps these are the same reasons that attracted the patronage of Frank Sinatra (who has a permanent table there), but also Buddy Holly, Jackie Kennedy, and Elizabeth Taylor?

But PJ's isn't just for history or booze buffs - they know their way around the pots and pans too.  When I moved to New York three years ago, PJ's sold me my very first bowl of lobster mac & cheese, and I have never forgotten that kindness.  It was so rich, so tasty, and I so didn't want to leave.  That I turned up post-theatre at 10pm tonight (on a school night no less!) I wasn't surprised to find the dining room full of people cramming in burgers, fish & chips, and all manner of tasty treats from the kitchen. 

I had to adopt the pointy "elbows out" stance I normally reserve for Christmas shopping at Macy's, just to edge my way through the crowd, past the squawking women and tipsy businessmen, to finally get to the bar and order my drink.

Word of warning though: don't get too distracted by the crowd or the menu at PJ's, because when you're jostling for a seat at their beautiful mahogany bar, you run the risk of missing the little quirks that make this place really fun.  Like the traditional red & white ginham tablecloths; or the old cash register and pay phone that broke years ago but nobody wants to throw away.  Old-world charm, right in Midtown Manhattan.

One of the reasons I think that PJ's has lasted so long (aside from the tasty food and strong drinks) is that they value their customers, and they reward loyalty with special treatment.  They've got photos all around the walls of customers and staff they've loved and lost, and the Third Avenue PJ's also has a members-only section called Sidecar, located upstairs in what used to be the Clarke family home.  See?  How could you not enjoy yourself here?

A welcome pond-crossing

This year marks the 9th annual Brits Off Broadway festival and I still don't know how it has escaped my attention all this time.  Having lived in both Scotland and England before, and being from the Commonwealth myself, shouldn't I be somehow attuned to all things colonial happening in New York?  But what's that they say, "better late than never"?

This year's festival opened yesterday and will run until 29 June, which sounds like a long time, but it's really not when you consider how many plays they're staging - and how good so many of them are likely to be.

I got to the 59E59 theatre about 20 minutes early tonight, so I had a bit of time for a cold glass of bubbly before the show started.  I took a seat at the bar next to a little old lady with cotton-ball hair and we got to talking about the theatre shows we'd seen in the City, and she confessed a love of thought-provoking productions that made her grouchy for days.  "I like thinking pieces," she admitted.  I liked her immediately.

Before long though, the usher was calling us all to our seats, and the cotton ball lady and I went our separate ways.  When I sat down in my row, I was next to an ancient woman who was complaining to her younger companion that she was stuck on Level 52 of "Candy Crush".  Old people.  I don't even know anymore.

I had bought tickets to see a double bill tonight, "Clean" and "A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity".  I knew nothing about either play, other than the fact that "A Respectable Widow" had been part of the Edinburgh Fringe and was being staged here in New York as part of Scotland Week.  I was hopeful for accents.  I got them.

As the lights dimmed and the actors took the stage, Mrs Candy Crush leaned forward in her seat for the first 10 minute or so, and I knew she was struggling to comprehend what was going on.  Not so for me.  I soaked it all up - it was far too familiar.

The lyrical, slick production of "Clean" only went for about 45 minutes, and in the 10-minute intermission that followed I read the schedule and determined which plays I would come and see next.  I think I settled on six, including one about a mother of a boy with disabilities (which I will probably bawl the whole way through), and a rather mysterious one called "Peddling", which was written by (and stars) Dudley Dirsley from "Harry Potter".

When "A Respectable Widow" started, I was overjoyed to hear the thick Scottish brogue - memories of a very happy six months spent in Scotland back in 2005 came flooding back.

Again, about 45 minutes later the house lights went up and the audience scattered.  On our way out we were treated to the wonderful sounds of a very talented jazz trio playing in the downstairs lobby.  A great touch.

While the plays I saw weren't necessarily "thinking pieces", I still wanted to reflect on them so I took myself for a glass of wine at the famous "Monkey Bar" inside the Hotel Elysee on East 54th Street, just a few blocks from the theatre.  With kitschy monkey murals on the walls, monkey lamps on the bar, and red leather booths with vinyl gingham tablecloths, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the bar had seen better days.  But the cocktail list and food menu are amazing, and its history goes all the way back to the repeal of Prohibition.  The bar and adjacent restaurant (with amazing Jazz Age mural) was Tallulah Bankhead's hangout for a while, and Tennessee Williams apparently died there in the very front bar!  It was like stepping back in time to Old New York, and it was perfect.

When it's hip to be square

Courtesy of Wikipedia

If they can possibly help it, New Yorkers will avoid Times Square at all costs.  It's definitely dazzling the first couple of times you see it, but the longer you settle in this City and the more at home you begin to feel, the further away from Times Square you will want to be.

There are only two exceptions to this general rule that I can see.  One, is the idea of heading into Times Square for the ball drop on New Year's Eve.  Any New Yorker who raises this as a viable option for ringing in the new year obviously hates you.  Either that, or they have excellent connections at the NYPD and can get you through security barriers so you don't have to wait around for hours in the freezing cold without bathroom breaks.  Rare, but possible (and probably worth investigating).

The other exception that will bring New Yorkers into Times Square voluntarily is when they have tickets to a Broadway show.  This is what brought me into the trenches this past weekend - not once, but twice.

I had tickets to see matinee shows on Saturday ("No Man's Land") and Sunday ("Waiting for Godot"), which starred the same four-man cast, including the talented and very charming Sir Gandalf the Grey and Sir Jean-Luc Picard. It warrants saying that I would probably pay to watch these two larrikins read the phone book, so I'm probably not the most unbiased critic.  However, I will say that while I very much enjoyed the experience of watching the plays, I'm not 100% sure I totally understood them.  But who hasn't said that after a theater experience, right?

And being a bit befuddled after seeing a show in New York is totally fine, because you can always workshop the experience with friends afterwards, as I did in the bar at The Renaissance Hotel on Broadway.  Even if you're not a guest of the hotel, you definitely need to go there - especially towards nightfall.  Head into the hotel's lobby and take the little elevator to the right. You'll come out at the bar which has floor-to-ceiling windows and has a fantastic view over Times Square.  For the price of a glass of wine or cocktail, you can silently watch the craziness of the street below.  A treat for tourists and locals alike.

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere

The Apollo Theater is a giant music hall in Harlem built in 1913 as a burlesque theatre and a whites-only venue.  It traded under a different name until 1934, but when it became the Apollo, it opened its doors to black patrons too. 

In its early days, the Apollo primarily staged vaudeville-style shows, complete with a chorus line of dancing girls.  Over time though, such acts became less common and in the ‘swing’ era, the likes of Duke Ellington (whose music still features in the Christmas shows), Count Basie and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson headlined.  Sam Cook, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles followed and gospel and soul music filled the neighbourhood. 

These days many people visit the Apollo Theater on Monday evenings to attend Amateur Night, where a man with a broom (“The Executioner”) sweeps performers off the stage whenever the highly vocal and opinionated audience demands it.  

And the Apollo audience sure knows what it likes.  When an amateur Ella Fitzgerald first took the stage in 1934, the audience was sensible enough to love her – likewise when Jimi Hendrix won first place in his amateur music contest there thirty years later.  Other big names whose careers can be attributed to a start at the Apollo Theater include James Brown, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, and Mariah Carey.

The good kind of MSG

Madison Square Garden will be 135 years old in June 2014, but the giant arena that we know as “The Garden” today is really the fourth of its type in New York City.  

MSG 1.0 was actually built in Madison Square, about 8 blocks southwest of the current site.  

It was a roofless venue with seating for 10 thousand people, and staged circuses, dog shows, and flower competitions.  In the late 1880s, when professional cycling was all the rage in the United States, MSG was the most important velodrome in the country.  The Madison, the team event in track cycling (and featured in our modern summer Olympics) is named after the venue.  Incidentally, the Australian line dance to Nutbush City Limits is also called “The Madison”, but sadly it has no connection to MSG or New York.  Anyway, the absence of a roof made MSG 1.0 too hot in summer and too cold in winter, so it was demolished in June 1889.  

Version 2.0 (plus roof) was opened on the same site a year later.  Gala music performances, more circuses and one Democratic Convention were held here, before it too was demolished in 1926.  

Version 3.0 was built further uptown in Hell’s Kitchen, and is perhaps most famous for staging Marilyn’s breathy birthday serenade to JFK in 1962. 

Six years after that show-stopping performance, MSG 4.0 (the current Garden) was opened on the site above Penn Station on W34th Street.  MSG 4.0  has seating for 19,763 people.  Elton John has played The Garden sixty-five times, but Billy Joel still holds the ticket sales record, having performed 12 consecutive sell-out shows there in 2006, and he has residency there now.

And the winner is...?

The annual Tony Awards are named in honour of Antoinette Perry, an American actress, stage director and philanthropist.   Throughout her adult life, Perry was a fixture of New York’s theatre scene, a renowned perfectionist, and a consummate professional.  She passed away suddenly in 1946 at the height of her career, and the Tony Awards were launched a year later as the industry’s way to honour Perry’s memory and to celebrate distinguished achievement in theatre.  

Each year, for a three-year term, the Tony Awards Nominating Committee members have to sit through every Broadway production staged (even the dodgy ones).  Then they convene, immediately after the Tony eligibility deadline, and make their final nominations.

Swoon!  NYC loves Hugh.

Earlier this week the press announced that Australia's own Hugh Jackman will return to host the Tonys in 2014.  Hugh hasn't helmed the show since 2005, so we'll definitely need to tune in this year.