Words Fail Jake Gyllenhaal

Or so says the NYT.  We found he handled them quite well.

As for the four day weekend, I could get used to this.

In 1927 the entire cast (all 57) of the Mae West production The Pleasure Man was arrested for indecency between the first and second act

On our final day SS braved the cold  (-10C) for Starbucks and upon his return we sat in our hotel room reading the Sunday New York Times which is just about as perfect a Sunday morning as you can get.  And when all is said and done a maid tidies up.

We did not engage in vigorous exercise, but instead took lunch at Parker and Quinn, off the lobby.  Checked out and left our bags then headed up to see Constellations.  The wind chill was a killer!  The play we choose to bookmark our vac is a short, intellectual contemplation between a beekeeper and a physicist.  The review in the Times is pretty much spot on, so rather than regurgitate, here is the link. 

The Biltmore.  Burnt out and decrepit at the turn of the century

A famous play in its day

Constellations is showing just north of the Times Square hubbub at the Samuel J Friedman Theatre.  It started life in the 1920s as The Biltmore.  Mae West's play Pleasure Man opened here for one night; the cast was arrested.  It was edited to appease morale of the day, but during the matinee the following day the cast was re-arrested.  Which I guess is ironic given that the longest running show in the theatre was Hair, its 1700 plus performances topping out Neil Simon's (Mike Nichols directed, Robert Redford starred) Barefoot in the Park which capped just over 1500.  Wikipedia has a reference to the nude scene in Hair, which was so short and dimly lit that Jack Benny once quipped "Did you happen to notice if any of them were Jewish?"  I guess the most famous thing about the original cast is/was Diane Keaton, who refused to take her clothes off.  As with many things in Times Square, the mid-20th century took its toll.  Opened and closed a couple of times as a theatre and cinema until a fire lit in the 1980s, set by vandals, kept it shut for 14 years.  The Manhattan Theatre Club subsequently renovated, to a tune of $35 million, and renamed the venue.  This is a hugely successful renovation on so many levels but particularly in the phenomenal sight lines, exit corridors, welcoming foyers and exceptional acoustics.  Somehow, though, Biltmore is just so much more Broadway; SFJ sounds like a disease wing at private hospital.

The SJF neè Biltmore renovated; just a glossy $35m re-do

Just ordinary people, like us

I expected Constellations to be a cerebral tour-de-force in the style of Art by Yasmina Reza, but in fact once you got past Jake G doing an English accent (quite believably; a guest commented in the lobby that he did an accent better than Ruth, not realizing Ruth is English) it was immediately captivating and weirdly emotional. 

After the play we went to Macys where we scored a sweet deal on 600 thread count sheets.  The theatre, the shopping.  Then we retrieved our bags and headed out to JFK.  Our 9 p.m. flight was held up several times due to late arrival of the previous aircraft, etc., etc., but given the myriad wind delays, the potential for snow delays, and all the other weather havoc, we were both happy to be airborne at all.  We had the very nice CP business class pods on the way home but there was both a crying baby in front of SS and a ten year old behind me. Ah, the HK wealthy.  The dinner (a salmon salad, lamb chops, cheese course) was not picture worthy.  We both got about an hour shuteye before deplaning at YVR a little bleary eyed.

Another trip down...

A Delicate Balance on The Twentieth Century

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pier-ing across to Jersey

We scheduled four sessions of sitting for today so first thing we headed out to the High Line, the re-purposed elevated spur of an old railway, now a 2.5 km park, for a winter walkathon .  It was cold, but not blustery, so slightly better than yesterday; it was no surprise only tourists and joggers were braving the terrain.  We started at the grim and gritty 34th Street end, walking south to14th.  Then we cut across the rim of the West Village and back up Avenue of the Americas. We passed the church that became a club called Limelight thirty years ago which brought back a few old memories. 



For lunch, or brunch such as it was, we went two doors down to the Archer Hotel where chef David Burke has a Memphis glam reminiscent outpost called Fabrick which is a play on words that nobody gets.  Sort of like Memphis was.  Burke is frequently on chef shows, a (losing) competitor on Top Chef Masters; his food always looked incredibly appetizing but never with the neurotic flair of too many swooshes and tweezer laden edible flowers.  Sorry David, you've been chopped.  (Forgive me for too many foodie mixed metaphors.  Call me the mix master.  Ouch...)  I would write that the food was amazing but in fact it was just competent; some French toast bites, deep fried with a caramel sauce were, however, suitably decadent.


Side of bacon at the next table.  A little too cheffy

Post brunch we headed up to the John Golden to see Glenn Close, John Lithgow, Bob Balaban, Lindsay Duncan, Clare Higgins and Martha Plimpton in Albee's A Delicate Balance.

The Masque at birth

 

 

 

 

The John Golden began life as the Theatre Masque in 1927, but was sold to the eponymous John who renamed it in his own honour, now part of the mega Shubert organization.  Recently, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones did a revival of Driving Miss Daisy.  Not so recently, Beyond the Fringe did a two year stint (back in the 60s).  And the late Mike Nichols did a year there at the beginning of his career with his then comedy partner Elaine May.  A play called Angel Street with Vincent Price did a three year run here back in the 40s.

The John Golden renovated





Yes there really is an accordion in one scene

The set, the unbelievable, towering, impressive, inspiring and appropriate set, was by Santo Loquasto, who (to date) has worked on 28 Woody Allen movies.  We both found the play funnier, more poignant and not as dated as we expected, although any drawing room drama written in 1966 and presented as contemporary is going to look a smidge out of touch.  Clare Higgins, in a minor role as the neighbour, more or less stole the show, while her husband, Bob Balaban (the NBC exec on Seinfeld who was infatuated with Elaine) seemed to be jettisoned in by accident.  But I think most people show up having fallen in love with Close in Fatal Attraction; Ann Roth dressed her up in suitably draping elegance.  I heard the security guard in the lobby complaining about his job, noting to a colleague "I'm sick of this stupid play and I'm sick of its two stupid intermissions," which made me laugh.  I mean you don't get a bonus for "working" a second intermission.

 

 

 

After our matinee (it was snowing.  Snow day!  Big wet flakes that dripped down your hair but didn't amount to anything on the ground) we walked over to DB Bistro.  Midtown isn't the best place to dine on the planet; if you've never read the NYT review of Guy Fieri's place, it's very funny but to the point. My favorite line is "Did you notice that the menu is an unreliable predictor of what actually came to the table?"  Check it out.  So given the options geared toward the tourist traffic, and the fact that every restaurateur wants nothing more than to turn tables on V Day, I think we did pretty well to get a decent prix fixe pre-theatre (er, sorry, theater) dinner.  They even threw together some fruit for SS as a dessert sub.

A beautiful Valentine's dessert at DB Bistro

 

Off to a musical at eight. The American Airlines Theatre aka Selwyn Theatre opened in 1925.  Played Kaufman/Ferber's The Royal Family as well as Design For Living, and a few other plays that have lived on into revival history, but in the mid-30s became a cinema.  Showed a couple of plays in the late 40s but then became, mainly, a seedy Times Square all-nighter with its share of drunks, addicts, insomniacs and so forth. 

The Selwyn Theatre, 1990, pre-reno

This century, $8 million in renos later, it opened as the American Airlines Theatre.  It is a relatively big house, but wide and squat and about as intimate as you can get for a 740 seater.  We had tickets for the first Broadway revival of On The Twentieth Century (since Madeline Kahn made the debut, infamously walking away from the production after only nine weeks).  Interestingly, Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche appeared in the play, Twentieth Century, from Macarthur and Hecht's script of the movie, which starred Barrymore and Lombard, in 2000.  Brian Bedford did his infamous Lady Bracknell here too.  And last time we were in New York we saw the Odets' revival of The Big Knife with Bobby Cannavale and an awesome character performance from Richard Kind (George Clooney's pre-fame best buddy aka for his long run on Spin City).

 

We loved it.  So did, it seemed, the ultra enthusiastic crowd.  The production was over the top glam and glitz replete with an entire cast wardrobe change just for the final scene, the whole cast exceptional, Kristin Chenoweth hysterical, and start to finish very, very funny.  But will it play to Ohio?  When you see Phantom (the longest running Broadway show in history) queued up a block away, you wonder who will come for a musical comedy that is half operetta, mixes slapstick, farce and dancing shtick all in reference to 1930s screwball comedies?

 

It wasn't snowing on the way back to the hotel.  A balmy 1 or 2 degrees C.  We navigated the Broadway hordes back to the Refinery.

Hotel hallway art, three dimensional collage

 

 

 

 

 

A Helluva Town

Helluva, used on Broadway, was changed to "wonderful" for the movie as Comden and Green's lyric was too racy for Hollywood.  New York is many spectacular and awe-inspiring things, but, truthfully, wonderful "honk honk" isn't one of them.  Still, where better for a quick weekend away On the Town?  SS got a nice Valentine's gift.  Or so it seemed.  Our near private bulkhead deuce at the front of economy disappeared mysteriously the day before departure.  AC switched the aircraft.  I phoned (24 minutes on hold) to ask why (7 minutes on hold for staff to ask the help desk).  No one knew.  So, so much for paying for premium seats.  Thanks AC, voted best airline in North America something like five years in a row.

 

Lower Manhattan from the plane upon descent to LGA

We had a smooth leg to YYZ where the snow on the ground looked ominous, connected through the new crazy-ass CDN to US system where you wait in a lounge for your name to appear on a reader board before joining an enormous US Customs queue (thank goodness for Nexus) and the last hour, in the back row of an old 34 row Embraer, was rocky at best.  A cryptic figure eight descent took us twice past the Statue of Liberty before landing at LGA.  I will not weigh in on the 80 mph cab ride near death swerve entering the Queens Midtown tunnel.

 

We checked in to the year old Refinery Hotel, a renovated millinery in what remains of the garment district.  This is the first time we’ve ever had “front” windows in a NYC hotel, which is novel in a way.  The Empire State Building hovers a couple of blocks away.

 

Despite the cold, we walked ten blocks south to the Nomad which has a wonderful bar restaurant on 28^th.  On the way back we reacquainted ourselves with an east coast winter specialty: Wind chill.

 

Friday dawned a beautiful day.  But traffic also let us know it was time to rise and shine.  Few sirens too.  We had coffee in the room then suited up with scarves and gloves (and, glorious thermal socks).  Walked over the Grand Central and caught the IRT express to 86^th.  Forty blocks in seven minutes; match that Skytrain.  Then an exceedingly brisk walk to the Met. 

 

It’s been near two decades since I’d made the trek.  Still a glorious outpost for cultural significance.  When you need to look at art three or four millennia old, this should be your first stop.

 

Egyptian wooden sculpture, 2000 BC, brewery and bakery

 

Gold Gazelle on a headband

 

Mirrors.  Such as they are.

 

 

Roof of a Papua New Guinea traditional home

Papua New Guinea statues in the Oceania hall

 

 

Cameroon Royal Couple

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three hours later we made our ways back to the Herald Square Macys which has a wonderful outpost on the seventh floor called Stella: www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/16/tables-two-20

 

Afterwards we did something uniquely NY by traipsing through the design center at 200 Lexington, which is, essentially, an outpost for the trade, dozens of brands with boutiques for furniture, lighting, antiques and such.  The whole tenth floor is 1^st Dibs, if anyone is crazy enough to get their enticing email blasts (which I do, and drool over their multitude of over priced original artifacts).  $7000 tray anyone?  It reminded me of Woody Allen’s Alice when Julie Kavner, an interior decorator, arrives with an eel trap which she recommends could be used as a lamp shade, or a vase, and adds “It’s a steal at $9,000.”

 

Prison shank collection.  I kid you not.  $3400.



Fornasetti dog umbrella stands.  Doberman and collie here, boxer and German shepherd also available.  From $6300 to $9000.  I am not making this up....

We headed back to the Refinery for some pre-dinner R&R.

 

I phoned Batard to make a dinner reservation six weeks before our visit; they wouldn't take reservations until one month out. I called one month out; 5:30 or 10.  We went to Brooklyn instead.

 

Dinner was at Delaware and Hudson, a surprise in the One Michelin Star category earlier this year in NYC.  Although in Brooklyn it was actually an easier subway journey than the upper east side, south to 14 then under the river to Bedford.  Signs of the "storm of the century," not, still dotted the curbs.  I’ve only ever been to Brooklyn three times, tops, and each time the changes are uber profound.  Williamsburg in particular has the feel of what made Toronto interesting in the 80s. 

 

D&H has a sorta set menu where you choose a main, but you share tapas starters, then there is a small first course, then after a main there is dessert and house made chocolates.  $54 per; not bad considering a slider hamburger at the Nomad was $18.  The chef's grandfather worked for the D&H railway, which linked NY with Montreal.  It ran as the oldest independently owned railway until sold to CPR in 1991.  Anyway...  The starters included a borscht with dill and crème fraiche, a spaghetti squash slaw, home-made pretzel bread, blue fish pate (superb), lamb meatballs and fried Maine sardines.  The first course was a ricotta ravioli with a Virginia ham and Swiss chard.  For mains I had a snapper on cauliflower puree with tiny baby Brussels sprouts; SS had a winter vegetable hash.  For dessert they gave SS cheese, I had a shoefly pie on crème anglaise with a warm chocolate fondant.  The chocolates were exquisite, SS even had a salted caramel.  All hell breaks loose in NYC!  It is a helluva town...

 

We have something of a view with the ESB not too distant.  But what is wonderfully NY is that the ESB at night, through our hotel room window, transitions through colours and hues.