A City of the Dead

I spent a good part of Memorial Day at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, as these picture will attest. Huge by any standard, the Green-Wood Cemetery comprises 478 acres, compared to Central Park's 843 acres. According to a map published by Green-Wood, there are typically, 7-9 funerals performed at the cemetery each day. Among the famous buried here were Currier & Ives, the Brooks Brothers, Boss Tweed, Charles Tiffany and Leonard Bernstein. But as in life, the names of most of Green-Wood's permanent residents go unremembered.

As one walks through this necropolis, one cannot help but to philosophize a bit, to think of the tens of thousands buried here, the tens of millions buried somewhere on the face of this earth, all of those who have gone before us. The silence, the wind, the monuments to lives long forgotten, the parents who outlived their children, the soldiers who died in war. These are our brothers and sisters, our family and friends. Be good to each other, bear witness, listen, appreciate and most of all remember.

Broadway Serendipity

Fred and I went to the theater last night and saw the much talked about Mary Stuart at the Broadhurst on 44th. It received 7 Tony nominations, including nods to both lead actresses, Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter. While I can't say I loved it--at nearly three hours, it was overly long-- I can say that the performances from Ms McTeer and Ms Walter were electrifying. After the play, which ended at 11:00, we decided to pick up a bite to eat. Right across the street was a restaurant we had eaten at before, so we decided to grab something there. A sign outside the restaurant noted that they featured an "under $10" menu after 10:00pm.

We were seated promptly in the back of the restaurant, and had placed our orders, who should walk in, but Janet McTeer! It was only minutes after the performance had ended, so she must have hurried to get there.

(Now, those of you who have known me a while have probably heard the story of another evening back in April of 2008 when I had the good luck to visit New York and see the amazing Pattie Lupone in Gypsy (A tony winner!) and Patrick Stewart in Macbeth. After enjoying the latter's performance, we had the good fortune to dine in a restaurant where both Ms. Lupone and Mr. Stewart had also elected to dine that evening. And now, a form of fortuitous lightning had struck again and Ms McTeer entered the restaurant.)

But this is not the end of the story. Only moments later, in walks Geoffrey Rush, who I had seen in Exit the King, two weeks before. Another electrifying performance and another Tony nomination! I could not believe our good fortune! Mr. Rush was seated two tables away and once other diners had kindly departed, I had an unhindered view of this Oscar winning actor.

Next to enter the restaurant, and next to add to our galaxy of Broadway celebrities and fellow diners was Mary Testa, who we had seen in Xanadu in October of 2007! She is currently appearing in a revival of Guys and Dolls. She sat at the table next to us. Such wonderful energy, such a lovely smile.

Soon though, it was getting late, and our celebrities departed one by one, like stars vanishing from an early morning sky, and we too elected to depart. Another serendipitous Broadway evening to be remembered always.

For Those of You Who May be Missing this Shana Punim!

Shana Punim means Beautiful Face in Yiddish.

An Extraordinary Experience on This Extraordinary Journey

Only a fifteen minute walk from my apartment is a wonderful theater called Symphony Space. Each year, they produce a show, or should I say marathon of musical theater, called Wall-to-Wall Broadway. Some years they feature the works of one specific composer. Other years, like this year, they cover a wider spectrum of Broadway Musical Theater. But every year, one can be assured of twelve hours, that's right, twelve hours of extraordinary, bordering on sublime musical theater! And all of Wall-to-Wall Broadway is free!!!

Even the most ardent of musical theater fans is unlikely to be able to sit through the entire performance, but I did my best. In total I saw approximately 8 hours of the show. I'm not going to list every song or every performer for you would be likely to fall asleep before I was done, I would likely end up with a bad case of writer's cramp. Anyway, here are the highlights:

• "The Wizard and I" from Wicked, performed by Chelsea Krombach. I have yet to see this long-lived show, but want to more than ever, after Ms. Krombach's performance.

• This was followed by an hour of songs that had been dropped from shows before they made it to Broadway. Two songs from Gypsy, titled "Nice She Ain't" and "Mama's Talkin' Soft", along with a song from Cabaret, titled "I Don't Care Much", stood out among these.

• But it was Doug Kreeger's performance of "Being Alive" from Company that first brought me to my feet. What a voice! What a song!

• An hour long interview with producer and director Harold Prince was fascinating and really drove home for me the time, work and money involved in bringing a show to Broadway.

• Songs from yet to be produced shows were compelling. Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler performed a song from the musical version of Ever After, that was enchanting, along with a couple of other delightful tunes. Also to look forward to: The Kid, based on the book by Dan Savage. Book by Michael Zam, Music by Andy Monroe and Lyrics by Jack Lethner.

• Rebecca Luker from Mary Poppins sang "Embraceable You", Andrew Smonsky from South Pacific sang "Younger than Springtime" Michael Cerveris sang "Pinball Wizard". Later, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of In the Heights, was interviewed by Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof. Miranda went on to perform a rap version of "Tradition" which required audience participation. It was incredible!

Then the orchestra came on stage. Every song and performance was pure magic. The best among the best included:

• "September Song" performed by George S Irving, who appeared in the original production of Oklahoma back in 1943! In his 80s and still going strong!
  

• "Soliloquy" from Carousel performed by Brian Stokes Mitchell was another show stopper. As many of you know, Carousel does it for me, and when I saw Mr. Mitchell perform "Soliloquy" my breath was literally taken away.
  

• "Zip" from Pal Joey performed by the amazing Martha Plimpton.
  

• "Coconut Girl" from The Girl Who Came to Supper was performed by B.D. Wong. What can I say? It was surreal.
  

• Julie Wilson performed "Can That Boy Foxtrot!" from Follies. What a charmer!
  

• Kate Baldwin performed "How Are Things in Glocca Mora" from Finian's Rainbow. Another favorite of mine.
  

• Debbie Gravitte performed "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl. What a talent!

And I have mentioned but a few. As you can well imagine, it was quite a day & night! (and you wondered why I moved to New York!)

Through the Window on a Cloudy Day

Three Images:

The first is my window itself, the second the view to the right, and the third, the view to the left.

You may be wondering what that big white contraption is on the window. Because my apartment has a fire escape, it may be more easily burgled. I am able to keep the window open and not worry about break-ins because of it.