I was in NYC for a week for work recently. Here’s a rundown of how I spent my time. My parents came and visited for a few days and they certainly made the most of their time (including three trips to Century 21--poor Dad.).
We started the trip out with dinner at Patsy’s. It’s an Italian place that was Frank Sinatra’s favorite New York restaurant. Here’s a
really sweet story about what they did for him one Thanksgiving. My dad has always wanted to try the place and it was wonderful. I had the puttanesca and I wish I had some more right now.
Shows we saw:
Rock of Ages (again): I can’t get enough of it. Long live the 80s. Someone in the third row was taking photos during the show and she was hauled out by the ushers, so that was fun to see. Outside the theatre, dad was mistaken for one of the actors by a fan. She walked up to tell him what a wonderful job he had done. He corrected her mistake, but I think he should have autographed her Playbill and given her a thrill.
I also met Cameron from Modern Family outside the theater. I told him what a delight he is and I did the Casablanca piano hands move and he did it back to me. If you don’t love that show, you won’t know what I’m talking about, but believe me when I tell you it was totally cool.
Lend Me a Tenor: Hilarious hijinks with Tony Shaloub, Anthony LaPaglia, and that dude who got stuck on the roof in The Hangover. I howled with laughter. It also had the best curtain call I’ve ever seen. The entire cast sped through a repeat of the actions of play in thirty seconds.
A Behanding in Spokane: I saw this one on my own and it was awesome. I love the playwright (Martin McDonagh) and Christopher Walken was his usual awesome self. Some people find him frightening, but I think he’s darling and dear, even when he’s playing a hand-chopping psychopath.
Promises, Promises: Unbelievably, Sean Hayes upstaged the divine Kristin Chenoweth. He was so funny and charming, which you have to be to break the fourth wall, which he did the whole show. It was like a Mad Men episode: beautiful, colorful, soaked in gin and cigarette smoke, with philandering men in smart business suits and gorgeously dressed secretaries, all set to Burt Bacharach music. Yes, please!
Million Dollar Quartet: One December night in 1954 Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins showed up at Sun Records and had an impromptu jam session. You can see a recreation of it at the Nederlander Theater on 41st. (Fellow Rentheads, they gutted that theater and remodeled the inside so that it doesn’t so much resemble a crack house anymore. That was strange to see.) This show was awesome, lottery tickets are front row, and if you’re lucky you might catch Elvis’ scarf. This was a great way to end the trip. It’s one of those musicals that makes you dance all the way to the subway station. Early Tony prediction: Levi Kreis for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
I also paid a visit to the Frick museum, an art museum housed in Henry Clay Frick’s Upper East Side mansion. Henry was quite the collector and everyone should go see his gorgeous place. I knew he loved art, but I wasn’t prepared for the quality of the collection. There are Vermeers, Titians, El Grecos, Goyas, Velázquezes, and Rembrandts, as well as Limoges enamels and 18th century furnishings. But the thing that knocked me off my feet was when I walked into the living room and there, flanking the fireplace, were the Hans Holbein paintings of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. When I saw them, I swear I almost started crying. Then I looked around and thought to myself, “Should we have these?” (We, meaning “Americans.”) “Should these be here? Shouldn’t they be in England or Germany?” Then I stood in front of the 500 year-old masterpieces and just stared. I may have drooled a little. The Thomases scowl at each other across the fireplace like the sworn enemies they were, and it is something to see.
We also had dinner at The View, the rotating restaurant overlooking Times Square, and I discovered that I love halibut. And we went to Top of the Rock, the best view in the city.
On the way to Top of the Rock, we stopped to watch people cheering for Denzel Washington as he came out of the stage door at Fences. He was very gracious and signed lots of Playbills and waved to us on the other side of the street. A bunch of people were standing in the street trying to get photos of him (including my mom), and an NYPD cop bellowed, “Get BACK on the sidewalk or I will WRITE you a SUMMONS!” I wish I could describe the look of mortification on Mom’s face, but you’ll have to use your powers of imagination.
So that’s my week in a nutshell. The usual stuff was also done (cupcakes at Magnolia, shopping in SoHo, walking in the Park, pizza at John’s…) but you knew that. And for the first time I had to direct a taxi driver how to get me to my destination. Good thing I knew where I was going, because he certainly didn’t.
