We slept very late. Almost till 1:00. We were tired from the previous 2 days and the late night last night.
The day started with a text from a friend from Atlanta who was in town. She was on her way home about the same time we were starting our day. It would have been great to see her as we only see each other every so often.
Next up was bagels, at The Bagel Bar down the street. They were delicious.
Then we rushed up town to see Dog Day Afternoon. The reviews had been mediocre at best, and it was one of the last shows we plotted for our trip. We didn’t have high hopes, but we were pleasantly surprised. We enjoyed it a lot. The performances were great and the design was amazing. It’s been years since I’ve seen the movie so I’m anxious to get home and give it a watch to see if it’s as funny as the show today was. We were both very happy to have included it in our list.
We had dinner at Gallagher’s. A must when we come to NYC. We always get the crab cake and the carpaccio. Tonight, we shared entrees and had a small bottle of wine. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours before we moved on to our evening show. (However, for the first time ever, Stu the bartender was not tending bar. We see him every time we go).
Of course, we had to walk from 52nd street to 41st street, so we couldn’t walk by The Rum House without stopping in for a pre-dinner cocktail and to see our friend John. We disappointed to learn after many years he has moved on. We had great service, but it was not the same. And he always remembered us.
We finished the evening with Schmigadoon. It’s the stage version of the TV show from years ago. I actually had to push to get Adam to put it on the list because he was convinced it would be meh. I was excited because it is based on the big dance shows of the 40’s and 50’s and I LOVE a musical with big dance numbers. I turned out to be right. The show is a must see if you like musicals. The performances were great. The design is great. And the songs are toe tapping good. And if you happen to be a musical theater fan there are so many throw backs to all of the shows of yesteryear. Samples of melodies. Jokes that harken back to the shows. And characters that play on the characters from these musicals. Billy Bigelow. Gertie Cummins. The Barroness from the Sound of Music. The audience might have been the best part of the show. They were on board the minute the show started and stayed right there till the last chord of music. It was so good.
We are batting a 1,000 so far with our selections.
We called it an evening early. I’m sitting in my underwear, drinking a soda water, typing while Adam is in the shower. We are going to watch some TV and read the Facebook so we can do Day 3 tomorrow.
It’s the last week of April, which could only mean one thing. Adam and I are in New York. We actually left early and drove to Wallingford, Connecticut. It’s about 3 hours into the drive. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn there.
This caused the first argument of the drive because, when Adam got sleepy while driving, we traded places and he hooked up my phone to the car. I, however, had only put in Wallingford, to see how long it took to get there, NOT the actual address of the hotel. We figured this out when we didn’t get to the hotel with the directions. It was only a couple of miles out of the way, but it was late.
We got up early this a.m. and drove the rest of the way, making great time. We were in NYC a few blocks from our hotel by 11:30.
But.
Fun fact. You could not drive east on any cross street south of 34th street today. They were all blocked off. So, we could not in fact drive to our hotel. We finally managed to get close on 6th Avenue, and we parked illegally, while Adam took our bags in and checked us in early. Then we parked the car, and finished getting the rest of our things in our hotel.
Once again, we are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn. Not fancy, but we don’t spend a lot of time in the room. But it is clean, but small, and the a/c works which is always great.
On the way back down to the lobby, we were joined in the elevator by two 20ish guys. They are hucking it up about whether a girl becomes your girlfriend if you spend the night at her house. They were being loud and we were trying to ignore them, when one of them says, Hey. Let’s ask these guys. So he says, “if this dude here spent the night last night at a girl’s house, does that make her his girlfriend.” Without a beat, I said, only if you are a lesbian. They cackled and wouldn’t let it drop. The friend said, I told you. She’s your girlfriend now. As we got out of the elevator I said, let us know where you register for the wedding and we’ll buy you some China. And they started laughing again.
And we were off.
It was raining as we left, so we hustled to the subway. Uptown to Times Square for a snack.
At least once during our NYC trips we stop at Los Tacos No. 1. The line is long but moves fast. The food is delicious. And you can be in and out in no time.
Then we headed around the corner to our first show of the week.
Becky Shaw.
I had no idea what it was about. All I knew was that Jeanine from Handmaid’s Tale was in it. The show was excellent. So funny. And the set had lots of surprises.
The show came down at 4:30 and we ran in the rain to up the street to see Every Brilliant Thing. It was so moving. And sweet. And how they pull off the logistics of audience participation is amazing. I have to admit that I had tears in my eyes for the last 20 minutes of the show. It is a one man show, and Daniel Radcliffe commanded the stage even before the show opened. The audience participants were amazing when being put on the spot.
The 10,000th brilliant thing is “waking up late, with someone you love.”
And then, we had to move it back to the subway to get downtown for our next show.
First though, Adam needed a snack so we stopped for pizza at Two Boots. I hadn’t eaten at Two Boots in at least 25 years. It was perfect for what we needed.
Adam had suggested that since we had about 50 minutes before the show we should stop in Ty’s, a gay bar for a drink. I had not been in Ty’s since the early 2000’s. It has not changed much except that they take credit cards now. The clientele has not changed either. The same men who were going there in the 20’s are now going there in their 60’s. Adam was by far the youngest man in the bar.
Neither of us are “bar” people. At one point Adam leans over and says that he’d forgotten that at bars people just walk up and talk to you. This is after we met a very nice lady named Candy. She moved on, and someone asked if they could stand and share our table. We said of course. We were one and done, and so Adam ran to the restroom while I waited and while Adam was gone the man who had joined us asked, “Are you all going to the Eagle tonight?” I said, I don’t think so, and he replied, well that’s too bad I’d have like to have seen you both naked later.
I thanked him for the compliment and said that we had tickets to the Ken Rex across the street and had to go.
Adam commented that it was the second time I’d been hit on in the past two weeks.
Ken Rex is a one man show, about a true crime in Kansas in the early 80’s. It is a play with live music accompaniment and is very tech heavy. And I thought it was great.
I have to admit that I didn’t know much about any of the play we saw before seeing them today, but so far, we are 3 out of 3 for winners.
The night ended with dinner at a French Restaurant across town called L’Express. It is open late and worked great for having dinner after our show. We were seated next to a couple, who was soon joined by friends, because they’d just flown home from Paris where they had gotten engaged. The ring was a brick.
Now we are home and Adam is in the shower.
Today at the first show, the woman sitting next to us had the best cat shirt on with big black cats all over it. Adam complimented her.
At Ken Rex, the woman in front of us had the best purse and Adam asked if he could take a photo of it for someone at work. I’m glad he did, because while he was using the restroom at intermission, she pulled a burrito out of the purse and ate dinner.
Oh. The times they are a changing.
PS. Today is the one year anniversary of Adam giving me a pre-engagement, engagement ring.
I learned of this hymn when I played Simon Stimson in Thorton Wilder’s Our Town in high school.
I think back on all the plays that I made my parents sit through. Oklahoma. Twice. Midsummer’s Night Dream. The Oresteia. The Nutcracker. Romeo and Juliet. Carmen with scaffolding.
I also think back to how many of these shows were two plus hours longer than they needed to be. I can’t imagine anything more painful, than watching high schoolers perform Our Town in a cafetorium.
I can say, however, that all the kids involved had a blast. I formed one of my closest high school friendships with the girl who played Mrs. Webb, who’d never been in a play before. In fact, the following year she wrecked my car, while we were on our way to the midnight showing of Rocky Horror. For only $1.
Good or bad, I always enjoyed being a part of the process. Theater builds friendships and relationships, unlike anything else I’ve ever participated in. It requires you to reveal parts of yourself that might otherwise go unnoticed. Or you might not otherwise want shared. I think it’s why so many LGBTQ kids end up joining the drama club. Even as a designer, you make relationships that are strong and weird. I believe the only thing that comes close to matching these relationships are restaurant relationships, which also might explain why theater people end up waiting tables. Teching a show is akin to working Sunday brunch hungover.
Back to Simon Stimson.
He was the choir director and organist at the local Grover’s Corner Congregational Church. He was also a troubled alcoholic. And it’s thought that he might be a closeted homosexual. He ends up in Act 3 because he committed suicide, becoming a resident of the cemetery.
I can assure you that we did NOT discuss any of this in my high school production. I was taught how to conduct in 4/4 time. I was told to stumble across the stage as if I was drunk. I’d never been drunk so I mimicked Otis Campbell from Andy Griffith. I don’t think they were the same kind of drunk, and definitely not for the same reasons.
I also remember being terrible bored in the third act. I had six lines and then I was supposed to be interested in the rest of the action. I remember getting sleepy. Whoops. I might have stayed awake if I’d known I was a tormented homosexual, who could play the organ. HEHE.
As I type this, I realize it’s not the only time I was forced to “act” in a cemetery. I was also in a college production of Spoon River Anthology, a play with music. I sat on a stump. I had five or six monologues. I don’t think I was gay in any of them. I do know that by then I was a serious “actor” so I didn’t get sleepy. Instead, I focused on my next lines. I remember one night not being able to remember the Latin phrase at the end of one of my monologues. I got up and said the lines, and wouldn’t you know, it slipped out, just like I had rehearsed it. Crisis averted. Although I didn’t get sleepy in this performance, I’m sure my parents counted the minutes till curtain call.
The last play that my mother saw that I worked on was Twilight of the Golds. I designed this show in San Diego, a week before I graduated from UCSD with my MFA in lighting design. It was playing when my mother and my brother flew out for my graduation. I had dinner with my friends who were there, and then I’d bought tickets for 12 of us to see the show. I didn’t really think about the subject matter until I was sitting in my chair waiting for the show to start.
I have no idea what my mother thought about this show. In 2006, I had not told her I was gay. I was 41. I’m sure she knew. But I had never discussed it with her. The show started. The drama happened. The show came down. The design of the show was nice. And I was proud to have my friends see it. At least it wasn’t in a cafetorium.
I have no idea where I’m going with this story. I just got off the phone with one my bestest friends from Kentucky, Trish Clark, who I did a million shows with. Which sent me down memory lane. She’s definitely one of those relationships that changed my life because we did theater together.
I have many of these friends. These friendships are those that you pick right up with, when you haven’t spoken in 20 years. There are so too many to count. They are the foundation of who I am at 61. In so many different segments of my life. High School. Grad School at UK. Grad School at CCM. Teaching at SCPA. Grad School at UCSD. Freelance at LOOK, City Theater, KOTH, and in NYC.
I really count myself lucky that I have had so many lifetimes. Once again too many too count. What’s really awesome is that my new job, would allow me to do theater in the off season. I’m really excited about the thought of designing a show next winter locally. Who knows, I may ask my local friends to come see a three hour production of King Lear, in a community production.
And you better show up.
Blest be the tides that bind.
The official hymn of theater folk.
My prompt was necktie. I may have gone a little off track.
I’d like to speak to the manager!!!
Blest be the tie that binds.
Our hearts in Christian love.
I learned of this hymn when I played Simon Stimson in Thorton Wilder’s Our Town in high school.
I think back on all the plays that I made my parents sit through. Oklahoma. Twice. Midsummer’s Night Dream. The Oresteia. The Nutcracker. Romeo and Juliet. Carmen with scaffolding.
I also think back to how many of these shows were two plus hours longer than they needed to be. I can’t imagine anything more painful, than watching high schoolers perform Our Town in a cafetorium.
I can say, however, that all the kids involved had a blast. I formed one of my closest high school friendships with the girl who played Mrs. Webb, who’d never been in a play before. In fact, the following year she wrecked my car, while we were on our way to the midnight showing of Rocky Horror. For only $1.
Good or bad, I always enjoyed being a part of the process. Theater builds friendships and relationships, unlike anything else I’ve ever participated in. It requires you to reveal parts of yourself that might otherwise go unnoticed. Or you might not otherwise want shared. I think it’s why so many LGBTQ kids end up joining the drama club. Even as a designer, you make relationships that are strong and weird. I believe the only thing that comes close to matching these relationships are restaurant relationships, which also might explain why theater people end up waiting tables. Teching a show is akin to working Sunday brunch hungover.
Back to Simon Stimson.
He was the choir director and organist at the local Grover’s Corner Congregational Church. He was also a troubled alcoholic. And it’s thought that he might be a closeted homosexual. He ends up in Act 3 because he committed suicide, becoming a resident of the cemetery.
I can assure you that we did NOT discuss any of this in my high school production. I was taught how to conduct in 4/4 time. I was told to stumble across the stage as if I was drunk. I’d never been drunk so I mimicked Otis Campbell from Andy Griffith. I don’t think they were the same kind of drunk, and definitely not for the same reasons.
I also remember being terrible bored in the third act. I had six lines and then I was supposed to be interested in the rest of the action. I remember getting sleepy. Whoops. I might have stayed awake if I’d known I was a tormented homosexual, who could play the organ. HEHE.
As I type this, I realize it’s not the only time I was forced to “act” in a cemetery. I was also in a college production of Spoon River Anthology, a play with music. I sat on a stump. I had five or six monologues. I don’t think I was gay in any of them. I do know that by then I was a serious “actor” so I didn’t get sleepy. Instead, I focused on my next lines. I remember one night not being able to remember the Latin phrase at the end of one of my monologues. I got up and said the lines, and wouldn’t you know, it slipped out, just like I had rehearsed it. Crisis averted. Although I didn’t get sleepy in this performance, I’m sure my parents counted the minutes till curtain call.
The last play that my mother saw that I worked on was Twilight of the Golds. I designed this show in San Diego, a week before I graduated from UCSD with my MFA in lighting design. It was playing when my mother and my brother flew out for my graduation. I had dinner with my friends who were there, and then I’d bought tickets for 12 of us to see the show. I didn’t really think about the subject matter until I was sitting in my chair waiting for the show to start.
I have no idea what my mother thought about this show. In 2006, I had not told her I was gay. I was 41. I’m sure she knew. But I had never discussed it with her. The show started. The drama happened. The show came down. The design of the show was nice. And I was proud to have my friends see it. At least it wasn’t in a cafetorium.
I have no idea where I’m going with this story. I just got off the phone with one my bestest friends from Kentucky, Trish Clark, who I did a million shows with. Which sent me down memory lane. She’s definitely one of those relationships that changed my life because we did theater together.
I have many of these friends. These friendships are those that you pick right up with, when you haven’t spoken in 20 years. There are so too many to count. They are the foundation of who I am at 61. In so many different segments of my life. High School. Grad School at UK. Grad School at CCM. Teaching at SCPA. Grad School at UCSD. Freelance at LOOK, City Theater, KOTH, and in NYC.
I really count myself lucky that I have had so many lifetimes. Once again too many too count. What’s really awesome is that my new job, would allow me to do theater in the off season. I’m really excited about the thought of designing a show next winter locally. Who knows, I may ask my local friends to come see a three hour production of King Lear, in a community production.
And you better show up.
Blest be the tides that bind.
The official hymn of theater folk.
My prompt was necktie. I may have gone a little off track.
I'd Like to Speak to the Manager!!! 