Back from New York and into the loving arms of London. It seems like the holiday was over in a trice, no sooner get there than count down the days and try to fit as much in as possible. This was my least travelled trip around New York, with only one journey on the subway (to see Buffy), everything else being within a mile or two of the hotel and walkable. That might be why I ate so much. Endless food and lots of it. I soon walked it off. On my first morning I just had an omlette and coffee. That wasn't enough so breakfast became omlette and bagel. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper... and still wake up hungry the next day (greedy pig).
FoodO yes, lots of it, but not the enormous American portions you might expect. With the sad demise of the Art Cafe on Broadway (now a Duane Reed, and yes, I know that's spelt wrong) my official favourite diner is now The Red Flame Diner on West 44th near 6th Avenue. It was the staple for breakfasts (lovely omlettes) and for evening snacks (bagels and a smear, ie cream cheese).
Other eateries of note are the Pigalle restaurant on 9th Avenue, a visit there is mandatory, and the Chelsea Grill, also on 9th but higher up, and it serves draft Guinness and most delicious pasta sauce. Yum.
The Algonquin HotelWe stayed in the historic Algonquin Hotel on 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, the oldest hotel in New York. The rooms are small, as they are in most older hotels in the city, but the location is perfect and the lobby simply reeks of history - or that might be Matilda the fluffy gray cat who rules the roost. When we arrived, Euan Morton (who played Boy George in 'Taboo') was the cabaret turn in The Oak Room (tickets were $65 +$30 table charge, so he doesn't come cheap). Mind you, it served long JD & cokes in the lobby, along with a range of cocktails, which was most civilised.
The wallpaper upstairs was made up of newspaper cartoons featuring the Algonquin in some respect with witty quotes framed outside each room door. I didn't find any of them particularly funny but, hey, that's probably just me.
StreetsI've never seen a cop car chase like the one on Monday down 5th Avenue. About 20 cop cars with flashing lights and sirens speeding down the avenue, After a short break another troop of cars appeared, followed by another, all heading in the same direction. No idea what the trouble was or where, but it was a weird sight out of every New York cop show ever made.
Street scenes are fascinating, the noise of traffic (and occasionally the rattle of subway trains underfoot), the locals busy about their business and tourists everywhere. Wide streets and avenues with tall buildings either side, heavy shadows one side of the street and bright sunlight on the other. It rained, a light drizzle, for most of Monday, with the cloud so low that it hid the Empire State Building. I never used my iPod outside at all, much preferring the sound of the city to music.
Imagine having the money of Rockerfeller and just deciding to build a skyscraper and a plaza to set it off. The ice rink is still there with the shrieks of children whizzing round the plaza and a plastic-looking light fountain as a temporary art installation (I wasn't keen on it). And, of course, Radio City Music Hall next door.
And, of course, Times Square, one of the archetypal places of New York and America, all lights and busy-ness, endless streams of people and traffic with Broadway cutting through it.
So that's New York 2008 for me. All done.
Love Music Hate Racism is the current term for what, back in the olden days, was Rock Against Racism. It's 30 years since the Rock Against Racism/Anti-Nazi League march and festival in Victoria Park so Love Music Hate Racism is holding a celebratory carnival on 27 April to raise awareness again, presumably with the May elections in mind.
I didn't go on a spending spree while in New York but one thing I did get at the first opportunity was the new B52s album, 'Funplex', which isn't out here for another week or so.
Ending with a trip to Strawberry Fields on the west side, the John Lennon memorial garden, and the Imagine mosaic, haunt of tour groups clustering round it so I had to take a quick snap when it was mostly free.
My final Broadway show was 'Cry Baby', based on the John Waters film that starred a young Johnny Depp. It's still in preview so may well change before opening properly, and it probably needs to.
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to see 'Sunday In The Park With George' at Studio 54. This is the same production we saw at the Menier Chocolate Factory a year or so ago with Daniel Evans in the lead as Georges Seurat. We started off with brunch at Pigalle with Dezur and then wandered up to Studio 54 where I was told off for taking a photo of the ceiling.
graphics and the music is delicious. The story is quite simple, really, the tale of Seurat painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and some of the characters in the painting, such as Dot, the leading lady in the production who carries Georges' child, Marie, as she emigrates to America. The second act is about Georges' great grandson who is also an artist, stuck in a rut re-creating his masterpiece, who then goes to the Island in Paris and meets the ghost of his great grandmother and regains his creativity. For such a simple tale it's a very emotional piece and people talk of crying buckets throughout the production, which I can understand.
There are two bits that get me. One is when an aged Marie, sitting in a wheelchair, talks to her mother in the painting, all she has left of her mother other than an old grammar book she used to teach herself to read. And Marie dies. What a strange position that must be, where the only image of your mother is in a painting. The second is where great-grandson George talks to the ghost of his great-grandmother when he's at his lowest ebb and she, the muse for Georges Seurat, becomes his muse, inspires him and enthuses him for his art.
We went to see 'Gypsy' on Saturday night, a show Chris has been looking forward to and which only opened on Thursday, so we're seeing it on day three while the buzz is still around from opening night. You could almost feel the excitement in the theatre, especially amongst the more flamboyant gentlemen in the audience, and more especially those in the row behind us.
The production has scant scenery or props but it doesn't really need it since the music, the songs and the acting take us where we need to go, not bits 'n' bobs on stage. It was, as you'd expect, a very professional production. Patti LuPone gave excellent performances during her two big songs that closed each act and brought the house down and 'Rose's Turn' in particular, the final song of the show, gave us all what for in spades and the audience erupted into a five minutes standing ovation. I thought that was too much, especially since the show only has another few minutes to run after that song and we could all see Gypsy, the daughter, waiting to come on stage to begin the final short scene with her mother. It was almost selfish of the audience to keep her waiting, the audience seemingly wanting to be part of the experience of the show.
I liked Laura Benanti as Louise (who becomes Gypsy, the world famous stripper), the gawky daughter whose role in life is to make her sister look good on stage. When her sister runs away then it's Louise who gets the full power of Mama Rose's star-struck ambitions. I liked the way that Laura gradually moved Louise from the side to the centre stage and, during 'Let Me Entertain You' as she learns to strip, she visibly and audibly grew in confidence, a really good performance.
