For some reason, I had a whole summer's worth of stuff last week. It was busy and fun, but boy am I tired now! So this will be a rather long post, sorry. To start the fun, last Tuesday, a friend kindly offered me her dress rehearsal tickets for the last show in the new Encores Off Center series, I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road. I'm only going to offer a few thoughts; one, because I saw a dress rehearsal, and two, because I know the authors and love them, which makes me less than objective. As usual. :)
I knew the story of I'm Getting My Act Together..., and a couple of the songs, but I'd never actually seen a production before. Even so, I have to say I think the show itself holds up pretty well, which is a good and bad thing. The musical comes from a feminist place of self-empowerment and it's a bit sad to see that some things haven't changed in 35 years. But the score and a lot of the jokes are just as fresh today as I'm sure they were in 1978.
I've been a fan of Renee Elise Goldsberry for some time and her performance in I'm Getting My Act Together... was another lovely one (the photo at left is by Joan Marcus - standard disclaimer applies). She has a sweet presence, with a steely determination underneath. And she sings like a dream. She sings most of the songs in the 90 minute/intermissionless musical and she sounded as strong in the last as she did in the first. The cabaret standard, "Old Friend," was simply stunning, and I was also very taken with "Dear Tom," which was new to me. But I enjoyed the entire score and wish I remembered where my cast album (yes, really an album!) resides.
The rest of the cast was also quite good. They seemed a tad underrehearsed in the book scenes, but since I saw a dress rehearsal, not a problem. The songs are the stars and they shone. The physical production was fun (great wigs!), but I had a few directorial quibbles, though they also were minor. So I hope to see another production again someday. The musical is very much a product of its time, but is still worth seeing today, to see how far women have, and haven't, come. Like, say, for example, seeing a show composed by a woman, with book and lyrics by a woman, with a strong female leading character, and directed by a woman. It's shameful that we're still an anomaly when it comes to these things...
Wednesday afternoon, I went to see a NYMF production, Castle Walk. I didn't know anyone involved in the piece, but because it was about Vernon and Irene Castle and Fred & Ginger, I thought it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. And it basically was. The musical tells the story of the creation of the movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle from the older Irene's point of view. She wants to tell the story as it actually happened, but the studio seems to want to make changes at every turn. So there's a tension throughout. We see flashbacks of the truth, alongside some fantasy numbers about how things may turn out.
I thought Lynne Wintersteller was amazing as the older Irene. She had a strength, yet a mournful quality, that was quite intriguing. And she sang wonderfully well. I also found the gal playing the younger Irene, Stephanie Rothenberg, to be quite enchanting. So when the show was focusing on either Irene's character, I was completely engaged. Unfortunately, a lot of the other characters came off less well, not because they weren't well performed, but they were more sketchily written.
The first few songs failed to draw me in - they were musically all over the place - but once a tone was established for each time frame, I got more connected. And Irene's last two solos were terrific. I thought the show was reasonably well directed, though I wasn't a fan of the use of the ensemble. And I didn't enjoy the imaginary/fantasy numbers nearly as much as the more plot driven songs. The show seemed a little long to me, but I thought it was a pretty good first effort and would most likely enjoy seeing it again after some work.
Thursday, of course, was the big Barry day, so that will get its own post shortly. Friday, I had a HUGE day. Since it was a Summer Friday, I took myself to Boulud Sud for a fancy schmancy Restaurant Week lunch. And oh.my.god, was it good. Actually, Boulud Sud isn't all that fancy schmancy. It's very airy and comfortable, with a lot of light and soft colors. I sat on a very comfortable banquette, pulled out my Nook, and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. I guess I should emphasize 'leisurely.' If you're not looking for a nearly-three-hour lunch experience, this isn't the restaurant for you.
The Restaurant Week lunch price fixe menu is very nice, with lots of choices, even for faux vegetarians. I actually went completely vegetarian for lunch, so I felt pretty virtuous even though I ate enough for seven people. My first course was the stone baked flatbread with herb pistou, zucchini and confit tomatoes. I am a sucker for confit anything. This was a delicious starter. The flatbread was soft and chewy, yet crispy on the edges. The herb pistou had a bright and zingy flavor, the zucchini had a little bite, and the confit tomato was luxurious, soft and sweet. There were so many wonderful and complementary flavors on this dish, yet it was still pretty light, so it was a great first course. 
My main course was the summer corn ricotta ravioli, with fennel, olive and confit lemon. See, more confit! I had never really considered corn and pasta as a good combo until I had that delicious corn tortellini in Evanston a few years ago. And it was SOOOO delicious again at Boulud Sud. The ricotta corn filling was amazing, soft and sweet, yet savory. And the fennel was the best fennel I've ever eaten. I wasn't as keen on the olives, but oh well. Hello, there was confit lemon. Seriously. The earth could've ended and I would've been happy with this last meal. Though, happily, it didn't end, so I could have dessert!
My dessert was the lemon blueberry gateau, which was a delicious spongecake that had a goat cheese bavarian mousse in the middle and a gorgeous blueberry gelee on top. Oh, and did I mention limoncello sorbet? YUM. I could've eaten that sorbet all day. But the blueberries were also terrific. There were several uses of blueberry on the plate - there were fresh berries, and the gel on top of the cake, but also a jammy/stewed blueberry drizzle and also a reduced blueberry sauce that was sticky and delicious. AND a kind of blueberry tuile. I don't how how they did it! This dessert was all that and a bag of chips. The coffee? Not so much. Next time I go (and I definitely will go back), I'll skip the coffee. The Restaurant Week price fixe is such a deal, everyone should go. Now. I'll wait...
After lunch was finally over, I went back to the office to do a little editing on my Barry Manilow magazine article. Then I headed over to the Intercontinental Hotel on the east side for a little get-together with some grad school chums. It's always nice to spend time with old friends. I hadn't seen one pal in at least twenty years, so there was a lot of catching up to do. Since I had eaten so much, I actually stuck with seltzer, but the bar area at the Intercontinental is quite nice. But the night wasn't over yet!
Then I headed up to Washington Heights to see dear friends in a new play. I love them. They were wonderful. Not much else to say, since I always love them. I really need to learn how to be objective and critical at the same time. :) But boy, Friday was a long day! Started around 8am so I could finish the Barry article, then got home around 1am! Oh, and let me just say, people who ride the E train at 12:30am and pop bubble wrap all the way to Queens deserve to be smacked. Good thing I was too tired. Whew! And I even had some fun plans for Saturday...
I had read on a favorite food blog about a Mexican restaurant in Corona, Queens, that I've long wanted to try. Luckily, I have a friend who just moved to Queens and he was up for an adventure! It was a quick trip for me, only six stops. And it was a beautiful day, so I broke out the straw hat and enjoyed the trip to Tortilleria Nixtamal. Even the walk from the train to the restaurant was nice - you walk from the very urban area near the subway into a very residential neighborhood. There was music playing through people's open windows and kids playing. It was a very summery, casual vibe, reminding me I need to get myself out more often on weekends...
Tortilleria Nixtamal was adorable, all red and yellow, with charming servers. The menu isn't huge, but there are a lot of choices. They offer fresh corn tortillas and all of their ingredients are natural and locally sourced. You can even buy masa there from them, but apparently you have to call early to get the masa. My adventurous pal and I did buy some of their fresh prepared tortillas, so I'm looking forward to eating them this week. 
Anyway, my adventurous pal and I shared the grilled corn salad, which had corn, mango, cucumber, lettuce and a chipotle dressing on it. It was served with chips and was DELICIOUS. Thumbs way up on the grilled corn salad. I couldn't decide between the tamales and the tacos - if we hadn't gotten the corn salad, I probably would've gotten the sweet corn tamale, but instead I got the taco with beans, avocado and queso fresco. Hello, yum! Very delicious. I didn't get a photo before I took a bite, so I won't subject you to that picture. Believe me when I say it was yummy. My pal and I had a fun time - at one point, I was listening to the music and asked, "wait, is that a mariachi version of "Mr. Bojangles"?! Indeed it was. Now there's something you don't hear every day. :) I'm definitely going back to Tortilleria Nixtamal. There are dozens of other things on the menu I want to try! And everyone there was so nice - we got our tortillas to go, along with a Coca Mexicana for the road. And on the way back to the subway, we stopped at an Italian bakery and got some cannoli! All food, all the time, that's the way a weekend should be. But, next time, maybe I'll space all these fun things out a little better. As of right now, I don't have one thing planned until I head to Chicago for work in three weeks. I'll be doing my best to fix that...
No comments:
Post a Comment