The fall season is here, the fall season is here! :)

Hooray!  It's time for the new theater season!  It seems like forever since I've seen a show (wow, I just checked my calendar - I haven't seen anything since July 31!  that's forever ago!!).  I was so intrigued by the Signature Theatre season that I actually bought a subscription (reason # 4,587,923 why I don't have any money on a day-to-day basis).  My first subscription ticket, and first show of the new season, was supposed to be Horton Foote's The Old Friends, which I saw with some chums yesterday afternoon.  BUT, even before that, I was offered a free ticket to one of Lucy Thurber's Hill Town Plays, the series Rattlestick is presenting around town.  I happily took advantage of the offer and chose to see Stay at the New Ohio Theatre.

 

I'd never seen a Lucy Thurber play before, but I had heard of her, of course, and many of my friends speak quite highly of her writing.  So I was looking forward to checking out Stay.  I had read a little about this play cycle and found the premise very intriguing.  According to press, "...The [Hill Town Plays] cycle is an examination of the culture of poverty in America; how we are always a part of where we come from, and yet our future is determined by who we choose to be...the Hill Town Plays examine how, in order to overcome the past, we have to accept the fact that it takes courage to live in the present."  Fascinating stuff, and definitely subject matter that I find compelling.  I've had those examinations in my personal life many times.  Stay is the last play in the five-play cycle.   

 

Unfortunately, I don't think this particular production lived up to the provocative description.  I really feel as if the direction and the cast let the script down.  I found much of the writing very compelling and poetic, and I always love a play that uses magical realism.  I was completely onboard for the supernatural-ish elements and thought they expanded the script nicely.  But the heavy-handed direction and even heavier-handed acting bothered me.  Frequently, the actors would speak in this portentous way that signaled I AM ACTING AND SAYING IMPORTANT THINGS NOW.  I find that performance (and directorial) technique a real turn-off.  It seems to me, when you're dealing with heavy subjects, a lighter touch might go further to engage the audience.  I understand we were dealing with some serious topics and sad sad stories, but mono-intoning was not the way to go.  In my opinion, of course.  There was a woman sitting near me who was convulsing with sobs, so clearly the production moved her.  It just didn't touch me that profoundly.

 

Again, though, I loved so much of the dialogue and the ideas being tossed around, just not the execution.  I did think the set design was ingenious, and, actually, the scene between the two men towards the end of the piece was done with a lighter touch and I thought it was very successful.  And I admit that I found the ending quite moving.  But it was a long slog to get there, since I wasn't engaged by the acting or the directing choices.  I hope to see Stay again someday in another incarnation, and if I can dig up some funds, I may check out one or two of the other plays in the cycle.  I was that intrigued by what I heard from Lucy Thurber.

 

Yesterday afternoon, I met two of my darling besties and saw The Old Friends at my favorite spot in town, the Signature Theatre.  As you may recall, I adore a Horton Foote play.  I was a little surprised to hear that my besties weren't sure if they had seen a Foote play before, but they adore Betty Buckley, so that was their motivation to come.   And it was interesting to hear their thoughts on the play, since they didn't have my previously conceived notions about Foote's work.



In the program notes, the earliest draft of a play that ultimately became The Old Friends is dated January 1964.  He went through numerous drafts, but didn't have a staging until 1982.  In 2002, Signature did a reading of The Old Friends that inspired Horton to do some rewrites and create the version that we're seeing today.  It's quite a wonderful road and so thrilling to think we're seeing a world premiere of a play of a much-loved, and much-missed writer. 

Signature has put together an amazing cast for this production, which is lovingly directed by Michael Wilson.  Each actor is so profoundly real, but, of course, that's the way Horton wrote them.  He was such a great storyteller and knew that great stories had great characters in them.  Each of these characters has an arc and their own universe, and watching how these universes both gelled and bumped into each other was wonderful.
 
The humanity and the resilience of Foote's utterly American people is again on display in The Old Friends.  I really marvel at how Horton captures these people so perfectly - their speech patterns and cadences are all completely right.  And I could've listened to their stories and conversations all day.  His characters are always so familiar and so lived in - it's like you've known them your whole life.  I simply adore that.  [the production shots are from Signature's Facebook page; they were all taken by Joan Marcus and I will of course take them down if asked.]

Having said all that, I will say that Act One and the first scene of Act Two were much more successful than the last two scenes of the play.  For me.  And I found the ending a tad unsatisfying.  But, hey, if Horton were alive, I'm sure he would've tightened things up and made them better.  And the play is so good now!  But it could've been even better, imho.  Oh, and I wasn't really fond of the music choices used between scenes.  But, again, quibbles.

The actors were all fantastic.  First among equals?  Lois Smith.  She is a genius.  End stop.  She can bring a women to life with so few words.  Just watching her rock, and smile, was worth the price of admission.  Betty Buckley is a fascinating force of nature, so complex - funny and hateful, all at the same time.  Veanne Cox also has many layers going on, though perhaps a little less backstory.  And Halle Foote is again a sublime interpreter of her father's work.  It's wonderful how he created these rich, complex women, who can stand on their own.  I always enjoy that in a play.  Though the men were also fantastic - Cotter Smith was terrific as the brother who has been coasting through life, and Adam LeFevre was amazing as the bitter and tragic husband of Veanne Cox.  I pitied him and hated him all at the same time.  Hurrah for the entire cast.

 

The show opens Thursday, so you should all run out and get your tickets now before the reviews come out.  I'm seeing it again at the end of the month.  I'm going to take every opportunity to revel in Horton Foote's world.  OH, and they're selling artwork by a friend of mine in the gift shop!  Go, buy Mark Krauss' wonderful notecards right now!!

 

After the show, my gal pal and I had dinner at a new-ish restaurant, Tavola.  We got there about a half hour before the dinner menu would be served, so we had a glass of wine and a couple of appetizers.  We opted to try the burrata and the Mediterranean chopped salad.  Both were DELICIOUS!  I'll put the food photos at the bottom.  But they were both so fresh and light and tasty.  The glass of sangiovese I had was also yum yummy.  Once it was time for the kitchen to open for dinner, our charming server Kevin also informed us it was happy hour, so...half price wine!  OK!  :)

I have been jonesing for some pasta alla vongole lately, so that's what I got.  And, jeepers, it was one of the tastiest dishes I've had in a long time!  Definitely a contender for my end-of-the-year best dish awards!  It was briny and garlicky, with a little bit of acid and perfectly seasoned pasta.  Really really terrific.  As I'm writing this, I feel as if I need to go back right now and have it again...  My beautiful gal pal got the lasagna and it was amazingly good, too.  And the portion sizes were perfect.

 

We were awfully full, but, yes, we had to try dessert.  We got the chocolate cherry mousse (great) and the pistachio gelato with an amaretto cookie and chocolate crust (even greater).  The entire meal, and dining experience, was terrific, top to bottom.  We had a nice seat by the window, our server was adorable, and we just had the best time.  Plus, we watched a little tennis on my phone, and then I walked a bit through the gorgeous weather and got a nice glowy shot of the Empire State Building. Thumbs way up for the entire day.  :)

 

I'm so happy the new season is here.  There are so many shows to look forward to, and so many restaurants to try.  Raise a glass to some great experiences coming our way...

 

 

 

 

More tennis! (there can never be enough)

When the US Open ticket presale happens, I always get one set of tickets for my pals and I to go, and one ticket for a solo trip over Labor Day weekend.  This year, I didn't figure the schedule out very well because I ended up seeing Djokovic play again.  Sigh.  Oh well.  At least it was a beautiful night...

I was frantically checking the Weather Channel app on my phone all day long Sunday, because rain was in the forecast.  Thankfully, the rains never came, though my god, it was humid, from the first step outside my apartment, to the crowded 7 train to the stadium, to my seats and finally on the way home.  I hereby apologize to anyone who ended up downwind of me.  Humidity is NOT my friend.

 

When I left my apartment, I figured I would try to get into the Tommy Haas match on Armstrong stadium, so I wouldn't have to watch Djokovic again.  I do love me some Tommy Haas.  Once I got off the subway, I was trying to scurry across the boardwalk to get there - didn't these people know that sauntering is too slow?!  Didn't they realize Tommy Haas was playing?!  I played dodgem to get around all those people, but, unfortunately, the line in Armstrong was so long, I knew I'd never get in.  So instead I wandered around the grounds, trying to decide what to eat and what to buy.  When I was there last Tuesday night, there was an adorable US Open t-shirt I was dying to own, but they said it was sold out.  Drats.  One clerk said there would probably be another shipment, which gave me hope.  Sunday night, that hope was extinguished.  None of the vendors had the cute green shirt.  Yet another reason to be annoyed I didn't get to the qualies - I always get my first pick of swag during qualies week.  AND my mom usually pays for it.  Oh well.  I did succumb to another Roger Federer t-shirt, which I was CERTAIN I would get to wear when he was in the finals next weekend.  More on that later...

 

I decided to head on into the stadium, Djokovic be danged, since it still seemed like it was going to rain at any minute and I knew my seat for the evening would be under the broadcast booth overhang.  I had my Nook in case of rain, so I was ready to go.  My seat was also, unfortunately, in front of a very obnoxious child who was clearly not a tennis fan.  She whined, she screamed, she talked, she kicked my seat, she was bored out of her mind.  Why her parents didn't take her out of the stadium periodically to calm down, I'll never know.  Well, why they even brought her is a bigger question, but whatever.  I put in my headsets to listen to USOpenRadio and tried to block her out.  But it wasn't easy...

Yet again, Djokovic's opponent was no match for him.  Joao Sousa, from Portugal, is a perfectly pleasant player, but was WAY out of his league.  He didn't win a game at all in the first set, and was on his way to getting bageled again in the second set, when he finally held serve, after a lot of deuce points.  I'll try to attach a video below of the crowd reaction when he finally held serve.  In my opinion, the crowd's support for Sousa ticked Djokovic off and he got rather ostentatious with his celebrations, which was stupid, since he was winning so handily.  Of course, I just don't enjoy Djokovic, so perhaps I'm just projecting.  :)

 

Djokovic won the match easily, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2, though he did have a tiny hiccup in the third set, serving for the match, when his serve got broken.  I briefly wondered if Sousa could actually come back and win a few more games, but, no.  Djokovic broke right back to win.  It wasn't a very compelling match, but there were some perfectly pleasant rallies and Sousa isn't difficult to look at.

 I was really looking forward to the second match featuring Li Na, from China, vs Jelena Jankovic from Serbia.  I've enjoyed watching both ladies on tv over the years, but had never seen either of them play a live match.  My mom and I had seen them both briefly in practice, but I was eager to see them in match play.  Li Na came out on fire.  She was hitting winners left and right, and Jankovic found it hard to even get points!  Though, suddenly, as is her wont, Li Na suddenly started missing and had her serve broken.  But she quickly righted the ship and won the match pretty easily, 3 and love.  But there were some terrific rallies and some very clean hitting from both ladies throughout.  Even though the match was pretty quick and one-sided, it was still enjoyable to watch.  And Li Na is always a charming interview post-match.  

 

The weather turned out to be spectacular, so it was a lovely night to sit outside and watch tennis.  Thankfully, the obnoxious kid fell asleep at some point, so I could enjoy my tennis in peace, though there were some drunks in the audience who felt compelled to make remarks during the service tosses of the ladies.  The umpire had to tell people to shut up several times and at one point, she turned around and pointed at people.  Hopefully, security went and took care of them.  I'll never understand why people need to shout during a serve.  Before, after, fine.  But during?  Rude. 

 

 On my way out, I got a look at the guy whose job is to stencil all the winners names on the huge billboard in the courtyard.  There's a job for you.  But he attracted quite a crowd.  It was a slow steady walk back to the subway, with tons of people using the 7 train.  When I got up to the turnstiles, I could see my train just sitting there.  But there was a group of ten or so people, just standing blocking the turnstiles, looking at their Metrocards with quizzical looks.  Usually I stop to give a brief swiping lesson, but I was so hot and sweaty, I just wanted to get on that train.  I stopped and yelled, "Can I please get by?!," and one guy just nodded and stepped aside.  Thankfully.  Of course, once I transferred to my R train, I had to wait in the Roosevelt Avenue station for almost an hour, since the local trains were few and far between.  I probably sweated ten pounds off and had to resort to my Hot Flash Fan.  I'm glad I remembered to stick it in my bag. 

 

So ends my live viewing of the US Open for this year.  Someday, I hope to have enough money to actually buy a ticket for the second week, if not the semi-finals or finals.  Someday.  I actually had a dream that I was at the finals, and the match was between Tommy Haas and my Roger.  It was a sweet dream.  I had no idea that once Tommy lost,  Roger would be right behind him.  I was so sure that this tournament would be Roger's redemption for a sub-par year (by his astronomical standards).  I can't tell you the sadness and defeat I felt when he went out to Robredo.  Not that I begrudge Robredo, I don't.  I've always had a soft spot for him, but still.  Oh, Roger, what are we going to do now?  I wish I had been at your match - I feel as if I could've stood up, like Glenn Close did in The Natural.  And then you would've won.  And when you won, I could've said "I didn't want to see you fail."  Sigh.  If only life were like the movies...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicago Wrap-Up: The food Edition

My work event in Chicago finished last Sunday, so I thought I'd do a summary and share tidbits about the tasty food I ate during my week in the Windy City.  This will probably be a long post, sorry.  Sit back and relax.  :)   The work event went swimmingly, with only a few hitches here and there, but, for the most part, we kept the problems hidden from the attendees and everyone seemed happy with how things went.  So that was a HUGE relief.  I'll just mainly focus on food (which is definitely why I'm not as trim as I once was).  Does it seem like all I do is eat when I'm in Chicago?  We worked so hard on this trip, it didn't feel that way at all...

Monday, after we arrived 
in Chicago, and before we went to the stained glass museum, we went to lunch at a fun diner called Eleven City Diner.  The hotel doorman recommended it and were we glad he did.  It had a very fun vibe and the food was very tasty.  There were a lot of menu choices, but I finally settled on the turkey melt (you'll notice that I chose lots of meaty cheesy dishes - I was a very bad vegetarian on this trip).  They served it with thousand island dressing on challah bread.  It was delicious, but definitely could've used more sauce.  The kosher pickle, however, was outstanding.  One of my co-workers got a coupon for free ice cream, which we all shared, and it was very nice.  We definitely enjoyed Eleven City Diner and considered going back for breakfast later in the week (which we did). 

  

After the stained glass museum, we all gathered in the registration office to do some work.  We worked diligently until quite late, then we went to the Irish pub inside the hotel, Kitty O'Shea's, for dinner.  I didn't think I could quite handle an entire fish and chips dinner, but I did think I could probably finish a fish sandwich.  It was delicious!  The batter was crispy and light and had a very good taste.  We also got an appetizer of deep fried cheese curds and deep fried pickles.  Oh so yummy.  Oh so bad for us.  But, hey, we were working hard...

  

The hotel upgraded us to the executive floor (sweet!), so we had breakfast in the lounge.  This wasn't the most tasty breakfast I've ever had; it was rather boring hotel food.  And there was a kid throwing a tantrum in the middle of the floor, which doesn't make for a very relaxing meal.  We got out of there pretty quickly and went straight to work.  Our Chicago liaison met us in the office to work for a few hours, then she went with us to The Gage for lunch.  We had been to The Gage last time we were in Chicago and really enjoyed it.  And we were definitely happy to go back.  The menu is just chock full of stuff I"d like to try, but once again, the soup of the day caught my attention - it was a chilled curried corn soup, with dried apricots.  Delicious, with a bit of heat in the background.  I paired the soup with a half turkey sandwich.  The sandwich had a horseradish cream on it, which was yummy (and very sinus-clearing), but was also pretty potent.  If I order that sandwich again, I'd probably order it with the sauce on the side.  But, again, The Gage was a terrific place for lunch.  Plus, it's right across the street from The Bean and the Gehry bandshell (as described in my last Chicago post).

We worked hard, again until quite late, and were too tired to go out for dinner, so a couple of us went to Tamarind to get some Thai/Chinese takeout.  It was very tasty, but I forgot to get a photo.  Sorry.  The next morning, we skipped the executive lounge for breakfast and went back to Eleven City Diner.  I had a gorgeous omelet and very nice coffee (some diners' coffee tastes bitter to me, but this one was good).  We wandered around outside for a few minutes before getting back to work - some of those photos are below.

  

I have several friends from college who live in the Chicago area and one of them happened to be in town Wednesday night, so we met at the hotel and went to the tapas restaurant next door, Mercat a la Planxa.  I've been there before (and posted about it), so I was happy to go back.  We had a delightful dinner of several vegetarian tapas (my friend is a vegetarian, so he was a good influence on me), with this gorgeous dessert of a sweet potato cake, with a cardamom cream cheese espuma and candied pecans.  Good golly, that was delicious.  As was the sangria.  We had a wonderful time catching up, laughing and enjoying each other's company.  It was a terrific way to relax before the next day's work stress.

  

During the 
conference, I mainly scarfed down hotel food during the few minutes here and there I had to myself.  On Friday night, though, we did a special dinner for the entire staff at Mercat. It was in their private room, with atmospheric mood lighting, which means my photos are terrible.  Any tapas photos you see were stolen from the Mercat website or from a friend's camera.  We did a fixed menu that included pan con tomate, bacon wrapped dates and a mixed green salad with beans and avocado for our first course; garlic shrimp, flatbread with mushrooms, sausage and manchego, and the Spanish omelet for our second course; and paella with chicken and chorizo for our third course, with the addition of a half roast suckling pig.  The dessert was the croquetas de xocolata, or deep fried dark chocolate sitting on a bed of banana marshmallow, swimming in rosemary caramel.  As one of my co-workers said, they're like an orgasm in your mouth.  :)  Needless to say, we had an amazing dinner and everyone had a great time.  The wine was delicious and my co-workers and I shared a lot of laughs.  And wine. 

  

Saturday night, after the work day 
ended, everyone was exhausted and no one had the energy to make group plans.  After sitting in my room for a few minutes, I decided I wanted to try a Hawaiian restaurant that I had been wanting to try the last few times I was in Chicago.  Since I had been surrounded by people for a week, I snuck out with my Nook and had dinner by myself.  It was lovely.  The cab ride took FOREVER to get there and I was beginning to worry that the driver was kidnapping me and selling me to a slavery ring, but we at last got to Sola restaurant in the Northcenter area outside Chicago.  It was so calming and soothing, I was immediately happy to be there.  I had a delicious non-alcoholic cocktail with pomegranate and blood orange juice and ordered the chicken.  While the chef was preparing my chicken, my astonishingly attractive server brought me an amuse bouche of salmon tartare with a tiny sliver of cucumber and a dollop of truffle aioli.  Thankfully, the aioli was sparing, since I find the flavor so assertive.  A little goes a long way.  But I do love me an amuse bouche.  Then my chicken dish came out.  Good lord, it was AMAZING.  It had a soy lacquer, and it was served with large pearl couscous in a coconut curry sauce, and braised greens.  It was fully half a chicken, so the portion was enormous!  And stunningly good.  Sweet and salty, with crispy skin and soft couscous.  It really was one of the most delicious dishes I've ever had.  I couldn't finish it, unfortunately, and I was too stuffed to try dessert, but I will most definitely go back to Sola, even if it is an extremely long cab ride away.  At least it gave me time to tweet.  When I got back to the hotel, I could watch fireworks from my window!  It was a grand way to finish the evening...

Sunday, after the conference was over, I went with one co-worker to a bistro a friend of his had recommended, Bistrot Zinc.  It was adorable and very European.  I got the croque monsieur, which was DELICIOUS (and caused much envy at the tables around us), and then my co-worker and I shared some fruit with mascarpone cheese.  It was wonderfully light and sweet and the perfect ending to lunch.  Since we had eaten quite a bit, though, we decided to stroll a bit along Michigan Avenue.  When we got to the Hancock Tower, my co-worker remembered his friend suggested we go to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor and have a drink and see the amazing views.  So we did!  It was a lot of fun, with amazing sights (the view from the ladies room was incomparable!).  I was so glad I got to do one more touristy thing in Chicago before heading back to New York.

I also had one more meal before leaving Chicago proper - my boss took me to the hotel restaurant and I had a very yummy vegetable soup with pasta, and a less yummy dish of fettucine bolognese.  There was a monumental lack of seasoning in the pasta, which was unfortunate.  Oh, and when we got to the airport to fly home, I had a delicious breakfast torta at Rick Bayless' Tortas Frontera in O'Hare.  Since it had been a few hours since my last meal, I had to fit in one more.  Oh, Chicago, how I'll miss visiting you and your delicious food every few months...