On Broadway, Amazing
Grace, music and lyrics by Christopher
Smith, book by Christopher Smith and Arthur
Giron, at the Nederlander Theatre, is
based on the true story of an English slave
trader John
Newton (Josh
Young) in 1744, who found redemption,
when he became an abolitionist, fighting the
evils of slavery, and wrote the
inspirational Amazing
Grace in1772.
It is a splendid production, with many
wonderful scenes, beautiful costumes, and a
cast that sings magnificently. Josh Young
and Erin
Mackey are
lovers, and sing and act marvelously. They
have two of the finest voices on Broadway,
but the entire cast is superb, including Tom
Hewitt, Chuck Cooper, Harriett
D. Foy and Laiona
Michelle, under the direction of Gabriel
Barre. When the performance ends with
the entire cast singing the title song, the
audience rises to grant them a thunderous,
well deserved ovation.
Off-Broadway, a revival of Ruthless!,
book and lyrics by Joel
Paley, music by Marvin
Laird, at the St. Luke's Theatre, has a
talented Tori Murray as
a murderous 8-year-old third grader, (she is
actually 10-years-old), who wants to star in
the school play. Among the cast members,
directed by Joel Paley, Kim
Maresca, as her mother, is also fine. It
is a lot of fun. Among the opening night
guests were Regis Philbin,
Bernadette Peters and Mario
Cantone. We celebrated the opening night
with a lavish party at the Hunt & Fish Club,
125 West 44th St. The food and drinks were
delicious. It was probably the finest
Off-Broadway party I ever attended, equal to
any on Broadway.
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MoMA is presenting Glorious
Technicolor: From George Eastman House
and Beyond June 5-August 5. Quo
Vadis, by Mervyn
LeRoy, USA, 1951, is an overlong,
dull film, that takes place in Rome
during the reign of the Emperor Nero (Peter
Ustinov in
an over-the-top performance). Every
cliche possible in the English language
is spoken by each member of the cast. It
is a tale of a Roman soldier (a wooden
Robert Taylor) in love with a Christian
(a bland Deborah Kerr). The only lively
scene was performed by the lions in the
arena. They know how to act.
A superb exhibition Sinatra:
An American Icon is
on display at the New York Public
Library for the Performing Arts at
Lincoln Center. With it, films are being
shown in the Bruno Walter Auditorium. We
saw an interesting documentary Jimmy
Van Heusen: Swingin' with Frank
and Bing, by Jim
Burns, USA, 2014. Van
Heusen won
four Oscars and one Emmy for his songs.
He composed over 600. He was a best
friend of Sinatra,
and wrote many songs for films starring Crosby.
The film clips were delightful. The
comments by talking heads, especially
those by cabaret, singers, were not, and
the final scene of Michael
Buble singing All
the Way was
a travesty.
Andrew Rannells and Bernadette
Peters were
the hosts of the 17th
Annual Broadway Barks! at
Shubert Alley. They posed with dogs that
were up for adoption at the John Golden
Theatre. It is always a worthy event
with many actors from Broadway appearing
with their dogs.
We attended a food tasting at Sofrito,
in Riverbank State Park at Riverside
Drive and 144th St. Executive Chef Frank
Maldonado served
us delicious Puerto Rican specialties,
like plantain
with hummus, empanadas of chicken and
pork, and paella
with shrimp, with lovely cocktails.
It was a delightful evening, in a
gorgeous restaurant, with magnificent
views of the Hudson River and the George
Washington Bridge.
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