Seven nights and Nine shows in NYC
 

We returned to WARM Florida today after spending 7 of the coldest days of my life in New York. Geeez, was it cold! When the high is 9 degrees and you can barely walk against the wind blowing down those streets, I have no idea how they even approximate the wind chill factor. We survived the cold however, bundled up like abominable (correct) snowmen!

Our flight on Wed. January 31 from Ft. Lauderdale to Laguardia was great -- exit row seats, which I havent' done in a while and not sure I'd do again. While I liked the extra leg room, the seats themselves are very short and have no support under the upper thighs. My legs really started to ache -- like sitting perched on the front edge of a chair.

Our apartment (www.bigapplegetaway.com) was wonderful (our second stay there) and fortunately our list of prebooked shows happened to be pretty close (the northern reaches of the Broadway theatres), so in many cases it was just a one to two block walk through the frozen tundra to get there. The apartment is in the Worldwide Plaza Apartments on 50th between 8th and 9th -- with fantastic views to the north and east from its 33rd floor windows.

First show: The Scene at Second Stage (off Broadway). It stars Tony Shalhoub (Monk) and Patricia Heaton (Everyone Loves Raymond's wife), but the real star of the show is a newcomer, Anna Camp, who plays a very blonde bimbo type who ends up totally mangling lives and destroying people. She is amazingly funny, sexy, and wonderful. Too bad this limited run which was sold out closes this week. We had reservations at Zuni on Ninth, but walking in the cold, I couldn't find it -- I guess it was a block further south than we thought. So after circling two blocks, we were freezing, so gave it up and headed to Delta Grill for good old New Orleans style fried chicken with greens, and jumbalaya.

On Thursday (before the super cold hit) we headed up the Metropolitan Museum primarily to see the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibition (thanks, Howard for recommending this) and also were fascinated with an exhibition of German portraits from the decandent 1920's.
For lunch we headed over to a local favorite, Grace's Trattoria, adjacent to the Graces' Market at 71st and 3rd. The fettucine with lobster, wild mushrooms, and herbs is still its greatest achievement.
Thursday night was La Traviata at the Met. We went all the way (again thanks to Howard for the suggestion) of doing dinner in the Grand Tier at the Met before. At the end of dinner you preorder desserts (or my wonderful cheese plate) and return to your table for that during the first intermission. We had wonderful seats, front row center of the Dress Circle. The production is indeed spectacular -- the Zefferelli sets and the Gaetani costumes are far from new, but could hardly be beaten. Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong was simply amazing as Violetta.
A great night in every way.

Friday night was A Little Dog Laughed. Again the most amazing performance was female -- this time Julie White who is so over the top as a Hollywood agent trying to keep her famous male client from publicly coming out of the closet. Dinner after the show was at Roberto Passon -- one of my favorites. This time I was able to have the rabbit cooked in olives and served with soft and fried polenta. Lee loved the veal piccata.

Saturday was more Italian lunch at Sosa Borella. Then a matinee of Grey Gardens. The story is interesting, the songs are really not terribly exciting, but the perfomance by Christine Ebersol is simply magical. It's hard to imagine that she is the same woman playing the mother in Act I and then becoming the daughter in Act II.

Drinks at Sardi's before the evening show. You can tell it's really cold out when Sardi's bar is half deserted on a Saturday night before curtain. Dry Robroy's go a long way toward warning one up, though I discovered. Saw the John Doyle production of Company that evening. This is the third Doyle production I've seen. I loved the "actors all playing musical instruments" concept which he used in Sweeney Todd and I thought it really worked. But after seeing the same "gimmick" in his Mack and Mabel production in London, this time the effect started to seem less effective, although I think Company actually lends itself to the concept even better than the other two shows did. I enjoyed the production, just wasn't really wowed by it -- I guess I've seen several other productions of it which seemed just as strong.

Saturday night, after theatre dinner at Joe Allen. Usual collection of theatre folks there -- although Jonathan Pryce was the only one I recognized (I'm the world's worst celebrity spotter). The liver and onions were as good as ever.

On Sunday we returned to Roberto Passon for brunch -- excellent. Then was the production that inspired this trip to New York -- Kristen Chenowith in The Apple Tree at the Roundabout. This has been one of my favorite musical ever since it started in the 1960's. And Kristen Chenowith did all three roles masterfully. She is truly an amazing performer.

We had a 7 PM show in the Village for Gutenberg, the Musical -- a very funny two-man musical in which these guys, supposedly writer/actors are trying to sell their musical about the inventor of the printing press to Broadway producers who are in the audience. They play dozens of rules, sing all the songs, act all the parts, and it really is hysterically funny. A piece of simple fluff.

We had drinks at the Garage before the show, and we had made reservations at Le Gigot (who was it who recommended that here?) for dinner at 9 after the show, but oddly we got a call about 5 PM from Le Gigot saying they were closing the kitchen at 9 so we'd need to come earlier -- which of course we couldn't do because of the show. I suppose a combination of the cold keeping people in -- and of course THE SUPERBOWL made them plan to close early. So we quickly called and booked AOC which was perfect for that cold weather. I had a great cassoulet and Lee had a pork and lentil stew.

Monday, we did very little thanks to the cold, although we did venture to check out a couple apartments for our month stay coming up in May, and we had a wonderful lunch at Tout Va Bien on 51st -- a true French bistro.
It was really quiet -- again, we learned New Yorkers were staying in due to the cold. The very French waitress (perhaps owner?) even gave us complimentary brandy before we left saying we'd need it to fight off the chill.

"Bugswife" came over to our apartment after work for a while before the show on Monday evening -- and shared her African safari pictures with us. Monday night was the "new Rent" play (at least that's what some of the critics are calling it), Spring Awakening. This show was very interesting and well staged with some audience on stage. The music seemed "so-so" to me, not sure if I'd call it rock or sometimes almost "folk" in style, and while it is about the "sexual awakening of teens in Germany in the late 1800's" I guess I really didn't get the major point, other than yes, teens were more naive then and parents were more inhibited. Don't get me wrong -- I really enjoyed the production.

Afterwards we did a longer walk than I was thinking to Maloney and Porcelli for dinner and their famous "crackling pork shank". A huge pork knuckle comes crispy on the outside on a bed of sauerkraut with a side of "firecracker" applesauce. It was very good.
Taxi back to the apartment -- no way I was walking those four long blocks in that driving and freezing wind.

Tuesday, lunch at Island Burgers and shakes -- super. Then a trip to Executive Plaza next to the Micelangelo Hotel where we looked at some apartments. Then a walk through Times Square to Juniors for cheesecake. I hate to rock the boat -- but I didn't like it at all. My problem was that I wanted PLAIN cheesecake, but I asked the waitress about their "diabetic" version, which she INSISTED you wouldn't be able to tell the difference from the regular. Well, first of all there was NO crust, so who wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The cheesecake left an oily and sort of unpleasant taste in my mouth. I really didn't like it. Meanwhile Lee was looking at something on the menu called "Strawberry shortcake pie" but I said he should stick with regular cheesecake. The waitress broke in to say that the menu is misleading -- actually that's their plain cheesecake with frest strawberries on top. Perfect! So Lee ordered that. So what he got was two layers of white cake with a whipped strawberry concoction in the middle and two layers of strawberry preserves. It was awful. Meanwhile our waitress went on break and the guy who brought the desserts couldn't believe she told us that. So Junior's really struck out with both of us!

But Tuesday night we saw A Color Purple and I was really impressed. I realized this was the only "moving" show we had seen all week, and it is a splendid production. I hadn't expected much from this show for some reason, but ended up being very impressed with it.
Dinner afterwards at Maria Pia. Wonderful veal saltimbocca for both of us.

Then this morning up at 6 to get to Laguardia for our flight home. Other than sitting on the runway for 45 minutes inching forward in a line of 23 planes, the flight was uneventful. Pleasant drive back across Alligator Alley and back in our own warm house tonight!

Lovely report Patrick! Thanks for sharing!

Saw the header and thought to myself that it had to be your and Lee's trip!

Wow, that was a busy, busy trip! You need another vacation to recover :))

Fantastic report which I plan on rereading after posting. Patrick, please tell me about seating at the Roundabout Apple Tree. As you may recall, I'm in theatre and may do a drive down to Manhattan this week. If I can make it happen, should we go for top dollar or mezz,balc cheaper seats. You know as well as I that on some shows it really doesn't matter. Mahalo! I need a Manhattan fix!

Wow, that's a lot of plays. I enjoyed your trip report with your many reviews of the many plays.

I'm a liver-and-onions lover too.

Brrr.....Made me cold just hearing about it.

sistahlou, seating at Studio 54 (Roundabout) is kind of tricky. Frankly, I'm not crazy about the orchestra which is all quite flat and the stage is only raised slightly. I lucked out getting front row mezzanine seats -- pretty much to the side, but wonderful. Those are always my favorites, and in fact 6 of the shows this past week were front row mezzanine seats.
I have a hard time with Roundabout's website seating however. I had checked for seats for their upcoming 110 in the shade and had no luck trying date after date with only really poor seat offerings, but while at the theatre this week I checked and ended up getting front row mezzanine seating for a performance in June.

It was really nice to see you and Lee. Very sorry the Neue Gallery was closed on Tuesday. Put it in the book for May and maybe I will join you on the jaunt.
I swear, you picked the coldest week of the year to be in the city! good thing you like wine : - )

Fabulous report - so sorry you were here in the midst of our deep freeze in the northeast -
and I am, of course, terribly jealous that Lee was eating the veal at Roberto Passon.....but I suppose it is only fair since you are responsible for my own obsession with their veal !

I'm saving this one - you saved me from having to ask you for some more restaurant recs for my April wknd in the city -
and great theater reviews too -
glad you had a wonderful trip (aside from the brrr factor)

Loved your report, I'm keeping your theater & restaurant reviews! Anything promising with the apartments you looked at?

Great report. You've now made me interested in seeing Color Purple. I too wondered how the apt. search went?

Wow, NeoPatrick,
I and mi Novia think I'm hypomanic, lol.
We arrive late Fri to meet my first grandchild (Jorge); dinner with all that PM; The Vertical Hour on Sat and Transitions on Sunday, and lots of meals with friends and family before a Mon afternoon departure.
Hope the awful cold is long gone.
M

Sounds like a fabulous trip despite the cold.

Hi Patrick, thank you for sharing your time in NYC, I loved reading your report. I imagined you would find it cold and of course you did. The various meals you and Lee enjoyed along with all of the plays you both attended sounds fabulous! Enjoy thawing out and thank you again for sharing your beautiful week in NYC.

Hi Patrick - a bit off topic but I have to ask because this has been on my mind for some time You weren't by any chance in the audience at the London West End performance of "Sweeney Todd" on December 30 2004 were you?

Regarding the apartment search:
I had a list of places to at least walk by to see the buildings and several "agencies" to contact to see if we could see any. None of the apartments that I've been interested in were available for viewing as they are rented, and the cold kept us from a lot of walking, pariticularly to some of the midtown east or upper east or west side ones.
NYC Habitat finally explained that there is up to a 45% fee added on to the shown per month rent for the one month rentals -- unlike their weekly or daily ones. That has put most of their stuff way out of range. So far the best deal is still the Executive Plaza next to the Micelangelo. It's actually a little "too central" for what we'd really like for a month stay, but the location is OK. They manage a lot of them in the building and they showed us several one bedrooms -- small but decently furnished. They'll pretty much come out at $5000 total per month with the add-ons for taxes, utilities, fees, etc.

I keep trying through Craigslist, but not having much luck. Some places that rent by the night aren't interested at all in a one month rental. I contacted one agent about a "no fee midtown west for short term on 54th street for $165". In the ad she listed her website and said to look at it for pictures. But when I emailed here that I was "confused" as there weren't any pictures on her website of an apartment on 54th St. I mentioned the price sounded great and told her we were interested in a month, giving our dates. She emailed me back and said, "of course you are confused. No apartment in New York would be $165 a month -- that was per day -- it would be $3800 per month. If you find one for $165 a month let me know and I'll rent it myself". Huh? I'm not sure I want to rent from anyone who couldn't even read my email. She still didn't mention how to see pictures of it. In any case I've emailed her back, but I suspect that's a no-go. Probably someone just looking for clients.

I put ad ad in Craigslist, and have had a couple responses, but the midtown west one bedroom I've requested have been offered as a room in a house in Washington Heights, and two bedroom on the upper west side that's twice my stated price.

eigasuki, you posted while I was typing.
No, not me. I saw Sweeney Todd in New York, not London. But you've raised my curiosity. Why did you think I might have been there that particular day? Did you see an incredibly handsome man stopping hearts and assume it was me?

Why yes! There was a very erudite and handsome man in the bar and everytime I read your posts I kept thinking you'd be just like that. Wouldn't it have been funny if it has been you? Though you may not have remembered me

Bookmarking for the wonderful restaurant suggestions- as well as the theater choices!
Heading to Sarasota in two weeks, did indeed book the rental near the Towles Court area, thanks to you and Samshack. Plan to spend a couple of days with friends in Naples, on Golf Shore Blvd. Will wave to you!

Enjoyed your report very much, as always--you always do so much! We were also in New York last weekend, also having brunch on Sunday at Roberto Passon before our Company matinee. Wish I had looked around more at the other patrons! We enjoyed Company, especially the patter song, though to these two old marrieds it seemed to overlook many of the main positives about marriage and commitment.

That's funny that we were at Roberto Passon together -- and it was the quietest I've ever seen it at brunch -- too cold out, I guess.
We were the two guys sitting in the front corner nearest the door. First to arrive and just left in time to get to our 2:00, so we must have been there.

Capecodshanty -- you mean GULFSHORE, not GolfShore! Please, this whole town is about Golf as it is! Yes, be sure to wave.