Tina-The Tina Turner Musical (4*)

Nkeki Obi-Melekwe pulls out all the stops in this high energy production even when she doesn't have to, especially when singing the hits from "Private Dancer" which I always loved most for its mellowness.  Still, the staging of Tina's happy-ending life couldn't be more fluid and when Obi-Melekwe and Skye Dakota Turner treat the audience to a couple of encores, the show becomes what everyone really wants it to be anyway:  a Tina Turner concert from back in the day.

The Anomaly (5*)

 

Hervé Le Tellier, perhaps inspired a little bit by A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Matrix movies, manages to turn a philosophical, quasi sci-fi novel that takes off from the disappearance of airplane into a deeply moving, often slyly funny page-turner about the human condition.  It also includes romance, a religious summit, a pet toad, a conference room at the FBI named after J. Edgar Hoover's reputed lover and cameos by Donald Trump ("a blond wig on top of trout lips"), Emmanuel Macron and Stephen Colbert.  And if that isn't enough, there are aperçus galore!

No one realizes how much hit men owe to Hollywood screenwriters.

Since King Arthur and his knights, if not before, military types have liked gathering in the round, most likely because circles profess equality while doing nothing to hide the true hierarchy.

Victor also has a photograph of his ate father in his wallet, a picture taken from an album, from the days when there were albums, when too many photos hadn't yet killed photos.

The mathematician studies this unsophisticated man [Donald Trump], and reaffirms the soul-destroying notion that by accumulating our individual obscurities we rarely achieve collective brilliance.

Old age is in every detail, like a straitjacket of filth.

. . . freedom of thought on the internets all the more complete now that it's clear people have stopped thinking.

At least love stops us constantly looking for some meaning to life.

Spring Renewal

During the past two years covid kept me in Lake Worth for much of spring.  It was good to get back to New York City, where walking the streets seemed even more colorful than usual.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brier Patch, Madison Square Park

Washington Square Park

Founders Memorial, NYU

Picasso's Sylvette, NYU Faculty Housing

Soho Graffiti

Soho Facade

Protest, Broadway

William Earl Dodge, Bryant Park

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Reflection of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center

Children's Zoo Gate, Central Park

Central Park

Conservancy Garden, Central Park

Conservancy Garden, Central Park

St. Cecilia and Holy Agony Church, Spanish Harlem

St. Cecilia and Holy Agony Church, Spanish Harlem

Julia de Burgos Mural, Spanish Harlem

Thom, Randall's Island

Beneath the Hell's Gate Bridge,
Randalls Island

Central Park

Fifth Avenue

Lower East Side

Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, Lower East Side

Loeb Boathouse Cafe, Central Park

Protest, Fifth Avenue

Pride Month, New York Public Library

Central Park

Bike Rental, Pier 84

"You know who I am," High Line

"Women & Children," High Line

Central Park

Central Park

I Was Better Last Night (3*)

I had high hopes for Harvey Fierstein's memoir after reading a rave review in the New York Times which included a hilarious anecdote about a famous, long deceased comedian who asked for a student discount at the box office for Torch Song Trilogy.  "Buy you're Madeline Kahn!" protested he ticket seller.  "Yes, but I have so much to learn."

You'll probably enjoy the book most if you're a theater geek spelunking for production details.  But for me, the book ran out of steam after Fierstein's success with Torch Song Trilogy which I was fortunate to have seen off Broadway in 1981 when the playwright's revolutionary candor and moving performance convinced me that drag queens were the true heroes of the gay liberation movement.

Reading I Was Better Last Night also brought back a remark (name drop) Edward Albee once made to me about Fierstein during a chance encounter in the Ramble.  "He just wants to make the heteros feel safe."

Forty years later, mission accomplished.

Anthology of Fashion

Tim hung a 1982 self-portrait in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's triennial employee art show.  Wow!  His facility with opaque water color is as astonishing as he was handsome.  

We met after both of us lost the bloom of youth.  Tim based his self-portrait on a photo taken three years earlier.  He offered to paint me and selected this 1992 photo ("no smiling or peace signs!") taken in the Pines.  

I also stood in line, something I detest, to see "In America:  An Anthology of Fashion."  Very atmospheric with mannequins populating rooms in the American wing in installations created by film directors, but there's a lot going on and I sometimes found the label text as confusing as it was informative.

Wedding Dress (1884)

Dress Worn by Mary Todd Lincoln (1861-62)

British Style in America (early 19th century)

French Style in America (early 19th century)

The "Battle of Versailles" room, conceived by Tom Ford and based on a 1973 fashion show dazzles, just as you'd expect.

Could this be a Stephen Burrows creation?

The mirrored ceiling adds another dimension--over  the top--entirely.

 

Dressed by Claire McCardell

Gowns by Jessie Franklin Turner (20th century)

Dresses by Ann Lowe (20th century)

Could this room be any more fabulous?

Ball Gown by Marguery Bollhagen (ca 1961)

Dress by Eta Hentz (20th century)

Sofia Coppola is working on adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country. Conceiving this room must have been good practice for the Gilded Age drama.

Dress by Josephine H. Egan (ca 1880)

Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles James and Martin Scorcese--what could go wrong?  But somehow, the dresses get lost.