“I don’t know what else I would be if I wasn’t me. I am not looking from the outside, looking back. I am who I am.” Cher
Sunshine and mid 50s and true New Yorkers are out in shorts, sandals and basking in the warmth. This morning we met my friend, Manny, for breakfast to catchup on life happenings from our last visit. Miami raised, ex-Angeleno, now a New Yorker. He is not so much a friend as a removed family member by marriage – he’s my Aunt Rita’s (by marriage) cousin. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast along with “chismes.”
Today is the theatre equivalent of a double header: matinee – dinner break – then evening performance.
Our first show – an homage to Cher with the The Cher Show, what Rolling Stone Magazine called in five words…….”An explosion of fabulous excess”. 35 smash hits, six decades of stardom, two rock-star husbands, a Grammy, an Oscar, an Emmy and enough Bob Mackie gowns to cause a sequins shortage in New York City. Her life is so BIG that it’s played by three separate actress: The Babe, The Star, The Lady. Stephanie J. Block gives a Tony nominated performance and is the front runner to win this year. She melts into the character, making the audience believe that Cher is on the stage…the voice, the walk, the mannerism – it’s uncanny.
To me it was a two hour fabulous romp through Glam, Glitter, Dresses, Drama, Hair, Songs, Mackie, Spectacle, Legend and Legacy. On the serious side, it showed her struggles and strength in gaining control over her life and career…….Sonny was not always such a nice guy.
We attended a Wednesday matinee, where the medium age was 70 years old….90 % ladies attending from the suburbs in droves and 75% went to the same hairdresser. At Lakeside these ladies with white, short hair are dubbed Q-tips; here the Q-tips were fluffed and blown.
Dinner tonight will be remembered for a long time. David found a little out-of-the-way neighborhood, seafood restaurant Gloria, on 53rd & 9th. Where do I begin describing this most delightful meal? There’s a very short menu, but where every dish was prepared with precision and focus on ultimate taste and presentations:
A dozen East coast oysters, with lemon, roasted kombu mignonette
Anchovies spiced breadcrumbs wrapped around a layer kohlrabi, doused with fennel juice
Octopus a la Plancha, butter beans, salsa verde
Seared Monkfish, kale, bean purée and lime
Grilled whole gulf shrimp and grits, blue corn grits, scallion, chili
Chocolate pudding, with salted peanuts and whipped cream
We shared the first three dishes and dessert. We took a picture of the menu so we could remember this outstanding dinner…..service precise and non intrusive.
Extremely satisfied, we walked over to our next show, “Dear Evan Hansen,” the story of a teenager, diagnosed with social anxiety. His therapist recommends that he writes letters to himself detailing what will be good about each day in order to deal with his own anxiety. Due to a turn of events, he starts an imaginary friendship with emails with a boy he never knew (white lies that goes viral) who commits suicide. Those emails snowball, affecting everyone around him in both positive and negative ways. Once the truth is revealed, it comes to a surprise ending……. Ben Platt created the original role that won him a Tony.
Currently the role is being performed by sixteen year old high school student, Andrew Barth Feldman. He’s the fourth actor to take on the role full time. Unlike any previous Evan, Feldman has come of age in the same adolescent environment as Evan. He is a teenager at the same time and in the same landscape as his character, with the social media and with mental health being more a part of the national conversation than it’s ever been before.
The staging of multiple screens over imposing constant social media postings, with dining rooms, sofas and beds on circular platforms rolling on and off the stage. I found the multi-screens distracting at times.
