A Light In My Piazza

Spent the day in NYC Saturday with the three most precious people in my life, seen above. The weather was fine and the spirits of the Gotham tourists even finer; the day started off with a bang when we found a perfect parking space - free! - on the streets of the Upper East Side, and remained consistently felicitous.



In the Metropolitan Museum, we looked at a wonderful exhibit of Matisse paintings and textiles and wandered through the Modern Art wing until I found myself face to face with Picasso's portrait of Gertrude Stein. Something intensely magical about standing two feet away from that much history after having spent so much time this spring delving into the world of Gertrude and Pablo.

A meander through Central Park led us past the Turtle Pond and the Delacorte Theater to the Belvedere Castle, where a wedding was taking place in the Shakespeare Garden. Pressed Alex into service to snap a digital memento of the moment:



Down in the Village, we dined at a little bistro called Danal on E. 10th Street, where the food was delightful, the service was gemütlich and the ambience had potential - except that our dinner on the patio was marred just a little by the roar of the air conditioner unit. The boys dashed off to the Astor Place Theater for a performance of Blue Man Group while we lingered over a scoop of sorbet, festooned by sparklers, before heading for Lincoln Center for the MAIN EVENT: a performance of The Light in the Piazza.

So maybe eventually I'll get around to writing an analysis of this amazing musical. I've read Michael Feingold's assessment in the Village Voice, and I'd say it's pretty fair and balanced, but this was not a night for analysis. It rocked my world, folks. Details at eleven.

From Philly on the Phourth

Things have been busy here in the birthplace of Independence, and the Fourth of July celebration is only part of it. Since emerging from "The Middle of Nowhere" (the Randy Newman show at the Prince that closed on June 27th), I've divided my time between well-deserved pleasures, long-deferred duties and much-needed preparations, and I'm pleased to report that the first of the three has been winning.

In that category, I offer these pictures from the Blue Ridge Theater Festival's production of my musical "A Is For Anything":





This little show was written in the late 80's, when Alex (now a towering 20) was a tot, and last seen at Gretna Theater nine or ten years ago. The three young actors at BRTF tore into the material with gusto and good humor, and the (mostly young) audience seemed to enjoy it immensely. Many thanks to producer Bev Appleton and congratulations to all involved!

From the intimate to the gargantuan: Other recent pastimes included a meander through Live 8, the juggernaut that rolled into town on Saturday. I hope to have QuickTime video to post soon, but my computer and video camera aren't talking to each other right now - an unforeseen technical glitch that has me stumped for the moment. Of course, there's no shortage of images on the web for this event; indeed, the web seems to have triumphed over old media (TV and dead trees) in its coverage of this global, highly networked event.

And in the deferred duties department, I visited the dentist for another swell morning spent chewing on scalpels. While my gums heal, I fantasize about my pending movie-star smile and shun the taco chips.