The co driver had a day’s basket weaving class in Brooklyn and I was having a father/daughter day also beginning in Brooklyn.
So chancing our luck with the revised weekend subway timetables, we set off from a station some distance away from what had become our usual one, transferred, rode 4 stops passed our desired station (downtowns were not stopping there this weekend), transferred and rode back on an uptown which did stop where we wanted to get off.
Made it! Phew!
I also made it back to the daughters, inspected their new apartment and the building’s facilities (very nice), walked in heavy rain around Brooklyn Heights to get a feel of the place (much nicer than Fort Greene) and then we subwayed it into Times Square for a taco lunch at Los Tacos No.1.
No cards, stand up at a communal tiled bench to eat, clean up after yourself. Best tacos ever!
The daughter had booked to see the revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! on Broadway.
She had seen the show during its Off Broadway tryout late last year and liked it.
It has been a favourite of mine since the late 1950s when I saw it as a movie. I can’t count the number of times I have seen it since in that form as well as live on stage. This stripped down revival was a radical departure from the traditional but it had the approval of the R&H Trust so I had confidence that although I might be challenged, I would like it.
The Circle in the Square Theatre was small and almost ‘in the round’ so the audience was close to the action.
To say it was ‘different’ is an understatement. It was at times raw and confronting. But I enjoyed it immensely. The only quibbles I had were with Jud’s demise, not quite the accident portrayed in the original story, and the strange and almost irrelevant dream sequence.
But all in all, an amazing experience with a brilliant 12 member cast and an exceptional 7 piece band.
Just goes to prove that no matter what the setting, Oklahoma!’s book, lyrics and music still hold their own, even 76 years on from its debut.
The show just received two Tonys. One for Best Musical Revival and one for Best Featured Actress in a Musical to wheelchair confined Ali Stroker for her role as Ado Annie.
And they served the audience chilli and corn bread (see red crockpots on the tables) on stage during interval. How good is that?
This review which I agree with 99.9% says it all better than I can.
Back onto the rainy streets and then an extremely crowded subway, we headed for Williamsburg and a favourite restaurant of the new New Yorkers.
Called Have & Meyer, it specialises in Italian cuisine and
‘natural’ wine from grapes mostly native to Italy made by small producers. All are available by the glass, over 100 of them! I tried some good wines that I could rarely afford a bottle of and slipped into oenophile mode for a while.
Monday and the sun is finally shining!
Subway to Grand Central Station for breakfast and then a train ninety minutes up the Hudson River Valley as far as Cold Spring.
The further you get away from the city, the more leafy, green and rural it gets. This small tourist town was still gearing up for the season and was pretty quiet. Many shops were still closed.
The main street could have been a movie set for a small town USA saga.
We had probably the worst cappuccino ever at a local cafe but lunch at Hudson Hil’s was excellent. We browsed the shops and eventually sat by the river and enjoyed a quiet break in the sunshine.
Nicko ordered for us all and his Chinese heritage enabled us to experience dishes we would normally not consider. They were all great.
A fitting end to our short New York City adventure.
Thanks, guys for looking after us!
Next morning we were up at 4am to catch an early flight from Newark to Sioux Falls via Chicago.
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