ALL AROUND THE TOWN

I never thought I'd say it, but I wish it would snow. This warm weather just isn't right. Don't get me wrong, I curse the snow as I'm trudging through it just like everyone else, but that doesn't mean I want the seasons to disappear. So far, we have had one snowfall in NYC, and the snow barely lasted one day, but for that one day, my little street was transformed.

Lonely, stone puppy on my terrace

In this city, it's easy to want to cut yourself off from the constant input of information and the never-ending crush of people, particularly when you work in Times Square. But if you can find a way to channel it, it can also be a rush to navigate the energy currents on the way to and from the theatre.

 It's like taking a short-cut through the circus every day.

Tis the season for new shows to inhabit Broadway and, as an outsider, the sheer volume of theatre here is a thespian wet dream. The Minskoff Theater, home of The Lion King, faces Times Square and straddles the block between 44th & 45th Streets. Both of these streets are crammed with theaters. In fact, if you were to leave The Minskoff stage door, walk along 44th to 8th Ave, and up 45th to return to the stage door, you would pass more than 10 theaters. On a quick trip to grab a coffee between shows, I snapped a few pics of new shows set to open, all on 45th street, all within 3 minutes of my stage door.

 Our dressing room windows look across the street into their dressing room windows.

Perhaps I can terrify Ricky's kids with my Scar make-up.

 This is the Imperial theatre that hosted the recently closed "Billy Elliot"

 This musical is based on the indie movie of the same name.

Any one's guess how long it will last.

 Yes, William Shatner is opening a one-man show.

This is the theater that housed the Canadian production of "Private Lives"

starring Paul Gross and Kim Catrall

Ridiculously stellar cast, including fellow Canadian Eric McCormack

 And those are just Broadway shows. Factor in all the off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, experimental, cabaret and 'happenings', and it all becomes overwhelmingly fantastic.

I've been doing the show for 3 weeks now, and despite my best efforts, the massive bouquet of roses I received from Pam, Michael, Kay and Tim have faded. When I brought them home from the theatre, I tossed them in the bathtub overnight to rehydrate them. They looked so colorful, I almost left them there just for fun.

Over time, I kept pulling  the dead ones out of the vase and rehydrating the struggling ones. Fortunately, it's so hot in my apartment that the survivors dried out almost perfectly and, three weeks later,  they are still on my coffee table, looking almost as if I put a dried arrangement there on purpose.

When Pam wasn't in charge of buying roses on the sly, we chewed up as much of NYC as time would allow. I thought I might have to physically restrain her when we got a counter seat at the pizza/pasta bar at EATALY.

And then when the pizza and pasta of the day arrived, .....well, it was carnage.

I posted in a previous entry how great it was to receive opening wishes from around the world. Well, it was equally great to receive some sass from far away. I got a text from Lyall in South Africa. He included a pic of him dining with some of the folks from the Singapore production of LK. I made a sarcastic comment about having to dine with "THEM", and received this photo in reply...

 Yup, that's Jamie. He played the meerkat. One of these guys....

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