I arrived at Newark at noon on New Year’s Eve. Eb Keshavarz was there to pick me up in his day-old Acura TL…a very nice car indeed, Bluetooth phone aware (will route calls through the car’s audio system!), and navigation package (whose breathy female voice his girlfriend Costanza can’t stand 😉 ). We went to the hospital where his father was in CCU and visited with him for a while, then had a late lunch at a chicken place in Spanish Harlem. He dropped me off at Columbus Circle, but it was such a nice day I decided to walk through Central Park to get to Eb’s place on 67th and 1st. I dropped off my stuff, read for a bit, then, counter to my nature, decided to get to the theater early.
That decision was, in a word, fortuitous.
I got to the Times Sq. Station at 5:45, an hour and a quarter before the curtain. They had already blocked off the square and Broadway and 7th, so I walked over to 8th and then up to 44th where the theater was, but there was a barricade 10 yards in front of the box office. I told the officer that I had a ticket at will call , but he said I had to show him the ticket to get through. Nice Catch-22. He told me he was sorry, but I had to go through the nearest security cordon at 52nd. So I walked up there, and there was already a throng of several hundred people waiting to be patted down by 2 officers. Every few minutes, there would be a surge of people pressing forward, and we’d be squeezed even tighter together. If it got any tighter, I thought I was going to have to end up marrying the Japanese woman in front of me.
I finally got through at 6:45, and got up to 7th only to find yet another security checkpoint. Most of the people were kind of enough to let me pass ahead, but it got to a point where we were packed so tight that it was physically impossible for people to let me pass. When I finally got to the front, I asked told the gentleman in front of me my story; he said he didn’t believe me, but was gonna let me ahead of him anyway. I got patted down and cleared at 6:55 – 5 minutes to go 8 short blocks, not a problem if I trotted. Unfortunately, 7th was blocked to everyone at 50th. I told an officer there that I was trying to get to the theater, and he told me I’d have to go back out to 8th and come in on 44th! Arggghh!! I ran back out to 8th, against the now huge flow of people coming up from the station, and get to the barricade at 44th. I tell a different officer of my predicament, and he says “No problem, come on in.” Where was he an hour ago??? I ran into the theater as they were closing the doors, got my ticket, and was seated in my chair just as the curtain went up.
The Producers is a nice show, “not thrilling, but nice.” 😉 What makes it so special are Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, who are sensational. This was there 2nd night back, and they were having a ball with it, tyring to make each other laugh and ad-libbing (I was one of a handful of people in the audience who caugh Lane’s delivery of “Wha’ happened?” ? la Fred Willard in “A Mighty Wind”). The best part, though, was in the courtroom scene towards the end of the second act: Mel Brooks made a cameo as the judge, and, judging from both Lane’s and Broderick’s reaction, a complete surprise as well. After Broderick sang “Til Him”, Brooks quipped “Whoever wrote that song is a genius.”
I came out of the theater, and got a voicemail from Costanza saying Eb’s father had died. I talked with Eb and he asked me to just stay at his place that evening and we’d figure out something the next day. Also there was voicemail from Greg Kahn, who was going to fly up from DC and meet me, but bronchitis laid him out. Not wanting to brave the madding crowd again, I went back to Eb’s place and started walking south on 1st to find a place to eat. I ended up at a place called Il Gatto & La Volpe between 63rd and 64th. It was quite good: I had mustard-encrusted lamb and chocolate souffl? for dessert, and two big bottles of San Pelagrino (I was thristier than I thought!). They passed out party hats and noisemakers and streamers to everyone, and at midnight they gave handed out champagne. There was lots of dancing, and the waitress, who is a trained dancer, was especially fun to watch.