Goings on - off Broadway

On Saturday, B and I ventured into Manhattan for a dinner and show with Aerial PJ and his boyfriend, E.

We were blessed both with a wonderful, sunny day pushing 50 degrees (a welcome relief after an extremely long and icy cold snap) and by the the gods of Amtrak for giving us two trains on the same day that actually arrived and left on time - nor did they suffer a catastrophic breakdown or strand us in the middle of nowhere.

Ask anyone who regularly rides the Empire line to and from New York City and you will find this was a miraculous day indeed.

Anyway - we detrained at Penn Station - rested and ready (and since it wasn't Metro North, we all had napped during the 1.5 hour ride - calm in the knowledge that no one would attempt to steal our shoes while we slept.)

Fearlessly, we waded happily into Times Square even though B had been called a scumbag by a shouting black Zionist for laughing at him after he called us "crackers." B's pretty fearless that way.

We had reservations at B. Smith's restaurant, on Restaurant Row. We'd never heard of it but E had eaten there previously with some of his team from work.

Apparently, B. Smith is some kind of alternate universe Martha Stewart - she cooks, she models and she has bedding and houseware lines that carry her name. The restaurant alone tells you of her accomplishments - with photos and magazine articles and her advertisements plastered on every conceivable vertical surface in the joint.

I was bemused to see a 1980s era advertisement in the restroom with B modeling tan Florsheim strappy sandals. It set off the crepe paper striping on the walls ever so deliciously (despite the fact that you can see the raggedy-ass ends of the crepe paper where it meets the ceiling and wainscoting - it's so nice of her to hire the mentally challenged to help decorate).

Anyway - like many restaurants on Restaurant Row, B's place offers a Prixe Fixe menu for the theater-going crowd. A reasonably priced meal designed to get you fed and get you off to your show before curtain call.

AerialPJ had a delicious braise of black eyed peas and beans with pork tips, while B and I enjoyed some snappy steamed vegetable dumplings with Hoisin sauce. E tested the baby farmer greens salad.

For dinner, AerialPJ and I ordered the meatloaf which was nice but not remarkable, while E tucked into some kind of stuffed chicken thing. B opted for the salmon, which, unfortunately, was less than edible. It was a lesser cut of the salmon and had been cooked with lime rounds and wrapped in a plantain leaf.

Dessert lifted our spirits with a Bourbon Street bread pudding for B and AerialPJ, which was delicious. E and I had a chocolate mousse flavored with Colombian coffee that, frankly, tasted like the pre-packaged mousse mix I can make at home.

Anyway - a bit disappointed but fed (and with a couple martinis under my belt), we headed off to the Westside Theater to see The Marvelous Wonderettes.

The show - AerialPJ and E gave us the tickets as a Christmas gift - was definitely a feel-good kind of show that was charming and quirky and funny. It centered around a group of high school girls who had formed a singing group and were enlisted to entertain at their 1958 prom. It all takes place in their school gymnasium, festooned with crepe paper and "Chipmunk" pride - their school mascot.

The music featured all standards from the period - with the girls portraying very believable and nervous young ladies with so-so voices and some really cheesy choreography at the start. However, as the show unfolds, and you find out more about each of the four, they began to display some very impressive Broadway-esque pipes.



After intermission, you are back in that same high school gymnasium ten years later for their 10 year reunion. The music switches gear to the more hard-hitting music of the 60s and its revealed that these ladies have all lived in the interim - with one pregnant, another estranged from her husband, and another still trying to get her high school crush - Mr. Lee - to marry her.

It was great fun - people sang and clapped along. The audience was extremely diverse with both older people who grew up with this music and children in attendance.

An uneventful stroll back to Penn Station and a - thankfully - on-time 11:45 pm train whisked us home so that we could walk thru the door, dropping clothes, shoes and programs along the way - all the time kvetching about how much it hurts to be up at 2 am at our age.

But humming the songs all the same.... : )


And I can't wait to wear my new "Prom Queen" t-shirt from the show!

Ciao!