I raved about Amy Babic’s Copinette, a restaurant renowned for its amazing American cuisine with French influence. It was time to try her second restaurant Kurant Wine Bar located at 1091 2nd Avenue between 57th and 58th Street in Manhattan.
Recce is a prolific composer and lyricist who knows his audience. His banter, sarcasm, wit, and humor are well received. He’s fresh, relevant, irreverent, and quick to lampoon those whose actions he reproves. He is rebellious and reflects his views through an evolution of personal expressions through song. His abilities are diverse. He expresses himself in a mode of his choice best suited to empower his message.
The audience gaped in wonderment and amusement at the singing, clever gestures, affectations, jokes, and exploitation of the hilarious, sometimes disjointed clues that inspired the scenes. The performers complete these tasks on the fly.
In a selection from the audio drama Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart, Steven Fry, Vanessa Redgrave, and the music are sublime.
Hammerstein’s legacy lives on, not only because the musicals and films he touched continue to draw audiences but because of the work of the Oscar Hammerstein Museum & Theatre Education Center (aka OHMTEC). This not-for-profit 501c3 organization is currently soliciting donations to purchase Hammerstein’s former home Highland Farm in Doylestown PA to serve, as noted on their site, as a “creative epicenter to make it accessible to people the world over.”
The President has blurted out another gaffe, and everyone is scurrying to fix his latest blunder. Sound all too familiar? Well, in this case, it takes more than his wife and favorable news reporters to cover up this mess. It’s so bad that the care of seven women is needed for damage control.
The brother Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell created the book and are back at it again to make music and lyrics of pure unadulterated fun. Mrs. Doubtfire at the Stephen Sondheim theater is an update of the 1993 film starring Robin Williams, but funnier and more entertaining.
Jane Anger is hilariously funny. Witticisms, cleverness, plays on words, malapropisms, and sparkling non sequitur rants abound along with a dash of the spirit of Monte Python and Mel Brooks, a touch of Abbott and Costello, and the cast’s superb timing that make it work.
Elias’ own warmth, smile, and gentle narratives of her homeland drew anticipation for the music we were about to experience. As she introduced each song, she frequently connected interesting anecdotes about the song’s setting, rhythm, composer, and lyrics. She inexorably drew the audience into the virtual world of each song, inspiring sentimental musings about the dance, beauty, charm, and romance of Brazil.
Curry transformed herself into a litany of characters in Queens Girl in the World, projecting the mannerisms of people who influenced her.