NewYorkology

Restaurant Week extends to Feb. 28 at most locations

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:02:03 -0500

NYC Restaurant Week, which unofficially ended this past Friday, has officially been extended through Feb. 28 at more than 190 restaurants, NYC & Co, the event’s sponsor, confirmed today.

Restaurants taking part in the extension include 21 Club, Aquavit, Bar Boulud, Blue Water Grill, Cafe Fiorello, Calle Ocho, Capsouto Frères, Carlyle Restaurant, Central Park Boathouse, Cipriani Dolci, David Burke Townhouse, DBGB; Gallagher’s Steakhouse, Gotham Bar & Grill, Kittichai, Le Cirque, Le Colonial, Mesa Grill, Morimoto, Nobu, Oak Room, One if by Land, Two if by Sea, Petrossian, Red Cat, Riingo, Russian Tea Room, Shun Lee Palace, Spice Market, Telepan, Tocqueville and Tribeca Grill.

The Winter Restaurant Week offer gets you a three-course lunch for $24.07 or dinner for $35. Tax, tip and drinks are not included in that price. Saturdays and Feb. 14 are excluded from the deal; only some take part on Sundays. In addition, not all restaurants offer the deal at both lunch and dinner.

Image source: NYC & Co.

Earlier:
Restaurant Week: Modern, Le Cirque, Del Posto, Cipriani
Restaurant weeks for Northeast road-trippers

Cirque du Soleil open house Feb. 10 at Beacon Theatre

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:15:20 -0500

Cirque du Soleil will open its doors for a free open house Feb. 10 at the Beacon Theatre as the company prepares to open its new “Banana Shpeel” show.

The open house — scheduled from from 4:30 to 7 p.m. — promises a “sneak peek at the creative process, meet and greet opportunities with artists, and tastings from surrounding restaurants and bakeries.”

The event is free, a Cirque spokesperson told NewYorkology.

The Beacon Theatre is located at 2124 Broadway between 74th and 75th streets.

“Banana Shpeel” will play at the Beacon from Feb. 25 through May 30.

Image source: Cirque du Soleil.

Bar, music returns to Top of Rock for February nights

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:29:13 -0500

Although the Rainbow Room remains closed, Rockefeller Center is bringing back high-in-the-sky cocktails - at least on four nights in February.

The observation deck at Top of the Rock will bring in live music and a bar on three Wednesdays — Feb. 10, 17, 24 - plus on the evening of Valentine’s Day, for its Starlight Music Series.

The bar will be open from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Wednesdays, and from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 14. Although Top of the Rock has several outdoor observation decks, the bar and music will be indoors in the weather room (which has tall windows and great views.)

The music schedule:

Feb. 10 - Beledo Jazz Trio
Feb. 14 - The Joan Capra String Ensemble
Feb. 17 - Paul Meyers Jazz Duo
Feb. 24 - The Mark Berman Jazz Trio

]]> The Starlight Music Series is included with the price of regular Top of the Rock Admission, though all drinks cost extra.

In November 2005, Rockefeller Center’s 69th and 70th floor roofdecks reopened to the public after two decades of no access.

Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

Earlier: Top of the Rock to pour wine for sunset concert series

Geek drinks: Valentine's 101 at Hayden Planetarium

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:23:43 -0500

The American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday will bring the birds and the bees to its monthly geek drinks cocktail event.

The theme for February’s after-hours SciCafe event is “Valentine’s Day 101: Why Humans Have Sex.” Evolutionary psychologist David M. Buss will be on hand to discuss why sex is used for more than just reproduction and pleasure.

The free event is held in the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. There’s a cash bar and entry is over-21 only. Doors open at 7 p.m.

SciCafe started in October and is held the first Wednesday of each month.

Acela free wi-fi to start March 1 on all high-speed trains

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:41:35 -0500

One month from today, free wi-fi will be installed on all high-speed Acela trains, Cliff Cole, an Amtrak spokesperson, told NewYorkology by e-mail this morning.

The plan is for a “full roll out on the Acela Express trains on March 1st,” he said.

Previously Amtrak had announced it planned to offer the wi-fi starrting sometime in March. At least initially, the wi-fi will be free to all customers on the Acela trains, which travel the Washington D.C.-New York - Boston corridor several times a day.

Plans are also in the works to upgrade the interior of all Acela Express trains to improve power outlets, tray tables and leather seating, according to a January news release from Amtrak.

Image source: Amtrak

Earlier: Amtrak plans to offer free wi-fi on Acela trains in 2010
LimoLiner cuts Boston fare to $69, ends Hartford route
Amtrak confirms wi-fi in test mode on Acela trains

'American Idiot' Broadway cast to debut on Grammys

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:47:43 -0500

The Broadway-bound cast of “American Idiot” will tonight make its debut on the Grammy Awards broadcast on CBS alongside Green Day singing “21 Guns.”

The Broadway musical will star John Gallagher Jr., who won the best featured actor Tony Award in 2007 for Duncan Sheik’s “Spring Awakening,” producers Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman announced Thursday.

He’ll share the Broadway stage with Stark Sands, Michael Esper, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Christina Sajous, Mary Faber and Tony Vincent.

Producers describe the show like this:

AMERICAN IDIOT follows the exhilarating journey of a new generation of young Americans as they struggle to find meaning in a post 9/11 world, borne along by Green Day’s electrifying score. This high-octane show includes every song from the acclaimed album American Idiot, as well as several songs from the band’s three-time GRAMMY®-nominated new release, 21st Century Breakdown

Broadway previews will begin March 24 with opening night planned for April 20.

It will play at the St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St., map. Tickets, which will go on sale to the general public starting Feb. 14, are priced from $32 to $127. Premium seats, including aisle seats which must be purchased in pairs, range from $142 to $177.

The musical, which is getting a pre-Broadway run at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, has already been reviewed by the New York Times’ Charles Isherwood. His conclusion:

Mournful as it is about the prospects of 21st-century Americans, the show possesses a stimulating energy and a vision of wasted youth that holds us in its grip. And to ring a variation on the Woody Allen joke about sex being dirty if you’re doing it right, the only thing sadder than wasting your youth is not wasting it.

Picture credit: Mellopix.com/The Hartman Group.

Earlier: On Broadway, ‘Fela’ draws great reviews: ‘total theater’
Critics rave over ‘Hair’ revival on Broadway stage
Final night for ‘Rent’ on Broadway extended to Sept. 7, 2008
OMG, ‘Spring Awakening’ blogs the Tonys from inside
‘Spring Awakening’: Rockin’ with Victorian German kids

Review roundup: praise for Linney in 'Time Stands Still'

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:06:12 -0500

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies’ new drama, “Time Stands Still,” last night opened on Broadway to generally strong reviews, especially for Laura Linney as the injured war photographer uncomfortably at home.

She shares the stage — and critics’ praise — with Brian d’Arcy James as her freelance reporter boyfriend ready to pack it in, as well as Eric Bogosian as her editor who is dating the younger but not-altogether clueless Alicia Silverstone. (Even Variety even refers to “Silverstone’s enormously likable performance.”)

Daniel Sullivan’s directing of the Manhattan Theatre Club production elicits wide praise from the critics as well.

But for all the great reviews, they are not unanimous. The Wall Street Journal hates it, and others short Margulies for not delving deeper to break new ground.

“Time Stands Still” plays through March 21 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $57 to $111. Student rush tickets are sold for $27 at the box office on the day of the performance.

Producers advise the show may be inappropriate for 12 and under.

The reviews for “Time Stands Still” on Broadway:

New York Times - “‘Time Stands Still,’ which opened Thursday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in a flawless Manhattan Theater Club production directed by Daniel Sullivan, is handily Mr. Margulies’s finest play since the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Dinner With Friends.’ Like that keenly observed drama about the growing pains of adulthood, the new play explores the relationship between two couples at a crucial juncture in their lives, when the desire to move forward clashes with the instinct to stay comfortably — or even uncomfortably — in place.”

Variety - “Donald Margulies’ new play is a thoughtful, absorbing work, its strengths maximized in the crystalline naturalism of Daniel Sullivan’s production and the incisive interpretations of four astute actors. Reflecting on the divergent growth paths and changing needs of long-term relationships, “Time Stands Still” tends to tack on ethical debate points that reveal as much of the playwright’s voice as those of his characters. This makes the drama somewhat amorphous and less satisfying than it could be. But there’s a ring of truth to the emotional experience being thrashed out onstage that keeps it compelling.”

Post - “Unfortunately for Linney — and the audience at ‘Time Stands Still’ — Sarah also is a holier-than-thou, joyless prig. Had she been written better, Sarah would have been an interesting challenge for the actress — and she could have handled it — but author Donald Margulies (‘Sight Unseen,’ ‘Dinner With Friends’) only looks at murky waters, afraid to dive in.”

NY1 - “For all its virtues, the play doesn’t wholly succeed. It’s a situation drama with a narrow premise that tends to contrive its conflicts and the characters don’t always seem true to nature. But given the Manhattan Theatre Club’s impeccable production, audiences will find a visit to ‘Time Stands Still’ is time well spent.”

]]> Hollywood Reporter - “And though this latest work occasionally suffers from a surfeit of themes and a lack of focus, it’s a nonetheless absorbing, ultimately very moving piece that is receiving a beautifully acted Broadway production.”

Associated Press - “But it is Linney who galvanizes the production, expertly riding the rhythms of Margulies’ insightful writing. There is an unsparing directness to her performance — not to mention a superb sense of timing — that makes this photographer one of the most compelling characters to grace a Broadway stage this season.”

USA Today - “Fortunately, she’s played here by the remarkable Laura Linney, whose unmannered lucidity and utter lack of vanity make Sarah more convincing and sympathetic. Likewise, Brian d’Arcy James’ natural, vital performance ensures that his role isn’t reduced to a sensitive modern male in distress.”

Wall Street Journal - “I wish I could say something nice about a play that stars Laura Linney, Alicia Silverstone, Eric Bogosian and Brian d’Arcy James. No can do: Donald Margulies’s ‘Time Stands Still’ is a predictable piece of middle-of-the-road Pulitzer bait that has nothing to recommend it beyond the cast, Daniel Sullivan’s staging and Mr. Beatty’s set, all of which are exemplary.”

Bloomberg - “Donald Margulies’s ‘Time Stands Still’ compellingly demonstrates what a master playwright can do with great economy and efficiency, and with four fine actors who conjure up a commanding cross section of our conflicted, compromising or intransigent world. “

New York magazine - “They also come off as believable relics of old-school, hard-core journalism, principled individuals who have perhaps poured too much of their hearts into what they do.”

Time Out - “Once again, the masterful director Daniel Sullivan has taken a solid play—taut and well-constructed, with hardly a single detail extraneous—and given us the smartest version of it possible.”

Back Stage - “But though the play gives Linney resonant opportunity, Margulies’ largely well-observed, intelligent four-hander ultimately can’t transcend its predictability. While the journey holds our interest, the destination is disappointing.”

Chicago Tribune - “Characters keep going to the bathroom, or out for ice cream, mostly to allow the play to mix up the points of view. More troublingly, the piece relies on idealistic characters who lack the sense of irony their real-world referents invariably exhibit, and who seem overly clueless about the changes in the media marketplace, and thus too-suddenly furious at the compromises they are being asked to make. These compromises have been around for a while now. A woman as smart as Linney’s Sarah would have turned pragmatist, and kept on doing her work.”

Los Angeles Times - “Alicia Silverstone, reprising the comic gem of a performance she gave at the Geffen, plays Richard’s new sweetheart, Mandy Bloom, an “event planner” less than half his age who has a hard time understanding why anyone wouldn’t choose personal happiness over global misery and despair. “

Daily News - “Fortunately, with Daniel Sullivan’s deft direction, the four actors glide past the shortfalls.”

Image source: Manhattan Theatre Club.

Newest hotels in NYC: Crosby St, Ink 48, Surrey, Strand

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:42:19 -0500

Sometimes all the media hype goes to the almost-open hotels, but that doesn’t do you any good if you’re actually trying to book a room and want to avoid the reliable surprise that the opening date was more fiction than fact.

Not surprisingly, of all the New York City hotels planned for 2009, not all opened. The first half of the year saw the debut of several hotels including the Smyth Tribeca, the Ace, The Mave, as well as the renovated reopenings of The Pierre and The Mark. A Holiday Inn opened in Long Island City and a side-by-side-by-side Hampton Inn/Candlewood/Holiday Inn Express opened near Times Square.

The Andaz Wall Street was the first high-profile opening on 2010. Here’s the rundown of the other big hotel openings for the past six months in NYC:

London-based Firmdale Hotels has ventured into New York with the boutique darling Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo. It has 86 rooms on 11 floors, as well as a 99-seat screening room. Its Crosby Bar, says the New York Times “so earnestly embodies a certain British quirkiness with its Paul Smith-meets-Moroccan décor and eclectic art.” Winter rates start at $475 a night, which includes English breakfast. The Crosby Street Hotel is located at 79 Crosby St., map.

The new 122-room, 16-story Hotel Indigo, Chelsea opened in October with the Blu Restaurant & Bar and the outdoor Glass Bar. The Hotel Indigo is located at 127 W. 28th St., map.

Also in Midtown, the Fairfield Inn New York Manhattan/Fifth Avenue opened with 92 rooms and free high-speed Internet. Rates start at $159. It’s located at 21 W. 37th St., map.

Kimpton’s Ink 48, a 222-room, 17-story hotel housed in a former printing plant, is now fully open, with the “Heaven Over Hell’s Kitchen” penthouse suite is scheduled to open March 1. The lobby restaurant will open in February, the Spa will open in late March and a rooftop bar and glass-enclosed rooftop restaurant are also in contract, a hotel spokeswoman told NewYorkology. Originally, the hotel was going to be called Vu Hotel, which according to Hotel Chatter.com, explains the towels. Ink48 is located at 653 11th Ave., map.

]]> After a $60 million gut renovation, the Beaux-Arts style Surrey opened in November on the Upper East Side with 190 salons, including 30 suites on its 17 floors. Decorated with art by the likes of Jenny Holzer, Jimmie Martin, Richard Serra, Donald Sultan and William Kentridge, The Surrey also offers a spa, a private rooftop garden and in-room dining delivered by Cafe Boulud. The hotel’s introductory offer (good through March 31) includes a free room upgrade, welcome gift, and breakfast for two with rates starting at $629 a night. The Surrey is located at 20 E. 76th St., map.

Located in Midtown, The Strand features 177 rooms on 20 floors, capped off by Top of the Strand, an indoor/outdoor rooftop lounge and bar. The hotel is decorated with vintage fashion photography from Condé Nast and provides free in-room wi-fi. Room rates start at $195. The Strand is located at 33 W. 37th St., map.

Lastly, Hilton Grand Vacations opened a time share on 57th Street. When it opened in July, The Real Deal called it “the first ground-up residential shared ownership property ever developed in New York City.”

Related: Hotel Boom Hits Chelsea (NY1)
Oyster independent hotel reviews for NYC
New York hotel coverage from HotelChatter.com
Hotel development coverage at Curbed.com

Picture credit: Front Desk, lobby, of Ink 48. Photo by Deirdre Ryan. Provided by Kimpton.

Earlier: NYC tourism totals drop to 45.25 million for 2009
Hotel renovations: Trump stays open; Milford closes

'South Park' creators planning summer stage musical

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:46:04 -0500

New York Theater Workshop plans to mount a new musical this summer created by “South Park” braintrust Trey Parker and Matt Stone and “Avenue Q” composer Robert Lopez, according to the New York Times.

The New York Theater Workshop did not disclose details of the project, but the NY Post reported in July that Parker, Stone and Lopez were shopping around a script for “Mormon Musical” - and they had tapped Cheyenne Jackson to star.

Today’s report in the Times says the musical will be staged in August and September.

Update: In 2001, Parker’s comedy “Cannibal! The Musical” played an extended stint Off-Off-Broadway, according to the Playbill archives. It’s scheduled to play this summer at London’s Leicester Square Theatre.

Update as of 1:15 p.m.: On Twitter, we asked New York Theatre Workshop if it is indeed the “Mormon Musical.” The reply: ” ummm…we’re not at liberty to discuss. it’s a “new musical”. how’s that? …”

MoMA to mount major Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:18:47 -0500

The Museum of Modern Art will stage a major retrospective of the photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson from April 11 to June 28, the museum announced this week.

The exhibition, “Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century,” will include 300 prints from 1929 to 1989, “at least one fifth of them previously unknown to the public,” MoMA promises. Of those, 220 of the prints will be on loan from the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris, which was established two years before the photographer’s death in 2004.

The esteemed photojournalist used the term “the decisive moment” to refer to the unstaged, unedited, fleeting moment that can reveal deeper insight into the pictured subject.

The exhibition will be divided into 12 parts, according to the outline provided by MoMA:

]]> The first is devoted to the early 1930s, when the young Surrealist rebel used the quickness and mobility of the handheld Leica camera to invent a new brand of creative magic.
The second section, on the aftermath of World War II and the postwar political and social transformations of Asia, introduces Cartier-Bresson’s long career in photojournalism.

The remaining ten parts are thematic rather than chronological. The third, fourth, and fifth chapters explore the photographer’s loving evocations of age-old patterns of life in the East, the West, and in his native France.

Sections on the United States and the Soviet Union are followed by extended photo-essays on China’s “Great Leap Forward” and the daily routines at Bankers Trust Company in New York. A selection of 34 outstanding portraits reveal Cartier-Bresson as one of the great portraitists of the twentieth century.

The exhibition concludes with sections devoted to encounters and gatherings of all kinds in the lively theater of the street, and to the often unlovely rise of modernity—mechanization, industry, commerce, consumerism, and leisure—around the globe. In 2007, a smaller exhibition at New York’s International Center of Photography focused on Cartier-Bresson’s work from 1932-46.

Picture credit: Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908-2004)
Hyères, France. 1932
Gelatin silver print, 7 11/16 × 11 7/16” (19.6 × 29.1 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase
© Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
Republished with permission from MoMA

'Avenue Q' and more Off-Broadway go 2-for-1 Feb. 8-28

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:05:39 -0500

The sale on Off-Broadway has been extended.

Currently, theater tickets for Off-Broadway can be purchased for $20 through the 20at20 program, which sells all remaining tickets for $20 starting 20 minutes before curtain. There are 25 shows to choose from, such as critical favorites “The Emperor Jones” and “Zero Hour.”

The 20at20 program runs through Feb. 7.

But wait, there’s more.

The city’s own tourism group, NYC & Co., has announced a two-for-one “On the House” Off-Broadway ticket deal, which will run from Feb. 8 through Feb. 28.

While the “On the House” program is less of a bargain, it does let you buy your tickets in advance rather than taking your last-minute chances at the box office. The 25 shows taking part in the two-for-one offer include “Avenue Q,” “Venus in Fur,” “Ages of the Moon,” “The Fantasticks,” “Mr. & Mrs. Fitch,” “Stomp” and “The Gazillion Bubble Show.”

Regular-priced tickets for the shows are generally in the $50 to $75 range. To get the two-for-one deal, see the NYC & Co. website for the promotional codes, which are often, though not always HOUSE.

Correction as of Feb. 8: When first published, the links to the 20at20 and On The House programs were transposed. They have been swapped.

Andaz Wall Street opens with rooms from $220

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:33:55 -0500

The Andaz Wall Street officially opens for business today, offering boutique-style rooms from $220 as well as a Hudson Valley-sourced restaurant, a bar that emphasizes Pullman-style mixed-at-your-table cocktails and a spa that will let you order services in quick 15-minute increments for $35.

Without reeking of dollar signs, the David Rockwell-designed hotel evokes the neighborhood’s monied history in subtle ways: multi-sized bamboo panels in the lobby match the old lock boxes of Wall Street; arching woodcuts in the ceiling evoke watermark details from the dollar bill; and lamps in the restaurant resemble clusters of pearls (a la neighboring Pearl Street, originally named for the abundance of oyster shells left by Lenape Indians, according to “Naming New York”.)

The second-floor restaurant, Wall & Water, opens under the helm of Maximo Lopez who comes from the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the menu follows a “farm to table” concept drawing from relationships with Hudson Valley growers.

Bar Seven Five opens weekdays at 4 p.m. (when the market closes) and emphasizes Prohibition-style cocktails served in an open atmosphere meant to evoke a fancy living room rather than a bar.

The hotel rooms reach as high as the 17th floor (with condos on the upper floors.) As the hotel emerges from its soft opening, just over 50 rooms are open. All 253 rooms should be open soon, hotel spokeswoman Rachel Harrison told NewYorkology during a tour of the property last week.

]]> The smallest rooms, the king, start at 345-square feet and feature window seats, 11-foot high ceilings, double-paned glass with automated sleep shutters. There are 42-inch LCD TVs, iPod docking stations and Pacific Coast down blankets. Higher grades of rooms include peek-a-boo tubs and rotating closets.

The bathrooms are stocked with NYC-based C.O. Bigelow products. Water, soda and snacks are free in the mini-bars (though you need to pay for the alcohol.) There are no in-room coffee makers, but the restaurant and room service uses Gimme! Coffee from Ithaca.

The spa has two treatment rooms and uses products from Luzern Laboratories and Red Flower. Open to the public, the spa offers manicures, pedicures, facials, wraps, massages and waxing. If you’re in a hurry, you can order up 15 minutes of a service for $35, and they throw in a free shoe shine and jacket press. For an extra $10, they’ll have a to-go lunch for you to take back to your desk.

The downstairs space also house the gym and casual conference rooms that have their own kitchen facilities and espresso machines.

The wi-fi is free throughout the property, including the lobby, which fronts Water Street (despite the Wall Street address.) Andaz Wall Street, a Hyatt brand, is located at 75 Wall St., map.

Picture credits: Wall & Water, (top) provided by Syndicate-NY; Andaz lobby, hotel room, conference room and gym, Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

High winds close Statue of Liberty, downtown streets

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:08:59 -0500

Extremely high winds and tides have caused the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to close for the day, according to the National Park Service.

“A combination of high winds and tides makes it unsafe for visitors to board and disembark the ferries to and from the islands. The park plans to re-open Tuesday, January 26,” states an advisory from the NPS. In 2009, extreme weather closed the Statue of Liberty only three times, twice for snow and once for heat.

Notify NYC, an official alert system operated by NYC government, also issued a wind advisory around 10 a.m.: “There are multiple street closures near City Hall Park in Manhattan. Debris is falling because of the high winds. The area between Gold Street, Ann Street and Park Row is closed to cars and pedestrians.”

Area airports are also operating with delays, according to the recent alerts issued by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

Related: Statue of Liberty webcam

Picture credit: Today’s view of Statue of Liberty from Red Hook, Brooklyn. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

A hit for Schreiber, Johansson in 'View From the Bridge'

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:41:26 -0500

Scarlett Johansson made a stellar Broadway debut last night alongside Liev Schreiber in the revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” which is receiving near-unanimous praise from critics.

Set in the 1950s “On the Waterfront” Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, the tragedy unfolds as longshoreman Eddie Carbone, his wife, and 17-year-old niece take in two Italian cousins who have entered the country illegally to find work. As Catherine falls in love with one of the cousins, Carbone uneasily wrestles with the fact his intentions toward his niece are not purely fatherly.

Critics are also liberal with their praise for director Gregory Mosher and the other primary actors: Jessica Hecht, Michael Cristofer, Morgan Spector and Corey Stoll. Words of disapproval — and they are few — generally fall only on poor old Arthur Miller, whose sometimes heavy hand does not please all comers.

“A View From the Bridge” plays through April 4 at the Cort Theatre, 138 W. 48th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $42.50 to $136.50. Premium seats are $191.50 and $251.50. Front-row rush tickets are sold for $26.50 starting at 10 a.m. each day a performance is scheduled. If a performance is sold out, standing room tickets will be sold for $26.50.

Producers advise the show may be inappropriate for ages 16 and under due to strong language, adult subject matter and violence.

The “A View From the Bridge” Broadway reviews:

New York Times - “Mr. Schreiber is such a complete actor that he has often thrown productions into imbalance, highlighting the inadequacy of the performances around him. That is not a problem here. That the excellent stage veteran Ms. Hecht holds her own with Mr. Schreiber is no surprise. That Ms. Johansson does — with seeming effortlessness — is.”

Variety - “Sometimes it’s high praise to call a stage director’s work invisible. The compliment applies to Gregory Mosher’s searing revival of “A View From the Bridge,” though it by no means indicates any lack of craftsmanship or insight. Returning to Broadway after a considerable absence, Mosher has instilled in his outstanding cast an unconditional trust in Arthur Miller’s text, evoking a time, a place and a 1950s blue-collar community with penetrating integrity.”

Hollywood Reporter - “Schreiber, who in recent years has established himself as perhaps the theater’s leading dramatic actor, is simply riveting as Eddie. Early on, he invests the role with subtle shades of humor that help leaven the melodramatic proceedings. But as Eddie becomes more consumed by his demons, Schreiber gradually ratchets up the intensity with shattering results.”

Post - “Johansson, on the other hand, comes out of left field with a committed performance that’s resolutely unshowy. She certainly does better by Miller than Katie Holmes did in 2008’s ‘All My Sons.’ This Catherine is demure and shy, but she also goes after what she wants, and it’s just wonderful to watch Johansson challenge both herself and our expectations of her.”

NY1 - “‘A View From The Bridge’ has never been regarded in quite the same class as Miller’s “Death of A Salesman” but so good is this production it elevates the play’s status.”

]]> Bloomberg - “This play is one of those doggedly recurrent attempts at tragedy for which, despite his overrated ‘Death of a Salesman,’ Miller had no real aptitude. So Schreiber and Johansson labor laudably in a lost cause. “

Associated Press - “‘Bridge’ is not only the story of one man. It is a tale of a community, in this case the Italian-American enclave in Red Hook, a neighborhood that has its own sets of rules and social mores. And Mosher makes sure we get a feel for its insularity, starting with designer John Lee Beatty’s grimy row of apartment buildings, including one that contains Eddie’s claustrophobic, drab apartment.”

Daily News - “If the play’s overstated narrative structure and bald symbolism (including a girl fetching and lighting her uncle’s cigar) keep it from being on Miller’s A-list (and they do), those weaknesses recede in Gregory Mosher’s exceptionally well-acted, well-staged revival.”

Washington Post - “The breakdown that this ‘Bridge’ illuminates is of a troubled man whose heart becomes untethered from reason. And the performances affirm the case for the story as a big event.”

USA Today - “Johansson disappears so completely into the role of Catherine, the plucky but naïve niece of a longshoreman, that you won’t stop to consider the qualities that make her distinctly suited to the part. Only afterward will you likely realize the actress’s youthful sensuality and capacity for good-natured goofiness constitute a perfect fit for this sheltered 17-year-old struggling to come to terms with her effect on men — her uncle, in particular.”

Back Stage - “Michael Cristofer makes a real person out of the dramatic-device role of Alfieri, a lawyer who also serves as the play’s narrator. Morgan Spector’s Rodolpho combines boyish overexuberance with steely determination to make it in America. Spector’s assured performance is all the more remarkable given that he stepped into the role relatively late in previews after Santino Fontana had to withdraw because of a concussion he suffered during an onstage fight. Corey Stoll exudes masculinity and Old World integrity as Rodolpho’s protective older brother Marco.”

New York magazine - “Can actors save a playwright from his worst impulses? This ‘A View From the Bridge’ may be everything a playwright, living or dead, could want: People who care enough not just to keep your language and your ideas alive, but to watch your back.”

New Yorker - “The revival of Arthur Miller’s 1955 play ‘A View from the Bridge’ (deftly directed by Gregory Mosher, at the Cort) is a singular revelation: a kind of theatrical lightning bolt that sizzles and startles at the same time.”

The Record - “The production, which stars Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson, is solid, and, under Gregory Mosher’s tightly focused direction, quite involving. But it doesn’t leap beyond the confines of a naturalistic family drama.”

Newsday - “Bottom Line: Shattering Schreiber and Arthur Miller.”

Gothamist - “But the real surprise in the current revival of ‘A View From the Bridge’ isn’t that Johansson’s acting chops are legit, but that Liev Schreiber’s performance is so riveting that you forget to ogle her. “

Picture credits: Joan Marcus for “A View From the Bridge”

Museum moves: N-YHS, Hamilton Grange, Korea Center

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:31:09 -0500

A roundup of news about some of the museums and galleries making moves, expansion plans or other changes:.

Restoration work continues at the Hamilton Grange National Memorial, which is expected to reopen to the public in the fall, according to the National Park Service.

The Grange, Alexander Hamilton’s Manhattan home, in 2008 was meticulously jacked up on beams and moved down the hill from its much-obstructed Hamilton Heights location. Now sitting behind fences in St. Nicholas Park, reconstruction efforts have benefitted from a $2.4-million infusion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.

The New-York Historical Society hopes to open a museum within a museum, focusing on children, according to a story in Saturday’s New-York Times. The DiMenna Children’s History Museum would open in November 2011.

Plans are advancing to build an eight-story Korea Center on East 32nd Street with exhibit space, gardens, artist studios, a library, a cafe and theater, Inhabitat reports. (Via Curbed.)

The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum announced it has tapped Bill Moggridge to become its new director. Moggridge, known as the designer of the first laptop computer, will helm the Smithsonian-affiliated museum as of March.

Although Jeffrey Deitch will shut down his Deitch Projects space in SoHo when he becomes director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, L magazine points out there’s still five more months of life for his NY projects.

Lastly, the New York Times checked in with Frank Serpico, a legendary anti-corruption figure in the NYPD, and noted he’s still bitter “that the department’s museum in Lower Manhattan declined his offer of his uniform and his service revolver.”

Picture credit: Construction crews at Hamilton Grange on Saturday. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.