NewYorkology

Ellis Island preservation group desperate for donations

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:55:55 -0500

Save Ellis Island, the non-profit that’s been methodically stabilizing 30 abandoned buildings at the country’s most famous immigration center, is in dire need of $500,000 in donations by April 2 in order to keep its own doors open, Judith McAlpin, President of SAE, today told NewYorkology.

The small group has already cut staff, delayed projects and put employees on furloughs. But if it’s unable to pay rent and salaries, unspent grants must be returned and no more buildings will open to the public.

Before Save Ellis Island started work a decade ago, two-thirds of the island was in serious disrepair, with crumbling staircases, broken windows and trees sprouting indoors. The deterioration has been on the public radar since 2005, when free hard-hart tours of the old hospital were first offered as part of the annual Open House New York event.

So far, 29 of the 30 abandoned buildings have been stabilized but only one has reopened as part of the museum. In 2007, SAE and the National Park Service opened the “new” ferry building, an art deco, WPA-era buidling used by immigrants who cleared customs and were waiting for the boat to Manhatttan. The renovation includes a functioning fan and bench both original to the room, as well as exhibits.

The one still-exposed building — the giant baggage and dormitory building that faces north to the Hudson River — last year received U.S. stimulus funds. The National Park Service, which runs Ellis and Liberty islands, is overseeing that project and the initial phase of stabilization has begun, NPS spokesman Darren Boch said .

While funds are available to prevent more damage to the baggage building, without Save Ellis Island, there would be no plans to reopen any more buildings.”It’s not going to happen in their absence,” Boch said in an interview this morning. “We have to work with a partner.”

]]> In addition to the ferry building restoration and education programming, Save Ellis Island has repaired the main red-brick hallway that leads to the island’s laundry room, which is two-thirds complete. An outdoor pavilion in the middle of the hospital grounds has also been on track to open soon, McAlpin said.

The requested $500,000 will get them into the beginning of the next fiscal year, which starts in July, McAlpin said. Like many non-profits, they’ve been hit hard by the recession. Their funding has also come from the state of New Jersey, as the south side of the island belongs to Jersey while New York claimed the north side.

It’s easy to forget the island hasn’t been open to the public for long. Ellis Island opened as an immigration on Jan. 1 1892. But by the 1920s to ’40s it was more of an immigration detention center and U.S. Coast Guard facility. It closed in 1954 and was given to the National Park Service in 1965. The first limited public tours were offered in 1976, but the museum didn’t open until 1990. While the not-for-profit Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. raised funds to repair and reopen much of the statue and main buildings, 30 of Ellis Island’s buildings were left to rot until Save Ellis Island was formed.

Earlier: Ellis Island gets fed funds to save abandoned building - April 2009
Inside Ellis Island’s restoration; next up: laundry - Feb. 2008
Work advancing on Ellis Island reconstruction - Jan. 2008
Abandoned Ellis Island rooms to open for tours - March 2007
Ellis Island to open historic ferry building in winter - Sept. 2006
Exploring secret Ellis Island during Open House NY - Oct. 2005

Picture credits: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

Yankees single-game tickets on sale Friday at noon

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:25:58 -0500

Individual home-game tickets for the world champion New York Yankees will go on sale to the general public starting Friday at noon, according to the MLB.com story posted on the team’s official website.

Tickets are currently available only in multi-game or season-ticket packages.

Initially, the tickets will be available only through Yankees.com, YankeesBeisbol.com and Ticketmaster’s phone line: (877) 469-9849.

Prices will start at $5 for some games.

Opening day at Yankee Stadium will be April 13 vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Image source: New York Yankees 2009 World Series Champions Official Club House T-Shirt.

Update on March 19: This story was updated to include the Yankees ticket sales link, which was unavailable earlier.

Earlier: Mets tickets on sale today at 10 a.m. for 2010 season
Yankee Stadium tours resume after World Series win
Yankees 2009 ticker-tape parade pictures and video

Cleanliness letter grades coming to restaurant windows

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:04:29 -0500

In July, New York City will start requiring restaurants to display their cleanliness letter-grade near their entrances, the NYC Department of Health decided Tuesday.

More detailed restaurant inspection results have been available online for several years.

“Giving consumers more information will help make our restaurants safer and cleaner. The grade in the window will give you a sense of how clean the kitchen is – and it will give every restaurant operator an incentive to maintain safe, sanitary conditions,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said in a statement announcing the policy.

'God of Carnage' adds daily $26.50 student rush tickets

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:52:51 -0500

The Broadway comedy “God of Carnage” — which recently added Jeff Daniels, Dylan Baker, Lucy Liu and Janet McTeer to the cast — will start selling $26.50 student rush tickets daily at the box office, producers announced today.

Same-day student rush tickets will be available when the box office opens for the day. Students with a valid school ID may buy up to two tickets with cash or a credit card.

The play opened a year ago to excellent reviews with an original cast of Jeff Daniels, James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis. When their contracts expired, the cast was replaced by Christine Lahti, Annie Potts, Jimmy Smits and Ken Stott.

The comedy by Yasmina Reza was written in French and originally set in Paris. For the Broadway run, the set up is two pairs of Brooklyn parents who meet up to discuss a Cobble Hill Park fight involving their two 11-year old sons.

“God of Carnage” has an open-ended run at the Bernard Jacobs Theater, at 242 W. 45th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $66.50 to $116.50. Premium seats are sold from $176.50 to $251.50. If a performance is sold out, standing-room tickets will go on sale at the box office two hours before curtain for $26.50 each.

King Tut funeral exhibition opens at Met Museum

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:08:05 -0500

In April, the blockbuster King Tut exhibition will open at the Discovery Times Square Exposition. But starting Tuesday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open a more low-key Tut exhibition that focuses on the less flashy elements of the burial process of the boy king.

“Tutankhamun’s Funeral” at the Met is made up of mummy bandages, linen sheets, mud seals and bags of natron and sawdust from the embalming process. Discovered in 1907 by Edward S. Ayrton, some of the funeral items bear the name of King Tutankhamun, and helped lead Howard Carter to his nearby discovery of the actual tomb in 1922.

Ayrton was working for New York lawyer and amateur archaeologist Theodore M. Davis, who later donated the funeral items to the Met Museum. (All the items in the new exhibition are normally on display, but have been given a special room and new book to coincide with the major Tut exhibition at Times Square.)

“We thought it might be a good idea to give people another aspect of the story,” Dorothea Arnold, curator and chairman of the Department of Egyptian Art at the Met, said in an interview at the museum Monday. “You can start here and get the context.”

Indeed the Met offers deep context, with one of the best Egyptian art and textile collections in the world. When the original King Tut exhibition came to New York in 1979, it was on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art . In 2004, officials from the Met said they opted out of this tour because they did not want to add a higher entry fee. (Times Square tickets will cost $27.50 for the single exhibition, while the Met is always a $20 suggested admission for the entire museum.)

]]>
The wall texts at the Met gently hint at the competition: “This exhibition of the Davis-Ayrton mummification material does not display the treasures of gold and precious stones usually associated with Tutankhamun but instead down-to-earth linens, pots, and faded floral collars. Through them, however, we can get as close as may ever be possible to actual events and activities surrounding a royal burial that took place more than three thousand years ago.”

The Times Square exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, (pictured, bottom right) will run from April 23 through Jan. 2, 2011. Tickets will go on sale March 25. The exhibition, organized with the help of National Geographic, will feature 50 objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb and 80 objects from the tombs of his ancestors.

Picture credits: All pictures are from the Met Museum exhibition, except the final image in the lower right. All Met artifact pictures were provided by the museum except for the room, which is by Amy Langfield/NewYorkology. Full descriptions follow:

(Top) Floral collar, Row 1 from the neck: groups of Withania somnifera (L.) Dun berries alternating with groups of blue, disk-shaped faience beads on a strip of palm leaf; rows 2–3: Withania berries; row 4: as row 1; row 5: as rows 2-3; row 6: olive leaves showing the silvery undersides; row 7: groups of disintegrated leaves, possibly celery leaves, plus groups of Mimusops schimperi Hochst. leaves; row 8: Withania berries; row 9: olive leaves, showing either the green upper or the silvery underside; row 10: alternating groups of Withania berries and blue faience disk-shaped beads; row 11: olive leaves all showing the silvery underside; row 12: Mimusops leaves, in four places groups of plants that consist of floral stems of an Umbelliferae species at the ends of which are occasional flowers or tiny immature seeds, possibly celery. Original color scheme: whitish papyrus foundation, red linen, red berries, blue faience beads, silvery olive leaves, green olive and Mimusops leaves and the probably fragrance-rich green celery leaves and flowers. Diam. 47 cm (18 ½ in) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Theodore M. Davis, 1909.

Narrow bandage woven for use in the mummification of Tutankhamun but not used, L. 164 cm (64 5/8 in.) Linen, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Theodore M. Davies, 1909.

Impression of the official seal of the Theban necropolis showing the jackal of the god of embalming Anubis and nine captives L. 2.5 cm (1 in.) Nile mud, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Theodore M. Davis, 1909.

Detail of linen cloth showing ink inscription referring to “year 6” of the reign of Nebkheperure (Tutankhamun’s throne name) (ca. 1331 B.C.) L. of cloth 96.5cm (38 in,)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Theodore M. Davis, 1909.

Detail of Canopic Coffinette of Tutankhamun, from the exhibition “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.” Photo credit: Andreas F. Voegelin, Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig.

'Next Fall' mixed reviews: best new play or Cliché City

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:11:48 -0500

The new drama “Next Fall” opened on Broadway on Thursday to reviews mixed with praise for its deft comic touch but criticism for clichéd characters.

Tackling religion, homsexuality and other issues about love and commitment, the play by Geoffrey Nauffts transferred from Off-Broadway with the financial backing of co-producer Elton John.

Directed by Sheryl Kaller the cast members are Patrick Breen, Maddie Corman, Sean Dugan, Patrick Heusinger, Connie Ray and Cotter Smith.

“Next Fall” has an open-ended run at the Helen Hayes Theater, 240 W. 44th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $81.50 to 116.50. Premium seats are $176.50 to $226.50. Student rush tickets are usually available at the box office two hours before curtain for $26.50.

Age advice: The story is about the romance between two gay men. It contains strong langauge and children under the age of 4 are not permitted in the theatre.

The “Next Fall” Broadway reviews:

New York Times - “‘Next Fall,’ which opened Thursday night at the Helen Hayes Theater, is that genuine rara avis, a smart, sensitive and utterly contemporary New York comedy.”

Wall Street Journal - ” Alas, “Next Fall” is cliché-infested and cloyingly sentimental, and the fact that it has transferred to Broadway after a successful Off-Broadway run means only that you can fool some of the people most of the time.”

Variety - “The laughter and sobs emanating from the audience at “Next Fall” reinforce the impression of a sure-footed return to somewhat unfashionable territory. Calling it a thoughtful, funny-sad soap opera is not intended as a putdown.”

Associated Press - “‘Next Fall’ is expertly cast, enormously entertaining and even laugh-filled despite the underlying seriousness of its subject matter.”

]]> Daily News - “Kaller’s direction is clean and clear, but the play has a strange way of drawing you in and then pushing you away. At times, a character says something so real you think: I know this person. In the next breath, a way too clever quip makes you think: No one would say that.”

Post - “Together, they try to figure out how to bridge this fault line, as Nauffts gently prompts us to wonder how we live with contradictions, and what we’re willing to sacrifice for love.”

NY1 - “Nauffts’s script is a deft blend of urban comedy and pathos, exploring the legal rights of same-sex partners, religious tolerance and the crucial moral importance of speaking the truth before it’s too late.”

New York magazine - “Belief doesn’t answer to logic, of course, and that’s one of the core ideas behind ‘Next Fall.’ What’s remarkable about Nauffts’s play—which first surfaced Off Broadway last year—is the way it mines that conflict for laughs without selling it short.”

USA Today - “Perhaps in his next play, Nauffts will try to craft characters who are as nuanced and authentic as the ideas he’s taking on.”

Time Out NY - “Go see the best new American play on Broadway.”

Back Stage - “In its move to Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre—even though this is one of the Main Stem’s smallest houses—director Sheryl Kaller’s tender staging has lost most of its intimacy. Fortunately, “Next Fall” retains its power to move.”

Hollywood Reporter - ” Under the skillful direction of Sheryl Kaller, the play crackles with emotional force and acerbic humor.”

See more reviews at Stage Grade.

Related: Playbill’s opening night picture gallery.

Williamsburg waterfront hooks Faith No More for July 5

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:40:44 -0500

Free concerts will return to the Williamsburg waterfront this summer, but the kickoff concert — Faith No More on July 5 — and a handful of others will require an admission fee as a benefit for the nonprofit Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, organizers said Wednesday.

Prices haven’t yet been set, but the Faith No More tickets will go on sale through Ticketmaster on March 19 at noon. Tickets may also be purchased via phone (800) 745-3000 or at the Nokia Theatre Times Square Box Office, where there is no service fee. The presale will start March 16.

Dates and performers for other Williamsburg Waterfront concerts have not yet been announced. But the Brooklyn Vegan blog noted that a series of eight free shows are planned.

“The benefit shows will help fund the restoration and preservation of parks in North Brooklyn, and subsidize the cost of free concerts at the Williamsburg Waterfront,” Stephanie Thayer, OSA’s Executive Director said in a statement. “As nearby McCarren Park Pool is being renovated, OSA is pleased to continue its tradition of bringing outdoor music to North Brooklyn.”

The Williamsburg Waterfront is located at North 8th Street & Kent Avenue on the East River in Brooklyn.

Schedules have not yet been announced for Brooklyn’s other free summer concert series, including the Seaside Summer Concert Series and Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series. The schedule for Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park will be announced May 4, according to the website for BRIC Performing Arts. The Siren Festival has set its 2010 date for July 17.

Image source: “King For a Day” album cover from the Faith No More store.

Earlier: NYC’s (mostly free) summer concerts and film series

Manhattan Bridge time capsule date stamp: 2109

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:57:53 -0500

NewYorkology contributor Moses Gates is an urban planner, part-time tour guide, and full-time Gothamphile. He reports on the high up, the low down, and the out-of-the-way in New York City.

On the last day of the tenure of Mayor George B. McClellan the Manhattan Bridge opened for the very first time. One hundred years later (give or take a few months,) the bridge is in fantastic shape carrying bikes, pedestrians, four subway lines and almost 100,000 vehicles a day.

This is due to the efforts of many people, not the least “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, (pictured at left) former chief engineer/first deputy commissioner of the Department of Transportation. During his tenure in the 1980s, Schwartz and the DOT embarked on a major capital campaign to rehabilitate and stabilize the East River bridges, which were suffering after more than a decade of deferred maintenance. One of the bridges in the worst shape was the Manhattan.

“When I was chief engineer in 1986, I had to shut half the bridge. It was so dire we almost lost the entire bridge,” Schwartz told Streetfilms.

This past Friday, Schwartz joined DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn, along with Ironworkers, Engineers, Painters, Electricians, and other bridge workers and aficionados at the bridge’s Manhattan Colonnade to place a time capsule — to be opened on the 200th anniversary of the bridge - inside a small nook in the grand archway that crowns the entrance.

The time capsule includes newspapers from Dec. 31, 2009; DOT Bridges safety vest, hard hat and ironworker gloves; the NYC Transit Authority Subway Map; the DOT’s annual Bridge Report; present-day electronic devices (flash drive, CD, DVR;) and a program from the Bridge Centennial Commission event Oct. 4, 2009. The contents were compiled by members of the Bridges Division of the NYC DOT.

“We’re here to deliver a message to the people 100 years from now,” Schwartz said.”And that message is that we’re all links - that if we don’t continue to maintain our bridges we’re going to lose them.”

]]> And there a lot of bridges to maintain, including four that were fomerly the longest suspension bridges in the world, two of the former longest steel-arch bridges in the world, the former longest cantilevered span in the world, the largest vertical-lift bridge, the strongest steel-arch bridge, two of only four retractile bridges in the country, and arguably the most famous and recognized bridge in the world.

The event was sponsored by the NYC Bridge Centennial commission, which has been commemorating the 100th anniversary of a spate of bridges that opened between 1908 and 1910. The next bridge to celebrate its centennial? The Madison Avenue Bridge, linking Harlem and Bronx, later this year.

Images provided to NewYorkology by Bernard Ente of the NYC Bridge Centennial Commission.

Earlier: Queensboro Bridge centennial celebrated all week

Push my button: new official NYC condom logo revealed

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:32:06 -0500

It’s about to get easier to turn on a New Yorker.

The logo of the city’s official condom will soon take the shape of an electronic power button. The design, by Luis Acosta of Kew Gardens, Queens, was today revealed as the winner in a contest run by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

A panel of judges narrowed the 600 submission down to five finalists, which then went to an online vote in February. More than 15,000 votes were cast, with the power button drawing 23 percent for the win.

“The HIV/AIDS epidemic is far from over in the city, and sexually transmitted diseases continue to spread at high rates. We hope Luis Acosta’s package design will remind all New Yorkers of their power to take control of their health,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner, today said in a statement announcing the winner.

NYC Condoms, which are free, became the nation’s first municipally branded condom when they were introduced on Valentine’s Day 2007. The new design will be available in the fall.

Image source: NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Earlier: NYC condom contest: vote to choose who gets lucky

Subway archaeology to go on display at Transit Annex

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:10:09 -0500

After a renovation, the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex at Grand Central Terminal will reopen March 18 with a free exhibition of New Amsterdam artifacts discovered while building a subway extension in Lower Manhattan.

“Archeology at the South Ferry Terminal” will include more than 100 of the 65,000 artifacts — ceramic sherds, shells, coins, tobacco pipes, and architectural materials — found at the site before it reopened in February 2009 as the South Ferry subway station.

“Among the most important finds of the excavation were pieces of two 18th century landmarks — the Battery Wall and Whitehall Slip,” museum officials said in announcing the exhibition. “Stones from the Wall are on view, as are photographs of a section of the Wall that was reinstalled in the new South Ferry station. Whitehall Slip was built in stages from the 1730s to 1790s using landfilling and dredging. It allowed boats to dock and spurred the commercial and military use of lower Manhattan. Excavation of the Slip uncovered stone, construction material, 19th century English ceramics, household goods, refuse, and animal bones, furthering our knowledge of the city’s commerce and its residents’ lifestyles.”

The exhibition will be on display through July 5.

]]> The Transit Museum annex is located in Grand Central in the Shuttle Passage next to the Station Master’s Office. The museum’s primary Brooklyn location features numbers old subways cars and buses as well as permanent and rotating exhibitions about the history of transit in NYC.

The Transit Museum has scheduled a March 20 tour to complement the new exhibition. “The Old Waterfront in New Amsterdam” will follow the original shoreline beyond Battery Park and along Pearl Street.

Picture source: New York Transit Museum; Chinese painted porcelain plate with “Canton” motif c. 1785-1850. This plate was mended from 21 separate sherds discovered in a single deposit. Though porcelain vessels exported from China were popular for much of the 18th century, they became more common in New York after the American Revolution, when direct trade between the United States and China began.

Earlier: New York Transit Museum Annex closes for renovation
Subway expansion hits centuries-old Battery Wall (2005)
Touring Gotham’s archaeology with book in hand (2004)

Lego repairs come to NY Public Libray, Central Park

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:48:33 -0500

It looks like artist Jan Vormann has had a busy trip to New York City.

A few weekends ago, NewYorkology spotted his Lego fill-in work at the wall of Chelsea’s General Theological Seminary, but apparently he was also hard at work in the West Village, Central Park, Times Square, Dumbo and other locations around Manhattan and Brooklyn. Even the New York Public Library needed a little work done.

Vormann’s website has a new section, DispatchWork -New York, filled with pictures of the work.

“In cooperation with the Gallery Jarmuschek+Partner and the kind support of Henk Holzheimer (LEGO Graffity Styles Convention), I went to New York City, as part of the VOLTA artshow, to support Mayor Bloomberg in his everyday-struggle to make this city even more amazing,” Vormann says on the website.

Previously his DispatchWork Lego installations have popped up in Berlin, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Quito, Belgrade and other cities.

Update on March 9: “I am now back in Berlin, but I loved it in New York,” Vormann said in an e-mail to NewYorkology late Monday. Also, a story in today’s New York Post notes that almost all of the Lego installations have already been removed.

Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

(Editor’s note: Credit goes to 14-year-old Christopher Langfield who first spotted the Chelsea Legos on Feb. 21 and said it looked like the work of a European artist he’d read about.)

Earlier: Guggenheim Museum for sale, by Lego

Mets tickets on sale today at 10 a.m. for 2010 season

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:28:30 -0500

Single-game tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m. for the New York Mets 2010 season.

Tickets, which start at $11, can be purchased only online or by phone today: Mets.com, LosMets.com, or (718) 507-TIXX. In-person sales start later this week.

The regular season calendar starts in New York on April 5 with an opening day game against Florida.

The promotion and giveaway schedule includes events such as Mr. Mets Dash for kids 12 and under; July 5 fireworks; and Jason Bay Bobblehead giveaway night.

Yankees tickets are currently only on sale only for full-season or partial- season ticket plans.

Image source: Mets’ official website.

'Behanding' Broadway review roundup: Walken kills it

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:03:12 -0500

Christopher Walken last night opened to great reviews in “A Behanding in Spokane,” Martin McDonagh’s new dark comedy that nonetheless divides the critics on the overall merits of the play.

Pretty much across the board they love Walken doing Walken, but McDonagh’s writing takes hits for not fully fleshing out the characters, not telling a bigger story and missing the opportunity to say more considering it’s his first play set in America. Reviews for co-stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie, Zoe Kazan are generally good to very good. John Crowley directs.

Be warned that some of the reviews give away a little too much of the play, which is about a very determined, one-handed man who has spent his life trying to track down his missing part. The whole play is set in a seedy hotel room visited by the receptionist and a pair of pot dealers who are trying to sell a severed hand for $500.

“A Behanding in Spokane” plays through June 6 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $61.50 to $116.50. Premium seats are $176.50 and $201.50. The $26.50 rush tickets go on sale daily at the box office only.

It runs 90 minutes without intermission.

Age advice: While producers merely warn the play “may be inappropriate for 11 and under,” the Daily News notes the “un-PC humor” and the New York Times describes the oft-uttered “racial and sexual epithets, of a nature to make David Mamet flinch. …”

The Broadway reviews for “A Behanding in Spokane”:

New York Times - “The rest of the erratically enjoyable ‘Behanding’ — directed by John Crowley and featuring Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan — never matches the strange genius of its star.”

Daily News - “Walken’s performance is amazing, the stuff Tony Awards are made of.”

Variety - “Imagine the actor’s hidden-wristwatch tale from ‘Pulp Fiction’ bulked up into a freestanding narrative and you have an approximate idea of ‘A Behanding in Spokane,’ a piece of virtuoso storytelling fashioned out of a slim anecdote. There’s no broader theme, no veiled subtext and no underlying allegory. The playwright makes no pretense of doing anything beyond spinning a good yarn. Entertaining as it is, however, the black comedy remains insubstantial. “

Wall Street Journal - “I mustn’t be too specific, this being a play full of grisly surprises, but there’s one thing about which I can be absolutely precise: ‘A Behanding in Spokane’ is the funniest new play to open in New York since I started writing this column.”

New York magazine - “Only Rockwell, one of the most underrated actors around, really finds solid purchase in his character. He’s the closest thing this story has to a storyteller—more of a story-seeker, really, a Travis Bickle type congenitally estranged from humanity, waiting desperately for something exciting to happen, an opportunity to be welcomed back into mankind a hero.”

]]> Associated Press - “But Walken does have an advantage over the three other performers in ‘Behanding.’ Carmichael is the play’s only fully developed character. The others are cartoons, plot devices for McDonagh’s slender tale, which never quite moves beyond its sketchlike qualities.”

Bloomberg - “Anthony Mackie is a wonderful Toby, as prone to fusillades of obscenity as to lachrymose self-pity, always with an undercurrent of histrionic irony. No less captivating are Zoe Kazan’s Marilyn, a mixture of eager ineptitude and specious coquettishness, and Sam Rockwell’s Mervyn; he is the Platonic idea of the idiot savant.”

Hollywood Reporter - “A brilliant cast elevates this profane shaggy-dog comedy to wildly entertaining proportions.”

USA Today - “Nearly half a century later, he is still determined to retrieve the now-useless appendage. “I just want it back,” he explains. In his admittedly twisted mind, it’s a matter not only of justice but of honor.”

Chicago Tribune - ” The latest Broadway play from Martin McDonagh lands somewhere between “Pulp Fiction” and an extended star-driven sketch from “Saturday Night Live.” “

Telegraph (London) - “The strength of the production at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway, however, is that all four characters on stage are equally strong.”

Back Stage - “The resultant blood-soaked dish is wildly uneven, with gaping holes in its logic. I don’t care how dumb you are, nobody is dim enough to miss an inches-away telephone as a means of calling for help when you’re handcuffed to a pipe and about to be murdered. But that’s what happens here. However, there are some wildly funny moments.”

Image source: Wallpaper from the official website for “A Behanding in Spokane.”

'Miracle Worker' review roundup: Breslin and Pill shine

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:56:06 -0500

Stars Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill elicit mostly strong reviews for their performances in “The Miracle Worker,” which opened on Broadway last night, but critics have a lot of neggatives things to say about the theater-in-the-round staging of the Helen Keller story.

Set in Alabama in the 1880s, “The Miracle Worker” tells the true story of a child who lost her sight and hearing, and turned completely unruly until a teacher from Boston taught her how to communicate. Based on Keller’s autobiography and the letters of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, William Gibson’s “The Miracle Worker” first played Broadway in 1959.

While the stars in this production get mostly kind reviews, the supporting cast is dinged, though more than one critic chalks that up to the writing. Kate Whoriskey’s direction does not fare well as multiple reviewers complain about poor sightlines, distracting furniture hovering above the stage and a slow-moving story. (The New York Times calles it “sadly pedestrian.”)

Breslin and Pill share the stage with Matthew Modine, Jennifer Morrison, Tobias Segal and Elizabeth Franz.

“The Miracle Worker” has an open-ended run at the Circle in the Square Theater, located at 235 W. 50th St., map. Regular tickets are priced at $117. Premium seats are $202. There is a daily lottery for $26 seats.

Post-show talkbacks with the cast are scheduled for March 9, 16, 23 and 30.

Age-appropriate advice: Children under 4 are not allowed in the theater. The play “contains no objectionable content; the content might best be understood/enjoyed by children who have started elementary school,” producers advise. The review from Variety notes the large number of well-behaved children in the audience during previews, which “indicates that the half-century-old play and Keller’s struggle still exert a hold on young imaginations.”

The “The Miracle Worker” Broadway reviews:

Variety - “Kate Whoriskey directs William Gibson’s midcentury chestnut with sensitivity, if not with any startling new insight. But the volatile battle of wills between the young Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, remains dramatically and emotionally effective, played with conviction by Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill.”

New York Times - “You are likely to feel, though, that the tears haven’t been truly earned by a production that delivers full emotional frissons only in its final, fail-safe scene. “

NY1 - “‘The Miracle Worker’ is likely emblazoned in your mind with the images of Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke slugging it out. And while it’s doubtful that Alison Pill and Abigail Breslin will erase the memory of those two Oscar-winning performances, they certainly put their own one-two punch on the roles in what I have to say is a touchingly faithful revival of the great William Gibson drama.”

Daily News - “But Broadway’s first revival of William Gibson’s 1959 biodrama seldom summons high stakes or deep feelings. It’s a respectable production, but it’s often wan. Occasionally it’s d-u-l-l.”

]]> Hollywood Reporter - “The emotional impact of the story of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan still comes through in this uneven Broadway revival.”

New York magazine - “Ultimately, this Miracle finds its feet in the physical realm, in the clinch, at point-blank range — a proximity Whoriskey knows well, from her work in the war zone of Ruined. She and her cast restore immediacy to an old mimeograph of a fifties social drama, and that’s no small thing.”

Bloomberg - “Managing to be both demonic and touching, Abigail Breslin (‘Little Miss Sunshine’) gives a tremendous performance as Helen Keller in the first Broadway revival of ‘The Miracle Worker.’”

Associated Press - “The battle to illuminate the mind and heart of Helen Keller remains as compelling as ever, even if the first Broadway revival of William Gibson’s “The Miracle Worker” suffers from inhospitable surroundings and a supporting cast forced to bellow its way through much of the dialogue.”

Post - “Worse, sections of the audience can’t see the actors’ faces during key moments — and there’s only so much you can express with the back of your head. For a show about the importance of communication, the irony is a bit too rich.”

USA Today - “And Kate Whoriskey directs the new production, which opened Wednesday, with a literal-minded reverence that only emphasizes its banal and dated qualities.”

Back Stage - “The story of teacher Annie Sullivan unlocking the deaf-and-blind young Helen Keller from a world of darkness carries an elemental power that survives even director Kate Whoriskey’s troubled staging.”

Globe and Mail (Canada) - “Annie tries to make Helen sit at the table and eat from her own plate. Biscuits fly. Annie is thrown to the floor. It’s a mesmerizing and profound piece of stage choreography, and one of the most transcendent moments I’ve seen in a theatre in years.”

Chicago Tribune - “If Annie Sullivan, the heroine of William Gibson’s ‘The Miracle Worker,’ had confined her miracles to the deaf-and-blind girl Helen Keller, then this Broadway revival of the beloved veneration of selfless, determined teachers might have passed muster. “

NewJerseyNewsroom.com - “Briskly staged in Circle’s tricky in-the-round space, director Kate Whoriskey’s production registers as more solid than sensational but presents the play effectively enough.”

Video source: MiracleWorkerNY’s YouTube channel.

Limited morning cab share program starts in Manhattan

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:09:08 -0500

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission today launched a limited share-a-cab experiment along three designated routes in Manhattan that will operate weekday mornings from 6 to 10 a.m.

The first three routes are in Midtown, the Upper East Side and Upper West Side only.

The shared-ride fares are $3 or $4 per passenger (depending on the route) and can be paid in cash or by credit card. Passengers may only enter at one of three Group Ride taxi stand locations and then may be dropped off along the routes, which all end at Grand Central Terminal. The yellow cabs may not pick up additional passengers along the route and may not go to any other destination, according to the TLC’s taxi share passenger info card (in pdf).

The location and fares for the three Group Ride stands:
West 57th Street at 8th Avenue - Fare: $3
West 72nd Street at Columbus Avenue - Fare: $4
East 72nd Street at 3rd Avenue - Fare: $4

“It’s both a transportation and a social experiment,” TLC Commisioner Matthew Daus told NY1 this morning.”But it worked in the 2005 transit strike — people loved it. Mayor Bloomberg wanted us to try it as a pilot, or an experiment around the city so we’re starting with the three stands and we’ll see how it goes from there.”

Three more taxi stand locations have been approved for Manhattan plus one for US Air and Marine Air Terminals of LaGuardia Airport, the TLC announced in February (pdf).

Other stand locations planned for Manhattan:

Grand Central Terminal to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $3
Penn Station to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $4
Port Authority Bus Terminal to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $3

Technically, tipping is optional and in addition to the flat-rate fare.

Image source: NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Earlier: New 50-cent taxi tax jacks up JFK flat-rate to $45.50
MetroCard fare rises to $2.25 today for subway, bus
NY considers share-a-taxi experiment with lower fares
Taxis switch to zone fares during transit strike (2005)