We enjoyed a slow start to our first day in NY, having arrived at our hotel in Brooklyn in the wee hours of the morning.
It was a glorious spring day and we strolled through Central Park to Neue Gallery to see the much-hyped Klimt Exhibition.
Unfortunately, we thought that it was over hyped. It seems that the hype was about so many of his landscapes being on display together because they are held in private collections. However, we much prefer his portraits. At least they do have the portrait of Adele Block-Baur (The Golden Lady) on display as part of their permanent collection and we spent a lot of time admiring it. The Gallery also has a small but impressive collection of early 20th century decorative arts. No photos allowed!
In the afternoon we wandered over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism Exhibition, which was truly excellent. It focuses on the way Black communities and culture were evolving between the 1920s and 1940s. We particularly liked some of the paintings.
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| I liked these exaggerated portraits by William Henry Johnson |
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| These more naturalistic portraits by Laura Wheeler Waring were striking |
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| These paintings by Archibald Motley Jr capture his time living in Paris and weave in social commentary |
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| Beauford Delaney's portrait of James Baldwin called Dark Rapture |
We also found some Seurat paintings that we hadn't seen (see further down).
In the evening, we saw the play Patriots, which is about the rise of Vladimir Putin and is written by Peter Morgan who wrote the Crown. It wasn’t the best piece of theatre we’ve ever seen but was nevertheless thought provoking and interesting. I think Peter Morgan is good at identifying key themes and perhaps less good at factual correctness.
The following morning, we decided to start exploring Brooklyn and particularly Williamsburg, where we were staying. We found a trendy little café for breakfast and had a nice walk along the shoreline enjoying views across the East River to the Manhattan skyline.
In the afternoon we had a lovely half an hour wandering around the Strand Bookstore. The best bookstore that we’ve found in the world (new and improved with a coffee shop). Then we walked along the Highline Trail; a public park built on old elevated trainline. We found this elevated green space, in the middle of Manhattan, quite delightful (but horribly crowded).
In the evening, we saw a remarkable revival of Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim.
Highlights
· The choreography, use of the chorus (choreographically) and the amazing talent of the chorus;
· Sutton Foster camping it up as Mrs Lovett. What a star!
· Seeing Joe Locke (from Heartstopper) in his Broadway debut as Toby. He can sing! He can act on stage!
On Saturday we went to MOMA to see the Latin American Design Exhibition, which was disappointing because it was so small. At least we found some more Seurat’s in a nearby room. It was super busy and the staff were surly and impersonal. I’d really have to be persuaded to go back there.
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| Parade de cirque (The Met + next 2) |
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| The Forest at Pontaubert |
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| Gray Weather, Grand Jatte |
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| Evening, Honfleur (MOMA + next 1) |
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| The Channel at Gravelines, Evening |
In the afternoon we saw a matinee performance of a new musical called Lempika, about the renowned artist Tamara Lempika. We’ve loved her art since first being introduced to it at an art-deco exhibition at the V&A in London over 20 years ago.
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| The use of these paintings in the opening curtains of each act successfully helped establish the tone and shape of the sets and costumes, without needing to include images of other paintings throughout |
Highlights
· The set and lighting design, which drew inspiration from her paintings.
· The performances of Eden Espinosa (Lempika), Amber Imam as her lover Rafaela and George Abud as her art mentor.
In the evening we saw Merrily We Roll Along, which was marvellous. It is one of our favourite musicals – and of
course another by Stephen Sondheim. It
was famously a flop when it was first performed on Broadway in 1981 – with a
very young Jason Alexander in the cast.
This is the first successful production on Broadway and a lot of the
success must be due to Daniel Radcliffe playing the role of Charlie.
Highlights
· The cast. Daniel Radcliffe is truly a star. As with Joe Locke – can sing and can act on stage. We also thought that Lindsay Mendez was absolutely amazing as Mary. We felt that they brought these characters alive and gave them dimensions that we hadn’t been aware of.
· The chorus – as ever – perhaps the talent of the choruses is what makes Broadway musical productions so incredible.
· The direction of Maria Friedman. The depth to, and dimensions of, the Charlie and Mary characters, plus some of the other minor characters, must be due to her direction.
We hung around the stage door after the show and were able to get some photos of Daniel Radcliffe, including one with Dale. The other cast members didn’t come out. We think because Daniel Radcliffe just sucks up all the attention. I knew he was famous but he’s actually HUGELY MEGA famous. There were at least 150 people waiting for him, including Harry Potter fans who hadn’t seen the show. He professionally worked his way along the line, talking to people, signing programs and books and taking selfies with anyone who asked. And this happens 8 times a week!
After the excitement of the night before we had Sunday brunch in Brooklyn and went to the Brooklyn Museum to see an awesome Japanese Woodblock Exhibition of Hiroshige’s 100 famous views of Edo (Tokyo). The museum has a full set of these woodblock prints that were originally published in the 1850s.
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| Yes Erin that is the Daimaru logo! |
The last musical we saw was Kimberly Akimbo and it was the best – even though we’ve gushed over the others. In 2022 it won the Tony Awards for Best musical, Best book of a musical, Best original score, best leading actress (Victoria Clark) and Best featured actress in a musical (Bonnie Milligan). Plus, it was nominated for Best orchestrations and Best featured actor in a musical.
It is the story of a teenage girl with a premature ageing disease and a shortened lifespan. The role is played by Victoria Clark, who is in her 60s. The show is beautiful, funny, poignant and sad. That Victoria Clark plays a teenage girl so convincingly is AMAZING. And we were incredibly lucky to see this show because it was the final Broadway performance.
Being at the final performance had both upsides and downsides. The Upside was getting to listen to the playwright, composer, director and Victoria Clark talk about their experiences at the end of the play.
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| Victoria Clark and composer Janine Tesori (who has an impressive catalogue of shows including Fun Home which MTC did in 2022) |
Downside was that every theatre tragic in NY was at the final performance. They had seen the show numerous times and gave thunderous and extended cheers – even standing ovations – as each character came on stage. Then there were extended ovations after every song. As first timers we tended to lose the rhythm of the play and there was obviously no sense of a shared audience discovery of the plot and the characters.
All in all though, we still thought it was absolutely mind blowing and it may be the only time in our lives that we experience a closing performance of a hit show on Broadway. So – what an experience and what a way to end our Broadway experiences this trip.
In the evening, we had a special dinner at a restaurant in Brooklyn called Meadowseeet that had a Michelin star until last year. Lovely fresh ingredients, a good wine list and superb service.
On Monday our flight didn’t leave until the evening and it was a nice day so we wandered around Prospect Park in Brooklyn. NY has some large and excellent parks, which is some consolation for not otherwise being particularly green – at least in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
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| Someday in the park with David |
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