The USS New York arrived in New York City this morning, passing the Statue of Liberty before heading toward the World Trade Center site to offer a 21-gun salute in honor to those who died September 11, 2001.
The USS New York warship is a San Antonio-class LPD (Landing Platform Dock.) Its bow stem includes seven and a half tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center towers.
The video:
Later today, the USS New York will dock at Pier 88 on the Hudson River to be formally inducted into the United States Navy at a shipboard ceremony Nov. 7.
The USS New York will be open to the public, free of charge from Nov. 4 though 11. The opening times:
Empire State shines for Halloween, Marathon weekend
The Empire State Building will change its colors in observance of this weekend’s two big events: Halloween on Saturday and the ING Marathon on Sunday.
The top three tiers of the city’s tallest building will stay orange, black and white all night for Halloween. (Normally the lights turn off at 2 a.m.)
On Sunday night, they’ll switch to orange, blue and white to celebrate the New York Road Runners and the 2009 ING New York City Marathon. The five-borough race begins Sunday morning in Staten Island.
Picture source: File image from Edelman Public Relations.
Producers issued a provisional closing notice and will decide Monday whether the show will go on, Playbill reported.
But as of Saturday morning, tickets remain on sale through Jan. 30 via the show’s official sales outlet, Ticketmaster.
On Friday, the New York Times quoted one of the show’s producers who said the reviews were not strong enough to boost ticket sales. “Broadway Bound,” another Simon play scheduled to play in repertory with “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” may not begin performances at all, according to both Playbill and the New York Times.
The most recent Broadway grosses, for the week ending Oct. 25, shows the theater for “Brighton Beach Memoirs” was at 61 percent capacity, but with a shockingly low average ticket price of only $21.32.
The semi-autobiographical play, set in 1937 Brooklyn, is both comedy and drama under the direction of David Cromer. Laurie Metcalf, Dennis Boutsikaris and Noah Robbins star.
“Brighton Beach Memoirs” plays the Nederlander Theatre, 208 W. 41st St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $63.50 to $98.50. Premium seats are $148.50. Student rush tickets are $30.
Image source: The official website for “Brighton Beach Memoirs.”
The revival of “Finian’s Rainbow” opened on Broadway on Thursday night and tumbled into the surprisingly warm reviews from the critics.
Set in the fictional state of Missitucky, the New York Times notes — approvingly — the plot seems “cooked up by somebody hitting the whiskey bottle a little too hard.” It takes on issues of race relations to easy credit and throws in a wacky leprachaun to boot.
A 24-member orchestra backs the cast, which features Kate Baldwin, Jim Norton, Cheyenne Jackson, Christopher Fitzgerald, Alina Faye, David Schramm and Terri White. The production is directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. The music credits goes to Burton Lane with lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. The book is by Harburh and Fred Saidy.
“Finian’s Rainbow” has an open-ended run at the St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St., map. Regular tickets are on sale through march 28 and are priced from $35 to $115. Premium and aisle seats sell for as much as $250 each. Wednesday evening prices are a bargain for Broadway, ranging from $25 in the balcony to only $57.50 for orchestra.
Children under the age of 4 are not allowed in the theater.
The “Finian’s Rainbow” Broadway reviews:
Daily News - “What makes the show a gem is the beautiful score by Harburg and Burton Lane. It’s wall-to-wall ear candy and director/choreographer Warren Carlyle’s witty staging, joyful dancing and fine cast showcase the music to the max.”
New York Times - “All the comforting pleasures of the genre — infectious song, exuberant dancing, jokes both lovably corny and unexpectedly fresh, and of course the satisfying pairing of a him and a her — are on abundant display in this thoroughly winning production, a welcome picker-upper in an uneven Broadway season.”
Wall Street Journal - “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more musically satisfying Broadway show than ‘Finian’s Rainbow.’”
Hollywood Reporter - “But whatever one thinks of the story, there’s simply no disputing that this is one of the greatest musical comedy scores ever written. Here’s but a partial listing of the classic numbers: ‘Old Devil Moon,’ ‘Look to the Rainbow,’ ‘If This Isn’t Love,’ ‘When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love’ and, of course, ‘How Are Things in Glocca Morra?’”
World Series game day: Times Square rally, free food
Tonight at 7:57p.m., the New York Yankees host the Philadelphia Phillies for Game 1 of the 2009 World Series. Here’s the feed from the hype machine:
Times Square today at 12:30 p.m. will host a Yankees Pep Rally. The event will take place on Broadway between 44th and 45th streets. Be there or watch via the Times Square webcams.
The Empire State Building tonight and Thursday will light up blue and white for the Yankees.
There will be free Yankees cupcakes today courtesy of Crumbs and the Cupcake Stop Truck.
Free cheesesteak sandwiches — courtesy of the Greater Philadelphia Marketing and Tourism Commission — today at Shorty’s on Ninth Avenue from 4 p.m. until game time at 7:57 p.m.
First Lady Michelle Obama and the vice president’s wife, Jill Biden, will attend tonight’s game, NY1 reports.
FishBowlNY has pictures of the morning’s front pages, featuring plenty of trash talk.
Ticket brokers say resale prices for World Series tickets are going lower, the Associated Press reports.
NY's ghost tours, cemetery treks, and a free 'Phantom'
There are a few upcoming haunted tours, cemetery treks and other Halloween-themed events on the calendar:
The Merchant’s House Museum which claims bragging rights to the title “Manhattan’s Most Haunted House” leads Candlelight Ghost tours through the end of the month. This Sunday, it will lead the annual procession to New York City Marble Cemetery, re-creating a funeral from 1865.
Trinity Wall Street will toast resident Alexander Hamilton (“Non-alcoholic beverages will also available.”) in the graveyard on Oct. 30, followed by a screening of Phantom of the Opera” in the Gothic cathedral with live organ accompaniment by Robert Ridgell. Both events are free.
Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx will lead three flashflights-required tours of sites associated with its most tragic guests.
'After Miss Julie' reviews not as bad as you might think
“After Miss Julie” opened on Broadway last night, a spectacle writ large due to tabloid-bait Sienna Miller. The reviews — which are literally all over the map — may say as much about the state of our celebrity-obsessed, Schadenfreude-snarfing culture and the arts’ and media’s unwary dependence on it.
The New York Daily News calls the play’s lead character “one seriously hot mess” but frankly, almost none of the reviewers say the same about Miller’s acting. True, some say she’s in over her head in a difficult role, but several legit reviewers have some very nice things to say about her. It’s hardly as bad as you might conclude after seeing the supposed review roundups in People (“Broadway Critics Applaud Sienna Miller – for Her Looks”) or England’s picture-heavy Daily Mail (“Nice legs, shame about the acting! Sienna Miller gets Broadway bashing.”)
This Roundabout Theater Company production of “After Miss Julie” is penned by Patrick Marber based on August Strindberg’s original. Moved to post-WWII England, it’s still about race and class, but sexed up. Miller plays the entitled Miss Julie who seduces her daddy’s driver, played by Jonny Lee Miller. They both make their Broadway debuts in this production. The cast is rounded out by Marin Ireland. Mark Brokaw directs.
“After Miss Julie” plays through Dec. 6 at the American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42 St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $66.50 to $111.50.
Playbill lists the show as appropriate only for mature audiences.
The “After Miss Julie” Broadway reviews:
New York Times - “Playing the title role in Mr. Marber’s adaptation of ‘Miss Julie,’ August Strindberg’s love-and-death shocker from 1888, Ms. Miller registers as a healthy, sane young woman with good diction, good posture and great legs. Commendable as these attributes are, they are of limited use in portraying a tautly wound, death-courting neurotic who is eaten alive by her own demons.”
Daily News - “Miller, making her Broadway debut, is improbably beautiful, every inch the ‘fine-looking filly’ John calls her. She’s committed and competent, but her performance is a shade monochromatic, not modulated enough to make Miss Julie’s jagged edges sharp.”
Variety - “Sienna Miller looks smashing as the wayward aristocrat, but this is a complex character fraught with contradictions, and she comes off simply as a loony tart whose cat-and-mouse games careen out of control.”
Associated Press - “And there is a relentless quality to Sienna Miller’s performance, not terribly subtle or vulnerable, but compelling in its obsessiveness.”
'Shrek: The Musical' to end Broadway run January 3
Broadway will get a little less green after the holidays, as “Shrek: The Musical” will stage its final performance January 3, producers announced Wednesday.
By the time it closes, “Shrek” will have played 441 performances plus 37 previews.
At this year’s Tony awards, “Shrek” was nominated in eight categories, but only snagged best costume design of a musical, for Tim Hatley.
“While we were hopeful that the show would have had a longer run on Broadway we believe it will continue to create financial value for the company and deliver profits beyond our initial investment,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, said in a statement.
Two of last season’s new outdoor rinks will not be returning for 2009-10. Neither Seaport Ice at the South Street Seaport nor the faux-ice Polar Rink at the American Museum of Natural History will reopen, officials said.
Picture credit: Rockefeller Center by Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
The new musical “Memphis” opened on Broadway on Monday, mightily impressing some of the critics, with others concluding it lacks soul.
Set in 1950s Tennessee, a white DJ (Chad Kimball) falls in love with a black singer (Montego Glover) he wants to put on the radio. The book is by Joe DiPietro; music is by David Bryan; they share the lyrics credit. Christopher Ashley directs and Sergio Trujillo handles choreography.
Tickets are on sale through July 4 for “Memphis” at the Shubert Theatre, 225 W. 44th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $41.50 to $121.50. Premium seats are $251.50.
Producers advise the material is appropriate for children 12 and older.
The “Memphis” on Broadway reviews:
New York Times - “Dare I suggest that ‘Memphis’ is the Michael Bolton of Broadway musicals? I do.”
Variety - “The show is entertaining but synthetic, its telepic plotting restitching familiar threads from ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Dreamgirls,’ while covering fictitious ground adjacent to that of recent biopic ‘Cadillac Records.’”
Daily News - “Nice to know a new musical can actually surprise you. Though it starts on a familar note and sparks deja vu at other points, ‘Memphis’ eventually finds its own voice and beat, and wins you over with its sheer enthusiasm and exuberant performances.”
Hollywood Reporter - “Kimball, coming across like an older, Southern-twanged version of Christian Slater in ‘Pump Up the Volume,’ makes for an offbeat but unforgettable leading man, and his hilarious and ultimately deeply moving performance will be well remembered come awards time.”
