City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.


How is it that my week of seven vacation days is more than half over? Once I begin to relax, and do what I want at a pace that I choose, the hours really do seem to move much more quickly on any clock in the house. This manifestation of the rules of physics will be given an additional push this Saturday/Sunday night when we folks in the States will be commanded to Spring forward. We will lose an hour's sleep.

I intend to get lots of hours of sleep stored up between now and then. Waking up on Sunday and motivating downtown to the shop should be easy. Ah, but that is a few days off.

Since I am not leaving my home town (big city) during this week off, I did want to treat myself to something extravagant. Today, I chose to take an early afternoon subway ride down to Times Square, and see if I might snag a ticket for a matinee performance of the revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. The play is currently in previews ... unfortunately ticket prices are not reduced during this final trial run. But ... the tickets are available to the last minute fan like myself.

So, I handed over my credit card to the rather flustered man in the ticket office, and got my admission card to a fine seat in the orchestra (stalls) seats.

I have always been a Noel Coward fan, but have never before seen this play as a play, though I know that I did see the film.

Drawing me to this afternoon at the Shubert Theatre was another chance to see the truly marvelous Angela Lansbury. On one of my very first visits to New York (I was still in school) I saw Ms Lansbury in the original Broadway production of Mame, and have quite enjoyed her performances in various media since then. Portrait of Dorian Gray, The Manchurian Candidate, and even her long-running whimsical tv series as amateur detective Jessica Fletcher.

Today's cast also include Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole, and Simon Jones (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe) and others.

I love seeing revivals. It is fun to see how the wit holds up, how the modern director decides to honor the past, and usually one can count on the play being a well-crafted survivor.

I did quite enjoy this afternoon's performance, even it the critic who lives inside my head definitely notices a few technical glitches and a few flubbed ... but quickly recovered lines. If I were lucky enough to have access to the director, Michael Blakemore, I would also give him a few tips on getting some of the cast to be a bit warmer towards each other. I had the sense of some of them being a bit too much on their own individual spot of the turf.

Still. How lovely it is to live in this city, amongst all its challenges and problems to be solved, and still ... on a free Wednesday, to suddenly decide to go to see a fine bit of theatre, and to be able to be sitting in a fantastic seat an hour later.

I did take along a package of cough drops, and by repeatedly unwrapping a lozenge and popping it into my mouth, managed to keep my recovery from my cold to myself. I am a well-mannered audience member who loves to applaud the cast at the final curtain.

Sweet dreams to all.