La Divo Vilanch

There have probably been more glamorous creatures on the glitzily  be-curtained stage of the city's premier cabaret room than Mr Bruce Vilanch...

but I doubt if any of them have been as funny, witty and fascinating.  The things we mere mortals don't know about the show business legends Mr V does. And he tells us what they are really like from Tallulah Bankhead to Steve Martin. (They all go to the toilet. Sometimes on stage.)  In a whirlwind tour of his writing life from the heady days of television variety (remember "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour"?) to his prolific years working for names such as Midler, Cher, Tomlin, MacLaine etc etc, to his current assignment as head writer for this year's Oscars (and a score or more past ones) he had us rolling in shock and secret glee as he exposed feet of clay in all sizes.

He was also wonderfully generous to acknowlege Mr Sheldon's presence in the room and gave a great plug for his upcoming Broadway debut.   And he also lauded Mr Kevin Joseph, (aka Flotilla Debarge) who sat next to us and made excellent conversation. Mr. Joseph appeared on Broadway with Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper in THREEPENNY OPERA and was one of Will Swenson's personal  "drag"advisors for his role in PRISCILLA.

Here is Mr Joseph (with another of our idols, Charles Busch.)

And here is his alter ego,  Miss Debarge!

A woman of great dimension and not to be crossed!
Also in the audience was New York's premier entertainment lawyer Mark Sendroff who represents everyone on Broadway on and off stage. He's got a beautiful singing voice and has sung on a couple of Ben Bagley's albums on the Painted Smiles label ("Mostly Mercer" and "Contemporary Broadway Revisited") so when Sheldon was introduced to him after the show he was able to shriek "I have all your records!!" which Mr. Sendroff took with good grace .

out into it again 2nd and Irving

We went for a walk in the slush. Second Ave has some splendid parks and colonial buildings

Not easy to negotiate on a day like today

He was in Irving St

Cnr of Irving and 15th

And below a pioneer bemoans the sad fate of a baby pine thrown out after the excesses of the season have clogged the gutters and sewers. His chapeau is from an adventure shop. It has become a friend in that he is now completely warm from head to ankle.  The toes are not warm because he walked into a slush pond.

I made the NEW YORK POST!!!

We hear . . .

 January 11, 2011

. . . THAT singer Jack Donahue and his band wowed audience members at the Laurie Beechman Theater on Sunday night, including Tony Sheldon, star of the new Broadway musical "Priscilla Queen of the Desert."

I'm in print! Just like Edna Ferber! Thank you to the lovely Mr. Donahue for the info.

Morning Glory

We were warned last night that we might be snowbound for three years. The local government was so embarrassed over the chaos which ensued after the Christmas blizzard that they went ape on the news saying how bad the next storm could be and how well they were prepared. Well, unless there is more on the way we are well and truly safe and able to slop our way to the shops and not have to break open our one thousand packets of almonds and the four hundred tins of tuna.  Here are a few momenti snowri.

Excuse the little squares. They are the flyscreen.

It's not the griller tray. It's the fire escape.

Sheldon was out early doing his bit

Snow in New York often comes from the ground up.

Sheldon loves this corner. Another life?

Total fluke

This is the sign on the little dessert shop we went to for Internet access when we first arrived. I love the icing on the letters

Pants On Fire "Metamorphoses"

Visiting NYC after a successful season at the Ediburgh Fringe Festival, the Pants On Fire Company's adaptation of Ovid's epic Roman poem was reset in World War II Britain, complete with stiff upper lips and Celia Johnston accents. Not unlike the brilliant Kneehigh group in terms of wildly inventive physical imagery, there were some wonderful ideas including Cupid as a little schoolboy puppet...

  Daphne (in 40s long black dress) prays for help to escape Apollo's lustful attentions and is transformed into a tree formed by her green petticoats. The actress playing Io, whom Jupiter turns into a cow, wears a gas mask and tin cans for hooves . Medusa is a slattern with a blowsy blonde wig in curlers.  Narcissus is a matinee idol on the screen and Echo the usherette who falls in love with him. Atlas is a Gestapo agent. Ariadne, who is turned into an island, sits alone amongst the waves and the flying fish singing "Am I Blue?"

All the other excellent songs were originals by Lucy Egger who...small world department...was tt's musical director for his play THE POPULAR MECHANICALS at the Newtown Theatre in Sydney!

Honestly

As I clack we are about to experience a huge snow storm. We walked through the start of it coming home from the theatre and in Union Square we saw this amazing sight.

Snow was building up on the pieces. Nothing was biting except the cold

astor place subway

Plaques of beavers are located on the walls, in honor of John Jacob Astor's fortune derived from the beaver-pelt trade. The plaques were made in 1904. (from Wikipedia)