The Bronx Is Up And The Battery's Down

New York, New York --
A hell of a town,
The Bronx is up and the Battery's down.
The People ride in a hole in the ground.
New York, New York --
It's a hell of a town. 

--Comden and Green, "New York, New York" from On the Town

Carol and I returned last night from a long weekend (Friday-Tuesday) visit to New York City.  The ostensible purpose for our visit was so I could be a contestant on a National Public Radio quiz show, "Ask Me Another," about which more later.  While we were there, though, we visited with some old friends, went to a couple of museums, saw a couple of Broadway musicals, went to Rockefeller Center, ate some good meals, rode the subway, took some taxi rides, took the train from New Jersey to Penn Station and back (twice), and were solicited so many times by so many people wanting us to buy so many things that we lost track of where we were going.

Despite my use of its lyrics above, we did not see the current revival of On the Town.  Instead we saw the Tony Award winners for Best New Musical for 2013 and 2014, Kinky Boots and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.  What we really wanted to see was the new Royal Shakespeare Company's two-part production of Wolf Hall, but previews didn't start until three days after we left.  I also wanted to see The Interview, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and two or three others, but although I would have been happy seeing two shows a day for a week my companions would not have been so we compromised on two major musicals.  Both were wonderful, and I can't recommend them highly enough.  I don't intend to do a full-scale review here, just a few random observations.  Some things have changed since my first trip to see Broadway shows in the sixties, and some things have remained exactly the same.  I'm not sure if all the changes are for the better.

I'll start with production quality and production values.  The acting, singing, and dancing remain at world-class levels.  After all, jazz and the Broadway musical are the only two original American art forms, and we still do both better than anyone else in the world.  And nobody does Broadway musicals better than Broadway.  The sets, costumes, and especially the lighting set the standard for the rest of the world.  I single out the lighting for special praise because of the revolution the computer brought to the industry.  When I learned lighting design in the sixties we simply could not have imagined what is not only possible but commonplace today.  As early as the seventies computerized dimmer control changed everything.

On the other hand I think the orchestra pit has suffered in the intervening years.  There are fewer musicians and consequently a less full sound.  It is apparently common if not expected for the conductor to play the electronic keyboard as well.  The musicians double and triple on instruments, as often as not electronic in nature.  Everything is amplified, including the singers.  Something has been lost, although no doubt something else has been gained.

The thing I love about seeing a Broadway show is the precision and the timing.  There is real discipline on that stage, and nobody ever lets the audience know there has been a mistake.  For example, in the performance of Kinky Boots that we saw one of the chorus members half fell down a very steep flight of stairs during a production number.  She recovered herself without changing her facial expression, and the other chorus members treated her exactly as if nothing had happened despite the fact that she came close to breaking her leg.  Similarly, in the matinee of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder that we saw the understudy, or standby, performed the leading role.  I was somewhat disappointed since I had heard how magnificent the actor normally playing the role (or rather roles; he plays about eight members of a family, both men and women) is.  The understudy, however, was very nearly perfect, only having problems with one or two hats and wigs.  I doubt if any member of the audience felt cheated in any way; I certainly didn't.  And his performance, which drew a sincere standing ovation, included a number of songs in greatly divergent characters.

I wish the physical buildings in which these magnificent theatre pieces are performed were completely up to the task.  Broadway theatres are mostly very old, and some have been adapted to the demands of modern production better than others.  This is primarily due to economics, given the cost of real estate in New York and the necessity for long runs at full or near capacity just to break even. Given that most Broadway shows, including musicals, lose money, it's a wonder any more are ever staged.  It used to be the case that a musical had to run for two years at full capacity to break even; these days it is more like four years.  Production costs, both initial and ongoing, have skyrocketed, causing ticket prices to increase tenfold or more.  I remember seeing Fiddler on the Roof and Man of La Mancha for $10.00; nowadays the same seats cost $92.00 and up.  Broadway is pricing itself out of reach of the middle class.

The museums of New York are also world-class, and there are many more of them than anyone could see in a week.  Our friends from New Jersey are members (read donors) at about a dozen, and they have a hard time keeping up with just those.  We chose the easy way out since we get to the city so infrequently and this time just went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).  I would have liked to have gone to the Guggenheim and perhaps the Cloisters as well, but there just wasn't time.  And even at these we had to choose between seeing our favorite bits of the permanent collection and one or more of the special exhibitions being staged.  We ended up going to see the Impressionists, Cubists, Expressionists, and the like, and going to a lecture for donors about science in the collections.  We also had a very nice lunch at MoMA (it surprises many people that there are usually very good cafes or cafeterias at good art museums) before going on to see a show.

Our friends, not yet retired, had to go to work on Monday, so Carol and I checked into our Times Square hotel on Sunday and did the tourist thing on Monday, wandering up to Rockefeller Center.  I wanted to have lunch at the Rainbow Room, but the line was too long so we ate at the hotel instead.  I also decided to forego my trip to the Observatory at the Top of the Rock and went shopping with Carol instead.  Unfortunately she found neither the new gloves (having left one in a taxi) nor the new handbag she wanted.

After our late lunch/early dinner we found the subway to Brooklyn (the R train, for the record) and rode it for about 45 minutes to the Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street stop.  From there it was about four blocks to the Bell House, a bar with a found-space theatre) where my show was taping.  I met the producer and the host and settled in until it was my turn.  As it turned out that was about an hour and a half later, when I was finally called to the stage for my quiz.  The topic was perfect for me--a combination of word game and name of television shows.  I was primed and ready.

A brief word on how I got there.  I've been listening to this show for a couple of years, playing along with the quizzes and usually doing pretty well.  When they told how to apply to be a contestant I happened to be listening on my computer so I opened another window and did what they said.  A few days later I got an email from the producer along with a quiz to fill out and send in.  The quiz had sections that were word games, television games, number games, fiction games, music games, and people in the news games.  Generally I did very well, and when I didn't know an answer I tried to say something funny.  A few weeks later I got another email telling my I was a finalist and would get a telephone interview.  That went very well, and I got another email inviting me to be a contestant. This was NPR and not CBS, so the prizes were not large and travel expenses would be my own responsibility.  I'm happy to go to New York whenever I can, so I was happy to accept.  Somewhat to my surprise Carol wanted to go along, so we planned our trip.

Back to the show.  There was a little pre-quiz banter among the host, the house musician, my opponent, and me, and it went very well and drew some big audience laughter.  Then the quiz started, and I slowly died.  Of the six questions I answered one; some of the others I didn't know, and some of the others that I did know my opponent buzzed in first.  In a few minutes it was over; she had won and would move on to the final round.  I would not.  My entirely silent revenge, though, was that I knew all of the answers to final round questions, and she did not.  Even though she is an academic dean.  But by then, of course, it was too late.

We took the subway back to Times Square (the F train this time; apparently the R train is a shuttle after 7:00) and came home the next day.  I was in a deep funk, but have since pulled out of it.  The whole trip was fun, and made me remember why I love New York.  The shows, the museums, the shopping, the food, the subways.  New York, New York; it's a helluva town.