Rockettes are still hot!

I worked at Radio City Music Hall a few years ago and have seen many incarnations of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. For awhile, it was very "heavy" on the traditionalt Nativity but recently I attended the 2009 edition and noticed they've cut the Nativity a bit...most wouldn't notice. It still has the 3 camels, 2 burros and a smattering of sheep, as well as the entire Radio City chorus decked out in the drag of ancient times a la Cecil B. DeMille. They cut the reading of One Solitary Life to make room for yet another Rockette number...a grand finale. One criticism of the show was that there was never a proper curtain call....you want to cheer for everybody after 90 minutes of breathless spectacle and endless costume changes. SO THEY FINALLY added a curtain call and it's a real crowd-pleaser. My favorite number is still the dance number with 500 dancing Santas.
Several weeks ago I got a telephone call out of the blue from a former Rockette who I used to hang out with when I worked at the Music Hall...she now is married and settled with a family in Florida. Her name is Lois and she told me she misses being a Rockette dreadfully-- "especially at this time of year!"

Look for Jim Dykes in the new Fall TV Season

I've had my SAG and AFTRA union cards which allegedly show that I am a professional actor but after busting my butt for years to obtain union status, I haven't really worked in several years as an actor. Various reasons beginning with 9/11/01 when suddenly two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and when those buildings fell, they also took a lot of opportunity. Agents left the business (my agent Ellen left to teach YOGA for God's sake!), production companies scaled back and/or relocated OUT of New York to what they deemed were safer locations. Non-union productions and even union productions started cutting corners and hiring NON-union talent (because it's cheaper) proliferated and North Carolina, Texas, Canada and other tax havens became more and more popular. New York City has always had this idea (just like L.A.!) that "we are the great New York and the entertainment business will always be here, no matter how much we tax it and regulate it." Actually, the opposite is true...show business is BUSINESS first and producers simply go where it's cheaper to work and where they can make more profit.

Recently I started doing "extra" work or "background" work...I registered with several casting agents that specialize in this and they've been calling me quite a bit. Now mind you...the reason I'm SAG/AFTRA is because I've had prinicipal or LEADING roles in national TV commercials and worked in other shows. But that was THEN and this is NOW. Most actors who have worked in "principal" contract roles do NOT do "extra" work...like many, I was always told that you don't want to do extra work for several reasons:
1. you don't want to get pigeon-holed as just "human furniture"
2. the money is not great and there are no residuals for extras
3. you don't want to get "stuck" on a set all day in case your agent calls with an audition for a really good job. You can't leave sometimes for 15 or 16 hours till they are finished. Extras are also treated shabbily by crew...you are literally treated like you are "less than human" but when you're a "principal" perforner, you have your own dressing room, assistants running around getting you things, RESPECT plus much more money and residual payments.
These are all good reasons to not do "extra" work but recently I threw caution to the wind and did a bunch of extra jobs. I was a "TV reporter" in a horde on Law & Order SVU, I was a security guard in the new Jennifer Aniston-Gerard Butler movie The Bounty (a romantic comedy for release next summer), a comedic Icelandic camera-man in Tina Fey's hit sitcom 30 Rock and I just found out that I'll be playing a camera-wielding tourist Tuesday on the SEX AND THE CITY 2 movie! Not only is it fun, it pays so-so, the on-set food is WONDERFUL (catered by some of the best catering companies), you're rubbing shoulders with some great stars and working on some exciting sets, with a true "insider's" view of things.
Also, when I give the Rich & Famous Tour (and my other tours) it's great fodder for chit-chat and first-hand stories from the set for my tourists who enjoy "insider celebrity" stories.
I have more info on my Adventures in the World of movie/TV extra work on my other website: http://www.JimDykes.com/blog

A Blog is a Journal (Diary) and is made up of MY thoughts & opinions

Recently, there are reports of people criticizing bloggers for "whining" and "complaining" etc. Blogs are, quite simply, a personal journal or diary...just online so anyone can read it. When I blog, I'm talking about my day, New York tourism (my field), showbiz and celebrities (also my field) or any other damn thing I want to talk about. If I feel like complaining or criticizing something, this is my place to do it. Anybody who doesn't like it is free to simply "exit" and read somebody else's blog!

I recently saw the fabulous movie "Julie & Julia" which tells two stories side by side: the story of how Julia Child (in the 40's and 50's) learned how to cook, wrote her book and BECAME the Julia Child we all know and love. Interwoven is the true story of a young woman (a BLOGGER) who simply cooks her way thru Julia Child's famous French cookbook and blogs about it and learns more about herself in the process. Many critics referred to her as a "whiny blogger" which I think is really unfair. This isn't merely "the Julia Child story" it's Julia Child's story told thru another woman's eyes (and kitchen). An interesting concept. Julia Child is played by the wonderful Meryl Streep and the girl (Julie) is played by the delightful Amy Adams (Disney's ENCHANTED princess).

I've met both women and am fans of both of them. I first met Meryl Streep as a young teenager when she was on Broadway in The Happy End at the Martin Beck Theatre, now the Hirschfeld. I hadn't yet moved to New York permanently...I was visiting a woman in her dressing room (Grayson Hall)who was the leading lady in the show and Meryl was the soprano ingenue (she sings!), freshly out of YALE, and still hadn't been stolen away by Hollywood. She was down-to-earth and lovely as I recall. Years later I had a teensy-weensy part in the movie SHE DEVIL with Meryl and she was just as lovely to me on set. She remembered our meeting (or said she did anyway). I've also met her at industry events and screenings. Both ladies (Meryl and Amy) are total pros...first on the set, completely rehearsed and ready to go, however many takes are needed.

Manhattan Island-a brief chronology/time line

Manhattan Island Chronology—Some basic dates to make it all make sense

1600’s and earlier- Manhattan Island inhabited by Lenape Indians. Used as a hunting ground-14 square miles, 62 bodies of water including streams, creeks, ponds, lakes, swamps. By modern times, the island is 22 square miles with landfill all around.
1626-Dutch West India Company establishes New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan. Shortly afterward, Harlem and other country towns established on the island.
1664-British take over New Amsterdam, renaming in New-York. Within a few years, most of Manhattan is parceled out in land grants and the real estate booms: farms, villages and country estates cover Manhattan, north of the baby Metropolis “New-York” (still hyphenated).
1703-Bloomindale Road is built, along the lines of an old Indian trail now called Broadway.
1753-New York’s FIRST Broadway theatre is built: The Park Theatre.
1776-Revolutionary War rages all around New York…the city is burned on Sept. 4, many people flee north to the countryside and across the rivers to New-Jersey and Brooklyn.
1789-George Washington inaugurated in New York on Wall Street. New York is the nation’s first capitol.
1792-New York Stock Exchange founded on Wall Street.
1795-Yellow Fever epidemic sweeps New York City. Thousands die.
1804-Alexander Hamilton killed in duel with Aaron Burr.
1806-The Staten Island Ferry is started by 15-year old Cornelius Vanderbilt, beginning the legendary Vanderbilt fortune.
1811-Commissioner’s Plan is adopted, laying out Manhattan’s system of streets and avenues by John Randall, but it will be decades before most of these streets are anything more than lines on a map. The island’s hills are gradually graded and flattened.
1821-The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum is opened on the site of what is now Columbia University and St. John the Divine. The area in the country, near the suburbs of Harlem, Manhattanville and Bloomingdale.
1825-Erie Canal opens which connects New York’s harbor to the vast mid-west and west of the growing country.
1826-Lord & Taylor (New York’s oldest dept. store) is founded.
1827-Slavery is abolished in New York.
1837-Tiffany’s is founded
1838-The Croton Aqueduct is built, opening in 1842, giving New York City fresh clean water from the mountains upstate—just what it needs to thrive as a modern city. Public bath houses and decorative fountains open all over.
1850-Cast Iron Buildings become all the rage. Pre-fab construction.
1852-Elevator invented in New York City by Elijah Otis.
1853-Cornelius Vanderbilt consolidates 12 railroads into The New York Central Railroad, later builds Grand Central.
1856-New York City acquires the land to build Central Park.
1858-Macy’s founded.
1867-Nation’s first Elevated trains built in New York City.
1868-Broadway is opened, replacing the old Bloomingdale Road.
1872-78- Sewers and water mains are laid in most of the streets, more to follow.
1870’s-80’s-Improved city services: electricity, trash pickup and more.
1883-Brooklyn Bridge opens, connecting the two cities…a 17-year construction project.
1884-The Dakota building, kicking off luxury apartment houses on the West Side.
1886-Statue of Liberty unveiled.
1888-Great Blizzard of 1888 happens in March, killing dozens of New Yorkers and paralyzing the city. City Council decides that all electric cables, telegraph, etc. are placed UNDER-ground.
1880’s-‘90’s-Upper Westside develops into an elegant residential district for “new” money as opposed to the “old” money districts on the Upper Eastside.
1892-Ellis Island opens to process immigrants.
1898-Harlem, Brooklyn and other areas vote to become part of the new 5-borough metropolis New York City.
1900-Subway construction is begun…3 separate lines built by private enterprise, later incorporated into a city service as the MTA. Subway construction spurs a huge growth of more and bigger apartment buildings in the far-reaching parts of the city which will now be easily accessible. IRT is first to open.
1902-First skyscraper opens: The Flat-Iron Building.
1907-Pennsylvania Station
1912-Titanic sinks, taking many of New York’s wealthy and famous citizens: John Jacob Astor and many others.
1913-Income tax and other taxes along with zoning law changes cause the giant mansions of the rich to come tumbling down (or turn into tax-free buildings).
1915-Harlem begins changing from an all-white enclave to become the most famous black community in America.
1913-1920’s-Huge luxury apartment buildings go up around Central Park.
1929-1938-Rockefeller Center constructed, re-inventing a huge section of midtown.
1931-The Empire State Building opens during the Great Depression, the tallest structure in the world for 42 years. For many years it’s only 10% occupied, nicknaming it The Empty State Bldg.
1932-Eighth Avenue subway line opens along Central Park West.
1934-LaGuardia Airport opened
1940-Ninth Avenue Elevated in closed and torn down.
1945-Many latinos from the Caribbean become the newest immigrants to settle in NYC.
1950’s-City is prosperous and thriving, many people leave for the expanding suburbs.
1960’s-Vietnam War, Flower Children, much social change begun.
1969-Stonewall Riots, beginning the modern era of Gay Rights.
1970’s-City Fiscal crisis. Drugs, crime, deterioration and the abandonment of buildings besets various neighborhoods.
1973-World Trade Center constructed.
1990’s-City attracts new businesses and private investment and real estate thrives. 42nd Street is restored and the city becomes cleaner and safer than in decades.
2001-World Trade Center attacked by terrorists.

Natasha Richardson Dies Tragically--Star Lived on Rich & Famous Tour Route in New York City near Central Park

Like everyone else in New York, I am sadded and grief-stricken at the sudden death of beautiful star Natasha Richardson, wife of Liam Neeson, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave. Last night the lights of Broadway dimmed for a minute for the great star (winner of the 1998 Tony Award in Cabaret). Her friends such as Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick turned out on West 45^th Street to witness the event and share in their sadness. Only 45 years old, the papers have been filled with stories and pictures of this lovely woman who I so enjoyed in her many stage and film appearances. I didn’t know her, although I was acquainted with her mother Vanessa Redgrave (a lovely, warm, quirky person) but everyone says Natasha was truly a delightful person and the world is certainly a sadder place without her.

Natasha Richardson resided in a high rise on my Rich and Famous bus tour and Central Park West walking tour routes. She originally lived at 91 Central Park West (with celebs such as Armani and Imus) but several years ago they moved to their new place a couple of blocks away in a much more modern building. The new building is jammed with celebrities such as Regis Philbin, Alan Alda, Celine Dion, Howard Stern, Julie Andrews and many others…reportedly all the building residents are shocked and saddened by her sudden, accidental death at age 45 leaving behind her husband and two boys, age 12 and 13.

I lost my partner of nearly 10 years suddenly and I know the pain and grief one goes thru in this type of situation. I only hope the media leaves Neeson and the boys alone to grieve in private. It takes years to work thru this kind of pain. It’s like a hole in the center of your being (your heart?) and over time if you are grieving properly the hole gets smaller but never entirely goes away. Blessings to the Neeson-Redgrave-Richardson clan.

Henry V; The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd; ENTER LAUGHING; The Story of My Life

HENRY V by Shakespeare
Brought to NYC by the Guthrie and NYC’s Acting Company, this was a fabulous production of this Shakespearean classic…the young guy who plays Henry (Mathew Amendt) is destined for great stardom in movies & TV (you heard it here first). This is a star-making role (it’s where Kenneth Branagh was first spotlighted). I was fortunate to have a friend who writes for theatre publications invite me to the last performance on last Sunday afternoon. Completely “stripped down” Shakespeare…the entire world is created by the actors, costumes, a simple stockade set with openings and lighting. It’s a bit confusing because 12 actors play ALL the roles: noblemen, soldiers on both sides, royalty, etc. but I suppose to do Shakespeare these days you’ve got to be economical.
THE WIDOWING OF MRS. HOLROYD by D.H. Lawrence
Another small production, this is a small show at the tiny MINT THEATRE, which is located up in an office building on West 43rd St. I attended this with a friend who is a critic and theatre writer and there were several other “press” people in the audience that day such as the TIME OUT New York theatre reviewer. This is a dark play with a simple premise: In 1910, an English woman who is caught up in a bad marriage to a coal miner, who is a drunk and philanderer, fantasizes about his death and is shocked when it happens. The play’s dramatic highlight is when the husband’s “corpse” is brought into the house and spread out on the floor for the wife to clean him and prepare him for the funeral…an old practice which modern audiences are not aware of. Apparently Lawrence only wrote a few plays and this is an early one…the subject matter shocked people at the time and he had trouble initially getting it produced. Again, some of the best acting in New York is Off-Broadway and this cast is no exception.
ENTER LAUGHING
Finally, the small YORK THEATRE COMPANY has a hit…a BIG Hit with critics AND audiences. In any other economy, it would transfer immediately to Broadway but producers these days are skittish, so we must wait and see. This is a sweet, old-fashioned musical about a young man, “David Kolowitz”(played by Josh Grisetti) who is dreaming of leaving 174th Street in the Bronx and getting into the theatre. Apparently, it’s thinly based on the life of Carl Reiner. Other actors include Jill Eikenberry and her real-life husband Michael Tucker (L.A. Law) as the parents. It’s a very thin story, really just an excuse for some laughs and nice songs with great scaled-down production values for a small theatre. Just goes to show you don’t need a ton of money for scenery to get the point across. Watch for this show to move eventually…especially if they can keep Grisetti.
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
Last month I got a free ticket at Actors Equity to see THE STORY OF MY LIFE at the Booth Theatre on Broadway…a sweet little two-person show about two lifelong friends told in flashbacks. The show opens with one friend writing another friend’s obituary and Eulogy. It’s a bit sappy and maudlin and feels like you’ve seen it before. The show closed only a couple days after opening, which I could have predicted. The music feels like the composer Neil Bartram is aping Sondheim and it’s irritating that so many young composers do this. My friend leaned over during one song and said…”that melody…isn’t that directly from FINISHING THE HAT from Sunday in the Park With George?” It’s a sweet show but I knew it was too small to last in a big Broadway house…it should have opened in a small space such as the Westside Arts Theatre or Manhattan Theatre Club. The two actors are FABULOUS…Will Chase and Malcolm Gets…just to prove that if you have wonderful people, even pedantic crap is watchable and has “heart.” I leaned over to my friend and said “this show was obviously written by somebody who went to a good music school and knows how to turn out a lavish score, but is ANYthing memorable?” So many young composers today forget what Richard Rodgers and Irving Berlin knew…give the audience a song or two (or three) to hum and take home with them!! MUSICALS first and foremost should have some good MUSIC not just endless recitative aping the best of Sondheim. Recitative should be used sparingly, not making up the entire show. This was directed by Broadway composing veteran Richard Maltby Jr. who knows the value of a good tune and should have sent Bartram back to the piano to come up with a good tune or two.

Winter Spent Seeing Lots of Theatre Around Town: First Up: LOOKING FOR THE PONY, OTHELLO, HEROES

Lately I’ve been spending the quiet winter months going to various intimate, Off-Broadway shows which can be a crap shoot…some are wonderful, some not so good. I’ve had a great lucky streak, however and am doing a “round up” here:
LOOKING FOR THE PONY by Andrea Lepcio.
Small show (4 people in the cast) at a tiny theatre on 74th and Broadway about two sisters, one of who has been diagnosed with cancer and is dying…and her sister who is helping her live her life and die with dignity. This feels autobiographical…I wonder if the playwright herself lived thru this, since the “sister” in the story is a writer…hmmm. There are two additional people in the cast and they play ALL the other people (doctors, nurses, neighbors, patients, etc.) which adds a light touch to this serious show.
OTHELLO by William Shakespeare
My friend Elizabeth Rouse is in this! Playing at the intimate DUKE THEATRE (Doris Duke’s $$$ funded it) on West 42nd St., this OTHELLO is one to see…powerful, well-staged, riveting acting by mostly unknown professionals. My friend Elizabeth has a small role (Bianca, the courtesan) but she’s just one reason to see this stripped down production which isn’t weighed down with a lot of scenery and production values…simply speaking, it’s Shakespeare done well by people who know how (directed by Arin Arbus). It originally was a limited run and recently closed but got such good notices in the Times and other papers , Elizabeth tells me it’s re-opening in April!
HEROES by Gerald Sibleyras, translated by Tom Stoppard
One of the good things about a shaky economy where big, expensive shows and musicals are being scrapped, is really good actors are suddenly available for small, quality productions in tiny theatres. Finely acted, small production with big Broadway names (John Cullum, Ron Holgate, Jonathan Hogan) and a heart. It’s a French show that was translated by Stoppard and won the Olivier award in London, but this is the first NYC production. It’s about a group of elderly men in a retirement home for old soldiers (set in the 1950s) and how they are slowly coming to grip with their own impending deaths. It makes the audience think, because aren’t we all eventually coming to grips with this?
FOOTNOTE: John Cullum is currently in two New York shows at once…he’s in AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY at the Music Box Theatre on W. 45th St. with Estelle Parsons, Elizabeth Ashley and a great cast. His character dies after the first scene, which allows him to leave the theatre and go 3 blocks down to West 42nd St. to do HEROES. I spoke to Cullum at the reception after the show and he said he was hoping the press would downplay this because audiences seeing AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY aren’t aware that the character he plays dies until much later in the play.

Blithe Spirit with Lansbury- A True Late Winter Treat on Broadway PLUS comments on Ebersole, Everett, Lane, Lansbury

Saw Blithe Spirit last night starring Angela Lansbury, Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole and a great cast in this fabulous comedy by Noel Coward from 1945, now revived again on Broadway with just the right “light” touch. A wonderful treat for audiences who need to laugh and forget their own problems.
I actually did this play years ago in stock and the last time I saw it was with Geraldine Page as the dotty medium Madame Arcati (the summer she died in the role) at the Alvin Theatre. It’s still early in previews and the actors (notably Rupert Everett) were screwing up and dropping lines here and there but recovering nicely, as true stage pros do. Even though in previews, there were celebrities all around, giving this revival the whiff of a 2009 “event on the verge.”
I’ve admired Angela Lansbury from afar for years and try to never miss this working actress when she appears anywhere…but I’ve only had one personal contact with her: Years ago I attended a Christmas party tossed by Angela Lansbury on the stage of the (then Uris) Gershwin Theatre where she was doing Sweeney Todd.
FOOTNOTE: I still recall what a lovely lady she is…charming, genuine, chatty (even to newcomers), and a perfect hostess. I was only a cast member’s “date” but she went out of her way to make me feel comfortable and introduced me to her family members and other actors and crew present. Angela wore a pink chiffon “scarve” dress (remember those?) and the menu was Prime Rib, new potatoes, brussel sprouts and for dessert, piles of English trifle. It was served by a catering staff dressed like English maids and butlers and she assisted them clearing plates and refilling drinks, etc. She filled the Sweeney Todd prop oven with Xmas/party favors for everyone and had a DJ onstage spinning records (I still recall Sondheim and Len Cariou dancing to “I Will Survive.”)
It’s been fun to see her age over the years and grow into “old lady” roles with grace. The rest of the cast in this is also quite wonderful. Ebersole plays the deceased first wife Elvira who comes back in spirit form…the “blithe” spirit of the title. My only personal contact with Christine Ebersole was at a couple of American Theatre Wing events and she’s not a nice person but charming and talented in everything she tackles. She’s one of those self-promoting actresses (rhymes with rich) who must know exactly who you are and what you can do for her before she wastes a minute with you. And speaking of bitches, anybody in the gay world can tell you stories about Rupert Everett, who's been known to been to snarl at tourists in his West Village neighborhood while walking his dog.
Lansbury (as the eccentric medium Madame Arcati), Jayne Atkinson (as the second wife) and especially Susan Louise O’Connor as the maid are truly solid and hold the play together with their wonderful timing and professionalism. O'Connor makes the most of the role of the slow-witted maid. One of the people in my party (retired Broadway producer Michael Frasier (Lena Horne: the Lady and her Music)is not known for compliments unless he really means it, leaned over and said quietly: “this a really good production: the casting, the set, the lighting, the direction…everything” High praise from an old pro in the theatre.
FOOTNOTE: STOP THE PRESSES!!
Nathan Lane sat near me and actually seemed pleasant to strangers who spoke to him! So unexpected… the last time I saw him was at a bar in Chelsea all alone drinking until he couldn’t stand. When the bartender tried to help him get a cab home, he jerked away, said some nasty comments and staggered out of the bar and down W. 22nd Street. So much for the “great star” Nathan Lane (Joe Lane from Jersey City), I thought. Right after that the NY Times printed an interview with Lane lamenting why he is alone and can’t find a boyfriend. I laughed out loud, threw down the Times and said “it’s because you’re a nasty drunk and a jerk.” He seems to have changed..so docile...Perhaps he’s made a trip to Betty Ford or SilverHill?

New York City Guide Jim Dykes says: "Bernie Madoff's penthouse a HUGE hit on the Rich & Famous Tours of New York City!"

Bernie Madoff’s posh Eastside building where the Ponzie-schemer has been under house arrest for several months has become one of the most requested sites on Jim Dykes’ New York City tours as well as his Rich and Famous New York City tours. Madoff gave himself up 3 months ago after his $50Billion scheme was revealed due to the plummeting economy. The building is located on East 64th Street, which is notable for having an extremely high number of billionaire residents. Television host Matt Lauer, of NBC’s TODAY SHOW (not a billionaire) is a resident of the building and is said to “despise” the attention Madoff has brought to the building. “On many days, there are huge crowds of TV crews, TV satellite trucks, security guards, reporters and photographers, policemen, bystanders and MY tourists outside the building,” says Jim Dykes. The rich ladies and gentlemen in that neighborhood are furious…they can’t wait for Madoff to be hauled off to jail. Other celebs in that area include: Caroline Kennedy, Joan Rivers, Kim Cattrall, columnist Cindy Adams and many others.”
“Everybody wants to know about Bernie Madoff, his fancy penthouse, his office building and information on his various victims, many of whom are neighbors on the Upper Eastside,” says Dykes, one of the guides and co-founders of Rich and Famous Tours, the “Celebrity-themed” tour of New York City. Madoff’s office building is 11 blocks south and one avenue over…it’s the famed Lipstick Building, designed by famed architect Phillip Johnson with John Burgee, and which is shaped, aptly enough, like a tube of lipstick. It is said that Madoff would walk home very often, since the two buildings are fairly close together…perhaps a 15 minute walk from his penthouse on E. 64th St.
“People always want to know about the grim, sordid things mentioned in the newspapers on my tour” says Dykes. “ A year ago on Halloween celebrity realtor Linda Stein was bludgeoned to death in her Fifth Avenue penthouse and EVERYone wanted to know about it. And when Heath Ledger overdosed in his SoHo loft, it became the #1 location people wanted to see on the tours. People have accused me of being morbid, but I’m only giving the customers what they want, just like the TV reporters, with their fake sadness when reporting a story. A friend of mine who used to work at ABC-TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News in Manhattan told me: “If it bleeds, it leads” meaning of course, that bloody murder scenes and other grim locations ALWAYS begin the news telecasts.”

St. John the Divine Organizes Special 2-Day Tour for Jim and NYC Tour Guides

Recently a group of New York City tour guides were invited to increase our knowledge of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine—the “unfinished” Cathedral-- by attending a specially organized two-day seminar on two of the coldest, snowiest days of the winter. Day One, in the morning we had a general highlights tour of the cathedral. The guide Kevin Blum, was a very nice young fellow from Iowa, who had followed his studies (and his girlfriend) to New York City. His tour was fine and efficient, but not for a group of well-read New York guides who had been leading groups to the Cathedral for many years. In our group alone, we calculated about 100 years of NYC guide experience, including myself, Mike Brennan, Tour Goddess Jane Marx and Juliette Frydman. Kevin soon began letting us all contribute and embellish his memorized accounts of Cathedral history, including the struggle between two architectural firms in the 1890s which ended up with part of the Cathedral being Romanesque Revival and part being French Gothic Revival—two styles that usually clash but are unusually harmonious in St. John the Divine.
After lunch, we had a chance, casual meeting with the Dean of the Cathedral (an Arian from Darien, Connecticut) and were able to ask any question we liked. Following this, we had a special Numerology tour of the cathedral with an expert. Various numbers are repeated quite a bit for various religious reasons (4 signs of the cross, 7 deadly sins, 12 apostles, etc.). It doesn’t sound interesting but the numerologist, a young volunteer named Howell, was excellent and spoke compellingly for 2 hours.
The next morning began with an in-depth tour of the fabulous stained glass windows, and their stories, such as the Media window with its images of Jack Benny on the radio and the Gutenberg printing press. Also, the American History window donated by the Astor family in memory of John Jacob Astor, who died on the Titanic. It’s sinking is depicted in the lower right corner of the window.
After lunch on the second day, they saved the best for last: the one thing I’d been wanting to do for 20 years: The Vertical Tour, in which we would be permitted to venture thru locked doors and to climb up more than a dozen flights to view the Cathedral from above. The guide distributed flashlights and told us the rules: We climbed up and up, …first stop, 4 flights up to view the nave from a balcony landing. Second stop, a few more flights to look down on the altar from 8 floors up, then another few flights up to the top of the ceiling, 12 flights up. Along the way, the guide spent a few minutes at each landing discussing the art and the windows from this wonderful vantage point, rarely seen by most visitors close up.
Just as I thought we’d be heading downstairs, the guide led us up thru more passages and more flights to the huge attic area (who knew it existed?) above the cathedral ceiling, where we viewed the giant iron supports and the Guastavino tile ceiling from above. Then she took us up even FURTHER…this time to the very roof of the Cathedral…to the stone balconies that ring the building and we viewed the Morningside Heights campus (and neighborhood) for blocks…truly breathtaking. Of course my camera’s battery died after only a few pictures (isn’t that always the case?) but a few pictures survived of the gorgeous limestone carvings and the view into the Nave from above.

Liz Smith signed her book Natural Blonde to Jim Dykes: For Jim: One of My Stars!

Jim Dykes, NYC Guide, saw FIRST PREVIEW of new Jane Fonda Broadway show 33 VARIATIONS and says "It's a Hit!!"

New York City Tour UPDATE from Jim Dykes, guide:

“It’s a HIT! Buy Your tickets NOW!" Last night I went to the FIRST performance of the new Moises Kaufman play 33 VARIATIONS starring Jane Fonda on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre. I knew by the middle of Act One that we were watching a HIT…even though it was the only first public preview, which is like a dress rehearsal with an audience. The story is compelling, the staging is complicated but interesting, and the performances are FIRST-rate. Kaufman is a genius…he’s taken a subject revolving around a specific point of history involving a classical music composition two centuries old, and woven a quite interesting story together with a modern story.

The play is about a musicologist, Dr. Katherine Brandt (Fonda) who has spent her life specializing in Beethoven to a point where he dominates her conscious and sub-conscious life. As the play opens, we find Brandt has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and is slowly beginning to lose control of her bodily functions…but her lifelong study of Beethoven has her determined to solve an old mystery which has baffled colleagues for centuries: Namely, what was it about an ordinary little waltz that inspired one of Beethoven’s greatest works: The famous 33 Variations. She dedicates her last few coherent months on this research, which will possibly be her last music thesis, and is determined to complete the research which includes a months-long research trip to Bonn, Germany to the Beethoven archives (where the play is set, surrounded by boxes of music files, diaries and sketch books).

The interesting twist: the play is set simultaneously in the present as well as the past (1819-1822); this is the era when Beethoven is slowly going deaf while composing some of his greatest triumphs including the 33 Variations. What is wonderful is: you don’t have to be a classical music enthusiast to appreciate this very human story…Kaufman has presented it in very

The staging very complex, with scenes from the present overlapping into scenes from two centuries earlier, back and forth and sometimes happening onstage simultaneously. In another director’s hands, this may have been confusing and difficult to comprehend but Kaufman is a (young) master.

The story is complicated a bit by Dr. Brandt’s daughter Clara (the fine Samantha Mathis) and their lifelong mother-daughter struggles as well as her new romance with her mother’s male nurse played by Colin Hanks (yes, his father is Tom Hanks) in a small, unimportant role. However, if I were a betting man, I would say this show is being produced by Hanks’ Hollywood money. His son is fine, but any 30 year old male member of Equity could have done as well, if not better.

Standouts to watch for include Susan Kellermann in a wonderful turn as a humorless German PhD music researcher who eventually becomes friends with Brandt. Also watch for Zach Grenier as Ludwig Von Beethoven reincarnated.

As I said, no need to wait for the New York Times to declare it when it opens : “33 VARIATIONS IS A HIT! Get your tickets immediately!"