Bloomberg's Billionaire Boys Club Dominates NYC Construction

Lately I've noticed all the construction going on all over Manhattan Island. My gosh...you can't MISS it! EVERYwhere you look there are huge new condominiums and hotels and offices going up. Of course New York City has always been a "hub" of activity and skyscraper construction but they didn't build ALL the skyscrapers AT ONCE! It took 100 years to build NYC's definitive skyline, but lately it seems as if the powers that be are trying to build a whole new skyline THIS YEAR! There are more new buildings going up than ever. Today I was walking down 57th Street past another new Hilton Hotel going up next door to the Director's Guild of America. YET ANOTHER HILTON HOTEL! Manhattan has at least 4 (and probably more). Across the street are two more development sites that have been cleared and are preparing to build, giving yet more insanity to the already clogged cross-town artery 57th Street! The block my post office is on has been choked off for YEARS because of the non-stop construction of several new condo towers (mostly empty). Massive new towers are going up all over town including a new Trump Tower (in SoHo yet!) and so many more new buildings it's mind-boggling.

On 57th Street, on 42nd Street, on Broadway, on Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Seventh Avenue, Eighth Ave. (oh boy), Ninth Avenue, Tenth Avenue, Eleventh and Twelfth Avenue and every street in between...hotels, office buildings and my my my: condos GALORE! There must be 100 new skyscrapers (or more) going up now ALL AT ONCE! And I'm not exaggerating at all. In fact, I've probably UNDER-calculated.

Hey, I'm all for capitalism and making bushels of $$$....mazel tov! I think it's wonderful that Zeckenforf, Le Frak, Macklowe, Trump, Silverstein and all the other usual suspects (NYC developers) are making another few billion. But why are they all racing to build all of these new buildings all at once? And who are all of these rich people who are going to be moving in? But when 3 out of 4 streets I try to walk down are closed because of muddy, roped-off construction sites, gigantic booms swinging at all angles and arrogrant construction workers telling me to "move along" or blocking the streets so I can't use my regular tour routes, it's simply TOO MUCH.

I'm sure this is all because of Mayor Bloomberg, our billionaire mayor, the Democrat turned Republican turned Independent turncoat. I've met the Mayor and he's very cold and formal... Mayor Bloomberg has been a very good mayor and supposedly he's very honest. BUT birds of a feather flock together and that means fellow billionaires in the Billionaires Boys Club. Suddenly every construction project scheduled on the drawing board for the next 20 years has been green-lighted for NOW---for THIS YEAR or NEXT, because our business-friendly (read: development friendly) Mayor Bloomberg will be out by 2009. So his administration has OK'd anything and everything that his buddies want to put up. There are empty condos and empty offices all over town yet they keep building more because they, apparently, CAN. So much for a
"slumping" economy.

It's quite obvious what's happening...and there's nothing we can do about it except wait for it all to be over and for our billionaire Mayor to get OUT of City Hall and go back to the country club!

Had an audition for a new show for the History Channel called "Skywalkers"....my friend Mike called me and told me there was a posting on the internet for this show that just sounded like ME, so I looked up the posting, which had a woman's name: Emma, her email and her phone number attached. I contacted her and after attempting to meet for several days, it finally worked out.
Here's the description which I answered from the online posting:

An exciting new History show called, Skywalkers (WT) is looking for a host who has a passion and genuine interest in iconic buildings. The show will look at the science and engineering of iconic buildings. The host will take us to places that other programs wouldn’t go, i.e. scaling the side of a skyscraper in a window cleaning basket, inside elevator shafts, on the roof, in ventilation shafts etc, in order to get the viewer to really understand how the building was made. They will also look into what crucial technological advances were necessary at the time to enable to building to be made, e.g. development of a particularly strong type of steel, or glass, or a new approach to architecture. The host will have an enquiring mind, and ask the right questions to keep the viewer educated and interested. Here's the kind of person we are thinking of. We are looking for a guy in his 30s, poss 40s, who is either used to working at heights (construction worker, window washer, roof top landscape gardener, for example) or would be comfortable doing so. The idea being to have a host who's not necessarily an expert on the buildings but who has a genuine interest and asks the right questions so that the audience can learn at the same time as he does. So not just the way they look, but the science, engineering and technology that went into creating the structures. Someone who is down to earth, can laugh at himself, enthusiastic, and fearless. It's not necessary to have done TV work before although comfort with the camera obviously helps.
Location : New York; Contact Emma, etc.

Well, I thought I gave a fabulous audition...she wanted to be up high preferably so I took Emma and the camera up to the top of a building overlooking Rockefeller Center and she shot me with St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rock Center's Roof Gardens, etc. over my shoulder. I just burbled on for about 10 minutes yakking about St. Pat's, basic NYC history stuff, posed a couple of questions about Rock Center's construction, blah blah blah. Now it's in the hands of the Gods...we shall see if I'm what the history channel is looking for. Emma told me she's seen quite a few people and put them all on film...including a (retired) New York City firefighter who took her up to the roof of a building and talked about the construction, etc. She says they don't want "experts" ...they just want "real people" who have a little on-camera experience to explore, pose questions to experts and open and close the show, etc.
This is something I'd really, really like, so of course I won't get it! Always the way!

Million dollar Password with Regis Philbin

Story of the Week:
Well, they're bringing back my all-time favorite game show yet one more time...PASSWORD! This time it's being hosted by Regis Philbin, filmed in New York City (Queens) and called MILLION DOLLAR PASSWORD.
I heard about it and found the information to be a contestant on the CBS website and made an appointment to audition to be a contestant. The audition was held in a nondescript office off Fifth Ave. near 37th St. and is actually the offices for The People's Court TV show.
Now, let me preface this by saying I KNOW HOW TO PLAY PASSWORD. I'm a total word-game GEEK. I love crossword puzzles, Scrabble, and I've watched all the versions of Password since elementary school. Even now I record the old re-runs from the Game Show Network and watch them in the evenings. Hell, words are words. True, many of the celebrities are dead, infirm or just plain forgotten about, but what the hell....words are still WORDS, and I enjoy word games! So when we played the game, I did really, really well. They paired me up with a fluffy blond housewife from Florida who giggled a lot and was a mediocre player. But she told cute stories and THAT'S what they seemed interested in. It became very clear that they wanted contestants who not only displayed ENERGY (they kept reminding us to have ENERGY) but they wanted "reality show" type contestants. They kept asking me ON CAMERA...things like:
"Jim, tell us what's the most ridiculous thing you ever did in your life."
"Jim, what is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done."
"Jim, if we spoke to your friends, what would they tell us about you?"
"Jim, what's the one thing in your life you regret the most?"
"Jim, what would you do with the money, should you win the $1million?"
and on and on and on like this. Forget about the fact that I guessed ALL the passwords in one or two clues each.
Forget about the fact that when it was my turn to give the password clues to the Florida housewife, I gave her such excellent clues that she guessed every one...and we did it in 42 seconds! The guy giving us the test said it has NEVER been done that fast since they've been holding auditions!
But I couldn't come up with a stupid story to make them LIKE me while the camera was running. So, if anybody should EVER go out for Million Dollar Password (or any other game show)....remember: They don't care so much HOW you play the game...they just want you to have really stupid, moronic stories that will give Regis Philbin something to poke fun at when he introduces you as a contestant!!

More About Harvey....AND MY TAX ATTORNEY ED!

(Scroll down to see pic of Harvey)
More about Harvey: Even though Harvey Fierstein was quite charming, he seemed a bit guarded all evening...from cocktail chatter to the actual Q&A onstage. In fact, they could have re-titled the evening "Harvey Fierstein promotes A Catered Affair" because that's ALL he talked about. I mentioned to Harvey that my tax attorney, Ed, told me last week he had once been an actor--information which shocked me. He then proceeded to tell me he was in one of the pre-Broadway La Mama performances of Harvey's definitive career-making play Torch Song Trilogy! In fact, his name is "Ed" and the character he played was named for him: "Ed". As I mentioned this to Harvey Fierstein he suddenly got much less "distant" and opened up to me. "Oh my Gosh, how is Ed? Where is he? I'd love to see him again! Please tell him I said hello and give him my best." Moments like this always make me realize that New York City, the great metropolis of 8 million people, is SUCH a small town!
(Scroll down to see pic of HARVEY)

Harvey Fierstein "Conversation" at Zipper Theatre

Attended "A Conversation with Harvey Fierstein" last night at the Zipper Theatre on W. 37th St. sponsored by The American Theatre Wing (the Tony Award folks) of whom I've been a member for years but never get a lot out of my membership except for the occasional celebrity-laden cocktail party. Last night the numbers must have been down for this event...probably less than 100 people showed up, including a few theatre celebrities and bold-face names from the columns. You could tell how many people were no-shows by the enormous number of name tags left on the check-in table.

As soon as I entered I ran into Pia Lindstrom, and across the empty room I saw Harvey Fierstein hanging up his coat. Pia, who always looks fabulous, is on the membership services committee at the Wing, along with Barbara Toy and others. She said the Wing is perceived by many young theatre people as being full of an older, moneyed crowd but that they want to do more outreach to the members, the Off Broadway community, and younger theatre-goers. Informal events with major theatre personalities like Fierstein is part of that outreach. No matter how often I meet celebrities such as Pia, I always remain calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside I'm screaming "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE INGRID BERGMAN'S DAUGHTER!!!!!!"

During the 5:30-6:30pm cocktail hour I chatted with legend Marian Seldes who grabbed me and hugged me after I told her I had seen her for years in everything since DEATHTRAP as well as theatre events and parties, but had been too intimidated to say anything because I didn't want to come off as a "silly fan." She looked at me with a piercing stare, smiled, hugged me and said: "Nonsense...now we are friends...and colleagues!" Such a lovely woman...and still the total pro as she turns 80 this coming August!

I was button-holed momentarily by an elderly queen I knew years ago (and he was boring then) who immediately tried to monopolize me and tell me about the last 20 years. Not meaning to be rude, I simply said "Arthur, darling, I have people to meet! We'll catch up later!" I chatted with a couple of actors and producers and one of them, a major name, said she lived at 88 Central Park West..."Oh," I said..." that's where Lorne Michaels, Sting and Celeste Holm live and didn't Robert DeNiro just move in there?"
"Oh my," she said, "You really know your stuff! Actually we're not supposed to talk about DeNiro being there...the co-op board has informed all tenants to ignore his presence. He abandoned Tri-Beca apparently for Central Park West! But interestingly, DeNiro gets his mail under an assumed name...just like Garbo used to! If a visitor asks the doorman for DeNiro, or if a delivery comes for DeNiro, the doorman is instructed to say he doesn't live there! Totally crazy! The building is full of celebrities and we don't pull that nonsense! Didn't Garbo pull that too?"

After cocktails, we went into the Q&A with Harvey Fierstein and even though the evening was officially called: "A conversation with Harvey Fierstein" they could have re-named it: Harvey Fierstein does non-stop promotion for his new show A Catered Affair. All he did was talk about the show and its journey from film to San Diego's Old Globe Theatre to Broadway. He mentioned Debbie Reynolds (the girl in the film) was present opening night in San Diego and gave the show her blessing.

It was obvious they were trying to control the questions, but it was SUCH a low turn-out they had to take all questions, good or bad. The first question was obviously a plant, from Harvey's good pal, actress-writer Julie Halston, who sat front and center. She basically said "Tell us ALL about A Catered Affair," which gave Harvey license to launch into a lengthy monologue. Actually, I was interested in hearing about the show's progress and it is based on one of my all-time favorite films.

My question was very simple: "Is the music any good? Is anything memorable?" and the question was of course, dodged. When I finally pressed for an answer, young producer Jordan Roth, wunderkind son of producer Daryl Roth, said something about this being John Bucchino's first effort for the stage, and "the songs being a vehicle for the emotions of the characters to come thru" blah blah, blah. In my experience, this is Broadway double-speak for "unmemorable score." But we shall see when previews begin in late March. I hope I'm wrong. I see EVERYTHING on Broadway and have for the past 20 years...it's one of the biggest problems with big Broadway musicals today...totally unmemorable musical score. You leave the theatre humming the scenery and costumes. It's a shame...it's so obvious....a MUSICal should first and foremost, have good MUSIC! That's why revivals are so popular...because older shows have better songs....standards in many cases.

Just remember the old Richard Rodgers comment: "I don't care what the critics say: if I leave the theatre and hear the audiences whistling my songs, I know I have a hit!"

EXACTLY!

Sarah Jessica Parker & Jennifer Hudson on the set of Sex & the City movie

Saw Sarah Jessica Parker the other day in Greenwich Village, while doing a Rich & Famous walking tour near her townhouse. Of course I don't show people where she lives....I show them the approximate area of the Village and then talk about various stars who reside nearby. Every time I see her I want to go up and say "hey!" but of course I don't. You see, I knew Sarah Jessica Parker when she was a kid and starring in ANNIE on Broadway...I wasn't much older and was working in the lobby selling ANNIE dolls, records and souvenirs. I became familiar with her Mom, some of the other kids in the show and their Moms, and some of Sarah's brothers and sisters. Her last day as Annie (when she had grown much too tall and develped to believably play an 11 year old), I was invited into her dressing room by her Mom and brother to hang out and to help fill boxes and load the car with tons of memorabilia from her nearly 2 years in the show, first as an "orphan" in the chorus and then as the star when Shelley Bruce, the second Annie after Andrea McArdle, was diagnosed with leukemia and left the show for treatment.
While setting up my souvenir stand in the lobby before and after the show I met all the stage mothers and siblings as well as the people in the show. Since Annie was a show with so many kids, birthdays and other events were celebrated with a regular routine of parties in the downstairs lounge of the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon) on W. 52nd St.
Anyway, I was leading a Rich & Famous Tour a couple of months ago for a group of English ladies and when we reached Madison Ave. near E. 76th St. by the Carlyle Hotel we were stopped in our tracks by the entire film crew of the Sex and the City movie and the attendant horde of paparazzi. My English ladies did not want to budge so we stayed and watched all the hubbub for awhile until Sarah Jessica Parker and then Jennifer Hudson both emerged from their trailers to film scenes in the Carlyle Hotel. Everyone went crazy! The only autograph Sarah Jessica Parker stopped to sign was for a little girl who was walking by with her Mom and had her pen and paper ready!
Again, I almost said "Hi Sarah! Remember me?" but of course I knew she wouldn't and would probably call for her bodyguards to punch me out. So I stood behind the barricades with all the other people watching the situation.
These pictures were snapped by one of my English ladies, Shauna Harper, and emailed to me only recently.

Broadway, Encores!, Fantasticks and the Reagans

"Broadway...! Broadway...! How Great Thou Are....I'll Leave the Farm...With All It's Charm...To Be A Broadway Star......!"
-- Baby June in GYPSY.
Loved seeing GYPSY last summer at ENCORES with Patti Lupone...sat in the front row and applauded madly. Lupone is the right age and completely the right person to play Mama Rose...very tough...very street smart. I was thrilled to see GYPSY coming back to Broadway (they've already put up the marquee at the St. James Theatre on W. 44th St.). My friend Hilary Knight (Eloise books) knows the real Baby June (actress June Havoc).
This has been a real week for theatre...on Saturday Feb. 9 I attended the ENCORES Production of APPLAUSE at City Center. It's the 1972 musicalization of All About Eve...this one starred Christine Ebersole as Margo Channing and although she always puts in a good, professional performance, everything else was wrong. The gossip at the theatre was that she had the flu during rehearsals and was still weak. The consenus of my friends was that Ebersole comes off too "nice" to play the Broadway diva bitch originated by Bette Davis and played in 1972 by Bacall. I've met Christine Ebersole at American Theatre Wing events and she was always snooty and aloof to me, but onstage she comes off "too nice." If the show moves to Broadway, we all agreed the perfect choice would be Glenn Close, who is a lovely, charming woman in real life but comes off as a perfect "bitch" onstage.

Yesterday, Wednesday, they had free tickets at Actor's Equity to see The Fantasticks Off Broadway at the Snapple/Jerry Ohrbach Theate for the 2pm matinee, so we grabbed a couple. This is a fairly new Off Broadway theatre located on the third floor of a former office building at the corner of 50th Street and Broadway. Even though I saw The Fantasticks 100 times probably (with my tourists) Off Broadway downtown at the Sullivan Street Playhouse (gone) in the West Village, I figured what the hell...its free....its a rainy, snowy, terrible day...might as well see it again. Plus my next door neighbor, Nick Spangler--a former NYU grad who is 22 ( http://www.myspace.com/spangleyman ), is in the show playing Matt (the boy). Nick and I live in twin apt. buildings next door to each other. The funny thing is we both live in Apt. 37 in our respective buildings and we sometimes get mail for each other. The other day I got a huge box for him delivered to my apt. instead so I called him and when he came to pick it up, we chatted a bit and he said he was doing The Fantasticks but it was closing soon. Wouldn't you know that yesterday Nick was NOT in the show! The show, closing in 10 days, is FULL of understudies! The production was just so-so, mostly because the piano was too loud to hear the un-miked performers. The black box theatre has poor acoustics because it was a converted office. In such a space, the piano needs to play SOFT instead of pounding away during the softly sung, unmiked vocals.

Today is Valentine's Day and I'm going to see COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre with my elderly friends Marilyn & Bob Reagan. They have been friends since just after I moved to New York "from the farm"...lovely people in every way, except now Bob, who is past 80, is showing the beginning of Alzheimer's and Marilyn, who loves theatre and New York as much as I do, is trying to keep him alert, active and interested in things. Marilyn is originally from Utah, loves theatre and joins many groups and is always hearing about special ticket offers, etc. She invites me many times because: 1. we always have fun, 2. it helps her with Bob to have another person there (in case there are issues where a men's room is needed or another pair of eyes to watch or a strong pair of arms to assist). Bob is very ambulatory but its a progressive illness and he has good days and bad days. I met Marilyn over 20 years ago in an Upper Westside tap dancing class taught by the great Bob Audy. In our class we had a mix of aspiring Broadway chorus kids, housewives (Marilyn), the occasional star or celeb like Judy Blume the children's book author (I'll blog about her tomorrow), Mary Tyler Moore (bitch), Tom Hulce, Mandy Patinkin, and others. After I became acquainted with Marilyn & Bob, they invited to their weekend home in Connecticut a few times and we all became friends. Then one day Marilyn told me about this murder that happened in Utah which affected her. It seems a multi-millionaire businessman had been shot in cold blood in a long-unsolved murder. Then it finally came to light that Mark (the man's grandson) had shot his grandpa...the strange twist: young 16 year old Mark had been directed by his mother to do the murder. And the revelation: The woman was a New York Eastside socialite named Frances and this was Marilyn's sister (her evil sister)! I had followed the whole thing in the news but didn't realize this was Marilyn's FAMILY!! Anyway, Marilyn & Bob were telling everybody because the whole thing was back in the news, books and mini-series were being written and they wanted their personal friends to hear it from them FIRST. I even accompanied Marilyn to the Phil Donahue Show one day when Bob was at work so she had somebody to "lean" on in the Green Room.
Two books and two mini-series based on these books were the result: At Mother's Request by CBS News reporter Jonathan Coleman and NUTCRACKER by Shana Alexander. I'll mention more about these friends later.
I may see another show tomorrow...still deciding. There are SO many mid-winter shows that I want to see and for once I have the time and the money and almost everything good is on the half=price discount booth in February.
Happy Valentine's Day!!