Anything Goes!

We saw a Broadway musical yesterday evening that met all our expectations of what a Broadway evening should be.  "Anything Goes" is a revival of a 1934 musical.  Music by Cole Porter and Book by P.G. Wodehouse.  OK - for my friends who have NO clue who these people are:  Cole Porter is one of the most famous American songwriters of the 20th century.  You've probably heard "I Get a Kick Out of You".   P. G. Wodehouse lived into his 90s and wrote prolifically for 70 years.  Before Hugh Laurie was "House", he was Bertie Wooster in the Jeeves stories that Wodehouse wrote about the clueless British aristocracy of the 1920s.  PBS produced an entire series starring Hugh Laurie - check it out (at the library). 

OK - that said - we saw the kind of musical in which the audience breaks into spontaneous applause when the leading lady appears for the first time on stage.  Reason:  Sutton Foster just won the Tony award for her performance in this revival.  She's reprising the role first done by Ethel Merman in 1934.  And, let me tell you, she did Ethel proud.  The musical is silly - which I think is the definition of musicals - people sing and dance instead of talking.  The songs were terrific:  "Anything Goes", "You're the Top", "Deloverly", "I Get a Kick Out of You" to name a few.  There was tap dancing!  The first act finale was a tap dance/song number "Anything Goes" that people again spontaneously applauded.

  The story is:  Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl - see, I told you it was silly.  I would have loved to be in the opening night audience in 1934 and heard these songs for the first time.  Even in 2011, we left the theater humming the music.  That's what tells you that the musical was a big success - you can't get the tunes out of your head.  I was humming them TODAY on the way to the Metropolitan.  Oh, and there's a 1936 movie with Ethel Merman, Bing Crosby, and Ida Lupino.  

We (our friend Russell is here with us) started the evening with a wonderful dinner at Osteria Al Doge - an very impressive Italian restaurant in the theater district.  Everyone loved their dinner.  That's certainly a recommendation.  Plus we had a lovely bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio.  Finally, any meal that ends with chocolate mousse is a winner.  It's thanks to Russell that we got tickets since he arranged for this evening. 

We ended the evening by marveling at Times Square at night.  I'll just post the link, as usual. https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkCityTimesSquare?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvr3Imv7MrC4wE#   As you can see, we all had a wonderful time.  Yes, Times Square at night is just like daylight.  I haven't seen so much neon since Las Vegas.

Today was Met Day, or perhaps I should say the FIRST Met day.    The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the most visited attraction in New York City.  Yes, more visited than the Statue of Liberty.  It's massive, and will take days to see.  The goal when it was founded was to become the national museum of the United States.  When it was the puny little brick building, that was probably a pipe dream, but now, it covers an entire city block on 5th Avenue in New York City.  It's not a pipe dream anymore.  This is a museum on par with any great museum in the world.  You can flip through your basic Art History textbook, and today I saw lots of those pictures in person.  Russell actually has a friend who works at the Met, and she was gracious enough to give us a quick tour through part of the collection - especially the part she's responsible for the communication about.  We concentrated on the antiquity art this morning.  This afternoon, we looked at SOME of the period rooms in the American wing as well as some American silver, pottery and glass.  This is a drop in the proverbial bucket.  Everything is so amazing here.  I can hardly wait to come back - probably Friday.  They have rooms and rooms of European paintings - can anyone say Impressionists? 

Russ, Drake and I just discussed 'photographs'.  I take too many.  My rationale is that as long as I keep up by labeling them and downloading/uploading them - it's OK.  Truthfully, though, as Russ points out - the only pictures that will matter in the long haul are the ones that include your loved ones.  I guess these pictures I keep embedding in my blogs are my way of saying - LOOK AT THIS!!!!!  Wish you were here to enjoy this with me.  That said, here are the Met pix from today.  https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkMetropolitanArtMuseum?authkey=Gv1sRgCLXEkN2_6uemigE#