Racing

This NYC vacation has gone so quickly, as my vacations are wont to do. We got up late again, and then realized we had a limited amount of time to purchase and send Mother’s Day presents, less than 2 hours, since we will be all tied up tomorrow with air travel, etc. So we ate our chocolate babka and with the energy it provided, raced out to the post office on the 9th floor of Macy’s to get Priority mail boxes, then to Hallmark, which it turns out is within the Herald Square train station, then back to the hotel to find another Hallmark, then to the other Hallmark on 7th Ave and 38th, then to 25th St and 7th Ave. to purchase the gifts, then back to the hotel to put them all together, then back to Macy’s post office again. And then we waited for a very long line, and at 1:40 we finally got our packages off, just in time to take the elevator to street level, race into the subway entrance, take the train to 49th St., and then walk quickly to the theater to catch our 2pm curtain, which I am proud to say we made with 5 minutes to spare!

In all that, we sort of missed lunch, so we’ll just have to make up for it at dinner.

The show “Race” was about racial relations. A rich man (the guy who played John Boy in the Waltons…the one with the big ass mole…) comes into a lawyers office wanting them to take his felony rape case. The partners (James Spader and David Alan Grier) try to decide whether they want to take the case. One is white, the other black. They have a black female intern lawyer also working for them, who gathers things for the case. Here is the kicker, the alleged rape victim is black. That is the basis of this fast paced legal drama written and directed by David Mamet.

Margie thought the play was so-so and that Ms Washington was weak. I liked the play better, especially the 2nd act which was a pot boiler. James Spader was really good, as you would expect.

There are rats in the 14th St/Union Square train station. That is all.

Dinner was at the Aroma Café, on 4th St. since we are seeing a off-Broadway production nearby. We didn’t get to sit in the romantic area downstairs, due to some large parties, so we sat upstairs in the bar area. Margie started with a lobster broth soup, which was a classic French fish soup. I had a Caesar salad, with some very nice anchovies and a poached egg! I have never had anything like it, and it was pretty good. The entrees were merely OK. Margie had a cod ravioli, dotted with calamari which was tough and tasteless. I had Sicilian meatloaf with Spinach and Polenta. All off it was rather tasteless. Well, unless salt is what you like. The meat itself was tough. For dessert I had a bread pudding with an almond ice cream. That was pretty good. The wine I had by the glass was decent too. All in all, this was a miss, from the well meaning but clueless service, to the loud environment, so the sometimes good, sometimes not so good food.

“Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson” was bloody, bloody brilliant! Besides a great history lesson on the “American Nazi” and 7th president, the irreverent (think: Forbidden Broadway) musical was very funny. Very, very funny. This is right up there with the best musicals we saw on this vacation, and we saw some good ones.

It will be sad to go home tomorrow, but in answer to the question, is it possible to want more after 14 shows in 10 days. Emphatically, yes!