There’s an upscale restaurant in New York City where you can sing (and I did!), dance (and Ruth Preminger and I did!), dine on fine food (yes, we did!), laugh a lot and receive special attention by the owners, the chef, and the waiters. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? And it is. Tuesday is the very best night to go to SeRa Bistro in the Vincci Avalon Hotel, 16 East 32nd Street, mainly because the jazz clarinet player/leader, who sings too, heads a fine trio. The personable and talented Rick Bogart (no relation to Humphrey) makes an evening at SeRa Bistro a great place to be. His refreshing personality, his singing, and his playing is the kind of entertainment that definitely aids the digestion of the excellent cuisine offered by Chef Claude Solliard. When Rick sings, one feels as if he’s singing just to you. Anyway, that’s how he made Ruth and me feel (we compared notes). The slogan of SeRa Bistro is “Don’t let the night end.” Fine with me. Play it again, Rick!
Gabriel Byrne is an Irish-born actor in his early sixties. He is a dashing figure with shaggy hair and tons of laugh lines. To me he looks like a college professor but on television’s “In Treatment,” he’s Dr. Paul Weston, the analytical hero of the HBO series. I have watched the show each season. Now in its third, it has become Byrne’s signature role. The amazingly well-written show is based on an Israeli series and is a very subtly experimental television drama. “In Treatment” consists of little dialogue yet is suspenseful, romantic, and agitating in surprising turns. Each season has featured three new patients played by a superb ensemble of actors. Dr. Paul Weston gets deeper and farther into what makes people tick. At the same time the show gives an intimate look at the tangled mind of a man who counsels others for a living. I try but find it impossible to predict what’s coming. When Byrne was asked about his role, he said that it’s a very hard thing to constantly listen – to really listen. The psychiatrist is in a relationship of absolute trust where he is removing the mask people wear. The first time I saw “In Treatment,” it blew me away. The show runs on two-day sequences and I applaud the fact that HBO repeats them for a few days. I’ve never been in therapy and I guess it’s because I tend to talk to friends. Perhaps women are better at cultural support, at getting together, and at discussing anything and everything. I wonder if it’s more difficult for men to reveal their vulnerability. What do you think?
As soon as I walked into Studio 54 to see “Brief Encounter,” I knew I was going to have a good time. Why? I heard music – my kind of music – and I spotted the source. Standing in the lobby were a group of exuberant young musicians dressed in vintage costumes strumming on their instruments and singing an old song, “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” (made popular by The Ink Spots in 1941 – remember them?). Of course I sang along, proud to show that I remember the lyrics from that old standard. Well, that was only the beginning of a wonderful journey as the band continued its pre-show singing up and down the aisles. I didn’t expect “Brief Encounter” to be a musical. Actually, it wasn’t, but it turned out to be much more. If you saw the old film based on Noel Coward’s screenplay, you’ll remember its story. “Brief Encounter” chronicles the romantic journey of a married woman and a handsome doctor, also married, who fall in love unexpectedly in a train station coffee shop. The Roundabout Theatre Company’s production is wonderful. It uses live music, songs and dance, film, and inventive staging with the star-crossed lovers existing amid a snappy swirl of campy live theater mixed with the remade classic film clips. There’s even a few puppets thrown in for good measure (made me think of Lisa Sturz, my talented step-daughter, who is a puppeteer). Studio 54 is done up to look like a 1930s film palace with the music-hall band playing while the audience takes its seat. Actually, this version of “Brief Encounter” is a description-defying, multi-media romance, and it stole my heart. Its many-faceted stellar cast are comedians, musicians, acrobats, and dramatic actors as well. Their ensemble acting is fearless. “Brief Encounter” is an inventive, genre-breaking show, a spinning whirl of interlocking illusions. It can make all but the sourest puss believe in romance.
There’s a popular Bravo reality program that reminds regular folks that seemingly privileged people are, despite their wealth or beauty, flawed human beings. My daughter Jolie and her friends (mostly teachers) are fans of “The Millionaire Matchmaker” and it’s easy to assume that it’s a successful television program since it’s enjoying season four. So-o I’ve been tuning in and find that it is annoying yet entertaining. Patti Stanger is the star and executive producer of this docu-series. The lady (although frequently she doesn’t sound like a lady) can be abrasive and abusive. It’s hard to believe what comes out of her mouth. Yet some of her matchmaking guidelines make sense. She advises women to enhance their appearance and men to remember that a woman needs to be wooed. Among her many rules is one that some of the male contestants think is a wholly radical idea: “No sex without an exclusive, committed, monogamous relationship.” Some ten years ago Patti Stanger realized that busy affluent men simply didn’t have the time to go looking for a relationship and weren’t meeting the kind of women they dreamed about. So the uncensored, irreverent, and disarmingly charismatic gal, who, by the way, is from New Jersey (but we won’t hold that against her – ha!), decided to form a private exclusive club where they could be introduced to exceptional women in a relaxed, discreet, and confidential manner. I love the fact that she tells the men that “looks fade but dumb is forever.” Originally women joined for free – millionaire men paid. However, she has now added women who are wealthy and are looking for someone to share their lives with. Patti Stanger’s philosophy: “I don’t believe anyone’s better off single. It’s nice to fall asleep in a spoon position.” At this writing, the millionaire matchmaker herself is single. What’s that old idiom: “Do as I say, not as I do”?
The Morgan Library and Museum on Madison Avenue and 36th Street has always been a feast for the eyes. Recently one of its magnificent rooms has been restored and refurbished and really inspires oohing and aahing. Pierpoint Morgan had an enormous appetite for culture and a handsome amount of cash. That’s a great combination. Folks tend to talk about him in a positive way: he was acquisitive, not grabby; forceful, not pushy; not part of the social problem but part of a cultural solution. For the first time in more than a century, all of the magnificent rooms in J.P. Morgan’s original 1906 library have been restored. The financier and elegance addict bought porcelain by the pound, drawings by the ream, and box upon box of rare books. Visitors to the Morgan Library and Museum can walk into his private study and feel like a bazillionaire aristocrat for a few minutes at least. The gorgeous building is a feast for the eyes in busy Manhattan. It’s a space to relax, reflect, and enjoy one of the grandest cultural gifts, a terrific Big Apple tourist attraction. Of course, I always get hungry in a museum no matter how gorgeous it is and the Morgan has two dining areas. You don’t even have to be visiting the museum to eat there. One is casual and the other, located in a restored 19th century brownstone, is the original Morgan family dining room. And here’s a tip: if you happen to be in Fun City on a Friday, admission to the museum is free from 7 to 9 p.m.