Today is Friday, June 13, 2025, in which a monumental polysyllabic word applies: paraskevidekatriaphobia, which translates to fear of Friday the 13th. Today then Elliot and I braved the wrath of the gods by driving to Roosevelt Field, in Garden City, Long Island, to purchase a Father’s Day gift for me and to buy some new bathroom towels. We also dined at the Cheesecake Factory around 3. Thank god, there were no incidents as we drove back and forth from Queens to Long Island; however, there were traffic snarls in both directions.

Yesterday I was indeed absent from this venue since I spent the day with my new friend from the gay men’s reading club whom I’ve dubbed “Daniel.” However, I left Elliot much earlier, thinking I would see a film at the Quad, on 13th Street, but eschewed doing that because I believed I wouldn’t have enough time to get to 43rd Street where I was supposed to have met Daniel at 6:15.

Instead of seeing Bad Shabbos, a new comedy, I went to the Strand which is very close to the Quad Cinema. I browsed the shelves outside and saw a number of people waiting on line in order to sell their used books. I almost picked up a book from outside: Calvin Trillin’s The Lede: Dispatches from a Life in the Press which seemed interesting to me. However, I put it back when I located the book I need to read for the group this month, Evenings & Weekends, by Oisin McKenna on the fiction shelf inside the store. I debated with myself whether I should buy the book or not and I decided, why not? I still didn’t hear from the local library about my claim to the book, in which I was placed at Number 4 in line to get the book from another branch location. It’s already the 13th of the month, and I usually begin reading the book on the 15th, which would be Father’s Day this Sunday. So I took the first of two copies I could find and took it to the front desk. I did get a nice, red Strand shopping bag, all for a $1 or so.

After leaving the Strand, I decided I had enough time to walk to the Mermaid Oyster Bar, which was on 43rd Street and Times Square. So I walked up 6th Avenue from 14th Street to 43rd, where I darted into a pizza parlor to get a slice. The parlor had no functioning air conditioning, and it was slightly uncomfortable sitting there, but I had only one slice which is all that I needed.

I got to the restaurant slightly early: around 6:05, so I waited outside for Daniel. I texted him around the appointed time to inform him that I was waiting outside, and he responded by saying he would be a few minutes late. “Could you go inside and ask to be seated?” he asked. I did so and was escorted to a table in the back.

My wait for Daniel was brief; he came in a little after 6:20. He apologized, saying he came back after seeing a play at the Paper Mill Playhouse, in Millburn, New Jersey, and returned home to take a nap, making him slightly late for our rendezvous. I said there was no problem.

Daniel immediately noted – like I did – how noisy the restaurant was. It was also very crowded for a Thursday evening. My new acquaintance also mulled changing restaurants because of how noisy it was and because of its high prices. To cut costs then, we shared a hefty salad between us and ordered the same dish: linguine and clams. Daniel noted how spicy the linguine was and I agreed with him. We did not order drinks or dessert since Daniel made another error: he believed the play we were seeing was at “Town Hall,” not City Center, which was on 55th Street. Town Hall is actually right up the block from the restaurant, but City Center was 12 blocks away. Again, I did not complain!

So we finished our dinner close to 7:30 and rushed out of the Mermaid Oyster Bar and walked to the playhouse on 55th Street. We took 6th Avenue like I did earlier in the day and had to dodge huge crowds just shambling along.

When we finally arrived at our destination, we had to join a long line of theatergoers waiting to pick up tickets for that evening’s performance. We first arrive in the theater close to curtain raising, which is at 8. We have good seats since we’re in Aisle L in the Orchestra section, where we’ve only paid $52. From the entrance of the principal player of this very personal narrative, Rob Madge (whose theatrical run began in London, by the way), the audience reaction was one of sheer approbation. It was as if Madge had only family members in the audience. Since from the very first moment he bares his cockney-accented voice, the audience roars with great approval. At first, I couldn’t understand why since the 80-minute, one-act play consists of Madge introducing home videos that he took as a happy-go-lucky, theatrical child of five. Every flamboyant performance is recorded with a video camera in the early aughts. What is truly amazing about this play is how Madge’s own parents took part in his theatrical productions. For me, it was very, very poignant as his big bear of a dad dons wig after wig to portray a character in his son’s production.

Madge does have a serviceable voice as he sings several ballads proclaiming his joy of identifying himself as queer at a very early age (even though in the playbill’s credits, he’s listed as being “nonbinary”). In one song, he sings about “Why does it have to be a choice of just two?” when this Disney buff wants to wear a yellow dress from the Beauty and the Beast, but his dad buys him a Beast costume instead. Eventually, his own grandma comes around and sews him a yellow dress which he lovingly presents to the audience from his chest of memories. He even shares teacher’s notes written in report cards to his parents from kindergarten and up in which mention is made about his sense of theatricality and how it might turn off his peers. This is when his school discourages Madge’s theatricality in which it “won’t help him make friends.” So there is a brief moment when Madge informs the audience that he put away his costumes, wigs, and so on, and tried to blend in with everyone else in school. However, it is his grandparents who come to the rescue when they bring an elaborate puppet theater to his home in Coventry for a Christmas present. Madge then returns to putting on shows but this time with puppets. I think everyone in the audience could not help but shed a tear when this present is given to young Madge.

This coming-of-age narrative is just the right balm everyone needs for Pride Month and I urge you all to see it. When our rights are being threatened by this current administration, it’s totally refreshing to see this ode to loving parenting in which Rob Madge received every iota of support from a loving mother and father, plus his extended family. It’s almost like a fairy tale!

As the play ended a little before 9:30, we decided to have a repast at the Carnegie Diner, on West 57th Street. We shared tiramisu cake and I had coffee.

The subway station was right outside, so we went in together, and then separated when he took a downtown train and I took an R to Queens Plaza. I didn’t get home until around 11:35.

Tomorrow, as you might already know, marks the massive number – about 2,000 – of protests planned in conjunction with the Orange Cheeto’s parade to himself. I will be marching here in New York, even though rain is forecasted, but as I just heard on MSNBC, there is a 90 percent chance of rain forecasted in Washington, D.C., on the occasion of this wasteful display of dictatorial military might. I hope then that the damn thing will be rained out, but Trumpilini has already said his parade will go on, rain or shine. Just remember this fact: the coward in chief refused to attend a ceremony honoring fallen American World War I soldiers at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery because of rain. Can you see him outside in the rain at this useless ceremony?

I wish everyone who is marching somewhere tomorrow godspeed and good luck.

And so it went!

Here is the playbill from the play I just saw.

Here is Rob Madge in all of his glory in his Ariel costume. This was at the end of the show. Naturally, he received a standing ovation.