Tag Archives: drama

And So It Goes

Today is Sunday, March 30, 2025. I failed to post a blog yesterday because I did see a Broadway play, or more aptly, an Off-Broadway play since the playhouse was on West 42nd Street, close to 11th Avenue, and the theater was called Theater 555. The name of the play was Conversations with Mother and it was a two-character play, set over five decades. More of the play later.

Another reason why I didn’t write my blog is the outcome of my resistance group which was supposed to have met at 3 yesterday afternoon. At the time I left for the alleged meeting, I had two members attending, one less than the last one which attracted only two persons into the city. The site was the same place where I had our last “meeting,” which was Albert’s Bar, located on 41st Street. This time I arrived pretty punctually – sometime before 2:45. I asked for a table and was ushered to a table near the wall. I put on my trusty name tag and waited. And waited! I asked for a cup of coffee while waiting and when it was past 3, I texted a friend who called me, whereupon I mentioned how no one was coming. He provided reasons for why no one was coming and one of the reasons had to do with the unseasonably warm weather outside. I believe the temperatures were in the high 70s or even the low 80s at some point. I waited until 4:15 and then made my hasty retreat. I did go up to the front of the bar to wait for people, but alas, I didn’t see any of those who said they were attending. I was just very disappointed and disillusioned after this setback and just walked to Times Square to get Broadway tickets at TKTS.

In just two days, a crucial race is going to be determined and the outcome of that race can very well be viewed more as a referendum on the bastard in charge of DOGE, Elon Muskrat and his democracy-crushing intervention into political races, as he’s poured millions into defeating the liberal candidate for Supreme Court Justice, Susan Crawford, than on anything else. Today an online article for The Hill covers this consequential race in a piece by Sarah Fortinsky entitled “Musk: Wisconsin Supreme Court race ‘might decide the future of America and Western Civilization.'”

It was this odious, far-right tech billionaire who made such a hyperbolic statement about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and let’s pray that Wisconsinites are not fooled by this gaslighting asshole.

This unelected government official suggested that if Democrats win this hotly contested race, they would “redraw up districts and add seats for Democrats.” That’s the idea, fucker! He posted to his platform that “What’s at issue here is control of the US House of Representatives.”

These comments made by a Nazi-loving billionaire come just before he’s expected to speak at a town hall in Wisconsin, where, I hope, he’s soundly booed by those who attend. I haven’t heard what’s happened yet since I don’t have the news on.

Muskrat”s political and financial influence will be put to the test this week. He spent $12 million through his America PAC to support the far-right candidate, Brad Schimel, whom I call “Schlimazel” instead. Building America’s Future, a group that has previously received funding from Muskrat, added $4.7 million to the race.

The election has been viewed as the first critical bellwether of Dump’s second term, as Democratic energy appears to be growing on the grassroots level. Democratic donors have also opened their pocketbooks in the race, including most notably George Soros and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, underscoring the degree to which both sides see the election as crucial.

Let’s pray that the first good piece of news out of this disastrous second term is delivered this Tuesday. May the only best candidate win!

Now to the play: Conversations with Mother. As I wrote above, it’s a two-hander character story of the 50-year relationship between a strong-willed Italian mother, Maria Collavechio, played by Caroline Aaron, and her gay, playwright-aspirational son, Bobby. From childhood to adulthood, Bobby, here played by Matt Doyle, tries to stash away his mischief and secrets while fielding his mother’s tough love that weeds out his confessions.

It’s great fun following the pair throughout the decades as they rotate around bereavement and rocky relationships and life’s downfalls. This is a relationship that is fraught with disappointments and early death, as in the death of Bobby’s father at a very young age. There is a very touching monologue that is delivered by Aaron as she recalls her late husband’s snoring. And now she doesn’t even have evidence of that anymore, which is quite poignant.

What distinguishes this 85-minute one act play about a son and mother is the mother’s total acceptance of her son’s gay identity all throughout his life, which is quite remarkable, given that Maria is a pious Italian Christian. There is an early scene where the pair thrash it out over the son’s supposed attendance at church in which he passes it over to play hooky with a close friend. But Mother has a way of coaxing the truth out of her lying son and she does – very beautifully.

Most of the interactions between mother and son occur on the telephone, often existing in their own spaces but inching physically closer as the play proceeds. Wilson Chin’s scenic design suggests a drawing room, backdropped with Caite Henver’s projections to signify location and time period.

The semiautobiographical play is the brainchild of Matthew Lombardo and the direction is provided by Noah Himmelstein. A nice paean to motherhood in the theater lobby are the portraits of all of the principals in the play, from Matt Doyle to Noah Himmelstein, hanging on hallway walls as you walk toward the theater entrance. It gives the play a very poignant touch.

I believe the play is ending May 11, so if you want to be touched by this endearing chronicle of a son and his mother over five decades, go see it – maybe with your mother if she’s still around!

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Saturday, January 4, 2025. As you might recall, I was absent from this venue because Elliot and I had a rendezvous with one of New York’s premiere steakhouses, Peter Luger’s, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After that, I browsed the bookstores in Williamsburg and discovered, to my huge fortune, that a favorite restaurant that we both frequented and has since shut down, has reopened. I learned this from the cashier at Black Spring Books, located at 672 Driggs Avenue. I was bringing up a book and paying for it when I engaged the young woman in a conversation about the dining scene in Williamsburg and this is when she told me that Egg, the restaurant that we so fondly remembered, has returned under a new name. It’s now known as Egg Shop and is located not too far from its earlier location, on 138 North 8th Street. It was located originally on 3rd Street, opposite Book Thug Nation, a unique secondhand bookstore I frequently visited when I ate at Egg across the street.

Oh, the book I bought for only $6 was a chronicle of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which primarily chronicles the adaptation of the early 60s film starring Audrey Hepburn in her star-making role, that of Capote’s prostitute with a heart, Holly Golightly, but that particular feature of the main character of Capote’s novella was watered down for the film costarring George Peppard and Mickey Rooney in a cringeworthy turn as a Japanese neighbor of Golightly’s who was always complaining of the noise emanating from her apartment. You see, she was always entertaining men and throwing these wild parties. The name of this book is called Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, written by Sam Wasson. I have the sneaky suspicion that I’ve read this book already, but as a library book, not as one of my books on my shelves.

Elliot drove home, leaving me to wander the streets on my own. Eventually, I took the “youth express,” the L to Manhattan and got off at 14th Street to walk to the IFC Center, where I bought a ticket for the 8 p.m. showing of Oh, Canada starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, and Jacob Elordi as the young principal character portrayed by Gere, Leonard Fife.

I was attracted to the film because it starred Gere and it was written and directed by Paul Schrader who cast Gere 44 years ago in his homage to the American Gigolo, way back in 1980. It is now 2023 and Gere plays well-respected documentarian Leonard Fife living in Canada but who is dying of some unnamed form of cancer. The film, as I wrote yesterday, is based on the late Russell Banks’ 2021 novel, Foregone. Now that I’ve seen the film, I’m inspired to read the book so as to get more out of it.

The film stars a much older Gere who really looks the part of a dying filmmaker. He is married to Uma Thurman who is considerably younger than he. The movie opens with a camera crew invading the inner sanctum of Fife to make a documentary on him before he ultimately succumbs to his disease. He is being filmed by a former student, Malcolm, who is portrayed by Michael Imperioli (formerly of The Sopranos) and his wife, Diana. Soon the crew, his wife, and the audience out there in the dark are privy to his memories – some quite confusing, given his condition – of growing up in Vermont and being the swain of several women. He ends up marrying several of these women, having a baby with one young woman called Alicia (Kristine Froseth), back in 1968, when Fife was only 22. It is here during this time that Fife is offered a life-changing job by his father-in-law to become the chief executive officer of the company he owned. But that would mean that Fife and his young bride would have to stay in Virginia which he didn’t want to do. He was going to buy a house in another state and start a job as a university professor. Instead of accepting the job offer, he abandons his wife and unborn child and emigrates to Canada as a “draft refugee.” In quick succession, he’s thrust into the world of documentary filmmaking when he produces his first film on the misuse of Agent Orange by the United States in New Brunswick. But as he looks back on his past, Fife’s memories become increasingly confused. In scenes depicting him as a young man, Gere is seen as himself instead of his younger stand-in, Elordi, which just makes the scene more confusing to the viewer.

The film that Fife consents to is supposed to be a confession to his wife of thirty years, Emma (Uma Thurman), who judges her husband’s memories as the delusions of an ailing and dying man. Gere suitably rages against his decaying body and the inevitability awaiting all of us: the specter of death. Also Schrader goes for intentional ambiguity in deciphering what are the true memories of this man who has definitely abandoned a son over thirty years ago. There is a scene with this now-thirtyish son who tracks his father down at a film festival in which his films are being honored and who confronts him with the truth of who he is. But Gere denies that he is the young man’s father. This leads to Fife’s abandoned son to meet surreptitiously with Fife’s wife. There is no further explanation as to why Fife denies his grown-up son’s existence after that initial scene at the film festival.

After the film ended, which was close to 10, I briefly entertained the idea of going to a local gay bar, but I quickly abandoned that idea. I didn’t want to be riding the subway that late. So I came home instead.

I’m not so sure if I would recommend this film since there are no standout performances, except for Gere who handles his restricted role fairly well. He exudes impatience, intolerance, anger, and disgust exceedingly well as he’s wheeled in and out of the camera’s eye. It’s also quite a shock to see this actor known for his physicality in previous roles reduced to a man in decline forced to confront his mortality. To me, just taking the role is an act of bravery in my opinion.

Elliot is waiting for me to watch something, so I will end right here.

And so it went!