As the owners of Chelsea Pines Inn, the most popular LGBT hotel in New York City, it behooved us to do something especially gay on Gay Pride Sunday this year. How to celebrate? Marching in the parade? Great, but done that many times. Dancing on the pier? Maybe 20 years ago. In truth, we had already decided several weeks ago where we would be on June 29: at the final performance of the amazing new production of Sunday in the Park with George, the classic Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical that in any other season would have trumped the Tony Awards, but with the last-minute arrivals of Gypsy and South Pacific, unfairly faded into the background and walked away empty-handed on Tony night. Don't get me wrong: the latter two shows deserve tremendous praise for their accomplishments, but it was a shame that the wonder that is Sunday has received but two Tony awards ever (scenic and lighting design for the original production, richly deserved), and not a single one for its creators or stars (Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin in 1984, Genna Russell and Daniel Evans in 2008). The best score of 1984 was judged to be Jerry Herman's La Cage aux Folles...don't get me started. Anyway, Steve's work has been iconically gay for decades, and who wouldn't want to be at a closing performance of one of his shows? We were so there!
Somehow we managed to land great seats (8th row, just on the side aisle), particularly lucky as we saw the long line of people begging for cancellations. Just as the lights went down, and a roar went up as this landmark show began its last performance, Mr. Sondheim slipped into his seat just across the aisle from us. Very cool. When I first met him many years ago, as concert producer/charter member of the NYC Gay Men's Chorus and for our Sondheim tribute evening, he had specifically asked for seats in the back of the house, because he wanted the audience to watch the show, and not watch him watching the show. Sadly, he's right. It was tough not to look over periodically to see how he was enjoying his own work, in the hands of this tremendously talented company, and I'm glad to report he seemed quite happy, applauding enthusiastically at the end of each number. The man has great talent and great taste.
I was pretty teary during Daniel Evans' heartfelt "Finishing the Hat" and was awash through his "We Do Not Belong Together" with Genna, Mary Beth Peil's moving rendition of "Beautiful" (why have I always thought it was called "Changing'?), and of course the first act finale of "Sunday". I cried all during the second half of Act Two, from Genna's gorgeous "Children and Art" through the very last moment, when I was sobbing (yes, I looked across to Steve, and he was sobbing too). As it was the last performance, and the audience had been hyped from the first moment, Daniel, Genna and company (which included the remarkable pop/jazz singer Jessica Molaskey) had to re-time their movements as the audience responded to the emotion of the moment over and over again. In its final moments, when the company is singing "Sunday" for one last glorious time, Genna was crying so hard that she was practically unable to sing her last solo line ("In our perfect park"), and Daniel was equally overwhelmed as he turned upstage and the entire company bowed to him one final time. As Genna/Dot floated off the stage, the roaring in the theatre was such that Daniel had to hold up his hand to the audience so that he could deliver his final line ("White: a blank page or canvas..."), his face wreathed in smiles and tears. As I looked across the aisle, Steve had characteristically left his seat, both in an effort to be backstage to congratulate the cast and to not be noticed by the audience. The man who has changed the face of the American musical theatre forever (no, as he put it in his speech read by Mandy at the Tony Awards this month, not single-handedly, but in collaboration with some of the theatre's greatest creative minds) had indeed been noticed; if not in person, as is his wont, but through the creation of a work of art that inexplicably moves us in ways that only great art can.
From the sublime to the sublimely ridiculous: to cap off our own Gay Pride celebration, we went downtown to Joe's Pub for an hour of outrageousness with Alec Mapa, the actor/standup comic who graces a moment or two on "Ugly Betty" and whose LOGO-TV special has been running for years (enough already, LOGO, time for a new special!) Billing himself as "America's Gaysian Sweetheart," Alec kept us convulsed by hitting all the targets: gay travel (his recounting of being a guest artist with both Rosie's cruises and an Atlantis cruise that also featured Debbie Reynolds and Charo were priceless), gay sex (his explanation of how he knows someone is a rice queen cuts right to the bone, as it were), and gay marriage, where he ends with an unexpectedly touching account of his own relationship was lovely. His outfit (very Project Runway, in a Catholic little-boys-school fashion, complete with school tie) was a winner (great legs, Alec), and when he describes the sex with his lover (howling like two cats having sex) we howled too!
We left the theatre, happy and exhausted, and a little sad that we had missed the fireworks across town at the pier. But no, we were in luck: the fireworks had just started, and as we crossed 8th Street going west, we could see them just above the trees and tall buildings. We stopped to marvel at them, and a young woman stopped with us, enjoying them but confused. "Why are there fireworks tonight?" she asked us. "It's Gay Pride night!" we answered in unison.
And for us, it really was. Thanks, Steve, and thanks, Alec.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Gay Pride Week at Chelsea Pines Inn
Welcome to Gay Pride Week 2008, one of the world's largest LGBT celebrations! And Chelsea Pines Inn, now in its third decade of serving the LGBT world community, is right in the center of it all. Men and women from all over the world converge on New York City to commemorate the event (the 1969 Stonewall riots) that began the gay rights movement in this country. Hard to believe that it's thirty-nine years since that day, and next year will be thirty-ten (okay, four-oh for those that insist!)
In addition to welcoming our worldwide guests, Chelsea Pines is proudly sponsoring a number of events this year. The NYC LGBT Community Center, located just around the corner from us, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and earlier this week held its largest-ever annual Garden Party event, right down the street from us on the pier. Thousands of guests attended this gala event, as honorary chair Ruth Reichl (food doyenne, "Gourmet" editor and former food critic of the NY Times) offered up food from dozens of the best restaurants in New York City. Chelsea Pines was a major sponsor of this event, as it was earlier this year for the sold-out musical theatre evening, Broadway Backwards, held at the American Airlines Roundabout Theatre, and featuring such luminaries as Sandy Duncan, Neil Patrick Harris and his lover David Burtka in their first professional appearance (they sang the amazing lesbian duet from Rent, and it was hot!) and Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson, stars of the suprise Broadway hit, Xanadu.
Chelsea Pines owner Jay Lesiger was chair of this event, and has been asked to chair the 2009 edition of Broadway Backwards as well. And coming up is another exciting event, The Center's annual Women's Event dinner/dance, the largest event of its kind in the country, to be held on November 1 at Chelsea Piers, and honoring several lesbians for their significant achievements in the world community. Chelsea Pines Inn is proud to be a major sponsor of this event as well.
We also just concluded our first annual sponsorship of GayfestNYC, an annual series of new LGBT plays presented every year. We kicked this off by hosting Leslie Jordan, the diminutively brilliant Beverly Leslie on the groundbreaking Will and Grace, who did a one-man evening as the initial fundraiser for GayfestNYC.
But we're not just sponsors in life, we're participants too! This week day manager Richard Oberle, sales and marketing guru Tom Klebba and owner Jay Lesiger had their own "boys' night out" as they attended three back-to-back events. First was a kickoff party for a new Aussie magazine called DNA at the hot HKLounge, where swimwear models showed off their goods in white Speedos for the crowd. Then we were on to "gay night" at the fabulous Xanadu (check out their hilarious videos on Youtube, produced for Tony Award hype, featuring amazing cameos by Nathan Lane, Cynthia Nixon and Patti Lupone, and while you're there, check out our Youtube item; just type in "Chelsea Pines Inn," click your red-shoed heels three times and you're there!) If you haven't seen Xanadu, then you must! Kerry Butler's dead-on take of Olivia Newton-John will kill you, Cheyenne Jackson is amazing to look at and listen to (a dimwit to treasure), and those inimitable scenery-chewers Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa have never been better served. And after the cheering had ended, we joined the cast and the audience at a private party at The Ritz, a glam bar on Restaurant Row, where everyone sipped, chatted and cruised into the night.
Sunday is the culmination of the week's events, as thousands and thousands of LGBTers and the people who love them join forces for the annual parade and rally (Chelsea Pines marks its 20th consecutive year as a sponsor of the Heritage of Pride parade, honoring our late founder, Sheldon Post) . This year the rally will be located right around the corner from us, on Hudson Street just below 14th Street. Should be amazing. In the midst of this we're attending the final performance of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine classic, Sunday in the Park with George, where we will join the cheering crowd saying farewell to this amazing reinvention of one of the greatest musicals of the 20th century. We'll then rejoin the revelers as they party into the night, stop by Joe's Pub to see the unstoppable Alec Mapa do his standup act, then come back for fireworks on the pier, and the ending to another amazing Gay Pride celebration.
Hope you'll be here celebrating along with us. But if you can't, then come to Chelsea Pines this summer, where we're offering rooms at our beautifully renovated hotel at special promotional prices, and the city will be offering a nonstop summer festival of arts and special events that can't be beat!
In addition to welcoming our worldwide guests, Chelsea Pines is proudly sponsoring a number of events this year. The NYC LGBT Community Center, located just around the corner from us, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and earlier this week held its largest-ever annual Garden Party event, right down the street from us on the pier. Thousands of guests attended this gala event, as honorary chair Ruth Reichl (food doyenne, "Gourmet" editor and former food critic of the NY Times) offered up food from dozens of the best restaurants in New York City. Chelsea Pines was a major sponsor of this event, as it was earlier this year for the sold-out musical theatre evening, Broadway Backwards, held at the American Airlines Roundabout Theatre, and featuring such luminaries as Sandy Duncan, Neil Patrick Harris and his lover David Burtka in their first professional appearance (they sang the amazing lesbian duet from Rent, and it was hot!) and Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson, stars of the suprise Broadway hit, Xanadu.
Chelsea Pines owner Jay Lesiger was chair of this event, and has been asked to chair the 2009 edition of Broadway Backwards as well. And coming up is another exciting event, The Center's annual Women's Event dinner/dance, the largest event of its kind in the country, to be held on November 1 at Chelsea Piers, and honoring several lesbians for their significant achievements in the world community. Chelsea Pines Inn is proud to be a major sponsor of this event as well.
We also just concluded our first annual sponsorship of GayfestNYC, an annual series of new LGBT plays presented every year. We kicked this off by hosting Leslie Jordan, the diminutively brilliant Beverly Leslie on the groundbreaking Will and Grace, who did a one-man evening as the initial fundraiser for GayfestNYC.
But we're not just sponsors in life, we're participants too! This week day manager Richard Oberle, sales and marketing guru Tom Klebba and owner Jay Lesiger had their own "boys' night out" as they attended three back-to-back events. First was a kickoff party for a new Aussie magazine called DNA at the hot HKLounge, where swimwear models showed off their goods in white Speedos for the crowd. Then we were on to "gay night" at the fabulous Xanadu (check out their hilarious videos on Youtube, produced for Tony Award hype, featuring amazing cameos by Nathan Lane, Cynthia Nixon and Patti Lupone, and while you're there, check out our Youtube item; just type in "Chelsea Pines Inn," click your red-shoed heels three times and you're there!) If you haven't seen Xanadu, then you must! Kerry Butler's dead-on take of Olivia Newton-John will kill you, Cheyenne Jackson is amazing to look at and listen to (a dimwit to treasure), and those inimitable scenery-chewers Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa have never been better served. And after the cheering had ended, we joined the cast and the audience at a private party at The Ritz, a glam bar on Restaurant Row, where everyone sipped, chatted and cruised into the night.
Sunday is the culmination of the week's events, as thousands and thousands of LGBTers and the people who love them join forces for the annual parade and rally (Chelsea Pines marks its 20th consecutive year as a sponsor of the Heritage of Pride parade, honoring our late founder, Sheldon Post) . This year the rally will be located right around the corner from us, on Hudson Street just below 14th Street. Should be amazing. In the midst of this we're attending the final performance of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine classic, Sunday in the Park with George, where we will join the cheering crowd saying farewell to this amazing reinvention of one of the greatest musicals of the 20th century. We'll then rejoin the revelers as they party into the night, stop by Joe's Pub to see the unstoppable Alec Mapa do his standup act, then come back for fireworks on the pier, and the ending to another amazing Gay Pride celebration.
Hope you'll be here celebrating along with us. But if you can't, then come to Chelsea Pines this summer, where we're offering rooms at our beautifully renovated hotel at special promotional prices, and the city will be offering a nonstop summer festival of arts and special events that can't be beat!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Guest Attends the 62nd Annual Tony Awards
I have always been a huge fan of Broadway. Ever since I was a child, attending the Tony Awards has been a lifetime goal. This past week, I had the fortune of reaching this goal. Through a connection with a work colleague, I was able to volunteer at the ceremony as a Talent Escort. Once it was settled, I booked my flight to New York and reserved a room at Chelsea Pines Inn to have what would be the best weekend ever.
Tony Day started with a 9:15am call to go through the dress rehearsal. Since I was a first year escort, I was not actually assigned a celebrity, instead I was a "floater." This meant that I was just to hang out nearby and be utilized when needed. I found myself sitting in the front of Radio City Music Hall when Whoopi Goldberg walked out on stage to start her beginning bit and it was an unreal experience.
The people who were also volunteering where amazing. Everybody was very enthusiastic about theater and the arts and it was great to be around company who really understood and appreciated it all. I made some great friends early during the rehearsal. We helped out when needed and explored the areas around Radio City so we would be ready depending on what happened.
At one point during the rehearsal I found myself sitting a few seats away from Liza Minnelli and Glenn Close while the original cast of 'Rent' performed on stage. I don't think there are words in the English language to really surmise what this felt like. Some of the highlights of the rehearsal included Patti LuPone being a hardcore diva, Mary Louise Parker having issues being tall and the overly hilarious fake award winners' speeches. The rehearsal went smoothly though and we had a break from one to five. I spent this time napping and changing into my suit, not really sure what to expect from the evening.
The award show went splendidly. Being a floater, I stood in the back of the theater and watched the whole show. Whoopi did a great job bringing together all aspects of Broadway and really providing a well-done comedic element to the show. There were performances by the eight nominated 'Best Musical' shows and then five others. The opening by 'The Lion King' made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and set a great precedent for the show. It was almost symbolic showcasing a song that talks about life cycles and how Broadway really stands the tests of time.
All in all, the experience was amazing. Seeing the best of Broadway in a historical theater surrounded by people who understood and appreciated the art was mind blowing. I definitely made it a point to figure out how to do this every year, and I can't wait to see what the 63rd Annual Tony Awards will bring.
Tony Day started with a 9:15am call to go through the dress rehearsal. Since I was a first year escort, I was not actually assigned a celebrity, instead I was a "floater." This meant that I was just to hang out nearby and be utilized when needed. I found myself sitting in the front of Radio City Music Hall when Whoopi Goldberg walked out on stage to start her beginning bit and it was an unreal experience.
The people who were also volunteering where amazing. Everybody was very enthusiastic about theater and the arts and it was great to be around company who really understood and appreciated it all. I made some great friends early during the rehearsal. We helped out when needed and explored the areas around Radio City so we would be ready depending on what happened.
At one point during the rehearsal I found myself sitting a few seats away from Liza Minnelli and Glenn Close while the original cast of 'Rent' performed on stage. I don't think there are words in the English language to really surmise what this felt like. Some of the highlights of the rehearsal included Patti LuPone being a hardcore diva, Mary Louise Parker having issues being tall and the overly hilarious fake award winners' speeches. The rehearsal went smoothly though and we had a break from one to five. I spent this time napping and changing into my suit, not really sure what to expect from the evening.
The award show went splendidly. Being a floater, I stood in the back of the theater and watched the whole show. Whoopi did a great job bringing together all aspects of Broadway and really providing a well-done comedic element to the show. There were performances by the eight nominated 'Best Musical' shows and then five others. The opening by 'The Lion King' made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and set a great precedent for the show. It was almost symbolic showcasing a song that talks about life cycles and how Broadway really stands the tests of time.
All in all, the experience was amazing. Seeing the best of Broadway in a historical theater surrounded by people who understood and appreciated the art was mind blowing. I definitely made it a point to figure out how to do this every year, and I can't wait to see what the 63rd Annual Tony Awards will bring.
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