Biting the Big Apple

NEW YORK – Arrived in the Big Apple last March 15 and will be back in Cebu by March 30. A couple of days after my late night arrival at JFK, I was gearing for one of the biggest events of this Empire State - St. Patrick's Day parade. I had breakfast in a typical greasy spoon joint beside Macy's near the Penn Station. A couple of NYPD blues occupied the table next to mine, so I asked for the scheduled start of the parade -- 11am until 5pm on 5th Avenue.

On March 17, I was an Irish lass w/shamrocks and an emerald hat. For which my cousin Malyn Angbetic-Tanseco called me "Mayen O'Tan," the Chinese Irish! Everyone with a trace of Irish blood were all out early in a festive mood, buying green souvenir items from the ambulant vendors at street corners.(Will do an Eyewatch on this grand parade in the Lifestyle section.) My friend Lillian Dumalos & I took great efforts to cut across 5th Ave. despite the tight security, until we reached St. Patrick's Cathedral and caught the 12 noon Mass.

But my true purpose of coming to New York is to do Broadway. My cousin Malyn already got the two tickets to shows I chose through Plum Benefits - discounted tickets for members. I saw Cole Porter's musical comedy of love in an ocean liner "Anything Goes" with the multi-awarded actor Joel Grey (of the "Cabaret" fame). The male lead is strikingly handsome with a great voice - Colin Donnell, doing Porter's familiar songs like "You're the Top" and "It's De-lovely." "I Get a Kick Out of You" is the initial number.

I was so glad that "Driving Miss Daisy" has been extended until April, or I would have missed this really rare opportunity - like "The Boy from Oz" with Hugh Jackman which closed a couple of days before I arrived here in 2006. This time, I had the pleasure of watching Vanessa Redgrave onstage with the equally legendary James Earl Jones. These two theater icons essayed their roles in a breath-taking way -- they adeptly subsumed their personalities into their banal, deep south characters in the pre-Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s up to the early 70s. They were applauded when they entered the stage...and received the full house's standing ovation at curtain call. Superb!

As I write this, I still have to watch "Wonderland" which is a new take on the classic Lewis Carroll tale of a girl named Alice. I hear the costumes are fantastic with a contemporary pop score by Frank Wildhorn. Then, from the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners "The Importance of Being Ernest." Brian Bedford directs and also portrays the formidable Lady Bracknell.

I tried to get a ticket for "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" with "Harry Potter" Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role, but the available ticket was on a date when I would be with my ex-Cebu Plaza colleagues(the other reason why I am in New York now, for our second annual Cebu Plaza reunion). A couple of interesting new shows off-Broadway are "The Book of Mormon" - a musical comedy that pokes fun on the Mormons; and "Catch Me If You Can" - the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr.(Leonardo di Caprio in the movie) who passed himself off as a doctor, a lawyer and a jet pilot before he was 21 years old!

I have been walking the streets of Manhattan, attending the daily noon Mass at St. Patrick's, checking out the Museum of Modern Art, dining at the Rockefeller Center and munching on my dreamed-of NYC kosher hotdog from a corner stand (did you know that Michelin has a rating for these ambulant hotdog/pretzel stands?), before I would walk down to Broadway for the shows. Then my cousin's husband Casey Tanseco would fetch me after the show, as I stay with them at their home in New Jersey. Casey teases me we are the local version of "Driving Miss Daisy." As they call me Ditchie (Chinese for 2nd eldest sister), he is "Driving Miss Ditchie" in New York, to which my cousin Malyn quipped, " yuh, Driving Miss Ditchie...up the wall!"  

Indeed, you can climb up the walls if you have nutty cousins like mine here in New York. But then again, I won't trade them for anything, as we have incessant laughter and banter as soon as we get together. Worth more than gold!