In the heart of little old New York,
You’ll find a thoroughfare.
It’s the part of little old New York
That runs into Times Square.
A crazy quilt that “Wall Street Jack” built,
If you’ve got a little time to spare,
I want to take you there.
Come and meet those dancing feet,
On the avenue I’m taking you to…
Come and meet those dancing feet,
On the avenue I’m taking you to,
Forty-Second Street.
Small-town girl who can sing and dance meets New York City boy and they fall in love!
You might think I’m talking about 42nd Street, the Muny’s opening show. In a minute, I will.
But first, drum roll, please. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the long-running Off-Broadway hit,
Celebrating 56 years of comedy and drama, musical and otherwise: The Bubs and Harry Show!!!
Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!
Did they meet at a theatre audition on 42nd Street? No, I believe they met in Zoology class at the University of Colorado. (I wasn’t there, so don’t hold me to strict fact-checking standards.) She was a small-town girl who had sung and danced in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at the University of Michigan and was now working at the university in Denver and auditing a class. He was a vet on the GI bill, getting an education and preparing to be a teacher. His stint in the army had already taught him that while New York was a fun place to visit, he didn’t want to live there again.
New York is a fun place to visit, as we did for the 5 Boroughs Ride. In honor of both romances cited above, we are revisiting some of the sights we saw. I had printed some pictures for Mom and Dad, including two of architectural details. The header above shows the façade of the Chanin Building, 122 East 42nd Street. The link gives more details about this building. Now I wish we’d gone inside! The building is catty-corner from the much more well-known Chrysler Building, and close to Grand Central Station. The second picture was a portion of a mosaic in Rockefeller Center, described here.
Monday night was opening night for this summer’s season of the Saint Louis Municipal (Muny) Opera. It was also opening night for 42nd Street. It rained all day, but cleared up for the show. After we went to bed it rained the rest of the night. We got about three inches plus a mention on NPR.
The show was good, with great songs like, We’re In The Money, Shuffle Off To Buffalo, Lullaby Of Broadway and 42nd Street. The large cast was capable of putting on impressive dancing numbers, reminiscent of Busby Berkeley. The 1933 depression era time period added special poignancy, with today’s economic crisis. It was a good evening, with good weather and a great show.
I went out to dinner last night with said parental units for a celebratory dinner. we talked about a lot of things, but not how they met. in my memory it was biology class and involved swabbing of throats. lovely.
Sounds cultured to me. 😉