vip in the city

NY City Center

At NY City Center for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Spring Boards, the annual play reading series dedicated to the support and development of innovative new work.

The distinctive building with the neo-Moorish façade and dome was constructed in the 1920s as a Shriners’ auditorium, after Carnegie Hall management, disturbed by the amount of cigar smoke generated during the Shriner’s meetings, evicted the organization. City Center was founded in 1943 when New York City Council President Newbold Morris and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia converted the building into a home for the performing arts, designating it the People’s Theater — a cultural center to make the performing arts accessible to all New Yorkers.

NY City Center was the founding home to the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet prior to the 1960s construction of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which siphoned off most of the audience support for the center. The building was saved from demolition when it was designated a historical landmark, ensuring its survival as a premiere home for dance and, eventually, for a leading theater company.

Dupont Circle discoveries

The heat and humidity of Saturday had broken during the night’s thunderstorms — luckily, while we were ensconced inside The Officers’ Club — making way for this morning’s comfortable cool and bright blue skies.

I had a couple of hours to myself before the last of our wedding weekend activities, so I set out along Connecticut Avenue from the “Hinckley Hilton.”

Having been running almost entirely on adrenaline for the past 48 hours, I was sorely in need of a reviving cup of caffeine this morning. But where? South, past an eclectic mix of small restaurants and shops (including our rehearsal dinner place), I spotted a familiar green and white corporate logo, but just as I turned the corner, I discovered a yet more intriguing option: Teaism — a place I’d never visited, but whose storefront I recognized from my endless hours of late-night Food Network viewing. Finally, insomnia pays off! And let it not be said that I don’t give credit where it’s due: it was Rachael Ray’s $40 a Day (Washington DC) that had me craving Teaism’s chai and warm ginger scones for a week. And there the source stood before me, quite by accident. I made my way inside the quaint Asian-inspired café – still crowded, but a far more charming alternative than the Starbucks two doors down – and that’s exactly what I had. (And yes, they were delicious.)

Farther still, towards Dupont Circle where The Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market was in progress: besides the usual assortment of organic produce, flowers, artisanal breads, cheeses and jams, there was a mouth-watering selection of seafood and lamb products and heavenly smelling herbal soaps.

If not for our brunch that afternoon, I would have happily picked up a couple of crabcakes, a crusty roll, and some quality lemonade and thrown myself on the warm lawn with the rest of the locals.

Always a bridesmaid?

The day began bright and early in a suite at the Army Navy Club, outfitted with furniture gifted to the United States by Chiang Kai-shek, overlooking Farragut Square. Amid the hairdressers, makeup artists, photographers and attendants, clouds of hairspray, and swirls of silk, satin, lace, sequins and tulle, CL was a picture of improbable serenity in this sunlight-dappled room.

The day passed in a whirlwind: the blooms, the groom’s tears, little boys in tuxedos, our maddeningly temperamental GPS, the tea ceremony, the toasts, the three-tiered wedding cake (cut with a naval officer sword!), the bride in her red cheongsam, the new couple’s first dance…

I’d never seen my friend so happy.

Maybe someday.

Congratulations, CL!