vip in the city

A peek at the A-List

Just returned from Bravo’s “A-List Awards” show at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I will reserve most of my commentary for after the show’s airing next Thursday, June 12, but in the meantime, here are a few of our photos from the evening. Red carpet arrivals here.

Host Kathy Griffin, channeling Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys. (Check out a brief clip of her show opening performance here.)

Top Chef contingent (+ Project Runway Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll):

Project Runway Season 4 winner (and new Brooklynite) Christian Siriano and Tim Gunn. So we meet again!:

Molly Sims:

A bizarrely loopy Lauren Hutton (more on this later — wow) and Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi:

Tyson Beckford and Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch:

Stylist and future Bravo reality star Rachel Zoe and Tim Gunn:

Tags: A-List, awards, Bravo, Hammerstein Ballroom, Kathy Griffin, midtown

Bravo A-List Awards

More from the Bravo A-List Awards, celebrating “the best in food, fashion, design, beauty, and pop culture.”

A-List Actor (Female) winner, Dana Delaney (Desperate Housewives):

Anna Sui, winner for “A-List Fashion,” presented to a fashion designer who has proven to be a tried and true trendsetter and tastemaker. Sui beat out Tory Burch, Zac Posen and Proenza Schouler(!)

Despite the clunkiness of the execution, this was probably my favorite segment: the Quick Fire competition between Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and “A-List Chef” winner Jose Andres. They each whipped up two dishes — on stage — which host Kathy Griffin “dropped” before reaching the panel of TC alum judges.

Real Housewives face off!

To close out the awards ceremony, there was a charity fashion show (benefiting UNICEF) featuring “celebrities” strutting outfits designed for them by Project Runway alums: Candace Bushnell and season 2 designer Daniel Franco, Holly Kiser and season 4 finalist Chris March, Kathy Griffin and season 2 designer Nick Verreos, Katrina Smirnoff and season 3 finalist and “Fan Favorite” Michael Knight, Kat Von D and season 4 finalist Sweet P, Niki Taylor and season 3 finalist Laura Bennett, Nikki Blonsky and season 3 designer Malan Breton, Rebecca Budig and season 3 designer Alison Kelly.

Tags: A-List, awards, Bravo, Hammerstein Ballroom, midtown

What a piece of work is a man

Our summer tradition: The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park productions. In 2007, we enjoyed Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  This year brings Hamlet and Hair… and a change to the ticket distribution system. Reserving a seat to these free productions used to involve camping out — sometimes overnight — on the line in front of the Delacorte or Public Theaters for the 1PM ticket distribution, or making a “summer supporter” donation to the Public Theater.  This summer, for the first time, the theater also offered guests the option of joining a “virtual line” — actually, more a lottery — by registering at the Public Theater reservations website and submitting requests for up to two tickets on each performance day.

Online reservations?  That, I can do.  That, in fact, is how we found ourselves at the Delacorte, the first week of the run.

This production marked the SITP’s first Hamlet since 1975, when Sam Waterston held the title role.  33 years later, Waterston settles impressively into an almost sweetly buffoonish Polonius.  Somewhat less successful was Michael Stuhlbarg, who received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination for 2005’s The Pillowman, as the melancholy (and sometimes manic) Dane.  Rounding out the familiar television faces: Lauren Ambrose (last year’s Juliet) as Ophelia; Emmy winner André Braugher as Claudius; and Margaret Colin (lately of Gossip Girl) as Gertrude.

Of note: an unexpected ending, some amusing costuming (especially in the swapped top/bottom suits of Rosencratz and Guildensten) and the wonderfully creative of play-within-a play, which featured dancing lifesized marionettes.

Reviews were mixed, but this Hamlet at least fared better than the 2000 production at The Public, with Liev Schreiber in the title role, which received one of the most brutal reviews I’ve ever read in New York magazine.

Tags: Central Park, Delacorte Theater, Hamlet, Public Theater, SITP