ONE DAY by David Nicholls slowly seduces you

One Day by David Nicholls
Published by Vintage Contemporaries
Trade paperback $14.95

British author David Nicholls' novel One Day begins on July 15, 1988 with two university students in Edinburgh, Dexter and Emma, sharing an evening of drink and sex. Dex is from a wealthy family, Emma is not. Dex is handsome, but not overly ambitious, and Emma, not the type of girl who captures men's attention when she walks in the room, is, as Dex says, "is one of those girls who used 'bourgeois' as a term of abuse".

The novel follows Dex and Emma for the next twenty years on the date of July 15th. We watch as they become good friends, but not more than that, although at certain points in time each fancies the other romantically- just not, it seems, at the same time.

Dex becomes a successful television presenter, making good money, dating lots of hot women, drinking way too much, but it's a shallow life. Emma is less successful personally and professionally. The one constant in their lives is their friendship. When they are together, they become more than the sum of their parts, if only they realized it.

As Dex gets older, his looks fade and he is no longer the 'golden boy'. He marries a wealthy woman, but is he happy? Emma's life gets better after she ends a relationship that is not suited to her. She gets a job as a teacher and works on writing a novel.

Nicholls brilliantly captures these two people, and their relationship is one that will be recognizable to many people. He is not afraid to make Dex downright unlikeable much of time, yet he gets us to root for Dex to be a better man. Our heart breaks for Emma, and we just want to see her get the life and love she deserves.

One Day is the kind of book you don't fall in love with right away; it slowly seduces you until you realize by the end how deeply you have fallen in love with it. Dex and Emma will at times infuriate you, make you laugh and break your heart, but you will not forget them, nor will you forget the heartrending end of this near perfect novel.

Rating 4.5 of 5

A modern day ADAM & EVE

Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund
Published by William Morrow
339 pages

One of the oldest stories ever told, that of Adam and Eve, gets a unique remake of sorts in Sena Jeter Naslund's Adam & Eve.

Lucy is in Amsterdam for a scientific conference with her husband Thom, an astrophysicist of renown, who tells Lucy that he has proof of extraterrestrial life. He gives Lucy a memory stick that contains all of his evidence.

Thom is killed by a falling piano, and Lucy is devastated. Still grieving her loss three years later, Lucy is invited to welcome scientists to a conference in Cairo. It is too much for her, and she breaks down on stage.

She meets a young woman who takes Lucy to her father, a scientist Lucy met at the conference. They convince Lucy to smuggle something out of Egypt for them- an alternate version of the book of Genesis that they have found buried.

There are fundamentalist Christians, Muslim extremists and literalist Jews who have banded together to stop anyone from finding out about this discovery, even willing to kill to prevent the world from reading this other Genesis.

Lucy agrees to fly a plane to France with the scripture, but her plane crashes and she is discovered by Adam, a young soldier who was kidnapped and assaulted by soldiers. Adam believes that Lucy is his Eve and that they are living in the Garden of Eden.

This is a big book, full of so many themes it can make your head spin. Lucy and Adam's life in Eden parallels the Biblical story, particularly when another soldier lands in their garden. His presence dramatically changes the dynamic of the Garden. Is he the embodiment of the devilish snake from Genesis?

The violence that is an everyday part of life in the Middle East is explored as a root cause of the rise of  dangerous religious fundamentalism. Throw in the possibility of life on other planets and the fear of that knowledge endangering religious doctrine. Add in the discovery of very early human drawings in caves in France and you've got a lot to think about.

Naslund has packed a lot of ideas into 350 pages, and her characters are well-drawn and interesting. Lucy and Adam's life in the garden is fascinating, and thriller fans will be rewarded with an action-packed sequence that resolves the story. Adam & Eve is the thinking person's answer to The DaVinci Code.


Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dadadadum...Snap Snap.....Dadadadum..Snap Snap....

The critics pretty much slammed it, but I have to say that I found the Broadway show The Addams Family delightful. True, the songs are not very memorable, but it is a funny show and the performers are fantastic.

The opening song featuring the entire Addams Family, including long-dead members risen from the grave, sets the tone and introduces the wacky family. How Bebe Neuwirth is able to walk in the iconic skin-tight black dress is a physical miracle. Not to mention the front which is "cut down to Venezuela" to quote Gomez. (At least she gets some more movement in the second act when the belt at her knees is gone.)

Jackie Hoffmann plays Grandma with such gusto, she has many of the funniest lines. In the dinner scene, she ad libs a line that  had the cast cracking up laughing, with Neuwirth looking down into her lap and her shoulders shaking. Her best line is to young Pugsley when she says that drinking the potion "would make Mary Poppins look like Medea". When Pugsley says he doesn't understand her reference, she tells him to "put down the texting and READ A BOOK".  The audience howled and applauded wildly.

Adam Riegler is a charmer as Pugsley. He plots to break up his sister Wednesday's romance with her 'normal' fiance Luke. Kevin Chamberlain is delightfully devilish as Uncle Fester, who acts as a kind of narrator for the show.

Carolee Carmelo and Terrence Mann are wonderful as the Beinekes, the parents of Luke. Mann and Lane do a fun song and dance together, and Carmelo has a hilarious scene after she drinks the potion by mistake.

Lane and Neuwirth shine as the stars in this show, and their tango is delicious. Lane's comedic timing is shown to perfection when he says to Morticia as they are discussing whose grandma Grandma really is,
"MY mother? (pause...pause...pause) I thought she was YOUR mother!" Even though you can see the line coming from a mile away, Lane milks it for all it's worth.

The Addams Family appeals to adults and teens, and it's not just nostalgia for the 1960s TV show. The subplot of Morticia and Mrs. Beineke dealing with aging and marriage is touching, as is the relationship between Wednesday and her brother Pugsley.

The show is very funny, it's always great to see Neuwirth dance and sing (her dance with the ancestors is  wonderful) and Lane does what he does best- make us laugh. There are discount tickets available for the show at the TKTS booth and online at playbill.com and theatermania.com. It's worth your time and a discounted ticket to laugh for a few hours.

Meeting President Carter

Met President jimmy Carter at a book signing yesterday. He signs books faster than anyone I have ever seen! It was an honor to meet him.
Originally uploaded by bookchickdi

I had the honor of meeting President Jimmy Carter at his book signing for White House Diary at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle store in NYC on September 20th.

It was a good crowd, and my line mates were an interesting group, we shared a lively conversation. (Which was good because we were together for over two hours.)

They are always well organized at Barnes & Noble, and this was no exception. I had heard from others who had been to one of his signings before that President Carter was a fast signer, and boy was he. You barely had time to say hello to him as he signed our books, and you were off. There was an area set up for photos which was nice, some people do not allow photos.

This book looks very intriguing; if you saw the 60 Minutes interview, you know what I'm talking about.

The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove

The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore
Published by Shaye Areheart Books
Crown Publishing
Hardcover $23

The cover of the ARC of Susan Gregg Gilmore's The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove is eye catching; the back of a young girl's head covered with a ring of daisies in the foreground, looking down a path bordered with colorful flowers at a southern style mansion (think Gone With the Wind's Tara) in the background. 

Born in 1951, Bezellia was named after her father's ancestor, a woman who fought off Indians who attacked their Nashville settlement. Young Bezellia wore her ancestor's moniker proudly, hoping to live up to the first Bezellia's name.

Bezellia's father was a wealthy and busy doctor, from a well respected Nashville family. Her mother was a woman from 'the wrong side of the tracks' who desperately desired to fit into Nashville society. She was an unhappy woman, of whom Bezellia said "Mother with a cup of coffee in her hand was not a particularly kind or attentive person and (that) Mother with a gin and tonic in her hand was simply mean and withdrawn."

Two household servants, Maizelle and Nathaniel, were loyal to the Grove family. Like another Southern novel, Kathryn Stockett's popular The Help, they were always available to provide the care and attention to Bezellia and her younger sister that they didn't get from their parents.

Bezellia's mother treated them badly, and Maizelle and Nathaniel usually took it without complaint (except when Maizelle would occasionally spit into her boss's cup of coffee), although since the book is written from Bezellia's point of view, perhaps that is how Bezellia saw it. Another recent novel, Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin, showed a more troubled and realistic relationship between the white employers and their black household employees.

Nathaniel's son Samuel comes to help his father one day, and sparks fly between Samuel and Bezellia. Nashville in the 1960s was not a place where a young white lady and a young black man could have an open relationship, and if Bezellia's mother or other townspeople found out, all hell would break loose.

The setting of the novel in the 1960s is key, as it addresses the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, and the feminist movement through the eyes of young people. It was an exhilarating, frightening time for all, but especially for young adults looking for their place in the world.

What I though this novel addressed really well was the concept of how your youthful experiences follow you through to adulthood. As the story progresses, we see why Bezellia's mother, who is a very unsympathetic character, became the sad, lonely, bitter alcoholic she was.  She ends up being the most complex character in the novel.

It also addresses an age-old dilemma for young people; what do you owe your family and what do you owe yourself? Bezellia goes away to college, but when family issues press, she must decide what comes first: her responsibility to family or to herself. Many readers will be able to relate to that.

At various points in the novel newspaper articles about the Grove family are inserted. It gives the reader a perspective of the family from the town's point of view. The first page is Bezellia's birth notice and the final page is her death notice, but perhaps Gilmore will grace us with the two-thirds of Bezellia's life that isn't in the book. She is a character worthy of more exploration.

Rating 3.5 out of 5 stars

Patti LuPone at Barnes & Noble

Broadway legend Patti LuPone appeared at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle store in NYC on September 16th to promote Patti LuPone- A Memoir, written with Digby Diehl.

The overflow audience was treated to not only a frank discussion of the book with Tom Santopietro, but Ms. LuPone also sang four songs for the delighted group. She started at the beginning, as a four-year-old child performing on stage and realizing that is where she belonged.

She moved through her Juliard years, then her first Broadway show, The Robber Bridegroom, which although it ran for only 14 performances, LuPone received her first Tony nomination.  She sang a lovely rendition of Sleepy Man from the show.

LuPone described the difficulty of singing in Evita, losing her voice frequently and missing several performances. She said "every night, I was scared out of my mind" before her performance, and mentioned that the actress who portrayed Evita in the Australian production gave up music altogether after her run.

She spotted the incomparable Zoe Caldwell in the back of the room, and Ms. Caldwell received a well deserved standing ovation from all.

The discussion of LuPone's run in Anything Goes led to her singing Cole Porter's I Get a Kick (Out of You).  Anything Goes is such a happy, fun show, LuPone said "it should be on Broadway always".

Calling her concert performance with the New York Philharmonic in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd a "great experience from start to finish" she moved into a discussion of her most recent Broadway show, Gypsy.


But everyone perked their ears up when Sunset Boulevard was mentioned. LuPone laughingly said "I didn't tell half the story!" Saying "I'm gonna say stuff, f*#k, I don't care", she went on to say about the creator Andrew Lloyd Webber, "everyone knows Andrew is a screw loose, a strange dude".

She said that the London production was a "juggernaut of bad energy" and "everyone recognized all the signs, but went forward anyway." She decried "the underhanded method they used to get me to crumble so they wouldn't have to pay my New York salary."

(LuPone found out that she would not be the lead in the Broadway production as she was contracted to when she read it in a gossip column. She successfully sued the producers.)

The next song was Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered from Pal Joey, a strong yet sweet version. After an audience member asked why she no longer sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables in her concerts, LuPone offered to sing it, but her accompanist did not have the sheet music. As if on cue, another audience member pulled the music out of her bag and it was in the right key for LuPone. She left everyone with tears in their eyes and I got goosebumps as she sang this moving song, now forever linked with Susan Boyle. Susan Boyle is good, but she's no Patti LuPone.

The evening was amazing, the chance to hear LuPone sing such iconic songs in such an intimate setting was worth waiting for three hours on the floor of Barnes & Noble. She was also very kind to each person who got a book signed, and I can't wait to read it.

Strangers at the Feast a fantastic novel

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Todos Santos

Todos Santos by Deborah Clearman
Published by Black Lawrence Press
Trade Paperback $18

Good fiction can do two things very well: make the reader empathetic and take the reader places she wouldn't normally go.

Todos Santos by Deborah Clearman takes the reader along on a journey to Guatemala with her character, Catherine Barnes. Catherine is having marital problems (her professor husband cheats on her), and her teenage son Isaac flunked 8th grade.

She decides to take Isaac to Guatemala, and work on illustrating her next book by visiting the remote town of Todos Santos. Catherine leaves Isaac to work in her sister Zelda's shop while she goes into the interior of Guatemala with Oswaldo, her handsome guide.

Catherine grows close to the owners of the hotel, particularly Nicolasa, a young woman married to a German man, who longs to move to Europe. The town of Todos Santos is wary of outsiders, and many of the residents are whipped into a frenzy by a politician who warns them of Americans who have come to steal their children.

Isaac makes a friend of his own, Ben, a boy from New Jersey who is living with his American family in Guatemala. They make plans to go on an adventure for the weekend, and after tragedy strikes, Isaac is kidnapped.

The author succeeds in immersing the reader in the sights and sounds of  Guatemala. You can taste the delicious foods, feel the heat, and she brings alive the vibrant and colorful marketplace, the center of the town.

If you close your eyes, you feel like you are on the crowded bus that Isaac and Ben take on their trip. At every stop, as more people pushed to get on, you get a sense of claustrophobia. When the boys are caught out in a storm on a boat, you feel the rising terror that they feel.

Clearman does a wonderful job with her characterization of Isaac. She really gets into the head of a teen boy- the sulky, sullen attitude they have, mixed with a desire to be adventurous. I felt like I understood where he was coming from, maybe from having two sons of my own.

I didn't feel like I understood the character of Catherine as well. When her son was kidnapped, she seemed to spend more time trying to find romance with Oswaldo than working on getting her son back. I didn't get the sense of terror that a parent would have, learning that her son was missing in a foreign country. I had a difficult time empathizing with her.

I would have liked to known more about sister Zelda; it seemed to me that she has a more interesting story to tell.

I would recommend Todos Santos for anyone who likes to read about other cultures; Clearman clearly knows of what she writes, having visited there many times.  The reader gets to see a Guatemala that most visitors don't in this novel.

Rating 3 of 5
Thanks to Sarah at Little Bird Publicity for providing me with a review copy.

One Flight Up by Susan Fales- Hill

Four friends who met at the elite Manhattan Sibley School for Girls are at a crossroads of life and love in Susan Fales-Hill's novel One Flight Up.


India is a hard-charging divorce attorney with a high maintenance actress mother, an addiction to chocolate,  and a loving French chef boyfriend. When the man she left at the altar years ago for cheating on her comes back into her life, she is torn between her strong attraction to the "bad boy" and her understanding, caring boyfriend.

Abby has a artist husband and two children whom she adores, but soon she is forced to face the fact that her husband is a cheater when she sees him kissing a gorgeous younger woman. When her son's music teacher shows romantic interest in her, she is tempted to find happiness for herself.

Monique is a doctor, who has been married for many years to a man with a time-consuming financial career. Like many long-married couples with dual careers and children, the spark has gone out of their marriage, and when a sexy young EMT shows her some attention, she makes a mistake that could endanger everything for which she has worked.

Esme is described as a "Columbian Scarlett O'Hara", a woman who enjoys receiving all the male attention from the moment she walks into a room. Esme frequently cheats on her nice-guy husband, just as her father cheats on her mother.

The author does a wonderful job creating characters with lives that the reader would envy- wealthy, smart, beautiful- and yet she gives them problems that face most women. How do you balance work, family, and love?

She understands the realities of long-term monogamy, and how hard it is to work at staying happy in a marriage. I liked that while she showed the excitement of a new sexual relationship, she also showed the consequences. If you are thinking about straying, this novel will give you something to think about.

The setting of Manhattan is a great character too. I enjoyed recognizing the various landmarks Fales-Hill uses, and the reader will feel like a real Upper East Sider as she reads. I also loved the mental pictures the author creates of the gorgeous dresses the ladies wear to their many social events.

Lifetime TV would be wise to option this book as a movie- and hire Sophia Vergara of TV's "Modern Family" as Esme, she'd be perfect!


One Flight Up has interesting characters, sex, fabulous clothes and Manhattan- it's Sex and the City for married women.

Rating 3.5 stars of 5

Thanks to Atria Books for providing a copy of the book.

The Elephant Keeper casts a spell

Fictional books about animals are in vogue, with Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain, and Yann Martel's Life of Pi, each experiencing an extended stay on the bestseller list.

Add Christopher Nicholson's The Elephant Keeper to that list. The book cast a spell upon me, and I read it in two sittings, unable to put it down. Set in the late 1700s, the novel tells the tale of young Tom Page, who is tasked by his employer to write a book about the elephant he has been caring for many years.

Tom's father was head groom to John Harrington, a wealthy sugar merchant. Tom loved horses and followed in his father's footsteps. One day, a ship from Africa unloaded on the docks and and two elephants were among the cargo. 

No one had ever seen such incredible creatures, and they were disoriented and ill from their long sea journey. Harrington was a shrewd businessman, and after asking Tom if he though the elephants would live, purchased them from the ship's captain.

Tom takes to the elephants immediately and is eager to work with them. At first they were angry and wary of Tom, making several successful attempts to pick the locks of their crates to escape, but eventually they began to trust him.

He names them Timothy and Jenny, although is careful to not share this information with anyone else less they think he is mad. I also think by not sharing their names with anyone else, he keeps them from becoming attached to anyone else; they belong only to Tom.

Tom's relationship with the elephants sadly precludes normal relationships with humans, particularly women. He sleeps in the barn near the elephants, spends all his time with them, and when a lovely young lady named Lizzie wants to become closer to Tom, he spurns her. His responsibility is to the beautiful creatures whom he believes need him.

As the story progresses, the reader is privy to dialogue between Tom and Jenny. Is Jenny really speaking to Tom, or is this an example of Tom sliding into some sort of madness?

Not all goes well with Tom and the elephants, and the twists and turns of this tragic tale are masterfully told by Nicholson. The thought-provoking end to this magical story will be turned over in the mind of the reader for a long time, and I suspect people will either love the ending or hate it. I loved it.

Rating 4 stars of 5.

Friday Five- Volume 8

The Upper East Side has so many fabulous thrift stores, and many of them sell books. I've gotten some great books, some of them just a few months old, others older books by my favorite authors. This week's Friday Five is:

Five Terrific Books I've Found at the Thrift Stores


1. Crooked Little Heart by Anne LaMott. I fell in love with Anne's writing in Grace (Eventually) Thoughts on Faith.  This year, Imperfect Birds,  was published, and I got to see Anne at a reading and meet her. Imperfect Birds continues the story of Rosie and her Mom and was so heartfelt and real. I found the second book in the series, Crooked Little Heart, and was so excited. I'm on the lookout for the first book, Rosie.


2. When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson.  I've never read Kate Atkinson, but I've so many good things about her writing, and this book from 2008 got so much good word, I had to pick it up.

3. the Condition by Jennifer Haigh. Haigh wrote one of my all-time favorites, Mrs. Kimble, and I was thrilled to find her latest book about a troubled family and their vacation on Cape Cod.

4. Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear.  Winspear writes the Maisie Dobbs series, about a female private investigator in post- World War I England. They are mysteries for more literary-minded people, and this is the 6th novel in the series.

5. The Privileges by Jonathan Dee. I found this gem of a novel but a few months after it published in hardcover and nearly squealed with joy when I saw it. It is about a wealthy New York City family, and I found it intriguing.

Have you found any great buys at thrift stores near you?

Cyndi Lauper rocks at CBS Early Show performance

I got to see and hear the lovely and talented Cyndi Lauper perform for CBS Early Show (airdate July 30). She was fabulous, singing two songs from her new blues CD Memphis Blues- Crossroads and Rollin and Tumblin. I have the CD and it is terrific; she has the perfect voice for the blues.

She also sang "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", which turned into a huge crowd sing-a-long, and she closed with an acoustic version of "True Colors".

Everyone loved her and after Harry Smith mentioned twice that she recently turned 57, Cyndi asked him "What am I- a car? You keep talking about my age!" Smith growled, "If you're a car, I want to take a ride".   Cyndi blushed and laughed.

My review of Tom Rachman's wonderful "The Imperfectionists"

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Friday Five- Volume 7

In honor of this week's Major League Baseball All-Star game- congrats to the National League for its first win since 1996, and to Atlanta Braves' Brian McCann for being named the MVP- this week's Friday Five is:

Five Fabulous Major League Baseball Ballparks:

1. PNC Park in Pittsburgh- We have family in Pittsburgh and have been to the stadium a few times. It is a beautiful stadium, and anywhere you sit you get a great view of the game and a fantastic view of the Pittsburgh area with their three rivers. Now the Pirates just need to win.

2. Fenway Park in Boston- Fenway is an old-school stadium, reveling in the glory of baseball when it was still the national past time. And there is nothing like seeing the Green Monster up close. It must be very romantic too, because every time we've been there, some guy has proposed to his girl.

3. Turner Field in Atlanta- Although it is ungodly hot to watch a baseball game in Atlanta in August (let alone three), I love Turner Field. I like that they have an area where families can bring in their own food and have a picnic before the game. They have lots of activities too and the best pretzels around- dipped in butter. (It was the only food I ate for three days, so I didn't feel too bad.)

4. Citi Field in New York- The Mets new ballpark is amazing, as befits the Amazings. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda is stunning- as you take the escalator up into the stadium, you can't help but be impressed. They also have Blue Smoke BBQ and Shake Shack burgers. There's always a line for Shake Shack, but for some reason, you can walk right up to Blue Smoke and get the best BBQ in NYC.

5. Yankee Stadium- The Yankees got a new stadium, and boy did they need it. Great Hall has huge banners of Yankee greats hanging to greet you as you enter the stadium, and the Monument Park is still there. I do like that the food stands have a credit card machine where you place you order and can skip the lines to get your food- very efficient. My husband likes to sit near Carl's Cheesesteaks. I like the Cuban sandwiches at Moes.

Happening This Week in NYC- Vol. 4

Lots of books and Broadway going on this week:

Tuesday, July 13th- Jane Krakowski, best known for her roles on TV series Ally McBeal and 30 Rock has also wowed people on Broadway in Nine, for which she won a Tony. She has recorded a CD of her cabaret show from Feinstein's titled Jane Krakowski- The Laziest Gal in Town, and will appear at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle singing songs and signing the CD at 5pm.

Tuesday, June 13th- Jennifer Weiner makes her annual July appearance at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle on the release day of her newest novel, Fly Away Home at 7:30pm.

Tuesday, June 13th- One of my favorite authors, Susan Isaacs, will be reading, discussing and signing copies of her much anticipated new novel, As Husbands Go, at Barnes & Noble 86th St. at 7pm.

Wednesday, July 14th- War journalist and author Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) will be discussing his newest book War, about his time spent with a group of American soldiers in a remote outpost in Afghanistan at the Word for Word Series at Bryant Park at 12:30pm.

Thursday, July 15th- Broadway at Bryant Park welcomes performances from Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot, South Pacific, Memphis and Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular at 12:30pm.

Thursday, July 15th- Cast members from Broadway's The Addams Family perform and sign copies of the cast recording CD at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle at 4:30pm.

Thursday, July 15th- Author Jonathan Tropper discusses his book This is Where I Leave You with Allison Scotch Winn at Borders Columbus Circle at 7pm.

Friday, July 16th- The cast of Broadway's American Idiot will sing at Rumsey Playfield at Central Park as part of Good Morning America's Summer Concert Series at 7am.

Friday, July 16th & Saturday, July 17th- The Dave Matthews Band plays two shows at Citi Field, home of the NY Mets.

Friday Five- Volume 6

This week's Friday Five is:

Five Things I Saw in Central Park Last Week:

Bethesda Fountain

There's always brides walking through the Park getting wedding photos taken.

This band usually plays here on Fridays- this week they added two dancers.

NYC has placed pianos in random spots and people just play them. This girl played Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"

It was a gorgeous day to be out on a rowboat.

PROMISES, PROMISES Cast Album Signing

This was a really fun event at Barnes & Noble! Check out the video at 1:32 in, you'll see me.

Lend Me A Tenor

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Take two actors known more for their TV roles (Tony Shalhoub of Monk and Anthony LaPaglia of Without a Trace) add an actor best known for being missing from most of the running of his smash hit movie (Justin Bartha of The Hangover- he played Doug, the missing groom), and throw in a Tony-nominated performance from Broadway vet Jan Maxwell, and you've got one of the funniest comedies to hit Broadway this year- Lend Me A Tenor.

Shalhoub plays Saunders, the General Manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company in 1934, in a perfectly tuned performance. Saunders has arranged for the great Italian tenor, Tito Merelli (LaPaglia), to appear in Othello as a fundraiser. I don't recall seeing LaPaglia in a comedy before and he is marvelous. He has a genius scene with Bartha, (who plays Max, Saunders' assistant and love interest to Maggie, Saunders' daughter) where he teaches Max how to warm up his vocal chords.

The scene is a physically comedic marvel, and both actors shine. At the matinee performance I attended, Bartha fell as he was supposed to, then as he tried to stand, he fell again, and he and LaPaglia tried to hide their laughter to no avail. The audience ate it up, as they did later in the play when Shalhoub and Bartha cracked each other up in a scene. Bartha is hilarious in this, his first Broadway show. He has a promising stage career ahead of him.

LaPaglia and Maxwell, as his volatile Italian wife Maria, are a comedy dream team. They scream at each other and it is gold. Maxwell also has a scene where she grabs a long pillow over her head and she falls backwards. At the Q&A session at Barnes & Noble, Maxwell described how she improvised that bit in rehearsal and it worked so well it, it became a high point in the show. The show could have used more of Maxwell, she is brilliant and lights up the stage when she is on it.

As a farce, timing is everything, and the actors have impeccable timing. Doors slam, people enter and exit, and it is a whirlwind of activity, all in service of the comedy. At Barnes & Noble, the cast tried to explain how it all worked, but honestly, watching farce is much more interesting than listening to people talk about farce.

I wasn't sure I would like the show, and other than the first act being a bit too long, which the actors acknowledged in the Q&A, it was a perfect comedy. Mary Catherine Garrison, who plays Mary, seems to have a lock on 1930's ingenues (she played one last season in Accent on Youth), Jay Klaitz makes the most of his scenes as the "boisterous bellhop", Jennifer Laura Thompson is a tough cookie as the diva, and it's so good to see Shalhoub's real wife, the fabulous Brooke Adams, back on stage. She shines in her few scenes as the Chairman of the Opera Board.

Lend Me A Tenor ends on August 15th. If you like a good laugh (actually, lots of good belly laughs), you'll love this show. The second act in particular is as good a comedy as I have seen in a long time.

BAD MARIE is too good to put down

Some books grab you right away and others slowly seduce the reader. Marcy Dermansky's novel, Bad Marie, gets you from the first sentence, "Sometimes, Marie got a little drunk at work".

Marie is a nanny to her childhood friend Ellen's two-year-old daughter Caitlin. Ellen is a high-powered, hard-charging career woman, and Marie had recently been released after six years in prison for aiding her boyfriend who robbed a bank.

Marie loves Caitlin, but when she falls asleep in the bathtub with Caitlin and Ellen and her husband come home, Marie is fired. But not before she seduces the husband, the author of a book that Marie compulsively read in prison. The book, about a suicidal teenage girl who falls in love with a sick sea lion, was a lifeline for Marie, who identified with the girl.

Dermansky has created a unique character in Marie; she is all id, with no thought to the consequences of her actions. She never thinks beyond the immediate. It's almost child-like, like Caitlin. I wanted to dislike Marie, and should have, but I found it impossible.

I couldn't believe the situations that Marie found herself in, dragging the young Caitlin in tow. This is a book that you will find yourself whipping through to find out what could possibly happen next, yet it is not a plot driven book. It is all about Marie, who is she and how she came to be that way.

Water plays a large role in the book; Marie likes to takes baths, but it seems she can never truly cleanse herself. The character in her favorite novel kills herself by walking into the sea.

Men fare poorly in this novel. Marie's bank robber boyfriend kills himself in prison; the seduced husband is a weak man, and a fraud. Even the hero movie star turns out to be a cad.

Bad Marie is a quick read; the author wastes no words, they are all deliberately chosen to excellent effect. She has said that she was heavily influenced by French films, and the reader can see that influence in this stunning novel. Marie is a role that actresses would kill to play.

Rating 4.5 of 5

Thanks to Harper Perennial for providing an ARC of this book.

Broadway's next fall

The cast of next fall

I finally got the chance to see next fall, nominated for Best Play at this year's Tony Awards. Written by Geoffrey Nauffts, the play so impressed Elton John that he and his partner/husband David Furnish produced the show.

The play was wonderful, so poignant and funny, it is a shame it has closed. The ensemble of actors, Patrick Breen, Maddie Corman, Sean Dugan, Patrick Heusinger, Connie Ray and Cotter Smith, have been deservedly acclaimed for their performances. It reminded me of last season's The Norman Conquests in that way; the relationship between the actors was real and in the moment.

Breen merits special recognition for his portrayal of Adam, who is a 40-something sad sack of a guy. He works in a candle store owned by his friend, Holly, and just can't seem to get his life together. He can hardly believe his luck when 20-something cater waiter/actor Luke becomes his live-in boyfriend.

Luke (Heusinger) is a fundamental Christian who struggles with homosexuality; he often prays after sex and that freaks Adam out.   He hides who he is from his bigoted/racist father for fear that he will not be able to see his younger brother if his family knows he is gay. He tells Adam that he will come out to his family "next fall", when his brother is in college. But next fall never seems to come.

Smith is remarkable as Luke's bigoted, good ol' Southern boy father. He manages to make the father somewhat likeable, and when he uses a vile racial epithet in one scene, the audience audibly gasped.

Luke is involved in a bad car accident and is in a coma. Luke's father, and his mother, Arlene (the amazing Connie Ray) fly to New York, unaware that Adam and Luke have been living together for four years. Much of the action takes place in a hospital waiting room, and anyone who has been there will recognize the powerful dynamics among the loved ones there.

I really enjoyed the flashbacks to Adam and Luke's relationship. Watching it you realize that love and relationships are basically the same, no matter who is in them. People want to be loved and supported by the one who loves them.

 There are so many big things in this play- the meaning of family, love, friendship, loyalty, the role of religion- I found myself thinking about it long after the play ended. The ending is so sad, I sobbed all the way back to the subway.