Take Back the Easter Parade!

Come one, come all, and join the festivities on Fifth.  Avenue, that is, come Sunday, as the Milliners Guild unites en masse, to reclaim the fashionable airs of Easter Sunday outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Renowned as a promenade for the elite for decades, the Easter Parade has had it's ups and downs. Modern counterparts of  Gilded Age strollers are sometimes a bit  more fluorescent and flamboyant than the chic ladies of yesteryear.  Parade atmosphere has somewhat replaced the ego flaunting of the rich, sporting their Paris fashions and extraordinary chapeaux.

No longer will the Eater Parade remain the tag end of a faded ritual..........this year, both the Milliners Guild of New York and their friends.......AND the Dreamland Orchestra, playing music of the 1920's, will be adding a chic element back into the melee.

Come wearing your best hat, your dapperiest don on your arm, and let us reclaim the fashion of the Avenue, at the Easter Parade.

The Milliners Guild will be found, proudly wearing their banners, near 50th and 5th , from 10 a.m. onward.

Michael Arenella and the Dreamland Orchestra will be somewhere in the vicinity of 54th and 5th, from 12:30-3.

P.S. I'll be wearing a pink hat, in case you're looking.  Come up and introduce yourself!

Get Thee to the Theatre!

Especially, for laughs, both sophomoric, and real, go see "The Toxic Avenger".

Opening April 6th at the New World Stages, at 340 W. 50th Street, this is a comic book-inspired romp through the nonsensical world of the Tromaville hero.  Dipped into a vat of unxious goo, the nerd Melvin Ferd the Third becomes (trumpet fare please) Toxie, the walking vison of New  Jersey waste products.  

The theatre affords an intimate, well planned staging of the hilarious adventures of Toxie and his blind blonde bombshell girlfriend, the odious Mayor, her sidekicks, and Melvin's Mother.  And how do they do it?  How do they (5 actors and a rock band) perform an entire fantasy film/action/superhero sketch? They do it brilliantly:  the sidekicks take on the parts of every known gangsta, ruffian, back-up singers,  and all auxillary roles possible.  The Mayor is playing both herself, and wotta self!, and the Mother, and in one scene has to beat herself up, without missing a beat.  The beat, by the way, is provided by Bon Jovi's own David Bryan, who wrote the songbook and the music.  

I was amazed at the compact possibilities, and the genius execution of it all.  

Bravi, the cast, bravi the producers, and hooray, for this laugh-a-minute escape from our yucky economic woes!

We thank you, and we aim to tell everyone to go see this show!