W42ST Issue 30 - we're all about Pride

w42st ISSUE 30 JUNE 2017 FREE

INSIDE

PAIGE TURNER'S HELL'S KITCHEN; TYLER MOUNT'S BROADWAY; JOSEPHINE BAKER'S BIG SECRET; THE ART OF DRAG; BRIAN SILVA'S STATUS UPDATE; SHARI DREWETT'S PERFECT DAY; PLUS food, wine, reviews, travel ... and dogs!

What have you done today to make you feel proud? As we celebrate the LGBTQ community this month, we also consider the different ways in which we can show our pride. Monet X Change (p18) takes great pride in her craft, and shows it by mentoring up-and-coming drag queens. Shane Tate (p10) is proud of how far he’s come – from homeless teen to hedge fund owner giving back to the community. Mo and Justin (p20) couldn’t be more proud of their son, born through surrogacy. Asher Gelman must be immensely proud that he’s turned one of the most painful experiences of his life into a play. And Shari Drewett – girl, be proud of that incredible business you have built. Me? I’m proud of the contributors who opened up and told their stories this month. I hope they mean as much to you as they did me.

Ruth Walker Editor, W42ST bit.ly/hellohellskitchen

THE TEAM THAT BROUGHT YOU W42ST

PUBLISHER PHIL O’BRIEN

EDITOR RUTH WALKER

(646) 535-4407

(646) 847-9645

FOUNDING EDITOR SIMON KIRRANE

SENIOR ART EDITOR LEE CAPLE

phil@w42st.com

ruth@w42st.com

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR SANDRA MANGAN

sandra@w42st.com

ISAAC HALPERN JEREMY KAPLAN MATT D’SILVA PETUR WORKMAN

10 PEOPLE 6 MY HELL’S KITCHEN

Neighborhood drag queen and allround delight Paige Turner takes us on a tour of her fave spots.

8 FANGIRL

Tyler Mount’s latest Broadway obsessions in his exclusive column for W42ST.

48 GALLERY

PRESTON BURFORD SAMINA KALLOO CHRISTIAN MILES GREG SALVATORI EDUARDO PATINO

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher ©2016. Please note: Every effort has been made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions in this publication. However, if you spot one please accept our sincere apologies.

14 HAPPY EVER AFTER? We’ve got equal marriage, but the fight for LGBTQ rights continues.

17 ABOUT THE FLAG

The history of the rainbow flag, its designer, and his legacy.

18 MAKING UP

The making of a drag queen, courtesy of the one, the only Monet X Change.

Our Instagram picks of the month.

Hashtag your photographs #W42ST to get involved.

20 GAY DADDIES

51 OUT AND ABOUT

22 WEST 40s

66 LAST WORD

OUT

Pics from our launch party last month ... and Jon Bon Jovi visits the neighborhood.

Happy birthday Mr Harvey Fierstein – this is our tribute to you.

lee@w42st.com CONTRIBUTORS

JACI STEPHEN DUSTIN COHEN TYLER MOUNT CIERA COYAN SARAH FUNK

CONTENTS June Edition

PRIDE 10 COMING OUT STORIES

Experiences that are as diverse as we are.

All about surrogacy, from one couple’s unique experience.

Inside the new show about gay men in their 40s, set and filmed in Hell’s Kitchen.

24 EVENTS

Our diary of happenings is the only guide you’ll need this month.

26 THEATER INSIDER

Real talk from an ensemble player in the multi-Tony-nominated Come From Away.

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29 REVIEWS

Our verdict on Anastasia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Little Foxes, and The Whirligig.

32 THREE’S A CROWD

The real-life three-way that led to the new play Afterglow.

EAT

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35 JOSEPHINE BAKER

Why the exotic dancer and activist was ahead of her time.

36 SWEET TALK

The natural alternatives to sugar that we should all be looking out for.

39 SMALL BEER

Ciera Coyan gets real on bisexuality, bars, and the Kinsey Scale.

41 WINE

Tasting in a restaurant? Is it necessary? And what are you REALLY tasting it for anyway?

42 STAFF SURVEY

A perfect day in the life of Better Being’s Shari Drewett.

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26 STYLE 52 AWAY WITH THE CANARIES

LIVING

Sarah Funk thought she knew Spain ... until she was blown away by the magical Canary Islands.

44 TAKE FIVE

Five beautifully designed apartments to rent or buy in Hell’s Kitchen.

46 PAINT ME A RAINBOW Colorful gifts for you, your friends, and your home.

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COVER ARTIST Tyler Wallach is an independent queer artist recognized for his boldly colored streetart characters on canvas, clothing, and metal necklaces.

Compassion for the LGBTQ community has led him to donate several large-scale paintings to charity, with 100% of proceeds going toward at-risk youth and antibullying efforts.

TylerWallach Studio.com

55 SISTERHOODS

Alternative cities in which to celebrate Pride this year.

57 JACI STEPHEN

Jaci’s proud – and with good reason.

60 THE GUIDE

The best of HK, from personal trainers to dog walkers, restaurants to cocktail bars, dry cleaners to show repairs. Contact phil@w42st.com to be included.

PETS 58 WAGGING TALES

Hell’s Kitchen’s most handsome pups are ready for their close-up.

Get involved by emailing waggingtales@w42st.com.

KTCHLST

Look out for the cool fold-out zine inside, with people, places, and a map – it’s your key to Hell’s Kitchen.

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MY HELL’S KITCHEN

Know someone cool who’d make a great subject for My Hell’s Kitchen? Put us in touch, we’ll do the rest. Email news@w42st.com

Diary of a

NATURAL BLONDE Paige Turner takes us on a tour of her favorite places Photograph Preston Burford What’s your Hell’s Kitchen story? What brought you here and – more importantly – keeps you here?

I moved to HK over 15 years ago after going to school at AMDA on the Upper West, which brought me to NYC at 18.

I was very lucky to get a rent-stabilized three-bedroom that was mine for many years on 49th Street, then eventually got into Manhattan Plaza. I always knew I wanted to be in midtown, where it was easier to pursue theater, go to auditions, etc. Now that I work in nightlife and cabaret, I’m so lucky to be able to walk to about 90% of my gigs. Plus, there’s still a thrill of all the Broadway marquees and being within arms’ reach of them.

What’s the best thing about living here?

It’s just so convenient.

And the worst?

The amount of people. As much as I love midtown, you unfortunately have the tourists, not just the neighborhood folk. It’s very noisy and a challenge to find quiet and calm in midtown. It’s the double-edged sword where I’m looking to escape and also can’t wait to get back when I’m away.

What does an average day in your life look like?

Most people don’t realize I work an eight to 10 hour day before putting on a show at night. You’ll find me in a HK cafe writing, memorizing, promoting, rehearsing, etc. I mix that with gym time, lots of shopping, and meditating.

OK, let’s talk about those go-to places in the neighborhood.

I’m really big on supporting local businesses/non-chains. I’m obsessed with this new place called Treehaus that just opened on W42nd St - 10th/11th

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Opposite: Paige, dressing down for Pride this year.

"I can walk around the neighborhood all day and no one has any idea who I am until it's showtime."

Ave – gourmet, high-end, gorgeous with a huge marketplace, a sit-in restaurant, and the most amazing buffet. I also still get my coffee ground at Empire Coffee, and Amy’s Bread is like Cheers for me – they’ve known me for years and I frequent there at least three or four times a week.

My favorite bar is Therapy – it really is a great place for entertainment and the food is above and beyond typical bar food.

Couture Du Jour on W44th St is this tiny little, below-street-level vintage store which you have to enter by appointment or luck out that they’re open. You’ll find really authentic vintage pieces with fair prices, and the owner is so knowledgable and passionate about what she sells.

I love that. Then, just across the street between 9th and 10th is Domus Unaffected Living, which is another gem – a gift shop that embraces the different and seeks out the unusual. The owners Luisa and Nicki are fab.

Who/what inspires you?

I get inspired by the energy of the city.

Laughter inspires me. Community inspires me. During this past year, with

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the election and the not-so-happy times thrown upon us, I realized I had a role that I needed to play and that was to entertain and make light of things.

People needed to laugh, cry etc. I’m grateful that I get to connect with so many people – it definitely keeps me going and inspires me to do more/ create more. As far as people that have had an impact on me, it’s larger-thanlife personalities or true old-school entertainers, those who always played the role when they put on the costume and make up: Pee Wee Herman and Phyllis Diller are huge for me and, of course, Joan Rivers.

Where’s your Hell’s Kitchen happy place?

Besides the Little Pie Company? Actually, it’s the Clinton Community Garden on W48th St. You need to have a key to enter. It’s special, semi-private, there are bugs and birds and nature and even … stillness. It has definitely become my happy place. I’m usually sitting there writing in my journal drinking an iced coffee from Amy’s Bread.

Do you have a neighborhood secret?

Ha! I think I gave that away with the garden, but I’ll tell you a secret about me.

I can walk around the neighborhood all day and no one has any idea who I am until it’s showtime and I’m all decked out.

It’s a fun Bozo meets Clark Kent kind of feeling. I guess that’s my escape from show business How will you be celebrating PRIDE this year?

Gay Christmas! It’s my busiest time of year. I do a lot of corporate gigs and parties, but the biggest thing I have is Paige Turner’s Big Gay Pride Show, an all live-written show in its fifth year. Get your tickets and get ready to ride on a rainbow!

MY HELL’S KITCHEN BIO

The “ultimate drag Barbie,” Paige Turner is star of the long-running show Slurp, now in its fifth year at Therapy. She is also host, co-creator, and producer of the annual So You Think You Can Drag at New World Stages. Her Pride show is at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on June 22 and 23. paigeturnernyc.com spincyclenyc.com PAIGE’S HK Treehaus, W42nd St - 10th/11th

Ave Empire Coffee & Tea, 9th Ave -

41st/42nd St Amy’s Bread, 9th Ave 46th/47th St Therapy, W52nd St - 8th/9th Ave Couture du Jour, W44th St 8th/9th Ave Domus, W44th St - 9th/10th Ave Little Pie Company, W43rd St 9th/10th Ave

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PEOPLE BROADWAY ACTOR

GAVIN CREEL

Not only is he insanely cute, he is insanely talented. Broadway veteran Gavin Creel makes me swoon in the hottest show of the season, Hello Dolly!

BROADWAY ACTRESS EVA NOBLEZADA (Miss Saigon)

#FANGIRL The life and obsessions of Tyler Mount

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very month, Broadway’s most brilliant vlogger brings you his favorite things, whether it’s his #1 tune on Spotify repeat, his latest crush, or neighborhood recommends. We’re hanging on his every word …

Call 911. So much talent should be illegal

TYLER IMAGE: NACHO GUEVARA

BROADWAY SHOW

MISS SAIGON

MUSIC OBSESSION “DON’T KILL MY VIBE” by SIGRID

Nothing makes me feel like that badass king of New York that I am than prancing down 9th Avenue to this song. If you want to remember how incredible you are, this is the song for you.

INSTAGRAM OBSESSION @THESIMONDUNN

Rugby.

Muscle.

Shirtless photos. Need I say more?

YOUTUBE VIDEO

COLLABRO BROADWAY MASHUP

Before I went to see this show, all I knew about it was the fact there was a helicopter. Ya’ll, I nearly died. This is the production of productions. I audibly screamed, grasped my neighbor, and sobbed. Don’t miss it. Trust me.

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Eva’s voice should be made illegal.

Seriously. Someone call 911 and tell them about this issue, because they’ve started to block my calls.

Broadway

ACTRESS

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If you know me, you know that I’m not afraid of a shameless plug. So it makes sense that my favorite YouTube video this month is one of my own featuring Britain’s Got Talent winners Collabro in an incredible Top 40/Broadway mashup

PEOPLE you definitely don’t want to miss.

Seriously. I’m not biased at all. bit.ly/tylermash-up

TELEVISION SHOW 13 REASONS WHY

This show is super controversial, but super addictive. Just like meth, I took a hit and now I can’t be stopped. Except at the end of the series, I’ll still have all my teeth.

e "Imagine Coyot Ugly, but with hot ngs gay men in jeggi s in pouring free shot your mouth."

MUST-HAVE BEAUTY/ WARDROBE OBSESSION BONOBO’S SWIM TRUNKS

It’s warm outside. My hair is getting blonder and I’m getting tanner by the second – which means it’s time for a new swim suit. I’m all about pattern, and as little fabric as possible.

LOCAL BAR FLAMING SADDLES

My new favorite party trick is to get intoxicated then scream “LET’S GO TO FLAMING SADDLES!” Imagine Coyote Ugly, but with hot gay men in jeggings pouring free shots in your mouth.

LOCAL RESTAURANT IRON BAR

This is one of my favorite pretheater spots.

The drinks are so affordable and food is so good that you will totally overlook that loud music and the tourists.

“The drinks are so affordable and food so good you’ll totally overlook the loud music and tourists.” #THROWBACKTHURSDAY MYSPACE

Remember the good old days? When I was concerned about who made my Top Friends list and not about how I was going to pay rent? Yeah. I sure do. Take me back there.

Above: LET’S GO TO FLAMING SADDLES!!

Hottie of the month

HOTTIE OF THE MONTH

LEX TRAVELLER

We’ve covered this once today, but we can review.

Rugby. Muscle.

Shirtless photos.

Need I say more?

OBSESSION GRAB BAG SPIKEDSELTZER

I love nothing more than a hot summer day in Central Park, admiring the frisbee boys, with a SpikedSeltzer in my hand. Although drinking in the park is technically illegal, it’s a risk I’m willing to take.

ABOUT TYLER Broadway fan girl turned YouTube Star, Tyler Mount, is the creator of the wildly popular web

series “Playbill’s The Tyler Mount Vlog”. Seen by over two million people in 168 countries, former guests include Gloria Estefan, Jerry Mitchell, Anthony Rapp, Todrick Hall, Perez Hilton, Laura Osnes, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, and many more of Broadway’s biggest stars. New episodes every Monday & Thursday at noon - Playbill.com/Tyler | @TylerGMount

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Hell’s Kitchen

IMAGE: EDUARDO PATINO

When some young kids come out to their families, they wind up homeless in New York City, sleeping rough on the streets or in the subway. Shane Tate was one of the lucky ones he year is 1985, the city: Jacksonville, Florida, where 15-year-old Shane Tate lives with his single mom.

“My parents were divorced and my mother was basically my savior,” he says now. “She’s the one I came out to.

She took me to my first gay bar. She

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didn’t let me drink but she said, ‘I want you to be around people that are like you. I want you to know that I accept you.’ She was the one person in the world that understood me.”

Just a few months later, at Christmastime, she was killed in a car accident. The tragedy left young

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Above: Shane, with the gorgeous Maddelynn Hatter.

Shane with two choices: “I could either go live with my father, who was physically and emotionally abusive, or I could run away to New York City.

Which is what I did.

“I took the Amtrak train – I had $120 in my pocket after I bought my ticket. I actually arrived in Newark, New Jersey,

PRIDE “I actually arrived in Newark, New Jersey, because when they said, ‘Newark’ I thought they said ‘New York.’

I got out and thought, ‘This can’t be it.’” because when they said, ‘Newark’ I thought they said ‘New York.’ I got out and thought, ‘This can’t be it.’ I ended up spending the last bit of money I had on a cab ride to New York City, and I slept on the subway.

“Hell’s Kitchen is the area that saved me.”

While walking the city looking for a job, he saw a sign in the window of a T-shirt shop between the Shubert and the Booth theaters. “I’m filling out the application – this is how naive I was – and said, ‘If I don’t actually have an address, what should I put down?’

“This guy said, ‘What do you mean?’

“I said, ‘I’m literally fresh off the train and I don’t have a place to stay. I’m staying on the subway.’

“He goes, ‘You know what, my roommate just bailed on me. How about this? I’m going to hire you on the spot, I’m going to give you a place to stay, I’ll take your rent out of your paycheck …’ and I’m like, done. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen any more.”

He’s not kidding!

He worked there for a couple of years, got involved in theater, made a living, and started teaching himself computers ... which is how he landed a job with Merrill Lynch. “I told them that I had a BA in computer science, and back then they didn’t check.”

Somehow he’d transformed himself from homeless teen to finance whiz.

Jobs followed at Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley … “Now I run a hedge fund, and I don’t even have a high school education!”

In between all that, he’s been a drag queen (“I was a very pretty drag queen”), he’s done porn (“I’m not really

proud of that time in my life – I’m proud of me because I made it through. The films are horrible, but you do what you have to do”) and – the thing he’s most passionate about– he’s thrown parties. These days Beers and Bears (upstairs at Ritz), the Fire Island Bear Weekend, and Truck Stop (new at ReBar) celebrate the bear* community he’s proud to call his family.

As well as go-go bears and drag queens and mystery shots, every event has a charity element – his most recent cause is Out My Closet. “What they do is take LGBT youth that have been kicked out of their homes – New York is full of those people, and it brings a tear to my eye to even talk about it, because I was one of those people – basically just because they finally have the courage to come out of the closet. What this charity does is find them somehow, clothe them, line up job interviews for them, and establish them in the community. It truly is an amazing charity.”

No regrets. No self pity.

“You look back at your life,” he says, “and, as complicated as it might have been, you wouldn’t change a thing. Because everything you’ve done in your life makes you who you are today.” facebook.com/Shane.Tate.NYC outmycloset.org *According to Wikipedia, in male gay culture, a bear is often a larger, hairier man who projects an image of rugged masculinity. So now you know, if you didn’t already.

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OUR SHARED history

Coming out stories: destiny, the kindness of strangers … and what about grandma?

hen I was five years old, I told my mother I was never getting married and I was moving to New York. Prophetic! Fast forward. I’m 19 years old, a sophomore in college. My best friend from school is visiting. My parents have gone to bed, and we’re sitting alone in the kitchen. At one point in our conversation, my friend says he has something to tell me. He then says, ‘I’m gay.’ No sooner are the words out of his mouth, than I say, ‘So am I.’ Until that moment, I did not know what I knew. Was it happy?

Was it painful? Was it sad? None of the above. It was relief! Finally, I knew why I was different. And why, at age five, I told my mother I was never getting married and I was moving to New York.”

W

Trevor Lewis

Continued over...

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PRIDE “I’m a 68-yearold gay male who came out in the summer of 1969 – in fact I was on my way to Stonewall the night it was raided.

It happened to also be the first night I was on my own and had never been in a gay bar before. New York that summer opened so many possibilities for me and it was surely the kindness of strangers that I met that summer that I knew being here was my destiny.”

Bill Larmer

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y the time 2002 came around, I was out to everyone but my mother.

In talking to friends, that seemed to be the trend among us young gay folk. You told your best girlfriend who was in love with you (you were bi first), then your other friends, leaving that lie you told about being bi in the dust.

Perhaps you’d then tell a sibling, then the dreaded … telling your parents. You see, my dad didn’t stick around, so it was just my brother, who is six years my senior, my loving but overbearing, very traditional mother, and me. When I came out to my brother a couple years prior his first words were, ‘Have fun telling Mom that one.’ And, ‘CAN I BE THERE?!”

“So here we were, June 2002. I’d been home for over a month as I’d graduated college and was making up every story in the book about where I was going at night. You don’t know how many times I killed some fictional friend’s fictional grandma so I could go dance my young gay life away at Splash and Spectrum (RIP).

“Pride weekend came along and I wanted to go to the march, but I felt I’d run out of excuses and dead people. All day that Saturday I was on edge and kept asking if we could talk. Somehow she kept dismissing me. After an avalanche of

B

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tasks that put me on the back burner, I said, ‘I really need to talk to you,’ scared as can be standing in our kitchen.

“My mother replied she was on her way out and when she got back I could tell her what ever it was. As she closed the back door I blurted out, ‘MOM, I’M GAY!’ “Silence … the keys jingled … the back door opened. “‘What?’ she replied, as if it was easier to say a second time. ‘Mom, I’m gay…’

The door closed again, then opened, and she came back in and sat down. “‘What?’ she asked one more time. As I look back, I think she was buying time to figure out how to respond. She went on to ask all the questions a single, traditional mother would ask at the time, about my dad not being around, etc, but in the end she said, ‘I love you, it’s gonna be OK.’ “It took some adjusting because I certainly threw her in the deep end of the pool of glitter, and Gay and Proud tanks, but I couldn’t have asked for a better mother. Now she begs me to take her to the gay bar and to see her favorite drag queens.”

Michael Munoz

PRIDE ears ago, my grandmother promised me my great grandmother’s ring when I was ready to get married. At the time, I was dating a woman and while I didn’t plan on getting married anytime soon, I appreciated the gift and could envision giving it to someone one day.

“This past Christmas, she sat me down once everyone else had left and told me she had something to ask me. She wanted to give the ring to another member of the family because he was getting married sooner that me. In its place, she wanted to give me hers.

“I broke down in front of her, and she was worried that I was upset by her giving this ring away. But I was crying because she imagined I would propose to a woman with that ring.

“Possessions like this hold a lot of weight in the South. I think it’s because nice things were rare for a very long time — a lot of people don’t have much. So deciding who gets what when you pass away holds a great deal of symbolism. I haven’t told my grandmother I’m gay because I don’t want her to worry about me, my soul. (That might not sound serious, but don’t underestimate the worrying capacity of the Southern matriarch.) I go back and forth about it a lot, but it just seems best.

“We praise people for coming out. We Above: Lucas at encourage them to do it. And in certain his first Pride, and bubbles it’s difficult to imagine that it’s still below, the summer really hard for some people – even me, as he came out to his a gay white man. It’s hard because we have mom. to weigh costs that straight people don’t.

And we have to acknowledge that the future could look very, very different than just maintaining the status quo.

“So what’s better: being ‘my honest and most authentic self,’ or withholding my orientation because, after weighing the costs, I truly think it could crush my grandmother?

“During Pride, we celebrate who we are and we celebrate our history. I urge you to acknowledge that Pride is bittersweet for a lot of us. Who knows how many of us have a ring story.”

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t’s the summer of 1977.

Luis, my hairdresser, invites me to his condo for a cocktail party. I’m nervous.

I enter the living room and instantly notice a childhood friend and neighbor. I’m pulled toward a guy with light skin and an afro. His name is Manny – there’s something calming about him. He asks if I’ll ride back to Sacramento with him to pick up an overnight bag as he’s staying the weekend at the condo. He’s a free sprit.

Without any hesitation, I get into the car that resembles a green bug. He sings, I smile, time slips away.

“Back at the condo he asks me if I’ll stay. I reply no, I have to go home. He’s disappointed and asks me if he can kiss me. I say yes, and feel weak under the starlit charcoal grey sky. I ask if I can kiss him back.

You see, I’ve found my missing piece.

“At the hospital, l watch my father take his last breath. My mother pulls me aside: ‘Daddy and I are so disappointed you’re that way.’

“I heard Luis died of AIDS. I would in time break Manny’s heart because I wanted to see the world.”

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Ron Megaton

Lucas Womack

This feature was compiled with the help of The Generations Project, a not-for-profit group that curates workshops and storytelling events to encourage the sharing and preservation of the history of transnational, intergenerational LGBTQ culture. thegenerationsproject.info

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PEOPLE

Status

UPDATE The right to marriage has been all but won, but the quest for equality continues

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ixty-five years ago, the brilliant mathematician and World War Two code breaker Alan Turing was prosecuted in the UK for “homosexual acts.” His inhuman punishment? Chemical castration.

So, in the context of how far we’ve come, to have now won the right to marry the person we love, regardless of their gender or identity; to have families together and equal rights in employment and housing and healthcare – these are victories truly worth celebrating. We have reason to be proud this June.

LGBTQ rights timeline 14

But are we living happily ever after?

“The real challenge now,” says Brian Silva, “is the same challenge every civil rights movement has had – that the opposition oftentimes doesn’t come at you head on. And this is what we’re seeing: it’s chipping away at the sides. So, yes, you can get married, but a business that serves the public can choose not to serve you. Or a county clerk doesn’t have to issue you with a marriage license.”

So while the law has changed, says Brian, the executive director of Marriage Equality USA, the fight is not won.

April 1952: Homosexuality is listed as a sociopathic personality disturbance by the American Psychiatric Association.

April 1953: President Eisenhower signs an executive order banning homosexuals from working for the

Above: County clerks can still refuse to issue a marriage license based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

government, claiming they’re a security risk (finally repealed in 1998).

As Marriage Equality USA winds down, his energies are being channeled into the National Equality Action Team (NEAT), equipping and activating volunteers across the country to challenge the very real threats facing all of us who want to see everyone treated equally.

“There is an astronomical number of LGBTQ youth who are homeless every night, not just in New York City; children are being sent to camps by their parents for so-called ‘conversion therapy’ – electric shocks and for all intents and purposes torture; parents have difficulty

sparking protests and demonstrations.

July 1961: Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first state to decriminalize homosexuality.

June 1970: The community marches through the streets, from Christopher Street to Central Park – the first ever Pride parade.

June 1969: Police raid the Stonewall Inn,

December 1973: The American Psychiatric

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Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

January 1978: Harvey Milk is inaugurated as San Francisco city supervisor, the first openly gay man to be elected to political office in California.

being able to adopt.” But the violence and discrimination against the transgender community – especially transgender people of color and transgender women – is ringing the biggest, loudest alarm bell of all.

“Every year more people are being murdered for who they are,” he says. “We had a rally in Harlem a few weeks ago to bring attention to a transgender person who was murdered here in New York City.”

And in April a transgender woman was killed in the street in Chelsea.

“So no place is immune,” says Brian.

“And when we talk about nondiscrimination, we have huge support for banning discrimination in employment, in housing, even in public accommodation, if you are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. But when we start talking about protecting transgender people, particularly in public accommodation, when you include things like bathrooms and locker rooms, we hear the same old arguments that our opponents used to raise against gay men being teachers: ‘What are they going to do to the kids?’ Or against same sex people getting married: ‘How’s it going to affect the children?’

“Well, you know what transgender people are going to do in the bathroom?

They’re going to go to the bathroom.

And you know what they’re going to do when they go into a locker room or a changing room? They’re going to change.

And you know what’s going to happen to somebody who goes there and breaks the law, whether they’re straight or anything else? They’re going to be prosecuted.”

Because, he says, it’s the action that’s a crime, not the person.

“That’s what we’re really fighting against,” he says. “Elevating the voice of trans people, making sure that, in the same way now almost no one can say

“You can be pro life, you can be pro second amendment, and still stand in solidarity. And by talking, we’ll both understand each other better.” they don’t know a gay or lesbian person, we get to the point where people say, ‘I have a transgender friend, or family member, or co-worker.’ Because it’s very easy to hate and discriminate against a nameless, faceless person. It’s much harder when their name is Jane and they work next to you, or it’s Bob and he’s married to your cousin.”

And to those of us fighting our own corners, he says this: “Whatever your cause, it’s all interconnected. The same reason people want to deny the right to vote is the same reason people want

November 1978: Harvey Milk is murdered.

civil unions between same-sex couples.

December 1988: The first World AIDS Day. UNAIDS reports that 22 million people have died of AIDS-related causes since the epidemic began.

June 2003: The homosexual conduct law is struck down by the US Supreme Court, decriminalizing same-sex sexual conduct.

April 2000: Vermont is the first state to legalize

May 2004: Marcia Kadish, 56, and Tanya

McCloskey, 52, tie the knot at Cambridge City Hall, Massachusetts, becoming the first legally married same-sex partners in the US. June 2015: The Supreme Court rules that states cannot ban same-sex marriage.

DIGITAL EDITION

Above: Brian Silva – staying engaged and showing up.

to deny transgender people the right to employment, the same reason they want to deny immigrants equal opportunity.

It’s about holding on to power. So if we can all recognize that, and recognize that we need to be fighting as a collective, progressive force …

“It doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything. You can be pro-life, you can be pro-second amendment, and still stand in solidarity. And by talking, we’ll both understand each other better.”

Then what? What can we do to make our voices heard and make a difference?

“Show up,” he says. “And everybody’s going to show up differently. Our program is primarily focused on doing phone banking. What else can you do? You can give money. You can show up at a rally.

You can write a letter to your congress member, which is much better than signing an online nameless petition.

“And talk to your friends and family members. We need to come out of all our closets.

“People I speak to in the reproductive rights movement have often said to me that if every woman who is or has ever been on birth control stood up and said that out loud, we would change the whole conversation. Because it’s 96 per cent.

“If everyone stood up and said, ‘I am an undocumented immigrant’ or ‘someone in my family was an undocumented immigrant,’ we would change the narrative. So talk to people about your own identity, and the people you care about.

“And stop living in our echo chambers and bubbles. I watch Fox News, I have friends who voted for Donald Trump.

I disagree vigorously with them, but I stay engaged, because it’s a marathon and not a sprint.” theneat.org

March 2016: North Carolina passes HB2, known as the “bathroom bill,” banning people from using public restrooms that don’t correspond to their sex as listed on their birth certificate.

March 2017: HB2 is repealed, but campaigners argue

the compromise is still discriminatory.

March 2017: The Census Bureau decides there is “no need” to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity in the 2020 census despite advocacy groups campaigns.

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IMAGE: GREG SALVATORI

PRIDE

PRIDE THE LEGACY

What a difference a

Gilbert Baker died suddenly in March, but he left behind a global symbol of unity, strength, and love

THE MAN

“Every time an LGBT person sees Gilbert’s rainbow flag –anywhere in the whole world, anywhere on Earth – they know they aren’t the only one, that they are not alone. Gilbert’s flag is an instantly recognizable symbol that says to every LGBTQ or their ally, ‘Please, come in. You are absolutely welcome here.’ Think about that. What a powerful, honorable, simply incomparable legacy.

“He recognized that every one of us is represented by one of those gorgeous colors that makes up the even more gorgeous rainbow. Our individual talents shine on their own, but Gilbert believed in ‘the collective’ and the greater good and that together we are a major force to be reckoned with.”

Ken Kidd

IMAGE: COURTESY OF KEN KIDD

Forty years ago, the dominant symbol for the LGBTQ community was still the pink triangle, a reclaimed icon of hate and persecution that had been used by the Nazis against gay men during the Second World War. “It came from such a horrible place of murder and holocaust and Hitler,” said Gilbert Baker later. “We needed something beautiful, something from us.”

An artist and activist, Gilbert had a vision of something else, a symbol to reflect pride not shame. He designed and made the first ever rainbow flag by stitching together hand-dyed strips of fabric, which flew over San Francisco’s City Hall on Gay Freedom Day in 1978. From then, he knew he’d found his life’s work.

It’s impossible to know how many flags he made in his lifetime. But one of the biggest was a mile-long, carried by 5,000 people up First Avenue for the 25th anniversary of Stonewall in 1994.

He was busy preparing for Stonewall 50 – in two years’ time – when he suffered a fatal heart attack in his New York apartment on March 31. He was 65. He’d always refused to patent his design – he considered the flag his gift to the world.

THE COLORS

The first flags had eight colors: pink representing sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic and art, blue for serenity and harmony, and violet for spirit. But when demand soared and pink fabric proved too expensive, it was

“Gilbert was a great friend, an amazing artist, and a terrific activist. It’s hard to even imagine that the iconic rainbow flag is a fairly recent creation by one man, but the fundamental brilliance of that idea has swept the world. In every country, Gilbert’s flag is the eternal emblem for freedom and hope for LGBTQ people, and it inspires the fight globally.

“Just days ago, activists in St Petersburg, Russia, protesting the arrest, torture, and murder of gay men by Chechnyan authorities were dragged off to jail for waving the rainbow flag.

“Gilbert was a completely sweet and humble guy, whose flash of inspiration created a transcendent symbol for the ages.”

Ann Northrop Activist, journalist

Queer Nation “Gilbert was a mentor to me. I could always rely on him to give me an honest answer. He was generous and gracious. I miss him immensely.”

Catherine Marino-Thomas Activist

PARTING WORDS removed from the palette, and turquoise and blue became a single blue.

Recently Gilbert had created 39 nine-color versions — using the original eight colors, and adding lavender to represent diversity — to mark the flag’s 39th anniversary.

DIGITAL EDITION

Above: Gilbert at last year’s NYC Pride.

“Together we are changing our world – our planet – from a place of hate and violence and war, to a place of love and diversity and acceptance. And that is why we’re here. THAT is the big, long rainbow, from ‘before me’ to ‘well after me.’”

A memorial march will be held on the evening of June 14 (Flag Day), which was Gilbert’s favorite holiday, at Stonewall.

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DIGITAL EDITION

PEOPLE

Making

Masterclass in the art of drag Photographs Christian Miles

I

always wanted one of those punny drag names … like Chandelier Period or Kitty Litter … something like that.”

That’s Kevin Bertin (“the whitest name that ever was a white name”).

The year is 2012, and he’s out with a friend at some BBQ place on 42nd Street, looking for inspiration. His drag career is in its infancy, and he still needs a strong identity.

“We saw a currency exchange booth across the street and I was like, ‘Oo, currency exchange, there’s something there.’”

Currencia …? (“I’m not Spanish, but whatever.”) Money …? “And then I just got Monet. Monet X Change. People still come up to me, three years later, and they’ve just clicked. They go like, ‘Ooooh, you mean the MONEY exchange.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God! YES!’” Up until that point he’d been a jobbing opera singer. He’d finished a gig for the summer, come back to New York, and needed to make some cash fast.

“A friend told me about this amateur drag night where you could win a hundred bucks and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s perfect, because my AT&T cellphone bill is $96.47.’

“I’d never done make-up before. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I was wearing this shitty wig I got from Ricky’s for about ten bucks, and I went and did it.”

If Disney did drag, he’d have won against all odds and the rest would be history. But it doesn’t, and he didn’t. He still had a blast doing it though, so kept it up, just kind of learning as he went along.

By February the following year, he had his own show at Phoenix in the East Village.

“I still had no idea what I was doing. I could barely walk in heels – I was literally

“When you first go out, you think, ‘No one can tell I’m a man. I am a woman.’

Meanwhile you look like Wesley Snipes in To Wong Foo.” like Bambi. But I kept working and performing, and now I work six nights a week.” Most of those nights this girl is working her ass off in Hell’s Kitchen.

“Hell’s Kitchen is looked at as the pinnacle. It’s like ‘I want to be a Hell’s Kitchen queen.’ But the New York audience is not very forgiving. We have so much art around us that I think sometimes it’s hard to appreciate. I perform in Chicago a lot and if I just walk on stage and tell a joke and fart they’re like, ‘OH MY GOD! YOU’RE SO AMAZING!’ if I’m in New York I could set myself on fire and you guys are like … *slow hand clap* “We have to work very very hard to make the audience excited.”

The make-up, the wigs, the dresses, the performance – it’s all been a case of trial, error, and hard graft. “You cannot take a class in how to do drag. You just do it and do it and either you sink or swim.”

Two years into his career, Bob the Drag Queen (remember? Season 8 winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race? Keep up!) took Kevin under his wing, taught him how to sew, how to “captivate an audience and make them fall in love with you. He’s not my

DIGITAL EDITION

Left: From Kevin to Monet in nine simple steps.

drag mother but he taught me a lot.” And now it’s payback time. “I’m mentoring a couple of girls. I give them opportunities at my shows, because that’s how I got my start – people let me perform for just drinks tickets or tips.”

They’ve got to be serious though.

“You can look at upcoming queens and tell who is going to be doing it in a couple of years and who is just doing it to pass the time. Not to sound shady or rude, but I’m not going to invest my time in you if I know this is just a little thing you’re going to do for the next couple of months. This is my career. This is how I pay my rent.

“But I do think it’s important when you see queens who are up and coming to mentor them and give them advice.

‘You know, girl, you should try doing the eyelash a little more this way so you don’t look like Snoopy,’ know what I mean?”

Oh yeah .. the dark art of drag make-up.

“When you first go out, you think, ‘No one can tell I’m a man. I AM a woman.’

Meanwhile you look like Wesley Snipes in To Wong Foo. ‘Girl, your beard is showing!’”

But for all that onstage shade, she’s just not one of the mean girls. “I was born in New York but when I was a year old I moved to the Caribbean and lived there till I was 11. So that’s kind of where I get a lot of my base from. I’ve just always been a kind person.

“People say shady shit about a lot of queens and you hear the stories, so sometimes I play that off on stage, but after the show I’m always like, ‘Girl, you know I’m just kidding, right?’”

There’s more Monet in the KTCHLST pullout (monetxchange.com)

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PRIDE

Making Brady The baby businesses is a complex and expensive one – but ask Mo and Justin and they’ll tell you it was worth everything Photograph Phil O’Brien

L

ittle Brady Huff has two daddies.

When he’s old enough, and if he asks, they’ll tell him his story. It might go something like this …

“I knew I always wanted children,” Justin Huff, a Broadway casting director, might say. “And when I first met Mo (an actor and co-creator of The Ensemblist podcast), I think he was a little unsure.”

Then they might tell him that, on their honeymoon, they started talking about their future together, what the next big step might be. Buy a house? Or have kids? House? Kids?

They may not get into the financial nitty gritty (“we figured you can get a loan for a house, but you can’t get a loan for a kid, so if we’re going to save money to do something, we should save for a child”) or the questions over adoption or surrogacy (“I always wanted to pursue surrogacy,” says Justin, “Mo was kind of open to either, maybe leaning more towards adoption”).

But one thing Brady will know: he was desperately wanted – planned and saved for and dreamed of for four long years – and is deeply loved “We started with a group called Men Having Babies, here in NY,” says Justin. “They are specifically for gay men who want to have children through surrogacy and were a great resource.

We started going to their monthly meetings and a yearly expo, where we were introduced to various clinics and surrogacy agencies.”

Mo adds: “We went in 2012 not really knowing anything and we walked

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DIGITAL EDITION

PRIDE “We were overwhelmed. The one thing we did know was that we needed to start saving money.”

out overwhelmed. The one thing we did know was that we needed to start saving money.”

They spent two years saving hard (their final bill for Brady just tipped the $100,000 mark), then went back to the expo ready to enter the baby business.

“There are two parts,” explains Justin, “the agency that helps you find the surrogate and does the legal stuff, and the clinic who usually helps you find the egg donor and does the medical part.”

“You fill out a questionnaire that is all about you,” says Mo, “individually, together, why we want to have children, our kind of life, pictures – that’s what they then share with potential surrogates. And the surrogates do the same thing.”

It’s basically match.com for wombs.

“We wanted someone who was OK about carrying for a same sex couple,” says Justin, “and someone who was OK about carrying twins, because at the time we were thinking about having twins.”

From there, things moved fast. They found a clinic they liked in Las Vegas (their agency was in Minnesota). The first surrogate’s profile they saw was in January 2015. They liked Sharia, met her, and agreed to work together.

The IVF transfer – using sperm from both Mo and Justin, plus a donor egg – happened in the May. “We both donated,” says Mo. “We know who the biological father is, but we don’t say. We just wanted to be sure we had some viable embryos.”

It was successful first time and – boom! – just a year after receiving the email about their surrogate, they were in hospital in Las Vegas waiting for Brady to arrive.

“The surrogate was unbelievable.

From the beginning she said, ‘I’ll tell you as much as you want to know or as little. This is your baby.’ So we had texts from her on a daily basis, or every other day. And once she started showing she would send a weekly belly picture.”

Both fathers were present for the birth, as was the surrogate’s husband and friend – her own support network.

“When Brady was born, he was cleaned off then immediately came to us. She wanted that and we wanted that,” says Justin.

“It was so crazy – you instantly feel like there’s nothing you can’t do. You would throw yourself off a building. You could lift a car. It was unbelievable.

DIGITAL EDITION

“We stayed two nights in the hospital with him – that was their policy with a surrogate pregnancy – and that first night he lay in his bassinet next to the bed and I lay there and didn’t sleep at all. I literally watched him all night, to check his chest was rising and falling and he was still breathing.”

Now he’s a 15-month-old walking, chattering, climbing ball of energy.

“I’m more tired now than I was at the beginning. He’s active and has opinions and things. But it’s the best thing ever.

We lucked out. He’s pretty frigging adorable.”

“He’s been a pretty easy baby,” agrees Mo. “He’s been a chill dude from day one.”

They stay in touch with the surrogate. “We text her at least once a week about something – about us or him or her kids or the family or something. So we’re very much in contact. And we were out there in April.”

Carrying Brady was her first time (she has three older children of her own), but when she decided she was ready to go again, she gave Mo and Justin first refusal.

“She said she was ready to do it again and we said, ‘Oh, OK, we’re not.’

So she asked if another couple could use her services and we said yes.”

They’re not out of the sibling race yet though.

“I think I would like to have one more,” say Justin.

“I’m more interested in him having a sibling than me having another baby,” adds Mo. Like most things, though, particularly in this city, the final decision really just comes down to money. “What kind of life can we give two children versus the life we can give him? Because everything is split in half – two pairs of shoes, two backpacks, two college educations, everything is two. For me, that’s the biggest thing. I want to give our children or our child the best life possible, and if that means we have only one then so be it. If we can do it with two, I would love two.”

And when Brady starts asking questions?

“It depends on how he asks or what he asks,” says Justin. “But it’ll be something like, ‘Some kids have a mom and a dad, some kids have two moms, and you have two dads. And Sharia helped us have you.’”

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PRIDE

The art of

BOYS

They say ‘write what you know.’ So Mark Sam Rosenthal and Brian Sloan are creating a comedy about what it’s REALLY like to be a gay man living in Hell’s Kitchen in your 40s Photograph Phil O’Brien

W

hen comedy writer/producer Mark Sam Rosenthal turned 40, two things happened.

One: he got a lot more serious about his job. Two: He got a whole lot LESS serious about everything else.

“When I was in my 20s, everything was so serious and dramatic. There’s a reality check that has come from 20 more years on the planet that says: I don’t think I can affect that much so I don’t have to take everything so seriously.”

“There’s also the sense that the clock is ticking,” says Brian Sloan, film maker and forty-something friend. “For women, it’s having a baby. For gay men, the biological clock is aging. It’s such a youth-oriented culture where everything is – go out, party all night, have fun. When you get to 40, it’s hard to stay out and party. You might look pretty good but you can’t do the same things you used to do.”

“Once or twice a year maybe I can stay out really late,” says Mark Sam, “but the recovery time can be two days. And that’s not from drinking, that’s just from BEING AWAKE!” That experience – of living in Hell’s Kitchen, of hitting your 40s, and navigating all the new territory that opens up – inspired them to create West 40s, a comedy that starts shooting this month.

“We don’t want it to be like one of those shows that are supposed to take place in Manhattan but it’s all shot in Brooklyn,” says Mark Sam. “I live right around the corner, have done for seven years, and

22

kind of want to share the actual vibe of living here.”

“The way we scripted the show was to incorporate places in the neighborhood as part of the story,” says Brian. “Make them not just happen to be walking down 10th Avenue, but they’re going to a certain barber shop to get a haircut, and there’s a scene there. So it really makes the neighborhood part of the show.”

The pair’s friendship blossomed over 15 years ago, at amateur strip night at Stonewall. Brian’s background is in TV and indie films (Pool Days, I Think I Do, WTC View); Mark Sam is rooted in comedy, first at improv shows, then Off-Broadway (Blanche survives Katrina in a in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire), and he now creates commercials for Comedy Central.

They’d been tossing around ideas for a show based on a bunch of gay men in their 40s but hadn’t hit on a format … until one fateful Valentine’s Day. “We had this lonely hearts party at my apartment,” says Mark Sam, “with all these single friends who were in their 40s.

And we had the best time. After that, we realized, actually, the show’s a comedy.”

They launched a Kickstarter campaign in April to fund the pilot (they doubled their goal) and, after a summer of editing, West 40s should be online by August or September.

The episode surrounds Luis, the last one of the gang to turn 40. All his friends want to throw a wild party, but, really, what is there to celebrate?

DIGITAL EDITION

This page: Mark Sam and Brian want the neighborhood to be an integral part of the show.

PRIDE The other characters are dealing with issues like fatherhood, the end of a relationship, an open relationship, the pain of meaningless sex, the joy of meaningless sex …

“It’s a fresher take on hitting your 40s,” says Brian. “It is a mid life crisis, but not in a dramatic way – it’s in a funny way. It’s a comedy crisis.”

“It’s a kind of new, interesting dynamic,” says Mark Sam, suddenly more serious.

“When we were in our 20s, the generation ahead of us was decimated.”

“For our generation, we didn’t really think past 40. It was such a scary environment.

Now we’re here, it’s like, ‘Now what?’ We didn’t expect to get this far.” west40s.com

The

CHARACTERS Luis Had a son when he was a teenager.

Now the son is 18, Luis is turning 40, and his friends think he needs to make up for lost time.

Franklin Just split from a long-term relationship after his boyfriend left him for a younger model. Now he’s single for the first time in 20 years.

“Once or twice a year maybe I can stay out really late but the recovery time can be two days. And that’s not from drinking, that’s just from BEING AWAKE!”

Ryan In an open relationship, but while his partner seems to want more open rules, Ryan’s character is questioning what he really wants.

TJ He’s been stuck in some “repetitive empty sex patterns,” hooking up with guys who have partners so he can never commit. But he’s finding out that none of this is really fulfilling him any more.

Dante The eldest of the group, but also the biggest player. He has all the hook up apps on his phone and is constantly meeting with a fresh round of twenty somethings in the market for a daddy.

He’s in the sexual prime of his life.

At one point he says: “I’ve had more sex in the past four years than the previous 40.”

DIGITAL EDITION

23

what’s going on in

JUNE All the Broadway action, family fun, and music you love. It’s summer, people!

In previews Seeing You

Opens June 2 Spamilton

450 W14th Street

From the producer of Sleep No More and Queen of the Night, performed at a former meat market under The High Line. Opens June 21.

SeeingYou.NYC

Saturdays (not 17th) Veronica Swift Birdland

Just 22 and already she’s hailed as one of the top young singers in jazz.

She’ll perform tracks from her new CD Lonely Woman. birdlandjazz.com

June 7 & 8 Mundy Irish Arts Center

The singer/songwriter whose poetic lyrics and folk sensibility have earned him stage time with Alanis Morrissette, Bob Dylan, and more. irishartscenter.org

June 5 Broadway in the Treehaus Treehaus

Some of the city’s top performers come together for a lounge evening of song, interviews, food, and wine. Also on June 19. broadwayinthetreehaus.com

June 3 Annual garage sale

Puerto Rican Traveling Theater

W44th St - 9th/10th Ave

spamilton.com

west44nyc.com

A glorious send-up of Hamilton and multiple other Broadway hits and their stars, including Patti LuPone, Barbra Streisand, and more.

June 5 Taste of Times Square W46th St - Broadway/10th Ave

Annual outdoor food and music festival featuring tastes from around the globe, stretching as far as 10th Avenue for the first time. timessquarenyc.org

It’s the 41st year anniversary of the 44th Street Better Block Association garage sale. Running from 10am to 5pm, there is no rain date, this year!

June 5 Feinstein’s 5th birthday party Feinstein’s/54 Below

A celebration of five years of shows.

Performers include Laura and Linda Benanti, Joe Iconis, and many more.

54below.com

June 8 Art is Everywhere party 4 Times Square

Billed as the artist party of the year, held in the Conde Nast building. Use the code artiseverywhere2017 for 50% discount on tickets. chashama.org

IMAGE: LAURA MARIE DUNCAN; MARIA BARANOVA

Every day Drones: Is The Sky The Limit?

Ends June 11 The Boy Who Danced on Air

Dark Mondays Six Degrees of Separation

June Havoc Theatre

A mysterious young man insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy NY couple. Starring Allison Janney, John Benjamin Hickey, and Corey Hawkins.

A love story set in rural Afghanistan, where wealthy men train poor boys, to dance at parties. abingdontheatre.org

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Barrymore Theatre

sixdegreesbroadway.com

DIGITAL EDITION

Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum A massive, custom-designed pavilion on Pier 86 explores the history of drone technology. Exhibits include Volantis, the world’s first “flying dress,” designed by Lady Gaga; a prototype of an Amazon vehicle designed for home delivery of online shopping orders; and a full-scale conceptual aircraft that could become the personal transportation system of the future. intrepidmuseum.org

June 15-18 Victory Dance Project

June 17 The Tonys

Manhattan Movement & Arts Center

Radio City Music Hall

victorydance.org

tonyawards.com

Opening with a celebration honoring Chita Rivera, the program will also include a world premiere and pieces from the company’s repertory.

You’re unlikely to have tickets, so find yourself a viewing party for the biggest awards ceremony on Broadway.

June 25 Pride march Ends June 17 Elysee Sean Kelly Gallery

A new film by Laurent Grasso about the office of the President of France, with a score by Nicolas Godin, onehalf of electronica duo Air. skny.com

June 18 Royal Tenenbaums Yotel rooftop

Watch Wes Anderson’s quirky classic starring Luke Wilson and Gwyneth Paltrow on the roof of Yotel ... with comp bubbles.

June 18 How About Love

Bernard B Jacobs Theatre

The Green Room 42

bandstandbroadway.com

thegreenroom42.com

June 21 Free concert

On The Quays perform highlights of their production of Rent, coming to Aruba after a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Dark Mondays Bella, An American Tall Tale

Dark Tuesdays Building the Wall

Playwrights Horizons

New World Stages

playwrightshorizons.org

buildingthewallplay.com

Yee-ha! All aboard for a western musical adventure as Bella escapes her scandalous past and bounces into the arms of her Buffalo Soldier.

nycpride.org

rooftopcinemaclub.com

Dark Mondays Bandstand Laura Osnes, Corey Cott, and Beth Leavel star in this show set in 1945 telling the story of military vets in a national music competition.

W36th St - 5th Ave After a week of events, the march kicks off with more than 80 floats making their way from 36th Street and 5th Avenue to Christopher and Greenwich. Grand marshals this year include trans FDNY firefighter Brooke Guinan, Krishna Stone, from Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Geng Le, founder of gay social app Blued, and the ACLU.

From Pulitzer and Tony winner Robert Schenkkan, a provocative piece of theater that questions who we are and where we might be going.

DIGITAL EDITION

Opens June 22 1984

Oasis Community Garden

The Hudson Theatre

oasiscommunitygarden.com

revisedtruth.com

Celebrate the summer solstice with a program of Latin/Colombian guitar, music of Jacques Brel, jazz, and standards, all lit by fireflies.

June 29 Next W42ST out All over Hell’s Kitchen

It’s July and we’re talking all things outdoors – from rooftops to beach escapes. If you’d like to be featured, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us at news@w42st.com.

Currently in previews, Olivia Wylde and Tom Sturbridge star in this new stage adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic.

Ends June 30 Marathon of One-Act Plays Ensemble Studio Theatre

David Mamet, Tina Howe, Julia Cho, and Qui Nguyen have all premiered new work at the festival. Who will you discover this year? ensemblestudiotheatre.org

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OUT

Ensemble actor From teen telly to playing multiple roles in a Tony nominated musical, Rodney Hicks talks heaven, humility, and dental emergencies

THEATER BEHIND THE SCENES:

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Photograph Dustin Cohen

DIGITAL EDITION

RIGHT NOW He’s playing the multiple roles of Bob, Captain Bristol, and others in Come from Away, which has been nominated for every Best Musical award of the season, and seven Tonys (tune in on June 17 to find out if they’ve won).

BACK THEN On Broadway, he’s appeared in The Scottsboro Boys, Rent, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Off-Broadway, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris among others. Wait, there’s more. His TV credits include roles in Leverage, Hope & Faith, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

THE RESUME “I come from a family of artists who opted to not go that route. Other than my cousin, Karl Hicks aka Syntax, who was a hip hop recording artist, I decided to pursue acting as a career from the age of 17, with my first job as co-host on the teen show Dance Party USA in the fall of 1991. Five years later, I was on Broadway as part of the original cast of Rent.

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG Oh, where to begin? I think the most recent time was ten years ago in Rent as Benny. I was singing the song ‘You’ll See Boys’ and somehow Roger’s guitar hit my mouth and chipped my front tooth in half. I had to finish the song with half a tooth in my head. Needless to say, my understudy continued after the song and I was sent to the dentist to get it capped.

WHAT BRINGS ME JOY My husband, our two dogs, meditation, kindness, and getting to share the stage with the beautiful company of actors in Come From Away.

WHAT MAKES ME MOST PROUD My play, NC-17, receiving an honorable mention this year from the American Playwriting Foundation.

A WORD OF ADVICE When I was a college professor at Portland State University, I would have my acting students look in the mirror on the first day of class and say: “THIS is your competition. YOU. No one else.

It is about you working to be the best version of yourself that you can be.”

Encouraging and lifting others up is key because that will encourage and lift you up in the process. comefromaway.com

DIGITAL EDITION

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OUT Review ANASTASIA BROADHURST THEATRE A young con man (Derek Klena) and his ex-aristocrat sidekick (John Bolton) launch a search for the missing princess (or one who can convincingly play her), so they can deliver her to her last remaining relative in Paris, claim the reward, and dance into the sunset.

Fans of the movie won’t be disappointed. While Rasputin and Bartok the bat didn’t make the cut in the transition from movie to stage, many of the musical numbers did. And the songwriting team behind the movie (Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens) have reunited to give it the Broadway treatment. The result is a lush crowd pleaser of a show.

Only the presence of Ramin Karimloo’s conflicted Soviet police sergeant doesn’t work. As he chases young Anya from St Petersburg to Paris, he never becomes three dimensional enough to care about.

Ruth Walker

IMAGE: MATTHEW MURPHY

F

irst things first. If you’re in the market for an accurate representation of a tragic moment in history … wrong show. Think about it: this new musical is largely based, not on the actual events that occurred in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, but on an animated Fox film in which one of the main characters was a feisty albino bat.

So, yeah. The History Channel it ain’t.

Rather, suspend your cynicism for a couple of hours and allow yourself to be swept up by an impassioned performance from Christy Altomare in the central role, and carried into the dying days of the Romanov dynasty.

As Russia implodes in revolution, the royal family is murdered in their summer palace. But St Petersburg crackles with rumors that one of them escaped, a daughter, the youngest and favorite daughter of Tsar Nicholas.

Review CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY LUNT-FONTANNE THEATRE Charlie’s fellow golden ticket winners, Michael Wartella as Mike Teavee and Jackie Hoffman (Mamacita in The Feud) as his hard-drinking (well, you would, wouldn’t you, with a son like him?) mother deserve special mention.

The Oompa-Loompas are a lot of fun too.

But while there are moments of genuine laughter (and the audience can’t get enough of it – whooping and clapping throughout), as a musical, it fell flat. Who could believe the same songwriting team that brought us Hairspray has produced this uninspiring set of numbers that (unlike Wonka’s glass elevator) never quite get off the ground?

Ruth Walker

DIGITAL EDITION

IMAGE: JOAN MARCUS

T

he title might be a tad misleading. In fact, the 1971 movie starring Gene Wilder got it right when they twisted the original Roald Dahl title and gave Willy Wonka top billing instead.

Sure, sweet, innocent Charlie Bucket, fatherless child, living in poverty with only four permanently bed-bound elderly relatives for company and surviving on a diet of watery cabbage soup is the necessary child-hero of the piece.

But Willy Wonka brings the magic. The mystery. The wit (and the cynicism). And in this production, Christian Borle as the enigmatic chocolate factory owner is the undeniable star of the show.

The producers have gone for a low-tech set which doesn’t quite work. And, of

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OUT Review THE LITTLE FOXES SAMUEL J FRIEDMAN THEATRE flawless, pulling at every heart string.

You can’t help but feel sorry for her, trapped in a loveless marriage with a self-absorbed husband.

The underlying story examines the patriarchy, and how women in the early 20th century were very much dependent on men and often were marginalized and overlooked for simply being born female.

Both actors are a joy to watch, perfectly paired, and they work well with the rest of the cast.

What is really curious about this production is that they are alternating between the characters, each playing Regina and Birdie on different nights.

Follow Matt D’Silva on Twitter @MattDSilva

IMAGE: JOAN MARCUS

T

he idea of Cynthia Nixon and Laura Linney together on stage sounds absolutely magical – both fascinating individuals together in one performance. And the hype around the production is definitely worth it. It was absolute bliss watching these two great woman tackle Lillian Hellman’s famed Little Foxes.

Regina Giddens (played by Nixon) is the strong-willed sister of the Hubbard family. She’s married to Horace Giddens (Richard Thomas). Her brothers Oscar (Darren Goldstein) and Ben (Michael McKean) have come up with a plan to make millions … they just need a small investment from the Giddens family to make it possible.

Laura Linney plays Birdie Hubbard, the long-suffering wife of Oscar. She’s

Review THE WHIRLIGIG THE PERSHING SQUARE SIGNATURE CENTER What tragic circumstances put Julie there? There’s a stale whiff of guilt and blame as each character draws us into their story.

There’s Trish (Zosla Mamet), Julie’s best friend from high school, now a young mother not quite prepared for the responsibility life has thrown at her.

And Patrick (Noah Bean), the handsome doctor who has sent Julie home to die.

Derrick (Jonny Orsini) is Patrick’s troubled brother who never seems to leave the house; Mr Cormeny (Jon DeVries) her onetime teacher – now a drunk, closing down the bar where Greg (Alex Hurt) presides. All are connected in some way – to each other, and to Julie. All are flawless in their performances.

You may cry.

Ruth Walker

DIGITAL EDITION

IMAGE: MONIQUE CARBONI

G

ot any recommendations for OffBroadway?” a friend asked recently.

“The Whirligig!” was on the tip of my tongue, until she added: “Something funny.”

Ah … Hamish Linklater’s story of an estranged couple, their sick daughter, and the fractured community around them, is heartfelt and beautifully acted. Touching.

Human. Yes, with moments of delightful humor. But it’s not Sienfeld.

Directed by Scott Elliot for The New Group, the play revolves (literally) around Julie (Grace Van Patten), who we first meet in her hospital bed, frail, barely conscious, yet still able to trade dark barbs with her parents (one an alcoholic, the other a fragile, erratic spirit played with splendid unpredictability by Nobert Leo Butz and Dolly Wells).

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OUT

Three-way

CONVERSATION Thinking about inviting a third party into your bed? Read this first Photograph Phil O’Brien

I

n the great minefield of difficult conversations to have with your partner, this one is probably right up there. How do you even start to talk to the person you love about possibly … maybe … I don’t know … sharing your bed with other people? How do you establish the boundaries of an open relationship? And what happens when those boundaries are crossed?

“A few years ago I had a boyfriend in addition to my husband,” says playwright Asher Gelman. “It lasted about two months and then it ended.”

Badly.

The experience was easily the most emotionally dramatic thing to have happened to him. And, since they say

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“It’s not necessarily that gay men are more inclined towards open relationships, it’s that we are more inclined to be having the difficult conversation.”

DIGITAL EDITION

“write what you know,” he’s turned his heartache into a play.

“Afterglow chronicles a gay couple – Josh and Alex – who have a threesome with this guy Darius,” he explains.

“Feelings start to develop, then it charts what that does to the relationship between all three of them.”

While the characters of Josh and Alex are heavily based on Asher and his husband, Mati, the third person in the threesome is way nicer than the man who inspired him. “The character of Darius is really different to how he existed in reality,” says Asher. “I wanted to tell this story without a villain, whereas in hindsight it was very clear that my boyfriend was more interested in stealing rather than

OUT

Above: Actors Patrick Reilly, Robbie Simpson, and Brandon Haagenson (with Asher, on the bottom) had to be OK about full-frontal nudity before they got the job. For our shoot, though, they kept their clothes on. Thanks to the lovely people at 555TEN (555ten. com) for the use of their bed, and Harry Benson and The Beatles for creative inspiration.

sharing me.” Talk about catharsis! “This is something I’ve carried around a lot of guilt about for a while,” says Asher.

And Mati? “When I started writing this, he said, ‘On one hand, I really want you to find incredible success with this thing. On the other hand, I never want it to see the light of day.’ But he’s on board and very supportive,” says Asher. “He’s the photographer for this project so I think that tells you everything you need to know.”

The couple moved to New York around 18 months ago, giving them the luxury, he says, of starting from scratch, being 100% honest with people about who they are and how they live, regardless of the consequences.

“Most people spend so much energy presenting a palatable version of themselves because they’re worried about how they’re going to be perceived. My husband and I kind of had this opportunity to reinvent ourselves and make new circles of friends. We had a sit down and I said, ‘I don’t want to be closeted any more about being in an open relationship.’

There’s something so liberating about not having to keep track of the lies we tell.”

And ultimately, the play is about that kind of open communication. Because those difficult conversations about sex, love, and relationships are universal. It’s just possible the gays might just be better at it. “All this stuff we have been taught from birth about how our life is supposed to look – who’s going to hold the door open, who’s going to pick up the check, who picks up the phone to arrange the next date – when it comes to gay relationships, we have to reinvent the wheel. And when it comes to sex specifically, that’s a conversation that happens very early on.

Even something as simple as ‘are you a top or a bottom?’ Because that signals compatibility. In general, sex is much more easily discussed.

“So it’s not necessarily that gay men are more inclined towards open relationships, it’s that we are more inclined to be having the difficult conversation.”

And if there’s any take-home from Afterglow, he hopes it is this. “I would love someone to leave the theater and have the difficult conversation – whatever that conversation is. Because, really, what drives the drama is the deterioration of communication. It’s about honesty at the end of the day.”

Afterglow begins previews at the Davenport Theatre on June 16 (afterglowtheplay.com)

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EAT

Ahead of

HER TIME

Josephine Baker’s sexuality remains a hot topic, more than 40 years after her death

B

efore Hell’s Kitchen was New York’s favorite gayborhood; before Pride and marches and gay marriage, Josephine Baker was, in her own way, flying the flag for diversity.

Married four times (the first when she was just 13), the actress, dancer, and activist also had multiple relationships with women – among them Frida Kahlo.

She was beloved by the drag world, including Coccinelle, the first transsexual to be recognized as a woman in France.

IMAGE: COURTESY OF CHEZ JOSEPHINE. ILLUSTRATION: JEANINE MURCH

“Married four times (the first when she was just 13), the actress, dancer, and activist also had multiple relationships with women.”

And while her sexuality is still a topic of hot debate, Jean-Claude Baker, her son and biographer, and founder of the restaurant on W42nd Street that bears her name, once insisted: “She was what today you would call bisexual, and I will tell you why. Forget that I am her son, I am also a historian. You have to put her back into the context of the time in which she lived. In those days, chorus girls were abused by the white or black producers and by the leading men if he liked girls. But they could not sleep together because there were not enough hotels to accommodate black people. So they would all stay together, and the girls would develop lady lover friendships.”

Born June 3 in St Louis, by the age of 13 she was living on the streets, scavenging for food, and making a living by dancing on street corners and at the Old Chauffeur’s Club. It was here she met her first husband.

The marriage lasted less than a year.

At 15, she headed to New York, and performed at the Plantation Club and on Broadway in Shuffle Along and The Chocolate Dandies, before sailing for Paris, where she found fame for her erotic dancing (her skirt made from a string of artificial bananas is the stuff of legend).

Ernest Hemingway called her “the most sensational woman anyone ever saw.”

During World War II, now a French citizen, she worked for the Resistance, gathering information at parties and carrying sensitive information with her as she traveled around Europe. Her efforts

DIGITAL EDITION

Above: At the Chez Nous nightclub in Berlin in 1964, surrounded (Josephine is center) by the leading female impersonators of the time.

won her the Croix de Guerre. She was also an active supporter of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, and was the only speaker at the march on Washington in 1963, standing at the side of the Rev Martin Luther King.

During this time – again, before Mia Farrow or Angelina Jolie – she began adopting a family she called her “Rainbow Tribe,” 13 children of different ethnicities and religions – of whom Jean-Claude was one.

Josephine died in April 1975, and 11 years later Jean-Claude opened Chez Josephine as a tribute, filling it with her memorabilia – paintings, sculptures, posters, and more.

Jean-Claude died in January 2015, but the restaurant remains a celebration of a woman who really was ahead of her time. chezjosephine.com

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EAT

Th e

Sweet spot As sugar emerges as public enemy #1, Samina Kalloo weighs up the alternatives

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DIGITAL EDITION

"Coconut sugar ranks low on the glycemic index, which means you don't get a buzz followed by a crash."

Opposite: Honey and fresh fruit are natural sweeteners for your morning oatmeal. But choose your honey wisely!

EAT

I

t’s no secret that sugar is linked to health problems ranging from tooth decay to heart disease. According to a recent consumer study, we are all becoming more aware of our sugar intake and are trending toward alternative sweeteners. Sixty-five percent of participants in that study reported a preference for natural sugars over low-calorie sweeteners, and 64% said sugars naturally derived from fruit and vegetables are better for you. Growing concerns over sugarladen foods has also driven demand for organic and non-GMO verified natural alternatives. But are they better for you? And which sweeteners are you likely to start seeing more of in your favorite foods and beverages?

MONKFRUIT

A small, round fruit grown in Southeast Asia, monkfruit is 150 to 200 times sweeter than sugar and provides zero calories, so a little goes a long way. According to the International Food Information Council Foundation, governments in the US, Canada, China, Japan, and Singapore have all concluded monkfruit sweeteners are safe for the general population, including children and people with diabetes.

COCONUT SUGAR

With a look and taste similar to brown sugar, coconut sugar is made from the sap of the coconut palm, which is heated to evaporate its water content and reduce it to usable granules.

Coconut sugar ranks low on the glycemic index, which means you don’t get a buzz followed by a crash. You can substitute coconut sugar for table sugar in a 1:1 ratio.

HONEY

The therapeutic use of honey goes way back and is now one of the most multifaceted staples in our pantry.

But choose your honey wisely. Many nutrition experts, including myself, recommend raw honey, which has never been filtered, strained or heated.

Research suggests honey in this state is loaded with antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients. Manuka honey is a darker, stronger flavored honey, which has been highlighted for its many health benefits including potential anti-cancer properties.

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BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES

Blackstrap molasses is the byproduct of the sugar refining process and encompasses the most nutritious parts of the sugar cane, including its vitamins and minerals. A good source of iron and calcium, it is known for its myriad benefits, including skin health.

And listen up ladies, it can naturally help relieve menstrual cramps. Try a cup of hot water or tea with blackstrap molasses to help ease discomfort.

Due to its thick and viscous texture, it is best used in baking and is also sweeter than sugar so you’ll need less.

MAPLE SYRUP

This is one of the hottest sweeteners on the market. Although it depends on the grade, it is generally composed of 50% fructose and 50% glucose – just like table sugar. However, while table sugar offers zero nutrients, maple syrup is rich in some important antioxidants and minerals such as zinc and manganese and is lower on the glycemic index.

OTHER FRESH OPTIONS

Use fruit to naturally sweeten your meals. Mix sliced bananas into hot or cold cereal. Skip the sweetened yogurt and whirl in some fresh blueberries or other sliced fruits into plain yogurt (for a refreshing twist, use frozen fruits).

For flavor and a hint of sweetness without extra calories, add a drop of pure vanilla extract to smoothies, yogurt, or oatmeal.

Whether it is raw, local, or organic, all types of sweeteners should be used in moderation. In general, keep your sugar intake to no more than six teaspoons per day for women and no more than nine for men. Despite what the food industry may lead you to believe, alternative sweeteners may not necessarily be healthier, and as more dubious products hit the market claiming to be “natural,” be sure to do your research and choose alternatives that work best for you and your body.

Samina Kalloo RD, CDN @cookingfortots, @SaminaKallooRD

37

BEER

It’s a

BI THING

What’s the silence surrounding bisexuality all about, asks Ciera Coyan

IMAGE: ADRIEN POTIER

A

few years ago I used to work a very quiet Sunday afternoon shift in a Manhattan bar. There was a lovely older couple who used to stop by most Sundays for a few beers and lunch. Because it was usually slow, I got to know them fairly well and found we had quite a bit in common. I talked to them about my then-boyfriend and future job plans.

One Sunday, while they were the only people at the bar, several of my lesbian friends dropped by to visit. We chatted about our jobs, school, dating, and celebrities we were currently crushing on (read: Samira Wiley, always and forever).

When I went back to serve the older couple I could read the confusion in their faces. They knew I was dating a guy, and yet here I was keeping up with the lesbian banter.

There is a real issue of bisexual invisibility and this is how it works, at least for me. I work in craft beer, which means I work in bars dominated by straight men. I’m a Women and Gender Studies major, which means I go to school in an environment almost completely devoid of straight men. Jumping back and forth between those two environments is fascinating.

With my short hair (I’ve had it cropped since this picture was taken!), nose ring, and strident feminist politics at school,

Right: Let’s get more honest about where we fall on the sexuality scale, says Ciera. She’ll start ...

“With my strident feminist politics at school, I’m presumed to be a lesbian.

With my lipstick and flirty attitude at work I’m assumed to be straight. In reality, I’m neither.”

DIGITAL EDITION

I’m often presumed to be a lesbian. With my lipstick, tank-tops, and flirty attitude at work I’m assumed to be straight. In reality, I’m neither.

This is a surprisingly hard thing to talk about in straight bars. Because I’m a young woman interacting with mostly bros, I tend to keep it to myself. I don’t want my attraction to women to be likened to a Katy Perry type who kisses a girl only with her boyfriend’s permission.

With my righteous feminist school friends, I tend to not mention any men I might be dating, for fear of looking like a secret straight girl.

A Pew Research Center study in 2013 found that 28% of bisexual Americans were out of the closet to most or all of the important people in their lives, compared to 71% of lesbians and 77% of gay men. Bisexual activists argue that bisexuals have two closets: a straight one and a gay one. None of this is to say that it’s in any way harder to be bisexual than to be gay or lesbian. Bisexuals are significantly less likely to face discrimination and hate crimes, and most end up in straight relationships (which doesn’t make us straight, but that’s a whole different conversation).

The only way to end bisexual invisibility is for bisexuals to start talking about it. Alfred Kinsey created the famous Kinsey scale, placing complete heterosexuality at zero and complete homosexuality at seven.

I think there are very few zeros, sevens, or three and a halfs. We’re all somewhere on that scale and our positions aren’t necessarily fixed. Maybe for Pride month I should start wearing a pin that says: “I’m a 2.5, what are you?”

39

WINE

Stick your

NOSE IN IT

It’s that embarrassing moment the server brings you the wine to taste. Now what? Sniff? Swirl? Glug? Jeremy Kaplan takes us through the etiquette

I

n today’s increasingly casual fine dining world, where I have been horrified to sit down to what would probably be a $500 dinner for two to find the gentleman at the next table wearing a T-shirt, do we throw away the ritual of tasting a wine before it is served?

It is a show for sure – this ritual – but for the patron, it may be something you look forward to, or dread. How do you do it? And is even necessary?

If you want to go through with the wine tasting at the table, here is how you should do it to ensure you thoroughly impress your table partners – and maybe even your server as well.

Picking the bottle Try to focus on one section, and let your pocket book make the selection for you.

I like to look for the oldest bottle on the list. For some reason it often provides real value because it has been sitting in the cellar for years.

Presenting the bottle Take a good look at the bottle you ordered.

Make sure it is what you requested (I’ve seen diners shocked after they drank a bottle of Chateau Le Gay from Pomerol and receive a bill for $400 when they intended to enjoy another bottle from Pomerol, La Croix de Gay, that costs about $80). At this point the server may give you the option to “opt-out” of tasting and you can agree to or not. It’s up to you.

The cork Your server will most likely place the cork

it in good condition? If you notice cracks, or if it is soaked, the wine may have been compromised. Whatever you do, don’t smell a screw cap.

The look Inspect the color first. If it’s young red or white wine, it should have nice clarity and be bright to the eye. If it’s older, expect a more golden color in whites, and darker, more coppery in reds.

The nose Smell the wine. Take your time and dig your nose deep into the glass. Does it smell OK? If the aromas are pleasing, you’re probably on the right track. If the wine has an “odor” you might want to question it at this point. If it smells like anything you don’t enjoy, ask your server if they tried the wine.

“It is important to understand, that when you taste wine ... you are tasting for quality, not whether you it or not.” on your table. Please resist smelling it, because only the most trained nose will be able to sense an aspect of the wine by sniffing. But do inspect it. Is it dry? Is

Above: Go right in.

What does it smell like? Good - we hope!

The taste Again, take your time. Slowly sip the wine, and allow it to coat your mouth – don’t swallow right away. Take a deep breath and give the wine a quick swish, and swallow. Be sure to breath out through your nose at this point as your olfactory senses are still involved.

It is important to understand, that when you taste wine at a restaurant (unless it is by the glass and they offer you a try), you are tasting for quality, not whether you like it or not. Once that bottle is open, you’ve basically bought it.

Cheers!

Jeremy Kaplan, Veritas Studio Wines (veritasstudiowines.com)

In wine there is truth. Also in wine: the embarrassing clank of taking out the trash More wine truisms from Jason Witcher next month

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41

STAFF SURVEY

Slay

THE DAY

The business of food is freakin’ hard. But if Shari Drewett could have a perfect day, it might look something like this …

Photograph Phil O’Brien

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DIGITAL EDITION

STAFF SURVEY

Know anyone who works in Hell’s Kitchen who’d be great for the Staff Survey? Don’t keep them a secret, share the love with news@w42st.com

Job description Co-owner, Better Being 940, catering company, cafe, neighborhood hang.

What does an average day look like?

You'd never believe an "average" day so can I give you a perfect one instead?

They do happen occasionally and let this serve as a reminder to myself not look them in the mouth.

6am: My alarm goes off (“look around, look around, how lucky you are to be alive right now”). I do feel lucky because we have a trusted staff, some of whom have been with us over a decade, who get in early and get it done. By now, Tony and Gustavo have been in for three hours receiving orders and working on the catering breakfasts.

7am: Wilson and Brittany, director and assistant manager, are facilitating all things breakfast, which are ready on time. With nothing forgotten.

7:15am: Exec chef Joanna and her crew begin working on lunches. Fortunately, the night porter didn't unplug all the refrigerators with his mop and 50% of today’s food doesn't have to be thrown out due to *cough* dumbass mopping.

7:30am: Our van doesn’t get towed, with the breakfast going to Brooklyn inside.

8am: No one has a family emergency and no one walks out cuz they can't work one more day with ___________.

Coffee is brewing, bacon is bakin' and Better Being is humming like an arganoiled machine.

8:30am: I hit my favorite gym around the corner for a dose of health and hotness.

9:35am: Ready to slay the dragon.

Everyone's extremities are intact and no one is rushed to the ER. 9:45am: Ahhh, breakfast in the shop, my favorite meal, FYI, and I'm working on my daily menu. I’m sipping organic coffee and making sweet love to my lemon ricotta pancakes; the room smells of bacon and coffee and homemade granola. This is going to be a great day.

10:15am: New guy doesn’t overcook the veggies.

11am: My subscribers are clamoring for today's lunch menu. All eight of them (hey subscribers!) I post: betterbeing940.com.

11am: Crunch time. Shop dudes (Marlon!

Murphy!) finish prepping lunch and are working on a giant delivery order that

“Fortunately, the night porter didn't unplug all the refrigerators with his mop and 50% of today’s food doesn't have to be thrown out due to *cough* dumbass mopping.” needs to be ready by 12:05. Joanna et al are packing elaborate lunches into containers to be sent out to photo studios and glamorous Manhattan offices. Wilson and Brittany are moving like ninjas. I'm marveling at how well everyone is working.

11:30am: We do not get a $115 ticket loading our van on the street in front of the shop. Or as the city likes to call it "the bus stop.”

12pm-2:30pm: Catering lunches out, lunch crowd in. Music, crankin', fries, fryin' chefs, hus-tle-ing. “Karen, grilled salmon salad! Nico, Nuyorican! Brian, 940 salad! Ruth, Squashbuckler!" We're in the groove. The place is packed.

Everyone's lovin' lunch and life. All's right with the world.

2:30-3pm: Two applicants have arrived. I never seem to stop interviewing (currently need a prep cook and PT counter person. Pls share: betterbeing@gmail.com).

3:30-6ish: There's a proposal to finish, resumes to comb through, emails, staff meetings, and tastings for new menu items. Purveyors drop off drinks and sauces they think we'll like (kombucha made from baby placenta! Spring water from the cave of Jesus!) and sometimes a friend pops round. On this excellent day, Jeremy from Metropolis Wine happens in with an amazing rose by Lady Vintners. We raise a glass or four and I try to osmose some of his wine wisdom.

6:30pm: After I've had all the meetings, made two large decisions, IG'd three important images, tweeted the mayor about yet another ticket we got in the loading dock/bus stop, and perhaps a little tipple, I say to my wife and business partner, MK, who’s the greatest

DIGITAL EDITION

Opposite: A girl can dream, can't she ...?

chef on earth and beautiful and sits across the desk from me and most likely has a completely different perspective: “Do you think my sentences are too long?”

7pm: On this perfect day, it's 70 and sunny and we haven't opened our happy hour/afternoon snacks/wine bar yet (M-F 4-7pm) but we will by the time you read this. On the way home, we sup at Tavola or super OG Il Punto (so OG they don't even have a website), both neighborhood joints we love. We discuss our afternoon snacks/wine bar thing and what beer drink we can make for our new Saturday brunch (beer-geritas?)

Best thing about the job?

Real talk: The business of food is freakin' hard. It's hour-to-hour putting out fires. I've seen it turn he-men to Himalayan salt. But I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished, my soulmate and me – 25 years in the game. We love our work family, whom we couldn't do without, and we love Hell's Kitchen for supporting us. So … best thing is people and food and Hell's Kitchen.

Worst thing?

Angry chefs with meat cleavers.

Tips for working and living with your life partner?

MK and I have opposite ways of doing, well, everything. It's kind of a joke at work. At the end of the day, we want the same things and we choose love over anything less than. So what I’ve learned, in order: 1. Communicate. 2. Have fun.

3. Express, don’t repress. 4. Forgive.

5. Leave work there.

Come across any famous faces in your job?

We’re not totally allowed to disclose such things but I think we can A&R (allude and rhyme). Just this week we catered a cover shoot whose four subjects starred in a ground-breaking NYC based sit-com (not Seinfeld or Friends) and are reprising their roles as the show returns to network television.

Rhymes with Dill and Face.

BETTER BEING 940 (212) 858-9448 537 9TH AVE - 39TH/40TH ST betterbeingnyc.com

43

LIVING

Take five:beautifully designed

APARTMENTS

When stylish living is up there on your list of priorities, Hell’s Kitchen has it in spades. Isaac Halpern picks out five of the best

I

n the old days, when you thought of a “gay” apartment in Manhattan, you’d probably think of a chic one-bedroom (no need for kids’ rooms, after all).

These days though, that’s just not true.

Families come in all shapes and sizes, and the LGBTQ community is raising lots of children. What hasn’t changed, though, is that for whatever reason – Nature?

Nurture? Both? – lesbians and gays tend

Where: 425 W53rd St - 9th/10th Ave, townhouse 417 What: Triplex condo, 4 bed, 4.5 baths Cost: $14,995 (for sale at $4,750,000) Agent: Corcoran The spec: Designer Karim Rashid is moving, but he’s leaving behind a treasure: his gorgeous condo at The Dillon. The design here is all about bold and bright colors. When it comes to our closets, most of us end up wearing mostly black. Because, while we like to boast of our individuality, we’re more comfortable conforming to the norm. That’s just as true with interior design in NYC. You ever notice that most staged homes tend to have monotone gray rugs with a matching gray sofa? It’s very safe. So how does Karim use all that fabulous color, but his home still feels modern, urban, and now? Hint: The white floors, walls, and ceiling are the trick. This creates a “gallery effect.” The color accents are set off beautifully with the minimalist white. We’ll miss you Karim, hope you stay local.

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DIGITAL EDITION

to have a keen sense of style and, not surprisingly, so too do their apartments.

So that’s the segue into this month’s focus – stylish homes for sale and rent in Hell’s Kitchen.

Where: 650 W42nd St - 11th/12th Ave #1606 What: 2 bed, 2 bath Cost: $5,990 Agent: riverplacenyc.com Having a roommate helps defray costs, but sometimes it’s hard to find a space that’s good for sharing and still allows the privacy we all need.

This two-bedroom two-bathroom at River Place is perfectly designed with two large bedrooms on opposite corners of the apartment – privacy indeed. And you each get your own bathroom. The home has Hudson River views, large living room and an open kitchen with dining room. The perfect share.

LIVING

Where: 318 W47th St - 8th/9th Ave What: Maisonette 3 bed, 3.5 bath Cost: $5,995,000 Agent: Terra Holdings The spec: How do you achieve the spaciousness, outdoor living, and easy parking of a suburban home right smack in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen? Try this maisonette at 318W47. This over-the-top triplex has its own entrance and a private garage with an electric hook up for your smart car. It also has a huge outdoor garden and a second floor terrace to boot.

Where: 555 10th Ave - 41st St #20C What: Studio Cost: $2,995 Agent: 555ten.com The spec: This sexy studio in the brand new luxury rental tower on 41st and 10th has a long modern kitchen and a washer dryer. The views are killer and with so many amenities at your command – gym, bowling alley, outdoor rooftop pool, indoor saltwater pool – your space is so much bigger than your four walls. This apartment is designed for the renter who doesn’t have much stuff, so can manage a small space with ease, but still wants hotel-style living.

“How do you achieve the spaciousness, outdoor living, and easy parking of a suburban home right smack in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen?”

About Isaac

Isaac Halpern is an associate broker at Halstead Property. A native New Yorker who grew up on the Upper East Side, he’s lived in Chelsea, The Bronx, and Fort Greene before moving to W47th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, his favorite neighborhood. ihalpern@halstead.com

Where: 529 W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave #9S What: Studio with roof deck Cost: $625,000 MT. $1,254 Agent: Stribling & Associates The spec: So your budget is hampered by reality, but you want a doorman, a view, a working fireplace, and a private roof deck? Impossible, you say? Check out this studio gem at The Armory. Studios often feel cramped, but with two exposures and huge windows with skyline views, you won’t feel walled in. Plus you get to make a cozy fire in winter and sunbathe on your roof in summer.

DIGITAL EDITION

45

LIVING

Accessorize for Pride and make your world a little brighter COCK-ADOODLE-DO

We’ll just leave this Big Cock flask here. You’re welcome. $28.95, delphinium home.com

MATCH.COM

I don’t know, these babies are almost too pretty to set fire to. But that barbecue ain’t gonna light itself (unless it’s a fancy gas one, in which case … um …). You get 216 rainbow colored matches in this box designed by Fredericks and Mae. Each collection comes in a cute glass tube with a strike pad base and cork lid. Ta-da! $42, thestore.madmuseum.org

FLY THE FLAG

The essential rainbow flag (see our article on p17 for the colorful history) – this one is from Let’s Flag, comes as a pair, and 10 per cent of all proceeds go to the charity Opening Doors London, which provides information and support for older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people. $15, maison10.com

46

SOCK IT TO ‘EM

We 100% guarantee you’ll see nothing more jaunty today than these rainbowstripe sock garters. Made in NYC. $19/pair, fineanddandyshop.com

DIGITAL EDITION

LIVING THIS! JUST THIS!

If this rainbow pool float doesn’t give you all the happy feels, you must be clinically dead. The gold at the end of this particular rainbow comes in the form of six floating cup holders for that essential pool refreshment. Also acts as a volleyball net if you don’t happen to have a handy pool. $98, urbanoutfitters.com

SPREAD ‘EM

All your favorite Broadway classics all on one towel depicting a summer day in Central Park. Sigh … $25, broadwaycares.stores.yahoo.net

UNDER A WRIST

This colorful bracelet has been created by Elise M specially for Pride. And it’s called, appropriately enough, Freedom. $28, elisemcollection.com

WING AND A CHAIR

Ah, the classic Kerry Joyce wing chair – chic and comfortable. And the lipstick red mohair makes quite the statement. Love! $1,500 each ($2,500 for the pair), previouslyowned byagayman.com

POST-PRIDE PICNIC

When the margs start flowing, line up these beauties: a rainbow of mouth-blown (ahem!) Venetian glasses. Just add salt. $25 each, domusnewyork.com

CALLA LAND

Robert Mapplethorpe’s Calla Lily adorns this beautiful, limited edition porcelain tray – a sexy salute to the artist who played a formative role in New York’s burgeoning gay scene. $115, shop.whitney.org

DIGITAL EDITION

47

GALLERY

#W42ST Hashtag your Instagram pics and they could star in the mag!

Rooftop views, the skyline at sunset, and lazy breakfast in bed; dapper gents, sleepy pups, and sexy Cuban ladies. Oh, and since it's summer, the lobster boat is back. Yay! Our Instagram selects this month are all about getting outside. Remember, anyone can get involved. Just tag your images #W42ST and you might be the one whose photograph ends up in the next issue.

48

DIGITAL EDITION

GALLERY

DIGITAL EDITION

49

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OUT & ABOUT

STYLE

If it’s happening in Hell’s Kitchen, we’ve got it covered W42ST MAY ISSUE LAUNCH PARTY

W

42ST celebrated our food issue in style, with a launch party at the super-swish $6m maisonette 318W47. We hung out in the garden, we drank wine on the deck, ate food from Amy’s Bread and Fresh From Hell in the games room, and drank wine from Veritas Studio Wines in the fancy kitchen. Sadly, we couldn’t sleep over ...

IMAGES: CHRISTIAN MILES; PHIL O’BRIEN

Clockwise from top: Well, Suzy Darling seems to like it; our own Kristin serving drinks; the view from the balcony; Jenny Pierson and cover artist Victoria Black.

ART NEW YORK/ CONTEXT NY

IMAGE: DAVID WILLEMS

T

he west side is increasingly seen as a destination for the biggest art shows, and last month proved no exception. Art New York/Context came to Pier 94.

And Jon Bon Jovi stopped by Nick Korniloff’s exhibit, featuring the work of photographer Bob Gruen and Metallica’s Jason Newsted.

Rock on!

Above: Jason Newsted and Bob Gruen.

Right: Pamela Cohen, Jon Bon Jovi, and Dorothea Hurley.

DIGITAL EDITION

51

STYLE

Spanish

surprise Sarah Funk thought she knew Spain.

But the Canary Islands provide a new discovery around every corner

T

here are few areas on earth that are as diverse as the Canary Islands. A drive from the city center can lead to drastic changes in the landscape. From my Las Palmas city apartment, I could find myself at prehistoric cave homes, Sahara-style dunes, rocky mountain hiking trails and sandy beach coves all within two hours, depending on which direction I went.

Yes, there is another side of Spain besides the touristic cities of Barcelona or Madrid. The Canary Islands are a seriously underrated treasure. During my monthlong stay, I was determined to explore every inch of the island of Gran Canaria (one of the seven islands) before it was time to pack my bags and move on.

And it charmed me in ways I couldn’t have predicted. As someone who had lived in Barcelona for four months, I felt as if Spain and I were old friends with little to teach each other. However, Gran Canaria opened my eyes. On weekends, I dedicated my time to getting out of the city to explore the small seaside and mountain villages.

In Maspalomas, I found myself riding a camel through sand dunes and – to my surprise – joining locals in topless bathing on the beach.

In Cruz de Tejeda, it was quite the opposite experience. As I stepped off the local bus (public transportation is fantastic here) I pulled my jacket tightly to protect myself from the cold. I was terribly unprepared, wearing shorts at 5,000 feet above sea level as wind from the mountains ripped through the air. If not for the dreamy panoramic views of rugged mountains and wildflowers, I would have hopped right back on the bus.

52

“In Maspalomas, I found myself riding a camel through sand dunes and – to my surprise – joining locals in topless bathing on the beach.”

The fishing village of Puerto de Mogan and painted buildings of Aguimes transported me to another time, when people were happy with good food and company, instead of how many likes their pictures get on Instagram.

In Barranco de Guayadeque, I hiked by cave homes that were built hundreds of years ago and are still in use to day.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the best part of this diverse island. What I can offer is advice – don’t overlook the Canary Islands when you’re planning a trip to Europe. This underdog archipelago will wow and woo you over and over. No wonder it’s often referred to as “the mini-continent.”

Adios for now, Spain, it’s time to pack my bags again. In the meantime, can find me on Instagram @SarahFunky exploring the medieval castles, cobblestone villages and golden beaches of Portugal.

I’ll fill you in next month! Chao!

Sarah left her Hell’s Kitchen home in January to travel the world, living in a different country for a month every month. To follow her adventures, visit sarahfunky.com.

DIGITAL EDITION

Right: Sarah (not topless!) at Maspalomas.

Sarah's progress

Im h e r e!

STYLE Things to do & where Snorkel: Playa Chica in Las Palmas (7mares.es).

Hike: Cruz de Tejeda (no website).

Thalassotherapy (seawater spa): San Agustin (gloriapalaceth.com).

Camel rides: Maspalomas (okgrancanaria.com).

Swim: Playa de Las Canteras in Las Palmas (no website).

Food & drink

Allende for Spanish dining (allenderestauracion.com).

Shintori, a Japanese sushi buffet (shintori.es).

La Tasca De Los Vinos for Spanish pinchos and tapas (latascadelosvinos.es).

Cafe Regina, for the best coffee in town (facebook.com/CaféRegina-395515040637111) O’sole Mio La Casa Roja, for rooftop cocktails and hookah (facebook.com/OSole-Mío-La-Casa-Roja-LasCanteras-643922525664943)

Areas to explore: Aguimes Barranco de Guayadeque Las Palmas Maspalomas Puerto de Nieves Puerto de Mogan Tejeda Cruz de Tejeda

Cruz de Tejeda

Puerto de las Nieves Aguimes DIGITAL EDITION

53

STYLE

PRIDE The five best ways to turn

into a long weekend

Cities all over the country will be marching this month.

Petur Workman picks out some alternative locations that also make great getaways

T

he first Gay Pride parade marched to Central Park on June 28, 1970, a year after the Stonewall riots, when members of the gay community had clashed with police at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.

Since then, cities around the world have adopted the event as a celebration, as well as an opportunity to raise awareness and protest issues affecting the LGBTQ movement.

Here are the five alternative Prides you might not typically think of attending that can turn into a great long weekend, while seeing how other parts of the country celebrate a 48year tradition.

Salt Lake City, Utah May 31–June 4 Average flight: $325, average hotel: $150 I know what you’re thinking: isn’t that home base for Mormon attacks on gay rights? Well, yes. But that’s exactly what led to the changing of some hearts and minds that have reinvented SLC as a great gay community. It has rechristened 20 city blocks Harvey Milk Blvd (between Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks Streets). There’s a gay bar called Triangles and a dance club called Club Jam. This is a state of contradictions but the beauty and weather will keep you coming back. utahpridecenter.org/festival

Kansas City, Missouri June 2–4 Average airfare: $250, average hotel: $125 A supportive LGBTQ environment has been fostered over the last 20 years by a mix of local politicians and business leaders reaching out to the queer community. Kansas City failed to become the gay Niagara Falls, but with local bars like Missie B’s and Sidekicks Saloon, there is no shortage of places to celebrate. gaypridekc.org Columbus, Ohio June 16–17 Average flight: $250, average hotel: $150 Columbus’ vibrant gay scene is hard to beat in this part of the country. The cultural landscape is diverse, with an active drag scene that was documented in the film Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens.

Columbus is a place where you see people openly holding hands and a lot of transgender folks around, just living, working and playing. columbuspride.org Anchorage, Alaska June 17–21 Average flight: $500, average hotel: $150 One of the nation’s best gay bars is worth the trip alone. Anchorage was the only Alaskan city to score double digits in the Human Rights Campaign’s yearly evaluation. The city is also home to “The Premier Alaskan Gay Bar” Mad Myrna’s, which hosts inclusive drag and variety shows. alaskapride.org

“Even before the Stonewall Riots, marchers came out for ‘Reminder Day,’ a parade to remind people that gays had civil rights too.”

DIGITAL EDITION

Clockwise from top: A vibrant scene in Columbus; crowds at home in New York; the way things look in Anchorage.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania June 18 Average train/bus: $200/$15, average hotel: $175 Truly “the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection” that has welcomed its LGBTQ peeps since the 1930s, when the scene consisted of private house parties and semi-secret venues. In the 1960s, even before the Stonewall Riots, marchers came out for “Reminder Day,” a parade to remind people that gays had civil rights too. phillygaypride.org

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JACI STEPHEN

Kiss me

DEADLY

When it comes to sinning, Jaci is getting in some practice

P

ride comes before a fall. Of all the seven sins, it was the one that was drummed into me more than any other. I was a champion ballroom dancer in my youth and won a lot of silverware, but each time I expressed pleasure in my taffeta and sequins, it came with a warning from my parents to tone down the excitement because pride was a sin and the slippery slope was never far away.

St Augustine had the same view: “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men angels.”

Well, you know what? You may be a saint, you pompous ninny, but I’m on the side of the devils – and proud of it.

As human beings, we should strive to be the best that we can be. Whether your chosen area is sport, charity, the loving support you give to others, or whatever – it’s worth celebrating each and every achievement. The world is cruel enough as it is, and the news is endlessly depressing, so let’s always raise a flag for the good, the great, and every little step along the way.

To be proud is to stand up for what you believe in, not falter in your convictions, and to feel joy in sharing the truth of your heart with others. It’s finding the path to who you really are and rejecting the social and emotional

Above: Jaci is on the side of the devils – as evidenced by the fact that she closes down every bar she goes into (right).

“To be proud is to stand up for what you believe in, not falter in your convictions, and to feel joy in sharing the truth of your heart with others.” shackles that might have been imposed upon you. It’s standing proudly on the shoulders of those who have gone before you who made the life you have possible. It’s saying no to prejudice and hate.

Far from being a sin, pride is an expression of the enormity of human achievement – past, present, and the unknown future in which today’s younger generation will be able to live their lives with even greater confidence and freedom. Today’s generation can feel proud every day that they are making that future possible.

So keep waving those flags, both metaphorical and rainbow colored, with immense pride. B******s to you, St Augustine.

MY SUMMER IN PICTURES SO FAR

1

Curado (Cardiff, Wales) I think I need to get home more.

2

Semilla (Paris) Ditto.

3

Elevens (Cardiff, Wales) Don’t ask.

IMAGE: WALTER VAN DYK

WHERE I AM ON THE OTHER SIX SINS LUST: Probably my biggest downfall, though possibly on the back burner for Gay Pride.

GLUTTONY: “If that

pizza isn’t here in two minutes, I’m going to break your legs.”

GREED: “Hurry up with that second pizza.”

SLOTH: I don’t even know the meaning of the word. I’m a walking Duracell 16 pack.

WRATH: Very little makes me angry. Heck,

DIGITAL EDITION

I’m still breathing.

That’s a blessing.

ENVY: Never had it. I don’t know how anyone can bear not to be me.

57

PETS FOOD

Wagging tales

These camera-happy cuties took time out from the morning stroll for a quick Q&A with W42ST

Carl and Floyd

Josie Human’s name: Brooke.

Breed: It’s a mouthful: I’m a Portuguese Podengo Pequeno.

Age: Two. What makes me bark: Delivery men and loud noises.

Three words that describe me best: Bossy, cheeky, and cuddly.

Confession: If my humans leave me alone with the laundry bag, I’ll go through it and scatter their clothes throughout the apartment.

Instadog: @josie_podengo

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Human’s name: Karen.

Breed: Schnauzer and Boston terrier.

Age: 11 and 13.

What makes us bark? Carl: When my dad doesn’t throw the ball.

Floyd: When my mom doesn’t get out of bed to feed me first thing in the morning.

Three words that describe us best: Carl: Teddy bear, loyal, angelic. Floyd: Bossy, momma’s boy, foodie.

Confession: Carl: I have a secret life under the bed that my parents don’t know anything about. And I’m an underwear thief. Floyd: Every day at 9am I spend 20 minutes humping my favorite stuffed animal. Also, I once ate a couch.

Instagram: @karka338 @therealurban-schnauzer

Bailey Human’s name: Gabrielle.

Breed: Labradoodle.

Age: Two. What makes me bark: Smelling my mommy’s cooking and waiting for a taste.

Three words that describe me best: Schmoodle, loving, compassionate.

Confession: When no one is looking, I like to sneak into the bathroom to steal tissues from the garbage and shred them in my bed.

Want to see your pup on this page?

DIGITAL EDITION

Dorothy Humans’ names: Chris and Sarah.

Breed: Havashu.

Age: Five months.

What makes me bark: Bark?

Now, why would I do that?

Three words that describe me best: Loyal, friendly, sassy.

Confession: Even though I love discovering all the smells on Restaurant Row, there is still “no place like home.”

Instadog: @dorothygalemills

Send it to waggingtales@w42st.com and we’ll do the rest.

58

w42 st +

GUIDE LISTINGS

The essential guide to Hell’s Kitchen, from working out to eating out (and in) – it’s the business!

EAT CHILL DINNER

Il Forno

Rustic Table

8th Ave - 44th/45th St

W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave

Kodama Sushi & Japanese

Skylight Diner

W45th St - 8th/9th Ave

W34th St - 9th/10th Ave

9th Ave - 42nd/43rd St

Noodies

Theatre Row Diner

Bar Bacon

9th Ave - 54th/55th St

W42nd St - 9th/10th Ave

9th Ave - 54th/55th St

North River Lobster

Tick Tock Diner

At Nine Restaurant

Pier 81, W41st St - 12th Ave

Oovina

LUNCHBREAK

Route 66 Cafe 9th Ave - 55th/56th St

Aaheli Indian Cuisine

Siri Thai

9th Ave - 54th/55th St

10th Ave - 45th/46th St

9th Ave - 50th/51st St

Westway Diner 9th Ave - 43rd/44th St

9th Ave - 37th/38th St

Basera Indian Bistro

8th Ave - 34th St

Aleef Coffee House

The Marshal

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

10th Ave - 44th/45th Ave

Atomic Wings

Traditional northern Indian cuisine

9th Ave - 39th/40th St

at family-owned and operated

Azuri Cafe

eatery. Open for lunch and dinner

W51st St - 9th/10th Ave

with a full bar & happy hour.

Better Being 940

(212) 757-9787 www.baserany.com

9th Ave - 39th/40th St

Bombay Grill House 9th Ave - 51st/52nd St

Bourbon Street Bar W46th St - 8th/9th Ave

Carbone

China Xiang

White Oak 10th Ave - 54th/55th St

W42nd St - 8th/9th Ave

It’s worth the effort to walk a few

Chirping Chicken

more blocks! Home of the ALL

9th Ave - 42nd/43rd St

Dafni Greek Taverna

DAY Happy Hour + Oysters. Craft

W42nd St - 8th/9th Ave

cocktails - Elevated “Pub Grub” -

City Kitchen at Row NYC

El Azteca

Raw Bar - Daily Specials.

W38th St - 8th/9th Ave

9th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

Esanation Thai Street Food

www.WhiteOakNYC.com (646) 692-9247

9th Ave - 50th/51st St

8th Ave - 44th/45th St

Curry Hut 9th Ave - 39th/40th St

El Rancho Burritos W45th St - 8th/9th Ave

Tulcingo Del Valle

Gazala Place 9th Ave - 48th/49th St

Hell’s Chicken 10th Ave - 45th/46th St

Jonny Panini NYC 9th Ave - 37th/38th St

Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen 8th Ave - 48th/49th St

La Panineria W36th St - 9th/10th Ave

Parada 47 Mexican W47th St - 10th/11th Ave

Paradigm Cafe 9th Ave - 35th/36th St

Sushi Star 9th Ave - 35th/36th St

Taqueria Tehuitzingo 9th Ave - 42nd/43rd St

Tehuitzingo Deli & Grocery 10th Ave - 47th/48th St

Vintner Wine Market 9th Ave - 46th/47th St

Zoob Zib 9th Ave - 35th/36th St

COFFEE & COOKIES Amy’s Bread 9th Ave - 46th/47th St

Frisson Espresso W47th St - 8th/9th Ave

Kahve 10th Avenue 10th Ave - 46th/47th St

10th Ave - 46th/47th St

v{iv} Thai Restaurant & Bar 9th Ave - 48th/49th St

Zora’s Cafe 9th Ave - 48th/49th St

TIME FOR BRUNCH Ñaño Ecuadorian Kitchen

8th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

Ecuadorable! Quaint, Ecuadorian

Friedman’s

eatery serving traditional dishes with some modern flair. Family recipes make Ñaño a special experience.

www.nanobarnyc.com (646) 649-4678

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Manganaro’s Hero Boy

Cosmic Diner

10th Ave - 47th/48th St

Fresh From Hell W47th St - 8th/9th Ave

10th Ave - 35th St

Fresh, delicious food and juices,

Gotham West Market

prepared in a friendly, neighborly

11th Ave - 44th/45th St

way.

Hourglass Tavern

(212) 956-4355 www.freshfromhell.com

W46th St - 8th/9th Ave

DIGITAL EDITION

9th Ave - 37th/38th St Our 60-year anniversary! The original six-foot Hero will feed 30 to 40 people. Large restaurant: eat in, take out, catering. Reasonable prices!

(212) 947-7325

9th Ave - 51st/52nd St

Kava Cafe W42nd St - 9th/10th Ave

Kee’s Chocolates W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

Little Pie Company W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave W34th St - 9th/10th Ave

Poseidon Greek Bakery 9th Ave - 44th/45th St

REX Coffee 10th Ave - 56th/57th St

Romeo & Juliet

Lucky’s Famous Burgers W52nd St - 8th/9th Ave

Merilu Pizza Al Metro 9th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

New York Sal’s Pizza 10th Ave - 48th/49th St

Uncle Mario’s Brick Oven Pizza 9th Ave - 49th/50th St

Beer Authority W40th St - 8th Ave

Beer Culture

Schmackary’s Cookies

Blue Ruin

The Cafe Grind 10th Ave - 36th/37th St

The Jolly Goat Coffee Bar W47th St - 10th/11th Ave

Think Coffee W42nd St - 11th/12th Ave

9th Ave - 39th/40th St

Brickyard Gastropub 9th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

Dalton’s Bar & Grill 9th Ave - 43rd/44th St

Dave’s Tavern 9th Ave - 41st/42nd St

Heartland Brewery 8th Ave - 40th/41st St

www.lansdowneroadnyc.com (212) 239-8020

W42nd St - 11th/12th Ave

Hellcat Annie’s Tap Room

Capizzi Pizzeria & Wine Bar

10th Ave - 45th St

9th Ave - 49th/50th St

Mr. Biggs Bar & Grill 10th Ave - 43rd St

8th Ave - 48th/49th St

The Jolly Monk

www.HellcatAnnies.com ((212) 586-2707

9th Ave - 48th/49th St

Kiabacca 10th Ave - 45th/46th St

Tir Na Nog

9th Ave - 53rd/54th St

Houndstooth Pub

West End Bar & Grill

Featuring 20 specialty brick oven pizzas and a high quality selection of rotating crafts at fantastic prices.

Always interesting draft cocktails and wine on tap. Comfortable vibe.

www.kiabaccabar.com (212) 649-4675

W51st St - 8th/9th Ave

Iron Bar 8th Ave - 44th/45th St

Ivy 8th Ave - 55th/56th St

Juniper Bar

W35th St - 7th/8th Ave

Landmark Tavern

Hudson’s at Pier 81 W41st St - 12th Ave

9th Ave - 39th/40th St

House of Brews (51st St)

W43rd St - 8th/9th Ave

K Rico Steakhouse

Valhalla

W46th St - 8th/9th Ave

Hakkasan

10th Ave - 50th/51st St

Holland Bar

House of Brews (46th St)

Yotel, 10th Ave - 41st/42nd St

The Waylon

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

8th Ave - 36th/37th St

Green Fig

8th Ave - 48th/49th St

SOMETHING SPECIAL Bricco Ristorante W56th St - 8th/9th Ave

Cara Mia 9th Ave - 45th/46th St

Chimichurri Grill 9th Ave - 43rd/44th St

Esca W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave

PETS

W37th St - 7th/8th Ave

cocktails, sandwiches & shareable

11th Ave - 46th St

to serving classic comfort food

(212) 265-6980

Social Bar, Grill & Lounge

drinking lawnmower beers, cans &

Daisy May’s BBQ

since 1960 and still dedicated

www.cheznapoleon.com

Stitch Bar & Lounge

Monday thru Friday.

landmark French restaurant open

9th Ave - 38th/39th St

local craft beer on tap, easy

10th Ave - 37th/38th St

Hyper-traditional Hell’s Kitchen

dishes. Leave your diet at home!

City Slice

appetizers. Happy Hour 3pm-6pm

W 50th Street - 8th/9th Ave

Scallywag’s Irish Bar

Neighborhood bar with rotating

Clyde Frazier’s

Chez Napoleon

9th Ave - 44th/45th St

9th Ave - 40th/41st St 10th Ave - 51st/52nd St

www.chezjosephine.com (212) 594-1925

LIVING

42nd Street Pizza

Josephine Baker portraits.

Molloy’s Irish Pub

Rudy’s Bar & Grill

10th Ave - 50th/51st St

chandeliers lighting up

W55th St - 7th/8th Ave

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

123 Burger Shot Beer

ceiling, red velvet walls and

McGee’s Pub

Rattle ‘N Hum

BURGERS AND PIZZA

1920s Paris, with a blue tin

9th Ave - 56th/57th St

W44th St - 8th/9th Ave

12th Ave - 46th/47th St

Return to the joie de vivre of

Lincoln Park Grill

New York Beer Company

Underwest Donuts

Chez Josephine W42nd St - 9th/10th Ave

OUT

9th Ave - 39th/40th St

This neighborhood sports bar is a great place to gather for tasty pub food, wings and a wide selection of beers while watching your favorite team. Back bar available for parties.

10th Ave - 50th St

W45th St - 8th/9th Ave

Snax Spot

10th Ave - 43rd/44th St

As Is

W42nd St - 10th/11th St W45th St - 8th/9th Ave

Lansdowne Road

HERE FOR THE BEER

STYLE

Old Country Coffee

EAT

Kahve 9th Avenue

9th Ave - 51st/52nd St

La Vela Dining & Bar 11th Ave - 42nd/43rd St

Pio Pio 10th Ave - 43rd/44th

PRINT Restaurant 11th Ave - 47th/48th Ave

Sangria 46 W46th St - 8th/9th Ave

Staghorn Steakhouse W36th St - 8th/9th Ave

Taboon 10th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

Trattoria Casa Di Isacco 9th Ave - 39th/40th St

Uncle Vanya Cafe W54th St - 8th/9th Ave

11th Ave - 45th/46th St

DIGITAL EDITION

61

BOYS & BARS 9th Avenue Saloon 9th Ave - 45th/46th St

Flaming Saddles Saloon 9th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

Posh W51st St - 9th/10th Ave

The Ritz W46 St - 8th/9th Ave

WINE O’CLOCK Adella W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave

Ardesia Wine Bar W52nd St - 10th/11th Ave

Wine Escape

5 Brothers Gourmet Market

W44th St - 9th/10th Ave

10th Ave - 47th/48th St

COCKTAIL HOUR Barcelona Bar

Brooklyn Fare W37th St - 9th/10th Ave

Press Lounge

Cellar 53 Wines & Spirits 10th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

11th Ave - 47th/48th St

Clinton Gourmet Market

Social Drink And Food Yotel, 10th Ave - 41st/42nd St

The Stinger

B&H Cameras 9th Ave - 34th St

Champion Stamp Company W54th St - 9th/10th Ave

Couture du Jour W44th St - 8th/9th Ave

10th Ave - 45th/46th St

Delphinium Home

Empire Coffee & Tea Company

W47th St - 8th/9th Ave

9th Ave - 41st/42nd St

W44th St - 8th/9th Ave

Esposito Meat Market

EATING & DRINKING IN

9th Ave - 37th/38th St

Grace Wine & Spirits

34th Street Wine & Spirits

W48th St - 9th/10th Ave

W34th St - 9th/10th Ave

9th Ave - 45th/46th St

9th Ave - 39th/40th St

8th Ave - 54th/55th St

Pocket Bar NYC Tartina

Big Apple Market

STYLE SHOP IT OUT

10th Ave - 43rd/44th St

Grand Cru Wine & Spirits 11th Ave - 43rd St

42nd Street Wine Loft

Gristedes

W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave

8th Ave - 53rd/54th St

Healthy Market Deli

TO GET YOUR HELL’S KITCHEN BUSINESS LISTING IN OUR DIRECTORY

Domus Unaffected Living W44th St - 9th/10th Ave Owners Luisa and Nicki work

10th Ave - 45th St

with artisans around the globe to

Hell’s Kitchen Brewtique

source unique home decor items,

9th Ave - 39th/40th St

International Grocery 9th Ave - 40th/41st St

Manhattan Plaza Winery

gifts and jewelry. Candles and cards make it a one-stop shop.

www.domusnewyork.com (212) 581-8099

9th Ave - 42nd/43rd St

Mazzella’s Market 9th Ave - 47th/48th St

Ninth Avenue Vintner 9th Ave - 46th/47th St

Odyssey Wine & Spirits 10th Ave - 37th/38th St

Fine And Dandy W49th St - 9th/10th Ave Ties, handkerchiefs, suspenders, socks, hats, jewelry, flasks, cards, books, gifts & more.

www.fineanddandyshop.com

Ray & Frank Liquor Store 9th Ave - 48th/49th St

Hell’s Kitchen

Sea Breeze Fish Market 9th Ave - 40th/41st St

Glitz & Glory 9th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

Simply Natural W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave

Stiles Farmers Market W52nd St - 8th/9th Ave

Sullivan Street Bakery W47th St - 10th/11th Ave

SUNAC Natural Market W42nd St - 11th Ave

Get one of these in your window

Terra Market 9th Ave -39th/40th St

The MKT @ Mercedes House

W39th St - 9th/10th Ave An authentic NY experience, one of the city’s oldest flea markets. Year

W54th St - 10th/11th Ave

round, each weekend. Antiques,

Veritas Studio Wines

vintage clothes, collectibles & more!

W45th St - 10th/11th Ave

Email us at sticker@w42st.com

Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market

Westerly Natural Market

info@hellskitchenfleamarket.com www.annexmarkets.com

8th Ave - 54th St

TO SEE YOUR YOUR BUSINESS LISTED IN THIS SECTION, EMAIL SALES@W42ST.COM

62

DIGITAL EDITION

Erik’s Barbershop

W50th St - 8th/9th Ave

10th Ave - 46th/47th St

Housing Works Thrift Shop

Grum’d Barber Shop

9th Ave - 49th/50th St

W46th St - 9th/10th Ave

TAGG

Hair 2 Stay

9th Ave - 48th/49th St

W44th St - 8th/9th Ave

Thrift & New Shop

Hell’s Kitchen Barbers

9th Ave - 43rd St

Al’s Cycle Solutions 10th Ave - 47th/48th St

historic walls where Pilates began.

or group yoga classes led by certified instructor, Brooke Blocker. Also offering worldwide

Join us at the original Joseph

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

Pilates Studio, check our website

Massage Envy

for class schedule.

W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave

www.rolates.com

Pura Dermatology

9th Ave - 50th/51st

42nd Nails & Spa

West Vibe Hair Salon

9th Avenue Barbershop 9th Ave - 37th/38th St

Ada Salon

yoga + wellness retreats.

(912) 313-9911 blockeryoga@gmail.com

Albano Salon 450 9th Ave - 35th/36th Ave W50th St - 9th/10th Ave

W35th St - 8th/9th Ave W46th St - 9th/10th Ave

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Greg Salvatori

Balloon Bouquets of NY

artist, and author of Beards of New

W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave

York. His work has been published

Jay Cleaners

in international publications, and

M2 Organic Cleaners

(347) 3990 875

9th Ave - 43rd/44th St 9th Ave - 54th/55th St

8th Ave - 44th/45th St

Schwartz Luggage Storage

Danny’s Cycles - Hell’s Kitchen

W37th St - 8th/9th Ave

Vera’s Shoe Repair

10th Ave - 46th/47th St

9th Ave - 45th/46th St

Enoch’s Bike Shop

READY FOR YOUR CLOSE-UP

10th Ave - 36th/37th Ave

Hell’s Kitchen Rolfing W51st St - 8th/9th Ave

Beba Blue

Liberty Bicycles

502 9th Ave - 38th/39th St

Pier 84 - Hudson River

Manhattan Plaza Health Club W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave

Mark Fisher Fitness W39th St - 9th/10th Ave

Mercedes Club W54th St - 10th/11th Ave

Mid City Gym W42nd St - 8th/9th Ave

NYC VELO W45th St - 10th/11th Ave

exhibited in Europe and the US.

info@GregSalvatori.com

VROOM 54th Street Auto Center W54th St - 9th/10th Ave

Cybert Tire and Car Care 11th Ave - 51st/52nd St

PETS

W52nd St - 8th/9th Ave

Manhattan Kayak Company

An award-winning photographer,

Westside Highway Car Wash

JCohen Chiropractic

9th Ave - 55th/56th St

www.gregsalvatori.com

LIVING

America’s Hairstyle International

www.cmilesstudio.com

Rafik Barber Shop Skintrade Tattoos

9th Ave - 41st/42nd St

Christian Miles Photography

W38th St - 9th/10th Ave

HELLO GORGEOUS

9th Ave - 54th/5th St

Cyc Fitness

Kolorbar

OUT

Get your zen on with private

9th Ave - 57th/58th St

Come enjoy a workout within our

W49 ST - 8th/9th Ave

www.blockeryoga.com

Jeunesse Hair Salon

939 8th Ave, Suite 207

TMPL Gym

Blocker Yoga

W56th St - 9th/10th Ave

Rolates Pilates

STYLE

FIT FOR ANYTHING

EAT

Grishko Dancewear

W47th St - 12th Ave

OUT BROADWAY BABY

We are hair color specialists.

Unlimited color $180 for 3 months. Unlimited blow dry $100

Ars Nova Theater

a month.

W54th St - 10th/11th Ave

(212) 792-6999 www.bebablue.com

Nacho Guevara Photography

Best Barber

www.nachoguevara.com

10th Ave - 48th/49th St

I’m a professional portrait and

David Ryan Salon

fashion photographer committed

W46th St - 9th/10th Ave

to producing highly creative

De Lido Hair Salon

pictures with a unique look.

iguedur@gmail.com (773) 441-9455

8th Ave - 52nd/53rd St

Dramatics NYC

Davenport Theater

W45th St - 8th/9th Ave

Ensemble Studio Theatre W52nd St - 10th/11th Ave

New Dramatists

W44th St - 9th/10th Ave

Signature Theatre

W42nd St - 9th/10th Ave

The Lark Theatre

W43rd St - 8th/9th Ave

W57th St - 8th/9th Ave

TO SEE YOUR YOUR BUSINESS LISTED IN THIS SECTION, EMAIL SALES@W42ST.COM

DIGITAL EDITION

63

The New Group

W42nd St - 9th/10th Ave

MUSICAL INTERLUDE Birdland

W44th St - 8th/9th Ave

Jazz at Lincoln Center 10 Columbus Circle

Orchestra of St. Luke’s W37th St - 9th/10th Ave

GET YOUR ART ON

Mud Sweat & Tears 10th Ave - 46th St

Space Ibiza

W50th St - 11th/12th Ave

SEE THE SIGHTS Circle Line

W42nd St - 12th Ave

Hudson River Park

original, affordable art made by local

10th Ave - 42nd St

Hampton Inn - Times Square North

PETS

8th Ave - 51st/52nd St

Coco and Toto

Hampton Inn - Times Square South

11th Ave - 51st/52nd St 10th Ave - 51st/52nd St

W46th St - 12th Ave

W42nd St - 6th/7th Ave

Javits Center

Hilton Times Square

W34th St - 11th Ave

W42nd St - 7th/8th Ave

NY Waterway Ferry The Daily Show

Holiday Inn - Times Square South

11th Ave - 51st/52nd St

8th Ave - 38th/39th St

Tom Otterness Playground

Holiday Inn Express - Midtown West W48th St - 10th/11th Ave

Holiday Inn Express - Times Square

Alvin Ailey Theater

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

W55th St - 9th Ave

Baryshnikov Arts Center W37th St - 9th/10th Ave

Homewood Suites New York W37th St - 8th/9th Ave

Hotel Mela W44th St - 6th/7th Ave

STAYCATION

Ink 48 Hotel, a Kimpton Hotel

414 Hotel

11th Ave - 47th/48th Ave

W46th St - 9th/10th Ave W48th St - 8th/9th Ave

Candlewood Suites Times Square

9th Ave - 38th/39th St

W36th St - 9th/10th Ave

Residence Inn New York Row NYC Hotel 8th Ave - 44th/45th St

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

Skyline Hotel

10th Ave - 46th/47th St

Comfort Inn Midtown West

Custom picture framing and

W48th St - 10th/11th Ave

10th Ave - 49th/50th St

Staybridge Suites

canvas stretching, and mirrors a

Comfort Inn Times Square West

Times Square

specialty.

W44th St - 8th/9th Ave

W40th St - 8th/9th Ave

jaditeart@gmail.com

Courtyard Marriott

The Knickerbocker

art, conservation framing,

Sean Kelly Gallery 10th Ave - 36th/37th St

TIME TO PLAY

Frames Bowling Lounge 9th Ave - 40th/41st St

Lucky Strike

W42nd St - 12th Ave

9th Ave - 49th/50th St

Pure Paws Veterinary Care W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave We all want what is best for our pets; beginning with exceptional veterinary care. Pure Paws of Hell’s Kitchen provides cutting-edge services for dogs and cats.

(917) 534-7838

The Spot Experience W42nd St - 11th/12th Ave

Westside Animal Hospital W46th St - 9th/10th Ave

LIVING W47th St - 8th/9th Ave

6th Ave - 38th/39th St

Comfort Inn & Suites Times Square South

Petland Discounts

New York Marriott Marquis Quality Inn Convention Center

Cassa Times Square Hotel

10th Ave - 43rd/44th St

RENT OR BUY

Broadway - 45th/46th St

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

Pet Ark

W40th St - 8th/9th Ave

Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites

Belvedere Hotel

Jadite Galleries

Yotel New York

W46th St - 8th/9th Ave

Happy Feet

artists living with mental illness.

www.fountainhousegallery.org ariel@fountaingallerynyc.com

French Quarters Apartments

Hilton Garden Inn Times Square

LET’S DANCE Our gallery exhibits and sells

8th Ave - 34th/35th St

W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

W42st - 11th/12th Ave

9th Ave - 48th St

Wyndham New Yorker

W40th St - 8th/9th St

Intrepid Museum

12th Ave - 34th/59th St

12th Ave - 39th/40th St

Fountain House Gallery

Four Points by Sheraton

W37th St - 8th/9th Ave

W42nd St - Broadway

DoubleTree by Hilton

The OUT NYC

318W47

360 W43rd St W43rd St - 8th/9th Ave

420W42 W42nd St - 9th/10th Ave

432W52 W52nd St - 9th/10th Ave

535W43 W43rd St - 10th/11th Ave

Addison Hall W57th St - 9th/10th Ave

Crystal Green W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

Emerald Green W38th St - 8th/9th Ave

W36th St - 8th/9th Ave

W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave

Gotham West

Econo Lodge Times Square

The Time Hotel

W45th St - 10th/11th Ave

W49th St - 7th/8th Ave

Instrata at Mercedes House

Travel Inn

W54th St - 10th/11th Ave

W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave

Manhattan Plaza

W47th St - 8th/9th Ave

Element Times Square West W39th St - 8th/9th Ave

Washington Jefferson Hotel

EVEN Hotel

W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave

W51st St - 8th/9th Ave

W35th - 8th/9th Ave

TO SEE YOUR YOUR BUSINESS LISTED IN THIS SECTION, EMAIL SALES@W42ST.COM

64

DIGITAL EDITION

Mercedes House

GO FOR BROKERS

W54th St - 10th/11th Ave

Midwest Court W53rd St - 9th/10th Ave

One MiMa Tower W42nd St - 9th/10th Ave

One River Place W42nd St - 11th/12th Ave

Riverbank West W43rd St - 10th/11th Ave

Hillary Davis

Silver Towers

Sothebys International Realty

W42nd St - 11th/12th Ave

Expert in the Hamptons sales and

SKY

rentals. Summer is almost here!

W42nd St - 11th/12th Ave

Give me a call.

The Armory

(631) 613-7342

W42nd St - 10th/11th Ave

Hillary.Davis@sothebyshomes. com

The Helena W57th St - 11th/12th Ave

The Helux W43rd St - 10th/11th Ave

The Orion Condominium W42nd St - 8th/9th Ave

The Park Clinton W52nd St - 10th/11th Ave

The Westport W56th St - 10th/11th Ave

Two Worldwide Plaza

Isaac Halpern

W50th St - 8th/9th Ave

Halstead Property

VIA 57WEST

I live in Hell’s Kitchen and I specialize

W57th St - 12th Ave

in sales and rentals in the neighborhood. Contact me to find the perfect home for you!

FIX IT UP

(646) 641-0145 ihalpern@halstead.com

Adam 99 Cents & Up

10th Ave - 51st/52nd St

American Home Hardware 9th Ave - 42nd/43rd St

Clinton Glass & Mirrors 9th Ave - 46th/47th St

Columbus Hardware 9th Ave - 55th/56th St

Epstein’s Paint Center

W52nd St - 10th/11th Ave

Framing on 9th

9th Ave - 51st/52nd St

Ian TD Smith

Fresh Cut Flowers

TD Realty Corp

W43rd St - 9th/10th Ave

As a native and long term

Gotham Mini Storage

resident of Hell’s Kitchen, Ian

10th Ave - 38th/39th St

provides extensive real estate

Jadite Custom Picture Framing

services to his neighbors in

10th Ave - 46th/47th St

and out of the The Kitchen.

Matles Florist

(917) 216-2771

W57th - 8th/9th Ave

Prudence Design & Events W36th St - 8th/9th Ave

DIGITAL EDITION

65

LAST WORD

“Never be bullied into silence.

Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”

Harvey Fierstein

H

appy birthday to the outspoken, always original Harvey Fierstein, the actor/ playwright behind the multiple Tony Award winning Kinky Boots who turns 63 on June 6.

Openly gay at a time few other celebrities were, Brooklyn-born Fierstein first made an impact on Broadway with his semi-autobiographical Torch Song Trilogy, the story of a drag queen living and loving in 1970s New York. It won him a matching pair of Tonys in 1983.

Other Broadway roles followed, in La Cage aux Folles, and the 2002 production of Hairspray, and he wrote the book for 2012’s Newsies.

66

Then there were the movies: Mrs Doubtfire; Bullets over Broadway; Independence Day, as well as the film version of Torch Song Trilogy, in which he starred alongside Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft.

His distinctive vocals also provided the narration for the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, and he voiced the role of Yao in the 1998 Disney animated feature Mulan.

And now there’s talk of him making a return to Disney. Composer Alan Menken, who is rumored to be working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on a live-action reboot of The Little Mermaid, recently revealed Fierstein as his dream choice

DIGITAL EDITION

to play Ursula the sea witch (a character originally inspired by Divine).

“I’ve wanted Harvey Fierstein to play Ursula,” Menken said. “I would kill for that!”

Fierstein, who was starring in Gently Down The Stream at The Public last month, responded via Facebook saying: “Oh, Alan, no need to kill anyone. Your wish is my command. As for the rest of you … you poor unfortunate souls!!!!!”

Is this all too much to hope for?

In other news, Second Stage Theatre is to stage a 35th anniversary production of Torch Song Trilogy this fall, starring Michael Urie in the central role.

It will be called simply Torch Song.