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Summertime In New York City
by Brian Sands
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

What was once the Big Bad Apple with foul-mouthed cabbies and muggers around every corner has been transformed into something almost as quaintly American as Apple Pie. Schoolmarmish Mayor Rudy Giuliani, determined to improve the quality of life, has some folks carping about new restrictions and reductions of sidewalk vendors and food stands but, gosh darnit, most New Yorkers actually seem nicer these days. Some even smile. Who knew?

As always, in addition to things on the scheduled agenda, Manhattan had some surprises in store during a recent visit there. Lincoln Center Library presented Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach in a free performance of their delightful Tennessee Williams Remembered.

"Stars in Shubert Alley" provided on hour's worth of outdoor entertainment with the riotous John (To Wong Foo...) Leguizamo, Laura Linney (The Truman Show), Victor Garber (Titanic, the movie) and songs from nearly all the musicals on Broadway. And as it was Fleet Week there were free tours of Navy ships and lots of sailors running around. Ahoy, mate!

Here's a wrap-up of the sights, sounds and tastes from a recent excursion to NYC:

The Art Scene

Unlike previous visits, this time some of the top shows were in small galleries where you can walk in without hassle and there's rarely a crowd. C & M Arts (45 E. 78 St.) had a superb exhibit, Picasso's Dora Maar/deKooning's Women, which explored the influence each artist had on the other.

Further downtown, Babcock Galleries (724 Fifth Ave.) presented Seeking the Spiritual: The Paintings of Marsden Hartley which provided a fascinating overview of this tortured artist's career. Particularly striking was The Lifeguard, a powerfully homoerotic work. Nearby at the Jan Krugier Gallery (41 E. 57 St.) was Paul Klee: Traces of Memory featuring a fine selection of the Swiss artist's playfully contemplative works. And on the same floor at the Danese Gallery, fans of Josef Albers could enjoy multiple versions of his Homage to the Square.

Down in the Chelsea area, amidst all the many spaces with rather abstruse offerings, I discovered the non-profit Art Resources Transfer (504 W. 22 St.) that both exhibits art and publishes books based on conversations between artists. They were getting ready for their annual fundraising lottery ($750 a ticket-cheap by New York standards). My favorite? Jack Pierson's Untitled (Lifeguard)-do you notice a pattern developing here?

Continuing down to the more commercial arena of Soho, the Cortland Jessup Gallery (670 Broadway, #505) was premiering Patrick Webb's Punchinello Works Out, a fantabulous series of paintings and drawings in which the tragicomic clown confronts the presence of mortality, age and desire in that most quotidian of settings, the work-out gym. If you're in Provincetown this summer visit Cortland's gallery there at 432 Commercial St.

Though not a gallery per se, the New York Public Library (5th Ave. & 42nd St.) has a number of spaces that feature ever-changing exhibits. A banner prominently flying on Fifth Avenue drew me into Robert Giard's Photo Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Quentin Crisp, Edward Albee and many more.

From there I enjoyed Charles Addams' Mother Goose (one cartoon features a small Godzilla emerging from Humpty Dumpty's broken shell) and a display of 1960s and '70s countercultural literary publications. Be sure not to miss the third floor McGraw Rotunda with phenomenal WPA murals representing the history of the written word-Moses' tablets, a medieval scribe, the Gutenberg press and typesetting. Guess they'll have to add one for computers next.

Though there were no blockbuster shows at any of the museums, the Whitney had an intriguing presentation of Louise Nevelson sculptures and a nice exhibition of Andrew Wyeth landscapes. Best of all is the new fifth floor space for their permanent collection featuring Alexander Calder, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keefe and many more stars of 20th century American art.

The Park Scene

To transition from the art world to the park world, spend a few hours in the magnificent Metropolitan Museum and then emerge into one of New York's jewels, Central Park. Fabulous all year long, it takes on an extra vibrancy in summer with added events and people forsaking the hot cement streets for verdant hills and meadows.

I recently discovered two areas unknown to me as a child growing up in the City. A multimillion dollar restoration project in the northeast corner of the Park has transformed the formal Conservatory Garden into a gorgeous spot for a picnic or a wedding and the Harlem Meer (lake) into a beautiful area where a multiethnic array of infants to seniors comes to fish, play ball or just hang out.

I was also jealous of the park's many playgrounds that have evolved from the traditional slides, swings and see-saws when I was a kid into paragons of inventiveness, particularly one on the West Side with an African theme where fiberglass hippos gave rides to tots.

Fortunately, two fixtures of my youth remain the same, the Alice in Wonderland statue on the north end of the Boating Pond and the Hans Christian Andersen one on the western side, though looking a bit smaller than they once did. Close to Hans some people had kindly set up telescopes so that passersby could observe a family of hawks that were nesting across from the pond on the 12th-floor ledge of a Fifth Avenue apartment building. Three chicks that were just about ready to leave the nest were absolutely adorable.

Equally adorable were the animals in the zoo at 63rd Street, once a cement-walls-and-bars monstrosity, now a state of the art facility with tropic, temperate and polar zones manned by friendly, informed keepers. Colobus monkeys, penguins, bats, otters, polar bears and a red panda all delight but the highlight remains the thrice daily feeding of the sea lions.

For more adult entertainment, head to the Great Lawn where the New York Philharmonic will be giving concerts followed by fireworks on July 30. At the adjacent Delacorte Theater, this year's free Shakespeare in the Park will be Cymbeline (Aug. 4-30). And for even more adult entertainment continue through Belvedere Castle into the Rambles where amidst the many frogs you just might find your prince. (Use discretion as I've been told that plainclothesmen on dick patrol are around these days.)

Ellis Island

Now home to both a park and a museum, Ellis Island is one of this country's most important historic sites. The port of entry for some 12 million people from 1892 to 1954, descendants of these original immigrants now account for almost 40% of America's population. Having been abandoned and fallen into disrepair, the Main Building was completely refurbished in time to reopen for the immigrant depot's centennial in 1992 as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

And what a museum it is! There are restored areas such as the Baggage Room, the Registry Room and a hearing room. Numerous gallery spaces focus on different parts of the immigrant experience including the journey over, work and labor unions, religion, recreation, children and anti-immigrant sentiments. There are films, a collection of family heirlooms brought to America by immigrants and an oral history archive containing interviews with those who were processed at Ellis Island.

One section takes you step by step through the procedures immigrants faced including medical exams, literacy tests, legal barriers, mental health qualifications and the terrible threat of being sent back if you failed any of these. Currently occupying one of the changing exhibit areas is a wide-ranging photo display including one of Albert Einstein at the Grand Canyon wearing an Indian headdress. Most poignant of all is a section called "Silent Voices" which showcases photographs and artifacts from the period when the building and island were deserted.

In all, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum is an incredible experience that fosters limitless admiration for all who made the arduous journey to our shores and enables us to appreciate how fortunate are we who were born here.

Though I only visited Ellis Island, your $7 round trip ticket from Battery Park allows you to stop at the Statue of Liberty as well. You can easily make this a daylong trip as there are restaurants and grassy spaces from where you can enjoy the spectacular view of lower Manhattan.

Part of the fun is the boat ride over itself. The boats have unintentionally campy names like Miss Circle Line and Miss Gateway while the young crewmen could provide fantasy fodder for days-talk about your New York sights! The passengers represent every ethnic group imaginable from Yeshiva boys to Indians with turbans to representatives of every continent except Antarctica.

My journey happened to include El Mexterminator, a Tex-Mex performance artist with tattoos painted on his face who plays with south-of-the-border images and (mis)concepts in public appearances, visual pieces and live Internet chats. Only in New York.

The Theater Scene

Despite Broadway's record-breaking attendance and ticket sales, New York's current theater offerings are like a big buffet where only a few dishes are really good. Hope the following helps you to choose wisely.

Unquestionably, the best new show in town is Yasmina Reza's Art (Royale Theater), whose Tony Award for Best Play was richly deserved. A dissection of aesthetics and the nature of friendship, Art is a brilliant play of ideas from the comical to the heartbreaking. Though Victor Garber and Alfred Molina provide wonderfully etched characterizations, Alan Alda paints a sublime portrait of the group's philistine, in a performance that was somewhat underrated by the critics. Try to catch this flawless acting ensemble before they are scheduled to leave in August and, while the play itself is not flawless, it's pretty darn close.

If you love the tango as I do, the scintillating dancers of Luis Bravo's Forever Tango (Marquis Theater) are sure to quicken your heartbeat as their legs move in seemingly impossible ways. Once past the tacky wigs in the obligatory brothel scene, Tango serves up an evening of that most stylish, and occasionally humorous, terpsichorean expression of the soul. And the gowns are to die for.

In Shakespeare's R & J (John Houseman Studio Theater), four young male actors capture the fervor of adolescents while portraying all members of the famous feuding families. Adapter/director Joe Calarco sets the action in an all-boys school and, though the gay subtext remains unresolved, stretches imagination to the limit. For example, a bolt of red cloth, the sole prop, metamorphoses into swords, dresses, a cloak and blood. In a cast of equals, redheaded Sean Dugan stands out as, among others, Mercutio and Lady Capulet, quite a pairing. If the first act is more inventive, the whole is thrillingly theatrical.

And then there's Titanic (Lunt-Fontanne Theater), the musical, the show that wouldn't sink. In this first class production, the fine cast rises above the tedious direction yet all are eclipsed by the incredible sequence when the ship finally goes down, the only emotionally bracing moment in the show. You keep wishing that Peter (1776) Stone's book and Maury (Nine) Yeston's score were better, but instead come out humming the scenery.

I'll admit I'm not a big rock music fan so maybe I shouldn't pass judgement on the new glam rock/drag award-winning musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the way off-Broadway Jane Street Theater. Some have found this tale of an East German who suffers a botched sex change operation and follows his lover to a Kansas City trailer park to be witty, moving and profound. I thought it was self-indulgent, pretentious and loud. (If you do choose to see this, note that talented actor/rocker Michael Cerveris (Broadway's Tommy and Titanic, TV's Fame) will be Hedwig through August 2.)

Despite some fine performances, particularly Anna Manahan as the mean-spirited mother, I was underwhelmed by the award-winning Beauty Queen of Leenane, which to me seemed like a Twilight Zone episode directed by Quentin Tarantino. Perhaps I had trouble with the Irish accents. Or perhaps I just wasn't that impressed with a show about insanity and revenge when all you have to do is read the papers for tales of teenagers going on shooting sprees.

The Club/Bar Scene

Not much has changed on the New York gay bar scene. Chelsea still rules with the fabulousm g lounge (223 W. 19 St.), the newly renovated Splash (50 W. 17 St.) and Barracuda (275 W. 22 St.) which on Wednesday nights features Hedda Lettuce's wacky "GAME SHOW!" with rules straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Dim-witted contestants with thirteen inch schlongs seem to be the norm.

The once happening East Village scene is now down to basically three rather subdued bars-The Boiler Room (86 E. 4 St.), Dick's Bar (192 2nd Ave.) and Wonder Bar (505 E. 6 St.). What happened?

Actually the most fun I had was at Webster Hall (125 E. 11 St.) which used to be the Ritz and long before that a community center where bar mitvahs were held. A mixed crowd circulates among three eclectically decorated levels enjoying disco, hip-hop or head-banging music as the mood strikes. Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, drag queen Auntie Freeze charmingly holds court there.

And for those, Gay or straight, who want to be seen where the elite meet, head to the Royalton (44 W. 44 St.), Ian Schrager's Philip Stark-designed tribute to post-modernism where for $4.50 they'll serve you half a bag of potato chips with a little dipping sauce. Me? I'll take a buck-fifty slice of pizza from any of the City's wonderfully multitudinous pizza parlors!

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