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I just returned home from a week in New York City, which started with an exhausting 26-hour train journey up from Florida. As a former resident and frequent visitor to the city, I thought I could do a mini review of the performances and foods from my itinerary.
Under The Radar is an annual experimental theater festival which recently reorganized from one venue to dozens of associated events. I don't know anything about theater but happened upon a story on it in an old New Yorker magazine while traveling. Something about the plays being temporary and unusual captured my attention more than maybe sending myself to sit through a musical like Wicked.
I was able to see three events from UTR. I also attended a walking tour and a newer Broadway musical.
- TECHNE: more of a digital art piece at BAM. There was theater seating or you could stand by the screens and produce sort of a virtual shadow. An image such as an airplane would be morphing into other airplanes while moving or panning, this looked to be a diffusion model on one base video or going through diffusion model space. New scenes were being introduced, so it wasn't looping, but I didn't know how long to sit at this type of thing.
- The 7th Voyage: based on a time warp short story by Stanisław Lem, at NYTW. The creators worked together during early 2020 to create a piece which one actor could perform at home. A closet can be rearranged to be different modules on a spaceship, and after entering the vortex the actor is on stage talking to his past and future selves, stitched together on a large screen. The performer had great comedic timing. The person sitting next to me laughed even during scene changes.
- Blind Runner is performed in Persian/Farsi language with subtitles displayed behind. Venue was in DUMBO / Brooklyn. There is a mostly empty stage where a man visits his wife in prison in Iran. Both are runners. She implores him to help a blind woman resume marathon running.
- I always hear things about the Tenement Museum. The concept of living history actors is always a little weird, and my ancestors went straight to the mills, so I never went. The neighborhood walking tour was a pleasant alternative, an hour of someone pointing out things which I would never notice on my own. They would back up everything with photos and histories of people from the museum's apartments.
Maybe Happy Ending is a musical about Korean robots. Reviewers inevitably compare it to Pixar (WALL-E and EVE) and marvel at stage effects.
To be clear I was along for the ride. It was very cute and when musicians were on stage in a big triumphant moment I was wowed. The humor of robots watching Terminator 2 worked for me but didn't seem to land with the crowd =\
The Broadway subreddit loves this show, but has a way of talking about it, like how movie people rally around a new romcom for showing that Hollywood can still make romcoms. And it's not the type of music where I picture someone listening to it in the car. Also the first scene made me feel one of the robots might be autism-coded?
The play has a history of success in Seoul and Atlanta, but the Broadway iteration started two months ago as "a new musical" so I learned a bit at UTR and here about life cycle of theatrical performances.
And here are some food picks:
- Russ & Daughters: loved the shtetl - sable and goat cream cheese on a sesame bagel. Got a babka for a gift but it was just OK.
- The Handpulled Noodle: tried it in Uptown Manhattan 2021, now they have a Hells Kitchen location. I got the ding ding noodles and pork, probably would try a more conventional noodle bowl next time because they have such great reviews and mine was more like a curry or gravy.
- Datz Deli: get a Guyanese "mac patty", for example oxtails mac and cheese on a bun. I was originally headed to Fluffies Hot Chicken and it looked popular, so shout-out to them too.
- Namkeen: halal hot chicken sandwiches from TikTok; I also tried to visit Bagel Joint but they were closed.
- Ichibantei: lunch specials, got a good ramen
- Bonchon: Korean fried chicken tenders, new recipe. They were inexplicably takeout-only so I ate hot chicken while standing freezing in one of those Broadway pedestrian areas.
- Kati Roll Company: NYC favorite, has a spot convenient to Fulton Center
- Efes Grill, Jersey City: had manti = mini Turkish lamb dumplings
- South House, Jersey City: burger, fries, and broccoli, they did good
Other NYC things which were new for me:
- There were many announcements and posters about subway surfing, including in the PATH stations.
- Recently in the NYC subreddits people will say they got caught up in a panic on the subway (people ducking, pulling the emergency brake, evacuating) where afterward it's unclear if there was a gun, a fight, or nothing happened. After the attacks on January 1st when details were still trickling in, there was even more of a risk to get caught up in a panic. Fortunately everything was chill.
- Every PATH train is carrying workers with delivery eBikes into the city. Could the eBikes be parked in NYC somewhere?