Broadway Lullaby

'Come on along and listen to 
The lullaby of Broadway.
The hip hooray and bally hoo, 
The lullaby of Broadway.
The rumble of the subway train,
The rattle of the taxis.
The daffy-dills who entertain
At Angelo's and Maxie's.

When a Broadway baby says "Good night,"
It's early in the morning.
Manhattan babies don't sleep tight until the dawn:
Good night, baby,
Good night, milkman's on his way.
Sleep tight, baby,
Sleep tight, let's call it a day,
Listen to the lullaby of old Broadway.'


Just warming up here, you know....dialing up 'The Lullaby of Broadway' yields up Jerry Orbach in younger days belting it out in 42nd Street.  'Listen to the Lullaby of Old Broadway!'  If you can't hear it right now, open up a new tab on the computer and do it.


So, all right, we aren't going to hear 42nd Street, even though its high on my life list, but we are going to fulfill an ongoing daydream, hop a flight to New York, and take in a show on Broadway.  This week.  And not just any music:  the music of GERSHWIN' s Porgy and Bess.
We're going to be in the theater with  Summertime, I Got Plenty of Nuthin', It Ain't Necessarily So, and finally, 'I'm on My Way'. The soaring choruses, the electrifying melodies, and, in this case, the marvelous instrument that is Audra McDonald's voice.

I may be overselling this event, or over anticipating? Is that possible? You be the judge.


 Here's the Carlyle Hotel, a block from Central Park on Madison Avenue.  Art Deco jewel, ready to be photographed in shameless tourist fashion.  Back in the day, a tourist required a better wardrobe than the Griswolds sport.  As an audience member  at the Richard Rodgers theater and patron of the Carlyle, I've been doing some window shopping for something appropriate to the Gershwin era.  See what you think of these vintage gowns.

Velvet 40s opera coat

Nice huh?  The blue velvet is so elegant, but we are attending a matinee, so perhaps the midlength brown lace would be more appropriate?  Either way, it is still winter in New York so I'd better add this:  

Mysterious w/ veil?

  

It would cover a bad hair day

I rather like the velvet over one ear

But wait....silly me.  I can't possibly don these vintage 1930s or 1940s duds without a HAT!  Do you have any idea how many vintage hats there are on the web? How does anyone choose?  I'm not a big risk taker...not attempting to mimic Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, so I'll be fairly modest and make sure my topper doesn't catch a concrete canyon gust.

We are people meeting ourselves coming and going.  The road is a job; a mobile phone on wheels. Point to point, we know the minutes involved with every mile marker. Each day is a dot on Google.  Nothing romantic, no mystery, no guessing what's 'round the bend. 


 But what travel can be is an escape, an adventure, an experience proceeding from and leading to 'Memory'.


( Memory, all alone in the moonlight

I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again.)

(CATS..on the calendar for February!

Omaha, not New York...:)
 

What's the harm if its 'Only Make Believe'?  


 "All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,".........

Its the magic;its the company; its the music; its the memories.  Its our turn to take the stage as bit players.  After all, Sportin' Life says,

There's a boat that's leavin' soon for New York
Come with me, that's where we belong sister
You an' me Kin live that high life in New York
Come with me, there we can't go wrong sister
I'll buy you the swellest mansion
Up on upper Fifth Avenue
An' thru Harlem we'll go struttin'
We'll go a struttin'
An' there'll be nuttin'
Too good for you
I'll dress up in silks and satins
In the latest Paris styles
And de blues you'll be forgettin'
You'll be forgettin'
There'll be no frettin'
Just nothin' but smiles'

Come along with me.........