New York City Survives, Thrives

As a lovely counterpoint to the grim post below this one, yesterday I attended the annual Broadway On Broadway, a free concert in Times Square featuring the casts of current and upcoming Broadway shows, where host Martin Short and 50,000 theatre fans showed the world that New York City still gloriously, exhuberantly, spectacularly, survive and thrives.

The Farmboyz, David and I enjoyed two hours of great performances from the casts of Spamalot, The Producers, Hairspray, Grey Gardens, The Drowsy Chaperone and many others. In the final number, Martin Short and the cast of his hit show, Fame Becomes Me, brought down Times Square with the fittingly titled, Stop The Show, featuring the amazing Capathia Jenkins, who sang, "If your plot’s running thin, and the ticket sales are slow, let a big black lady stop the show." And then she proceeded to do just that. We particularly liked the line of the song in which she asks, "Why is it when I sing on Broadway, even gospel, R&B or blues, all the songs are written by gay white Jews?" (Stop The Show was written by Tony-winning gay white Jews Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.)

Martin Short brought all of Broadway back on the stage for an encore (pictured above), which of course, was New York, New York. Standing in Times Square on a perfect afternoon, watching those great performers belt out the city's anthem as several tons of confetti fell on our heads, the 50,000 0f us, impossibly, fell in love with New York City just a little bit more.