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Morgans Hotel Group in April unveiled Tequila Park, a new taqueria (taco shack) and tequila bar located in the Private Park of New York’s Hudson. The Hudson will also be opening two other outdoor facilities in May: Hudson Common’s Patio and Sky Terrace. All three outdoor destinations are located at 356 West 58th Street at Hudson New York.
Tequila Park serves over 40 varieties of tequila as well as a dozen mezcals. The cocktail menu features “common” and “uncommon” types of fresh fruit margaritas made by mixologist Julio Torres. Morgans Hotel Group’s Executive Chef Steve Peterson fused traditional Mexican street food with non-traditional flavors to create Tequila Park’s menu of tacos, and antojitos (Mexican street-vendor food). All menu items are served with a trio of Tequila Park’s homemade salsas: Verde, Chipotle, and Habanero Cherry Salsa. Food is available Tuesday through Friday from 4pm to 11pm, Saturday 2pm to 9pm; Drinks are available Monday through Friday from 4pm to 12am, Saturday 2pm to 12am and Sunday 4pm to 12am.
Harold Prince has earned a record-breaking 21 Tony Awards in his 60-year career as a Broadway director and producer, and he’s finally getting a musical celebration of his work. Prince of Broadway, a new Broadway revue, is scheduled to open in November at a to-be-announced theater. Even better, Prince himself will direct, and the production will be co-directed and choreographed by five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman.
According to a statement, the musical will look at the circumstances and fortune, both good and bad, that led to Hal Prince to create some of the most enduring and beloved theatre of all time, including The Pajama Game, West Side Story, Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, and The Phantom of the Opera, the longest-running show in Broadway history
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The Algonquin Hotel tapped hospitality design firm Intra-Spec to lead its makeover. The renovations are expected to “bring a contemporary ambience while guest rooms, suites and public spaces will maintain décor that is familiar and comfortable”.
Each of the 181 Algonquin guest rooms, including 25 suites, will be updated to reflect a New York residential feel that combines modern design with classic New York City look, the focal point being customized “picture window” headboards, featuring backlit black and white 1920′s photographed by Irving Underhill. New silk-screened damask chandeliers and lights show off new tones of gold, black and tan in the rooms. Each room and suite will feature Roman shades and furnishings, 300 thread count sheets, European pillows and custom made noise reducing heating and cooling. Rooms with bay windows will include a built-in reading seat for guests. New furniture, flat screen TVs, technological amenities like makeup mirrors and additional power outlets will also be available.
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Good news if you’re headed to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival: Conrad Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Hotels & Resorts have announced a new three-year partnership with the international Festival, and both brands will serve as Official Hotel Partners of the event.
The partnership comes as Conrad enters New York City with the opening of the Conrad New York, the hotel brand’s nineteenth property and one of six new properties expected to open this year.
As Official Partners of the Tribeca Film Festival, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts will serve as the destinations for key TFF events, and offer guests and film enthusiasts opportunities to attend film screenings and exclusive events. To celebrate the opening of the Conrad New York, a new 463 luxury, all-suite hotel in New York’s Financial District, the property will host the Festival’s 2012 Award Celebration. Hilton New York Fashion District, a hotel on West 27th street just off Seventh Avenue, will serve as a hub for filmmakers and industry attendees throughout the 2012 festival.
Single ticket and discounted ticket package sales begin on Monday, April 16 for the general public. Single tickets can be purchased online, by telephone, or at one of the Ticket Outlets, with locations at Tribeca Cinemas at 54 Varick Street, Chelsea Clearview Cinemas at 260 W. 23rd Street, and AMC Loews Village VII at 66 Third Avenue. For more information, visit www.tribecafilm.com.
Big Broadway news from the Wall Street Journal: Legendary comedian Jerry Lewis has announced that his latest project, a Broadway musical of his classic film The Nutty Professor, will come to the Great White Way this year.
Lewis will direct, but not appear in, the adaptation of the 1963 movie, which he co-wrote, directed and starred in as Julius Kelp, a bumbling professor who invents a love potion. He also doubled as Buddy Love, a suave womanizer (reportedly based on Lewis’ frequent partner Dean Martin, though Lewis always denied the connection). Eddie Murphy starred in a remake of the movie in 1996.
The musical is planned to open in November, and will have music by Marvin Hamlisch (“A Chorus Line”), book by Rupert Holmes (“The Mystery of Edwin Drood”) and choreography by Kathleen Marshall (recent Broadway revivals of “Anything Goes” and “The Pajama Game”).
No word yet on which theater will get the show, but tickets will most likely be available at www.telecharge.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
The Conrad New York has opened its doors in Manhattan’s Battery Park City neighborhood, right on the Hudson River waterfront. The 463 all-suite hotel is the first New York property from Conrad Hotels & Resorts.
The design sounds wonderful: Guests enter into a sunlit 15-story atrium highlighted by a blue and purple Sol LeWitt painting rising 13 floors above the registration desk. (Fun fact: The work, entitled Loopy Doopy (Blue and Purple), is reportedly LeWitt’s largest, spanning 100 feet x 80 feet, and required 100 gallons of paint and 3,000 hours to finish.)
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There is no shortage of jazz clubs in Manhattan, but fans on the other four boroughs might have a bit of a harder time finding their favorite live music. Fear not! The 13th Annual Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival-Jazz: A Music of the Spirit will run from March 30 until April 30, presented by the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium. This music series is New York City’s longest continuously running grassroots festival dedicated to jazz. More than 500 artists will be performing in 40 events at venues from Coney Island to Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Performances include a salute to Gil Scott-Heron with Abiodun Oyewole and a tribute to Gloria Lynne by Lil Phillips. Other concerts: Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, and a celebration of the music of Kenny Dorham and Cecil Payne by the Long Island University Brooklyn music faculty. Jazz great, Bob Cunningham, will be inducted into the Brooklyn Jazz Hall of Fame by way of an all star jam session. Jazz performers of tomorrow are showcased during a Youth Jazz Jamboree at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza.
For information, including tickets, visit www.centralbrooklynjazzconsortium.org.
There’s been some big announcements this week about what we can expect to see on Broadway this season.
The trend of adapting Whoopi Goldberg movies into Broadway musicals is continuing: First there was The Color Purple, which ran for several years and won star LaChanze a Tony Award. Then came London import Sister Act, which is still running. And now, following from across the pond is Ghost, with a book adapted by Bruce Joel Rubin from his screenplay for the 1990 film. According to the New York Times, the musical will have a score by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, will open in April at a Nederlander Theater. No word yet on casting, but the London production stars Richard Fleeshman and Hair’s Caissie Levy as the main couple (Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in the film) and Sharon D. Clarke will pick up Goldberg’s mantle as the psychic who tries to help them. (So when will we get Jumpin’ Jack Flash: The Musical?)
Also in the spring will be a new production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, only five years after the most recent revival. This production is set to follow in the footsteps of the 2008 Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and like that production will have an all-minority cast, giving actors who might otherwise never get to play these iconic roles the chance of a lifetime. According to the Times, Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker are set to play Stanley and Blanche, and Rent’s Daphne Rubin-Vega will play timid Stella. The production will be directed by Emily Mann, and no theater or official opening date has been announced yet.
Tickets will most likely be available on telecharge.com.
Antique Roadshow junkies out there? If your style is out with the new, in with the old, you will love the Winter Antiques Show, celebrating its 58th year in January.
From January 20-29 at New York’s Park Avenue Armory (67th Street and Park Avenue), collectors will gather to view objects exhibited by 75 specialists in American, English, European and Asian fine and decorative arts from antiquity through the 1960s.
U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management will sponsor the Opening Night Party with Sallie Krawcheck, president of Global Wealth and Investment Management, Bank of America.
All net proceeds from the show will benefit East Side House Settlement.
Cool touch: The 2012 loan exhibition, Celebrating Historic Hudson Valley at 60: Rockefeller Patronage in Sleepy Hollow Country, marks the 60th anniversary of John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s founding of Sleepy Hollow Restorations.
For more information visit www.winterantiquesshow.com.
Where will you be August 18? If you’re in New York City, we say stop by The Helmsley Park Lane‘s Garden Cafe for a “Toast to New York Summer Brews.” If you like craft beers (and who among us doesn’t?), the hotel’s cafe will play host to a selection of choice beers along with a four-course tasting menu of summer seasonal fare.
The event kicks off at 7 p.m. and is priced at $38 per person, subject to a 15 percent service charge.
For more information visit www.helmsleyparklane.com.
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