If you want to read the first, probably more-interesting part of this report, you can find it here. This is the second and final part.
After the speeches and the sign unveiling, I stumbled — I believe that's the correct verb here — down from the stage to find a number of folks thrusting my Jack Kirby book and copies of Groo at me for signatures. Then Paul Levitz and I decided to go get lunch and we invited Karen Green to join us. Karen is the Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University — a very smart 'n' charming lady. She was was one of the folks who helped make the street renaming happen. The main crusader — and I should have mentioned and praised his heroic efforts in Part 1 of this — was Roy Schwartz.
We decided to walk to the increasingly-legendary Katz's Delicatessen, which was a long half-mile for someone with my malfunctioning knees. Still, we made the journey knowing full well that we might find a long line to get in — a line that would make us decide to go somewhere else. And when we got there, sure enough, there was a long line to get in — a line that made us decide to go somewhere else. Somewhere else turned out to be Little Italy because, hey, if you can't get deli food, Italian's the obvious fallback.
I have known Paul Levitz for a long time, dating back to when none of his friends would have wagered a nickel he'd spend most of his career in the comic book business, let alone wind up co-running DC Comics. I have seen the comic book industry become much wiser and more benevolent in how it treated the folks who write and draw the funnybooks. Paul was a major reason. Over parmesans (he had veal, I had chicken), we talked about the biz, then and now. We share a disbelief at how long we've been around and at all the things that we once thought would never happen that have happened.
It's always a different world out there but sometimes, it's a lot more different than you could have imagined.
Then Paul, Karen and I cabbed our way over to the Center for Jewish History on W. 16th Street for the opening of an exhibit about (who else?) Jack Kirby. Then it was over to the hall of the Society of Illustrators on E. 63rd for a Marvel-sponsored party celebrating Kirby and the redubbed intersection. Among those I talked with there were Larry Lieber, Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, Danny Fingeroth, Dan Buckley, Jim Salicrup, David Bogart, Al Milgrom, Jim and Jesse Simon (son and grandson, respectively, of Joe Simon) and I can't possibly name everyone. Forgive me, everyone else.
All in all, one of the most exhausting — but pleasing — days of my life. Weariness set in though so I left before the soirée was through, Lyfted back to my hotel and happily collapsed.
I spent Tuesday with my friend and favorite editor, Charlie Kochman, talking about upcoming projects I can't yet discuss here. We lunched at Carmine's on W. 44th Street, then marched over to the TKTS booth at 47th Street and 7th Avenue. In case you're not aware, the TKTS booths are places where each day, one can purchase theater tickets — mostly for that evening's performances — at reduced prices.
You're never certain what will be there and for how much. It depends on how many unfilled seats each show is looking at for that night. But once the booth is open for business, you can see there and on this website what they have for closeout prices. We had many choices but we made two decisions, the first being to go see Hadestown. Charlie had seen it before, loved it, thought I would and wanted to see it again. That was Decision #1.
Decision #2 was to not purchase our tickets at the TKTS booth where the line to buy tix made the one at Katz's Delicatessen seem like the line to get in to see Rob Schneider perform. With my knee problems, I literally could not have waited in that line and, of course, there was the chance that by the time we did reach the window, whatever quantity of tix they had for Hadestown that night would have been gone.
So we hiked — well, Charlie hiked and I limped — over to the Walter Kerr Theater on W. 48th where Hadestown has been playing since it opened on 4/17/19. The tickets we purchased at the box office for that night were for the 2,318th performance. Based on the fullness of the theater and the crowd's love of what transpired on that stage, it looks like it'll be there for a long time going forward.
And true, we paid full price for the tickets but it was worth it not to have to stand in that TKTS line. We also probably got better seats, including an aisle seat for me which was way better for my legs. Charlie and I then repaired to a favorite restaurant of his to talk and snack and talk until showtime.
How to describe Hadestown? It's a reimagining of the Greek legend/myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set to surprising, given the subject matter, music. The score is amazing with some or all of the musicians on stage and even involved a bit in the proceedings. The actors we saw were all, without exception, stellar and the staging was one of the main stars of the show. Online, you'll find many folks saying it's the best thing they ever saw and it did win Best Musical at the Tonys for the season it opened. But most of those online lovers of the show will also caution you that it isn't the same show if you see it anywhere in the U.S. but at the Walter Kerr.
If you take in a national touring production — there was an Equity one and now there's a non-Equity one, I believe — you won't get anything near that awesome set with its magical turntables and elevators. The hydraulics have the actors literally rising from and descending into the ground, down to Hell, at key story moments, as well as walking on treadmills. Much of the staging has to be altered (and probably diminished) when the play's staged elsewhere. Here's the best clip I could find of the original Broadway cast…
So I highly recommend the show if you can see it on 48th Street in New York. Perhaps in other countries, they have an exact clone of the stage with all its wondrous special effects but I can only speculate on how effective it is without them.
That was Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I ate The Best Thing That I Ate In New York and then went to an appointment with Tom Brevoort over at Marvel. The Lyft app said they could get me there in fifteen minutes but I decided to allow thirty. It took close to an hour because 42nd Street was, as I and a pissed-off Lyft driver discovered, partially closed for the annual World Falun Dafa Day Parade. I didn't know what that is and neither, most likely, do you. If you're curious, Google will explain and also tell you that for it, "thousands of practitioners march through Manhattan with colorful banners, floats, and cultural performances like dragons and lion dancers." I'm sure it's wonderful if it doesn't make you criminally late for an appointment.
The parade ended as parades eventually do so on the way back, I reached my hotel in plenty of time for the limo service I'd booked to take me to J.F.K. for the flight home. Unfortunately, that limo service never arrived. What I got was a series of phone calls that he'd be a little late, then he had a flat tire, then they'd dispatched another car, then that guy was stuck in traffic, then there was some emergency…
I finally got a call from a lady at the company who said, "Would you like to cancel?" in a tone that suggested that would be better for everyone concerned, me especially. So I did. A bellman at the hotel had told me they had an arrangement with another limo service and I asked him to make that call. He came back minutes later and said, "I have good news and I have good news." The first good news was that they could take me. The second good news was that at that very moment, one of their drivers was dropping off a passenger at that hotel…so I had about a thirty second wait before I could hop into his car and be on my way. That bellman had given me a very good tip so I gave him one in cash.
I'd padded the schedule well enough that we still had ample time to get me to J.F.K. and as it turned out, I had even more. My flight was delayed and delayed and delayed so I got back to LAX at 1:30 AM instead of 10:30 PM as planned. Like you when you travel, I didn't quite feel at home until I was slipping into my own bed.
I was very glad I made that trip. In life, Jack was frustrated that so many people — particularly those on whom his income depended — did not grasp just what it was he'd done. But Jack had an uncanny sense of prescience and I'm not for a minute suggesting anything paranormal. He was just very, very wise. He knew how the business would change in many of the ways Paul Levitz and I discussed. Jack's frustration was that they wouldn't change in time for him to reap some just rewards and share them with his family.
I got asked over and over at the corner of Essex and Delancey Jack Kirby Way what Jack would have said about his name on a sign on the corner where he once sold fruit and newspapers. I told everyone who asked, "He'd say, 'I knew this kind of thing would happen someday'" and I sure hope that was the right answer. It makes me feel good to believe that it was.