Revival of South Pacific

Winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC concerns the lives of U.S. military men, nurses and residents of the Polynesian island they occupy during World War II. Nurse Nellie Forbush is “In Love With a Wonderful Guy,” a French planter, Émile, with small children. Clean-cut Lt. Cable has fallen hard for Bloody Mary's daughter Liat. And the seabees, sailors and marines will tell you that there is “Nothing Like a Dame.” The show's ravishing score also includes “Cockeyed Optimist,” “I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Honey Bun” and “This Nearly Was Mine.” In fact, some would say the musical score is the real star of this show.

The touchy issues of race and war that permeate the book of this sixty year old musical are still relevant. Based upon James Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific,” this was the second ever musical to win the Pulitzer Prize.

The Lincoln Center Theater production of South Pacific, helmed by Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher, opened April 3 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater and was originally scheduled to close June 22, 2008. Lincoln Center Theater later announced that the musical would play an open-ended run at the Beaumont. Good luck getting tickets.

Current Cast Complications:

Noted operatic bass-baritone David Pittsinger will twice assume the role of Émile de Becque while Tony Award winner Paulo Szot fulfills his previously scheduled opera commitments. Szot, who earned a Best Actor Tony for his portrayal of South Pacific's romantic leading man, will take leave to appear in “The Merry Widow” for Opera Marseille this winter and “Carmen” for Opera Toulouse in the spring. In Szot's absence, David Pittsinger has been announced to assume the role of French plantation owner Emile de Becque from Dec. 2-Jan 25, 2009, and again from March 12-April 12, 2009. Later this season Pittsinger will also appear in the New York City Opera's concert performance of “Antony and Cleopatra” at Carnegie Hall.

Matthew Morrison (who plays Lt. Cable, shown below in leather jacket) will leave the production January 4, 2009, to take on the leading role in a FOX TV sit-com called GLEE, which will premiere in May. His role is the director of a high school glee club down on its luck.




Below:
Brazilian opera star Paul Szot as Émile de Becque and Kelli O'Hara as Nellie Forbush.

UNICEF Snowflake at 57th Street

Located in front of Bergdorf Goodman, the UNICEF Snowflake is a dazzling, illuminated crystal ornament that graces the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in New York City each holiday season as a beacon of hope, peace and compassion for vulnerable children around the world.

The huge snowflake has become an iconic fixture in New York City during the holiday season. It was handcrafted by German lighting designer Ingo Maurer and is adorned with 16,000 Baccarat crystal prisms. At 23 feet in diameter, over 28 feet in height and weighing 3,300 pounds, the UNICEF Snowflake is the largest outdoor chandelier of its kind. It was switched on November 18, 2008, and will flash and sparkle for the entire holiday season. The snowflake was dedicated to UNICEF by the Stonbely Family Foundation.

The United Nations Children's Fund (or UNICEF) was created by the United Nations general assembly in 1946 to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by WWII. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the UN system, and its name was shortened from the original United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. However, it has continued to be known by the popular acronym based on its former name. Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.

Saks Fifth Avenue Snowflake Show

Just in time for the holidays, 50 huge snowflakes lit by LEDs appear annually on the landmark Saks Fifth Avenue façade in Manhattan. Set to an original rendition of “Carol of the Bells,” the snowflake show, which opens each November, runs for two minutes every half hour throughout the evenings during the holidays.

The project was designed by American Christmas Decorations Inc., and lighting consultants Focus Lighting, led by Paul Gregory. Philips Lighting, the event sponsor, worked in collaboration with Permlight Products on the system. The LEDs are used in fourteen 20' snowflakes and thirty-six 8' snowflakes. Illuminated by 72,000 LEDs, the snowflakes feature more than 24,000 linear feet of lighting tied to 8,000 linear feet of steel.

The Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store is directly opposite Rockefeller Center. One of the most famous holiday sights in "Rock Center" is the herald angels placed along the Channel Gardens, which separate the French and British Empire Buildings of Rockefeller Center (appropriately named after the English Channel). These angels are wire-sculpted figures that have decorated Rock Center during the holidays since 1954.

Note: The stylized sun applied to the British Empire building alludes to the saying, "The sun never sets on the British Empire," and original tenants of La Maison Française included Baccarat crystal, Mumm's champagne, Les Parfums de Molyneux, the French consulate and the remarkable Librairie de France).

The snowflakes that decorate Saks Fifth Avenue are prominent in the background of this photo of the Channel Gardens Herald Angels.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

The 76 year old tradition of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree goes a bit greener this year. The Norway Spruce shares the center stage this year, not just with singing sensations, but with the energy saving environment in which it’s displayed. The majestic tree is festooned with over 30,000 energy-efficient LED lights, powered by “a ground breaking permanent array of photovoltaic panels” installed on the roof of 45 Rockefeller Center (after the holidays, the panels will continue to help power the center). The tree is topped by a 9.5-foot, 550-pound Swarovski Star with more then 25,000 crystals and 1 million facets — the largest ever for a Rock Center tree. This year's tree is a 77 year old, 8-ton, 82-foot-tall Norway spruce from the Varanyak family in Hamilton, N.J. The family used it as their Christmas tree in 1931, then planted it outside. It has grown a bit since then.

The first Christmas tree ever erected at Rockefeller Center was placed there in 1931. This time the concept was green, a nod to the environment movement that is generating steam. Green is now a marketing strategy. Solar power is among the renewable energy technologies that play a key role in ecomagination; every little bit of energy savings helps. The use of LEDs lighting instead of incandescent bulbs will reduce the electricity consumption for a daily savings of energy equal to the electricity consumed by a typical 2,000-square-foot house for a month.

Carlton on Madison Avenue Hotel

88 Madison Avenue 212.532.4100

Built in 1904, this 11 story luxury hotel comprises 305 rooms plus 15 suites in a handsome Beaux-Arts building at the corner of 29th Street and Madison Avenue (Murray Hill). The spectacular three story lobby, designed by architect David Rockwell, features a curved limestone staircase and a unique flat waterfall sculpture that flows over a photograph of the original 1904 building. Near the Empire State building, Morgan Library, Madison Square Garden, Penn Station and two subway lines.

Member of Preferred Hotels group. Two restaurants: the acclaimed Country (with its original Tiffany stained glass domed ceiling) and a café. Champagne bar. Features: complimentary WiFi Internet access, iPod docking stations, complimentary daily newspaper, Frette linens, down feather comforters, executive work desks.

Trivia: Graucho Marx once worked here as a bellhop, when the hotel was known as The Seville.

www.carltonhotelny.com

Rockefeller Center

Top of the Rock Observation Deck
Open 365 days a year 8 am to midnight.
360˚ views from 3 levels 70 stories above Rockefeller Plaza.
Adults $20, Seniors +62 $18, Children $13.
Allow a minimum of 45 minutes for a visit (many stay for 2 hrs).
Extensive Rockefeller Center multi-media exhibit at mezzanine level.
Fifth Ave. at 50th Street (restrooms at the top!).
212.698.2000
http://www.topoftherocknyc.com/

After closing in 1986, the observation deck atop the GE Building (originally the RCA building) at Rockefeller Center reopened in late 2005. After a $75 million reworking, access is now spread among three levels. Views of Central Park are far better than from the top of the Empire State Building, because Rockefeller Center is 15 blocks farther north. The Top of the Rock is also the undisputed best vantage point for observing the majesty of the Empire State Building.

Jersey Boys

2 hours 30 min., incl. intermission
August Wilson Theatre
245 W. 52nd Street at 8th Avenue

Tony Award winning Jersey Boys is a documentary-style musical based on the lives of one of the most successful 1960s pop groups, the Four Seasons. The show uses many of the group’s hit songs to tell the turbulent story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ rise to fame. The musical’s success has spawned two current national tours, a London production, a Canadian production (Toronto), an Australian production set to open in July, 2009, and a new purpose-built Las Vegas theater at the Palladio Hotel & Casino designed expressly for this show (opened May, 2008).

The August Wilson Theatre, located on West 52nd Street at 8th Ave., opened as the 1,240 seat Guild Theatre in 1925. In 1981, the theater was purchased by Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation owner and board member Virginia McKnight Binger (renamed the Virginia Theatre in her honor). Jujamcyn derives its name from the names of the Bingers’ children: Ju[dith], Jam[es], and Cyn[thia]. Former Yale drama professor and Broadway producer Rocco Landesman (president of Jujamcyn Theaters, the third largest Broadway theatre organization), bought the Virginia Theatre in 2005. On October 16, 2005, only 14 days after Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson's death, the Virginia Theatre was renamed the August Wilson Theatre and thus became the first Broadway theater to bear the name of an African American.


Neighborhood dining:

Bar Americain
152 W. 52nd St. at 7th Ave.; 212.265.9700
Sat/Sun brunch 11:30-2:30; dinner from 5:00 pm. Especially handsome interior; seats 200.

Brasserie Maison
212.757.2233; 54th & 7th Ave. (www.maisonnyc.com);
Open 24 hours.
Moderate prices, extensive menu.

The Carnegie Club
Restaurant and cigar bar; Sinatra tribute crooner sings with an 11-piece orchestra Saturdays at 8:30 & 10:30 ($30 cover)
156 W 56th St (east of 7th Ave)
212-957-9676.

Red Cat Restaurant

The Red Cat
227 Tenth Ave. (between 23rd & 24th Sts.)
212-242-1122 (dinner from 5:30 pm)
http://www.theredcat.com

The Red Cat purrs with informal bonhomie and good, unpretentious food. Its interior is clad in rescued wood from a falling-down barn, and butcher paper covers the tabletops. A casual crowd fills the restaurant to capacity early on; the bar also accommodates diners. Good-natured waiters proudly trot out owner Jimmy Bradley's flavorful dishes. Tempura green beans go great with drinks. Mushroom and chicory is paired with bacon and egg, and crispy fried oysters accompany truffle creamed baby spinach. Several vegetable appetizers get a cheese counterpoint and well-battered sweetbread schnitzel even comes with spätzle. The kitchen may not be flashy, but it isn't timid about intriguing flavor combinations. Paprika-roasted cod, for instance, sharing a plate with spicy escarole and anchovy-almond sauce, is another prime example of the slightly edgy yet still familiar dishes on offer here.

Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard
178 7th Avenue South
212-255-4037
http://www.villagevanguard.com/

This windowless, wedge shaped basement room, also known for its perilously steep, red stairwell, formerly housed the Golden Triangle, a speakeasy busted during Prohibition. When it opened as the Vanguard on February 22, 1935, owner Max Gordon (1901-91) booked beat poets, cabaret artists and comedians. Judy Holliday, Betty Comden and Adolph Green were all on stage there. Since the switch to an all-jazz policy in 1957, the club has hosted a veritable who's who of jazz: Thelonious Monk, of whom Lorraine was an early champion, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Dinah Washington, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, just to name a few. The great Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra made its residence there on Monday nights beginning in 1966; the current Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is its present-day incarnation. There is no argument that the Village Vanguard is a veritable jazz institution famous throughout the world - a sort of holy ground of jazz culture.

Numerous live recordings have kept close account of the musical dialogue within its walls and brought the venue to the forefront of jazz consciousness. Among the most famous are: Sonny Rollins' A Night at the Village Vanguard, John Coltrane's Live at the Village Vanguard, Bill Evans' Sunday at the Village Vanguard, and Dexter Gordon's Homecoming Live. The room has more recently been a recording studio to Tommy Flanagan, Joe Lovano, Brad Mehldau, and Wynton Marsalis. Many musicians say that the wedge shape of the room gives the sound a special focus, and that is what makes so many jazz musicians want to record live albums here.

No credit cards, no food, no distractions (the proprietress, Lorraine Gordon [widow of Max Gordon] will shush you if your party gets too loud).

St. James Theatre

246 W. 44th, between 7th & 8th Aves.

The St. James Theatre, was built by theatrical producer Abraham L. Erlanger on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant. It opened in 1927 as The Erlanger, seating 1,510 patrons, but was renamed the St. James by the Astor family, who became its owners in 1930.


Notable Broadway productions at the St. James (with opening dates):
Oklahoma! (March 31, 1943)
The King and I (March 29, 1951)
Hello, Dolly! (January 16, 1964)
The Producers (Apr 19, 2001)
Gypsy - A Musical Fable (March 27, 2008)

Trivia: The theater has only one men’s lounge, making intermission a challenge (for guys).

Area Dining:

Café Un Deux Trois (French)
123 W. 44th St., between 6th/7th Aves. 212.354.4148
Busy, sometimes frenetic place in the heart of Broadway’s theater district. The best things are the retro décor and the $30 three-course theatre menu (price includes coffee/tea).

Carmine’s (Italian)
200 W. 44th St., between 7th/8th Aves. 212.221.3800
Tourist central, extremely popular. Big food.

Becco (Italian)
355 W 46th St./between 8th/9th Aves. 212.397.7597
$17.95 pre fix lunch menu; $22.95 pre fix dinner menu (antipasti or Caesar salad with unlimited tableside servings of 3 pasta preparations); à la carte menu, as well. All wines priced at $25 a bottle. Busy, busy, busy - so reserve.

Trailer Park Lounge

Trailer Park Lounge
271 W. 23rd St. at 8th Ave. (Chelsea)
Open daily noon to 3:00 am
212-463-8000
www.trailerparklounge.com

You can't miss it. Look for the spare tire and the pink toilet parked outside the garage door. Then, once you enter this place through the screen door, it’s like being trapped in a John Waters film. Trailer Park Lounge is an over-the-top ode to white trash. Pabst Blue Ribbon served in a can with a side of tater tots. Chili-macs and Moon Pies. No lie.

Did I mention the wall of Tonya Harding memorabilia? Elvis on velvet? Astro turf? No? Well, it’s all there, in lurid living color. Pick your way through the rubbish that passes for decor (folding lawn chairs, a sixty year old gasoline pump) and you'll find a pink flamingo or two, even a couple of bowling alley lockers. Check it out for yourself. Signature drink: Jim Bob’s I.Q.

Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center
Broadway and West 65th Street

The Metropolitan Opera was founded in 1883. The first Metropolitan Opera House was built on Broadway and 39th Street by a group of wealthy businessmen who wanted their own opera house. In the company’s early years everything was sung in Italian (even Carmen and Lohengrin), soon followed by a shift to German (including Aida and Faust), before finally settling on a policy of performing works in their original language.

The Metropolitan Opera House (Broadway at 39th St.) in 1905.

Enrico Caruso first sang at the Met in 1903, and by the time of his death had performed there more times than with all the world’s other opera companies combined. Arturo Toscanini made his debut in 1908 (there were two seasons with both Toscanini and Gustav Mahler on the conducting roster). Later, Bruno Walter, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, and Dimitri Mitropoulos contributed powerful musical direction. James Levine made his debut in 1971 and has been Music Director since 1976 (holding also the title of Artistic Director 1986-2004).

Almost from the beginning, it was clear that the opera house on 39th Street did not have adequate stage facilities. However, it was not until the Metropolitan Opera joined with other New York institutions in forming Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts that a new home became possible. The new Metropolitan Opera House, which opened at Lincoln Center in September of 1966, was equipped with the finest technical facilities. Seating capacity is 3,800.

Hansel und Gretel was the first complete opera broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera on Christmas Day, 1931. Regular Saturday afternoon live radio broadcasts quickly made the Metropolitan Opera a permanent presence in communities throughout the United States and Canada. The Met continues its hugely successful radio broadcast series — now in its 77th year — the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history, which is now heard in 42 countries around the world.

In 1995, the Metropolitan introduced Met Titles, a unique system of simultaneous translation. Met Titles appear on individual computerized screens mounted in specially built railings at the back of each row of seats, providing libretto translations into English, Spanish and German. “Met Titles” are provided for all Metropolitan Opera performances, and have recently expanded to include Spanish and German for select operas.


In the 2006-07 season, the company launched Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD, a series of performance transmissions shown live in high definition (HD) in movie theaters around the world. The series expanded from six to eight opera transmissions in 2007-08, reaching over 600 participating venues in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Each season the Metropolitan stages more than two hundred opera performances in New York. More than 800,000 people attend the performances in the opera house during the season, and millions more experience the Met through advanced new media distribution initiatives and state-of-the-art technology.

Click images to enlarge.

Hotel Roger Williams

131 Madison Ave • 212-448-7000

In the low-key Murray Hill neighborhood, this hotel offers stylish, well-proportioned rooms at a modest price. Newly renovated in 2005, the hotel’s public areas enjoy a sleek modern look that is cozy, not cold. Honey-tone maple paneled walls and plank floors, subtle modern art and chrome accents create an inviting look in the light-filled double height lobby. The small lounge beside reception takes in the prime Madison Avenue views through floor-to-ceiling windows. Dining is up on the mezzanine overlooking the lobby. The breakfast here is a delicatessen-like affair, with selections from some of the city’s best grocers and bakeries.

The guest rooms boast eye-popping primary colors. Quilts top the beds, and modernist table and floor lamps add interest. The rooms are arranged with platform beds, desks, dual-line phones with voice mail and data ports, flat-screen TVs with DVD and CD players, mini-bars and coffee makers. High-speed Internet access is standard. The small baths have translucent glass walls and stainless-steel sinks with exposed plumbing. The smallest Classic rooms are 200 sq ft, but for a nominal up-tick in rates, the larger Superior rooms are a better bet. In warm months, book one of the limited number of Garden Terrace rooms, which are more spacious units appended with furnished terraces with city views. The small but helpful staff offers attentive service. Hip thirty-somethings comprise the lion's share of the clientele. Over sixteen floors, the 196 rooms are housed in a 1928 building. Tip: check out the rest room near the lobby level elevator; you'll have an entirely new concept of orange.

Trivia: Formerly an apartment house (Roger Williams Apartments) the property takes its name from the founder of Rhode Island, who was a champion of religious liberty, an interesting association, since the Madison Avenue Baptist Church is next door. Author Henry Miller stayed here when he was living in New York in 1935, pursuing Anais Nin; he finished his novel Black Spring while in residence. Across the street, at No. 120, is the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, founded in 1884 as the Lyceum Theatre School of Acting. The school later moved to this fine 1907 Stanford White designed edifice, originally built for the Colony Club, a private organization for women from old-school high society. Academy alumni include Cecil B. DeMille, Edward G. Robinson, Spencer Tracy, Rosalind Russell, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Grace Kelly, Anne Bancroft, Robert Redford, Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes.

www.hotelrogerwilliams.com

La Boîte en Bois Restaurant

La Boîte en Bois
212.874.2705
75 West 68th Street (just east of Columbus Ave.)
www.laboitenyc.com
Prix-fixe pre-theatre menu from 5 pm (starter – main – dessert); or à la carte

Tables are at a premium in this snug 45-seat step-down bistro, decorated to resemble a French country inn. The dark wooden ceiling beams, walls textured with horizontal strips of straw-like material, and antique prints and implements provide a calming effect on often rushed pre-theatre diners (Lincoln Center is in the immediate vicinity). Brick and barn-board, antique farm tools and copper pieces convey a rustic look (the name means “wooden box”), and simple, uncontrived dishes are the substance of the menu. Chef Gino Barbuti hails from Parma, Italy, so expect French Mediterranean cuisine incorporating black olives, anchovies and olive oil. Reservations are a must - if a table is available, this is always my first choice for a pre-theatre meal for performances at Lincoln Center. Check web site for Prix-fixe pre-theatre menu.
www.laboitenyc.com

New York String Orchestra

The New York String Orchestra, in its 40th season, under the leadership and guidance of conductor and renowned concert artist, Jaime Laredo, is a training program for musicians, aged 15-22. Competitive auditions are held each year for the admission of about 60 students from high schools, conservatories, and colleges. They are awarded full scholarships to come to New York from around the country to spend 10 days attending seminars, playing chamber music and preparing two concerts presented at Carnegie Hall, one of which is always on Christmas Eve.

Carnegie Hall – Stern Auditorium
Corner of 57th St. and 7th Avenue

Billy Elliot

Imperial Theatre

249 W. 45th Street (between Broadway & 8th Ave.)
212-239-6200

The Imperial Theatre is a legitimate Broadway 1,490-seat theatre designed specifically to accommodate musical theatre productions. The Imperial Theatre opened on December 25, 1923 with the Oscar Hammerstein II-Vincent Youmans production Mary Jane McKane. Since then, it has hosted numerous important musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun (1946), Fiddler on the Roof (1964), Dreamgirls (1981) and Les Miserables (1990), which played at the theatre for thirteen years, until 2003. The current production is Billy Elliot (2008). Among the famed composers and lyricists whose works were housed at the Imperial Theatre are Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin, Harold Rome, Frank Loesser, Lionel Bart, Bob Merrill, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, E.Y. Harburg, Harold Arlen, and George and Ira Gershwin (Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake).

PDT (Please Don’t Tell)

113 St. Mark’s Place, between 1st Ave. & Ave. A, south of 9th St.
212.614.0386
Subway L line: exit 1st Ave & 14th St.
OR #6 Line: exit Astor Place

You get inside the way it was done in the days of the Speakeasy. Walk down a few steps from the sidewalk into a hot dog joint called Crif Dogs.

Amble past the vintage arcade machines and look for the phone booth against the wall on your left. Press the buzzer on the phone. If there’s room for you, the back of the phone booth will swing open, and you and your guests will be invited through.

Decor: Brick walls and a wood lath ceiling tricked out with a stuffed deer head, owl, and otter, and beneath the floorboards, a glass enclosed miniature landscape from a child’s train set – without a locomotive. Plus a few painted nudes.

Bartender Mag rated this one of the 20 top bars in the US! Seats only 50, and it's popular, so reserve. Hungry? Hotdogs are served via a hole in the wall from connecting Crif Dogs.

Café Sabarsky & Neue Galerie

Café Sabarsky (inside Neue Galerie)
1048 5th Ave., corner of 86th St.
Mon/Wed 9-6; Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun 9-9; closed Tue

The Café, which bears the name of Neue Galerie co-founder Serge Sabarsky, draws its inspiration from the great Viennese cafés that served as important centers of intellectual and artistic life at the turn of the twentieth century. It is outfitted with period objects, including lighting fixtures by Josef Hoffmann, furniture by Adolf Loos, and banquettes that are upholstered with a 1912 Otto Wagner fabric. A grand piano, which graces one corner of the Café, is used for cabaret, chamber, and classical music performances.


It’s the real deal, where patrons down Stiegl beer (from Salzburg) while perusing the pages of Die Presse and Der Standard. Others tackle a slice of Sachertorte with a melange on the side (all coffee orders are served authentically with a beaker of water). Heartier appetites are satisfied by goulash and spätzle.

Photo: Sachertorte mit Schlag

The building that houses the Neue Galerie museum and Café Sabarsky was completed in 1914 by Carrère & Hastings, also architects of the New York Public Library. It has been designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Commission and is generally considered one of the most distinguished buildings ever erected on Fifth Avenue. Commissioned by industrialist William Starr Miller, it was later occupied by society doyenne Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III (Grace Graham Wilson). The family of Cornelius Vanderbilt III (universally known as Neily) was so against their marriage, that his father punished him with a paltry $500,000 inheritance, which his brother helped rectify by tossing in another $6 million after their father's death in 1899. This mansion was so much smaller than Grace and Neily's former mid-town 5th Avenue residence (77 rooms at 640 Fifth Ave., since demolished), that Grace referred to it as "the gardener's cottage." She lived in this "cottage" until her death in 1953. It was later purchased by Ronald S. Lauder (son of Estée Lauder) and Serge Sabarsky in 1994.


The glory of the museum’s collection of Austrian and German fine and decorative arts is Gustav Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) oil, silver and gold on canvas. In 2006, Lauder purchased Klimt's painting from Maria Altmann on behalf of the Neue Galerie for $135 million, at the time the most expensive painting ever sold. It has been on display at the museum since July 2006. The portrait, of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist and the hostess of a prominent Vienna salon, is considered one of the artist’s masterpieces. For years, it was the focus of a restitution battle between the Austrian government and a niece of Mrs. Bloch-Bauer, who argued that it was seized along with four other Klimt paintings by the Nazis during World War II. In January, 2006, all five paintings were awarded to the niece, Maria Altmann, then 90, who was living in Los Angeles at the time.

Neue Galerie – 212.628.6200
Hours: 11-6; Fridays until 9; Closed Tue/Wed
Museum admission: $15 incl. audio guide (students and seniors $10)

In the drawing room of her Fifth Ave. mansion at 52nd St., Grace (Mrs. Cornelius) Vanderbilt entertained en masse while her estranged husband sailed the world on his yacht; one year she hosted 30,000 guests. By the 1940s, however, the big house at 640 5th Ave. was sold, and Mrs. Vanderbilt moved to what she referred to as “the gardener’s cottage,” a 28-room mansion at 1048 Fifth at 86th Street (now the Neue Galerie/Café Sabarsky). With a staff of 18, she continued to entertain in large numbers until her death in 1953. Interesting and attractive men were, in her opinion, the key to a successful party. She kept a list of 138 eligible men broken up into categories like: “men who will dance,” “men who can lunch,” and “men who will go to the theatre but not the opera.”


Photo below: The Vanderbilt mansion photographed back in its heyday, when it served as the residence of William Starr Miller, years before Mrs. Vanderbilt lived here. The house was sold subsequently sold to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which completed important studies on the Yiddish language. Cash strapped, this organization sold the air rights above the mansion to the Adams Hotel next door on 86th Street, which was being redeveloped as a residential property, assuring some of the future owners an unobstructed view of Central Park. Ron Lauder and Serge Sabarsky bought the building in 1994.


Below: An archive photo of the room facing Fifth Avenue that now serves as the Café Sabarsky. Note the card catalog on the rear wall to the right of the fireplace and the library tables, a clear indication of the research that went on here during its days as home to the YIVO Institute.