Anne with an "e"

I punished myself a bit at the gym before heading out to midtown for Easter Choir rehearsal. I was glad to see Kathy and John K. again and also happy to meet several new Redeemer singers. We knocked out “Lift up ye heads” and “Worthy in the Lamb/Amens” for two hours. I was reminded of how much I miss singing in choirs and how painfully out of practice I am! And just a note…I think in all those years of singing the entire Messiah at Rice, I never really sang all the notes of the Amens….wowsers, it was 11 pm by then and most of the audience was gone. I was probably thinking about the next day’s music history exam! With this ensemble of 5 to a part, there was no hiding and it was both thrilling and terrifying to sing those crazy passages!
I walked a few blocks to an audition for a children’s theatre company where three really sweet girls about my age listened to my short “Mr. Right” monologue and asked me to sing a bit acapella. It was a pleasant and encouraging few minutes and I was glad I had made the stop.
I then headed to meet Amy K, my friend from Rice, who as a musical-theatre performer but now full-time copy editor, moonlights as a theatre critic. She had an extra ticket to an off-off Broadway musical version of “Anne of Green Gables” that I had been dying to see. Who doesn’t heart Gilbert Blythe after all? I was to meet her at the theatre in the West Village and on my way down Thompson Street I stumbled upon a Cuban restaurant which had a bright mural inside with a large “La Bodeguita del Medio” trademarked sign! The super sly Cuban spy is back in action! I took a picture and their glossy and incriminating to-go menu as souvenirs and patted myself on the back all the way towards Amy. The show was delightful, tuneful and aimed at children. A precious one behind us, on cue, gasped “Ew” at the less than steamy Anne and Gilbert kiss and a dad was wiping his eyes at the same moments as me, to the snickers of his young family. Always a kindred spirit, Amy’s company brought even more delights than raspberry cordial, or blackberry wine, for that matter, and we wiled away the afternoon hours dreaming of our Village mansions to come and catching up over coffee and Brazilian cheese puffs. You can read Amy’s review here:
http://www.offoffonline.com/reviews.php?id=991
After parting, I walked to Union Square for some last TJ wine and some last-minute baking supplies and headed home to begin the sugar extravaganza. I made the world-famous brownies, Mom’s now NYC famous lemon bars and some sugar cookies in the shape of eggs to share with Heather Gilles and family who I would be visiting the next evening. As always, it took far longer than expected to bake all the goodies and I didn’t get my Easter choir voice to bed as early as I had hoped.