Above was my morning at Birch Coffee while I typed away on my laptop, writing about a half-dozen shows I’ve seen lately – reviews coming up this week.

I’ve spent a lot of this weekend trying to sleep off this cold that I’ve had since Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s getting better, but I’d like it to be gone. 

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time opens on Broadway tonight. I saw the second preview and it was absolutely brilliant. Get your $27 balcony ticket ASAP before it sells out. 

I was going to go see Ted Leo in Central Park today but it’s just. too. cold. Sorry, Ted. Next time when I’m not sick and you’re performing indoors!

I bought these boots in both brown and black because Lord and Taylor was having a huge sale and I had a gift card. I was able to buy both pairs for $129. 

Before I went to see The Fortress of Solitude last night, I headed to Finnerty’s in the East Village to watch the Giants/Nationals game. There also happened to be a Stanford football game on and the bar was packed with rowdy Stanford grads. Two of them asked for my number within ten minutes, which is odd because I don’t spend a lot of time in bars so I’m not used to having dudes ask for my number. I’m going out with one of them on Tuesday. This should be interesting, to say the least.

I’m heading to a few hours of easy yoga tonight to stretch out my body from sleeping for most of this week. How was your weekend?  

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I had no idea what The Fortress of Solitude was about when my friend told me she had an extra ticket. I read that it was based on a book and Adam Chanler-Berat and Rebecca Naomi Jones were in it. So I told her I was in. I asked her if it was 90-minutes-no-intermission (#nmni) and she laughed and said, “oh no, this is a full two hours and forty five minutes.” I made sure to have an espresso milkshake from Momofuku beforehand.

It was about two boys, Mingus and Dyland, in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn in the 70’s when it was still called Gowanus. Both lived with their fathers and were abandoned by their mothers. One black (Mingus), one white (Dylan), they seem to be on a good path until Dylan is accepted to Stuyvesant High School and Mingus is left on his own to attend public school in Gowanus. We see the incredibly different lives they lead and after high school Dylan runs away to UC Berkeley because that’s where his mother left him to go. He makes a career for himself as a music critic there. 

A major aspect in both of their lives is soul music: for Dylan, it’s the music on the records his mother leaves behind and for Mingus, it’s the music that his father was previously famous for. Dylan’s mother leaves behind her wedding ring which acts as a magnet bringing the boys together, and eventually resulting in their final fight as adults.

The largely ensemble cast is uniformly excellent. Allison Whitehurst deserves special recognition for dancing in roller skates. And David Rossmer didn’t let his bandaged arm and hand in a cast bring him down (he apparently sliced the tip of one of his fingers recently), he was hilarious. Rebecca Naomi Jones did a great job with her two roles; I particular enjoyed her rage in act two. Kevin Mambo, as Mingus’ father, was and is always great. Chanler-Berat was fantastic, as per usual, easily conveying the range of emotions that his character goes through. Kyle Beltran as Mingus was the other standout. His character development and decay was perfect.

The show is long – especially the first act. But if they shave twenty minutes off the first act, The Public has another Fun Home on their hands for sure.