New (York) Classic

Things you might not have done yet if you visit NY only once in a while -

Now, Tenement Museum Reflects Irish Immigration - "The museum was established in 1988 in 97 Orchard, an 1864 brick building, and attracts 130,000 visitors a year. The building is a time capsule of primitive bathrooms and windowless passageways. In 1935, the building’s owners sealed off most of the 20 units rather than make changes to meet new housing codes."

The Tenement Museum furnishes individual apartments using the carefully researched history, and in many cases artifacts, of a real family that once lived in the building. Each apartment, each family, is from a different ethnic background and time period. The addition of the Moores, Irish immigrants, and their apartment, circa 1869, brings the total to six furnished apartments. Although not heavily publicized, the Tenement Museum is an As Good As News favorite.

Tony Awards Do No Favors for CBS - Out-of-towners - Just in case you are one of the billions who did not watch the Tony Award show, just in case you have realized there are so few new shows each year that any turkey can win a Tony, just in case you didn't want to bet your life savings and a once a year (or a decade) visit to NY on a miserable Broadway experience - take heart. You don't have to wait for the next revival of Oklahoma. This years big winners are winners.

In The Heights is an evening of fun and emotional connection - a new entrant in a long Broadway tradition. Think Fiddler On The Roof with rap and salsa, set in a neighborhood where assimilation and gentrification threaten to erode a culture. August: Osage Comedy is a moving drama with comedy so black it's scary. Seen em already? Rock n Roll is the ever-entertainingly intellectual Tom Stoppard with graphics and rock amping up those feelings he might have missed. If you are willing to put with a slight headache as the price of a forced march into the world of women's choices, then give Top Girls and Elizabeth Marvel a chance, even though the Tony's did not.