Results tagged “thebroadway”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Woodward Ave. and Cornelia St. in Queens, a burn victim on West 52nd St. in Manhattan, and a carjacking on 141st St. and Riverside Drive in Manhattan.
• Chaka Khan joins the cast of the Broadway musical The Color Purple. I feel for you, ticket holders.
• Tomorrow is your last chance to register for voting in New York's February 5th primary.

The Broadway actor who faced sexual misconduct charges towards a minor has pleaded guilty to avoid being classified a sex offender. James Barbour, who has played swains like Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre and the Beast in Beauty & the Beast, now faces 60 days in prison, three years probation, and a number of requirements similar to those of registered sex offenders.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person fatally injured under a train at 77th St. in Manhattan, a shooting at Neptune Ave and West 35th St. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on 133rd Ave. in Queens.
• A 24-year-old man killed his mother and brother and then dumped them in the Harlem River.
• Young teenagers are clamoring to learn about sex.
• Mayor Bloomberg feels that city parking placards are being abused and will start cracking down on their gratuitous use.
• A case 20 years in the making––the so-called "Pizza Connection"––was derailed and dismissed after decades of work. The prosecution of the $1.5 billion case was ruined when the defense revealed that all of the taped audio and video evidence was wiped clean.
• An investment group from Abu Dhabi has become the largest shareholder in Citigroup, following a large transaction approved by federal regulators. The middle eastern group replaces another individual as the largest stakeholder in the banking-investment firm: Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia.
• They negotiated all night for 13 hours, but the union and producers could not come to an agreement. The Broadway strike continues. "Boo, Hiss!"
• Brooklyn goes Hollywood and Brownstoner.com has video.

The Broadway stagehands strike may not be a hit with audiences, but it’s settling in for a long run anyway. Day eleven of the strike is dominated by the dashed hopes of children who’d been promised a visit to Whoville. Yesterday James Sanna, a producer of “The Grinch”, announced that because the show had a separate contract with the stagehands’ union, they’d reached an agreement that would let the kid-friendly musical continue its brief...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was fatally struck on East 4th and Bowery in Manhattan, a child was shot on Blake Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting/homicide on Fish Ave and East Gunhill Rd. in the Bronx.
• The oldest living inmate in New York State is a Long Island surgeon convicted in 1978 of killing his wife. He'll turn 89 this week and concedes that divorce might have been a better choice.
• Thousands of participants retraced the steps of fireman Stephen Stiller in the Tunnel to Towers run today. Stiller died on 9/11 after running through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to fight the WTC fire.
• The Head of the Harlem Regatta was held Saturday, and crew teams raced from Yankee Stadium to Swindler's Cove on the Harlem River.
• The Broadway stagehands union and show producers have agreed to extend negotiations through this week, keeping the lights on along the Great White Way.
• We wonder if Beyonce Knowles feels that Nolita in Manhattan is getting more dangerous lately. She was sporting brass knuckles on her boots while dining at La Esquina last night.
• Seven people were injured when a car slammed into the front of a Staten Island city bus
• The French company that contracted with the MTA to produce 400 new subway cars is five months behind schedule on its deliveries without incurring any penalties, and even won a $700 million contract extension.

In a program intended to help buses move more speedily down the traffic-and-construction-clogged streets of lower Broadway, the city is building a series of extensions to the sidewalk that should make it easier for buses to load and unload. In the taxonomy of traffic engineers, these extensions are known as bus bulbs.

Continue reading "Planting Bulbs in Traffic"

This morning's subway commute made us do a double take. Because we saw Jerry Orbach looking at us and the other riders from an ad! The Eye Bank for Sight Restoration has launched an advertising campaign to encourage people to become eye donors. As it happens, today, the Daily News has a story about the Orbach donation:

The Broadway and TV star donated his eyes when he died in December 2004, giving sight to two women who needed new corneas.

Continue reading "Jerry Orbach, Eye Donor"

The Times today reports on some funny numbers running around the theater district. Here's what we understood of it: In 1998 legit theater, which like the Apple Computers of yore is always somewhat "beleaguered", was having some trouble getting patrons in the door to watch anything that a theater snob might call "passable." Money was desperately needed to kick things into gear. So the city struck a deal with a group called The Broadway Initiative, led by Gothamist-idol Stephen Sondheim, to provide more money not only for theater owners but for the theater community as well. The deal was simple: 25 theaters in the theater district (that'd be between 40th and 57th Streets and 6th and 8th Avenues) were given permission to sell their unused air-rights to any property also located in the district (instead of only to the usual rules which only allow air rights to be sold to neighboring plots). In exchange for this lenience anyone who bought up one of these theater's air rights would have to pay an extra $10 per square foot on top of the regular price. That extra money was to be then given to a new Theater Subdistrict Council which would spend 20 percent of it on monitoring theater conditions and the rest on bringing poorer city residents to the Great White Way. Sounds like a good, simple, idea, no?

Matthew Rose, Wall Street Journal