What His Honorness the Mayor will organize if His Holiness the Pope visits who knows, but what he did with the DNC’s Highnesses, I know:
The Dem National Committee bunked at the Palace, walked Brooklyn Borough Park, taxied around NY harbor, toured Barclays and saw old clips from big NY conventions. They got fed Monday night at the Met with Cynthia Nixon, Rob Speyer, Jon Tisch, serenaded by 2014 Tony nominees Jessie Mueller and Anika Larsen from “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” and lunched Tuesday on quinoa risotto and duck breast at BAM.
So they shouldn’t fall away hungry, that night Gracie Mansion did barbecue provided by Blue Smoke and Sylvia’s. All four de Blasios worked the crowd. Instead of Dante grabbing headlines and Chirlane getting attention, it was Chiara. Asked why the DNC should schlep to Brooklyn, Chiara said: “The list of why not to do Brooklyn would be much shorter.”
Mayor Bill pitched that NY is where it happens . . . Right. Like, maybe, where would be better? Duluth? Downtown Tuscaloosa?
Only a play with a starry cast
Jack O’Brien, multiple award-winning director of Terrence McNally’s coming B’way farce “It’s Only a Play,” stars Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Stockard Channing, F. Murray Abraham, Rupert Grint, Micah Stock. With so many names, this marquee will reach Newark.
O’Brien: “It’s a redone production. Formerly titled ‘Broadway Broadway,’ Terrence did it originally 20 years ago at the Manhattan Theater Club. He’s been working on it and updated it. Jimmy Coco once did Nathan’s part.
“Pairing the funniest actors, like Nathan again with Matthew, it will seem a little like ‘The Producers,’ but it’s not that highly outrageous.
“Set in one bedroom opening night of a play, there’s been a party and the critics savaged it. The actors turn to absolute misery then back again.”
So how did O’Brien become such a hotshot director?
“I was an actor, but I lost my hair at 20. That’s very sobering for a young guy so I fast realized my shtick was no longer to be out front onstage.
“The career went with my hair. That’s when I turned to directing. And quickly learned that if you got great material, all the rest is bulls- - -t.”
Previews begin the 28th. He swears the material’s great. Oct. 9, opening night, is when the real critics will see if the rest is bulls- - -t.
Odds & ends
With Matthew Broderick doing a play, Sarah Jessica Parker may soon announce she’s doing a play . . . Amazon’s going into the grocery biz. It’s so huge that, having sidelined bookshops, they hope to outdo FreshDirect, plus all the little groceries. The plan is: Order on your computer that morning, and Amazon delivers that afternoon.
Clintons calm
So you know Harvey Weinstein screened the newie “The Giver” at his Amagansett home Sunday. So you know his neighbors Bill and Hill came. So you know that when Herself actually makes the rounds for the Oval Office, Bill will whirl like a Dervish. He’ll race from Montauk to Malibu, from sea to shining sea.
But temporarily, like right now, like before she’s running, he’s resting. Despite Harvey sticking celebrities everywhere — in urns, behind drapes, under hors d’oeuvres, every place, where was he? William Jefferson remained locked in front of TV. Did not tear himself away from a televised golf match.
My repaired broken dark glasses were ready. I gave my AmEx. No, they said. OK, I’ll write a check. No, they said, cash. Cartier broke? They need my $200 to pay employees? I said, OK, deliver them. No, they said. Come personally. To collect old used glasses? Not like they don’t know me. Finally, I wanted them Fed Ex’d to a certain address. No, they said. They won’t ship. Cartier, once unloading trinkets on royalty, now either got its nose in the air or a pain in its arse.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.