American Theater Wing did a schmooze at Laura Maioglio’s restaurant, Barbetta.
Patti LuPone: “What’s with workers in our Theater District? Having dinner nearby, right before a show, if you ask, ‘Where’s the Barrymore?’ — they don’t know. It’s West 47th. The restaurant’s West 46th. And they don’t know where it is?!”
Opera’s Renée Fleming: “Doing ‘Carousel’ on Broadway was so different for me — but would I do it again? Try me in six months … I think I’d do it again. And our nomination for Best Musical Revival?! I’m still in denial.”
Lois Smith’s got a Tony, other nominations, other awards and is currently in off-Broadway’s “Peace for Mary Frances”: “I’m coming up to 88. I’m acting onstage 65 years. Wouldn’t change for anything — although rehearsals can be tiring.”
Beautiful blonde Rachel Bay Jones who’s beginning the CBS TV series “God Friended Me,” won last year’s Tony for “Dear Evan Hansen.” As that show’s PR rep Rick Miramontez snapped her picture, I asked her: Where’s your Tony? Answer: “I put it on a Craigslist shelf I bought online.”
A photographer lumbered by. Her T-shirt read: “Why be racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic — when you could just be quiet?”
Playwright David Henry Hwang: “My new musical ‘Soft Power’ is trying out on the coast. It’s political history played through China; about influencing other countries by ideas.”
I didn’t quite get it, but the guy has so many awards I figure he must know something.
Wing president Heather Hitchens wore a Kate Spade dress. “It was in my closet and I just thought I should wear it today.” Stunning. Its low-low-low neckline showed everything but her password.
Tipping talk is a timely issue
From a restaurateur: “The ‘tip credit wage’ a k a the hourly sum paid to front of house (busers, runners, waiters, bartenders) employees is — considering they earn tips — beneath minimum wage. Dec. 31, its minimum ups to $15. My servers already average $45 an hour, busers $25 and the issue needs NO fixing.
“Small, independent eateries can’t afford doubling the hourly $8.65 rate. That becomes approximately $14,000 per buser and server. Margins are slim. It means cutting staffers. Losing thousands of jobs. Workers will earn that where?
“Talk against tipping by tying it to harassment is defective. Data show sexual harassment claims from this NYC industry were 1.8 percent. California it’s nearly 4 percent. Respectability needn’t threaten an entire business. Employees created their own Save NY Tips site at SaveNYTips.com. Supporters might sign the Tip Credit in New York petition, visit the Tip Credit Supporters page on Facebook, or register to testify at its hearing at 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 27.”
Sandy salute
“Ocean’s 8” — which some critics drained to a 7 ¹/₂ — honors Sandra Bullock’s late mom, German opera singer Helga. In it, Sandra speaks German briefly. In a mausoleum scene, one stone reads Helga M. Meyer. DC reporter Kyle Osborne searched for info on Sandra’s mom. Maiden name? Helga Mathilde Meyer.
Bourdain’s life a mystery
Anthony Bourdain started cooking at 12 “because of bad food.” And, although in 2013 he couldn’t get a table at a Tel Aviv schnitzel spot, he told me: “CNN allows me to get drunk on the show. And sometimes I am. And sometimes on the show I don’t even shave.” Handsome, talented Anthony Bourdain. You’d think he had it all.
This Upper East Side lady: “My travel-writer friend just divorced her husband of 14 years. She claimed she was tired of getting frisked too much at airports — and not enough at home.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.