Standing O’s

“PIPPIN”

All I remember about the original is that — eh?  It was a hit?  Really?  Well, this new production grabs you from the first moment; evoked a standing ovation in mid-act at the performance I saw; and had me “oh — wow”-ing and laughing through to the end.  I thought it might be a little racy for your 12-year-old, but the friend I saw it with said I was being ridiculous — it’s fine for a 12-year-old — so if SODA goes up another few points you can bring the whole family.

“BUYER & CELLAR”

Oh, and while you’re here, get tickets to this little item which The New Yorker calls, “A FANTASY so delightful you wish it were true” and the Times calls, “IRRESISTIBLE!  Delicious and Wickedly Funny!” and I myself call “Next year’s rent money, if it sells out, because I have a piece of it” — because I thought it was so much fun when I saw it that I begged to invest.

Full disclosure:  You have to have some sense who Barbra Streisand is to enjoy the show.

Further disclosure:  You don’t have to be a fan.  Or even the tiniest bit obsessed with her.  Just vaguely aware.

WHICH TO SEE

The two shows could not be more different:

PIPPIN is an extravaganza.  Hoops!  And fire!  And magic!  And music!  Cirque de Soleil meets Moulin Rouge (the movie) meets — I don’t know, the Visigoths, Cabaret, and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

BUYER AND CELLAR is a one-man show, brilliantly imaginative and acted and just so unexpected: I’m not telling you anything more about it.

See both.

“NEXT WEDNESDAY”

This is not another show, it’s the date of an early dinner in New York with First Lady Michelle Obama and 7-foot-tall NBA Center Jason Collins and Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Bravo’s Andy Cohen and Super Bowl champ Brendon Ayanbadejo and a whole bunch others . . . and the reason there was no column yesterday.  Do you know how hard it is to bake 250 little White Houses and drizzle them with blueberries and raspberry sauce?

On the off chance you could be in New York next Wednesday, are gay or a straight ally, have an extra month’s rent to support the most leveraged of social invetsments, and hold progressive political views, me-mail me and I’ll tell you more.