Friday, April 26, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor
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Viewing Outside the Event

July 18, 2004 -

LPR viewed outside the event, July 13, at the opening of "Much Ado About Nothing" at Central Park's Delcorte Theater. The play features Kristen Johnson (Beatrice), Jimmy Smits (Benedick), Sam Waterston (Leonat), his daughter Elisabeth (Hero,
Leonat's daughter), Dominic Chianese (Antonio), Sean Patrick Thomas (Borachio), Brian Murray (Dogberry).

Sam Waterston, who got a boost
early in his career, by playing Benedick in a Public Theater production of the play 'Much Ado About Nothing," back in Joseph Papp
days. Now he plays the father of Elisabeth Waterston, who is also his real life daughter.

Felix Rohatyn.

The play is directed by David Esbjornson, and will run through August 8.

At the opening, LPR spotted Felix Rohatyn, the former ambassador and financier, New Yorker editor David Remnick, ABC anchor Peter Jennings, actors Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick.

David Remnick.

Peter Jennings.

Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgewick.
The day before, LPR photographed Mr. Waterston outside the Time Warner
building where, at Borders, he and his daughter Elisabeth, read from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."

Sam Waterston and his daughter Elisabeth at Borders.

The following day, LPR went to Central Park's Great Lawn to see how large the crowd would be for the free Philharmonic concert. But it rained and the hardy
music lovers who braved the inclement weather had to settle for picnic dinners under umbrellas.

A group enjoying the the Philharmonic concert on the Central Park Great Lawn, despite the rain. It is also the place the anti-Bushies wanted to hold rally, denied thus far by City Hall.
LPR asked a man who seemed to have something to do with the concert if the Great Lawn would have been filled if the weather had been better. Indeed so, he indicated, saying that there would have been 25 thousand at the concert filling every part of the Great Lawn and beyond. This number is one-tenth the people who are said to be coming to New York City for the anti-Bush rally on August 29, which the organizing group, United for Peace and Justice, had wanted to hold on the Great Lawn.

LPR thought that past estimates of crowd size at Great Lawn concerts had been somewhat greater than 25 thousand.