One Night in D.U.M.B.O....

makes the Manhattanites quiver! We had a fabulous evening with my parents last Friday in Dumbo, that tiny Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood defined by its existence Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. And what a glorious place to be, under that bridge. It's such a small neighborhood, that it also happens to be down under the Brooklyn Bridge. Our evening was really DUBB. The two bridges begin in Brooklyn just a few short blocks from one another.

The occasion was the 3-night-only production of two original "sound plays" by the Coen Brothers and by Charlie Kaufman. They were set to music and featured a star-studded cast of wonderful actors: Steve Buscemi, Hope Davis, Peter Dinklage, John Goodman, Marcia Gay Harden, Philip Seymour Hoffman and one of my latter day icons, Meryl Streep. It's only in recent years that I've come to appreciate Meryl's stupendous gifts - and she did not disappoint. The location was a theater and music venue called St. Ann's Warehouse, now in its 25th year of producing avant-garde offerings. This was our first visit, and what a way to be introduced. It was quite a scene - all of Brooklyn's hipsterati seemed to be out, and not many folks under the age of 50 appeared to be in the crowd. This only made my parents more excited to be there. Oh, and milling around the lobby pre and post performance we rubbed elbows with some of the actors AND Willem Dafoe, Jennifer Jason Leigh and some vaguely familiar great looking actor types we couldn't name. It was all very exciting.

A scintillating evening of live performance - complete with full band and a foley artist there to do all the sound effects. Two truly bizarre and fun sound plays, which I imagine were recorded and will actually play on radio somewhere sometime. It was definitely one of those only in NY experiences that I am so smug about. At least until the production hits the road and ends up somewhere equally hip and cutting-edge, like San Francisco. Keep your ears peeled, because you never know.

We had dinner before the show - and dessert afterwards - at a cozy little restaurant literally just under the Brooklyn Bridge. My mom loved it, especially being right under the glorious old bridge. Even my dad, Mr. Erstwhile Brooklynite, was utterly charmed. We were all quite giddy by the end of the evening. My parents kept remarking how GREAT Brooklyn is and MY GOODNESS, who knew these things were happening and GOSH KIDS, we're relying on you to take us to all the unexpected spots.

Mom and Dad, we're more than happy to!