Broadway and baseball are in bed together.
The passion between ex-Oakland Athletics dude and now Yankees new pitcher Sonny Gray is not life upon the wicked field but upon the wicked stage.
Sonny Gray’s a theater buff. Our town’s new hurler loves musicals, dramas, actors, footlights. Stuck in whereverthehell Oakland is, he always got recommendations to see a legit play or glitzy musical whenever he could get to the big city.
Now he’s in the big city and big tickets await.
Jimmy Nederlander, not to miss an opportunity, wrote him: “Welcome to New York. I know you love theater. I’m in that business. The Nederlander Organization would love for you to see a show. And, please, know you’re in good hands if you’re with the Yankees.”
So, theatergoers: If any 5-foot-10 guy (minus his cleats) sits in front of you blocking your view, know it could be the newest name in pinstripes.
It’s a designer’s ‘Dream’ life
More B’way. Tony-winning scenic designer David Rockwell’s gone green for the Delacorte’s Shakespeare in the Park. Just opened “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has, he says, “monumental 8-foot oaks acting as characters. Walls open, the trees dance.” Wha-a-aa?
“Made in pieces, then assembled in the park, trunks are steel structures, the bark’s burlap and little lights become fireflies.”
A reception with castmembers Annaleigh Ashford, Phylicia Rashad, Danny Burstein was at Ovando, 82nd and Mad, the glorious botanical boutique Rockwell designed. It’s filled with the world over’s exotic plants and flowers.
Like whoever saw a huge dark shiny zeze before? Sandra de Ovando’s shop is magic.
Even more B’way. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” revival is 1 year old. “School of Rock” added six more young’uns to its litter. With ALW’s 70th birthday on the horizon, also comes his HarperCollins autobio, “Unmasked.”
Pol position
Political analyst Donna Brazile’s written a shove-all/stick-it-to-all book that releases bodily fluid all over our presidential election.
Been there, smelled it all, Brazile worked on Jesse Jackson’s ’84 campaign, was Al Gore’s 2000 campaign manager, Dem Party chairperson and CNN contributor until a kerfuffle about sneaking nominee Hillary advance information whacked her off.
Her Hachette book is “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that put Donald Trump in the White House.”
Donna: “The DNC, beset by infighting and scandal, is much worse than commonly known. And reeling from a foreign power’s brazen, unprecedented attempt to influence an election. I’ll lay bare 2016’s missteps, miscalculations and crimes.”
Isn’t knocking off a book what every ex-political type does?
“What happened to me was hard emotionally and spiritually. I got beaten up and needed a therapist. Plus I lost my love, my dog Chip. Maybe it’s cathartic, or maybe now that I’m back contributing to ABC News plus being adjunct professor at Georgetown University, I needed to say things that will shock people.
“I’m a Democrat all my life. But an American first. Time to tell the truth about wrongs. Our nation’s under assault. Get the facts out, or it happens again — and worse.”
Pub date is Nov. 7, approximately the one-year anniversary of the 2016 election.
Gary Rosen from Italy’s plush lush Villa d’Este. “A group’s discussing hotels. Looking up from his iPhone, its 6-year-old says: ‘I love the Four Seasons. It’s my favorite.’ ”
Only in Europe, kids, only in Europe.