The Drink in Sidney Brustein's Hand
Concerning Lorraine Hansberry, Rita Moreno and Backstage Drama.
When I launched The Mix a year and a half ago, part of the plan was to incorporate my former beat—theater—into the newsletter’s content. Before I wrote about spirits and cocktails, I spent twenty years covering the New York stage, and I miss writing about that lively art.
That plan hasn’t panned out, mainly because I fell off the theatre’s media lists years ago, and thus longer have access to press tickets. Theater ticket prices have skyrocketed in the years since I left stage reporting. That means I can only afford to go to the theater a handful of times a year.
Thankfully, I still have a few friends in high places in the theatre world. Recently, my old pal, Bob, a voter for the Drama Desk, invited me to join him for a performance of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. I jumped at the chance. I had been longing to catch the revival of this obscure play by Lorraine Hansberry, the celebrated author of A Raisin in the Sun. It stars two actors I enjoy, Oscar Issac and Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), and is directed by the talented Anne Kaufmann, who I knew in my playwriting days. (Yes, I wrote plays once, too.)