Olympia Dukakis was stalking me

Olympia Dukakis was stalking me tonight. I swear. First on the subway platform in Times Square. I was heading downtown after work, waiting for the N train (still only $1.50 ... this month), and she walked right past me, very nonchalant, as if paying no notice. Not 30 minutes later, I’m having dinner with C.B. at Time Cafe and there she is again, at the corner table. She’s pretending to be engaged in a conversation with another woman who’s sharing the table, but I know better (she’s a dang good actress, but not that good) … she’s tailing me.

C.B. and I discretely finish our dinner, thank the too-cute tall lanky waiter (wishing him well on his upcoming 14th birthday) and head across the street. I wait on line at Public Theater’s box office and pick up my subscription tickets. Who is behind me? Yup, Clairee Belcher, in the flesh. Can’t a boy just go the theater in peace?

Tonight’s performance of Fame, er, no Rent … hmm, that wasn’t it … Falsettos, wait, no … what was it, oh yeah, Radiant Baby was oh-so-close to being good. For a musical about one the century’s most original artists, there was a whole lot of derivative going on. Kinda scary at the beginning … a Greek chorus of 3 pre-teens never bodes well … the show picks up but never really grabs. There are disco numbers, Madonna (or maybe Medusa) numbers, early rap numbers and lots of pop music that you swear you’ve heard before. Oh, yeah, and scads of Keith Haring drawings. Some really good songs, but some really cringe ones as well. “If It Can’t Be Love” is a lovely ballad sung while Keith paints the new b.f. Carlos in bed (literally) … a very romantic scene. However, the two of them in bed and the woman standing behind them (the “singer on the radio,” as she’s called in the credits) really reminded me of Erzule serenading TiMoune and Daniel with “Human Heart” in “Once on this Island.”

At one point Kwong says to Keith, “in 20 years we’ll be nostalgia.” In less time than that, high schools around the country will be performing Radiant Baby.

The other celebrity sighting of the night was Fran Drescher … who looked great, btw. As C.B. overheard coming out of the theater, “did you know the nanny from The Nanny was at the show?”