![]() ![]() It was called the Café Edison, but people really did refer to it as the Polish Tea Room because of its Eastern European menu and atmosphere. That would be the diner located inside the real-life Edison Hotel on West 47th Street in Midtown Manhattan, and yes, just a short walk east to Broadway. The show’s title indicates how long it would take to walk to Broadway - the actual street, not the mythical pinnacle of success - from the coffee shop that is the center of the plot and which is based on a real-life place. The setting for the play is the Polish Tea Room, based on the real-life Café Edison in Midtown Manhattan’s venerable Edison Hotel (photo by John Bauguess) ![]() It opened on Broadway in mid-November 2001 and closed two months later, after just 104 trips to the stage. ![]() In the pantheon of Neil Simon plays, which includes 29 plays as well as five musicals since his “Come Blow Your Horn” had its debut in 1961, “45 Seconds From Broadway” isn’t one of the best-known or highly touted. What makes it even better is that “the characters are people like ourselves, people who do their work more for love than money,” he said. “Don’t be surprised if you feel him tugging on your heartstrings, while simultaneously pulling your leg.” The playwright “has given us plenty of laughs, with a great deal of affection for his subjects,” Torelle wrote in his introduction to the play. The cast includes both VLT veterans and newcomers: Diana Aday, Don Aday, Bart Aikens, Martin Brown, Katherine Collins, Samantha Cross, Denise LaCroix, Kevin Hustle, Pamela Lehan-Siegel, Achilles Massahos, Damon Noyes, Chris Pinto, Randy Rawson, Paul Rhoden, Joshua Russell, Stephanie Sarnoff, Janna Slack and Samson Vanderpool.ĭirector Patrick Torelle likes the play because of Simon’s intimate knowledge of the industry and his subjects. Most of the 18 actors in the cast probably know full well what Neil Simon was writing about, as most have paid their dues doing other jobs by day while pursuing their art at night and on weekends, some locally and others in wider theatrical circles.Ĭhris Pinto plays Mickey Fox, and Katherine Collins is Bessie James, in the VLT’s 89th season opener, “45 Seconds From Broadway” (photo by Richard Scheeland) The tea room is run by Bernie and Zelda, played in the Very Little Theatre production by Achilles Massahos and Dense LaCroix, a couple who welcome everyone who comes through the door, as well as extending a special helping hand in the form of food, advice and even jobs to new-on-the-scene young starving artists. It centers around a place called the Polish Tea Room, which sits at the epicenter of the theater district in New York City and beckons to the up-and-coming, the still-hopeful, the has-beens and never-weres among the singers, dancers and actors whose lives revolve around the never-ending dream of the Big Break. The premise of “45 Seconds From Broadway” is one that anyone who ever aspired to making it big in show biz can appreciate. (Above: The Very Little Theatre opens its 89th season with the Neil Simon comedy, “45 Seconds From Broadway ” photo by John Bauguess) ![]()
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