A Kinky Birthday

On rare occasions, I do manage to escape the bakery. (Sometimes, we get calls at nine o’clock at night from unknowing customers wishing to place bread orders, who are unaware that we live here, too.) To celebrate our daughter Jamie’s 24th birthday this month, we’d purchased for her two tickets to see “Kinky Boots” on Broadway. Her ultimate decision to take her mom with her to see it made it a double celebration.

As Jamie and I made our way to our seats—center orchestra—in the packed Al Hirschfeld Theatre, I wondered if this production could possibly rival the original film, which also had a superb soundtrack. Cyndi Lauper, who composed the lyrics for the musical version, was certainly talented, but could she top “Whatever Lola Wants?” But we laughed, giggled, and stamped our feet through the entire three-hour-long performance. It was the best musical I’d ever seen, even surpassing “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown!” To top it off, we were honored with the surprise appearance of Harvey Fierstein, the playwright of “Kinky Boots,” who had come to bid farewell to the star of the cast, whose final performance we’d just seen.

After leaving the theater, we found a homey Turkish restaurant on Eighth Avenue near Port Authority and plied ourselves with grilled eggplant and yogurt, Mediterranean salad, and chicken and vegetable stew. The bus took us back to New Jersey, where we finished off the evening with two slices of wild blueberry pie, courtesy of Beach Lake Bakery. What a heavenly day!