Saturday Night - No Plans! What to Do?

From the old tune, "Saturday Night is the loneliest night of the week." What to do?

A 100-watt bulb went off over Lorraine's head. " I read an article on the new theater in Northport. It was an old movie theater that has been revamped for live theater. Let's see what is playing there."

I chimed in, "I just read a review of an hilarious play there called Lend Me A Tenor. I'll call and try to get tickets." From the theater, the box office person, Tammy, said, "We are sold out, but I have two seats in the last row, but not together. Seats U1 and U15 in the 21st row, do you want them?

"Yes," I answered after consulting Lorraine. Tammy said she would try to get seats together if someone canceled. We did the credit card business and the two tickets were $45 each. Ninety dollars today on Broadway hardly gets you one seat. Later, Tammy called back with two seats together in row K.

And now, how do we get to The John W. Engeman Theater at Northport? Fact - Northport is not that close to Jericho. After what seemed like two eternities we arrived at the theater. The Town of Northport was alive with couples going to dinner. We were turned down flat by two promising restaurants and we wandered into a very small restaurant that barely accepted us. "No reservations," I shouted as I walked through the door. It had atmosphere but no menus. The waitress recited the menu. We chose two pasta dishes at $25 and $35 apiece.

Everyone else was dining on the "tasters menu." Small portions of about 15 courses were the tasters menu. We asked for our check and it arrived, $210 for the tasters menu. I pointed out the mistake and I received the correct check, $82, including tax. There was no breakdown of courses and I took out a credit card. My mistake.

"No credit cards!" said the waiter. "Strange in today's world." I fished into my pocket and scraped out the proper cash with tip.

On to the theater. Very little parking on the main street of Northport, Main Street. Valet parking was fine with me. The theater had a huge, comfortable bar and the crowd was into drinking. As we entered the theater, itself, we were struck by the wonderful frescoes on the walls. They depicted romantic scenes of a villa in Italy.

People were carrying drinks to their seats for placement in a cup holder. Let the play begin and it did.

Lend Me A Tenor was a zany, French sex, farce comedy with doors opening and closing during the whole show. The actors' timing was superb and the dialogue was fast and furious. The laughs came in waves. The comedy was based on a famous Italian tenor coming to Cleveland to sing Verdi's Othello and passing out. The rest is hilarious.

The theater is named for a Chief Warrant Officer, John W. Engeman who was killed as a result of hostile enemy action in Iraq. After the show we took a different route home and were back in Jericho at 10:30, after a wonderful night out.

Saturday Night on Long Island turned out to be a lark.