Our beautiful city will become whole again. Watch this moving video from NYC and Company, New York City’s official convention and visitor’s bureau. They also have some wonderful ways we can all help our beautiful city – our restaurants, our retailers, and our cultural institutions. Valerie Smaldone shares some uplifting stories today and a beautiful musical video too. And listen in to her latest podcast, Bagels and Broadway and her interview with the Head Tomato. And Broadway Baby Randie Levine-Miller has this week’s entertainment picks. And stay tuned for Virtual Renewal Summit!

The Virtual Renewal Summit Launches End of May

Anne Akers and Cheryl Benton have a gift for all of you.  Our Renewal Summit is going virtual and you are invited – FREE.  It will happen at The Three Tomatoes web site over four weeks.  Check out the speaker and panel lineup.

Dine in NYC

While our restaurants, bars and cafés in the City are no longer open for seated dining. You can still support many of these local businesses, however, by ordering food and drinks (including beer, wine and cocktails) for pickup or delivery. NYC and Company says to maximize the benefit to local businesses, we encourage you to order directly from the restaurants by calling or using their websites. And tip generously. Another great way to help is to purchase gift cards to use in the future, providing much needed revenue now.  Here is their directory of restaurants you can order form directly.

Virtual NYC

There are still plenty of ways to explore the five boroughs while socially distancing. We’ve rounded up online resources from museums, galleries, comedy clubs, theaters and other venues so that you can experience the best of New York City virtually. And NYC and Company has a list of literally hundreds of ways to connect with your favorite NYC attractions—or discover new ones—from home or wherever you are right now. Get the details.

Shop NYC

New York City has earned its reputation as one of the world’s great shopping capitals. While physical locations may currently be closed, you can still browse some of your favorite retailers, hotels and cultural institutions across NYC, and, if you’re able, make a purchase in the process. NYC and Company has rounded up those offering ecommerce and/or gift cards so you can shop the best of the city from home—large and small, and help keep the five boroughs’ economy running. Look for distinctive apparel and accessories; signature hotel items like linens, robes and spa products; food and gift baskets; souvenirs, books, music, games and more. Get the details.

Randie’s Broadway and Show Biz Picks

Randie Levine Miller has another great roundup of wonderful Broadway performances, cabaret shows, and much more that you can stream right now! For example, you may not know doc Pomus, but Tomatoes will know his songs, like A Teenager in Love, and This Magic Moment and Randie says the documentary about him is fab. Also streaming on Amazon is a documentary about Kutsher’s Country Club, one of the Catskills legendary hotels. And we’ve posted “My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies” a fabulous concert from Carnegie Hall in 1998.

AKA Doc Pomus

Doc Pomus’ dramatic life is explored in this documentary. Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus. He then emerged as one of the most brilliant songwriters of the early rock and roll era, writing Save the Last Dance for Me, This Magic Moment, A Teenager in Love, Viva Las Vegas, and dozens of other hits. Watch on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV

Welcome to Kutsher’s: The Last Catskills Resort

Kutsher’s Country Club was one of the legendary hotels in the Jewish Catskills, or “Borscht Belt.” The resorts were not only a Jewish vacation paradise, they also had significant influence on entertainment, stand-up comedy and sports. This enjoyable documentary features Wilt Chamberlain and Freddie Roman as well as ice skating instructor Celia Duffy and an abundance of hearty kosher feasts. Watch on Amazon Prime Video or ChaiFlicks  

My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies

Directed by William Cosel. With Julie Andrews, Nell Carter, Lea DeLaria, Linda Eder. This film presents highlights of a concert given on 28 September 1998 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Some of the ladies offer songs with which they have been closely associated over the years, while others explore the road not taken.

BY JEEVES play free to stream for 48 hours

Andrew Llloyd Weber’s “The Shows Must Go On” continue on YouTube with this week’s 48 hour feature of the 1996 production of By Jeeves – Book by Alan Ayckbourn, music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It  will be available to watch for free on YouTube starting Friday, May 8th at 11am PT / 2pm ET for 48 hours only. You can access it here.

The production is the 1996 version recorded at the Stephen Joseph Theatre-in-the-round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, an English seaside resort and released on DVD in 2001. By Jeeves is the musical comedy by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber based on the characters of P.G. Woodhouse. An adventure of the hapless Bertie Wooster (played by John Scherer), a young gentleman about town with a penchant for getting himself into personal difficulties, particularly with women. It is inevitably left to his unflappable manservant Jeeves (played by Martin Jarvis) to provide tify and elegant rescues. Enjoy this outrageous comedy as Jeeves guides, Bertie, through a series of hapless adventures and improvised chaos. A show that has to be seen to be believed. 

A Mother’s Day Celebration at 54 Below

Celebrate Mother’s Day with Feinstein’s/54 Below! Leading ladies from the worlds of Broadway and cabaret share the virtual stage—and screen—with their children and their own moms to sing about the glory of family, friendship, and love. It’s a Mother’s Day celebration adapted for at-home audiences. Moms are our first loves, our best friends, our fiercest defenders, and our first singing partners – now we celebrate that in song.

This sixth edition of the show will revisit the very first Mother’s Day concert from 2015 with archival video which will be augmented with new home video updates.  An emotional concert that will fill your heart and soul on Mother’s Day! Watch it here.