A reminder: This Sunday is the “State of the Town” forum.
The annual event — featuring 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker and Board of Education chair Lee Goldstein — is February 4 (2 to 3:30 p.m., Westport Library; click here for livestream).
They’ll discuss the past year for the town and Board of Ed, respectively, and look to the future. They’ll take questions from the audience too.
As always, it’s a co-production of Westport Sunrise Rotary, and the Rotary Club of Westport.
1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker and Board of Education chair Lee Goldstein.
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Cava opens Friday next to Westport Hardware, across from Fresh Market.
The national fast food chain has over 300 outlets. The menu includes pitas (crispy falafel, spicy chicken and avocado, spicy lamb meatball and Greek chicken), and salad bowls (spicy chicken, zesty falafel, lemon chicken, harissa avocado, lentil avocado, tahini Caesar and more).
CAVA is known for its community involvement. Even before its official opening, they’re showing Westport why.
During their training period, they’ve been donating fresh bowls and pitas to Food Rescue US – Fairfield County.
On Thursday (February 1), guests are invited for a free lunch (10:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.) or dinner (5 to 8 p.m.). Donations to Food Rescue US are encouraged — and CAVA will match them, up to $1,000. Advance registrations are required; click here.
Since 2019, CAVA’s nationwide Community Day program has donated more than $350,000 to over 60 non-profit organizations. Much of the funding is aimed at improving food security.
A few of CAVA’s dishes.
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Westporter Kelli O’Hara’s performance as Kirsten Arnesen in “Days of Wine and Roses” earned a stellar review in Sunday’s New York Times.
Laura Collins-Hughes wrote:
O’Hara, who starred in Lucas and Guettel’s “The Light in the Piazza” on Broadway in 2005, is particularly sublime. Her nuanced and variable performance is as technically impressive and fully human in its acting as in its singing — and the singing is considerable.
Of the show’s 18 numbers, she has 14, seven of them solos. In her crystalline tone are secrets of Kirsten’s soul that aren’t explicit in Guettel’s lyrics; when she sings “Sammen I Himmelen,” a kind of prayer as lullaby, to baby Lila, we can hear Kirsten missing her own dead mother.
Click here for the full review.
The same edition of the Times also included an in-depth story of the play’s route from movie to Broadway. O’Hara gets much of the credit.
The piece begins:
As origin stories go, the transformation of “Days of Wine and Roses” from a movie into a musical is a straight shot, with a twist. Kelli O’Hara and Adam Guettel had the inkling more than 20 years ago, when she was a Broadway ingénue, working on what became her breakthrough Tony-nominated role in “Light in the Piazza.”
Guettel had written the music and lyrics for that musical, which went on to earn him a Tony Award for best score. They talked through their coordinating vision for evolving “Wine and Roses,” the midcentury classic of a romance ruined by addiction. “I think I used the words ‘a weird dark opera,’” O’Hara recalled.
Later, Melena Ryzik writes:
In her New York Times review of its premiere last year, at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company, Laura Collins-Hughes called it “a jazzy, aching musical” with an “awfully glamorous” central pair. And O’Hara, who then as now sings 14 of the 18 numbers in the show, was, she wrote, “in exquisite voice.”
During that run and in previews on Broadway, O’Hara said she quickly understood how viscerally the narrative connected with audiences. One theatergoer came up to her after a show, “with a full drink in her hand,” she said, “crying and hugging me and saying, ‘you know, I’m a mother and I worry about my drinking.’ And she was quite past sobriety at that point.”
Another woman walked by and thanked her, quietly adding, “‘23 years’ — meaning 23 years sober,” O’Hara said.
Few people’s lives, she noted, have not been touched by addiction. “I lost a couple of friends to this over the pandemic, and I think many people got sober over the pandemic,” she said. Even though there’s more understanding of its pervasiveness than “in the time of Kirsten and Joe, it’s not changing, it’s not ending, and it won’t.”
Click here for the full story.
The very same Times Arts & Leisure section included a review of Sarah Jarosz’s new album, “Polaroid Lovers.” It was produced by — and includes several songs written by — Daniel Tashian.
The Nashville-based singer/songwriter/producer is the son of country artists Barry and Holly Tashian. Both are Staples High School graduates; Barry was the founder and front man of The Remains, the band that camethisclose to national stardom, and opened for the Beatles on their final American tour.
Click here for the story on Sarah Jarosz and Daniel Tashian. (Hat tip: Tom Kretsch)
Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James in “Days of Wine and Roses” at Studio 54. (Photo/Sara Krulwich for The New York Times)
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From art exhibits and speakers to drag shows, MoCA Westport offers plenty of interesting programs.
Always among the most popular: concerts by Michelle Pauker February 8 (7 p.m.) for a special pre-Valentine’s Day “Songs for Lovers” show. From Broadway and jazz to folk and pop, she’ll cover just about every “love-ly” genre.
She has performed around the country. But MoCA remains one of her favorite venues.
Like Michelle’s 2 previous performances, this will sell out. Click here for tickets, and more information.
Michelle Pauker
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Cathy Malkin — a “humane educator” who teaches responsible pet care and safety around dogs, as well as an animal reiki teacher/practitioner — is offering 2 in-person classes for area animals (and their people).
”Learning to Communicate Telepathically with Animals (Especially Your Pet!) is February 3 (2 to 3:30 p.m., The Transformation Center, Westport).
The class includes a Q-and-A session where Cathy will answer one question about your pet, whether living or departed, so attendees can hear their wisdom and guidance. Bring a photo of the pet on your phone.
In addition, dogs are invited to an ”Animal Reiki and Sound Healing Bath Meditation” (February 8, 6:30 to 8 p.m., Hummingbird Healing Center, Westport).
The event combines the healing power of a guided animal reiki meditation with a soothing multi-instrumental sound bath, designed to help guests and their dogs relax on “a journey into a shared space of inner peace and heart connection with dogs.” (Dogs are optional.)
Click here for details, and registration.
Cathy Malkin’s Yogi Bear.
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The County Assembly formal dance, for high school students, was held this past weekend. Among the attendees (below, from left): Samantha Henske, Megan Healy and Ava Chun.
Meanwhile, Village Pediatrics showed up in force. Doctors and office staff showed up in force, to ensure a smooth check-in for their patients — and everyone else.
Genna Grushkin, Evelyn Anderson, Crystal Perez and Dr. Nikki Gorman join parents at the County Assembly dance.
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Coq au vin is a winter favorite.
But how to cook it?
Chef Raquel Rivera teaches braising techniques that can be used for many Dutch oven meals, at a “Cozy Winter Meals” class on March 7 (7 p.m.) at Wakeman Town Farm.
Click here for tickets, and more information. (PS: It’s BYOB.)
Coq au vin
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Pianist Sarah Jane Cion returns to Jazz at the Post this Thursday (February 1, shows at 7:30 and 8:45 p.m.; dinner from 7 p.m.; VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399l music charge $20, $15 for students and veterans).
Her songs “Cat in the Hat” and “Golden Song” were featured in “The Mule” and “Thor: The Dark World.”
She’s joined by Mike Camacho (drums), Sameer Shankar (bass), and Greg “The Jazz Rabbi” Wall (saxophone).
Reservations are highly recommended: JazzatthePost@gmail.com.
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Darcy Miller Boyd Austin died Friday peacefully at her home in Damariscotta, Maine, surrounded by family and friends. She was 81.
After moving from Manhattan to Westport in 1948, she attended Saugatuck Elementary, Long Lots Junior High and Staples High School. She graduated from Connecticut College, then earned a master’s in special education from Columbia University.
She married Warwick Boyd and moved to New Mexico with VISTA, and had a son, Jesse Boyd, in 1970. She divorced, and moved to Maine. She lived at the Pemaquid Lighthouse in keepers’ cottage from 1984 to 2004.
Darcy taught school in Bristol, then worked at the daycare in the YMCA, and got her CNA certification in 2004. She married Jim Austin in 1993.
After retiring, she volunteered for many organizations.
Darcy is survived by her husband, Jim Austin; Jim’s son Christopher Austin; his granddaughters Guinevere and Penelope Austin; her son Jesse Boyd (Sheila) and and her grandson Elliott Boyd; her sister Holly Watts (Michael); her brother John Miller; nieces Sara Miller, Kate Watts Gregory, Tory Watts Donohue, Ali Watts Sise, their spouses, and 8 grandnieces and grandnephews.
A celebration of her life will be held in Maine this June.
Darcy Miller Boyd Austin
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The buck stops where?
For this one: Cedargate Lane, off Whitney Street. Richard Fogel spotted him, for our “Westport … Naturally” feature.
(Photo/Richard Fogel)
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And finally … on this date in 1969, the Beatles gave their last public performance. Their impromptu concert on the roof of Apple Records in London was broken up by police.
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