YOUTHS’ PHONES SWIPED

Last Monday, three male middle-school-aged friends were walking down West 83rd Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, when two unknown male youths approached them. One perp told the boys, “If you don’t give me your phone, I’ll shoot,” and patted his jacket, indicating a hidden gun. One youth gave up his phone, while one suspect grabbed another boy’s backpack and swiped his phone. The muggers warned the victims, “not a word,” and they walked away. In total, one Droid and another cellphone were stolen.

TWO SENIORS SWINDLED
Last Thursday, a 74-year-old Upper West Side resident reported a disturbing discovery to police. After the woman noticed that someone was withdrawing money from the joint account she shares with her 90-year-old mother, she investigated with Chase bank. She was shocked to find that an unknown person had been taking money from her mother’s accounts for the past two years—to the tune of $33,753. The elderly mother had lost her bank card, and her daughter told police neither she nor her mother has any idea who could have gained access to her funds.

I BROKE INTO AN APARTMENT AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY LOCKBOX
A 36-year-old woman returned from vacation last Tuesday to find that her apartment on West 81st Street had been broken into. Her glass patio door was shattered, but all that was stolen was an empty lockbox. The break-in occurred sometime between Dec. 31 and Jan. 8. During this time, the only person with access to the apartment was her pet caretaker, the victim said. No arrests have been made.

CON MEN DUPE ELDERLY WOMAN
Last Monday, an 81-year-old woman living at Central Park West received a phone call from a man posing as her grandson, who said he was in jail in Mexico City. Another man, claiming to be a sergeant from the American Embassy, told the woman to send $21,000 in bail. The victim wired over the money. Another man on the phone asked for an additional $1,800 dollars, which she sent over, but the transaction did not go through. Afterward, the victim spoke with her real grandson, who apparently was at work in New York at the time of the phone calls. The con men’s calls emanated from the 514 (Montreal) area code.

CREDIT CARD THIEF MAKES ‘YUMMY’ PURCHASES
A 76-year-old man living at West 72nd Street reported a credit card theft last Tuesday. He had received a phone call from Citibank informing him of unauthorized transactions on his credit card totaling $5,300 made by Yummy Tummy Catering. The victim could not find his credit card, which is usually at home, and canceled the card. The theft occurred sometime between Nov. 26 and Jan. 8.

Photo by Joan Marcus.

Here’s a mini-history lesson to go along with Daniel Sullivan’s marvelous new staging of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a perfect fit for the Public’s annual Shakespeare in the Park presentation (now celebrating its 50^th anniversary): it comes on the heels of several underwhelming neutered versions of the Bard’s work. Last year’s All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure felt more like a formality, a resume checklist, than an invigorating resuscitation of Shakespeare’s work, despite following an angrily potent revival of The Merchant of Venice that transferred to Broadway. While a transfer doesn’t seem likely for Like, it nonetheless restates the Public’s reputation for breathing new life into these five-hundred year-old plays. Sullivan’s revival of this comedy about conflict resolution and secret lives gets the treatment it deserves, and even manages to touch hearts along the way.

Sullivan is aided in this adaptation, now set in the nineteenth-century American South, immeasurably by a top-notch cast led by Lily Rabe, late of Merchant, who has proven to be one of the current great interpreters of Shakespeare, in addition to being a wonderful stage talent in general. She is Rosalind, who flees to the woods of Arden with cousin Celia (Renee Elise-Goldsberry) after Celia’s father, Duke Frederick (Andre Braugher), banishes them from his court. The two disguise themselves – Celia as an unattractive woman named Aliena and Rosalind as a man named Ganymede, which complicates her semi-requited crush on Orlando (David Furr).

Further entangling this web are Silvius (Will Rogers), pining for Phoebe (Susannah Flood), who has fallen in love with Ganymede, and the bawdy jesters Touchstone and Audrey, embodied to perfection by Oliver Platt and Donna Lynne Champlin, respectively. Stephen Spinella adds wisdom to the hectic proceedings as philosopher Jacques as well. All of the actors acquit themselves nicely, though I wish the spirited Goldsberry wasn’t forced to spend quite so much time hiding on the ground. Two actors emerge as particularly noteworthy in this production: Rabe, who from her first speech to her final breathlessly emotive epilogue portrays the agony and ecstasy of lovelorn optimism, and Rogers, who communicates all of Silvius’ disappointments and relief with spot-on physicality that never once overshadows his fellow actors.

Another set of performers must also be saluted here: the onstage band who transform Like into a lively three-hour hoedown thanks to comedy icon Steve Martin’s bluegrass compositions. The clarion work of Tashina Claridge (fiddle), Jordan Tice (guitar), Tony Trischka (banjo), and Skip Ward (bass) textures the show in ways even Shakespeare’s poetry cannot. Additionally, John Lee Beatty’s very green set makes for the perfect forest, one that brims with the birth of new love and also provides plenty of places for those who fear its admission to hide.

As You Like It

Shakespeare in the Park, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, near 81st Street and Central Park West. shakespeareinthepark.org

After eight hours observing cars driving both north and south on Broadway, the group found a total of 932 violations—an average of 117 an hour. They included a frequent disregard of traffic signals, signs and road markings, and a failure to yield to pedestrians. Vehicles also abused mid-block parking laws near bus stops and commercial truck loading and unloading zones.

West 96th Street is crowded with traffic from the Central Park West traverse and an entrance to the West Side Highway. Half of the 52 pedestrians surveyed at the intersection said they felt endangered by traffic.

Transportation Alternatives also surveyed three other locations throughout the city. The group suggests that police better monitor violations to identify hotspots of violations throughout the city.