by Jonathan Spira

“Nothing lasts,” a line from the musical “Avenue Q” tells us, and that now goes for the Tony Award-winning show as well. The show’s last performance is Sunday evening and the denizens of Avenue Q will live on in regional productions and tours as well as in our hearts and minds.
As sunny as the show’s opening song is at first, theatergoers immediately start to realize they’re not on Sesame Street …

Monday Is Memorial Day: Here’s What’s Open and What’s Closed

by Paul Riegler

Monday is Memorial Day in the United States, a holiday that honors Americans who died while in military service.
Originally known as Decoration Day, the holiday marks the unofficial start of summer. Since 1970, it is a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May.
The observance stems from the ancient idea of decorating soldiers’ graves with flowers and evolved from various local holidays, first in the South in the early 1860s, …

Review – The New Apple TV App: A Good Idea That Needs Work

by Anna Breuer

With the release of Apple’s new Apple TV app that inexplicably carries the same name as its set top box, the company that revolutionized portable music players and smartphones wants to do the same for television.
Unfortunately, it falls short of what is a very admirable goal, that is to create one overarching environment in which to watch one’s favorite programs.
The new Apple TV app is standard on all iPhones, iPads, …

Restaurant Review: Sushi Seki Times Square, New York City

by Paul Riegler

The variety of restaurants in New York City’s Theater District continues to grow, making pre-theater dining a treat rather than a tired ritual.
With the opening of Sushi Seki Times Square, the flagship restaurant of a group of three – the others are in Chelsea and the East Side – theatergoers can treat themselves to flavorful, carefully prepared, and varied sushi that is almost as much of an event as the …

Theater Review: Cirque du Soleil: Luzia – A Waking Dream of Mexico at Citi FIeld

by Jonathan Spira

While many people think of Cirque du Soleil as a show they saw in Las Vegas, few realize that Cirque reinvented the industry in the 1980s and 90s with a theatrical, character- and story-driven approach with an absence of traditional circus animals.
Cirque, which attempted to take Broadway by storm, has settled for something a little less ambitious, and far away from the Great White Way, namely an off-off-Broadway production in …

Photo Essay: The TWA Hotel at JFK, A Memorable Midcentury Time Capsule

by Jonathan Spira

The iconic TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport was reborn as the TWA Hotel on Wednesday when it opened its doors to guests.
The 1962 TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen, was declared a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1994, and the hotel is a faithful restoration of the Finnish architect’s masterpiece.
“The memories of working here decades ago flooded my mind,” said, …

How to Evacuate an Aircraft After a Crash

by Jesse Sokolow

Images of passengers emerging from a burning Aeroflot regional jet at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, luggage in hand, made me recoil: Have we learnt nothing in the past few years about how to safely evacuate an aircraft?
Frequent Business Traveler last tackled this very important topic three years ago and little has changed, including the behavior of passengers exiting a plane after an emergency landing or crash landing with many …

Eurovision Song Contest to Start Tuesday in Israel

by Paul Riegler

The Eurovision Song Concert 2019 will take place next week in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was selected after Israel’s victory at the 2018 Eurovision contest in Lisbon, Portugal, by Netta with the song “Toy.”
The glitzy contest, to which all of Europe and some neighbors send entrants, is going on its 64th year.
Eurovision, which is followed by music fans across the globe, came about as war-torn Europe was …