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Biography: Theater 3 at The Mint,
November 24, 2009
The New Yorker, December 7, 2009
Sauce on the Side
By MICHAEL SCHULMAN
It’s a given that almost every waiter in
Manhattan is an aspiring actor, but those who wait
tables in midtown have some extra perks: proximity
to auditions and the Capezio store, and plenty of
networking opportunities. But rarely do the dual
vocations achieve the kind of symbiosis that they
have at Orso, on West Forty-sixth Street, where
several members of the staff have banded together to
produce and star in an Off-Broadway play—S. N.
Behrman’s 1932 comedy “Biography,” at Theatre 3, on
West Forty-third Street. Reservations suggested.
“A lot of people in New York spend all their time
trying instead of doing,” Kevin Albert, the general
manager at Orso and, in the play, a bumbling
Southern politician, said the other night. It was
half past eleven—or, as Albert called it, “wine
thirty”—and he was sitting at a table near the bar.
He was joined by his collaborators: Simon MacLean, a
waiter, who plays a movie star in “Biography,” and
Cheryl Orsini, who, besides mixing acclaimed
margaritas, portrays a testy German maid.
Albert grew up in Vermont and moved to New York in
1994, with the dream of dancing on Broadway. He met
Orsini, a former New Jersey Turnpike toll collector
who had just returned from a European tour of
“Hair,” while working at Orso, and encouraged her to
join an acting class that he was taking. There they
met MacLean, who had left his job as a consultant in
Portland, Oregon, to come to New York and try
acting. When an opening came up at Orso, Albert
recruited him. After their acting teacher died, his
widow cast all three in a production of “The
Crucible,” upstate. Feeling hopeful, they held a
meeting one night at the restaurant—“at Table 17,
where that white-haired woman is,” MacLean said,
pointing—and decided to bring the show to New York,
where it played for a month at the ArcLight Theatre.
“Biography” is their second production. “We’re
talking about a reading series, and we’re trying to
do a Clifford Odets play,” MacLean said.
MacLean leaped up to say good night to Joe Torre,
who’d been eating a bowl of pasta at the next table.
“I am a lifelong Red Sox fan and I’ve always hated
you, but I have a deep and profound respect for
you,” MacLean said.
“Thank you,” Torre said, looking puzzled, and left.
Returning to the table, MacLean said that he sees a
kinship between the group’s artistic values and the
vibe at Orso. “We serve fantastic food that’s simply
and beautifully executed,” he said. “There’s no
flair—we’re not doing all kinds of sauces. The
theatre that we do is the same thing. It’s about
conveying what’s in the mind and the heart, without
a lot of hubbub.”
The collaborators are careful about drawing a line
between their two jobs, and for the most part have
avoided talking up the show to patrons. Albert has a
personal rule: “If they ask me, I’ll tell them.”
Both men had grown mustaches for their roles, which
turned out to be a useful marketing tool. “People
ask about the mustache, and it’s the perfect
opportunity to talk about the show,” Albert said.
Many of their regulars have expressed interest,
including the actors Jim Norton (“Finian’s Rainbow”)
and David Hyde Pierce. “On Wednesdays, we could have
people come and see the matinée, and then,
immediately following it, we could be serving them
dinner,” MacLean said.
Nearby, at Table 3, Ken and Ellen Stuart, who
estimate that they eat at Orso twenty-three times a
year, were drinking cappuccinos. They had already
bought tickets to “Biography.”
“We went to see ‘The Crucible,’ ” Ken said, after
handing Albert the check. “It was a great
experience. Orso is our favorite restaurant, and
we’re very nicely treated when we come here.”
The Stuarts described themselves as frequent
theatregoers—their son is an actor and substitute
teacher in L.A.—but they especially enjoy seeing
their servers onstage. “We both tend to stay awake,”
Ellen said. “And maybe they’ll hand out some pizza
bread or something.”
A few days later, just before the first performance,
Joe Allen, Orso’s owner, who is seventy-six, was
drinking coffee near the bar. “I wish them well,” he
said. “And, if they get, as they say, discovered,
good for them. There’ll be someone else to take
their jobs.”
Biography: Theater 3 at The Mint,
November 24, 2009 |
