¶ On the very off chance that you are an elementary-school pupil who might find yourself in Manhattan, be advised that aunts and uncles who offer to treat you to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark either aren’t very bright or don’t think you’re very bright. Having pronounced the reconstituted show “a bore,” Ben Brantley compares it to its troubled predecessor thus:

So is this ascent from jaw-dropping badness to mere mediocrity a step upward? Well, until last weekend, when I caught a performance of this show’s latest incarnation, I would have recommended “Spider-Man” only to carrion-feasting theater vultures. Now, if I knew a less-than-precocious child of 10 or so, and had several hundred dollars to throw away, I would consider taking him or her to the new and improved “Spider-Man.”

¶ Sam Sifton demotes Masa, the sushi temple at TimeWarner Center, from four stars to three. The food is extraordinary, but the overall experience, in the dining room at least, is not. (Perhaps Masa ought to abandon the pretense of a Western-style restaurant and just expand its bar.)

Bruised by recession, wizened by experience, gun-shy about the future, New York City now demands of its four-star restaurants an understanding that culture at its highest must never feel transactional, whatever its cost. We ascend to these heavens for total respite from the world below, for extraordinary service and luxuriant atmosphere as much as for the quality of the food prepared.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 at 8:00 pm.