Room Service and Pippin

Fancy Pad Thai at Room Service

Room Service is here to serve you the haute Thai cuisine that you might find in an upscale hotel in Bangkok. Slate walls and enormous chandeliers suggest a swanky hotel lobby, the menus have room numbers, and waiters are dressed as bellboys. There is a steady lunchtime flow. This reviewer not long ago honeymooned in Thailand so was curious to see if the food compared. Pad Thai noodles (the classic) had pink coconut-beet sauce and tamarind juice, sprinkled with mango spears. Very fancy! The $12 Room Service VIP drink was a jumble of fruit and alcohol that tastes sweet and potent. I remembered these potent cocktails from my honeymoon. The menu includes traditional dishes as well as chef creations using lotus seeds, raisins, lychees. Thai pumpkin flan is not to be missed.

The musical Pippin hasn’t been on Broadway for 40 years, a hiatus that is due perhaps to its adult storybook nature. The audience was all abuzz and applauding as the lights were lowered. I then rethought bringing my 7 year-old to the show, anticipating the sexual undertones that would be over her head. There were many.

Prince Pippin, son of the conqueror Charlemagne, is on a quest for meaning and answers (“Corner of the World”), who finds answers and yet more questions. The current production courageously entwines Bob Fosse choreography with surreal circus acts created by Gypsy Snider. It works. Costume designer Dominique Lemieux shows us that every woman looks sensational in an acrobat costume with fringe.

Comedian Andrea Martin plays Berthe, Pippin’s grandmother, and her “No Time at All” is a showstopper. I have two words: Hot Mama. Go see Pippin!