WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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William Michals as Petruchio Tames Jeannie Shubitz, his new Leading Lady Kate!

WPCNR STAGE DOOR JOHNNY. Theatrical Review By John F. Bailey. October 11, 2013:

 If it wasn’t for the substitution notice in the Kiss Me Kate program at the Westchester Broadway  Theatre matinee Wednesday, you’d never know Jeannie Shubitz had only been doing this classic show a week.

You would not know this production was the first time she was performing the signature role of Kate in the Cole Porter musical that had to rush this “Jeannie” into the lead role giving her only three days to prepare!

That the director,  James Brennan when his leading lady was unable to complete the run called for an “Allentown”—the legendary nickname for the character that took over the role in the musical “42^nd Street” That was just a plot of a old musical. But it does not happen in real theatre, does it?

Well Jeannie Shubitz does it for real folks, and you Mr. and Mrs. And Ms. Westchester can see this comet of fire , poise and confidence and rootin’ tootin’ high falutin’ talent ignite the stage.

From the moment she walks into the joint  (the stage) she has the  walk, demeanor, the diva mystique, flashing sparks with the dynamic leading man, William Michals as her former husband Fred Graham/ Petrucio.  

Michals is Broadway Gold – the Beast in Beauty and the Beast  and Emile de Becque in the Tony winning revival, South Pacific.  The kid matches him measure for measure!

When Ms. Shubitz playing Lilli Vanesi  practices bows with Michals before the chorus in rehearsal – the kid, and she is  a kid, looks  every bit, action, nuance and inflection a Broadway legend, playing the character based on the famous Lynn Fontaine of Lunt and Fontaine fame. The attitudes of those legends towards each other in a mid 1930s production inspired creation of Kiss Me Kate.

You feel the chemistry push back between Michals and Shubitz—the back and forth the clever dialogue of sparring  actor and actress, and battling Shakespeare characters Kate and Petruchio  that drive “musical” Taming of the Shrew performance the audience is watching.  Ms. Shubitz works every comedy line sublimely with timing that is instinctive. She brings out a Michals’ Fred Graham, and dynamic Petruchio . 

Michals rises to the Shubitz spirit–  delivering a resonance and presence just as I saw Opening Night,  but it really grew this afternoon.  Shubitz makes a seamless, professional transition that saves the show and makes the whole production move with zip
zing and ginger just the way Cole would have liked it.

As WPCNR told you in my first review of this show, in which I remarked on the great chemistry between Mr. Michals and the first Kate, (Christianne Tisdale, whom we wish well) that chemistry is not only sustained but reaches its own unique intensity.  

Shubitz brings fascinating personality to her  Lilli Vanesi. 

The repartee in the dressing room between Fred and Lilli arguing is sharper, more conversational like an old married couple (take it from me, I know). The kid can act as well and sing with the clarity, peal, shimmer, glimmer, and knockout punch   that lifts every  song she sings, I suspect just the way Cole Porter would like to hear it.

She delivers a dreamy, wistful sensitivity of memory  Wunderbar  her first big number with Mr. Michals whose lusty baritone compliments her  delicate waltzy  echoes of memory. Michals voice fits hers, complimenting her, seeming to pour his heart’s joy out. Shubitz and Michals, Michals and Shubitz  set the tone of love beyond personality  with this song. Subitz’s delicate hand gestures during give a detailed flourish that sell this sentimentality solidly and delivers the “our song” feeling and all couples have “their song.”

Shubitz after receiving flowers whom she thinks from Fred, turns So In Love into a cocktail od champagne, dreams, and devotion elevating and sweeping  the range of the Cole Porter classic. Cole would have loved her version. He wrote songs that go up and down scale and are very hard to sing. You got to have range and heart to deliver a Cole Porter sound and make all hearts soar.  Shubitz takes that song over All hearts soar, I know mine did.

On I Hate Men Subitz works the comedy number smoothly with great comic effect.  

Never! Never! Never! Michals hurls and flips Shubitz and Shubitz gives it right back to him in hilarious fights and spats in the play within the musical.

Ms. Shubitz’s fight scenes with Michals are terrific, high energy, you feel her anger. You feel his anger. You  feel his frustration. Most of all the banter asides that Petruchio (Michals) is  whispering to Kate after she finds out  onstage that flowers for her were for another actress, are so well delivered by both–  you think Subitz and Michals had been doing the roles for years like Allen Lunt and Lynn Fontaine.

Hey — her “Never, Never, Never” tour de force  on the Kiss Me Kate signature song, where she goes up and down the scale never pausing for breath (that you can see) is one of the comic and vocal highlights. (She is refusing Petruchio in most unladylike fashion.)

Shubitz brings a lot of Katherine Hepburnesque to her performance – just the personality Kate the Shrew needs – and her  Lilli Vanessa is  temperamental, emotional, proud.

Here’s the kick in the head: You would never know Ms.Shubitz  has never done a fight scene before.

Her finale  I am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple has a contriteness and beautiful tide of feeling that her voice-to-remember-once-you’ve-heard-it renders like a homily.

You cannot make this stuff up. 

So Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. Westchester, you get three shows in one if you go to see Ms. Shubitz as Kate in Kiss Me Kate . You see Kiss Me Kate, you see Taming of the Shrew (the play being performed in Kiss Me Kate, and you see 42^nd Street for real.

In 42^nd Street, the Marge and Gower Champion musical produced by David Merrick in 1956, the musical plot goes like this: Broadway hopeful  is asked to step in by desperate director with when the main actress breaks a leg. The ingénue has  never played the role before. She goes on in three days.

The producer character asks the heroine whom he has nicknamed “Allentown”  if she will take over the role, and asks, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Come on, Allentown. Will you do it?”

She says “I’ll do it!”

Jeannie Shubitz said, “I’ll do it.”

And boy does Jeannie Shubitz do it.

Ms. Shubitz is living  proof of the magic of theater. It’s where dreams come true.

Ms. Shubitz writes her own dream through November 3 at WBT.

Need I say call the box office today at 914-592-2222 or go to www.BroadwayTheatre.com tell them the CitizeNetReporter sent you.

You’re gonna love this show, I guarantee it!

I guarantee you’ll love Ms. Shubitz, too!

And you knowsomething, part of the packed  matinee audience were the Allentown Seniors, all the way from Pennsylvania. You cannot make this stuff up!

You can’t tell me the theatre isn’t magic.

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WPCNR HOUSING NEWS. From the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors October 9, 2013:

Third quarter residential real estate closings soared by nearly 29% over last year’s counts in the four counties serviced by the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, a subsidiary of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. The Multiple Listing Service received postings of 4,579 completed sales of single family houses, condominiums, cooperatives, and 2-4 family dwellings.

The percentage increase was the greatest in Westchester County, at 31%, followed by Rockland (26%), Orange (24%) and Putnam (22%). In most cases the increases among the various property classes brought the sales counts to pre-recession levels.

In Westchester, for example, the 1,991 reported closings of single family houses during this third quarter were the most for any quarter since 2005.

In all of the counties except Rockland, sales of condominiums and cooperatives outpaced single family houses as a percentage increase over last year.

Even with the slower – but still healthy – sales counts of the first six months of the year, on a year to date basis through this third quarter, 2013 is running faster than last year by rates ranging from 24% in Westchester and Orange to 17% in Putnam and 16% in Rockland. Whereas there were 11,481 total sales in all categories in all of 2012, at the current rate of activity the region may cross the 14,000 sale threshold by the end of 2013.

The region is beginning to see modest price increases more often than not. In Westchester, the third quarter median sale price  $652,050 – was 3.5% more than last year. The average (mean) sale price1 of $$862,356, however, was almost 8% higher and signaled the insertion of more high end properties into the sales mix.

More than 24% of Westchester’s houses sold for $1 million or more in the third quarter in comparison to a range of 16% to 22% throughout last year. Rockland County experienced the largest percentage price increase, 5.4%, in its single family median price, taking it to $410,000. Putnam posted the next largest increase, 5.0%, with a median price of $332,750. Putnam also posted a large 6.9% increase in condominium prices (but its data are subject to large percentage swings because its base counts are relatively small).

Only Orange County failed to post an increase in house prices; in fact, the median sale price of $240,000 was 2.0% lower than last year. However, Orange County provides the most affordable housing in the region and attracts buyers who are the most price sensitive, which gives lower price housing there a larger share of the market basket, at least for now. Note that Orange’s condominium sector, a lower priced alternative to single family houses, posted a 4.4% increase to $166,000 in its median price

All the faster paced activity has driven inventory to low but not market-killing amounts. New listings just haven’t been keeping pace with sales. In Westchester at the end of the quarter, inventory was down 11% from last year. Putnam and Rockland both posted 3% decreases. Orange County inventory was nearly unchanged with a slight half-percent increase.

The supporting framework for continued recovery in our region’s real estate market includes mortgage interest rates that have remained at relatively low levels. The average rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage was less than 4% during much of the period that generated the third quarter sales. Rates are now hovering around 4.6%-4.8%, still very attractive. Of course that could all change if the current political dysfunction in Washington causes a debt crisis. Actions of the Federal Reserve could also drive rates up, but for now the interest rates are stable and affordable.

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WPCNR HEALTH HERALD. From the Westchester County Department of Health. October 8, 2013:

County Executive Robert P. Astorino announced  that the Westchester County Department of Health will offer free flu shots to residents on Thursday, Oct. 10, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Westchester County Center in White Plains.

“Flu shots are one of the best ways to stay healthy, and we hope residents will take advantage of this opportunity, and will encourage their family members and friends to get a flu shot, too,” Astorino said.

The county has 500 doses which can be given to adults and children ages 9 and up. Residents should register in advance for the flu clinic at www.health.  ny.gov/Go2Clinic. Those without internet access can call (914) 995-7425, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“It’s important for everyone six months and older to get a flu shot every year,” said Health Commissioner Sherlita Amler, MD. “A flu shot now will provide protection throughout flu season, which can last well into the spring. It’s also equally important to wash your hands frequently, to avoid sick people and to stay home when you are sick.”

The flu shot is safe and provides protection against the three strains of the flu that are circulating this season.

To prevent spreading the flu, cough or sneeze into your elbow and wash your hands often with soap and water. If you do get a respiratory infection, stay home until 24 hours after your fever subsides, to avoid spreading your germs. Clean surfaces you touch frequently, such as doorknobs, water faucets, refrigerator handles and telephones.  Get plenty of rest, exercise and eat healthy food.

For more information, visit www.westchestergov.com/health, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/wchealthdept, follow us on Twitter @wchealthdept or call us at (914) 813-5000.

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WPCNR MEDIATHON.  From Paul Feiner, Supervisor Town of Greenburgh. October 8, 2013:

The Town of Greenburgh will launch its fourth year of the Greenburgh Student News Network (program named by students), an eight-week program that focuses on how to develop, research, write and produce  a news story, will meet once a week on Thursdays, 4:00pm to 6:00pm starting October 10, 2013 and ending December 6, 2013.   This program is organized by Paul Feiner, Town Supervisor and Judith Beville, Town Clerk

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WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. From the Westchester County Clerk Office (with reporting by WPCNR). October 7, 2013:

The rush to challenge home assessments in White Plains has slowed dramatically in the city, and around Westchester County, according to statistics pubished by the County Clerk Monday.

White Plains homeowners filed approximately 1,400 challenges of assessments three years ago. The White Plains number dropped to 370 last year,  in 2013 it hit 235 in the city. This should bode well for third straight year of continued increase in the White Plains assessment roll in 2014-15 after declining for 16 of the last 21 years.. The White Plains Assessment roll  went up for the second straight year this year (2013-14), saving the school district about $1 Million or more in additional property taxes.

“Despite aggressive direct mail campaigns encouraging homeowners to appeal their property tax assessments, there has been a slight decline in the number of appeals assessments filed in the first half of 2013,” reported Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni.  The filing period for the following communities came to a close in the first half of 2013:

This is encouraging news after the record-breaking numbers over the last few years in which annual filings increased more than ten fold.  The appeals, officially known as Small Claims Assessment Reviews (“SCARs”), are filed when the local city, town or village grievance board formally rejects a grievance or when a property owner is not satisfied with the reduction granted.  “A decline in the volume of appeals translates into less stress on local tax rolls”, said County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni, who warned, “When appeals are granted or settled, it forces municipalities to identify equivalent reductions in spending or unpopular increases in taxes or fees.”

For more information on the Small Claims Assessment Review process, visit WestchesterClerk.com, choose “Legal Division” and then “SCAR Petitions” or call (914) 995-3070.  The Westchester County Clerk is the Clerk for the Supreme Court where Small Claim Assessment Review petitions are heard.