SPICK AND SPAN
Cuomo tours reconstructed Kosciuszko Bridge before its opening
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a construction worker survey the second span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge, which was set to open Aug. 29.
Gov. Cuomo’s Offi ce
INSIDE
Show of strength
‘Hercules’ musical makes stars of amateur Brooklyn actors
By Kevin Duggan They can go the distance!
A phalanx of non-professional
actors from two Brooklyn community
groups will make up a Greek
chorus for a new mythical musical on
the distant isle of Manhattan. The theatrical
adaptation of the 1997 Disney
film “Hercules,” playing at Central Park’s
Delacorte Theater from Aug. 31 to Sept.
8, will feature 61 Brooklynites making
their Off-Broadway debuts.
The Public Theater, known for its
popular “Shakespeare in the Park” series,
recruited more than 200 amateur actors
from across the five boroughs to play
minor parts in the all-singing, all-dancing
tale of a Greek demi-god going from zero
to hero. Among those new thespians are
a Sunset Park dad and his two daughters,
who were all recently bitten by the acting
bug.
“If you would have told me that I would
be in ‘Hercules,’ I wouldn’t have believed
you,” said Marvin Romero. “This is really
the first theater that we’ve done. We’ve
never done anything like this, and to be a
part of it is amazing.”
The show follows the plot of the animated
Disney film, and features six songs
from its Oscar-nominated score by composer
Alan Menken and lyricist David
Zippel, who wrote several additional songs
for the performance. Romero found himself
transported back to his childhood
by hearing the original music, which he
would sing with his daughters on the way
home from rehearsals.
“We go home every day singing it. It’s
stuck in our heads, we’re in the train singing,”
Keep an eye out: Sunset Park 8-year-old Isabelle
Romero, left, rehearses for her role as one of the
Three Fates, in the Public Theater’s production of
“Hercules,” opening in Central Park’s Delacorte
Theater on Aug. 31. Joan Marcus
he said. “I felt like a kid again.”
Romero and his two daughters, Isabelle,
8, and Mayiah, 5, took up acting classes
at the Sunset Park social services organization
Center for Family Life at the
beginning of this year. Public Works held
auditions at the 39th Street Center, and
Romero and his two kids secured parts at
the beginning of June. Isabelle will portray
one of the Three Fates, while her dad and
sister will play townspeople of Agora.
The organization also sourced thespians
from a weekly acting workshop at
the Brownsville Recreation Center. One
participant at the Brownsville site, who
studied to be an actor but ended up in a
different field, says that getting a part in
the show has rekindled her love for the art
form after more than a decade away from
the stage.
“For me this is like a second chance,
I’m getting a second chance for real,” said
Kariyma Jo Ann Nelson, who was cast as
a townsperson of Thebes.
The Bay Ridge resident moved to New
York City 36 years ago to work as an actor,
but could not make a living in the field.
“Hercules” has given her another chance
to be on stage again, she said.
“To be able to come back to theater
again — I miss it,” she said. “I need this,
and I wanted to just get back involved.”
“Hercules” at Delacorte Theater in
Central Park enter at Central Park
West and 81st Street in Manhattan, (212)
539–8500, www.publictheater.org. Aug.
31–Sept. 2 and Sept. 5–8 at 8 p.m. Free
tickets distributed by an in-person lottery
at the Delacorte, each day from
5–7 p.m.
Your entertainment
guide Page 43
Police Blotter ..........................8
Education ............................... 31
Opinion ...................................34
Letters .................................... 35
Standing O ............................38
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, AUG. 30-SEPT 5, 2019
BY MARK HALLUM
Decades in the planning and
making, the Kosciuszko Bridge
reconstruction project was set
to end Thursday with the opening
of a second cable-stayed
bridge for the Brooklyn-bound
side of the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway.
After the grand opening of
the Queens-bound side in April
2017, the project is due for completion
ahead of the September
completion date that Gov.
Andrew Cuomo announced in
May. In an Aug. 25 announcement,
the governor noted that
the entire project is four years
ahead of original completion
projections.
“While the federal administration
obsesses over building
walls, in New York, we are
building bridges and other infrastructure
critical to moving
our 21st century economy forward,”
Cuomo said. “With the
opening of the second span of
the new Kosciuszko Bridge on
Wednesday, we will once again
demonstrate to the nation that
it’s possible to take on big projects
and to get them done on
time and on budget.”
During a press tour in May,
Cuomo noted that the project totaled
$873 million for the state
with an over $100,000 incentive
for every day the contractors
push closer to completion
ahead of schedule. This fi nancing
model for infrastructure
is known as design-build construction
and new in New York
state, according to Cuomo.
The second cable-stayed
span will carry four Brooklynbound
lanes of the BQE, along
with a pedestrian and bike
path. The fi rst span, which has
carried traffi c in both directions
since its opening in 2017,
will be reconfi gured for fi ve
lanes of Queens-bound traffi c.
The original, 77-year-old
bridge opened in 1939 under
President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s administration as
a New Deal public works project.
Originally linking Meeker
Avenue in Brooklyn with Van
Dam Street in Queens, the steel
truss bridge was later incorporated
into the BQE when it was
constructed — and quickly became
a traffi c-fi lled nightmare
in constant need of repair in
later years. It also did not meet
many formal federal highway
standards for shoulders and
lane width.
The fi rst Kosciuszko Bridge
was dismantled following the
opening of the fi rst new cablestayed
span in 2017.
A public preview of the
second new span will take
place from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on
Wednesday, Aug. 28, before the
bridge is opened for traffi c on
Thursday morning, the governor’s
offi ce said.
However, it is unclear
whether Cuomo will arrive at
the ribbon-cutting ceremony in
a 1932 Packard owned by FDR
as he did at the 2017 opening as
well as the opening of the Mario
M. Cuomo Bridge, the Tappan
Zee Bridge replacement
named for Cuomo’s father and
former state governor.
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