FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 1, 2019 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 67
vschneps@gmail.com
I played hooky last Wednesday,
July 24, to be with my daughters
who were celebrating
my birthday belatedly by seeing
a matinee on Broadway and
then having a delicious dinner
together.
It wasn’t easy to coordinate four
lives and get tickets to a popular
show, “Ain’t Too Proud,” the
story of the life and times of Th e
Temptations, a group of singers
I grew up with and adored, and
whose songs have remained relevant
for generations.
Th e story is told through the
voice of Otis Williams, who
wrote a book about his group’s
creation and through the tumultuous
years of each band member’s
struggles. Th e spectacular
songs are credited from the
Motown Catalogue, the organization
that acted as Th e
Temptations agents, and included
many songs written by the
genius Smokey Robinson.
Th ey “got me” as the curtain
came up and I was transfi
xed by hearing the music, seeing
the superb talented performers
dance and sing their way
into my heart and apparently the
whole audience’s, who gave them
a lengthy standing ovation as the
fi nal curtain came down.
Sadly, with all the group’s success,
drugs and disease wore
them down. Th e group survived
because their leader, Otis
Williams, never permitted one of
them to be the lead named singer.
So when personal problems
encroached on their professional
performance, they were replaced
Playing hooky with my girls
seamlessly, and the group lived
on, making their mark in the
world to this day.
It’s a lesson for all of us in business
a great person is important,
but it’s the team that makes
it happen. I live that every day
— grateful for the talented people
I work with in my multiple
media outlets.
Th e theatre was packed, without
a single empty seat, attesting
to its popularity. But beating
the traffi c and the tension to get
to the 2 p.m. curtain made me
think of all the quality theatre
now available to us in Queens
and Long Island.
I recently saw a musical show
at Babylon’s Argyle Th eatre
about Jerry Lee Lewis, “Million
Dollar Quartet,” that had a
cast as good as any I’ve seen on
Broadway, but at a quarter of
the price.
Aft er our “Ain’t Too Proud”
matinee, my daughters made a
reservation at a restaurant at 57
West 57 street, Quality Italian,
which lived up to its boastful
name.
Th ey off er a unique pizza
shaped Chicken Parmesan
that comes on a stand looking
like a full size pizza. When
I bit into the chicken dish, I
shook my head in amazement.
Th ey pounded the chicken and
shaped it to fi t the pan. Th e mixture
of cheeses and sauce made
it a delectable surprise.
It’s a treat to have a “girls day
out” and I enjoyed the time
to catch up on their lives and
planning the family trip to
Israel in August to celebrate my
grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. Stay
tuned!
VICTORIA’S
SECRETS
Victoria
SCHNEPSYUNIS
tweet me @vschneps
Ephraim Sykes, Jeremy Pope, Jawan M. Jackson, James Harkness, and Derrick Baskin in “Ain’t Too
Proud” (photo by Matthew Murphy)
The delectable Chicken Parmesan pizza at Quality Italian
restaurant (Photo via Facebook/Quality Kitchen) The real life Temptations with The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, and Smokey Robinson
and The Miracles in this 1960s photo (photo via Twitter/@AintTooProud)
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