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CELEBRITY CHOICE by Macaulay Connor
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Amy McALexander
(Amy in Little Women at the Virginia Theatre) chooses UTSAV, 1185 Sixth Avenue, enter on 46th Street bet. 6th & 7th Aves.
Utsav is the Sanskrit word for "festival". In hectic midtown Manhattan, a block and a half from Times Square, there's an airy, upscale Indian restaurant called Utsav that proves it's possible to be festive and serene at the same time.
That goes for the food, too. "We try to keep a balance between the American palate and the Indian palate. A lot of restaurants tone down the spices and thereby lose authenticity," says Nandita Khanna, the young woman who runs the place, one of 19 locations worldwide.
Chef Walter D'Rozario, from Calcutta, has been seen on ABC News, and Gourmet magazine raved about his outstanding fish recipes. D'Rozario is also one of the few Indian chefs to perform his culinary skills at the James Beard Foundation.
Serene or not, there's a busy downstairs bar and a brisk trade in the daily-changing buffet lunch (all you can eat, $14.95) and take-out lunch boxes (vegetarian, $6.95; non-vegetarian, $7.95).
High-ceilinged, many-windowed Utsav looks out on the little plaza between 46th and 47th Streets adjacent to the Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre. in summer you can dine out there. A pre-theatre, three-course Broadway special is yours for $22.95 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM
Utsav can accommodate private parties for as many as 30 guests and banquets up to 200. Fabrics everywhere will absorb the noise. Festive is fine, but ambience is all.
UTSAV
Open seven days. Lunch noon-3 pm. Dinner Mon.-Thurs. 5:30-11 pm., Fri. & Sat. till 11:30 pm, Sun. till 10:00 pm. A la carte dinner entrees $16-$27. Major credit cards. Civilized attire. Reservations: (212) 575-2525
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Grant Norman
(Gaston in Beauty and the Beast at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre) chooses ETCETERA ETCETERA, 352 W. 44th Street, bet. 8th & 9th Aves.
If Yul Brynner were alive today and walking west on 44th Street, he's stop in his tracks at 352 West. Inside, over a steaming dish of roasted baby goat with saffron-scented couscous - if not langoustine and monkfish buzzara with white wine - he might inform the owners of Etcetera Etcetera that their establishment lacks one etcetera.
But no, the three owners of this smart new spot like the name they've given it. "We also have a restaurant called Vice Versa at 325 West 51st Street," says the triumvirate's Franco Lazzari. "Makes sense, no?" He's from Bologna. Daniel Kucera's from Trieste. Stefano Terzi's from Bergamo, and he's the chef.
The cuisine is Mediterranean, with tempting starters like shrimp brochettes Provençale, slowly roasted artichoke or octopus carpaccio. Main-course favorites range from risotto with sautéed mushrooms to roasted crispy Cornish hen to grilled skirt steak marinated in a sauce of lemon, garlic and parsley. Available all night is a three-course prix fixe at $30.05. "The .05 is because we're in 2005," says co-owner Lazzari.
As of this writing, Etcetera Etcetera (with 50 seats downstairs, 100 upstairs) is open for dinner only, but lunches are on the not-too-distant horizon. So are nearby shows like Monty Python's Spamalot and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, while within strolling distance on all sides are Phantom, Fiddler, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
ETCETERA ETCETERA
Open six days, Tues.-Sat. 5-11:15 pm. Sun. till 10 pm. A la carte dinner entrees $17-$26. Prix fixe all night: $30.05. Casual attire. Major credit cards. Reservations recom-mended: (212) 399-4141.
52 www.playbill.com
WHICH MUSICAL MADE THE BIGGEST BREAKTHROUGH?
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Oklahoma!: (1943; revivals 1951, 1979, 2002; films 1955, 1998) Today, more than 60 years after it was written, with Pulitzer Prizes, Oscars, Tonys, Grammys, and Emmys to its credit, a U.S. postage stamp in its honor (the first ever for a musical) and songs and phrases that have entered the lexicon, Oklahoma! is still "doin' fine". The first collaboration by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, Oklahoma! marked the merging of the composer's strides in the field of musical comedy with the wordsman's accomplishments in the more florid realms of operetta. Its story of frontier people forging a new state was filled with believable characters, dance sequences that propelled the plot and memorable songs: "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top," "Out of My Dreams" and, of course, the unforgettable title song. When the cast of Oklahoma! sang, "We know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand!," they made Broadway history, and American history, too.
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Guys and Dolls: (1950; revivals 1965, 1976, 1992; film 1955) Based on Damon Runyon's richly comic tales of gamblers, show girls and missionaries in Never-Never-Times Square, this tough, big-hearted musical deploys a unique sound and its own unique argot to celebrate the power of love to bring very different hearts together in the unlikeliest of places. Nathan Detroit's quest to find a place to hold "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York," and the efforts of Miss Adelaide ("the well-known fiancée") to get him to Niagara Falls without stopping off at a Saratoga racetrack seem odd subjects for a musical, but Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling, Abe Burrows and Moss Hart made it happen with great songs like "Sit Down You're Rocking the Beat," "Luck Be a Lady," "Fugue for Tinhorns" and "I've Never Been in Love Before."
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