SOOKIE: They sent it back. My food. My four star, ‘you haven’t lived ’til you’ve eaten there, says Ruth Reichl,’ food.
Ruth Reichl (born 1948), chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and been co-producer of PBS’s Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS’s Gourmet’s Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.
Reichl was a food critic for The New York Times from 1993 to 1999, so if she ever visited the Independence Inn to review Sookie’s cooking for this publication, it would have been in the late 1990s. From 1999 to 2009, she was the editor of Gourmet magazine.
SOOKIE: That’s it, get their names, they’re never eating here again … Wait, what wine was he drinking? WAITER: 1952 Chateau Petrus Bordeaux. SOOKIE: Hm. Okay, never mind.
Chateau Petrus is a vineyard in Bordeaux, France, producing red wine entirely from Merlot grapes. It is widely regarded as the outstanding wine of Bordeaux, and ranks among the world’s most expensive wines. An average bottle would be around $2000, and although 1952 was not one of the greatest vintages for Petrus, it is still highly regarded, and a bottle may cost as much as $8000.
Realising how much the customers have paid for their wine changes Sookie’s mind about banning them from the Independence Inn.
PARIS: I’m only saying it won’t be a totally satisfying victory just beating Jerome Robbins and the rest of the losers here. I’d really like to take you down also. BRAD: Boy, she is really up on her theater references.
Jerome Robbins, born Jerome Rabinowitz (1918-1998), dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his numerous stage productions were West Side Story,Gypsy, and Fiddler on the Roof. Robbins was a five-time Tony Award-winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. He received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story, and a special Academy Honorary Award for his choreographic achievements on film.
BRAD: Paris, this time on stage has been a very growing experience for me. I’m no longer intimidated by you or people like you. PARIS: I’m thrilled to hear it, Chita Rivera. Move.
Chita Rivera (born Dolores del Rivero Anderson in 1933), actress, singer and dancer best known for originating roles in Broadway musicals including Anita in West Side Story, Velma Kelly in Chicago, and the title role in Kiss of the Spider Woman. She has won three Tony Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement. She is the first Latina and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor, and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
MADELINE: How do you leave the house every morning and not have a piano fall on your head? BRAD: Well, I make a left on Federal and then –
Federal Street is in West Hartford, suggesting that Chilton (and Rory’s grandparents) may be located near here as well. This makes much more sense than the idea it is in Newington.
MADELINE: What about your costumes, ’cause that seems great. LOUISE: Ooh, unless you’re doing Les Mis. MADELINE: Or Cats. LOUISE: Furry spandex with a tail and jazz shoes?
Cats, musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based upon the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. Cats opened to positive reviews in the West End in 1981 and to mixed reviews on Broadway in 1982. It won numerous awards including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier and Tony Awards. Despite its unusual subject matter, the musical turned out to be an unprecedented commercial success. The London production ran for 21 years, closing in 2002, while the Broadway production ran for 18 years, closing in 2000.
RORY: Hey Brad, good to have you back. How was Broadway? BRAD: It was great, but Nathan Lane is a very bitter man.
Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane in 1956), actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards including three Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008.
I’m not sure how Brad would have met Nathan Lane in 2002, as he wasn’t doing Broadway that year – three of his films were released that year, and he was in an episode of Sex and the City. Maybe he heard a lot of theatre gossip.
BRAD: Thank you. It’s good to be back. PARIS: Sit down, Mary Martin.
Mary Martin (1913-1990), actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1949), the title character in Peter Pan (1954), and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1959). She was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1973, and named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989. She was the mother of actor Larry Hagman.
TEACHER: Oh, I almost forgot to welcome back Brad Langford. He returns to us fresh from Broadway where he’s just completed a successful run of Into the Woods. Welcome back, Brad.
Into the Woods, 1987 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. It won three Tony Awards, and has been produced many times since.
There was a revival of the musical in Los Angeles in February and March 2002, with the same cast that later ran on Broadway. The 2002 Broadway revival began previews on April 13, 2002 and opened April 30, 2002 at the Broadhurst Theatre, closing on December 29 after a run of 18 previews and 279 regular performances.
Adam Wylie, who plays Brad Langford, really was in the cast of Into the Woods, performing the role of Jack. This doesn’t quite fit into the timeline of the show, because Brad last returned to Chilton after a school transfer in late April 2002 – when he would have already been in Los Angeles for two months, and the musical’s main run was just about to begin.
However, it does explain why we haven’t seen him since then. Apparently he wasn’t frightened off by Paris after all – he was having a successful acting career. He has really come along since his first appearance on Gilmore Girls, when he said he couldn’t act in a school play because he got so nervous he threw up. Quite a transformation.
I’m not sure how Brad can take a year off school to do Broadway, and then simply come back to his senior class like nothing happened. Perhaps there was a private tutor attached to the Broadway production??? Also, Into the Woods finished at the end of January and it’s now the end of March – what was he doing for the past two months?
TEACHER: Yes, the speech will not go on your record. However, the bicentennial is going to be quite a prestigious affair. Past alumni and faculty will be there, some of these people are now professors at the same schools you’re planning an attending. Plus, C-SPAN will be broadcasting the event live. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a very exciting event. Think about it.
Here we see the high stakes involved with entering the prestigious speech contest – it will be broadcast on C-SPAN, with many illustrious guests who might very well be professors at the colleges the students have applied to.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 