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\"Peter and the Starcatcher\" Headed Off Broadway

Adam Chanler-Berat and Celia Keenan-Bolger in the Broadway production of Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Adam Chanler-Berat and Celia Keenan-Bolger in the Broadway production of “Peter and the Starcatcher.”

Though “Peter and the Starcatcher” is scheduled to close on Broadway on Jan. 20, the show, Rick Elice's imaginative prequel to “Peter Pan,” has clearly not run out of magic. The show's producers said on Tuesday that the production will be transferred this March to New World Stages, an Off Broadway complex where several other shows - including “Avenue Q” and “Million Dollar Quartet” - have had post-Broadway lives.

The New World Stages version will be mounted by the same team that staged the current run at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. Neither an opening date nor casting details have been announced.

The play, which is directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, won five Tony awards and has already had several lives, starting with a Williamstown Theater Festival lab performance in 2007 that led to a full-length version, produced at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2009. When it opened at the New York Theater Workshop in March 2011, Ben Brantley described it in The New York Times as a “blissful exercise in make-believe,” and was equally enchanted by it a year later, when it moved to Broadway.

By the time it finishes its Broadway run, it will have played 18 previews and 320 performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.



\"Peter and the Starcatcher\" Headed Off Broadway

Adam Chanler-Berat and Celia Keenan-Bolger in the Broadway production of Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Adam Chanler-Berat and Celia Keenan-Bolger in the Broadway production of “Peter and the Starcatcher.”

Though “Peter and the Starcatcher” is scheduled to close on Broadway on Jan. 20, the show, Rick Elice's imaginative prequel to “Peter Pan,” has clearly not run out of magic. The show's producers said on Tuesday that the production will be transferred this March to New World Stages, an Off Broadway complex where several other shows - including “Avenue Q” and “Million Dollar Quartet” - have had post-Broadway lives.

The New World Stages version will be mounted by the same team that staged the current run at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. Neither an opening date nor casting details have been announced.

The play, which is directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, won five Tony awards and has already had several lives, starting with a Williamstown Theater Festival lab performance in 2007 that led to a full-length version, produced at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2009. When it opened at the New York Theater Workshop in March 2011, Ben Brantley described it in The New York Times as a “blissful exercise in make-believe,” and was equally enchanted by it a year later, when it moved to Broadway.

By the time it finishes its Broadway run, it will have played 18 previews and 320 performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.



The Mayor of Sarcastic, Witty and Candid Letters

William J. Gaynor, the mayor of New York from 1910 to 1913, became known for his eloquent and sometimes sarcastic letters in reply to correspondence from  constituents. The New York Times William J. Gaynor, the mayor of New York from 1910 to 1913, became known for his eloquent and sometimes sarcastic letters in reply to correspondence from constituents.
Gaynor is said to have written thousands of letters during his time in office.Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Gaynor is said to ha ve written thousands of letters during his time in office.

John V. Lindsay often delivered homespun advice to ordinary constituents, and Edward I. Koch claims to have answered every letter or e-mail he received. But a century ago, few elected officials were more prolific or perspicacious in their correspondence than William J. Gaynor, New York City mayor from 1910 to 1913.

A biographer, Lately Thomas, wrote that Gaynor's “means of communicating with the mass of the people were two: the daily newspapers and the United States mails,” and that he spent a considerable amount of his workdays personally answering his constituents. One critic even complained that Gaynor, who wrote thousands of his letters in office, conducted “government by epistle.”

In sheer numbers, probably no mayor except Mr. Koch came close. And Gaynor's letters were distinguished by frequent references to philosophers and other learned figures whom he had encountered during his early religious training.

His candor, sagacity, vigorous defense of civil liberties and fierce independence (and his scrapping of the East River bridge tolls) endeared him to his constituents. In 1910, his shooting by a fired city employee prompted such an outpouring of sympathy that he was briefly mentioned for governor and even president. (Gaynor died three years later of complications from the wound.)

A former seminary student and State Supreme Court justice, Gaynor was nominated for mayor by the regular Democratic organization, but governed independently and was described as a liberal with libertarian leanings.

His inauguration as mayor on Jan. 1, 1910, was his first visit to City Hall. From then on, Gaynor routinely walked across the Brooklyn Bridge between his office and his home in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He often coupled common sense with Greek philosophy, which, he wrote, “seemed to astonish the whole journalistic fraternity in New York City.”

No less a cynic than H.L. Mencken pronounced Gaynor a “great political philosopher and a great soul” who “began an heroic but vain effort to give New York decent government.”

The mayor dictated his letters, many of which survive as typed copies in the municipal archives. No subject was too small; he once delivered a lengthy exposition on how to boil an egg.

Gaynor dismissed critics with sarcasm. Accusing a Republican politician of lying, he wrote, “Suppose you pray every morning for a while for God to direct you to tell the truth, and see what fruits it will bear.”

When Charles M. Frey, an erudite rat catcher, complained that his livelihood was threatened by repeated calls to jury duty, Gaynor suggested that rat catchers be exempt, cautioning, though, that “so many exemptions have already been passed by the Legislature th at there seems to be only the rat catchers and a few other people left to serve on juries.”

To a solicitation for a $10 contribution from the Anti-Saloon League, Gaynor wrote: “If I gave money in response to all the similar demands that are made on me, I should be bankrupt in short order.”

When a Christian minister asked for a license to preach conversion in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Gaynor responded, “Did not we Christians get much or the most of what we have from the Jews?''

When city aldermen proposed banning the Socialist's red flag, Gaynor lectured, “They chose the color red for their emblem, not to signify that they favor violence or the shedding of blood, as the unintelligent suppose and as actions of those in official authority often lead people to believe, but for the purposes of typifying the common brotherhood of all men of all nations through the same red blood which flows through the veins of all.''

Constit uents frequently groused about noise. To one who was irked by the cries of newsboys, Gaynor wrote, “A whole lot of people have been hollering at me of late, but they do not disturb me, and much less does the hollering of the little newsboys disturb me.”

To another who worked in the Flatiron Building near a church presided over by his nemesis, the Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, and who complained that the clock on the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company tower chimed 40 times an hour, he wrote: “But really, does the clock make as much noise as Dr. Parkhurst does? You know we all have to bear with something, and I am willing to do my share of it.”

When a Manhattan lawyer demanded that piano playing and singing be banned at night, especially during the summer when people open their windows, Gaynor advised: “I hereby authorize you to carry out all of these reforms. It may be that you will first have to get elected to the Legislature, and pass laws therefor, for you know this is a government of laws, and not of men.”

Gaynor championed children's street games, advising one young man who wrote him, “If you show this letter to the policeman, I think he will let you play with a soft rubber ball on 101st Street between Lexington and Park Avenues if you ask him and if you are careful not to hit other people.”

To a correspondent who grumbled that aldermen were extorting a fee to preside over marriages, he wrote, “if I had time I would marry you all for nothing.”

His reply to a Chicago woman reads like advice to the lovelorn: “You are looking for happiness in the wrong direction. I do not think there is any man living who would suit you. If you want to be really happy for the rest of your life, work for the happiness of others, and forget yourself.”

Gaynor was not easily impressed. Responding to a book by the pastor of a Park Slope church, he wrote that the Emancipation Proclamation “had to be almost extorted” from President Abraham Lincoln, “and the Russian emperor had done the like not long before.”

Of George Washington, Gaynor wrote that he was “of warm blood and prone to passion,” that he was “even known to have sworn like a trooper at times,” that his “face was pitted” and that he “was not the equal in knowledge of history, economics and government of the men who surrounded him.”

Many of the letters were answered the same day they were received. Form letters were dismissed. Anonymous ones were often answered in the press. “You are evidently a dishonest scamp, but I acknowledge the receipt of all letters,” he wrote one correspondent.

And to the National Publicity Bureau, which asked what message he would deliver to readers of the group's 3,000-member newspapers, Gaynor replied, “I would say to them to be very careful about believing all they see in the newspapers.”



Wheels, Old and New

Dear Diary:

A motorcycle story from 1963.

I wanted to make a chandelier from a wagon wheel. The problem was finding a wagon wheel.

I was driving my motorcycle and I saw a man driving a horse cart. I asked if he knew where I could get a wagon wheel. He said to follow him and we went to his stable in East Harlem, about 110th Street near the East River. So I gave him $10 and took the wheel.

It was two and half feet in diameter with an iron rim and hub, and weighed over 75 pounds. I strapped it to the rack of my motorcycle and drove off. You can imagine it was pretty large and heavy, balanced on the back.

As I was driving home, a cabby pulled up next to me and said, “Hey buddy, got a spare?”

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us vi a e-mail: diary@nytimes.com or telephone: (212) 556-1333. Follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.



Green Day to Resume Touring

Billie Joe Armstrong performing in Las Vegas in September.Steve Marcus/Reuters Billie Joe Armstrong performing in Las Vegas in September.

Green Day's touring hiatus to allow singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong to begin treatment for substance abuse will end in March, the band said Monday in a posting on its web page. The 10-city tour will begin in Chicago on March 28, with stops in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Toronto before it winds up in Quebec City on April 12. Included is a stop at the Barclay's Center, in Brooklyn, on April 7.

The group's problems began in late September at the iHeart Radio Music Festival, when Mr. Armstrong stopped in mid-song, smashed his guitar and verbally abused the festival and its sponsors when told the band could play for only one more minute.

Now, Mr. Armstrong posted a note to fans on Instagram, thanking them, friends and family for their support. ” I'm getting better everyday,” he said. “So now, without further ado, the show must go on.”

The group said tickets for shows canceled in January and February would be honored at the new dates.



Juilliard Focus! Festival Announces Winter Concerts

The Juilliard School's 29th annual Focus! Festival, “The British Renaissance: British Music Since World War II,” will run from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1, and will include six free concerts and one pre-concert discussion. The festival, directed by Joel Sachs, includes 33 works by as many composers, in a huge range of styles. Comparatively conservative scores like Britten's “Sinfonia da Requiem” are included, as are a genre-crossing piece by Erollyn Wallen, a vivid evocation of an asteroid bound for earth, by Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Alexander Goehr's 300th anniversary tribute to J.S. Bach, “…a musical offering (J.S.B. 1985).”

The centerpiece of the festival's opening concert, a performance by the New Juilliard Ensemble, led by Mr. Sachs, at Alice Tully Hall on Jan. 25, is Colin Matthews's “No Man's Land” (2011), with Kyle Bielfield, tenor and John Brancy, baritone, as the soloists. The rest of the concerts are chamber programs at the school's Paul Hall, except for the closing concert by the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, at Alice Tully Hall on Feb. 1. The Jan. 29 program will include a panel discussion, moderated by Mr. Sachs, with the composers Michael Zev Gordon, Deirdre Gribbin, Ms. Wallen and the conductor David Wordsworth.



The Return of Moving Sidewalks

Before ZZ Top became a blues-rock band known for its gritty, boogie-based rhythms, sizzling guitar flights, humorous lyrics and luxuriously long beards, it was a Houston-based psychedelic, proto-punk garage band called the Moving Sidewalks. And though its following was decidedly regional at the time â€" its biggest hit, “99th Floor,” was a chart-topper in Houston for six weeks in 1967 â€" the group's recordings can be found on more than half a dozen compilations of Sixties garage band tracks, not to mention the ZZ Top anthology, “Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box.”

Billy Gibbons, the guitarist and founder of ZZ Top and Moving Sid   ewalks.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Billy Gibbons, the guitarist and founder of ZZ Top and Moving Sidewalks.

The group also recently released its own archival trove, “Moving Sidewalks â€" The Complete Collection” (Rockbeat Records), which brings together its only album, “Flash” (1969), a handful of singles (including a bruising cover of the Beatles' “I Want To Hold Your Hand”) and several outtakes. And now, with ZZ Top between tours, Billy Gibbons, the guitarist and founder of both bands, has reconvened the Moving Sidewalks for a gig â€" its first in 44 years â€" at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan.

For Mr. Gibbons, the transition from the Moving Sidewalks to ZZ Top occurred fairly smoothly.

“The Vietnam War was in full swing,” Mr. Gibbons said in a telephone conversation, “and it captured our bass player, Don Summers, and our keyboardist, Tom Moore. That left me and the drummer, Dan Mitchell, trying to figure out how in the world we were going to keep this together. We played with other people, and then the drummer twisted off, and the result was what you know as ZZ Top.

“But we all kept in touch, we kept up the correspondence, and it was quite a robust exchange. And remarkably, although I'd gone to a different planet and the other three had their day gigs, they were all weekend warriors, playing in bands here and there. So by a stroke of good fortune, when the opportunity came along, they had the interest, and had kept up their chops.”

The crew exchanged set list ideas by email in the fall, and got together for rehearsals in Texas just after Christmas.

“I think they're restricting us to a 75-minute performance,” Mr. Gibbons said. “We'll try persuade them to go longer, because there's such a wealth of material.” The Sidewalks played everything from B.B. King to Zombies covers, psychedelic, blues and R&B.

Will the gig setlist include any ZZ Top material?

“It's not out of the question,” Mr. Gibbons said. “Fortunately, the fellows have become ZZ Top fans, and they've asked me, ‘what are the ZZ Top songs that you don't play?' So you never know.”



In Performance: Baba Brinkman of \'Ingenious Nature\'

In his solo show “Ingenious Nature,” the Canadian rapper Baba Brinkman pairs tales of mismatched dates with findings from the field of evolutionary psychology. In this scene he encounters Sheryl, a disciple of Deepak Chopra with her own ideas about the spiritual roots of human behavior. The show continues through Sunday at SoHo Playhouse.

Recent videos include Brandon J. Dirden in a scene from “The Piano Lesson” and Alice Ripley sin ging a medley from “A Civil War Christmas.”

Coming soon: Will Chase sings a number from the Broadway revival of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”