N.Y. great, right down to Santa Claus, Lane

New York City — My wife and I spent the week before Christmas in Manhattan. And, despite having been there many times before, during this trip we saw our first Broadway plays.

Yeah, I know. How could I go to New York City so many times and never see a play. Back in the 1980s, when I used to go there with some regularity, I never had enough money . . . and now that we've paid for this trip, we're broke again.

But this one was motivated by one of our favorite performers, Nathan Lane, co-starring with his "Producers" partner Matthew Broderick in a revival of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple." (And it helped that a supporting player is Brad Garrett; the tall cop-brother on "Everybody Loves Raymond").

We had made an effort to see "The Producers" on Broadway but couldn't manage it, so when "Odd Couple" tickets went on sale last spring, we bought some and planned the trip around that show.

Despite the transit strike, we had a great time. The strike didn't affect us much; we did a lot of walking and there's a lot to see. We also saw "Spamalot" and "The Radio City Christmas Spectacular."

We may have been unintentionally stalking Lane. We saw "The Odd Couple," then went to the David Letterman show the next day, where Lane was the guest. After that, we saw the movie "The Producers."

You can't have too much Lane.

But all the shows were fun.

The Rockettes and Santa put on a wonderful family-oriented display, with Christmas songs, comedy shtick, special effects — even a 3-D movie sequence at the beginning. The place was packed with children who were all having a great time.

"The Odd Couple" is a play I know well, having seen stage versions and the movie (several times). Lane dominated the proceedings, hilarious as sloppy Oscar, and the supporting cast was great, led by Garrett as Murray the cop (everybody loves Murray). Broderick was OK but not great as fussy Felix; he was a bit too stiff.