Feb. 6. Circle in the Square. “Bronx Bombers” opens. Peter Scolari plays Yogi.
“I never knew Yogi Berra. I first saw him just from the back. He’s 88. Broke his hip four years ago, so slow to get around. When we met in Montclair, NJ’s state university, which did a World Series museum, I spent an evening with him and his wife. He’s affable, courteous, congenial.
“It took me back to high school, northern Jersey, and those baked-potato Italian neighborhood days. He and I had no lengthy conversation, but my dad, specializing in horseshoes and baseball, was all-American in college. We talked baseball stats and horseshoe pitching. I felt a little embarrassed, like a schmo, discussing my dad’s collegiate ability with a pro like Yogi Berra.
“In the ’70s, working off-Broadway, I was a huge Yankee fan. My friends and I paid money to have our names flashed on the billboard.
“A year ago, producers who did ‘Lombardi’ came to me to do this. I was then doing ‘Lucky Guy’ with my buddy Tom Hanks. I said they’re insane. My schedule wouldn’t let it work out. Now . . . here I am.
“The Yankees themselves aren’t leaning on us, and we’re respectful, although not gentle, in terms of history. Mickey Mantle, a drinker. DiMaggio, a bit of a bear. Reggie Jackson was Reggie Jackson. We’re not shying away from team animus.
“And we do the Yogi-isms: . . . Doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing . . . I really didn’t say everything I said. . .’ ”
Yogi and Carmen Berra will attend the opening.
Take note
Chocolate Works shipped fans 42-ounce Super Bowl XLVIII footballs. That’s 27 ounces heavier (and tastier) than the regulation pigskin. Your name’s inscribed in icing . . . Update. Carly Fiorina, headliner a few political races ago, sold her California place, lives in Virginia, into nonprofit, has her own yacht . . . Knopf gave swimmer Diana Nyad, who plans to perform in a one-woman show, $1 mil for her bio.
Odds & ends
What role she might like, who knows, but Meryl Streep hit a matinee of John Patrick Shanley’s “Outside Mullingar” . . . Earth, stop knocking Lena Dunham for nakedness or retouched photos. Be it known she’s friendly, easy, nice. All on “Girls” love her . . . Jordan Belfort, still living large and making shekels doing motivational speeches in Africa, hit Zambia’s chic safari lodge Chiawa Camp for cigars, Scotch and good b.s. about the bad old days.
Post-Grammy chatter
Grammys. Jane Fonda screaming and dancing when the Foo Fighters played with John Fogerty. Also, I reported Rihanna exited Clive Davis’ pre-party during R. Kelly’s abfab Nelson Mandela tribute. While waltzing out directly in front of them, I forgot to mention she was in blinding bright yellow. Even in Latvia, you’d have seen her.
More. Paul McCartney was on the show. Know that back in those 1960s days TV’s hot “Ed Sullivan Show” had 21.2 million viewers weekly. The Beatles’ one-night appearance on that Feb. 9 variety program drew an audience of 73 million.
Eyes open
Mary-Louise Parker at Danish BoConcept’s furniture store. Her Brooklyn Heights home needed their wall-mounted metro shoe cabinet . . . Beverly Hills building an Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Opening’s 2017, about when this year’s Oscarcast will end . . . Feb. 5 Meryl Streep endows two UMass Lowell scholarships.
Downtown’s Moya Chicken & Beer restaurant. Window sign reads “Grilled Man Wanted.” Is that dead or alive?
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.