<< Alpine Adventure

From page 13 most famous landmarks. We settled into our rooms and reconvened at the hotel’s award-winning Restaurant Saltz for dinner.

Arosa air

The next day’s activities included a tour of the National Museum of Zurich, lunch at Restaurant Hiltl. In the evening, a ride down the funicular and a trolley delivered us to the trendy Restaurant Markthalle, a delightfully casual bistro tucked underneath a stone bridge. After dinner we grabbed a nightcap at Heldenbar.

A short ride the next day took us to Arosa, home of Gay Ski Week. We relaxed and dished during the nearly three-hour train ride up the mountain to Arosa.

There we were taken even farther up the slope to the Tschuggen Grand Hotel, a haven high above everyday life with 128 colorful rooms and a unique view of the Arosa mountains. Tschuggen’s Bergoase spa, designed by architect Mario Botta, is a Swiss landmark.

Arosa Gay Ski draws more than 600 participants. There is something for everyone, even non-skiers; classical music concerts, sunbathing at the Tschuggen hut, and après-ski, pool, ice-skating and disco parties. Event passes are geared for everything from a full week of activities to day passes. With more than a dozen gay-friendly partner hotels, weekly rental apartments and chalets, there’s something for every wallet.

Snow bunnies

The next item on our agenda was listed as “short stroll on a prepared winter trail” to the gondola station.

The “trail” of compacted ice and snow rises at a 40-degree incline for about 500 feet. We made it to the big gondola at the Weisshorn summit, the highest peak in the Arosa region that can be reached by cable car. It’s 8,704 feet above sea level.

Lovely views, but I was distracted by the cute snow bunnies, many of whom dress in little more than underwear. I also marveled as I watched a man ski down the mountain with a parasail on his back. About halfway down the slope he unleashed the sail, took off over the trees and wove back and forth in the skies.

The fondue dinner at Restaurant Burestübli in the Hotel Arlenwald is one of the most popular events of Gay Ski week. After dinner, everyone piled out onto the streets which had been cleared for a sledding event. I had fantasies of sitting in a sleigh, all comfy and warm. Oh, no! These were little rickety wood sleds no more than a few inches off the ground. Hundreds of alcohol-impaired folks rocketed down an icy street. To the best of my knowledge, there were no disasters.

Winter is coming

The big event the next day was the Ski Drag Race. A lack of snow the night before meant that those wanting to watch from the top of the mountain and mingle with the queens would have to hike a mile and a half up to the summit. I passed on the hike and the up-close look.

Our last night in Arosa was capped off with dinner in the cozy Alpenblick mountain restaurant. The staff was warm and friendly. Wine flowed liberally, followed by the White Snowball farewell party at Haus Kursaal, featuring a “Heels on Ice” drag show, hot dancers, and famous international DJs.

Saturday morning, we rode down the mountain to Bad Ragaz and our last night in Switzerland. All the hotels we stayed at were five-star rated, but The Grand Resort Bad Ragaz is also home to one of the best healthcare centers in Europe and offers a unique health and spa experience. It’s been around since 1242 and is where the world’s wealthiest people come to relax, recover, and rejuvenate. As an added surprise and the perfect ending to our trip, we were each treated to use of the private spa and a signature aroma-therapy massage. www.arosa-gayskiweek.com

The following morning, we checked out of the hotel and boarded a train back to Zurich. A couple of transfers later we were at the airport about take home a lifetime of memories.

Read the full article on www.ebar.com.

From page 13

Though the show’s nine songs are derivative, they provide stunning, muscular moments for a cast of star quality singers. But there’s little connective tissue. “Six” is a string of conceptually linked showstoppers without enough originality or narrative scaffolding to provide real dramatic satisfaction.

Little blame should be directed at Marlow and Moss: If you were a twentysomething student whose ingenious comedy festival concoction caught the eye of the For-Profit Theater Industrial Complex, would you turn down offers to make you famous (not to mention a mint)?

No doubt the producers who express-laned “Six” to a UK tour within a single year of its Fringe origin – then to the West End, Broadway and the Norwegian Cruise Line in another few money-printing blinks of the eye – saw it ticking the boxes of would-be blockbusterdom: Appeal to young female fan base whose repeat attendance has been the lifeblood of Broadway since “Wicked”: Check! Small cast: Check!

Single set: Check! Hamiltonian “historemix”:” Check! And the royal crowning glory: Smash hit musical genetics but no account-draining licensing fees: Checkitty blank check boom! Had the professional mentorship of Marlow and Moss been focused on theatrical art as much as on show business, “Six” might have been given room to nurture a musical voice more its own and a script that delved into human complexities rather than gleefully pushing of-the-moment hot buttons.

What might have been a minor masterpiece arrives instead as a flashy overture to its creators’ potentially substantial artistic careers.t

‘Six,’ through March 19. $66.50$263.50. Orpheum Theater, 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. www.broadwaysf.com

Read the full review on www.ebar.com