Broadway, TV star Fabray, 97, dies
sam The dogs will be barking while the lions and dragons dance today for Chinatown’s Lunar New Year Parade, the largest Year of the Dog event of the season. Street closures have already begun, and by noon, parts of East Broadway, Mott, Elizabeth, Hester, Eldridge and Forsyth Sts. will be closed until 6 p.m. The Manhattan Bridge, Bowery, Canal, Broome, Grand and Delancey Sts. are all to be avoided.
Street crowds are big, and drivers should avoid Fort Hamilton Parkway, New Utrecht Ave., 13th and 16th Aves. both days. Crown Heights and Williamsburg will also see action.
B-ball crowds around MSG this week will be larger than usual. Steph Curry and the Warriors take on the Knicks Monday night at 7:30 p.m., then the Big Ten NCAA men’s tournament starts Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m., followed by daytime and evening games Thursday and Friday, and the final four games late in the afternoon next weekend.
The 7 express is making most local stops both ways during weekday rush hours, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. to 10 p.m., until March 9. The parade will be NANETTE FABRAY, the vivacious actress, singer and dancer who became a star in Broadway musicals and on television as Sid Caesar’s comic foil and in such hit movies as “The Band Wagon,” died Thursday. She was 97.
Fabray (photo) died of natural causes at her home in Palos Verdes Estates, her son, Jamie MacDougall, told The Associated Press Friday.
“She was an extraordinary woman. Many people referred to her as a force of nature, and you could feel it when she walked into the room,” he said.Fabray was 3 years old when she launched her career as vaudeville singerdancer Baby Nanette.
She went on to star in Broadway musicals, including “Bloomer Girl,” “High Button Shoes” and “Mr. President.”
In 1949 she won a Best Actress Tony for “Love Life.” A second nomination for “Mr. President” followed.
MGM brought her to Hollywood in 1953 to star with Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse and Jack Buchanan in the 1953 film “The Band Wagon.”Back on the East Coast, she got on the pioneering television show, “Caesar’s Hour,” which brought her three Emmy awards. Fabray’s first marriage, to TV executive David Tebet, ended in divorce. In 1957 she married writer Ranald MacDougall. Their son said Friday that memorial services would be private.