January 11, 2006

The commission devising a blueprint to reconstruct the city will propose on Wednesday a complete reorganization of the troubled school system, the elimination of a 76-mile shipping channel that was a prime cause of flooding after Hurricane Katrina and the creation of a new jazz district downtown. The commission report, several members said, will also advocate building a 53-mile light-rail system crisscrossing the city, connecting neighborhoods with the airport, downtown and other commercial centers. That system would be in addition to a separate heavy-rail system that would link New Orleans with Baton Rouge and the rest of the Gulf Coast.

ANOTHER SUSPENSION HITS

New York Jets are expected to interview New England Patriots defense coach Eric Mangini for head coaching position; photo (M)

As a quick, cut-price tour of the sights and sounds of southern Spain, the Manhattan Theater Club production of ''Beauty of the Father,'' the new play by Nilo Cruz, is an indisputable success. A guitar strums hypnotically in the background of several scenes, while at one point the click of castanets is heard. An inviting expanse of seascape laps across the back wall of the set. When the play's characters settle down to a picnic on the beach in the second act, you can almost feel the itch of sand between your toes. That is not the only uncomfortable sensation this torpid play may give rise to, unfortunately. Mr. Cruz favors atmosphere over cut-and-dried drama, a dramatic strategy that was more effectively deployed in his Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Anna in the Tropics.'' A crisp outline of his new play's plot might suggest the crazy-quilt melodramas of early Almodóvar: father and daughter are attracted to the same sexy bad boy, igniting all manner of emotional fireworks. But Mr. Cruz's reflective, unhurried pace and his meandering, lyrical dialogue allow his fuses to burn a little too long, resulting in more fizzle than flash.

WILLIE MAE SEATON and her wet-battered fried chicken were honored last year in New York in front of thousands of the nation's food elite. Bob Iacovone of Cuvée was enjoying his own measure of success, drawing national notice for his continental Creole food. A few weeks ago, Willie Mae Seaton, 89, sat sweating on the stoop of her moldering New Orleans restaurant. About all that was left were a few gallons of unopened vegetable oil, a hulk of an old stove and a shrine to Jesus.