Rachel Simpson

Click through for a behind the scenes look!

Click through for video.

I've been doing some background work with Central Casting lately. Look for me as a homeless person outside a wedding on Cupid and as a clubgoer in episode 18 of Fringe. 

Maybe you'll see me, maybe you won't, but I had fun and enjoyed feeling like a tv biz insider. Spoiler alert: two homeless shelter volunteers get hitched on one show and the guy from Dawson's Creek hunts a syphilitic alien on the other. I'll let you mull over which plot belongs to which show.

Tonight I'll be in the stage left pit on Fashion Rocks (CBS 9pm et/pt).

I was part of the "casted audience", so look for my tiny, disembodied, dancing head!

Pics of my outfit for the taping are on my facebook in an album called Fashion Rocks and Waterfalls.

I also was in the casted audience for Spectacle.  It'll be on the Sundance Channel this fall/winter.  Elvis Costello interviews Rufus Wainwright and Renee Fleming at the Apollo. 

Performing with the New York Grand Opera was a wonderful experience.  Everything really came together.  I think I love opera.

www.newyorkgrandopera.org

I have more pictures on my facebook in an album called Aida and Alex's Birthday.  There you'll see the impressive set and beautiful costumes.

This not a review of my acting.  It is, however, an awesome pan of me as a server.  I'll take it where I can get it.

Enjoy!

Two New Restaurants: Kafana and Wildwood Barbeque

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

225 Park Avenue South (18th Street); (212) 533-2500.

Say what you will about the mass-market quality of many Stephen Hanson productions, but at least the man jumps fast and big on a trend.

He smelled the smoke wafting from barbecue pits across the city; he saw the legions of New Yorkers gnawing on ribs. And he swept into action, sweeping aside the Iberian underperformer Barça 18 and installing in its place this mammoth roadhouse of a restaurant, into which it seems the whole state of Texas might fit.

Get sauced is its motto, and you may want to do precisely that once you hear the roar of the country and rock music and feel the pressure from a server who, three times in five minutes, circles back to ask if you?re at last ready to order.

But try to stay upright and don?t be rushed, because the food is more appealing than its trappings, and reasonably priced. You don?t often find chicken wings (a half dozen, $8.95) as meaty as the ones here.

The barbecue encompasses many traditions, not confining itself just to one.

There?s smoky brisket with a proper amount of fat ($12.50), and there are tender pork ribs (half rack, $15.50; full rack, $29.95) and rich beef short ribs ($21.95) with even more fat. That?s praise.

Mr. Hanson, the restaurateur behind Dos Caminos and Ruby Foo?s, clearly means this to be a frantically busy trough, and there are generic, forgettable efforts across the menu.

But he?s put some pride into Wildwood, too, giving it a serious beer list with scores of diverse selections, and a bourbon list with dozens.

For his pit master he recruited Big Lou Elrose, who helped out at Hill Country. For desserts he tapped Elizabeth Katz, who worked at Fiamma. Try her carrot cake ($8). It?s monstrous, and divine. FRANK BRUNI

HELL YES I pressured Frank Bruni, head food critic for the New York Times, and I'd do it again!  (I quit this job a day before this review came out.  Talk about timing.)

In April, I had the privilege of reprising the role of Aloe Vera in A Short History of Weather by Jonathan Yukich.  I took the train out to beautiful Newport, RI and, along side John Drago, had three performances.  Noah Tuleja directed. 

Thank you so much to everyone who attended Offstage/Onstage (www.offstageon.webs.com)!  We had a great turn out and it meant a lot to me to see each of you there.  You were the best audience I could have asked for.

It's important for me to take a step back and look at what we accomplished in the shortest month of the year.  The show was fun and funny... major accomplishment.  All in all it cost me less than $200 to produce... shocking accomplishment.  I have a greater understanding of equity paper work... tedious accomplishment. 

My greatest accomplishment was figuring out the formula for a happy, complimentary audience:  As soon as curtain call is finished, feed them.  Block the door, don't give them a second to discuss or even think about what they witnessed; just start bombarding them with baked goods.

I'm declaring this a victory.

A little more than a week ago, I decided I wanted to put on a show.  Normally this would have been one of my "five minute ideas" like being a professional light bulb changer serving the women of the upper east side or selling grab bags of my clothes on craigslist.  While those other plans never panned out, this one is in motion.  Bolstered by the approval I received when I mentioned this idea to friends and loved ones, I went ahead.

Now I've got a cast.  I've booked a theatre.  Someone is writing a script and people are learning their songs.  There's really no turning back on this idea.  That being said, I need an audience.  Your attendance is mandatory.

Sunday, March 2 at 1pm 

Monday, March 3 at 7pm

The Producer's Club, Grand Theatre 

358 W. 44th St.

Free Admission

Stick around after the show to chat with the cast.

www.offstageon.webs.com