Like so many successful professionals who live in Lower Manhattan, Evie Dolan works late several nights a week at a job that many would view as glamorous, but she has come to see as part of her daily routine. As with legions of other Downtown natives, she then comes home to her family and tries to relax for a few hours, before starting this cycle all over again the next day. But unlike almost everybody else in Lower Manhattan who fits this profile, Ms. Dolan is 12 years old.

The glamorous job she reports for eight times a week is a featured role in the Broadway musical, "School of Rock," where Evie plays Katie, the young bassist. The journey that took her to Broadway began in first grade, when she was a student at P.S. 89. "My brother Theo and I were doing an acting program at Kid City Theater in the West Village, as an after-school activity," she recalls. "One time, the director of the program, Wendy Tonken, got a call from a student at New York University's film school who needed to cast kid actors in a student production and she recommended my brother for an audition."

Evie's older brother Theo was cast in the project, which eventually led to a relationship with a professional manager, who quickly arranged an audition for him (which led to a role) in an Off-Broadway show. Eventually, a theatrical agent signed on to represent both siblings. "Evie and Theo started doing auditions and they loved it," recalls their father, Patrick Dolan. "It seemed like a good way to for them to develop skills and gain confidence."

Among these auditions was a tryout for Evie in the part of young Cosette, for the 2014 Broadway revival of "Les Miserables." Her mother, Abbey Gardner, recalls, "they measured her when she went into the room and it turned out that she was too tall." But, they soon learned that the casting consultants who were auditioning children for "Les Miserables" were also in search of young talent for another project. Legendary composer and musical theater impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber (who created "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita," "Phantom of the Opera," and "Cats," among many other fabled hits) was developing a stage version of the 2003 film, "School of Rock."

	Evie Dolan signs autographs at the stage door of the Winter Garden Theatre in Time Square after a performance of "School of Rock." She is met there each night by one of her parents, before returning to Battery Park City, where her daily routine includes home schooling. photo: Behna Gardner

"We got a call from Evie's agent, letting us know that she had an audition for 'School of Rock,'" recalls Mr. Dolan. For her first audition, she read lines, sang and played a Katy Perry song on her ukulele, the instrument she was most proficient on and had played in many elementary school talent shows. She was asked to return for a call back, but this time the casting agents requested that she come prepared to play a song from the show, "Teacher's Pet," on her bass.

What followed was one of those show business moments that become the stuff of legend. "Evie didn't have a bass, and had never played one," explains Ms. Gardner. But her dad thought that it was good excuse to buy a bass, an instrument he had loved playing in college, so on his way home from work he purchased a Fender Squire. Over the weekend, he took her to Replay Music Studios in the West Village for a lesson.

By the time she stood in front of the creative team again, several days later, Evie had not only mastered the audition number on the bass, but had become proficient at the instrument itself. "They asked her to come back one more time, for the final auditions which would be in front of Andrew Lloyd Webber." Mr. Dolan recounted.

Evie was thrilled to be cast in the "lab" version of the show -- a kind of a developmental, pre-production -- in the spring of last year, which culminated with two weeks of performances at the Gramercy Theater, on a stage adorned only with boxes and screens. "For the workshop," recalls Evie, who was finishing up fifth grade, "I was cast in the role of Katie and had the most amazing time. At that time none of us knew what would happen next."

For the seven weeks of rehearsals and performances, Evie was tutored in the rehearsal studios with the other thirteen kids in the cast, before graduating from P.S. 276 last June. Shortly after the lab production ended, "I found out that I had made the cast for the Broadway production," Evie recalls. "I was so happy."

"The schedule gave Evie the summer to go to sleep away camp and rest up before the rehearsals started in September," says Mr. Dolan. Evie had been admitted to a very sought-after public middle school, but "we realized just before school started that it was too much to ask of a new school to coordinate all of her studies remotely while she was in rehearsals" remembers Ms. Gardner. "So we decided on a combination of home schooling and tutoring in the theater."

In September, Evie and the rest of the cast gathered in a rehearsal studio on 42nd Street, where they began an intense schedule of learning lines, music, blocking, positions, dances and developing their characters.

"We rehearsed in the studio for a month," Evie remembers. "It was really fun and really hard work. Then, in October, we moved to the Winter Garden Theater for what are called 'technical rehearsals.'"

"School of Rock" opened for previews on November 9, and premiered on December 6. From the first performance, it has been a critical and commercial smash. (A few weeks ago, it received four Tony Award nominations.) Reviewers from the New York Times and New York Post also took special note of Evie's performance.

Evie has settled into a fairly steady routine. "A typical schedule for her now is to sleep in, then do homework or else work with a tutor until it's time to leave for Times Square," Mr. Dolan says. On days when an evening show is scheduled, Evie's call time at the Winter Garden Theater is 6:00 pm. When she appears in a matinee, Evie arrives at the stage door by noon or 1:00 pm. Because the show is still in its opening season, the cast has had the opportunity to do lots of special events and appearances, including a recent surprise performance with a rock legend who features heavily in the plot of the musical -- Stevie Nicks. After the performance, Ms. Nicks was quoted as saying: "to be in the presence of these kids is so amazing that honestly sometimes I close my eyes and I'm not sure that it's not Fleetwood Mac. It's very trippy. They are so good."

When asked what she likes best about being part of "School of Rock", Evie replies, "first of all, it's almost impossible to believe that we worked directly with Andrew Lloyd Webber. My family has always been huge fan, especially of 'Jesus Christ Superstar,' which my dad saw when he was twelve in London. I really love the whole cast and team -- these are people I hope I know and get to work with for my whole life. Alex Brightman, the star of our show, is amazing. He is like our big brother and is such a good role model for us. Also, I love and believe in the message of the show, which is that everyone has some kind of special creativity inside and they need to use it to stand up for what they believe in. Plus I get to sing and act and play live music six days a week!"

At the end of every performance, Evie is met at the Winter Garden stage door by either Mr. Dolan or Ms. Gardner, who must pause while the fans of the show gather there to meet the cast and get autographs and photos. Evie is often asked to reenact the "bass face" she does in the show. "I'm having the time of my life," says Evie.

Hokule'a's Arrival in North Cove

Click here to view a brief moment of the Welcoming Ceremony.

Audrey, it is believed, is the last survivor of the dogs who lived in Gateway Plaza on Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001.
She was a lifelong Gateway resident. So you've probably seen her around: soft white coat with tawny markings, including a patch of dark fur around one eye; happy disposition accentuated by a pink tongued smile and until she was slowed by age and a limp, a hop in her step and a perpetual wag in her un-bobbed tail.

If you have a dog yourself, you likely knew Audrey by name. And if you happen to have an unfixed male dog, you know her for sure.

Even though she was altered by hysterectomy before her first heat and never knew the pleasures first hand, some things can't be surgically removed.

She could pick up the scent of any non-neutered male canine from a block away. Then she would strain at the leash, forcing her otherwise well-trained but slow on the uptake and olfactory challenged companion to quicken his step in pursuit of quarry his limited faculties failed to perceive. Only when the object of her desire strutted around a corner did her human servant get the picture.

Some of her favorite boy toys, including a tawny pit bull from across the highway, and a black Chow named Apollo with a fearsome visage who was banned from community dog runs, were deemed too aggressive by some in the neighborhood and shunned.

"Keep back, he'll eat her alive!" Apollo's human warned at our first encounter, only to look on agape as Audrey charged his equally mystified Chow, danced in a circle, shook her booty in his face and then reared up on her hind legs and planted her forepaws on his back in a misguided, gender confused attempt to mount.

Apollo observed Audrey's enthusiastic but futile mating ritual with regal indifference, which was a good sight better than the fang baring, fur flying violence the two humans bystanders envisioned.

Audrey turned 17 on May Day and she hadn't seen Apollo around in a while. But her libido activated as always when she ran into her smaller, ever randy neighbor Oreo in Gateway last week.

So it came as a shock-unexpected despite her having reached an age, 119 dog years, when it should be anything but - that the end came suddenly on May 24, a Tuesday.

That was fitting in a way as Audrey, it is believed, is the last survivor of the dogs who lived in Gateway Plaza on Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001.

She had remained trapped in her apartment for two days and two nights because her human left her behind that morning, then was unable to return to the locked down neighborhood in the aftermath of the conflagration that engulfed it.

Audrey was rescued-thanks to the good graces of a rabbi from Hackensack in a HazMat suit who was able to cross the barricades at 5 a.m. on the 13th and reach Gateway; and of Angel the doorman who had stayed on alone in the darkened 400 building and allowed the rabbi entrance.

In the years since, all of Audrey's boon companions from Gateway had passed.

Among them were:  Teddy, a happy cloud of white fur; Bosco, a black Cocker Spaniel who enjoyed the outdoors of his human's terrace apartment, and invited Audrey to share it on sleepovers; Duke, a frisky Jack Russell who set the Gateway land speed record for ball chasing; Sammy, Audrey's mixed terrier male replica and best bud (their ardor ceased, sadly, when Sammy was fixed); Silver, a Keeshond whose bright gray fur stood on end like a shocked cartoon cat; Beau, a bulldog named after the Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard; Lucy, a ladylike longhaired Dachshund; Claudius, a handsome German Shepherd; and Jimmy, another regal Chow mix who was also the object of Audrey's undying affection and misplaced carnal desire.

Maybe you remember some of them, too.

All, like Audrey, leave heartbroken humans in their wake.  And the community they helped heal a little bit empty.

Dr. Stein Hoff and Fox ll

Classifieds & Personals

Largest to smallest are pictured left to right, top to bottom, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury

Ferryboat Lt. Samuel S. Coursen was built in 1956 and can handle 1,242 passengers and 50 vehicles. She operates year round for Governors Island