He just won an Emmy as the conflicted gay dad of “Girls,” but Peter Scolari, 61, is happy to kick up his heels now as the Wizard in Broadway’s “Wicked.” Tom Hanks’ “Bosom Buddies” co-star grew up in Scarsdale and used to visit his dad’s law office on Canal Street, wearing a clip-on tie: “You could have dropped me in most neighborhoods by the time I was 10 and I’d find my way there,” he tells BARBARA HOFFMAN. Here’s where the Upper West Sider and his actress wife, Tracy Shayne, spend their nonworking weekends.
I’M a good juggler. If you want to court a woman, you need to be able to juggle five balls, fire and knives. Before the dog park [was added to] Washington Square Park, I used to go there. Now I go to Riverside Park with my wife and a bag of props and juggle for an hour and a half or two hours, depending on my hands. Afterward, we like to go to the Boat Basin Café. You have to rehydrate after juggling, so I get a Pellegrino water with lime. I never drink alcohol.
We’re movie people. We go to the Loews at 68th for a blockbuster, or the one at 84th and Broadway for the ridiculous seating — it doesn’t matter what they’re playing: They have plush, electronically controlled seats and you can almost recline fully. If we have any aura of intellectual pretension — if we’ve got to see, say, a documentary about a ballerina from the 1950s — we’ll go to the Lincoln Plaza or the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.
If you’ve not been to Cafe Lalo, on West 83rd Street, you should get there. They have a whole museum of pastries and cookies. They also steam eggs and do all sorts of wacky quiches and espresso drinks you didn’t know existed. I think on Sunday nights they’ll actually bring in a cabaret singer. This place is cramped, it’s a wonder everyone gets along so well.
My two teens live with their mother, but when they’re interested in spending any time with their dad, we have a ritual: We take the crosstown bus at 66th Street and go to the East Side and Tony’s Di Napoli on Third Avenue, which does half-orders of huge family-size meals. It’s not gourmet or Northern Italian fare, but the meatballs make you want to cry!