Grant’s Tomb chronicles one day, July 4, in one theater of operations, Manhattan’s Upper West Side, in the broader civil war between blue and red armies.

Non-Combatants
Alaska, b. 1942, moose totem
Victorious Garcia Doe, b. unknown, transient
William Kemp, b. 1850, Columbia student
Joseph Papp, b. 1921, theater impresario

Reinforcements
Maeve Brennan, b. 1917, transient
Ulysses S. Grant, b. 1822, general
Billie Holiday, b. 1915, singer
George Kolombatovich, b. 1946, fencer
John Mace, b. 1920, voice coach
Donald McKayle, b 1930, choreographer
Muriel Manings, b. 1923, dancer
Audrey Munson, b. 1891, model
Dorothy Parker, b. 1893, theater critic
Emery Roth, b. 1871, architect

New York Philharmonic Orchestra, b. 1842, musicians

8 am
Columbus Circle and the Casino in Central Park near E. 72nd Street
9 am
Decca Records, 135 W. 70th Street
10 am
The Ansonia, 2109 Broadway, and Famous Dairy, 222 W. 72nd Street

11 am
The Beresford, 211 Central Park West
Noon
Delacorte Theater, Mid-Park at 80th Street
3 pm
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue
5 pm
Grant’s Tomb, Riverside Drive and W. 122nd Street, and Hendrik Hudson, 380 Riverside Drive

8 am
ALASKA. Non-combatants, go home for your own safety.
KEMP. The opening salvo of red artillery and musketry, fired from loopholes in 52-story-high «January 6» banners, kills humans below indiscriminately. Uniformed red horsemen, flashing bayonets, trot into position around the base of their glass tower.Survivors split into two camps, red and blue. A cast of thousands clobbers itself. The fuss wakes the dead. Rich and poor, famous and anonymous alike, dislodged from their homes, dodge bullets and shells. Everyone is a target.
Explosion backstage.
PAPP. Ladies and gentlemen, the playwright is dead. We suspect foul play.
DOE (blows whistle). You want to go there already? Because if you want to go there? (blows whistle)
PAPP. He would want the show to go on. From backstage, where his body lies, he won’t miss a word.
HOLIDAY. Negroes are allowed here.
ROTH. Jews too.
PARKER. Critics too.
GRANT. Rebels too, after security checks.
MCKAYLE. Redcoats too.
Explosion at Columbus Circle.
ALASKA. The reds have left the building, ass-backward.
KEMP. A flanking maneuver by red volunteers gets them double-quick into the Park. Literary Walk confounds them. They trample Hoovervilles.
HOLIDAY. The Yanks are coming.
GRANT. Take my horse.
HOLIDAY. Without cover, we are sacrificial lambs.
GRANT. According to my map, there are portals here.
MCKAYLE. Decca Records.
GRANT. Here.
MCKAYLE. Famous Dairy.
GRANT. And here.
MCKAYLE. The Beresford.
ROTH. Greeks, Romans and New Yorkers placed boundary markers at crossroads to ward off harm.
MCKAYLE. Hermes guided the dead to Hades. Do we want to go there?
HOLIDAY. Throw the dice.
ROTH. Hades or bust.
MUNSON. This way, please. Watch your step.
KEMP. Surging north, the reds pour across Bethesda Terrace, toppling the Angel of the Waters. Stretching from Bow Bridge, a be-medalled superior officer decorates troops in rental boats taken by force. The San Remo, Eldorado and Majestic tremble.
PAPP. They were impassive in a previous draft.
9 am
PAPP. Action!
ALASKA (sings words on portal lintel). «If fraternal love held all men bound
How beautiful this world would be.»
HOLIDAY. This little number is called «No Good Man.» Present company excepted, gentlemen.
PAPP. We have to leave, according to the script.
ALASKA. Climb aboard. The meter is running.
10 am
KEMP. Unable to agree on a flag design, the blues cannot rally around a standard. The 1,850th California, their flakiest regiment, presses in single file in every direction. Reinforcements burst from the 66th and 72nd Street subway stations. Mayhem on Broadway obliges a mounted brigadier general waving a Revolutionary War sword to gallop to West End Avenue, her 1,818th Illinois trailing on tender feet. Blue deserters shopping on Columbus and Amsterdam are shot with Spencer repeating rifles. A secret dossier pertaining to the red leader’s sex life is discovered inside Plato’s Retreat in the blue hotel basement.
DOE. A beet-red boaster is inside with Apollodorus. Unless he is with Crito. I quote: «We do NOT acknowledge or honor the original stewards of this land, the Munsee Lenape.»
KEMP. A 20th precinct police captain preaches the wisdom of barricades.
MUNSON. This way, please. Watch your step.
FAMOUS DAIRY. Vegetarian chopped liver, up! Mushrooms, delightfully prepared!
PAPP. A speaking vegetarian deli? Revolutionary.
DOE. I can go without food, but I can’t go without water.
BRENNAN. A frowning male in a dark suit bursts in. He and his red tie seize a table away from the front windows. His square shoulders frame a lapel pin depicting a flag. He devours specialties of the house until, in the middle of his fifth cream delight, he recoils from the menu as if bitten by it. «The meat’s fake?!» He hurls plates before amscraying without tipping.
Explosion at the Ansonia.
ALASKA. The blues have left the building, back-assward.
KEMP. Sensing a trap, a red spy creeps away to provisional HQ, the American Museum of Natural History.

End of Preview

Images Credit
Museum of the City of New York
 
Dedicatee
Ruth Hennessy, 180 West End Avenue and 44 Morningside Drive, singer, actress, speech therapist
 
rev. June 29, 2026