Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins) are facing tragedy in THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE (photo by Joan Marcus)
The Pershing Square Signature Center
The End Stage Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Extended through April 15, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org
A Broadway bomb in 1980 when it ran for only twelve performances at the Morosco Theatre (with a cast that included Irene Worth, Earle Hyman, Tony Musante, and Frances Conroy), Edward Albee’s The Lady from Dubuque is back in a splendid revival as the inaugural production at the Signature’s End Stage Theatre, where it has been extended through April 15. Set in the present day, the play is built around the question of personal identity; both acts begin with games of “Who am I?” that set the stage for existential arguments that grow ever more surreal. As the show begins, Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins) are hosting a small gathering of friends in their swanky home, trying to take everyone’s mind off of Jo’s worsening terminal illness, but Jo will not let them forget as she makes endlessly snide and mean-spirited comments about everything and everyone. While the thrice-married professional redneck Fred (C. J. Wilson) and his younger floozy girlfriend, Carol (Tricia Paoluccio), can dish it out and take it, the more mild-mannered and naive Lucinda (Catherine Curtin) and her sensitive husband, Edgar (Thomas Jay Ryan), have a harder time dealing with the abuse. The tenor of the play changes at the end of the first act with the sudden arrival of the elegantly dressed title character (Jane Alexander) and her regal, erudite companion, Oscar (Peter Francis James), who introduce a whole different kind of party game.
Peter James Francis and Jane Alexander play a different kind of party game in Signature revival of Edward Albee play (photo by Joan Marcus)
No one explores relationships between couples like Albee, whose work has earned him three Pulitzer Prizes (A Delicate Balance, Seascape, and Three Tall Women) and two Tonys for Best Play (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?). The heart of The Lady from Dubuque is Sam’s deep love for Jo and his intense fear of losing her. Played with an intelligent complexity by Hayden, Sam desperately needs to protect her, whether she wants him to or not, and when that protection is threatened by Oscar and the lady from Dubuque, he reacts with anger that results in bizarre violence and increasing levels of absurdity. James and Alexander lend an austere presence to the proceedings, with Alexander initially taking the stage like the grand dame of the theater that she is. Directed by David Esbjornson, the play features the characters regularly turning to the audience, acknowledging the presence of the crowd almost as if they are guests at the party. The night we saw the show, an audience member actually answered a character’s rhetorical question out loud, inviting laughs from everyone in the Frank Gehry-designed theater. Bitingly sarcastic, wickedly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, The Lady from Dubuque is a stirring party that is well worth attending.
Chantal Akerman’s groundbreaking film follows the drab life of the title character, a bored housewife who goes about her day nearly silently, moving agonizingly slowly, as she makes breakfast for her husband, sends him off to work, takes in a few johns, cleans the sink, etc. Just another ordinary day, not nearly as colorful as the one Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) experiences in Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967). Delphine Seyrig (Stolen Kisses, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Day of the Jackal) is mesmerizing as Jeanne Dielman — you won’t be able to take your eyes off her, and with good reason. This ultimate feminist film was made with an all-female crew, and if it’s anything, it’s absolutely memorable, love it or hate it. Oh, actually, it’s long too — nearly three and a half hours. Jeanne Dielman is screening on Thursday and Friday with Maya Deren’s avant-garde classic Meshes of the Afternoon as part of MoMA’s “Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman” series, a collection of films curated by photographer Cindy Sherman in conjunction with her glorious 
Started by Kevin Lyman in 1994, the Warped Tour is an annual showcase of up-and-coming bands, longtime punks, extreme sports, and lots of sponsorship. Over the years, the summer festival has featured such bands as Sublime, Bad Religion, Less than Jake, Pennywise, Rancid, NOFX, No Doubt, Blink-182, Flogging Molly, Sum 41, Gogol Bordello, and many others. For the 2010 edition, which numbered 600,000 fans, 200 bands, 52 days, and 43 cities, filmmaker Parris Patton brought along a skeleton crew to document the event, ultimately focusing on four men — one-man band Mike Posner, Christofer Drew of Never Shout Never, Mitch Lucker of Suicide Silence, who were all officially part of the 2010 Vans Warped Tour, and Joe Candelaria of Forever Came Calling, a threesome that followed the tour in their van, selling CDs on the line to pay their way while hoping to score a spot at one of the shows. Patton (Creature, Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who) weaves his way in and out of the maelstrom, taking his cameras into the mosh pit, going backstage, and hanging out with the bands on their tour buses. He gets up close and personal with band members’ families, from kid sisters and wives to parents and babies, revealing multiple sides of life on the road. While Posner, Lucker, and Candelaria attempt to make the most of the tour, Drew starts questioning whether signing on was such a good idea. Produced by Stacy Peralta and Agi Orsi, who previously teamed up on the cult hits Dogtown and Z-Boys and Riding Giants, No Room for Rockstars is a thoroughly entertaining inside look at rock-and-roll hopes and dreams that puts the audience front and center — and perhaps best of all, it doesn’t matter whether you love or hate the music it portrays in order to fall for the film’s many charms. The ninety-seven-minute film will be available on iTunes on April 2 and on VOD and DVD on May 15; in addition, you can see the real thing itself this summer, as tickets are now on sale for the 2012 edition of the Vans Warped Tour, which pulls into Nassau Coliseum on July 21 with such bands as Bayside, Every Time I Die, New Found Glory, Polar Bear Club, Rise Against, the Darlings, the Used, and Yellowcard.