Yearly Archives: 2012

CHUNKY MOVE: FAKER

Chunky Move founder Gideon Obarzanek wonders what it’s all been about in FAKER (photo by Heidrun Lohr)

Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer St. between Houston & Prince Sts.
April 25-29, May 2-6, $22
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.chunkymove.com

Since 1995, when he founded the Australian company Chunky Move, artistic director Gideon Obarzanek has been creating unique and unusual pieces that range from the extremely high-tech (Mortal Engine) to the charmingly low budget (I Like This) to the technologically cutting edge (Glow.) As he prepares to hand over the reins of the company to new artistic director Anouk van Dijk this July, he is saying farewell by starring in a production for the first time in ten years, the deeply personal solo show Faker. Beginning with Obarzanek sitting at a desk reading an e-mail he received from a young dancer, he roams about the stage, questions his abilities, looks back at his successes and failures, and wonders what it has all been about. Faker runs Wednesday through Sunday the next two weeks; you can find out even more about Obarzanek when he participates in a Q&A following the April 27 performance.

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS

James Corden tries to get ahold of himself in uproarious ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS

Music Box Theatre
239 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Through September 2, $66.50 – $196.50
onemantwoguvnorsbroadway.com

In the uproarious British farce One Man, Two Guvnors, James Corden stars as Francis Henshall, a simple, extremely hungry young man who gets himself into the complicated situation of serving as guvnor to two people at the same time in 1963 Brighton. But it’s Corden who has Broadway audiences eating out of the palm of his hand, delivering a riotous, unforgettable performance filled with wild improvisation, wickedly funny pratfalls, glorious wordplay, and slapstick galore. Desperate for some money — and for something to eat — Francis is soon working as a personal manservant to the demanding, upper-crust Stanley Stubbers (Oliver Chris) and local gangster Roscoe/Rachel Brabbe (Jemima Rooper). He gets caught up in some heavy drama as Pauline (Claire Lams) wants to marry her true love, ambitious (over)actor Alan (Daniel Rigby), but her father, Charlie the Duck (Fred Ridgeway), has promised her to Roscoe Crabbe to settle a large debt. Meanwhile, Francis just wants something to eat. Corden (The History Boys, Gavin and Stacey) is masterful as Francis, whether directly addressing the audience (and pulling some members onstage to participate in the frantic madness), devouring a letter, or running between two private rooms, trying to serve meals to both of his guvnors at the same time without them finding out about each other. He displays a good-natured charm and a rapid-fire comedic wit that makes Francis eminently likable no matter how much he screws up, which is a lot. As spectacular as Corden is, Tom Edden nearly steals the show as Alfie, an old, hunched-over waiter who takes quite a licking but somehow keeps on ticking. The first act is one of the funniest on Broadway in quite some time, a nonstop parade of belly laughs that might very well have you falling out of your seat; things are significantly slower in the shorter second act, which concentrates more on the silly plot. The festivities are accompanied by live music by the Craze, a skiffle band that plays original music starting ten minutes before showtime as well as during scene changes and intermission. Written by Richard Bean (Harvest) and directed by Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys, The Madness of King George) of the National Theatre and based on the 1743 commedia dell’arte farce The Servant of Two Masters by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni, One Man, Two Guvnors is outrageous British farce of the highest order.

BAC FLICKS: CARMEN & GEOFFREY

The life of Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder is examined in low-budget documentary

CARMEN & GEOFFREY (Linda Atkinson & Nick Doob, 2006)
Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater
450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Tuesday, April 24, $15, 7:00
866-811-4111
www.bacnyc.org
firstrunfeatures.com

Carmen & Geoffrey is an endearing look at Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder’s lifelong love affair with dance — and each other. The New Orleans-born de Lavallade studied with Lester Horton and went to high school with Alvin Ailey, whom she brought to his first dance class. Trinidadian Holder is a larger-than-life gentle giant who is a dancer, choreographer, composer, costume designer, actor director, writer, photographer, painter, and just about anything else he wants to be. The two met when they both were cast in Truman Capote and Harold Arlen’s Broadway show House of Flowers in 1954, with Holder instantly falling in love with de Lavallade; they’ve been together ever since. Directors Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob combine amazing archival footage — of Eartha Kitt, Josephine Baker, Ulysses Dove, de Lavallade dancing with Ailey, and other splendid moments — with contemporary rehearsal scenes, dance performances, and interviews with such stalwarts as dance critic Jennifer Dunning, former Alvin Ailey artistic director Judith Jamison, and choreographer Joe Layton (watch out for his eyebrows), along with family members and Gus Solomons jr and Dudley Williams, who still work with de Lavallade. The film was made on an extremely low budget, and it shows, but it is filled with such glorious footage that you’ll get over that quickly. Carmen & Geoffrey is screening April 24 at 7:00 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, with a panel discussion to follow, as part of the “BAC Flicks” series, which continues May 30 with Matt Wolf’s 2008 documentary, Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL: SEXY BABY

SEXY BABY explores sexuality in the cyber age in fascinating ways

SEXY BABY (Jill Bauer & Ronna Gradus, 2012)
Monday, April 23, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea, 3:00
Friday, April 27, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea, 8:30
www.tribecafilm.com
www.sexybabymovie.com

Journalist Jill Bauer and news photographer Ronna Gradus take a fascinating look at how the availability of online pornography and the spread of social media are influencing mainstream culture in the poignant documentary Sexy Baby. Bauer and Gradus explore the lives of three very different female characters who have very different ideas about what it means to be female. Winnifred is an intelligent, thoughtful twelve-year-old girl living in New York City who likes to dress provocatively and uses Lady Gaga as a role model. “We’re, like, the first generation to have what we have, so there’s no one before us that can kind of guide us,” she says. “I mean, we are the pioneers.” Laura is a twenty-two-year-old North Carolina kindergarten teacher who has decided to undergo labiaplasty after a boyfriend complained about the size of her genitalia. “I just feel that it would be a huge turn-on to a guy to look like a porn star,” she admits. And thirty-two-year-old Nichole is a former porn star known as Nakita Kash who is now trying to start a family while making a living teaching pole dancing to women. “The adult entertainment world has completely infiltrated the mainstream,” she explains. “I do blame that on the digital age.” Bauer and Gradus follow the three main subjects around as they go about their daily business, resulting in a remarkably intimate portrait about the state of contemporary womanhood without making any grandiose statements or delving into politics and religion (and wisely avoiding talking-head experts), instead concentrating on Nichole, Laura, and Winnifred as they open up their lives and speak freely about their hopes and desires in a world flooded with TMI. Filled with intriguing dichotomies, Sexy Baby infuriates and titillates, frustrates and engages, while making you think long and hard about where we all are heading.

ALEX WINSTON

Alex Winston uses soaring melodies to battle con men galore on debut album

Knitting Factory Brooklyn
381 Metropolitan Ave.
Tuesday, April 24, $10-$12, 8:00
347-529-6696
bk.knittingfactory.com
www.myspace.com/alexwinston

Brooklyn-based Detroit native Alex Winston makes delightfully infectious music that mixes the vocal range of Kate Bush with girl-group harmonies, Asian influences, and a DIY aesthetic. Following a series of EPs including 2010’s The Basement Covers, which featured unique versions of such songs as the Rolling Stones’ “Play with Fire” and Mumford & Sons’ “The Cave,” Winston has released her debut full-length album, King Con (V2/Cooperative, April 10, 2012), a dozen tracks that show off her skills admirably. While the music and production might be bright, playful, and energetic, the lyrics reveal a young woman taking control of her life after some questionable, complicated relationships with lovers and untrustworthy con artists. “God damn, you’re back again / try to crawl under my skin / it fuels your fire / feeds the flame / ’cause ants like you are all the same / and you keep a-marching,” she proclaims over a propulsive beat on the album opener, “Fire Ant.” Switching to a sweet 1950s melody on the next song, “Velvet Elvis,” Winston declares, “Ma said I ain’t right / clutching on you all night . . . I’ll kill the bitch that bats any eye / at Elvis.” Such tracks as “Medicine,” “Sister Wife,” and “Choice Notes” are impossibly catchy, bouncy pop in which Winston searches for a happiness that is hard to come by. “I think I gotta go alone,” she sings in “The Fold.” Displaying so many choice notes, Winston, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, won’t be going alone for long. Winston, who also makes entertaining videos and is preparing short documentaries to accompany King Con, will be at the Knitting Factory Brooklyn on April 24 with Deidre & the Dark and 1,2,3.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL: CAROLINE AND JACKIE

CAROLINE AND JACKIE documents one very long night with some rather vapid characters

CAROLINE AND JACKIE (Adam Christian Clark, 2012)
Tuesday, April 24, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea, 9:00
Saturday, April 28, AMC Loews Village 7, 9:00
www.tribecafilm.com

Writer-director Adam Christian Clark’s feature-length debut, Caroline and Jackie, has nothing to do with the Kennedys. It also turns out to be more of a fictionalized version of a conglomeration of reality-show television series than a coherent narrative, albeit one with some powerful, effective moments. Jackie (Bitsie Tullouch) at first thinks that her sister, Caroline (Marguerite Moreau), has come to visit her to celebrate Caroline’s birthday. But Caroline turns the tables on Jackie, instead throwing a surprise party for Jackie before changing gears once again and staging an intervention, claiming Jackie is a pill-addicted anorexic, which Jackie adamantly denies. Thrust in the middle is Jackie’s boyfriend, Ryan (David Giuntoli). The three of them spend a long, complicated, emotional night together, along with some friends, examining one another as well as themselves, reaching some rather unpleasant conclusions. Clark, who has directed the American version of Big Brother and the Chinese reality show Fashion Star, had the actors improvise much of the dialogue (based on a specific outline), resulting in a choppy story with incongruent lines and characters that are hard to like or even care about. Every time the film seems to be heading in a better direction, particularly in scenes featuring only Ryan and Jackie, it slips back, getting lost in terrain better left to Jersey Shore, The Real World, and, well, Big Brother. In his director’s statement, Clark, who has been based in Los Angeles since he was eighteen and is now thirty-one, explained, “In being truly honest, we have to admit that we are all vapid.” Actually, no we don’t.

BROOKLYN RECORD RIOT

Brooklyn Record Riot on April 22 is a worthy follow-up to Record Store Day

Warsaw at the Polish National Home
261 Driggs Ave.
Sunday, April 22, $3, 12 noon – 7:00 pm (early bird admission $20 at 10:00 am)
www.recordriots.com
www.warsawconcerts.com

Hot on the heels of Saturday’s national Record Store Day, the annual Brooklyn Record Riot arrives April 22 at Warsaw at the Polish National Home in Greenpoint, site of many a great concert. (Upcoming shows include the Madonnathon on April 27 and Sham 69 and Murphy’s Law on May 23). Some five dozen dealers from around the country will be selling rare vinyl and CD in all genres on Sunday, with music supplied by DJs Lupe Loop, Shimmy, Barry Soltz, Miss Mary-Clancey, Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus, Test Patterns, and John Bastone. There will also be plates of pierogi and kielbasa and sauerkraut for five bucks. Admission is only $3, but if you want to get in ahead of the crowd to scan the merchandise, $20 will get you in two hours before the doors open to the general public. To find out more about who will have booths at the record fair, visit here.