Who: Rita Wolf, Zach Grenier, Fiona Shaw, Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely, Peter Francis James, Malachy McCourt, Mia Dillon, Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Dancy, Donna Lynne Champlin, Colum McCann, Claire Danes, Dan Stevens, Juliana Canfield, Brenda Castles, Denis O’Hare, Kirsten Vangsness
What: Annual marathon reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses
Where: Symphony Space YouTube channel
When: Tuesday, June 16, free, 8:00 am
Why: Every June 16 since 1981, Symphony Space has been presenting “Bloomsday on Broadway,” a marathon all-star reading of James Joyce’s iconic 1922 novel, Ulysses, the book each one of us has but very few have finished. “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: — Introibo ad altare,” the seven-hundred-plus-page tome begins. The story takes place on June 16, 1904, following Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus in a modernist retelling of Homer’s Odyssey.
A coproduction with the Irish Arts Center, “Bloomsday on Broadway” ventures online this year, with the performers reading from wherever they are sheltering in place instead of onstage at 2537 Broadway at Ninety-Fifth St. That turned out to be a bit of a blessing, as the lineup, curated by Jonathan Goldman, is even more impressive than usual: sharing episodes will be Zach Grenier, Fiona Shaw, Malachy McCourt, Mia Dillon, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Dancy, Donna Lynne Champlin, Colum McCann, Claire Danes, and Denis O’Hare, with musical interludes by Brenda Castles, Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely, and Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow. The event, which is part of “At Home with Irish Arts Center” and Symphony Space’s “Your Home” online programming during the pandemic lockdown, is free and will be streamed on YouTube from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. Below is the full schedule, detailing who will be reading excerpts from each section at which time.
8:00 am
Episode I: Telemachus, by Stephen Colbert
8:45 am
Episode II: Nestor, by Rita Wolf
9:30 am
Episode III: Proteus, by Zach Grenier
10:15 am
Episode IV: Calypso, by Fiona Shaw
10:45 am
“Love’s Old Sweet Song,” by Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely
11:00 am
Episode V: Lotus Eaters, by Peter Francis James
11:45 am
Episode VI: Hades, by Malachy McCourt
12:30 pm
Episode VII: Aeolus by Mia Dillon
1:00 pm
“The Heath Bald/Miller’s Maggot/Calliope House,” by Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow
1:15 pm
Episode VIII: Lestrygonians, by Kate Mulgrew
2:00 pm
Episode IX: Scylla and Charybdis, by Cynthia Nixon
2:45 pm
Episode X: Wandering Rocks, by Hugh Dancy
3:30 pm
Episode XI: Sirens, by Donna Lynne Champlin
4:00 pm
“Porthole of the Kelp,” by Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow
4:15 pm
Episode XII: Cyclops, by Colum McCann
5:00 pm
Episode XIII: Nausicaa, by Claire Danes
5:45 pm
Episode XIV: Oxen of the Sun, by Brian Cox
6:30 pm
Episode XV: Circe, by Dan Stevens
7:15 pm
Episode XVI: Eumaeus, by Juliana Canfield
7:45 pm
“Raglan Road,” by Brenda Castles
8:00 pm
Episode XVII: Ithaca, by Denis O’Hare
8:45 pm
Episode XVIII: Penelope, by Kirsten Vangsness