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BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY

BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL
Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, Battery Park City
20 Battery Pl.
August 12-14 online, August 15-20 in person, free, 7:00
batterydance.org

The Battery Dance Festival has a lot to celebrate this month. Not only is the free summer festival celebrating its fortieth anniversary, but it will be doing so with a series of live, in-person presentations in addition to virtual performances from around the world. “Dancing in the open air, with the river and sky in the background, is always a blissful Battery Dance Festival experience,” Battery Dance president and artistic director Jonathan Hollander said in a statement. “This year, it will be even more exhilarating as people come out of isolation to witness the entrancing performances at Wagner Park. Before the action starts onstage, three nights of truly riveting dance films from many corners of the globe will be screened. Creativity was running high during the pandemic, and we have harvested a heady mix from voguing on a mountaintop in Lebanon to swing dancing in South Korea, from commedia dell’arte in Mexico to birdlike flocking in the Netherlands.”

The festival will screen sixteen dance films online August 12-14 at 7:00, followed by forty live and livestreamed performances taking place August 15-20 at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park in Battery Park City, including thirty-two premieres from fifty-three companies. Below is the full schedule.

International Dance Film Festival: Online Only at 7:00

Thursday, August 12
We Arnhem, Chapter II, Introdans, Jurriën Schobben & Alberto Villanueva Rodríguez (the Netherlands)

Uninhabited Island, Dance Troupe Braveman (South Korea)

MI blanco, MI Negro, Chilaquiles Rojos Colectivo, Vladimir Campoy (Mexico)

A Moment — Wakati, Nantea Dance Company (Tanzania)

Los Perros del Barrio Colosal, Boca Tuya, Omar Román De Jesús (Puerto Rico/NYC)

Friday, August 13
As Part of Lindy Hop Evolution, Team AJC, Andy Seo (South Korea)

WalkINN, Jiva Velázquez (Paraguay)

Downriver, Bollwerkfilm (Switzerland)

Our Stories, Arabesque Dance Vietnam (Vietnam)

The Circadian Cycle, Australian Dance Theatre (Australia)

Saturday, August 14
The Bait, Chenglong Tang (China)

Free Pita & Nilydna, Jill Crovisier (Luxembourg)

Fall Back, Abhilash Ningappa (India)

Groundworks Alcatraz (excerpts), Dancing Earth Creations (United States)

Goat & Al Jurd, Hoedy Saad (Lebanon)

Näss (People) (excerpt,) Massala Company, Fouad Boussouf (France)

Fortieth annual Battery Dance Festival will take place outside in Wagner Park and online (photo by Darial Sneed)

In-Person and Livestreamed Festival Performances at 7:00

Sunday, August 15: India Independence Day
Kathak: Parul Shah Dance Company

Bharatanatyam: Kasi Aysola & SaiSantosh Radhakrishnan, Water
Kuchipudi: “Ananda Tandavam”

Bharatanatyam: Maya Kulkarni presents two world premieres

Musical Interludes: Eventually Epic, with musicians Sachin Premasuthan and Debarun Bhattacharjya

Sutradhar (Narrator): Rajika Puri

Monday, August 16: Young Voices in Dance
The Stoic Bridge, Kate Louissaint & Nhyira Asante

ニ時二分 (2:02), Imani Gaudin

Repentino, Spencer Everett & Isabella Aldridge

This Is 22!, Brian Golden

Shiva Panchakshara Stotram, Ramya Durvasula

Mine, Yours, Ours, Lily Summer Gee

Garden Tongues, Grace Yi-Li Tong

Untitled, Kanyok Arts Initiative

Tuesday, August 17
A Little Old, a Little New, Luke Hickey

Warsaw, Graciano Dance Projects

Voila Viola, Company | E

John 4:20, Baye & Asa

The Underground, Rohan Bhargava/Rovaco Dance Company

Solstice, Jon Lehrer Dance Company

Observatory, Battery Dance

Wednesday, August 18
Od:yssey, Dancing Wheels

Donor, Will Ervin — Erv Works Dance

Radio Days, Demi Remick & Dancers

On the Waterfront, MorDance

The Liminal Year, Battery Dance

Honky Tonk Angels, William Byram

Thursday, August 19
Virtuoso, CHR Project

Deliver Us, Christian Warner

846 (Rite of Spring), Jamal Jackson Dance Company

Rondo & Size of the Sky, New York Theatre Ballet

Full Stop. Start Again., Akira Uchida, Maddy Wright, Joshua Strmic

The Prayer of Daphnis, Christopher Williams

It will happen again tonight, Dolly Sfeir

Ode to Yma, Battery Dance, Razvan Stoian & Jillian Linkowski

Friday, August 20
Alegrías, Flamenco Vivo II

Maps, Ohiole Dibua

Michoacán Suite, Ballet Nepantla

Flower, Stasis

Cuesta Abajo, Galletto y Guzmán

Yemaya: Rebirthing to Existence, Beatrice Capote

Untitled, Battery Dance

THE STAIRS

Friends encounter unspeakable horror while hiking in the woods in The Stairs

THE STAIRS (Peter “Drago” Tiemann, 2021)
AMC Kips Bay 15, 570 Second Ave.
Regal Union Square 14, 850 Broadway
AMC Empire 25, 234 West Forty-Second St.
Thursday, August 12, 7:00
www.fathomevents.com

“People go missing during a blood moon,” a convenience store clerk tells two men about to go hiking in the woods in Peter “Drago” Tiemann’s grisly thriller The Stairs, a Fathom/Cinedigm one-time-only event screening in select theaters on August 12 at 7:00. If it reminds you of the warning the truck driver (Joe Belcher) gives Jack (Griffin Dunne) and David (David Naughton) in John Landis’s An American Werewolf in London — “Boys, keep off the moors. Stick to the roads, and best of luck” — well, you’re on the right track.

The film begins twenty years in the past, as a hunting sojourn with Grandpa Gene (The Dukes of Hazzard’s John Schneider) and his eleven-year-old grandson, Jesse (Thomas Wethington), goes bad when the boy finds a mysterious set of steps in the middle of the forest, harboring something evil. It quickly becomes apparent that it’s not exactly a stairway to heaven.

In the present, best bros Nick (Adam Korson) and Josh (Brent Bailey) are going camping with their friend Rebeccah (Stacey Oristano) and her new squeeze, Jordon (Tyra Colar), along with the unpredictable and wild Doug (Josh Crotty), who completely throws off the dynamic. After they encounter a strange, eerie couple (Karleena Gore and David S. Hogan), all hell breaks loose, as people start dying in brutally violent ways, with a fab supernatural twist.

A festival favorite, The Stairs is a stylish horror film in the manner of Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever, the original Friday the 13th, Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods, Rob Schmidt’s Wrong Turn, and Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; in homage, there are even brief cameos from a chainsaw and a lake. You’ll find yourself screaming at the screen as characters make bad choices while Tiemann, who wrote the movie with Jason L Lowe, gleefully exploits genre tropes. We should always listen to Bugs Bunny, who famously told a monster, “Don’t go up there — it’s dark!”

A mysterious evil stirs up trouble in The Stairs

The pandemic lockdown has kept most of us inside for a year and a half, avoiding movie theaters and camping with friends; after watching The Stairs, you might never go outside again. The film is being shown at AMC Kips Bay 15, Regal Union Square 14, and AMC Empire 25, with a prerecorded introduction by Oscar nominee Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13, The Doors), who plays Grandma Bernice; a discussion with longtime stunt coordinator Tiemann; and bonus content.

NOT A MOMENT, BUT A MOVEMENT: THE DUAT

Gregg Daniel plays a man facing judgment day in world premiere of The Duat

THE DUAT
Center Theatre Group
Available on demand through August 12, $10
www.centertheatregroup.org

Gregg Daniel is electric as a man caught between heaven and hell, defending the choices he made in his life, in the world premiere of Roger Q. Mason’s one-man show, The Duat, streaming from Center Theatre Group through August 12. Daniel plays Cornelius “Neil” Johnson, a Black man who, when we first see him, is blindfolded and barefoot. “If I’m in hell, I want to know. I want to see the fire before it takes me down,” he calls out, dancing as if the floor is burning hot. He’s actually in the Duat, the Egyptian underworld where the god Anubis weighs the hearts of the dead to determine where they will spend the afterlife.

Over the course of forty-five minutes, Johnson shares his story, starting with his birth in Texas in 1948 and the tragic death of his father, a railroad porter, four years later. Johnson visits his grandmama, attends a liberal integrated elementary school, excels at UCLA, and becomes a driver for a wealthy white woman. Daniel seamlessly switches between characters, from his angry mother to his brash father to his sensible, soft-spoken grandmother, performing brief, urgent interpretive dance movements at the end of each scene (choreographed by Michael Tomlin III). He is haunted by his father’s fate, dying “a colored death,” and is determined to have his own, unique identity. “I am somebody,” he says in different ways throughout the play, as if Johnson is trying to convince himself that he matters, that he will be seen. But trouble brews when he recounts his time with the US organization, a rival to the Black Panthers, as Johnson does something that he regrets.

Presented in association with the Fire This Time Festival and Watts Village Theater Company, The Duat is part of the third episode of the “Not a Moment, But a Movement” series; the first episode was introduced by Vanessa Williams and featured Angelica Chéri’s one-person play Crowndation; I Will Not Lie to David, while the second episode explored “Black Nourishment” with spoken word artists. The Duat is preceded by a conversation with Watts co-artistic director Bruce A. Lemon Jr. and LA-based visual artist Floyd Strickland and is introduced by Wayne Brady.

The Duat unfolds in the tradition of such solo-show geniuses as Anna Deavere Smith, Dael Orlandersmith, and Charlayne Woodard, as Daniel (Insecure, Urban Nightmares) portrays multiple characters detailing the Black experience in America. He doesn’t change costumes but alters his tone of voice as the narrative sometimes repeats itself from different points of view. Director Taibi Magar (Is God Is, Blue Ridge) zooms in for closeups of Daniel’s face and feet, then pulls back to reveal percussionist David Leach playing several instruments in the background, the spotlight behind him casting him in silhouette. (The effective lighting is by Brandon Baruch, with sound design and original music by David Gonzalez.) Mason (The White Dress, Onion Creek) pulls no punches as Johnson looks back at his life, warts and all, trying to understand who he is and what awaits him.

THEATRE FOR ONE: HERE IS FUTURE

Here Is Future takes place in a mobile container for one actor and one audience member at a time (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

HERE IS FUTURE
Manhattan West Plaza
395 Ninth Ave. between 31st & 33rd Sts.
Thursday – Sunday through August 22, 1:00 – 7:00; free tickets available Monday mornings at 10:00
theatreforone.com

During the pandemic lockdown, Theatre for One’s Here We Are was my lifeline to live theater. On Thursday nights in October, TFO presented eight free online microplays written, directed, and performed by BIPOC women (with one exception), short works in which the solo actor and solo audience member both have their camera and audio on, able to see and hear one another. There was even a virtual lobby where people could type in their thoughts as they waited for shows to begin.

In the “before time,” pre-Covid 19, TFO performed its intimate works in a mobile four-by-eight-foot repurposed equipment container. Now TFO artistic director Christine Jones has gone back to the setting they originally used for the project to bring us Here Is Future, six new microplays between five and ten minutes each in which one actor performs for one audience member, seated on either side of the container, separated by a plexiglass sheet. Free tickets become available Monday mornings at 10:00 for that week’s performances, so you need to book them quick.

Several Here We Are creators are back for this follow-up, which takes place in the Manhattan West plaza on Ninth Ave. past the new Penn Station and is focused on where we go from here. The program consists of Jaclyn Backhaus’s The Curse, directed by Rebecca Martinez and starring Angel Desai; Lydia R. Diamond’s Turtle Turtle and That Which We Keep Telling Ourselves Is Over Now, directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene and starring Gillian Glasco; DeLanna Studi’s The Golda Project, directed by Martinez and starring Tanis Pareneau; korde arrington tuttle’s the love vibration, directed by SRĐA and starring Denise Manning; Stacey Rose’s Gravita 4 Para 0, directed by Greene and starring Joanie Anderson or Myxy Tyler; and Regina Taylor’s The Transformed Returns, directed by Taylor and starring Lizan Mitchell. The costumes are by Hahnji Jang, with lighting and sound by Josh Higgason.

I’ve seen four of the plays so far, and they were all poignant and moving. In The Transformed Returns, Mitchell portrays a grandmother dealing with the coronavirus crisis, desperate to squeeze the cheeks of her new grandchild, whom she cannot visit in person, while dealing with relatives who refuse to get vaccinated. The play begins with Mitchell sanitizing her side of the container, reminding us of what we’re still going through. (The insides of the container are thoroughly cleaned after each performance.)

Anderson is spectacular in Gravita 4 Para 0, in which the container is set up like a waiting room in a clinic, actor and audience member sitting side-by-side (separated by the glass), facing the same direction. She plays a woman from a large family who engages you in conversation, nervously talking about her history with parents, siblings, lovers, and abortions. She is so convincing that you’ll feel like you know her, and care about her, when it’s over.

In Turtle Turtle and That Which We Keep Telling Ourselves Is Over Now, you’re sitting at a table opposite a frenetic recent divorcée (superbly portrayed by an intoxicating Glasco) who is both anxious and excited to be finally going on an in-person date during the pandemic. Glasco positively glows as her character worries about allergies and Covid-19.

And in The Curse, Desai is engaging as a woman who believes terrible things have been happening to her and everyone around her because she is cursed — and she’s concerned for you too.

Produced by Octopus Theatricals and presented by Arts Brookfield, Here Is Future runs through August 22; walk-up slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis if there are no-shows. Masks are required of the audience, but the performers will be unmasked. Even in this rather small venue, it’s great to be experiencing live theater again, especially at this high quality, and for free. Sign up and see as many of the plays as you can, a terrific prelude to the upcoming fall theater season.

PUPPET WEEK NYC

THE INTERNATIONAL PUPPET FRINGE FESTIVAL
The Clemente Center, 107 Suffolk St.
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave.at 104th St.
August 11-15 live, August 16-31 online, most events free
puppetfringenyc.com
www.theclementecenter.org

“I could never be on stage on my own. But puppets can say things that humans can’t say,” British comedian, actress, and ventriloquist Nina Conti once explained. You can see a bevy of puppets this month at the International Puppet Fringe Festival, running August 11-15 in person at the Clemente on the Lower East Side, with a few special programs at the Museum of the City of New York, then moving online August 16-31. The fest, hosted by Teatro SEA and the Clemente, is part of the inaugural Puppet Week NYC and features a wide range of programming involving puppets, including live presentations, book readings, workshops, panel discussions, exhibition openings, and panel discussions, most of which are free. “The Clemente is a fitting home for the festival’s events, as puppetry found an early home here in the 1990s and we continue to foster diverse puppet performances in our theater spaces,” Clemente executive director Libertad Guerra said in a statement. “Our hope is that Puppet Week NYC draws attention to this thriving and evolving art form uniting theater with all the visual arts and attracting people of all ages, backgrounds, and cultural identities.”

International Puppet Fringe Festival founder and producer Dr. Manuel Morán added, “During the pandemic, when our curtains couldn’t go up, our roster of puppet makers and puppeteers were eagerly preparing to enthrall audiences with their creative talents, and we can’t wait to finally share their work with you.” This year’s honoree is Vincent Anthony, founder of the Center for Puppetry Arts. Below is the full schedule. Oh, and don’t forget what writer and illustrator Guy Davenport once warned: “I’ve carved the puppet, and I manipulate the strings, but while it’s on stage, the show belongs to the puppet.”

Wednesday, August 11
“Dream Puppet” Making Workshop with Marina Tsaplina, El jardín del paraíso Community Garden, noon – 8:00
Papier-Maché in a Two-Day Workshop, part 1, $50, 2:00
“Puppets of New York: Downtown at the Clemente” exhibition opening, 5:00
Puppet Celebrity Red Carpet, 5:30
Opening Remarks and festival’s dedication to Vincent Anthony, 6:00
The Triple Zhongkui Pageant by Chinese Theatre Works, 6:30
Los Grises/The Gray Ones by SEA, 7:00
The Shari Lewis Legacy Show by Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop, 8:00

Thursday, August 12
Construction and Hybrid Puppets Manipulation Workshop by Carolina Pimentel, $50, 10:00 am
“Dream Puppet” Making Workshop with Marina Tsaplina, El jardín del paraíso Community Garden, noon – 8:00
Títeres en el Caribe Hispano: Episode 1: Cuba, Episode 2: Dominican Republic, Episode 3: Puerto Rico, 1:00
Papier-Maché in a Two-Day Workshop, part 1, $50, 2:00
Puppet Celebrity Red Carpet, hosted by Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop, 6:00
“Puppets of New York” Opening Celebration, Museum of the City of New York, 7:00
Los Grises/The Gray Ones by SEA, 7:00
Muppets Take Manhattan (Frank Oz, 1984), $15, 8:00

Friday, August 13
Construction and Hybrid Puppets Manipulation Workshop by Carolina Pimentel, $50, 10:00 am
“Dream Puppet” Making Workshop with Marina Tsaplina, El jardín del paraíso Community Garden, noon – 8:00
Out of the Shadows Panel: A Conversation about the Henson Festivals, with Leslee Asch, Cheryl Henson, Dan Hurlin, Manuel Moran, and Michael Romanyshyn, 4:00
Karagoz by U.S. Karagoz Theatre Company, 4:00
Salt Over Gold and other Czech & Slovak fairy tales with strings by Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre, 5:00
Handmade Puppet Dreams: Dreamscapes, short films for adults, 5:00
La Macanuda by Deborah Hunt, 6:00
The Triple Zhongkui Pageant by Chinese Theatre Works, 6:30
Los Grises/The Gray Ones by SEA, 7:00
Puppet Slam / Cabaret: Great Small Works Spaghetti Dinner, with Bruce Cannon, Piedmont Bluz, and Valerie and Benedict Turner, 8:00

Saturday, August 14
Little Red’s Hood by Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, 11:00 am
Penguin in My Pocket by Kurt Hunter, 11:00 am
Handmade Puppet Dreams: Kidscapes, short films for children, noon
NIMA-USA Symposium: Conversations on Puppetry, Social Justice, and Diversity: Part 1, with Jacqueline Wade, Kuang-Yu Fong, and Ginew Benton, moderated by Claudia Orenstein, noon
2-D Puppet Workshop for kids by Junktown Duende, 1:00
Los Colores de Frida / The Colors of Frida by SEA, 1:00
The Marzipan Bunny by A Couple of Puppets, 1:00
Chicken Soup, Chicken Soup by WonderSpark Puppets, 1:00
Títeres en el Caribe Hispano: Episode 1: Cuba y Episode 3: Puerto Rico, 2:00
Teatro SEA’s Theatre Book Series Presentation, 2:30
Beautiful Blackbird: An African Folktale by Lovely Day Creative Arts, 3:00
Once Upon a Time in the Lower East Side . . . by JunkTown Duende, 4:00
Karagoz by U.S. Karagoz Theatre Company, 4:00
Puppet States by Paulette Richards, 5:00
Salt Over Gold and other Czech & Slovak fairy tales with strings by Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre, 5:00
La Macanuda by Deborah Hunt, 6:00
The Triple Zhongkui Pageant by Chinese Theatre Works, 6:30
Los Grises/The Gray Ones by SEA, 7:00
The Puppetry Guild of Greater NY presents . . . The Bawdy Naughty Puppet Cabaret, 8:00

Sunday, August 15
Little Red’s Hood by Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, 11:00 am
Beautiful Blackbird: An African Folktale by Lovely Day Creative Arts, 11:00 am
The Marzipan Bunny by A Couple of Puppets, 11:00 am
Giant Puppet Encounter & Mascot Encounter, 11:30 am
Handmade Puppet Dreams: Kidscapes, short films for children, noon
Chicken Soup, Chicken Soup by WonderSpark Puppets, 1:00
2-D Puppet Workshop for kids by Junktown Duende, 1:00
Penguin in My Pocket by Kurt Hunter, 1:00
Títeres en el Caribe Hispano: Episode 2: República Dominicana and Episode 3: Puerto Rico, 2:00
The Pura Belpré Project by SEA, 3:00
Harlem River Drive by Bruce Cannon, 3:00
Karagoz by U.S. Karagoz Theatre Company, 4:00
Once Upon a time in the Lower East Side . . . by JunkTown Duende, 5:00
Salt Over Gold and other Czech & Slovak fairy tales with strings by Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre, 5:00
La Macanuda by Deborah Hunt, 6:00
The Triple Zhongkui Pageant by Chinese Theatre Works, 6:30
Los Grises/The Gray Ones by SEA, 7:00
Puppet Dance Party, 8:00

Tuesday, August 17
A Conversation with Vincent Anthony, hosted by Dr. Manuel Morán and John Ludwig, 7:00

Thursday, August 19
Puppetry 101 with Aretta Baumgartner, 7:00

Friday, August 20
Handmade Puppet Dreams: Kidscapes, short films for children, noon
Handmade Puppet Dreams: Dreamscapes, short films for adults, 5:00

Saturday, August 21
Puppetry Museums around the World Panel, noon

Tuesday, August 24
Puppetry and Its Healing Properties in Therapy, hosted by Erica Scandoval and Karen Ciego, 7:00

Thursday, August 26
UNIMA-USA Symposium: Conversations on Puppetry, Social Justice, and Diversity: Part 2, with Monxo Lopez, Paulette Richards, Jungmin Song, and Edna Bland, moderated by Claudia Orenstein, 7:00

Friday, August 27
Handmade Puppet Dreams: Dreamscapes, short films for adults, 8:00

Saturday, August 28
Conversations with Puppet Fringe Artists and Troupes in English, noon

Tuesday, August 31
“Glocal” Rethinking, American Puppetry: Opening Eyes Wider by UNIMA-USA’s World Encyclopedia Puppetry Arts, with Karen Smith and Kathy Foley, 7:00

SPRINGSTEEN ON BROADWAY

Bruce Springsteen helps reopen Broadway with revival of Tony-winning one-man show (photo by Rob DeMartin)

SPRINGSTEEN ON BROADWAY
St. James Theatre
246 West 44th Street between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Friday/Saturday through September 4, $75-$850 (Lucky Seat lottery four days before each show)
www.jujamcyn.com
brucespringsteen.net/broadway

On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, Bruce Springsteen was driving in Sea Bright, New Jersey, smoke from the fallen Twin Towers visible in the distance, when an unidentified man pulled up alongside him and called out, “We need you, Bruce.” He responded with The Rising, a 2002 record that intelligently explored personal and communal loss, celebrated heroes, and looked to a brighter future. This spring, amid debates about how and when Broadway would reopen following the long pandemic lockdown, Jujamycyn president and Boss fan Jordan Roth contacted Bruce and asked if he would revive his intimate one-man show, Springsteen on Broadway, for a limited run over the summer. Broadway needed him. The musician and author responded with a slightly reconfigured update of the show, which had been awarded a special Tony for a “once-in-a-lifetime theatergoing experience”; in his acceptance speech, Springsteen said, “This is deeply appreciated. Thank you for making me feel so welcome on the block. Being part of the Broadway community has been a great thrill and an honor and one of the most exciting things I have ever experienced.”

The 140-minute show has moved from the 975-seat Walter Kerr to the St. James, which has nearly double the capacity at 1,710. I caught Springsteen on Broadway twice in its original form, each show somewhat different, with Bruce’s wife, Patti Scialfa, appearing at one of them, which alters the setlist. For this revival, Springsteen has made several key changes, from one of the songs he sings with Patti, which he had hoped Elvis Presley would record (the King died before hearing it), to the finale, a tune from his latest album, Letter to You, a bittersweet eulogy to lost friends, relatives, and E Street Band members that feels even more appropriate given the suffering of the last sixteen months.

Bruce Springsteen shifts between guitar and piano in slightly revamped revival (photo by Rob DeMartin)

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests over racial injustice, Springsteen has also added “American Skin (41 Shots),” his 2001 song about the police killing of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo in New York City in 1999. When I saw Bruce and the E Street Band perform the song at Shea Stadium in October 2003, numerous people in the crowd, as well as police officers and some security staff, stood and turned their back to the stage. There were no such protests at the St. James (although there were a handful of anti-vaxxers outside the theater on opening night calling the show discriminatory because all attendees had to be vaccinated).

This time around, Springsteen on Broadway, which is adapted from his bestselling 2016 memoir, Born to Run, is a much more emotional affair. The night I saw it, July 6, Bruce had to pause and wipe away tears at least four times; there was weeping throughout the theater as well. Springsteen spoke poignantly about Walter and Raymond Cichon from the 1960s Jersey Shore band the Motifs, Walter going to Vietnam and never coming home; his working-class father, who struggled with mental illness and often hid behind alcohol; late E Streeters Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici; and, most heartrending, his beloved mother, Adele, who is now ten years into dementia but, Bruce shared, still recognizes him when he sees her and perks up when she hears music. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Bruce, at the piano, sang, “If Pa’s eyes were windows into a world so deadly and true / You couldn’t stop me from looking but you kept me from crawlin’ through / It’s a funny old world, Ma, where a little boy’s wishes come true / Well, I got a few in my pocket and a special one just for you.” The story evoked the heartbreak of so many who were unable to visit their elderly parents in nursing homes during the crisis, saying farewell via cellphone if at all.

As tender and stirring as those moments were, Bruce also injects plenty of humor, mostly of the self-deprecating type, particularly about his November 2020 arrest for drunken and reckless driving. “I had to go to Zoom court,” he says. “My case was the United States of America vs. Bruce Springsteen. That’s always comforting to hear, that the entire nation is aligned against you.” The charges were later dismissed, but the police theme is a playful new thread in the narrative.

Once again, in New York City’s time of need, Springsteen has responded, helping us deal with a devastating health crisis that has so far claimed more than 610,000 American lives, even as a deadly variant makes its way through the country at this very moment. It’s the right show at the right time, with only two cast members, no set changes, and Bruce’s trusted guitar tech (Kevin Buell). All ticket holders must provide proof of vaccination in order to enter the theater. When I saw the show, masks were optional, and very few wore them, but masks are now required for everyone. Springsteen has taken a few weeks off while his daughter, Jessica, competes in equestrian jumping at the Tokyo Olympics (winning a team silver medal), but he and Patti will be back August 17 for the last run of performances, lighting up what has been a dark, empty Broadway. Bruce has responded yet again when New York City called.

JOHN AND THE HOLE

Charlie Shotwell stars as a disenchanted teen with an unusual plan in John and the Hole

JOHN AND THE HOLE (Pascual Sisto, 2020)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Opens Friday, August 6
212-255-2243
quadcinema.com

You can add the thirteen-year-old title character of John and the Hole (Charlie Shotwell) to the cinematic list of creepy kids who do bad things, populated by such children on the edge as eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) in The Bad Seed, Holland Perry (Martin Udvarnoky) in The Other, Ronald Wilby (Scott Jacoby) in Bad Ronald, and Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster) in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.

Adapted and expanded by Oscar-winning Argentinian writer Nicolás Giacobone from his 2010 short story “El Pozo” (“The Well”) and directed by Spanish visual artist Pascual Sisto, who previously teamed up on the 2003 short Océano, John and the Hole is a tense coming-of-age psychological thriller about a boy from a good family who commits a horrific act for no clear, apparent reason.

John lives in a lovely glass house in the woods with his successful parents, Brad (Michael C. Hall) and Anna (Jennifer Ehle), and his older sister, Laurie (Taissa Farmiga). When we first see them, it’s from outside their home, as they eat their dinner in silence, each off in their own world. It soon becomes clear that there’s something not quite right about John; he has trouble answering a math question at school, he lies about losing a drone, he kicks his skateboard down an incline and doesn’t go after it, and he drugs the sweet-natured gardener, Charles (Lucien Spellman).

The family seems to love him but understands that he’s different. It’s more than just teen angst or ennui, a spoiled child disenchanted with his privileged life. That becomes evident when, one night, he devises a plot involving his parents and sister and a mysterious underground bunker that was meant to be a safe place when it was constructed five years ago for an unrealized property. John goes on with his life, playing video games with his best friend, Peter (Ben O’Brien), continuing his tennis lessons, and trying to act like an adult, but he has a lot to learn. He remains distant even as his family suffers, growing more feral by the day.

Sisto (Steps) and Giacobone (Biutiful, Birdman) play with horror-movie tropes throughout the film. Early on, Brad says good night to John, suggesting he check under his bed, which is rarely a good thing. There’s a framing story between a mother, Lily (Samantha LeBretton), and her young daughter, Paula (Tamara Hickey), which reveals that the tale of John and his family might be a local legend while reenforcing the tenuous relationship between parents and children and who is responsible for whom. “Last month, John asked me something. It was a weird question,” Anna tells Brad. “He wanted to know what it’s like to be an adult. When do you stop being a kid?”

Brad (Michael C. Hall), Laurie (Taissa Farmiga), and Anna (Jennifer Ehle) play three characters in search of an exit in John and the Hole

Cinematographer Paul Özgür makes terrific use of Jacqueline Abrahams’s splendid production designer, topped off by composer Caterina Barbieri’s ominous electronic score. Sisto and Giacobone have referred to the film as Michael Haneke’s version of Home Alone; to that I would add Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Exit and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes, in which people are trapped in utterly prosaic situations that are at the same time terrifyingly inexplicable.

Shotwell (All the Money in the World, Eli) is mesmerizing as John, fully embodying the enigma of a teenager creating his own self-imposed isolation, although he’s been lost in his mind for years. Six-time Emmy nominee Hall (Dexter, Lazarus), two-time Tony winner Ehle (The Real Thing, Saint Maude), and Farmiga (The Nun, The Bling Ring) are excellent as his confused family, wanting to help John but not knowing exactly what he wants and what to do. Like the best scary movies, there’s a constant undercurrent of fear about just how far John might go in his personal quest, right up to the very end.