this week in literature

MR. MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL

Mr. Magoo gets taught a lesson on Christmas Eve

REVISITING THE JULE STYNE / BOB MERRILL MR. MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL
Paley Center
25 West 52nd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Tuesday, December 1, $20, 6:00
www.paleycenter.org
www.mrmagooschristmascarol.com

MR. MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL has always been one of our favorite holiday programs, along with, of course, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS and SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN. The first animated Christmas special – it premiered on NBC in December 1962 — Mr. Magoo’s version of Charles Dickens’s classic seasonal tale features music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and a great lineup of celebrity voices, including Morey Amsterdam, Paul Frees, Jack Cassidy, Royal Dano, and the great Jim Backus (Thurston Howell III!) as the near-sighted Magoo. The Paley Center will honor the fifty-two-minute film with a screening on December 1 at 6:00, followed by a panel discussion with animator Darrell Van Citters, who has just released MISTER MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE MAKING OF THE FIRST ANIMATED CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, and Judy Levitow, daughter of director Abe Levitow, moderated by casting director Jack Doulin. And as an extra treat, each attendee will go home with a DVD of the charming original show.

CONTEST OF THE WEEK: BROADWAY BOUND

Tell us the first Broadway show you saw to win a copy of new book

LIGHTS ON BROADWAY: A THEATRICAL TOUR FROM A TO Z by Harriet Ziefert, illustrated by Elliot Kreloff, with an introduction by Brian Stokes Mitchell (Blue Apple, October 2009, $19.99)
Friday, November 20, 5:00, Barnes & Noble, 1972 Broadway at 66^th St., 212-595-6859
Sunday, November 22, 2:00, Books of Wonder, 18 West 18^th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves., 212-989-3270
Admission: free
www.blueapplebooks.com
www.booksofwonder.com

“Welcome to my house, my home, my Broadway!” Tony-winning actor and singer Brian Stokes Mitchell writes in the introduction to the new picture book LIGHTS ON BROADWAY: A THEATRICAL TOUR FROM A TO Z. “As you take this very special tour, perhaps you too will be ignited by the incredible collaborative magic that gives life and light to the theater.” Written by Harriet Ziefert, playfully illustrated by Elliot Kreloff, and with an accompanying CD, LIGHTS ON BROADWAY has its own collaborative magic, taking children and adults on a colorful alphabetical journey through the Great White Way, from audition and actor to encore and improvisation, from orchestra and overture to rehearsal and roadshow. Along the way, there are classic quotes from such Broadway luminaries as Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Patti LuPone, Stephen Sondheim, and Harvey Fierstein as well as definitions of such theatrical terms as proscenium, curtain, wings, and fly space.

Mitchell, who also contributed an afterword and poetic postscript and sings “I Was Here” from THE GLORIOUS ONES on the CD, will be celebrating the release of the book with two local appearances with the TADA! Youth Theater, which has been entertaining children and families for twenty-five years. He’ll be reading from and signing copies of the book at the Lincoln Triangle B&N on November 20 at 5:00, followed by a party at Books of Wonder on November 22 at 2:00.

Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will be on hand for two local events celebrating release of book

WIN A COPY OF THE BOOK

What was the first Broadway show you saw? Send your answer to contest@twi-ny.com by Monday, November 23, at 12 noon for your chance to win a free copy of LIGHTS ON BROADWAY, courtesy of Blue Apple Books. Two lucky respondents will be chosen at random.

Break a leg!

BLAKE IN POETRY AND SONG: AN EVENING WITH PATTI SMITH

Patti Smith will celebrate the legacy of William Blake at the Morgan Library (photo by Angelo Cricchi)

The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave. at 36th St.
Thursday, November 19, $35, 7:30
212-685-0008
www.themorgan.org
www.pattismith.net

In 2004, Patti Smith wrote, “In my Blakean year / Such a woeful schism / The pain of our existence / Was not as I envisioned / Boots that trudged from track to track / Worn down to the sole / One road is paved in gold / One road is just a road.” On her Web site, the full lyrics to this song, “In My Blakean Year,” from her TRAMPIN’ album, link to William Blake’s poem “The Divine Image,” which includes the opening quatrain “To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love / All pray in their distress, / And to these virtues of delight / Return their lovingkindness.” The eclectic, iconic, iconoclastic Smith, joined by her daughter Jesse, will be celebrating the legacy of the British artist, writer, and anarchist in a special program of music and poetry at the Morgan Library on November 19, held in conjunction with the exhibit “William Blake’s World: ‘A New Heaven Is Begun’” (which continues through January 3).

William Blake, “Behemoth and Leviathan” (Book of Job, no. 15), pen and black and gray ink, gray wash, and watercolor, over faint indications in pencil, on paper, ca. 1805–10

More than 350 years after his birth, Blake remains a worshiped figure with a lasting influence, particularly on the Beat Generation and its descendants. Discussing “In My Blakean Year” with Rolling Stone in 2004, Smith said, “What I learned from William Blake is, don’t give up. And don’t expect anything. . . . I have a great life. I’ve seen dark times too and have had, in certain times of my life, nothing. No material things, not much prospects – except my own imagination. But if you perceive that you have a gift, you already have life.” Smith, recently named one of the 400 most influential New Yorkers by the Museum of the City of New York, has suffered great personal tragedy as well as critical and popular success throughout her career; she is not afraid to bare her soul in public, so the event at the Morgan promises to be moving and emotional in addition to celebratory. The performance begins at 7:30, with the exhibition open at 6:30 for ticket holders to get in the mood.

ALL DAY SUCKERS

all day suckers_3rev

SoHo Playhouse
15 van Dam St. between Sixth Ave. & Varick St.
Monday, November 16, 1:00
Tuesday, November 17, 7:00
Admission: free but RSVP required
917-553-6545 / alldaysuckers@gmail.com
www.jessicabauman.net/new-feet-productions
www.sohoplayhouse.com

ALL DAY SUCKERS, a new play by Susan Dworkin that promises to be the “antidote to health-care reform fatigue,” will have two special free readings at SoHo Playhouse, featuring Margaret Daly, Sarah Nina Hayon, John Michalski, Tommy Schrider, Trevor Vaughn, Sarah Grace Wilson, and Melissa Wolff, directed by Jessica Bauman. Dworkin is the author of such previous plays as THE MIAMI DIG, THE OLD MEZZO, THE FORGOTTEN LOVER, and THE FARM BILL in addition to such books as THE VIKING IN THE WHEAT FIELD and THE NAZI OFFICER’S WIFE, while Bauman has directed such works as INTO THE HAZARD and TEACHERS BREAK. Space if limited and nearly full, so RSVP as soon as you can.

THE BIG KAHN

thebigkahn1

THE BIG KAHN: A Sequential Drama by Neil Kleid and Nicolas Cinquegrani (NMB Comics Lit, September 2009, $13.95)
www.nbmpub.com

When family patriarch and “religious giant” Rabbi David Kahn passes away, he is initially mourned by his community; “He counseled when we were lost, laughed when we smiled and comforted when we hurt,” his son Avi, the assistant rabbi at the New Jersey synagogue David helped establish, says during the eulogy (while David’s sister, Lea, is having sex in a temple closet). But then a stranger shows up, demanding that he see the late rabbi’s body, declaring, “That box isn’t going anywhere until I make sure that’s Donnie inside.” Roy Dobbs insists that the man in the coffin is a fraud – his brother Don, a grifter and con man whose life was one big lie. And when it turns out that he’s telling the truth, the rabbi’s family is forced to examine their own lives and suddenly question everything they were taught to believe in as the community that had embraced them for so long coldly and cruelly turns its back on them.

thebigkahn3

Kleid, who has also written the excellent true-crime graphic novel BROWNSVILLE, about New York City’s Murder Inc., and the Xeric Award-winning NINETY CANDLES, tackles some lofty issues in THE BIG KAHN, including faith, the existence of God, sibling rivalry, homosexuality, and whether a person’s deeds later in life can overcome the things he has done in his past. In his first full-length graphic novel, comic artist Nicolas Cinquegrani (CHASQUI, THE MYSTERIOUS SYMPTOMS) creates a simple yet moving environment for Kleid’s emotional tale, his black-and-white drawings setting the appropriate mood for this intense family drama. THE BIG KAHN is no big con; it’s the real deal.

weekly listings nov. 11-18

Magda Tothova gets uncomfortably and romantically close to the former premier in her video “Lenin and the Maiden"

1989: THE END OF HISTORY OR THE BEGINNING OF THE FUTURE?
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd St. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Admission: free
212-319 -3000
www.afcny.org

Wednesday, November 11 Art and Politics After the Annus Mirabilis: panel discussion on the the tumultuous events of 1989, with Marina Abramovic, Anna Jermolaewa, Thomas Draschan, Gerald Matt, and others, reservations required, 5:00

Wednesday, November 11 Video Art Comments on a Time Shift: exhibit opening reception, with live music by B3+ and presentation by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria Michael Spindelegger, 6:00

RICHARD LLOYD
The Studio at Webster Hall
125 East Eleventh St. between Third & Fourth Aves.
Tickets: $10-$12
www.websterhall.com/thestudio

Thursday, November 12 One-night-only special performance by Television’s Richard Lloyd, with opening set by Hey Battlef!eld, hosted by John Varvatos, Bob Gruen, and Legs McNeil, 8:30

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Danspace Project
St. Mark’s Church
131 East Tenth St. at Second Ave.
Admission: $5 plus two cans of food or $10
212-674-8112
www.danspaceproject.org/programs/foodforthought.html

Thursday, November 12 Thomas F. DeFrantz, Rie Ono, Chris Peck, and the Grocery & Jessica Almasy, curated by Ursula Eagly

Friday, November 13 Monstah Black, Vanessa Anspaugh, GoGoVertigoat, and Jamal Jackson Dance Company, curated by Maura Donohue

Saturday, November 14 Brad Kisicki, Travis Chamberlain, and Sheila Lewandowski in collaboration with Sarah Maxfield, and John McGrew, curated by Enrico D. Wey

David teague's animated INTIFADA NYC is part of annual doc fest at AMNH

MARGARET MEAD FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th St.

November 12-15, $12-$40
212-769-5200
www.amh.org/mead

The thirty-third annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival once again showcases socially and environmentally conscious work from around the world.

Thursday, November 12 Opening night: COOKING HISTORY (Peter Kerekes), 7:00

Sunday, November 15 DJ SPOOKY AND THE SCIENCE OF TERRA NOVA, featuring DJ Spooky speaking and demonstrating the creation of his latest multimedia project, addressing climate change in Antarctica, 4:00

Sunday, November 15 Closing night: HAIR INDIA (Raffaele Brunetti & Marco Leopardi), with Brunetti in person, 8:00

JANIS BRENNER & DANCERS
Joyce SoHo
15 Mercer St.
Tickets: $15-$20
www.joyce.org

Thursday, November 12
through
Sunday, November 15 JB&D presents FIVE DECADES, consisting of works by Meredith Monk (BREAK, 1964), Murray Louis (FIGURA, 1978), and Janis Brenner, (GUILT, 1985, and A MATTER OF TIME, 1994), and world premiere of Brenner’s DANCING IN ABSENTIA

A HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
421 East 61st St.
Admission: $15 (includes discount for Wafels & Dinges)
212-838-6878
www.mvhm.org

Friday, November 13 Dr. Michael Black discusses Washington Irving’s A HISTORY OF NEW YORK, which takes a satirical look at the early politics of the early Dutch-settled city, 6:30

PAGE TURNER: THE ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY FESTIVAL
Multiple venues
All day pass $20 ($25 with literary awards)
www.pageturnerfest.org

Friday, November 13 Gala Kick-off Dinner with Michael Ondaatje helping to honor Lifetime Achievement Award winner Sonny Mehta, Vermilion, 480 Lexington Ave., $50 cocktail reception, $500 cocktail reception, gala dinner, signed book by Ondaatje, and more, 7:00

Saturday, November 14 Readings at powerHouse Arena, with Jhumpa Lahiri, David Henry Hwang, Jen Kwok, Professor Mae Ngai, Ed Park, Amitava Kumar, and more, 37 Main St., Dumbo, $5 each, every hour on the hour from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm

Saturday, November 14 Twelfth annual literary awards and cocktail reception, powerHouse Arena, 37 Main St., Dumbo, $10, 6:00

Guy Maddin's unique take on Dracula is part of Vampire Weekend at the Paley Center

DARK SHADOWS AT TWILIGHT: A PALEY CENTER VAMPIRE WEEKEND
The Paley Center for Media
25 West 52nd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Admission: $10
212-621-6800
www.paleycenter.org

Friday, November 13
through
Sunday, November 15 Three days of special events focusing on vampires, including F. W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU, Guy Maddin’s DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY, ROBSESSED (about the cult surrounding TWILIGHT’s Rob Pattison), screenings of past Paley Center events featuring the cast and crew of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (2008), ANGEL (2001), TRUE BLOOD (2009), and DARK SHADOWS (2001), as well as a panel discussion and more

ESTHER
New York City Opera
David H. Koch Theater
63rd St. & Columbus Ave.
Tickets: $12-$145
212-721-6500
www.nycopera.com

Friday, November 13
through
Thursday, November 19 City Opera presents Hugo Weisgall’s opera for the first time in sixteen years, starring Lauren Flanigan and with stage and film design by Jerome Sirlin

COLLECTORS FESTIVAL OF NEW YORK: DE LA CHARANGA AL CHARANGO
Taino Towers Cultural Building
240 East 123rd St. at Second Ave.
Admission: $10
www.cccadi.org/node/529

Saturday, November 14 Sixth annual International Latin/Tropical Music Collectors Festival, with displays, DJs, film screenings, a tribute to Charanga legends, panel discussions, a flea market, and a fiesta de cierre with live performances by La Orqesta Broadway and La Bolá con su Charangón, 1:00 – 10:00 pm

GENERATIONS: A 30-YEAR CELEBRATION
Peter Norton Symphony Space
2597 Broadway at 95th St.
Tickets: $15-$25
www.symphonyspace.org

Saturday, November 14 Thirtieth anniversary concert by the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band, featuring works by Respighi, Shostakovich, Saint-Saens, Jerry Herman, Harold Arlen, and John Philip Sousa in addition to a world premiere of special piece by James Adler commissioned for the event, 8:00

ARTWALK NY
Skylight Studio
275 Hudson St.
Tickets: $200-$5,000
212-776-2056
www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/artwalk.html

Tuesday, November 17 Benefit for the Coalition for the Homeless, honoring artist Pat Steir, with a cocktail
party, live and silent auctions, with cochairs Richard Gere, Carey Lowell, and Alec Baldwin, 6:30

IN OUR LINGO: DJ DISCO WIZ & JAMEL SHABAZZ
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
Admission: free with reservations at below Web site
www.elmuseo.org/en/calendar/date_all_all

Tuesday, November 17 Multimedia dialogue and mixed plate beats featuring DJ Disco Wiz and Jamel Shabazz, 6:30

DEBORAH HAY: IF I SING TO YOU
YVONNE RAINER: SPIRALING DOWN
Baryshnikov Arts Center
Tickets: $25
www.bacnyc.org

Tuesday, November 17
through
Thursday, November 19 U.S. premiere of a piece by Deborah Hay and New York premiere of work by Yvonne Rainer, part of Performa 09 festival, 7:30

De Sica classic is part of neorealist feast and film festival

UMBERTO D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday, November 17, 8:30
Saturday, November 21, 5:30
212-875-5600
www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/italiannr.html

We don’t think we’ll ever stop crying. Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist masterpiece stars Carlo Battisti (a professor whom De Sica saw one day and thought would be perfect for the lead role; it would be Battisti’s only film) as Umberto Domenico Ferrari, an elderly former bureaucrat who is too proud to sacrifice his dignity in order to pay his mean-spirited landlady (Lina Gennari), who rents out his room by the hour while he’s out walking his beloved dog, Flag, and trying to find some way to get money and food. Umberto D. is befriended by the boardinghouse maid (Maria Pia Casilio), who is pregnant with the child of one of two servicemen, neither of whom wants to have anything to do with her. As Umberto D.’s options start running out, he considers desperate measures to free himself from his loneliness and poverty. His relationship with Flag is one of the most moving in cinema history. Don’t miss this remarkable achievement, which was lovingly restored a few years ago by eighty-six-year-old lighting specialist Vincenzo Verzini, known as Little Giotto. The film is part of Lincoln Center’s “Life Lessons: Italian Neorealism and the Birth of Modern Cinema,” which continues through November 25 with such films as Michdelangelo Antonioni’s IL GRIDO, Luchino Visconti’s LA TERRA TREMA: EPISODIO DEL MARE, and Francesco Rosi’s SALVATORE GIULIANO. The November 21 screening of UMBERTO D is part of “A Feast of Food and Film,” a special one-day event that also includes admission to Federico Fellini’s I VITELLONI, Roberto Rosselini’s VIAGGIO IN ITALIA, Luigi Comencini’s PANE, AMORE E FANTASIA, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s ACCATTONE, a tasting of Lamberti Prosecco and Rose Spumante, Italian delicacies from Sora Lella, all for $30

SPLICE: PANIC JOURNALS
Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway at Chambers St. (second floor)
Tickets: $12-$17
212-625-8369
www.dnadance.com
www.falldowntown.com

Thursday, November 19
through
Sunday, November 22 Ishmael Houston-Jones and Dan Safer/ Witness Relocation team up for a night of raucous performance art

GOTHAM GIRLS ROLLER DERBY
Hunter College Sportplex
Lexington Ave. at 68th St.
Tickets:
888-830-2253
www.gothamgirlsrollerderby.com

Thursday, November 19 Although the GGRD championship bout on Saturday, November 21, between the Bronx Gridlock and the Manhattan Mayhem is currently sold out, a small batch of tickets will be released on November 19 at 8:30 am

QUARTETT

Robert Wilson reinterprets LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES with Isabelle Huppert at BAM (photo by Pascal Victor)

Robert Wilson reinterprets LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES at BAM (photo by Pascal Victor)

BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street between Ashland Pl. & Rockwell Pl.
November 4-14
Tickets: $25-$75
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Leave it to the endlessly innovative Robert Wilson to reinterpret Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s classic story of seduction, LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, in yet new ways. The 1782 novel has been turned into movies, operas, a television miniseries, a ballet, and a Broadway play, but avant-garde stylist Wilson has turned things inside out and upside down – literally – in his unique, thrilling, and annoying staging of German playwright Heiner Müller’s condensed 1980 adaptation of de Laclos’s tale, running at the BAM Harvey Theater through November 14. (Gabriella Maione’s version of QUARTETT was performed at the Harvey back in 2001.) An oddly coiffed Isabelle Huppert, in a stylized, futuristic purple dress, stars as Madame de Merteuil, her dirty blonde hair wound into a large cone pointing off to the right; Ariel Garcia Valdès plays Valmont, made up in red to look like Mephistopheles. As the two protagonists discuss their sexual conquests and challenge each other to yet more – and switch roles, with Huppert speaking Valmont’s words and Valdès reciting the marquise’s – they are joined onstage by Rachel Eberhart in a short green dress (purposefully braless so she can bound around demurely) and a shirtless Louis Beyler, who act out sexual deviance and frustration, seemingly representing the younger marquise and Valmont as well as their various lovers. Benoît Maréchal rounds out the cast as a gangly, goofy old man in white whom Wilson has said is a stand-in for Müller himself. Only Valdès and Huppert speak; the other three actors frolic about the stage, hang suspended from above, and dance behind a partial curtain.

Ariel Garcia Valdès and Isabelle Huppert grab hold of one another in Robert Wilson's QUARTETT (photo by Pascal Victor)

While Valdès devilishly overacts, Huppert is coldly mannered, her every movement carefully choreographed to a tee (as opposed to her previous appearance at BAM, when she stood stock-still throughout a harrowing version of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 PSYCHOSE). All of the characters occasionally break out into horrific laughter (which is actually piped in from offstage), with Huppert also sticking her tongue out to yet more strange sounds. Unfortunately, far too many of the actions are accompanied by a disturbing, alarming bang that perhaps is there to ensure those who aren’t quite getting it remain awake. The entertaining score is by Michael Galasso, who passed away in September. At ninety minutes, QUARTETT is almost shockingly short, which will delight less adventurous theatergoers. Wilson, who conceived and directed the production for the Odéon-théâtre de l’Europe and also designed the sets and lighting, has crafted yet another confounding visual spectacle, transforming the age-old story of wealthy socialites playing sexual games into a compelling, intriguing, and infuriating experience.