live performance

DEEP, RICH, AND BLOODY: THE BODY OF MARY: A PLAY IN THREE ACTS (OF GOD) AT THE GYM AT JUDSON

The Virgin Mary (Annalisa D’Aguilar) is not exactly thrilled when she is told she is carrying the baby Jesus (photo by Alley Babcock)

THE BODY OF MARY: A PLAY IN THREE ACTS (OF GOD)
The Gym at Judson
243 Thompson St. at Washington Square South
Thursday – Monday through October 8, $40-$129
thebodyofmary.com
www.judson.org

Katie Cappiello’s The Body of Mary: A Play in Three Acts (of God) is as funny as it is frightening.

The world premiere pulls no punches as it delves into how women’s bodies and choices have been controlled by the church, the government, and, essentially, men throughout millennia, with no end in sight. Writer-director Cappiello cleverly balances the serious heart of the show with hilarious moments that serve to the highlight the basic issues she is exploring.

In the first act, titled “The Virgin,” thirteen-year-old Mary (Annalisa D’Aguilar) can’t seem to stop throwing up into a wooden bucket while her mother, Anne (Mary Jo Mecca), offers her help. It’s not the Roman soldiers going door to door that is making her crave pickles and lose her lunch; when her father, Joachim (David Hull), arrives with the angel Gabriel (Ben Cook), she is told that God is asking if she would carry his child. She immediately declines, clearly stating, “No, thank you. My answer is no. I don’t want to do it. . . . I’m sorry, but I don’t think this whole thing works for me.”

But when Joachim blurts out that it’s too late, that she’s already pregnant and they’ve picked out a husband for her, she’s having none of it, which surprises the others, who thought she would have been thrilled at the opportunity and honor. Well, she’s not.

“God gave me this child without asking me first. That seems to be what has happened. I mean, why would He do that? Is this a trick? Father?” she asks. “Gabriel, please tell God that I’d — I’d rather not. I appreciate Him thinking of me so much and thinking me worthy of being the mother of His kid and stuff but I think instead I’m going to keep doing my regular life, if that’s OK.”

Of course, it’s not OK with the two men or her mother.

Cardinal Patrick O’Malley (David Hull) has a bizarre plan for Mother Mary Joseph (Tracy Sallows) in world premiere at the Gym at Judson (photo by Alley Babcock)

The second act, “The Mother,” takes place five years in the future in New York City, where Cardinal Patrick O’Malley (Hull) is waiting for a special delivery and has teamed up with his brother, a Massachusetts senator, on an important mission for their lord and savior. The youngest cardinal in the College of Cardinals, he is not exactly priestly; the scheming zealot quotes from Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’,” curses, is impatient, doesn’t listen to others, and is prepared to go to extremes to get what he and his brother want.

Cardinal O’Malley’s ever-faithful and obedient servant, Sister Genoveva (Mecca), brings in the pious, dedicated Mother Mary Joseph (Tracy Sallows), from the Immaculate Little Sisters of Self-Sacrifice and Martyrdom, which cares for migrant women escaping torture in their home countries. He insists she have a latte despite her protestation — he’s not about to listen to any woman, about anything — and complains about the current state of religion. “The world has been moving at a wild clip, I’m afraid, away from Jesus and his teachings,” he tells her. “Modernization, all this they/them stuff, anti-Christian rhetoric is everywhere, women don’t wants kids anymore, everyone’s a lesbian — yadda yadda. His Holiness will get us back on track. He’s a visionary. And somewhat of a mentor — to me.”

A concerned and curious Mother Mary Joseph responds, “I am grateful the keys of St. Peter have been placed in the hands of such a devout scholar and, and, um, bold leader. I shall pray for him — and for you, Your Eminence.”

When the cardinal advises Mother Mary Joseph of his plan — something so mind-bogglingly crazy yet terrifyingly all too believable — she reacts in a way that brings down the house. But there’s a lot more in store for her, particularly when Father Donato (Cook) joins them.

In the third act, “The Dumpster,” nineteen-year-old Mary (Gracie Conn) works in a Dairy Queen in the small town of Nazareth, Texas. She tosses two large bags of garbage into the dumpster in the parking lot as she is talking to her best friend, Nevaeh (voiced by D’Aguilar), about her period. “I worked ten hours today and I’m gushing blood at like horror movie levels,” Mary says. “Spilling my blood for the people. I’ve had to change my tampon three times in like an hour and a half. Is that bad? And the blood is chunky. Am I’m dying?”

A few minutes later, she hears a cry from the dumpster; she initially thinks it may be a rabid animal, but she eventually jumps in and finds an infant wrapped in a fleece blanket, apparently thrown away by the mother. She and Nevaeh run through the options of what they should do next, wanting to help the baby while not getting into trouble themselves. “This is low-key Handmaid’s Tale,” Mary says. Nevaeh adds, “And the baby’s mother is like Of-Whomever and she’s probably bleeding out in the woods somewhere.”

Displaying empathy and compassion, they don’t want the mother to be arrested as they try to understand what may have made her do such a thing.

“She could be us,” Mary says.

Mary (Gracie Conn) is not sure what she should do after finding a baby in a dumpster in The Body of Mary: A Play in Three Acts (of God) (photo by Alley Babcock)

The Body of Mary is intricately woven together by Cappiello (SLUT, Now That We’re Men), who was raised Catholic in Brockton, Massachusetts, and attended church regularly; she leaves no detail to chance. The venue, the Gym at Judson, is in Judson Church, which holds services on Sunday mornings and “seeks to be a just, diverse, vibrant, and worshipping spiritual community through the pursuit of social justice, creative expression, and sacred exploration of its own Protestant church roots and the wisdom of other traditions.” The narrative focuses specifically on the failings of the church when it comes to the rights of women to control their own body. It is no accident that the Texas Mary works at a Dairy Queen, which could be seen as a metaphor for women weaning their children, although it is not always so sweet, whether in biblical times or 2031. Even the image on the program is provocative, an extreme close-up of a woman’s breast and nipple, a source of life. The script makes numerous references to blood and bleeding, abortion, sacrifice, and murder; at one point, Father Donato, praising a pearl neckline on Cardinal O’Malley’s vestment, declares, “I love the choice of this red. It’s so deep. And rich. And bloody.”

Forest Entsminger’s set features a gray stone wall throughout all three acts, reminding me of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where women were formerly forbidden to pray, although they are allowed now, albeit in a section separate from the men and with different restrictions. Changes are made for each scene, from various chairs and tables to bags of garbage and a manger. Dina El-Aziz’s costumes, ranging from the BCE era to the modern day, are bathed in sharp reds and blues that contrast earthly gray and brown palettes. Lauren Bremen’s lighting and Florian Staab’s sound fit the intimate space well.

The three Marys are outstanding, bringing tender depth to characters who are facing difficult situations that have no easy way out. Stage and television veteran Sallows (The Audience, Angels in America) portrays Mother Mary Joseph with just the right solemnity, making her outburst all the more unexpected and effective, while D’Aguilar and Conn, in their off-Broadway debuts, capture the energy, innocence, and sense of wonder that is pulled out from under them as their circumstances become more dire. Cook (Illinoise, West Side Story), Mecca (Bridgeboy, Body Language), and Hull (The Book of Mormon, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying) excel in multiple roles, melding slapstick with a pervading sense of impending darkness. Opera singer Lu Yi Peng “Lluvia” offers a brief, poignant respite.

The ninety-minute show never sermonizes, never preaches, never veers into holier-than-thou territory; instead, it incorporates farce and physical comedy into hard-hitting dialogue that depicts how we have not come nearly as far as we might think as a society in regard to the treatment of women; The Body of Mary is likely to leave you praying that things get better fast, but it’s already been thousands of years for us to get where we are now, and, if anything, we seem to be going backward every day.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

NO DEAL: PRE-EXISTING CONDITION RETURNS

Sarah Steele, Lupita Nyong’o, and Dael Orlandersmith star in Pre-Existing Condition remount (photo by Jessica Kourkounis)

PRE-EXISTING CONDITION
Greenwich House Theater
27 Barrow St. at Seventh Ave. South
Monday – Saturday through January 8, $49-$179
preexistingconditionplay.com

In 2014, the National Women’s Law Center, in response to the passage of Obamacare, announced, “The days of women being treated like pre-existing conditions are numbered. Currently, insurance companies can deny coverage to survivors of domestic violence or mothers who have had a Cesarean section simply by calling these ‘pre-existing conditions.’ But thanks to the new health care law, also known as the Affordable Care Act, this unfair practice is on the way OUT.” That didn’t stop House Republicans in 2017 from trying to price survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault out of the market in its American Health Care Act (AHCA), which was ultimately rejected by the Senate.

Marin Ireland’s debut play, Pre-Existing Condition, being remounted at the Greenwich House Theater after a highly acclaimed 2024 run at the Connelly Theater Upstairs, takes its title from that frightening fact; it is also partly inspired by something that happened to her in 2012. In my review of the previous production, some of which is repurposed below, I called the show “a brutally honest and provocative look at the psychological and bodily wounds that humans inflict and receive.” That still holds true, although the play has lost some of its power and intensity with several tweaks and changes.

It’s been seven months since “A” (Lupita Nyong’o) was brutally struck by her partner. No longer with the man, she speaks with an attorney, a psychiatrist, a few close friends, an old acquaintance, her parents, and others, but no one is able to help, instead only adding to her torment and confusion by subtly blaming her for perhaps provoking the attack and then refusing to take her lover back. She tries to date, but she’s clearly not ready, especially when the men she meets cannot, or will not, understand her situation. (The men and “A”’s mother are played by Greg Keller, while the rest of the women are portrayed by Sarah Steele and Dael Orlandersmith, all three from the original cast.)

“A” finds some respite in group therapy run by two caring women who have developed a support program; during those sessions, the two facilitators talk directly to the audience, as if we are all part of this community, because when it comes down to it, we are; domestic violence can occur at any moment, in any family. Attempting to move forward, “A” continues to question her own responsibility in what happened. It’s harrowing to see the proverbial walls that have been built around her, and that she builds herself, in a system that keeps letting her and other survivors down.

“So what happens now? What do I do?” she says to her best friend, who has grown close with the abuser and expresses sympathy for how hard it has been for him. The shocked “A” shoots back, “Isn’t there supposed to be — there’s supposed to be a system in place, right? I can’t . . . find it. I want to do the right thing and I can’t fucking find it.”

Later, “A” explores another aspect of her feelings that no one seems to get. “I’m so fucking exhausted by all of this. All of this. All of the taking it seriously and the. All of it,” she tells a therapist. “I don’t — okay. I don’t want the big task of my life now to be ‘dealing with this.’ It’s fucking eating up everything.”

When her best friend mentions the possibility of her offering forgiveness, “A” states, “I don’t want to. Forgive. I don’t want to forget it. . . . I don’t also want to be guilty of forgetting it.”

An unnamed survivor of domestic violence (Lupita Nyong’o) speaks with a friend (Greg Keller) in tense play at Greenwich House (photo by Jessica Kourkounis)

In the 2024 production, as the healing process continued, I empathized more and more with “A,” realizing that her pain and trauma could be anyone’s pain and trauma, that any one of us could be sitting in that chair in the middle of the room, being consumed by some type of tragedy. In the current iteration, again directed by Tony nominee and director Maria Dizzia — who, along with Tatiana Maslany (who I saw), Tavi Gevinson, Deirdre O’Connell, and Julia Chan, portrayed “A” two years ago — I identified more with the characters who are trying to do the right thing, who want to help but are not sure how, who keep saying the wrong things.

In the original version, the limited audience sat on three sides of a small, central space, in tightly arranged rising rafters; at Greenwich House, the audience sits in more traditional horizontal rows at the same floor level, looking up at the proscenium stage, making it feel one step removed. At the Connelly, “A” held what appeared to be a spiral-bound copy of the script throughout the play’s seventy-five minutes, sometimes glancing at the words, other times clutching it to her chest like Linus’s blanket in Peanuts. The character essentially never let go of the script, not because the actor had not yet learned the lines but because it was a constant reminder of a horrific, life-altering event in her recent past. That powerful connection is also not present at Greenwich House, where the ending is less dramatic.

Cate McCrea’s set is an empty room with a few movable chairs, an exposed radiator, white walls, and a framed poster offering, “Consider the Alternatives.” Enver Chakartash’s costumes are casual, highlighted by Steele wearing a Blondie T-shirt; Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry wrote in her 2019 memoir about having been viciously sexually assaulted in the 1970s. Lighting designer Isabella Byrd avoids it getting too dark, keeping the audience visible, as if we are all complicit.

Solo specialist Orlandersmith (Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance, Forever) is again wonderfully gentle as various therapists. Keller (Dig, Shhhh) is down-to-earth as several men in “A”’s life, the good and the bad, in addition to her mother. Drama Desk winner Steele (The Humans, I Can Get It for You Wholesale) is charming in multiple roles as she engages with “A” from multiple points of view; however, Steele appears to be pregnant, with a significantly protruding belly, which references how pregnancy used to be a pre-exisiting condition as well.

Oscar winner and Tony nominee Nyong’o (Ruined, Eclipsed) is mesmerizing as the unnamed woman, maintaining a formidable balance as she tries to go on with her life with this trauma hanging over her head. At one point, she shakes nervously, almost uncontrollably, in a chair; later, she hovers in a corner as if trapped, eyeing people with fear and suspicion. But Nyong’o does not treat “A” like some kind of helpless victim, instead humanizing her with difficult truths about life, love, and the legal system, things that need to be addressed from top to bottom.

The role will later be played by Phillipa Soo, Susannah Flood, Hari Nef, Edie Falco, and Whitney White, who will bring their unique talents to a complex part that also reminds us that domestic violence can happen to anyone, at any time.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

A SURGING LEGACY: PAYING TRIBUTE TO SINÉAD O’CONNOR AT THE JOYCE

The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor celebrates the life and legacy of controversial singer-songwriter (photo by Kate Garner)

THE SURGE: AN ODE TO SINÉAD O’CONNOR
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
September 16-27, $97-$112
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org

Tickets are going fast for the North American premiere of Tony-winning, Emmy-nominated Sonya Tayeh’s The Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O’Connor, running at the Joyce from September 16 to 27. A coproduction with Factory International in Manchester, England, the show pays tribute to the Dublin-born singer-songwriter who rose to stardom in the last 1980s and early 1990s with such albums as The Lion and the Cobra and I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got before getting mired in a series of political and religious controversies, experiencing health problems, and disappearing from public view for extended periods of time before dying by suicide in July 2023 at the age of fifty-six.

The seventy-minute show features Betsy Cooper, Alison Clancy, Gabrielle Malone, Mor Mendel, Amy Miller, Jennifer Nugent, Karine Plantadit, Lisa Race, Monique Smith, and Jin Ju Song-Begin dancing to more than a dozen O’Connor songs, from “Troy” and “Mandinka” to “Never Get Old” and “Feels So Different,” as well as audio excerpts from her 2021 memoir, Rememberings.

“Her death was generating these feelings and I was dancing in my loft, surrounded by this grief and joy,” director and choreographer Tayeh says in a program note. “The Joyce and I had been thinking about what we could make together, and not finding the right thing yet, and two things began boiling in my mind. One was about how ahead of her time she was, the volume of her voice, not just as a singer but with a belief system about people, those denied, closed off and mocked. The other was about curiosity, about where all the dance artists were that were my age and older. Where are the women over forty, and why did they disappear?”

Ever since her death, O’Connor and her legacy have been going through a metamorphosis and reevaluation; The Surge should add to that grief and joy.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

SAVING BOOKS AND PENGUINS FROM EXTINCTION: GARRY STARR GOES NUTS OVER LITERARY CLASSICS

Damien Warren-Smith lets it all hang out as alter ego Garry Starr in Classic Penguins (photo by Austin Ruffer)

GARRY STARR: CLASSIC PENGUINS
Studio Seaview
305 West 43rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through October 11, $45-$155
studioseaview.com
www.garrystarr.com

Jackass meets the literati in the utterly insane, completely brilliant, and exhilaratingly entertaining Garry Starr: Classic Penguins. Starr is the clown alter ego of Australian writer, producer, and performer Damien Warren-Smith, who previously appeared as Starr in Greece Lightning, about Greek mythology, Garry Starr Performs Everything, exploring different styles of theater, and the family-friendly Monkeys Everywhere, in which he interacts with simian sidekicks.

Classic Penguins is most definitely not for children or the faint of heart. The official website warns, “This event is strictly 18+. Please be aware that this production includes full nudity, strobes, haze, recorded gunshots, and sudden loud noises. Audience participation will be invited at the discretion of the performer and is voluntary. By purchasing a ticket, you acknowledge the inherent risks of voluntarily participating in a live performance, including physical activity and close contact with the performer, and release all producers and venue operator from claims based on negligence, except for gross negligence or willful misconduct.”

As ticket holders enter the theater, Starr is already onstage, seated in a leather chair, its back to the audience; only his top hat and orange flippers are visible. He is watching a monitor on which, at first, burning logs in a fireplace are projected while Mozart’s Laudate Dominum (Vesperae Solennes De Confessore, K.339) is playing, by the London Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Cassovia, Kosice Teacher’s Choir, and others. To his left is a treasure chest; to his right is a small bookcase with a globe, a skull, a plant, and more than three dozen orange-and-white Penguin Classics paperbacks. Soon the video of the logs are replaced by photos of famous paintings in which a cartoon penguin has been inserted in key places, a quick turn from the civilized to what will become more and more uncivilized by the minute. The penguin finds itself in such masterpieces as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, and John William Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott.

When the show proper begins, Starr spins around in the chair to reveal that he is dressed as a penguin, with a white ruff collar, an open black tailcoat — and nothing else. He is naked from the waist down, his willy hanging free. He explains that he is attempting to save literature and penguins from extinction, so for the next hour, he performs, in one way or another, each of the novels on the shelf, either riffing on the title, the author, and/or the plot. Before, during, or after each vignette, he places the paperback on the top of the bookcase so a camera can project it onto the monitor for everyone to see; afterward, he slides it onto the floor.

For example, early on, he dons a bald cap, shakes his hips so his schlong twirls, and then reveals Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. The bald cap references the singer and animal-rights activist Moby, whose real name is Richard Melville Hall; many of Warren-Smith’s gimmicks are layered with such neat twists, although you don’t have to get them all to still laugh yourself silly.

Starr also incorporates meta info about many of the books; for example, he brings up Oscar Isaac and Jabob Elordi when doing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (they starred in Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 Oscar-nominated adaptation), and Kate Bush’s 1978 song “Wuthering Heights” is heard while he takes on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, with another nod to Elordi.

Garry Starr (Damien Warren-Smith) performs dozens of Penguin Classics with the help of many audience members (photo by Austin Ruffer)

Eventually, he loses the coat and flippers and is essentially fully naked the rest of the way, never failing to grab a chance to dangle his Johnson at or expose his butt cheeks to the audience, some of whom volunteer to come onstage and assist him with his crazier and crazier antics and impressive acrobatics. The night I went, the crowd was particularly spry and fearless, getting involved in shenanigans I never thought I would see in such a venue.

Most of the participants are chosen from the first row, although Starr does his best to not select people he thinks may be actors or improv comics themselves. (Interestingly, the first row is less expensive than the next four rows, perhaps as a thank-you to those ready to strut their stuff.) But that doesn’t mean that others won’t have the chance to high-five Starr, hug him, share some food, and — well, it’s probably best if you don’t know some of the, er, nuttier elements, which involve a whole lot of (consensual) touching, though nothing pornographic (depending on, I guess, what you consider pornographic). If you don’t get picked to participate, you can get your photo taken with a “moist” Warren-Smith in the bar after the show.

Penguin Classics was cofounded in 1946 by E. V. Rieu, whose translation of Homer’s The Odyssey was the first book to be part of the program, which now consists of approximately two thousand novels and nonfiction titles. While it would seem that The Odyssey would be excellent fodder for the play, given all the discussion about Christopher Nolan’s new film and Emily Wilson’s 2017 translation, which is published by a Penguin rival — I can clearly envision Starr in Matt Damon’s Odysseus headgear, replete with tantalizing plume — but it didn’t make the cut. Works by Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Louisa May Alcott are among the dozens that did.

Classic Penguins may not be as radical or revolutionary as the oeuvre of such downtown legends as Karen Finley, Penny Arcade, Annie Sprinkle, or John Fleck, but it is more accessible and a whale of a good time. Warren-Smith is an engaging performer who knows how to titillate an audience and adapt to whatever happens; the evening I attended, during a fierce fruit fight, an audience member nailed Starr with an orange right in the one-eyed trouser snake, which both surprised and delighted Starr, who needed a moment to recover, not unlike baseball players who get plunked in the crown jewels by a fastball.

Jackass leader Johnny Knoxville — whose desire for adventure was stoked when, at the age of fourteen, he read Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, a Penguin Classic not in Starr’s show — would be proud.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

LIGHTING UP MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS: A COMMON THREAD AT COLUMBIA

The theme of this year’s “Morningside Lights” is “A Common Thread” (photo courtesy Processional Arts Workshop)

MORNINGSIDE LIGHTS: A COMMON THREAD
Lantern workshops
Miller Theatre, Broadway & 116th St.
September 12-18, free with advance RSVP
Procession
Morningside Park
Saturday, September 19, free, 8:00
www.morningside-lights.com

THe fifteenth annual “Morningside Lights” takes place on September 19 at 8:00, as hundreds of people participate in a procession through Morningside Park, carrying twenty-five large lanterns. Initiated in 2012 by Brenna St. George Jones, Alex Kahn, Sophia Michahelles, and Melissa Smey, the event connects Columbia students and their families with members of the community. From September 12 to 18, the university hosts daily lantern workshops, led by artistic directors Kahn and Michahelles, as the lanterns go through four essential steps, involving coroplast, cheesecloth, glue, and white and colored tissue, before they’re ready for the procession, which begins at 116th St. and Broadway and marches through Morningside Park to the Columbia campus. Lantern holders will be chosen at 7:00 on a first-come, first-served basis; no experience is necessary.

This year’s theme is “A Common Thread,” bringing everyone together. In their artists statement, Kahn and Michahelles explain that for the 2026 iteration, “We delve into the fabric of iconic patterns, decorative motifs, and recurring images that surround us – in woven and printed textiles, in personal and domestic adornments, in architectural and engineered spaces. While some patterns meld into the rhythm of everyday life, others reveal sacred geometries or cultural connections that transport us out of the present into the timeless. In their endless juxtapositions and recombinations, such patterns reveal the patchwork stories of a pluralistic city and nation, made anew with every generation.”

In conjunction with the anniversary, the exhibition “Carried by Light: Celebrating Fifteen Years of Morningside Lights” will be on view in the Miller Theatre lobby through next May. “Morningside Lights began fifteen years ago with a small team and a simple idea: that making art together could bring a community closer,” Smey said in a statement. “Since then, more than twenty-five thousand participants have helped shape lanterns, stories, and shared moments. This anniversary is a moment to look back with gratitude, and to look forward with excitement to all those who will continue to carry this tradition forward.”

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

JOSIAH McELHENY & FRIENDS: “INSTRUMENT OBJECTS” AT THE KITCHEN

Who: Josiah McElheny, Zeena Parkins, Wendy Eisenberg, David Grubbs, Raven Chacon, Jennie C. Jones, George Lewis, Fred Moten, Claire Chase, Mary Halvorson, Ikue Mori, Tomeka Reid, Jason Moran, Craig Taborn, John Corbett
What: Programs in conjunction with the exhibition “Josiah McElheny: Instrument Object”
Where: The Kitchen at Westbeth, 163B Bank St., fourth floor loft
When: September 10 – November 7, free
Why: Josiah McElheny, who specializes in working with glass and mirrors, will be opening his latest exhibition, “Instrument Object,” on September 10 at the Kitchen at Westbeth, in which the Boston-born, New York City–based artist pays tribute to ten musicians and composers by translating their work into visual form. The multimedia installation, on view through November 7, honors the legacies of Pauline Oliveros, Lucia Dlugoszewski, Julius Eastman, John Cage, Milford Graves, David Grubbs, Big Mama Thornton, Joe McPhee, Wes Montgomery, and Sun Ra in such pieces as Bench for Archival Listening, Ladder Harp, Cosmic Blue Trumpet, and Heartline.

The show will be accompanied by a series of free live performances and gatherings, beginning September 10 at 7:00 with Zeena Parkins and continuing September 11 with a sunset duet by Wendy Eisenberg and David Grubbs, October 1 with the experimental dialogue “Limb Independence” at Giorno Poetry Systems with McElheny, Raven Chacon, Jennie C. Jones, George Lewis, and Fred Moten, and concluding November 7 and 8 with the two-day “Improvisation, Archive, and Homage” symposium with Claire Chase, Mary Halvorson, Ikue Mori, Tomeka Reid, Jason Moran, and Craig Taborn, moderated by John Corbett. In addition, there will be family art-making workshops on September 19 and 26 and October 3 at 11:00 am and 12:30 pm. All programs are free with advance RSVP.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]

TASTY TIMES SQUARE: SAMPLING SIGNATURE BITES AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD

Taste of Times Square is back with local signature bites September 9 (photo by Michael Hull for the Times Square Alliance)

TASTE OF TIMES SQUARE
46th St. between Broadway & Ninth Ave., Broadway between 45th & 46th Sts.
Wednesday, September 9, dishes $5-$10, 4:00 – 8:00
timessquarenyc.org

The international culinary flavor of the Times Square area will be on display September 9 at the annual Taste of Times Square, where more than three dozen local restaurants will be serving their signature dishes on and around Restaurant Row; there will also be live performances representing several current Broadway shows from the Broadway Dreams Foundation and Ellen’s Stardusters. Most dishes cost five dollars, with a few no more than ten bucks, purchased with “tastes”; you can get 25% off advance wristbands of $25 and $50 through September 8.

The menu lineup includes lobster toast from Rosie O’Grady’s, beef or chicken suya from Lagos, tacos from Toloache, sliders from Schnipper’s, rigatoni Bolognese from Orso, a Cuban sandwich from Havana Central, penne from Becco, escovitch fish fingers from Jasmine’s Caribbean Cuisine, tiramisu from Bond 45, cheesecake from Junior’s, and frrrozen hot chocolate from Serendipity 3. There’s also fare from the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, and Applebee’s but not Olive Garden or Bubba Gump.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]