twi-ny recommended events

FIRST SATURDAYS: PARTY OF LIFE

Keith Haring, “Untitled,” Sumi ink on Bristol board, 1980 (© Keith Haring Foundation)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, April 7, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Pennsylvania-born Keith Haring was one of the most influential street artists and activists of his generation. Known for his drawings and sculpture of cartoony characters, Haring redefined public art in New York City, where he moved when he was nineteen in 1978. In conjunction with the recent opening of its exhibit “Keith Haring: 1978-1982,” the Brooklyn Museum is dedicating its free April First Saturday programming to the life and career of Haring, who died in 1990 of AIDS-related complications. There will be guided tours of the exhibition, a break-dance performance by Floor Royalty Crew, workshops where visitors can make Haring-inspired buttons and Pop art prints, an artist talk by photographer Christopher Makos, who documented the street art scene in the 1970s and ’80s, a talk by Will Hermes about his new book, Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever, and a dance party hosted by legendary DJ Junior Vasquez. In addition, there will be concerts by the Library Is on Fire and Comandante Zero (with live video) and a screening of Jacob Krupnick’s Girl Walk // All Day (followed by a Q&A with the director and some of the dancers in the film). As always, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out the Keith Haring exhibit as well as “Playing House,” “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin,” “Raw/Cooked: Shura Chernozatonskaya,” “Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919,” “Question Bridge: Black Males,” and “19th-Century Modern.”

VIDEO OF THE DAY — LOST LANDER: “COLD FEET”

Professional forester Matt Sheehy, who was born and raised in Alaska and is now based in Portland, Oregon, infuses the debut album of his new group, Lost Lander, with elements of nature, animals, and the environment as the band takes off on shimmering layers of ethereal pop. DRRT (Glad I Did, January 2012) features such well-constructed songs as “Gossamer,” “Belly of the Bird / Valentina,” “The Sailor,” and “Your Name Is a Fire,” but it’s “Afraid of Summer” that’s most likely to keep swirling around in your head. The record was produced by former Menomena member Brent Knopf, who played with Sheehy in Ramona Falls. Named by Sheehy’s mother after a lake she used to vacation at in Wisconsin when she was young, Lost Lander — consisting of guitarist Sheehy, keyboardist Sarah Fennell, bassist Dave Lowensohn, and drummer Patrick Hughes — will be at Mercury Lounge on April 6 with Walk off the Earth and at Cameo Gallery on April 7 with Tan Vampire and Paper Twin.

EDWARD ALBEE’S THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE

Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins) are facing tragedy in THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The End Stage Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Extended through April 15, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

A Broadway bomb in 1980 when it ran for only twelve performances at the Morosco Theatre (with a cast that included Irene Worth, Earle Hyman, Tony Musante, and Frances Conroy), Edward Albee’s The Lady from Dubuque is back in a splendid revival as the inaugural production at the Signature’s End Stage Theatre, where it has been extended through April 15. Set in the present day, the play is built around the question of personal identity; both acts begin with games of “Who am I?” that set the stage for existential arguments that grow ever more surreal. As the show begins, Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins) are hosting a small gathering of friends in their swanky home, trying to take everyone’s mind off of Jo’s worsening terminal illness, but Jo will not let them forget as she makes endlessly snide and mean-spirited comments about everything and everyone. While the thrice-married professional redneck Fred (C. J. Wilson) and his younger floozy girlfriend, Carol (Tricia Paoluccio), can dish it out and take it, the more mild-mannered and naive Lucinda (Catherine Curtin) and her sensitive husband, Edgar (Thomas Jay Ryan), have a harder time dealing with the abuse. The tenor of the play changes at the end of the first act with the sudden arrival of the elegantly dressed title character (Jane Alexander) and her regal, erudite companion, Oscar (Peter Francis James), who introduce a whole different kind of party game.

Peter James Francis and Jane Alexander play a different kind of party game in Signature revival of Edward Albee play (photo by Joan Marcus)

No one explores relationships between couples like Albee, whose work has earned him three Pulitzer Prizes (A Delicate Balance, Seascape, and Three Tall Women) and two Tonys for Best Play (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?). The heart of The Lady from Dubuque is Sam’s deep love for Jo and his intense fear of losing her. Played with an intelligent complexity by Hayden, Sam desperately needs to protect her, whether she wants him to or not, and when that protection is threatened by Oscar and the lady from Dubuque, he reacts with anger that results in bizarre violence and increasing levels of absurdity. James and Alexander lend an austere presence to the proceedings, with Alexander initially taking the stage like the grand dame of the theater that she is. Directed by David Esbjornson, the play features the characters regularly turning to the audience, acknowledging the presence of the crowd almost as if they are guests at the party. The night we saw the show, an audience member actually answered a character’s rhetorical question out loud, inviting laughs from everyone in the Frank Gehry-designed theater. Bitingly sarcastic, wickedly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, The Lady from Dubuque is a stirring party that is well worth attending.

CINDY SHERMAN — CARTE BLANCHE: JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES

Delphine Seyrig is mesmerizing in feminist classic

JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, April 5, 7:00, and Friday, April 6, 8:00
Series runs through April 10
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Chantal Akerman’s groundbreaking film follows the drab life of the title character, a bored housewife who goes about her day nearly silently, moving agonizingly slowly, as she makes breakfast for her husband, sends him off to work, takes in a few johns, cleans the sink, etc. Just another ordinary day, not nearly as colorful as the one Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) experiences in Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967). Delphine Seyrig (Stolen Kisses, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Day of the Jackal) is mesmerizing as Jeanne Dielman — you won’t be able to take your eyes off her, and with good reason. This ultimate feminist film was made with an all-female crew, and if it’s anything, it’s absolutely memorable, love it or hate it. Oh, actually, it’s long too — nearly three and a half hours. Jeanne Dielman is screening on Thursday and Friday with Maya Deren’s avant-garde classic Meshes of the Afternoon as part of MoMA’s “Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman” series, a collection of films curated by photographer Cindy Sherman in conjunction with her glorious retrospective at the museum, which features many of her untitled film stills. Other works in the series include David Lynch’s Inland Empire, John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, John Cassavetes’s Shadows, John Waters’s Desperate Living, and her own Doll Clothes and Office Killer.

THE WINDOW: I WAS JUST THINKING…

Samuel D. Hunter’s I WAS JUST THINKING… is inaugural production of THE WINDOW at Romanian Cultural Institute (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Romanian Cultural Institute
573-577 Third Ave. at 38th St.
April 2-8, free, 7:30-10:00 pm
www.icrny.org
i was just thinking . . . slideshow

As people walked down Third Ave. last night in Murray Hill, they came upon a curious scene: a group of people looking inside the storefront windows of the Romanian Cultural Institute, where there was movement inside a sparkling white hospital room and a darker, more mysterious space where a bizarre birthday party was going on. No mere oddball gathering, it’s actually the brainchild of Romanian theater and television director Ana Mărgineanu (The Blind Trip), who has conceived and created The Window, a series of site-specific living-installation performances taking place in the RCINY bookstore and gallery. First up is the twenty-minute “I was just thinking . . . ,” written by Obie-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter (A Bright New Boise). Performed numerous times from 7:30 to 10:00, the silent, multimedia play stars Jake Roa, Calaine Schafer, Jessie Komitor, and James “Face” Yu, with choreography by Melanie S. Armer, lighting by Christopher Weston, and video by Igor Molochevski and Masha Pekurovsky. The very cool sets were designed by Obie winner Nic Ularu (Painted Snake in a Painted Chair). It’s a unique theatrical experience, as the audience can’t hear anything (except the traffic passing by) and there’s no character list or synopsis, making it all the more fun as the actors move from room to room, sometimes pausing in front of the glass door or window like a mannequin, other times rushing around like in a madcap comedy. And wait till you see what’s in the box. The show runs through April 8; next up will be a collaboration between playwright Saviana Stănescu and designer Daniela Codarcea Kamiliotis in May.

VIDEO OF THE DAY — KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS: “I’M SO SORRY”

No mere backward trip in time, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis play good old-time music firmly rooted in the present. Hailing from Kentish Town in northwest London, the siblings started out entertaining friends and families when they were kids before playing in public and releasing their eponymous debut album in 2008, featuring their unique take on rockabilly, jazz, western swing, jump ‘n’ jive, boogie woogie, pop, and other musical traditions. The trio’s follow-up disc, Smoking in Heaven (Verve Forecast, October 2011), is another old-fashioned delight, filled with such crowd pleasers as “Don’t Make a Fool Out of Me,” “Paan Man Boogie,” “I’m So Sorry,” and “Will I Ever.” Kitty, Daisy and Lewis Durham, who continually exchange instruments, ranging from guitar, bass, and drums to keyboards, banjo, accordion, harmonica, ukulele, xylophone, and horns, will be joined by Ingrid Weiss on upright bass, Daddy Grazz on acoustic guitar, and Eddie “Tan Tan” Thornton on trumpet for their April 3 show at Mercury Lounge, with World Blanket opening up.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: JUST SEX

Theater for the New City
155 First Ave. between Ninth & Tenth Sts
Tuesday – Sunday through April 15, $25
212-868-4444
www.justsexplay.com
www.theaterforthenewcity.net

A sell-out hit at last summer’s Dream Up Festival, Brandt Johnson’s Just Sex is back at Theater for the New City for a limited return engagement through April 15. Just Sex follows the passion and desires of married couple Katherine (Tasha Lawrence) and William (Johnson), who have the hots for Kurt (director Alex Kilgore) and Amanda (Meghan Miller). As they explore ways to satisfy their lust — including going online — they come to some revealing truths about themselves and their love.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: Tickets for Just Sex are going fast, with some dates already sold out, but twi-ny has two pairs to give away for free. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and favorite sexy romantic comedy to contest@twi-ny.com by Wednesday, April 4, at 12 noon to be eligible to win. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; two winners will be selected at random. If you don’t win the tickets, you can save twenty percent by using code RRMGEN when you visit here or call 212-868-4444.