twi-ny recommended events

ESCHER: THE EXHIBITION & EXPERIENCE

M. C. Escher, Day and Night, woodcut. Private Collection, USA. All M.C. Escher works © The M. C. Escher Company. All right reserved. www.mcescher.com

Industry City, Building 6
34 Thirty-Fourth St., Brooklyn
Through March 31, $15-$35
www.eschernyc.com
industrycity.com

Finding “Escher: The Exhibition & Experience” amid the repurposed buildings of Industry City is like making your way through one of the Dutch artist’s architectural paradoxes and impossibilities. Once you finally get to the right location, you’ll encounter a fun retrospective, albeit more Instagram friendly than art-historically thorough. The winding galleries feature many of the finest pieces by left-handed, mathematically inclined artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, better known as M. C. Escher, who was born in 1898 and died in 1972, leaving behind a legacy of influential and popular op-art drawings, woodcuts, etchings, watercolors, lithographs, and engravings. His singular genius birthed works that became a pop-culture phenomenon, appearing on T-shirts and album covers, in advertisements and unauthorized black-light posters. He concentrated on spatial deformations, repeated geometric imagery known as tessellations, and cross-hatching techniques to create mind-blowing works that uniquely altered perception — and were embraced by the hippie counterculture of the 1960s.

M. C. Escher Drawing Hands Lithograph Private Collection, Usa All M.C. Escher Works @ 2018 The M.C. Escher Company. All rights reserved www.mcescher.com

Curated by Mark Veldhuysen and Federico Giudiceandrea, the show comprises more than two hundred works, including such familiar classics as Hand with Reflecting Sphere (Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror), Band of Union, Day and Night, Drawing Hands, and Relativity, the last one described in the catalog as “a clever perspective game based on three different vanishing points [that] allows you to bring together three completely different worlds.” Escher drew reptiles, birds, fish, insects, horses, human figures, and other creatures morphing into one another and emerging into and from physical objects. There are numerous dazzling works that most people won’t be as familiar with, such as Belvedere, Rind, Depth, and Eye. The exquisite, expansive Metamorphosis II journeys through geometric patterns, various living beings, a chess set, and Italian architecture before turning back on itself.

M. C. Escher Relativity Lithograph Private Collection, Usa All M.C. Escher Works @ 2018 The M.C. Escher Company. All rights reserved www.mcescher.com

Among the Escher quotes on the walls are “We adore chaos because we love to produce order,” “He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder,” and “I don’t grow up. In me is the small child of my early days,” which is how his oeuvre makes even the oldest visitors feel. The show employs rather silly concessions to this era of social media with several installations that encourage people to photograph themselves either within an Escher work or an Escher-inspired environment. However, one of them, H. W. Lenstra’s reexamination of Escher’s Print Gallery, which involves the Droste effect, is utterly fascinating. The exhibition concludes with greeting cards, stamps, magazine covers, and other items designed by Escher, as well as articles about him and examples of his continuing influence. “His aim is to depict dreams, ideas, or problems in such a way that other people can observe and consider them,” Escher said of graphic artists. The show at Industry City might not be definitive, but it has plenty to observe and consider, and enjoy.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: ACTUALLY, WE’RE F**KED

actually

ACTUALLY, WE’RE F**CKED
Cherry Lane Mainstage Theatre
38 Commerce St.
Tuesday – Sunday through April 7, $55-$95
212-989-2020
www.cherrylanetheatre.org

If you’ve been paying attention at all to what’s going on around the globe these days, you might very well think that the world has finally, truly gone to hell in a handbasket. That’s the theory behind Actually, We’re F**ked, debuting at the Cherry Lane this week. Mairin Lee, Keren Lugo, Ben Rappaport, and Gabriel Sloyer star as millennials who want to do something about it — until a surprise changes their future. The play is written by Emmy nominee Matt Williams (Bruce Lee Is Dead and I’m Not Feeling Too Good Either, Jason and the Nun) and directed by Obie winner John Pasquin (Moonchildren, Landscape of the Body); the two men have previously collaborated on the Tim Allen television series Home Improvement, with Williams one of the creators and Pasquin a producer and director on the first two seasons. Williams was also the creator of Roseanne and a writer and producer for The Cosby Show, while Pasquin’s working relationship with Allen continued on the movies The Santa Clause and Jungle 2 Jungle and the current series Last Man Standing. Williams is the secretary of the Cherry Lane, which is owned by his wife, artistic director Angelina Fiordellisi. The set is by Robin Vest, with costumes by Theresa Squire, lighting by Paul Miller, sound by ML Dogg/MuTTT, and projections by Brad Peterson.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: Actually, We’re F**ked runs February 26 through April 7 (with a March 7 opening) at the Cherry Lane, and twi-ny has three pairs of tickets to give away for free. Just send your name, phone number, and favorite play or movie with a curse in the title to contest@twi-ny.com by Thursday, February 28, at 3:00 pm to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; three winners will be selected at random.

LOVE IN TIMES SQUARE: X

X welcomes lovers of all kinds to Times Square through the end of February (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Father Duffy Square, Times Square
Broadway between 46th & 47th Sts.
Through February 28, free
arts.timessquarenyc.org
x slideshow

For eleven years, Times Square has celebrated the romantic month of February with the winner of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition. The 2019 runners-up were Agency Agency’s Heart Warmer, Büro Koray Duman Architects’s Times Crossing, Isometric Studio’s HOPE Sculpture, Pavilions Pavilions — Whole Hearts’ N H D M, Love Labyrinth’s Only If —, and Splice Design Architecture DPC’s Human Heartedness,, but it’s Reddymade and AIA New York’s X that has been standing in Duffy Square since February 1. Illuminating the Crossroads of the World, the Times Square Arts project is made of a pair of large rectangular aluminum planes that intersect each other through circular holes that form hearts when viewed from certain angles. In the center is the repeated phrase “Into difference add equality find love,” while the periphery advises, “Caution: Don’t forget the flowers.” Suchi Reddy, the founding principal of Reddymade and an Indian immigrant, said in a statement, “Exploring the idea of communities as spaces of intersection led me to the tectonic expression of the ‘X,’ which fits the context of Times Square, one of the most thriving intersections of people, place, and culture, and its XXX history. X is for love.” Previous Love in Times Square winners include Aranda\Lasch + Marcelo Coelho’s Window to the Heart, the Office for Creative Research’s We Were Strangers Once Too, and Collective-LOK’s Heart of Hearts.

ICEBERG

Very cool Iceberg will continue to “melt” in Garment District through February 24 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Garment District Plaza
Broadway between 37th & 38th Sts.
Through February 24, free
garmentdistrict.nyc
iceberg video walkthrough

There are only a couple more days to enjoy Iceberg, a cool immersive and interactive installation on Broadway in the Garment District. ATOMIC3 and Appareil Architecture constructed the musical piece, which consists of a series of connected metal arches that emit blue and red light and the sounds of water dripping as people make their way through it; the more visitors in the work, and the faster they move, the more the lights change and the louder the sounds get, resulting in a warmer atmosphere. Created in collaboration with sound designer Jean-Sébastien Côté and interactive system designer Philippe Jean for a Montreal festival in 2012, Iceberg might look like a chic, Instagram-friendly tunnel, but it is also a reminder of the melting, calving polar ice caps and the damaging man-made effects of global climate change.

RUSSIAN DOLL: NATASHA LYONNE AND LESLYE HEADLAND IN CONVERSATION WITH EMILY NUSSBAUM

Natasha Lyonne will discuss Russian Doll with co-creator Leslye Headland at 92nd St. Y on February 28

Who: Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, Emily Nussbaum
What: Talk and screening
Where: Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92nd St. Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. between 91st & 92nd Sts., 212-415-5500
When: Thursday, February 28, $20-$45, 7:30
Why: On February 28, Russian Doll co-creators Natasha Lyonne and Leslye Headland will be at the 92nd St. Y to screen the first episode of their fab Netflix series and discuss the show, which they created with Amy Poehler. On February 28, Russian Doll co-creators Natasha Lyonne and Leslye Headland will be at the 92nd St. Y to screen the first episode of their fab Netflix series and discuss the show, which they created with Amy Poehler. Oh, wait, I already said that. In Russian Doll, Lyonne stars as Nadia Vulvokov, a New York City software engineer who finds herself in a never-ending circle of dying over and over again in a clever spin on Groundhog Day, continually going back to her thirty-sixth birthday party. Headland (Bachelorette, Sleeping with Other People) and Lyonne (Orange Is the New Black, Antibirth) have each written and directed episodes, which also feature Charlie Barnett, Dascha Polanco, Burt Young, Brendan Sexton III, Elizabeth Ashley, and Tompkins Square Park. Lyonne and Headland will be speaking with New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum, who shared her views on the series here.

MEET MISS BAKER: THE PRICE OF THOMAS SCOTT

Ellen Scott (Tracy Sallows) looks on as her husband, Thomas (Donald Corren), makes a point to her daughter, Annie (Emma Geer), in US premiere at the Clurman (photo by Todd Cerveris)

The Mint Theater
The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row
410 West 42nd St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through March 23, $65
minttheater.org
www.theatrerow.org

Footloose meets A Man for All Seasons in the US debut of Elizabeth Baker’s 1913 play, The Price of Thomas Scott, which opened last night in a lovely Mint production at the Clurman at Theatre Row. It’s the first presentation of the Mint’s “Meet Miss Baker” series, a two-year program that will feature three fully staged works by the little-known British playwright in addition to readings of two one-acts and the publication of a book on Baker, similar to the company’s ongoing Tessa Davey Project. The Price of Thomas Scott, which previously had only one production more than a century ago, at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester, takes place over two days in the early 1910s in the back parlor of a drapery, as clothing shops were called then, owned by Thomas Scott (Donald Corren), where he works with his wife, Ellen (Tracy Sallows), and daughter, Annie (Emma Geer), an expert hat trimmer who dreams of going to Paris to hone her craft and return to “bust up the town.” Meanwhile, the Scotts’ fifteen-year-old son, Leonard (Nick LaMedica), is hoping to sit for a scholarship; if he wins and the family can support some supplementary fees, it will send him to a better school that will put him on track for a respectable career in the civil service. “It’s hateful to be poor,” Annie says.

Annie (Emma Geer) wants to go dancing with May (Ayana Workman) in The Price of Thomas Scott (photo by Todd Cerveris)

Thomas is a devout churchgoer, a member of one of several conservative Protestant denominations known as Nonconformists in Great Britain. He’s ready to sell the store after decades of toil, waiting for an offer so he and Ellen can retire to the middle-class suburb of Tunbridge Wells, a print of which hangs on the wall, beckoning them. A deeply religious man, Thomas is firmly against dancing, believing it to be immoral; he also rejects drinking and theater. When Annie asks if she can go to a dance at the town hall with her friend May Rufford (Ayana Workman), her father is at first hesitant to even consider such a request. “You don’t suppose I like keeping her back, do you — saying no to her?” Thomas asks May’s father, George (Mark Kenneth Smaltz), continuing, “The flesh is weak at times, George, and the way of righteousness is hard.” So when a surprisingly large offer is made on the shop by Wicksteed (Mitch Greenberg), a longtime acquaintance working for a company opening dance halls in the neighborhood, Thomas is faced with a difficult dilemma, whether to stand by his conscience or sell and improve the family’s situation significantly.

Directed by Mint artistic director Jonathan Bank (Katie Roche, Temporal Powers), The Price of Thomas Scott is a well-staged drama that evokes the conflict at the center of Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, in which Sir Thomas More must decide whether to go against his conscience and his religious beliefs in order to save his life and help his family. (Coincidentally, a fine revival of the play is now running at Theatre Row as well.) It also is reminiscent of Herbert Ross’s 1984 film, Footloose, in which a small Utah border town has banned dancing and rock music for religious reasons. Corren (Torch Song Trilogy, Balls) portrays Thomas not as a villain but as a deeply principled man who is tortured by the decision he must make; Corren’s body is as tense and rigid as Thomas is stubborn and unyielding. It is apparent Scott has never danced a day in his life and that he couldn’t even if he desired to. Still, as much as his friends and family wish him to sell, it is difficult not to admire the courage of his convictions. “He’s a dear old thing, of course, but you know he’s just frightfully old-fashioned,” Annie tells Johnny Tite (Andrew Fallaize), the Scotts’ lodger who is in love with her. However, Johnny’s friend Hartley Peters (Josh Goulding) says, “Every man has his price.”

Wicksteed (Mitch Greenberg) makes Scott (Donald Corren) an offer he thinks he can’t refuse in US debut of Elizabeth Baker play (photo by Todd Cerveris)

Sallows (Angels in America, Pushkin) is ever-so-gentle as Ellen, who is so devoted to her husband that she will not try to change his mind, no matter how much she wants to let Annie go to a dance, encourage Leonard to compete for the scholarship, and urge her husband to sell the shop. Amid the British suffragist movement, she is not ready to cast her vote against her husband, although the shop is arguably as much hers as his, and she deserves a say in the family’s financial future. The Mint’s sets are always exceptional, and Vicki R. Davis’s parlor room has a charm that posits the Scotts’ precarious station. The only disappointment is that the intermissionless ninety-minute play has only one location; watching Mint set changes during intermission has become an event valued by those in the know. As for meeting Miss Baker: Born in 1876, Baker was a teetotaler raised in a strict, religious lower-middle-class family that was in the drapery business; she didn’t go to the theater until she was nearly thirty and didn’t marry until nearly forty. The semiautobiographical nature of The Price of Thomas Scott imbues it with an honesty that is potent, with a slyly funny bonus at curtain call. “Meet Miss Baker” continues March 3 with readings of Edith and Miss Tassey, followed in summer 2020 by repertory performances of Partnership and her debut, the breakthrough Chains; The Price of Thomas Scott runs through March 23.

SEE IT BIG! COSTUMES BY EDITH HEAD: FUNNY FACE

Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) is not happy about fashionistas taking over the bookstore where she works in Funny Face

CinéSalon: FUNNY FACE (Stanley Donen, 1957)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, February 23, 4:00, and Sunday, February 24, 6:30
Festival runs through March 10
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

The Museum of the Moving Image’s “See It Big! Costumes by Edith Head” series continues February 23-24 with the “’s wonderful, ’s marvelous” 1957 romantic musical comedy Funny Face. When Quality magazine editor and publisher Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) decides she’s after the next big thing, photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire playing a fictionalized version of Richard Avedon, who served as a consultant on the film and took the photos) asks, “Are there no models who can think as well as they look?” So they descend on a “sinister” bookstore in Greenwich Village, Embryo Concepts, to show the intellectual side of star model Marion (real-life model Dovima), but instead Dick believes that the bohemian bookstore’s mousy, idealistic sales clerk, Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), might just be exactly what they’re looking for, a fresh face with “character, spirit, and intelligence.” Jo is steadfastly averse to the plan at first, until Dick convinces her that it would be a great opportunity for her to see Paris and go to a lecture by her favorite philosopher, professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair), the father of empathicalism. So Maggie, Dick, Jo, and their crew head over to France, where Jo will soon be strutting down the runway in a line specially created for her by superstar designer Paul Duval (Robert Flemyng). But once they get to the City of Lights, everything goes more than a bit haywire as haute couture battles counterculture chic.

Audrey Hepburn is glamorous in Givenchy in classic musical

Partially based on an unproduced show by screenwriter Leonard Gershe called Wedding Bells — which was inspired by the real-life relationship between Avedon and model and actress Doe Nowell — and including four songs from George Gershwin’s 1927 musical, also called Funny Face (and starring Astaire and his sister, Adele), the film is an utter delight from start to finish. Despite an age difference of nearly thirty years, Hepburn and Astaire have genuine chemistry as their characters fall for each other. Unlike 1964’s My Fair Lady, in which Hepburn’s singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon, she does all of her own vocalizing in Funny Face, including a lovely solo on “How Long Has This Been Going On?,” and she uses her childhood dance training to fabulous effect in a stunning modern dance scene in a dark and smoky bohemian club. Astaire is a joy as Avery, particularly in the dazzling solo number “Let’s Kiss and Make Up,” performed with hat, raincoat, and umbrella. And Thompson, in her only major film role — she was already in the midst of her four-book children’s series about Eloise, the girl who lives in the Plaza Hotel in New York City — gets things going with the glorious opener “Think Pink!,” her character inspired by Harper’s Bazaar editors Carmel Snow and Diana Vreeland. Among the other songs by George and Ira Gershwin are “On How to Be Lovely,” “He Loves and She Loves,” “Clap Yo’ Hands,” and “Bonjour, Paris!” The costumes, of course, are spectacular, courtesy of Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy, as are Eugene Loring’s choreography and Stanley Donen’s direction as the story roams around many of Paris’s iconic locations. Everything about the film, which was nominated for four Oscars but came up empty, is fun and fashionable, including cameos by model Suzy Parker; Carole Eastman, who would go on to write Five Easy Pieces and The Fortune; Hepburn’s mother; and a group of girls dressed up like French children’s book favorite Madeline.

Funny Face is screening at MoMI on February 23 at 4:00 and February 24 at 6:30; “See It Big! Costumes by Edith Head” continues through March 10 with such other films as René Clair’s I Married a Witch, Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity, and Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, The Birds, and Marnie. Head was nominated for thirty-five Academy Awards during her prestigious career, winning the Oscar eight times.