twi-ny recommended events

SURFER GIRL

surfer girl

The Foley Gallery
59 Orchard St. between Grand & Hester Sts.
Tuesday & Wednesday, April 10 – May 30, $30 ($15 flash sale now), 7:30
animustheatre.org
www.foleygallery.com

In November 2014, Animus Theatre Company presented a twelve-hour reading festival at Circle in the Square of Leslye Headland’s “Sin Cycle Plays,” consisting of Assistance, Bachelorette, Cinephilia, Reverb, Surfer Girl, and The Accidental Blonde (with one more to come). On Tuesdays and Wednesdays from April 10 to May 30, the company, in association with the Dirty Blondes Theater Company, will be taking Headland’s Surfer Girl in a whole new direction. The New York premiere of the work moves to a conceptual performative environment designed by painter and installation artist Chaney Trotter at the Foley Gallery on the Lower East Side, instead of its originally intended, more traditional theater setting. Every week, the one-woman show will pair a different actress (Courtney Shaw, Erin Leigh Schmoyer, Karen Eilbacher, Amy Northup, Sara Canter, and three TBA) with one of four directors (Alex Correia, Taphat Tawil, Jen Wineman, and Noah Himmelstein). Thus, Surfer Girl, which investigates the sin of sloth, will be seen through multiple lenses by Animus because of the changing performers and directors, each performance different from the others. There will also be a cash bar with beer and wine for postshow mingling; opening night will be followed by a discussion with Headland, who has also written and/or directed the films Bachelorette, Assistance, About Last Night, and Sleeping with Other People and is currently making an untitled Netflix series with producer Amy Poehler and star Natasha Lyonne.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL: TRIBECA TALKS 2018

Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper will sit down for a Tribeca Talk on April 21

Tribeca Film Festival
Multiple venues
April 19-28, free – $43.45
www.tribecafilm.com

One of the highlights of the annual Tribeca Film Festival is the series of discussions known as Tribeca Talks, this year featuring the “Director’s Series,” “Storytellers,” and “Master Classes.” Among those participating are John Legend, Bradley Cooper with Robert De Niro, Jamie Foxx, Alec Baldwin with Spike Lee, Claire Danes, Ed Burns, and others. The events take place at BMCC Tribeca PAC, the SVA Theater, and the Tribeca Festival Hub; “Master Classes” are free, while “Director’s Series” and “Storytellers” are $43.45.

Thursday, April 19
Tribeca Talks: Director’s Series — Jason Reitman with Tamara Jenkins, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 5:15

Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — John Legend, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $43.45, 6:00

Friday, April 20
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Sound & Music Design for Film, moderated by Glenn Kiser, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, free, 4:00

Saturday, April 21
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, Tribeca Festival Hub, rush, 6:00

Monday, April 23
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Jamie Foxx, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 6:00

Tuesday, April 24
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — BAO Animation Workshop, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, free, 3:00

Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Alec Baldwin with Spike Lee, Tribeca Festival Hub, $43.45, 8:45

Wednesday, April 25
Tribeca Talks: Director’s Series — Nancy Meyers with Carrie Rickey, Tribeca Festival Hub, $43.45, 6:00

Claire Danes will discuss Homeland with executive producer and director Lesli Linka Glatter at Tribeca Film Festival

Thursday, April 26
Tribeca Talks: Director’s Series — Lesli Linka Glatter with Claire Danes, Tribeca Festival Hub, $43.45, 5:30

Friday, April 27
Tribeca Talks: Storytellers — Ed Burns with Mike Vaccaro, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 8:00

Saturday, April 28
Tribeca Talks: Master Class — Show Runners and Writing for TV, with Robert and Michelle King, Steve Bodow, and Jennifer Flanz, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, free, 2:00

Tribeca Talks: Director’s Series — Alexander Payne, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $43.45, 3:00

Tribeca Talks: Director’s Series — Laura Poitras with Sheila Nevins, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, $43.45, 4:00

THREE TALL WOMEN

Laurie Metcalf helps Glenda Jackson to her favorite chair as Alison Pill looks on in Three Tall Women (photo © Brigitte Lacombe)

Golden Theatre
252 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 24, $47 – $159
threetallwomenbroadway.com

Edward Albee’s 1991 Pulitzer Prize–winning play, Three Tall Women, is finally making its Broadway debut, in an elegant, exquisitely rendered production directed by Joe Mantello at the Golden Theatre, featuring American actress Laurie Metcalf, Canadian actress Alison Pill, and British legend Glenda Jackson. The two-act intermissionless play, an ingenious depiction of aging, among other things, takes place in the 1990s in the lush bedroom of a sneering, wealthy widow identified in the program as A (Jackson), who is in her early nineties. She lives with her wisecracking, pessimistic caretaker, B (Metcalf), who is fifty-two. They have been joined by the deadly serious C (Pill), a twenty-six-year-old sharply dressed lawyer who needs A to sign some forms she’s been ignoring. Each woman represents a different class and generation, youth, middle age, and old age, each with different values, desires, and expectations, but as B likes to point out, everyone is on their way toward death. “Start in young,” she says, referring to children. “Make ’em aware that they’ve got only a little time. Make ’em aware that they’re dying from the minute they’re alive.” Amid visits to the bathroom, anecdotes about the past, and legal papers to be signed, the women deliver rapid comebacks with plenty of snark as they consider the state of their lives. But then a paradigm shift occurs, and in the second act there is a slight but key change in the set and in the characters, who are no longer quite what they were previously. Once the audience realizes what is happening, there are likely to be more than a few thrilled gasps of recognition as Albee peers ever deeper into the life of the female species, leading to an utterly breathtaking finale.

Glenda Jackson holds court in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women at the Golden Theatre (photo © Brigitte Lacombe)

Three Tall Women was inspired by Albee’s troubled relationship with his adoptive mother. “We had managed to make each other very unhappy over the years, but I was past all that, though I think she was not,” Albee wrote in the introduction to the published 1994 edition of the play. “I harbor no ill-will toward her; it is true I did not like her much, could not abide her prejudices, her loathings, her paranoias, but I did admire her pride, her sense of self. . . . No, it was not a revenge piece I was after, and I was not interested in ‘coming to terms’ with my feelings toward her.” It is precisely for those reasons that Three Tall Women works so well. There are no heroes or villains, no black-and-white depictions of good and evil. A, B, and C all have their own strengths and weaknesses; despite the specificity of their lives, they are everywoman, experiencing the ups and downs of everyday existence, since death is the great equalizer. Few male playwrights have drafted such female characters as Albee, who also displayed that vast skill in such other works as The Lady from Dubuque; The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Pulitzer Prize winners A Delicate Balance and Seascape.

Alison Pill, Glenda Jackson, and Laurie Metcalf star in Broadway debut of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women (photo © Brigitte Lacombe)

The eighty-one-year-old Jackson (Strange Interlude, A Touch of Class), in a tight hairstyle that is a character unto itself, is feisty and glamorous in her first Broadway role since she was nominated for a Tony in Macbeth in 1988, having left acting to pursue a career in politics, serving as an MP from 1992 to 2015; her A is a bigoted wealthy widow, mother, and former grande dame who is refusing to come to terms with the maladies that befall the elderly, no matter how rich they might be. The sixty-two-year-old Metcalf (A Doll’s House Part 2, The Other Place) gives a homey charm to the sarcastic spinster B. And the thirty-two-year-old Pill (Blackbird, The Lieutenant of Inishmore) holds her own as the practical C, who has dreams of a great future for herself despite seeing what lies ahead. (Among the other trios to have played the three women are Myra Carter, Marian Seldes, and Jordan Baker at the Vineyard in 1994 and Maggie Smith, Frances de la Tour, and Anastasia Hille in the West End that same year.) Two-time Tony winner Mantello (The Humans, Love! Valour! Compassion!) lets the three actresses strut their stuff with minimal intrusion on Miriam Buether’s opulent bedroom set, which is centered by the stately bed itself, here representing birth, sex, and, ultimately, death.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL: AFTER THE SCREENING

Antonio Banderas will be at the Tribeca Film Festival to discuss his portrayal of Pablo Picasso in Genius: Picasso

Tribeca Film Festival
Multiple locations
April 18-29, $33.15 – $43.45
www.tribecafilm.com/festival

The Tribeca Film Festival’s “After the Screening” series features conversations, panel discussions, live performances, and Q&As following screenings of more than two dozen films and television episodes, not including the special shows at the Beacon Theatre. Most of the events, held at the SVA Theater, BMCC Tribeca PAC, Cinépolis Chelsea, and the festival hub at Spring Studios, cost between $25.94 and $43.45, except on April 27, when they’re free. Among the guests appearing “After the Screening” are Viola Davis, Sam Rockwell, Paris Hilton, André Leon Talley, Jennifer Beals, Steve Buscemi, Sandra Bernhard, Alexandre Rockwell, Brian Grazer, Joy Reid, Terrence McNally, Christine Baranski, F. Murray Abraham, Chita Rivera, Matthew Broderick, Antonio Banderas, Katie Couric, Tom Sturridge, Natalie Dormer, Paul Sparks, Kathleen Cleaver, Alex Gibney, Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola, Ron Perlman, Kyle Abraham, Ralph Macchio, DJ Jahi Sundance, the Last Poets, Jason Reitman, and Tamara Jenkins. Tickets are still available for most of the presentations, although some are already at rush and limited status.

Thursday, April 19
Tribeca Talks: Director’s Series: Tully (Jason Reitman, 2018), conversation with Jason Reitman and Tamara Jenkins, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 5:15

Westworld, discussion with Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, and James Marsden, BMCC Tribeca PAC, rush, 8:30

Friday, April 20
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Julia Willoughby Nason & Jenner Furst, 2018), conversation with codirectors Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst, the parents of Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, executive producers Mike Gasparro and Chachi Senior, and special guests, moderated by Joy Reid, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 5:45

Genius: Picasso, conversation with showrunner Ken Biller, executive producers Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, and cast members Antonio Banderas, Alex Rich, Clémence Poésy, Poppy Delevingne, and Samantha Colley, moderated by Cynthia Littleton, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 8:30

Saturday, April 21
Bathtubs over Broadway (Dava Whisenant, 2018), conversation with members of the cast and a special performance inspired by the film with surprise guests, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 2:00

Freaks & Geeks: The Documentary (Brent Hodge, 2018), conversation with director Brent Hodge and Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig, Tribeca Festival Hub, $33.15, 8:00

Sunday, April 22
Netizens (Cynthia Lowen, 2018), conversation with director Cynthia Lowen and subjects Tina Reine, Carrie Goldberg, and Anita Sarkeesian, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, rush, 2:00

To Dust (Shawn Snyder, 2018), followed by Tribeca Film Institute conversation with writer/director Shawn Snyder, producers Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola, and Ron Perlman, cast members Geza Rohrig and Matthew Broderick, and biologist Dawnie Steadman, hosted by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, SVA Theater 1 Silas, rush, 6:00

Mr. Soul (Melissa Haizlip & Samuel Pollard, 2018), followed by #SOUL50: A 50th Anniversary Tribute to SOUL! hosted by Blair Underwood and featuring performances from Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway, Kyle Abraham, DJ Jahi Sundance, Sade Lythcott, Kathleen Cleaver, and the Last Poets: Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan and Felipe Luciano, Tribeca Festival Hub, $33.15, 8:00

Monday, April 23
Every Act of Life (Jeff Kaufman, 2018), conversation with director Jeff Kaufman, playwright Terrence McNally, actor/director Joe Mantello, and actors F. Murray Abraham, Christine Baranski, and Chita Rivera, moderated by Frank Rich, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, rush, 8:00

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (Sophie Huber, 2018), followed by special guest performance by Blue Note artists Robert Glasper, Derrick Hodge, and Kendrick Scott, Tribeca Festival Hub, rush, 8:00

Steve Buscemi will take part in twenty-fifth anniversary screening of In the Soup with Jennifer Beals, Sam Rockwell, and others

Tuesday, April 24
In the Soup (Alexandre Rockwell, 1992), conversation with director Alexandre Rockwell, actors Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Beals, and Sam Rockwell, and cinematographer Phil Parmet, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $25.94, 7:30

Cobra Kai, conversation with writers, directors, and executive producers Hayden Schlossberg, John Hurwitz, and Josh Heald and series stars and executive producers Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, rush, 7:45

Wednesday, April 25
Bobby Kennedy for President (Dawn Porter, 2018), conversation with director Dawn Porter and Ambassador William vanden Heuvel, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $33.15, 5:00

Woman Walks Ahead (Susanna White, 2017), conversation with director Susanna White, actor Sam Rockwell, and others, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $25.94, 5:45

Phenoms, conversation with executive producers David Brooks and Mario Melchiot, producer Arbi Pedrossian, creative director Chris Perkel, producer and editor Thomas Verette, and directors Jane Hicks, Jeff Zimbalist, and Michael Zimbalist, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, $33.15, 8:30

The Gospel According to André (Kate Novack, 2018), conversation with director Kate Novack, subject André Leon Talley, producers Andrew Rossi and Josh Braun, and executive producer Roger Ross Williams, moderated by Sandra Bernhard, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 8:30

Ella Purnell and Paul Sparks will talk about their new series, Sweetbitter, at Tribeca

Thursday, April 26
Sweetbitter, conversation with creator, executive producer, and writer Stephanie Danler, showrunner Stuart Zicherman, and cast members Ella Purnell, Caitlin FitzGerald, Tom Sturridge, and Paul Sparks, moderated by Katie Couric, SVA Theater 1 Silas, rush, 5:00

Enhanced, conversation with executive producer Alex Gibney and directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jesse Sweet, moderated by Marisa Guthrie, Cinépolis Chelsea 7, $33.15, 6:00

RX: Early Detection a Cancer Journey with Sandra Lee (Cathy Chermol Schrijver, 2018), conversation with director Cathy Chermol Schrijver and subjects Sandra Lee and Kimber Lee, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $25.94, 7:45

Drunk History, conversation with cocreator, director, and host Derek Waters, cocreator and director Jeremy Konner, and special guests (and two complimentary drink tickets), Tribeca Festival Hub, $33.15, 8:30

Friday, April 27
Little Women (Vanessa Caswill, 2017), conversation with executive producers Colin Callender and Rebecca Eaton and cast member Maya Hawke, SVA Theater 1 Silas, free with advance ticket, 5:00

The Last Defense, conversation with executive producers Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, free with advance ticket, 6:00

The American Meme (Bert Marcus, 2018), conversation with director Bert Marcus and subjects Paris Hilton, Kirill Bichutsky, Brittany Furlan, the Fat Jew, and Hailey Baldwin, Tribeca Festival Hub, limited, 8:00

Saturday, April 28
The Staircase, conversation with creator and director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and producers Matthieu Belghiti and Allyson Luchak, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, $33.15, 6:00

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Larysa Kondracki, 2018), conversation with director Larysa Kondracki, executive producer Jo Porter, and cast member Natalie Dormer, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $33.15, 8:00

KING LEAR

Sir Antony Sher bids William Shakespeare adieu in final Bard role (photo by Ellie Kurttz)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
April 7-29, $35-$125, 7:30 (plus 1:30 and 3:00 weekend matinees)
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

The Brooklyn Academy of Music has a thing for King Lear. Since 2007, it has presented three major productions, starring Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Frank Langella. During that time period, New York has also seen the tragic ruler portrayed by John Lithgow at the Delacorte, Michael Pennington at TFANA, and Sam Waterston and Kevin Kline at the Public. Now comes sixty-eight-year-old South African-born English actor Sir Antony Sher, in what is being billed as his final Shakespeare role. The two-time Olivier Award winner, Tony nominee, and longtime Royal Shakespeare Company member has previously played the Fool in Lear, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Prospero in The Tempest, Falstaff in both parts of Henry IV at BAM, Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, and the title characters in Richard III, Titus Andronicus, and Macbeth. The RSC production runs at the BAM Harvey April 7-29, directed by Gregory Doran (Sher’s longtime partner), with sets by Niki Turner, lighting by Tim Mitchell, and music by Ilona Sekacz. The cast also features Nia Gwynne as Goneril, Kelly Williams as Regan, Mimi Ndiweni as Cordelia, and Graham Turner as the Fool. In conjunction with the show, RSC assistant director Anna Girvan and members of the company will give a class on April 24 at 1:00 ($25) at the Mark Morris Dance Center “for emerging professional actors,” and Girvan and company members will lead the open workshop “Inside the Storm” on April 26 at noon ($20) at Mark Morris “for curious adult (18+) theatergoers of all abilities.”

ANNUAL GATHERING OF REMEMBRANCE 5778

A candle-lighting ceremony is part of Yom HaShoah memorial service at Congregation Emanu-El (photo by Melanie Einzig)

Congregation Emanu-El
One East 65th St. at Fifth Ave.
Sunday, April 8, free with advance RSVP, 2:00
646-437-4227
www.emanuelnyc.org
mjhnyc.org

In an age of rising anti-Semitism, fascism, and Holocaust deniers, it is critical that the world never forgets what happened to the Jewish people during WWII. On Sunday, April 8, at 2:00, the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will cohost New York’s Annual Gathering of Remembrance at Congregation Emanu-El. Held in conjunction with the holy day known as Yom HaShoah, which begins Wednesday night, the memorial service is a “tribute to those who survived and have made a better world for us all,” with elected officials, Holocaust survivors and their families, and other members of the community coming together at the Upper East Side synagogue. On its website, the Museum of Jewish Heritage explains, “Every year, at New York’s Annual Gathering of Remembrance, we come together as a community to say: We will never forget. The Jewish people persist, and we will not allow the memory of millions to pass into stony silence. We owe it to our people, ourselves, and our children to insist that when we mourn those who were murdered and comfort those who suffered, we tell their stories with the utmost respect for their human dignity. It is a powerful answer to the Nazis’ thwarted ambition. New York’s Annual Gathering of Remembrance is the largest Holocaust commemoration event in the country.” Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance here; printouts must be presented at the door. Zachor. Gedenk. Remember.

EVERYTHING IS IMAGINABLE

Jack Ferver collaborates with Reid Bartelme as well as James Whiteside, Lloyd Knight, and Garen Scribner in the world premiere of Everything Is Imaginable at New York Live Arts (photo by Jason Akira Somma)

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
April 4-7, $15-$35, 8:00 (bonus 10:00 show on April 6)
212-924-0077
newyorklivearts.org
www.jackferver.org

A few weeks before the world premiere of Everything Is Imaginable, New York City treasure Jack Ferver tore his calf while preparing a piece for Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung at the Guggenheim. But leave it to the Wisconsin-born actor, writer, dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director to incorporate the injury into the narrative of the two-act, seventy-minute show. As the audience enters the theater at New York Live Arts, the curtain is down, a rarity at the venue, upping the growing sense of anticipation that accompanies every Ferver work. The curtain soon opens on Jeremy Jacob’s playful set, consisting of four white cardboard columns with drawings of leaves on them, along with a central cardboard chandelier hovering at the top of a screen in the back. It immediately immerses the crowd into the wonders of Ferver’s imagination while exposing the artifice behind staged productions in general. The first act features four queer men in sheer, butt-revealing outfits dancing solos inspired by their childhood memories and one major role model: American Ballet Theater principal James Whiteside, in a short, glittering dress of silver sequins, pays tribute to Judy Garland, dancing to Garland’s version of Cole Porter’s “I Happen to Like New York”; Martha Graham principal dancer Lloyd Knight honors Graham, moving to a recording of the legendary choreographer speaking about dance; dancer and actor Garen Scribner slides across the stage in socks and does spins like his hero, champion skater Brian Boitano, to the sound of ice skates being sharpened and gliding across the ice; and longtime Ferver collaborator Bartelme, a former ballet dancer and current costume designer (as part of Reid and Harriet Design, who made the costumes for the show), wears a long orange mane and dances with horse movements, since his idol is My Little Pony. Each solo combines humor with beautiful movement, taking advantage of each dancer’s strengths while adding the charm and whimsy that are mainstays of Ferver’s choreography. The four star turns are followed by a solo about sunglasses and then an ensemble piece danced to “club music,” including a Martha Graham–esque sexualized orgy that is uproariously funny.

After a ten-minute intermission (with the curtains closed), the second act begins with Ferver (Chambre, Night Light Bright Light) by himself onstage, standing over a miniature version of the set from the first act, evoking Stonehenge from This Is Spinal Tap. In a sheer bodysuit recalling Michelle Pfeiffer’s garb as Catwoman in Batman Returns, the compact Ferver towers over the tiny columns and chandelier, emphasizing his power as a creator while also poking fun at it. Ferver talks about his calf injury, explaining how that limited his ability to dance — his doctor advised him not to move forward, which is not part of his vocabulary, literally or figuratively — and forced him to reimagine the work, and discusses his difficult childhood, friendless and bullied for his overt homosexuality; growing up gay is a regular theme in his oeuvre. As always, his stage persona is that of a devilish cherub, wild and wacky one moment, making the audience roll around their seats with laughter, and then deadly serious the next, raising disturbing elements from his life that may or may not be true, causing everyone to reconsider their reactions. He’s joined by Bartelme, who looks lovely in a fringe dress, and the two dance together to heartbreaking effect while Ferver, soldiering on despite his injury, goes on to describe his process of writing a memoir, which took place alone, terrified, in a strange house, in the dark. Ferver is no longer friendless or alone, as evidenced not only by the crowd response to the supremely personal show but by the long line of well-wishers who waited to hug and congratulate him for giving them yet another unique, meaningful, and vastly entertaining experience, shining a light on his life, and ours, as only he can.