twi-ny recommended events

GLOBAL WARNING — NATURE IS A MOTHER: SNOWPIERCER

Curtis (Chris Evans) leads a revolt in Bong Joon-ho’s futuristic thriller, SNOWPIERCER

WAVERLY MIDNIGHTS: SNOWPIERCER (Bong Joon-ho, 2014)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Friday, January 27, 12:25 am, and Saturday, January 28, 12:05 am
Series runs Friday and Saturday nights through April 1
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.snowpiercer-film.com

Korean director Bong Joon-ho, who had a huge international hit in 2006 with The Host and a major critical success with 2009’s Mother, made his English-language feature debut with Snowpiercer, a nonstop postapocalyptic thrill ride that takes its place with such other memorable train films as The Great Train Robbery, From Russia with Love, The Train, and Murder on the Orient Express. It’s 2031, seventeen years after the chemical C7, which was supposed to end climate change, instead froze the earth, killing all living beings except for a group of survivors on board a train run by a perpetual motion machine. In the rear of the train, men, women, and children are treated like prisoners, beaten, tortured, dressed in rags, their only food mysterious gelatin blocks. Soldiers led by the cold-hearted Mason (Tilda Swinton) and the yellow-clad Claude (Emma Levie), whose outift brings virtually the only color to this dark, dank, deeply depressing setting, violently keep the peace as the two women heartlessly dictate orders and abscond with the children. But Curtis Everett (Chris Evans) and Edgar (Jamie Bell) hatch a plan to get past the guards and make their way to the front of the train in order to find out just what is really going on and to meet with Wilford, the wealthy entrepreneur running the engine. With the help of defiant mother Tanya (Octavia Spencer), elder statesman Gilliam (John Hurt), train engineer Namgoong Minsu (Bong regular Song Kang-ho), and Namgoong’s daughter, Yona (Go Ah-sung), Curtis attempts to lead a small revolution that is seemingly doomed to failure.

Mason (Tilda Swinton) has something to say about potential revolution on board train to nowhere

Inspired by the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jean-Marc Rochette and Benjamin Legrand (who both make cameos in the film), Snowpiercer is a tense, gripping thriller that unfolds as a microcosm of contemporary society, intelligently taking on race, class, poverty, drug addiction, education, and corporate greed and power. Evans (Captain America, Push) is almost unrecognizable as Everett, a flawed hero trying to make things right, followed every step of the way by cold-blooded killer Franco the Elder (Romanian star Vlad Ivanov of Police, Adjective and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days). The film features splendid production design by Ondrej Nekvasil; each train car offers a completely different look and feel as Curtis heads toward the front, leading to a finale that is everything the conclusion to the Matrix trilogy wanted to be. Bong (Memories of Murder), who cowrote the film with Kelly Masterson (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead), doesn’t shy away from violence in telling this complex story – of course, it doesn’t hurt that one of the producers is Korean master Park Chan-woo (the Vengeance trilogy, Thirst), who had just made his first English-language film as well, 2013’s Stoker. A fantastically claustrophobic chase film, Snowpiercer is screening January 27 and 28 in the IFC Center Waverly Midnights series “Global Warning: Nature Is a Mother,” consisting of films in which weather plays a key role; the series continues weekends through April 1 with such other climate-related works as Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running, George Miller’s four Mad Max flicks, Ron Underwood’s Tremors, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

THE PRESENT

Anna (Cate Blanchett) makes an explosive point at fortieth birthday party (photo © Joan Marcus)

Barrymore Theatre
243 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday (and some Mondays) through March 19, $59 – $159
thepresentbroadway.com

The Present brings us quite a gift, the Broadway debut of Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, who is absolutely captivating in an uneven black comedy that can go from penetrating to tiresome in the blink of an eye. “An eclectic mix,” Yegor (David Downer) says about the guests at Anna’s (Blanchett) explosive fortieth birthday party, but he also could be speaking about the play itself. Adapted for the Sydney Theatre Company by Andrew Upton from Anton Chekhov’s first major play, sometimes known as Platonov, which remained unperformed in Chekhov’s lifetime, The Present is a three-hour look at lust, the aging aristocracy, personal and professional failure, and fear of death. Upton, who is married to Blanchett, transports the story to 1990s Russia, where the Clash and Joy Division dominate the soundtrack. Anna is considering remarrying following the death of her beloved husband, a much older man called the General, at least in part to maintain control of her late husband’s vast holdings. Among those interested in Anna, either as a bride, a one-night stand, or a business partner are Nikolai (Toby Schmitz), a doctor and Anna’s stepbrother, who has brought hot young student Maria (Anna Bamford) as his date; the practical Yegor, an older businessman who has come with his bland son, Dimitri (Brandon McClelland); Kirill (Eamon Farren), a snarky DJ who is the son of retired lawyer Alexi (Martin Jacobs); and Mikhail Platonov (Richard Roxburgh), the General’s best friend who is married to Sasha (Susan Prior), the daughter of retired colonel Ivan (Marshall Napier) and the sister of Nikolai. Also at the party are Sergei (Chris Ryan), Anna’s stepson, who is married to Sophia (Jacqueline McKenzie), and former KGB operative Osip (Andrew Buchanan). “Birthdays are always lively. Balancing the past and the present is tricky at the best of times,” Yegor pronounces. “But that’s Russia these days, isn’t it, Alexi?” Alexi responds, “Russia? I couldn’t tell you.” Anna holds court as her guests drink heavily, argue over politics and socioeconomic conditions, and flirt with one another, risking their friendships, marriages, and reputations in one misguided night of debauchery. “It’s so hard to do what you really, really desperately want in life,” Anna says. “It’s so much easier to do shit you don’t care either way about.”

Mikhail (Richard Roxburgh) and Anna (Cate Blanchett) wonder what might have been in Sydney Theatre Company’s THE PRESENT on Broadway (photo © Joan Marcus)

Chekhov’s play has previously been adapted by the likes of Michael Frayn, Lev Dodin, Trevor Griffiths, and David Hare, with such actors as Rex Harrison, James McArdle, and Stephen Rea playing Mikhail Platonov. Roxburgh (Rake, Hacksaw Ridge), who has been performing with Blanchett for more than twenty years — the duo has played Trigorin and Nina in The Seagull, Vanya and Yelena in Uncle Vanya, and Hamlet and Ophelia in Hamlet — is dynamic when he and Blanchett are together onstage, but it’s difficult to understand why all the other women are so enamored of him. Upton (The Maids, The Cherry Orchard) has made Mikhail, a disgruntled, disappointed schoolteacher who wanted to be a famous writer, and Anna much older than in Chekhov’s original, which works well for the parts of the play dealing with aging and death but leaves much to be desired regarding sexual chemistry and several far-fetched plot twists. The smoke-filled scene in which various women state their love for Mikhail is quite a sight but doesn’t make narrative sense. And while some elements of the anarchic narrative are exciting, particularly those involving Anna’s revolutionary spirit, the table-dancing scene is a bit ludicrous. The play is sort of Chekhov light, with aspects of Don Juan and A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy tossed in. Director John Crowley (Brooklyn, A Behanding in Spokane) can’t gain control of the overall chaos, although many individual scenes crackle and, figuratively and literally, explode. Over the course of the too-long three-hour show, you can’t take your eyes off two-time Oscar winner Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, Hedda Gabler), who wears three awesome outfits by Alice Babidge, who also designed the sets; even when Blanchett is in the background, her every movement is mesmerizing, lit beautifully by Nick Schlieper. When she is offstage, the play suffers, but when she is front and center, armed and dangerous, downing drinks, trying to nail down her future, The Present is a rather fine offering.

BROADWAYCON 2017

Josh Groban and other members of the creative team of NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 will be at second annual BroadwayCon on July 27 (photo by Chad Batka)

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
655 West 34th St. (11th Ave. between 34th & 39th Sts.)
January 27-29, $250 General Pass, $65-$95 Day Pass
www.broadwaycon.com
www.javitscenter.com

BroadwayCon takes a major step up in its second year, moving from the New York Hilton to the Javits Center this weekend. The founders and presenters, which include Melissa Anelli, Anthony Rapp, Playbill, and Mischief Management, are discussing performance and payment details with Actors’ Equity, but whatever they decide, there is still an impressive roster of events. Gold passes ($600) are sold out, but you can still get a General Pass ($250) or single-day tickets ($65-$95) to see cast and crew members and/or participate in fan meetups for such shows as Annie, Kinky Boots, Wicked, In Transit, Hamilton, Les Misérables, Ragtime, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, and many others in addition to autograph and/or photobooth sessions with Kelli O’Hara, Rebecca Luker and Danny Burstein, Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn, Carolee Carmello, Jane Houdyshell and Reed Birney, Chita Rivera, Jeremy Jordan, Donna Murphy, Alison Fraser, Mary Testa, and Chip Zien, Rapp, and many more. Below are only some of the highlights.

Friday, January 27
The Art of Perseverance with Melissa Errico, Programming Room A, 11:00 am

Cabaret and the Next Generation of Artists, with Shoshana Feinstein, Joe Iconis, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Julia Mattison, and Benjamin Rauhala, moderated by Jennifer Ashley Tepper, Programming Room E, 2:00

Women in the World of Sondheim, with Katie Welsh, Emily Whitaker, and Stacy Wolf, Programming Room A, 2:30

Chandeliers and Caviar: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, with Brittain Ashford, Gelsey Bell, Nicholas Belton, Denée Benton, Nick Choksi, Amber Gray, Josh Groban, Dave Malloy, Grace McLean, Michael Paulson, Paul Pinto, and Lucas Steele, MainStage, 5:00

Annie Forty-Year Reunion, with Jennifer Ashley Tepper, Steve Boockvor, Shelley Bruce, Martin Charnin, Mary Jane Houdina, Andrea McArdle, Thomas Meehan, and Charles Strouse, MainStage, 8:00 PM

Saturday, January 28
Everybody Say Yeah: Three Years at Kinky Boots, with Killian Donnelly, Todrick Hall, Julie James, Taylor Louderman, and Jerry Mitchell, MainStage, 11:00 am

Madam Secretary Panel, with Sebastian Arcelus, Erich Bergen, Keith Carradine, Tim Daly, Željko Ivanek, Patina Miller, and Bebe Neuwirth, moderated by Anthony Rapp, MainStage, 1:00

William Ivey Long: A Lifetime in Theatre, Programming Room C, 3:00

Shaina Taub Performance, Marketplace Stage, 3:30

Joel Grey Q&A, MainStage, 4:00

Sunday, January 29
Born to Boogie: Broadway’s Choreographers, with Lorin Latarro and Spencer Liff, Programming Room C, 10:00 am

Raising Broadway Babies: Working Moms on Broadway, with Carmen Ruby Floyd, Blair Goldberg, and Erin Quill, moderated by Vasthy Mompoint, Programming Room C, 11:00 am

This Is A Bronx Tale Panel, with Richard H. Blake, Nick Cordero, Ariana DeBose, Chazz Palminteri, Glenn Slater, and Bobby Conte Thornton, MainStage, 12 noon

Judy Kuhn Q&A, with Judy Kuhn and moderator Ilana Levine, Marketplace Stage, 5:00

Geek Out — Freak Out: Our Favorite Songs, with Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Leigh Silverman, moderated by Mark Blankenship, Programming Room D, 5:00

VINCE GIORDANO: THERE’S A FUTURE IN THE PAST

Vince Giordano shows off his remarkable collection of Jazz Age arrangements in THERE’S A FUTURE IN THE PAST

VINCE GIORDANO: THERE’S A FUTURE IN THE PAST (Dave Davidson & Amber Edwards, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Through Thursday, January 26
212-529-6799
www.cinemavillage.com
www.firstrunfeatures.com

Vince Giordano has an infectious glee throughout most of Vince Giordano: There’s a Future in the Past, a lively documentary that celebrates his dedication and passion for keeping the music of the 1920s and 1930s alive. “He’s totally consumed by his mission,” one member of his band, the Nighthawks, explains. “He’s meant to be a bandleader,” another one says. Director-producers Dave Davidson and Amber Edwards follow the youthful Giordano, who will turn sixty-five in March, as the band plays at the Newport Jazz Festival, with Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion, at Sofia’s in the Edison Hotel, at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing, and at the New York Hot Jazz Festival at the Players club as well as recording a tune in the studio with David Johansen for Boardwalk Empire. The Grammy-winning Giordano and the Nighthawks have performed music for nearly two dozen films, including several by Woody Allen. But leading a Jazz Age band in the modern era is no easy task; Giordano, who plays the tuba, the string bass, and the bass saxophone and handles the vocals, has no roadies and no agent, so he and partner Carol Hughes are seen lugging equipment around, scrambling for gigs, and getting the orchestrations just right, testing Giordano’s gleeful onstage demeanor. “When I first met him, I thought he was very unusual and a nice person, but I didn’t think he was exceptional and crazy like he is,” Hughes says. The Brooklyn-born Giordano is also a music historian and archivist, having collected some sixty thousand arrangements, with twenty-five hundred brought to any single show, making for a wide range of setlists. Among those singing Giordano’s praises are many members of the eleven-piece Nighthawks, some of them who have been part of the band since the 1970s; sharing fun stories are reed players Mark Lopeman and Dan Levinson, trumpeters Jon-Erik Kellso and Mike Ponella, violinist Andy Stein, pianist Peter Yarin, trombonist Jim Fryer, and guitarist Ken Salvo.

The heart of the film is watching the remarkable band play such songs as “Stampede,” “Shake That Thing,” “The Moon and You,” and a glorious “Rhapsody in Blue” at Town Hall, by such legendary composers and bandleaders as George Gershwin, Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman, Bix Beiderbecke, and Duke Ellington. One of the most poignant parts occurs when Sofia’s, where Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks played every Monday and Tuesday night for five years, closes, so Giordano must find a new home, which he does, at Iguana NYC. (You can also catch them at the “Highlights in Jazz” forty-fourth annual gala on February 9 at BMCC’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center with Ms. Vinnie Knight and Cynthia Sayer & Her Joyride Band.) Vince Giordano: There’s a Future in the Past is a poignant tale of a New York City treasure whose obsession brings great joy to the rest of us.

MEMORIAL FOR FRITZ WEAVER

The life and career of Tony-winning, Emmy-nominated, Theatre Hall of Fame inductee Fritz Weaver will be honored at Symphony Space on January 23

Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharpe Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Monday, January 23, free, 6:30
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org

One of the very first actors I felt a real bond with was Fritz William Weaver, the Pittsburgh-born star of stage, screen, and television who passed away in November at the age of ninety. On January 23 at 6:30, a very informal memorial service will be held at Symphony Space, the Upper West Side institution where he was a regular participant in the “Selected Shorts” series and the annual “Bloomsday” reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Speakers will include Sherrill Milnes, Jay O. Sanders, Barbara Barrie, Peter Maloney, Harold Holzer, and several family members. I first saw Weaver in such films as The Day of the Dolphin, Marathon Man, and Black Sunday before being blown away by his Emmy-nominated performance in 1978’s Holocaust, which, following on the heels of 1977’s Roots, helped redefine what a miniseries could be. In 1979, I was breathless with anticipation at seeing Weaver on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s The Price, in which Weaver portrayed Walter Franz. I even stuck around to have him sign the program. Comfortable with being the star or as a character actor, in a Shakespeare play or strange films (Demon Seed, The Maltese Bippy), the Tony winner (Child’s Play) and Theatre Hall of Fame inductee appeared in more than one hundred movies and television shows, from Rawhide, The Fugitive, and Gunsmoke to The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Murder, She Wrote. He also starred in two of the best Twilight Zone episodes, Third from the Sun and The Obsolete Man. The late Isaiah Sheffer, one of the founders of Symphony Space, referred to Weaver as “Symphony Space’s leading man,” so it is only fitting that the celebration will occur there, where he also made his last public appearance.

WE ARE THE FLESH

The very strange Mariano (Noé Hernandez) rules a bizarre underground lair in Emiliano Rocha Minter’s WE ARE THE FLESH

WE ARE THE FLESH (TENEMOS LA CARNE) (Emiliano Rocha Minter, 2016)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, January 20
212-529-6799
www.cinemavillage.com

In his debut feature, twenty-five-year-old writer-director Emiliano Rocha Minter paints a horrifying vision of modern-day Mexico in We Are the Flesh. The film, a hit at festivals around the world, takes place in a kind of surreal, postapocalyptic underground hellmouth ruled by lunatic ogre Mariano (Noé Hernandez), who is delighted when siblings Lucio (Diego Gamaliel) and Fauna (María Evoli) come stumbling into his lair. As the three of them build a bizarre womblike structure, they engage in taboo acts that can best be described as foul, vile, disgusting, putrid, and demented — as well as strangely beautiful and maddeningly erotic — luridly photographed by Yollótl Alvarado on eerie sets designed by Manuela García. Esteban Aldrete’s threateningly pulsating score is interrupted by moans, screams, and occasional songs, several of which transform into oddly beguiling music videos. Minter also edited the film, with Yibran Assuad, maintaining a steady, sinister pace in which the audience awaits the next bit of craziness with both gleeful revulsion and terrifying excitement. Dialogue is limited and eccentric but gets the point across: “You were chosen by chance,” Mariano says, “and remember that chance is the most dangerous criminal who has roamed the earth.”

Mexican filmmaker Emiliano Rocha Minter’s debut feature is a violent, erotic fairy tale where anything can happen, and does

The film, which deals with various kinds of hunger as well as birth and rebirth, was inspired by the stories and pictures in sensationalist rags that are sold at newsstands throughout Mexico. “These newspapers remain unmatched as a gaze into a country that finds its pleasures in Hell,” Julio Chavezmontes explains in his producer’s statement. “This is the reality that Tenemos la Carne has dared to address. This is a film that is in total synchrony with its time and the ravaged country that gave it birth. It is a fearless, unprecedented vision of Mexico.” It’s also a film that goes where few films venture — with good reason, of course; watching it is like reading one of Charles Bukoswki’s more depraved stories: You know you should stop and put the book down, but you just can’t, in the same way you can’t turn away from Minter’s film. The dark tale evokes the work of such auteurs as Alejandro Jodorowsky, Kenneth Anger, Gaspar Noé, Dario Argento, and Carlos Reygadas, yet it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen, a hallucinatory adult fairy tale with a twist ending that brings it all home. Opening January 20 at Cinema Village, We Are the Flesh packs a whole lot of punch into its maniacal eighty minutes.

TWI-NY TALK: CULADASA (DR. JOHN YATES)

Culadasa in New York

LIGHT ON MEDITATION — THE SCIENCE OF MEDITATIVE SUCCESS
Tibet House
22 West Fifteenth St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Wednesday, January 25, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
212-807-0563
tibethouse.us
themindilluminated.com

MASTER CULADASA: LIGHT ON MEDITATION
The Three Jewels
61 Fourth Ave. between Ninth & Tenth Sts.
Saturday, January 28, $45 suggested admission, 2:00
212-475-6650
mindbodyonline.com
culadasa.com

THE MIND ILLUMINATED BOOK LAUNCH: MAXIMIZE YOUR MEDITATION — A ROADMAP TO MEDITATIVE SUCCESS
The Path at Primary
26 Broadway, eighth floor
Tuesday, January 31, $24, 7:00
www.thepath.com
www.simonandschuster.com

The combination of Buddhism and neuroscience is a heady one, as it were, and there’s no dearth of investigators and writers helping us understand our brain and our mind. Writers on the subject, from the Dalai Lama to Mingyur Rinpoche to B. Alan Wallace to Robert Thurman, have talked about the overlap between discoveries about consciousness in neuroscience and millennia-old Buddhist teachings on consciousness, the self, and reality. One of the latest authors working with these insights, John Yates, PhD (aka Culadasa), will be in New York City this month presenting his fascinating five-hundred-plus-page work, The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness (Simon & Schuster, January 2017, $25.99), written with Matthew Immergut, PhD, and Jeremy Graves. Dr. Yates, the director of the Dharma Treasure Buddhist Sangha in Tucson, studied deeply and intensively with both Theravadin and Tibetan Buddhist teachers and is a former professor of neuroscience. Prior to coming to New York City for three special events on January 25 (discussion, Q&A, and book signing at Tibet House), 28 (lecture, Q&A, and signing at the Three Jewels), and 31 (meditation and meal at the Path), he was happy to answer questions from a longtime twi-ny editor and meditator about his work and long-awaited first book.

twi-ny: The Mind Illuminated presents meditation as an everyday, evidence-based training activity for the mind that really works. If a reader sits down and practices with the first instructions in your book for six months, what results could they expect?

Culadasa: There is some variation, of course, but if a meditator diligently follows the instruction in a daily practice, they should achieve at least Stage Four — stable, continuous attention on the meditation object without episodes of forgetting or mind wandering. At this stage, our meditator can do something very few people can ever do: They can keep their attention focused on a chosen object, regardless of the intrinsic interest of the object, for very long periods of up to an hour. But even more importantly, they can simultaneously sustain a broad, open awareness of everything around them and of what is going on in their own mind as well. This allows them to begin observing and investigating their mind, which is a rich and wonderful experience. Some meditators will achieve higher stages: five, six, perhaps even seven. This is especially true of those who have been meditating according to some other method for a long time.

the mind illuminated

twi-ny: Now that the book is complete and published, out in the world, do you see your own teaching practice developing around it? What’s next?

Culadasa: Now that the book is available to a wider audience, I am finding a lot of people and organizations asking for my time. Due to my age and health, it’s simply impossible for me to respond to these requests. So over the last three years, I have been intensively training a brilliant group of people who will have a deep understanding of everything in the book and more. They will take over from me, so no, I don’t see myself building my teaching around it. I’ll be doing that initially, as I am now, but the baton will soon be passed to a younger generation.

As for myself, I am currently working on another book, one that I consider potentially even more important than The Mind Illuminated. I am hoping to present the Dharma to the world in terms that are understandable and acceptable to people everywhere, regardless of their religious affiliations or lack thereof. It is a book that I hope will transform the attitudes of people toward each other, and the dominant global culture, in time for us to save ourselves from ourselves.

twi-ny: As a meditation student and teacher myself, I appreciate the secular, neuroscience-based approach because it makes meditation available to so many who won’t try older styles of meditation training due to aversion to Eastern religion or “woo-woo.” But like many others, I’m skeptical that meditation training divorced from ethical training can actually be transformative. And ethics, whether religion-based or secular, is a very loaded subject. How would you explain your approach to this in the book?

Culadasa: You are absolutely right. Meditation divorced from the practice of virtue is quite limited in value and can only very rarely be transformative. But the West, and global culture in general, is fascinated by technology. Meditation is a kind of technology, so it’s a great way of getting people interested in the Dharma, and can make them aware of how much more it has to offer than just stress reduction, increased productivity, and better relationships. The practice of virtue in the Buddha’s teaching goes far beyond ethics. It is a powerful method in itself, contributing enormously to the arising of Insight and to the Awakening we all seek. The Eightfold Path has three parts: Wisdom, Virtue, and Meditation. They mutually support each other, and no one or even two of them can ever stand for long by itself. That is part of the reason I am working on my new book. It will provide the other two legs of the tripod.