twi-ny recommended events

SELECTED SHORTS: PAUL GIAMATTI CURATES STORIES FROM THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

Paul Giamatti is hosting and curating an evening of fiction from the New York Review of Books at Symphony Space

Paul Giamatti is hosting and curating an evening of fiction from the New York Review of Books at Symphony Space

Who: Paul Giamatti, Jane Kaczmarek, Billy Porter, Kathryn Erbe
What: Paul Giamatti Curates Stories from the New York Review of Books
Where: Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 2537 Broadway at 95th St., 212-864-5400
When: Wednesday, December 7, $30 ($80 premium), 7:30
Why: For more than fifty years, the New York Review of Books has been exploring American culture, society, and politics, publishing articles by prominent writers from around the world. On December 7, Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning Brooklynite Paul Giamatti will be at Symphony Space for the latest edition of “Selected Shorts,” in which actors and other artists read specially chosen short stories. Giamatti will be curating the evening, choosing fiction from the collection of the prestigious New York Review of Books, a roster that includes W. H. Auden, Anton Chekhov, Saki, Daphne du Maurier, Elizabeth Hardwick, and so many others. “I go to the New York Review of Books for everything weird, wild, classic, and obscure,” the star of Sideways, John Adams, and American Splendor explains. “They’ve got one of the greatest collections of authors, past and present, on the planet.” Taking the stage to perform the works will be seven-time Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle, Apollo 11), Tony winner Billy Porter (Kinky Boots, Shuffle Along), and Tony nominee Kathryn Erbe (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Speed of Darkness). The program is being held in cooperation with the NYRB Classics, a series “dedicated to publishing an eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction from different eras and times and of various sorts.”

FALSETTOS

(photo by Joan Marcus)

Marvin (Christian Borle) and Whizzer (Andrew Rannells) fall in love and become part of an unusual extended family in FALSETTOS (photo by Joan Marcus)

Walter Kerr Theatre
219 West 48th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through January 8, $42-$149
www.lct.org

I saw Falsettos, James Lapine’s new revival of his and William Finn’s beloved musical, during the Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS curtain-call appeal season, when cast members across the Great White Way ask audiences to donate to the nonprofit organization that has been helping those with HIV/AIDS for nearly thirty years. Andrew Rannells made the heartfelt announcement, and people gave money as they left the Walter Kerr Theatre. Although it’s always a poignant moment, it was especially powerful after this show, which came together in the 1980s and 1990s, featuring a heartbreaking plot in which Rannells’s character, Whizzer, contracts a mysterious, deadly disease in 1981. The first act, March of the Falsettos, debuted in 1981 and takes place two years earlier, when the “gay plague” was just beginning; the second act, Falsettoland, premiered in 1990 and is set in 1981. The acts merged into Falsettos in 1992, earning seven Tony nominations and winning two awards, for Best Book and Best Original Score. (There was also an earlier one-act musical about some of the same characters, Trousers, that ran in 1979 and then was revamped in 1985.) So this Lincoln Center revival of Falsettos arrived on Broadway with quite a history; you could feel the excitement before the show started, as the theater was abuzz with friends hugging and chatting so much that the ushers had a hard time convincing everyone to take their seat. At last it got under way, with Marvin (Christian Borle), Whizzer, Jason (Anthony Rosenthal), Mendel (Brandon Uranowitz), and Trina (Stephanie J. Block) singing “Four Jews in a Room Bitching.” And from that moment on, the legend of Falsettos escaped me.

(photo by Joan Marcus)

Jason (Anthony Rosenthal) swings for the fences in Lincoln Center revival of FALSETTOS on Broadway (photo by Joan Marcus)

Directed by Lapine (Act One, Finn’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), who wrote the book with composer and lyricist Finn, Falsettos is a groundbreaking show about a new kind of extended, dysfunctional family. Marvin has left his wife, Trina, and their eleven-year-old son, Jason, for his new love, Whizzer, but he still thinks everyone can be together. “I want a tight-knit family / I want a group that harmonizes / I want my wife and kid and friend / To pretend / Time will mend / Our pain,” Marvin sings. Trina has a session with Marvin’s psychiatrist, Mendel, who instantly falls in love with her. “It’s so upsetting when I found / That what’s rectangular is round / I mean, it stinks / I mean, he’s queer / And me, I’m just a freak,” Trina explains in “I’m Breaking Down,” a showstopping number by Block that brings down the house. Two years later, lesbian couple Charlotte (Tracie Thoms) and Cordelia (Betsy Wolfe) have moved in next door and Jason is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, beset by adolescent worries about girls and more. “Would they come, though, / If they were invited, / And not laugh / At my Hebrew / And not laugh / At my father and his friends,” he opines while displaying poor baseball skills. But when Whizzer gets sick, the characters all take a new look at their lives. “Something bad is happening / Something very bad is happening / Something stinks, something immoral / Something so bad that words have lost their meaning,” Charlotte, a doctor, declares. “Rumors fly and tales abound / Stories echo underground! / Something bad / Is spreading, spreading, spreading / ’Round!”

For most of the show, David Rockwell’s set consists of a gray Rubik’s Cube-like square that the cast can take apart and put back together, creating all kinds of furniture and objects, a clever metaphor for the makeshift family they form. The music was revolutionary for its time, with unexpected starts and stops, rises and falls, and multiple pitch changes as various characters chime in and conversationally sing on top of one another (the complex orchestrations are by Michael Starobin); the lyrics, however, are now dated, and the subplot of Jason’s Bar Mitzvah is an awkward device leading to the teary conclusion. Tony nominee Block (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 9 to 5: The Musical) is sensational, giving a don’t-miss performance as a strong woman whose life is turned upside down and inside out. Tony nominee Rannells (The Book of Mormon, Girls) is superb as the beautifully sly and sweetly vain Whizzer; together Block and Rannells overwhelm two-time Tony winner Borle (Peter and the Starcatcher, Something Rotten!). Tony nominee Uranowitz (An American in Paris) and Rosenthal (Newsies, A Christmas Story) provide fine support. Falsettos is a uniquely situated coming-of-age story as characters try to find their place in a difficult life, and in an extended family that was unusual for its time. Even if it’s not quite as earth-shaking today, the show’s emotional landscape remains sadly relevant.

OPEN SPECTRUM: WHAT WILL BE DIFFERENT?

what-will-be-different

Who: Rana Abdelhamid, Susana Cook, Margo Jefferson, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Adrienne Truscott, Lenora M. Lapidus, Catharine R. Stimpson
What: A Discussion on Women’s Lives After the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
Where: New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th St., 212-924-0077
When: Monday, December 5, $5, 7:00
Why: Much has been made about statistics that show forty-two percent of women voted for Donald Trump for president, choosing an accused sexist, misogynist, and worse over Hillary Clinton, a woman who has fought for the rights of women and children for decades. On December 5 at New York Live Arts, a group of women will take part in “An Open Spectrum: Critical Dialogues Forum,” addressing the topic “What Will Be Different? A Discussion on Women’s Lives After the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” Curated by Brian Tate and Janet Wong, the event will feature WISE founding president Rana Abdelhamid, performance artist Susana Cook, Pulitzer Prize–winning critc Margo Jefferson, arts activist Elizabeth A. Sackler, PhD, and multidisciplinary choreographer, writer, and performer Adrienne Truscott; feminist scholar Catharine R. Stimpson will serve as moderator, and ACLU Women’s Rights Project director Lenora M. Lapidus will deliver special remarks. Held in conjunction with MAPP International, the talk will focus on how women’s lives and gender equality might be affected during Trump’s presidency and what can be done about it; a wine reception will follow.

THE NATIONAL THEATRE OF SCOTLAND: THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART

National Theatre of Scotlands THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART

National Theatre of Scotland’s THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART is now playing at the McKittrick Hotel

The McKittrick Hotel
542 West 27th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through January 29, $65-$125
www.strangeundoing.com
www.mckittrickhotel.com

For five years, Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More has been taking audiences all around the mysterious McKittrick Hotel, five floors of immersive theatrics inspired by Macbeth. Now the National Theatre of Scotland is coming to the Chelsea building, where it will present The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart in the Heath, the hotel’s bar and music venue, which has been transformed into a Scottish pub. Previews have started, with the opening set for December 13, but December tickets, which range from $65 to $125, are going fast; the show, which has elements of the supernatural amid academia, is scheduled to run through January 29. Strange Undoing was written by David Greig, who appropriately enough wrote Dunsinane, a sequel to Macbeth; he also penned the book for the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is due on Broadway next spring. The director is Wils Wilson (Wind Resistance, Praxis Makes Perfect), with set design by Georgia McGuinness (Midsummer, Arabian Nights) and music (inspired by Border Ballads) performed live by composer Alasdair Macrae and Annie Grace; the cast features Melody Grove, Peter Hannah, and Paul McCole.

NOAH BAUMBACH IN PERSON: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

take measure of their lives in THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Lili (Anna Paquin) take measure of their lives in THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Monday, December 5, $15, 7:00
212-660-0312
metrograph.com

After an eight-year break from directing, Noah Baumbach returned with the exceptional, unexpected drama The Squid and the Whale. You’ll think you’ll know just where this semiautobiographical 2005 Sundance Film Festival award winner (for writing and directing) and New York Film Festival hit is going — yet another painfully realistic look into the dissolution of a New York City family — but lo and behold, The Squid and the Whale will surprise you over and over again. And even when it does head toward the cliché route, it adds just the right twist to keep things fresh. Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan Berkman (Laura Linney) are reaching the end of their marriage, and their two sons, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline), aren’t handling it very well; Walt is taking credit for having written Pink Floyd’s “Hey You,” and Frank has developed the curious habit of pleasuring himself and then – well, you’ll have to see it to believe it. And while Joan hits the dating scene and has begun writing, Bernard is becoming a woolly has-been author who just might be getting the hots for one of his sexy students (Anna Paquin). Set in 1986 Park Slope (there are scenes shot in Prospect Park, the Santa Fe Grill, and other familiar Brooklyn locations) and at the American Museum of Natural History, The Squid and the Whale features sharp dialogue, well-developed characters, and outstanding acting from a terrific ensemble that includes several rising stars. The soundtrack includes Lou Reed’s great “Street Hassle” and a score, composed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (of Luna), that borrows liberally from Risky Business, of all things. The Squid and the Whale is screening December 5 at 7:00 at Metrograph, with Baumbach (Frances Ha, Greenberg) on hand for a Q&A. As a bonus, the first 150 ticket holders will receive a Criterion tote bag and a copy of the director-approved Criterion Blu-Ray 4K digital transfer of the film, a package that includes new interviews with Baumbach, Daniels, Eisenberg, Kline, Linney, Wareham, and Phillips, a behind-the-scenes documentary, audition footage, a booklet essay by Kent Jones, and Jonathan Lethem’s 2005 interview of Baumbach. (A 9:15, $15 screening has been added as well, without the Q&A or goodie bag.)

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: FRANKENSTEIN

Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch switch roles in National Theatre production of FRANKENSTEIN (photo by Catherine Ashmore)

Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch switch roles in National Theatre production of FRANKENSTEIN (photo by Catherine Ashmore)

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Sunday, December 4, $25, 11:00 am (version B)
Monday, December 5, $25, 7:00 (version A)
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk

In early 2011, Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) staged Nick Dear’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at the National Theatre, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch alternating in the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. If you couldn’t make it to London to see the show, you can now catch it as part of the National Theatre Live series, which screens theatrical productions in movie theaters across the country. Both versions of Frankenstein will be shown at IFC Center, with Miller (Elemental, The Flying Scotsman) playing the Creature on December 4 at 11:00 am and Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Imitation Game) as Frankenstein’s monster on December 5 at 7:00. The Daily Mail called Frankenstein “a memorable production and will doubtless be spoken of for years to come,” while the Guardian declared it “a humane, intelligent retelling of the original story in which much of the focus is on the plight of the obsessive scientist’s sad creation, who becomes his alter ego and his nemesis: it’s rather like seeing The Tempest rewritten from Caliban’s point of view.” The two-hour show, which earned both Miller and Cumberbatch the Olivier Award as Best Actor, also features Naomie Harris, Karl Johnson, Ella Smith, George Harris, and Andreea Paduraru, with music by Underworld, set design by Mark Tildesley (28 Days Later, 24-Hour Party People), and costumes by Suttirat Larlarb (Slumdog Millionaire, Sunshine).

HOLIDAY POP-UP PHOTOBOOTH (NOTE NEW DATE AND DETAILS)

holiday-popup-photo-booth

Bushwick Community Darkroom
110 Troutman St.
Saturday, December 10, $20, 2:00 – 8:00
718-218-4023
www.bushwickcommunitydarkroom.com

Looking for just the right place to take your holiday photo? The Bushwick Community Darkroom is opening up its studio on Troutman St. on December 10 for a holiday pop-up photobooth where twenty bucks buys you a twenty-minute professional photo shoot with one of the community photographers. The pictures will be taken on film and developed and scanned for you right there. You will be able to select from among various backdrops, props, costumes, and cameras, or you can bring your own. In addition, there will be free snacks until there isn’t. You can either book online in advance or take your chances when you come by.