twi-ny recommended events

CHRISTOPHER LEE: THE MUMMY

Christopher Lee is about to get wrapped up in murderous trouble in THE MUMMY

WAVERLY MIDNIGHTS: THE MUMMY (Terence Fisher, 1959)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Friday, February 26, and Saturday, February 27, 12:20 AM
Series runs through March 19
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Knighted British actor Christopher Lee might be best known to the younger generations as the evil wizard Saruman in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, but over the course of more than two hundred movies Lee, who passed away last June at the age of ninety-three, also portrayed Fu Manchu, Georges Seurat, Sherlock Holmes, Rasputin, Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and the Mummy. The IFC Center’s eight-film Waverly Midnights tribute to Lee, who also hosted Saturday Night Live back in 1978 (you can watch him introduce Meat Loaf here), continues February 26-27 with Lee as the immortal character in Terence Fisher’s 1959 Hammer favorite, The Mummy, a remake of Karl Freund’s 1932 original starring Boris Karloff. On an archaeological excavation in Egypt, John Banning (Peter Cushing), his father, Stephen Banning (Felix Aylmer), and his uncle, Joseph Whemple (Raymond Huntley), discover the vast tomb of Princess Ananka (Yvonne Furneaux). Warned by an Egyptian zealot, Mehemet Bey (George Pastell), to leave the tomb undisturbed, the older Banning instead reads from the Scroll of Life, unleashing the murderous mummy Kharis (Christopher Lee), who had dutifully protected his princess centuries before. Three years later, Bey arrives in England with Kharis, determined to have the mummy wreak revenge on the three men who dared disrespect Princess Ananka and the god they both served, Karnak.

The Mummy is a horror hoot, one of the scary-fun monster movies that were trademarks of Hammer productions. Writer Jimmy Sangster (Blood of the Vampire, The Horror of Frankenstein) and director Terence Fisher (The Phantom of the Opera, The Earth Dies Screaming) get right to the point, avoiding grand statements and instead gleefully satisfying pop culture’s fascination with ancient ritual and religion while being sure to embrace all the genre tropes, including a local drunk (Gerald Lawson), a disbelieving lawman (Eddie Byrne), and a beautiful woman (Furneaux) who might just hold the secret that will save everyone. Veteran Hammer cinematographer Jack Asher keeps the look of the film lovingly murky in the present and pastel-colored in the past, while Franz Reizenstein’s score ebbs and flows right on time. It’s always a treat to see Cushing and Lee side-by-side; they made twenty-two films together, from Hamlet and Moulin Rouge to The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Gorgon, and Night of the Big Heat, the last five all directed by Fisher, and The Mummy is one of their best. While the erudite Cushing struggles to make sure he limps with the same bad leg from scene to scene, the tall, magnetic Lee acts up a storm with just his piercing eyes, which shine a glow that goes much deeper than just a zombielike killer’s. Sure, it gets silly at some points and clichéd at others, but hey, it’s a Hammer horror film. The Mummy is screening at 12:20 am on February 26 & 27; the series continues March 11-12 with Joe Dante’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch (seriously; we’re not kidding) and concludes March 18-19 with Raul Garcia’s Extraordinary Tales, the 2013 Edgar Allan Poe omnibus that features the voices of Lee, Roger Corman, Bela Legosi, Julian Sands, and others.

MAKE HISTORY WITH “THE GOLDEN BRIDE”

The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is bringing back THE GOLDEN BRIDE to the Museum of Jewish Heritage this summer, with your help (photo by Ben Moody)

Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Pl.
Sunday-Monday and Wednesday-Thursday, July 4 through August 28, $30-$50
866-811-4111
nytf.org
www.rockethub.com

This past December, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene brought back the wonderful operetta The Golden Bride for a celebrated, though too-short, run at its new home at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. In the show, which had not been seen in seventy years and required extensive detective work to reassemble, the title character is suddenly left a small fortune when her long-absent father dies. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that any unexpected windfall is coming NYTF’s way, so the nonprofit organization, now in its 101st season, has taken to RocketHub to raise funds for the show’s return to MJH this summer, from July 4 to August 28. The company is seeking to raise thirty thousand dollars by March 16; it recently passed the twenty-percent mark with twenty-two days left. You can become a “supporting producer” with a donation of ten bucks; as your donation increases, so do your rewards, which range from your name printed in the program and an audio or video file of a song from the show ($18) to a print of original costume design sketches ($25) to one ticket to the show and a backstage tour ($100), from a feast with the creative team at the Second Ave. Deli ($100) to two tickets to the show and a one-hour private voice lesson with music director Zalmen Mlotek ($200) to two tickets and a walk-on part in the show ($1,000), among others. “Never before in my eighteen years as artistic director has NYTF had such a public outpouring of demand for one of its productions,” Mlotek said in a statement. “It’s truly humbling and exciting to be able to bring back the show.” The Golden Bride is a genuine treat, and with your help more people will get to partake in its splendiferousness.

TICKET ALERT: THE FREEDOM SEDER

freedom seder

Who: David Broza, Peter Yarrow, Michael Dorf, and more than a dozen other special guests
What: Sixteenth annual Downtown Seder
Where: City Winery, 155 Varick St. between Spring & Vandam Sts., 212-608-0555
When: Wednesday, April 13, $75-$135 ($25 surcharge for glatt kosher)
Why: A limited number of tickets will go on sale to the general public on Thursday, February 25, at 3:00 for the sixteenth annual Downtown Seder, aka the Freedom Seder, hosted by City Winery owner Michael Dorf. Among those performing at the interactive event, which is being held on April 13, nine days before the actual beginning of Passover, will be beloved Israeli musician David Broza and legendary American singer-songwriter-activist Peter Yarrow. Past participants have included Al Franken, Harvey Fierstein, Lewis Black, Dr. Ruth, Judy Gold, Lou Reed, Neil Sedaka, and many others. Tickets for VinoFile members go on sale two days earlier, at 3:00 today (February 23), so you’ll have to act quickly if you want to partake in the ritual about the Exodus from Egypt in one of New York’s best music venues. How can you go wrong with a setlist likely to include “Dayenu,” “Chad Gadya,” “Mah Nishtnanah,” and “The Ten Plagues”?

THE BIG OSCARS QUIZ THING

biq quiz oscars thing

(le) poisson rouge
158 Bleecker St.
Sunday, February 28, $10 in advance, $15 at the door, 5:30
212-505-4474
www.bigquizthing.com
www.lepoissonrouge.com

Just how good is your knowledge of Oscar history? How do you do every year in your Oscar pool? You can test your skill on Sunday night, when the Big Quiz Thing hosts its fourth annual Academy Award–themed multimedia team trivia competition. The Big Oscars Quiz Thing will take place at (le) poisson rouge in Greenwich Village, leading right into the actual Oscars telecast, which will be broadcast live at the club on large screens, starting with the red carpet; Quizmaster EdP will keep the trivia questions coming during the Oscars show. Among the giveaways you’ll be trying to win are passes to On Location Tours, an Intro to Improv class at the PIT, Insomnia cookies to make sure you stay awake for what is always a rather long ceremony, a membership to (le) poisson rouge, screening passes to Videology, passes to the Broadway Comedy Club, and tickets to Scott’s Pizza Tours. Here’s one question to get you going, and remember, no cheating: Who was the youngest actor to ever win an Oscar?

WOMEN ON THE RISE: SLEEP

Haruki Murakami fans can get a sneak peek at the work-in-progress version of SLEEP this weekend at Japan Society

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
February 26-28, $20
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

“This is my seventeenth straight day without sleep. I’m not talking about insomnia.” So begins Haruki Murakami’s short story “Sleep,” which can be found in his 1993 collection of short stories, The Elephant Vanishes. The tale of a Japanese housewife who is “both a body on the verge of sleep and a mind determined to stay awake” is being adapted into a stage production by Obie-winning troupes Ripe Time (The World Is Round, And Suddenly a Kiss . . .) and the Play Company (Abyss, The Wildness); a work-in-progress will be shown February 26-28 at Japan Society. Although only two of his novels (Hear the Wind Sing and Norwegian Wood) and one of his short stories (Tony Takitani) have been turned into feature films, two of his books (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore) and many of his short stories have been adapted for the stage, including three tales from The Elephant Vanishes that were combined in Simon McBurney’s production for the 2004 Lincoln Center Festival. An investigation into roles and boundaries, Sleep is part of Japan Society’s “Women on the Rise” initiative, highlighting works by women who are making a difference in their field. Sleep is directed and devised by Ripe Time founder Rachel Dickstein, adapted by Naomi Iizuka (Language of Angels, 17 Reasons [Why]), and performed by Akiko Aizawa, Brad Culver, Takemi Kitamura, Paula McGonagle, Jiehae Park, and Saori Tsukada. The original score is composed and played live by Katie Down and NewBorn Trio (Down and Miguel Frasconi on glass objects and Jeffrey Lependorf on shakuhachi), with set design by Mimi Lien, projections by Hannah Wasileski, lighting by Jiyoun Chang, and costumes by Ilona Somogyi. Although the three-show run is sold out, keep checking the box office should tickets become available on February 24; otherwise, you’ll have to wait until 2017 when the final version comes to New York City. The February 26 performance will be followed by a reception with the artists.

THE MARIINSKY AT BAM: A TRIBUTE TO MAYA PLISETSKAYA

Mariinsky principal dancer Uliana Lopatkina is part of four-night tribute to Maya Plisetskaya at BAM (photo by Natasha Razina)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
February 24-28, $30-$175
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.mariinsky.ru/en

Last May, Maya Plisetskaya, who became an international star with the Bolshoi Ballet in the 1950s and ’60s, passed away at the age of eighty-nine. Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre will be honoring the legacy of the legendary prima ballerina in its second annual residency at BAM this week. “It has always seemed to me that books were written by people who were absolutely extraordinary. Supersmart. Superscholarly,” the absolutely extraordinary dancer and choreographer writes in the preface to her 2001 memoir, I, Maya Plisetskaya. “And here was a ballerina picking up the pen. It reminded me of an old joke. When a huge ship, practically the Titanic, sank in the ocean, only two passengers survived, because they could float: a government minister, because he was such a big turd, and a ballerina, because she was an airhead.” Running February 25-28, “A Tribute to Maya Plisetskaya” is divided into four programs, featuring current Mariinsky principals Uliana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva, neither of whom have been called airheads, performing live with the Mariinsky Orchestra, with musical direction by Mariinsky artistic and general director Valery Gergiev and either Gergiev or Alexei Repnikov conducting. (As a bonus, on February 24, Gergiev will conduct “Folk, Form, and Fire: The Prokofiev Piano Concertos,” with the Mariinsky Orchestra and soloists George Li, Alexander Toradze, Daniil Trifonov, Sergei Redkin, and Sergei Babayan.)

Woman in the Room (photo by Gene Schiavone)

Diana Vishneva will perform “Woman in a Room” as part of Mariinsky tribute to Maya Plisetskaya at BAM (photo by Gene Schiavone)

On February 25, Vishneva and other members of the Mariinsky Ballet Company will perform Carmen Suite, choreographed by Albert Alonso specifically for Plisetskaya and with music by Rodion Shchedrin after Georges Bizet; Lopatkina will dance Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Dying Swan, choreographed by Michel Fokine; and, on film from 1975, Plisetskaya will be seen in Maurice Ravel’s Boléro, choreographed by Maurice Béjart. The February 26 schedule consists of ten pieces honoring Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky, who had profound effects on Plisetskaya’s career; the evening includes Valeriya Martinuk and Alexei Popov performing the pas de deux of Colombine and Harlequin from Robert Schumann’s Le Carnaval, choreographed by Michel Fokine; Maria Shirinkina and Vladimir Shklyarov joining in Carl Maria von Weber’s Le Spectre de la rose, also choreographed by Fokine; Lopatkina and Roman Belyakov teaming up in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Pavlova and Cecchetti, choreographed by John Neumeier; and Martinuk and Popov taking on Tchaikovsky’s pas de deux of Princess Florine and the Bluebird from The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Marius Petipa. Vishneva is the star attraction on February 27, performing Carmen Suite and 2013’s Woman in a Room, with choreography by Carolyn Carlson and music by Giovanni Sollima and René Aubry, inspired by the films of Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky. The tribute concludes February 28 with a dozen works celebrating Plisetskaya, Pavlova, and Galina Ulanova, with Ekaterina Osmolkina and Maxim Zyuzin performing the Maria and Vaslav adagio from Boris Asafyev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov; Lopatkina and Andrey Ermakov in Gustav Mahler’s La Rose Malade, choreographed by Roland Petit; Lopatkina and Shklyarov in an excerpt from Shchedrin’s The Little Humped Back Horse, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky; and Martinuk and Zyuzin performing the act III adagio from Farid Yarullin’s Shurale, choreographed by Leonid Yakobson. “I planned the book for a local, Russian audience,” Plisetskaya explains in her memoir. “But I was also thinking about a far-away Western audience. The far-away ones who know very little about the byways, the delirious fantasies, the masquerades of our strange, incredible, and unbelievable former Soviet life.” For four nights, all of that will be brought together in Brooklyn at BAM, where you can also currently see the Maly Drama Theatre’s marvelous version of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

GREATER NEW YORK

Lionel Maunz’s “Fertilize My Mouth” emphasizes feeling of absence at “Greater New York ”show at MoMA PS1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Thursday – Monday through March 7, suggested donation $5-$10 (free with MoMA ticket within fourteen days of MoMA visit), 12 noon – 6:00 pm
718-784-2084
momaps1.org

The fourth iteration of MoMA PS1’s quinquennial exhibition, “Greater New York,” is very much about absence and presence, what is not there as well as what is. Instead of focusing primarily on up-and-coming artists, curators Peter Eleey, Douglas Crimp, Thomas J. Lax, Mia Locks, Mark Beasley, and Jenny Schlenzka have included works by nearly 150 artists, more than 60 of whom are over 50 (or would have been if they were still alive), resulting in a wide-ranging look at how New York City and the art market have changed over the last generations. James Nares’s 1976 Super 8 video “Pendulum” shows a wrecking ball ominously swinging in an empty Tribeca alley but not actually knocking anything down — yet. Amy Brener encases such found objects as watches, motherboards, and calculators into colorful resin, foam, glass, and plaster sculptures that harken back to a long-gone era. Alvin Baltrop’s silver gelatin prints remind us what the piers were like prior to renovation and gentrification and what gay life was like before AIDS. Liene Bosquê uses found souvenirs from around the world to construct imaginary cities in “Recollection.” Henry Flynt’s SAMO© Graffiti Portfolio photographs from 1979 reintroduce us to Jean-Michel Basquiat. A large gallery of lifelike sculptures by Tony Matelli, Elizabeth Jaeger, John Ahearn, Judith Shea, and others create a false sense of reality and investigate the human figure and physical relationships. Joy Episalla’s photos of motel bedrooms reflected in television sets fill viewers with personal memories. Fierce Pussy’s “For the Record” features backward text about the AIDS crisis, repeating such sentences as “he would be at this opening if she were alive today” (sic).

Amy Brener repurposes found items into memory sculptures at “Greater New York ”show at MoMA PS1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Glenn Ligon’s silkscreened “Housing in New York: A Brief History” details the various places he lived between 1960 and 2007 and reveal how the neighborhoods changed. In the boiler room, Lionel Maunz’s cast iron and concrete “Fertilize My Mouth” consists of a pair of disembodied legs standing in front of a tilted slab of concrete on which something bad appears to have happened. Louise Lawler’s “Not Yet Titled (adjusted to fit)” is a stretched photo of Gordon Matta-Clark’s “Bingo” sculpture of a derelict house. And photographs of Matta-Clark’s “Building Cuts” into the walls of PS1 back in 1976 bring the exhibition full circle. Among the other artists in the show are Chantal Akerman, Richard Artschwager, Dara Birnbaum, Mel Bochner, Rudy Burckhardt, John Giorno, William Greaves, Yvonne Rainer, Ugo Rondinone, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, and Sergei Tcherepnin. If you were around in the 1970s, you know that New York City was not exactly a paradise — and “Greater New York” takes us back there while also putting it all in a contemporary now you see it, now you don’t context.

Sound comes and goes in Christine Sun Kim’s visitor-operated “Game of Skill 2.0” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The exhibition will be on view through March 7, and there are still a handful of programs left on the schedule. On February 21 at 4:00, Hayley Aviva Silverman’s live-action “Twister” casts dogs as characters from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist and Jan de Bont’s 1996 disaster film, Twister; Shirley Clarke’s The Cool World is being shown February 21-27; on February 25 at 7:00, Fia Backström will perform “Aphasia as a visual shape of speaking – A-production and other language syndromes”; on February 28 at 1:00, Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts New York will host participatory activities; on February 28 at 4:00, Devin Kenny will deliver the performance essay “Love, the Sinner”; short films by Ken Jacobs, Jack Smith, Ira Sachs, and others are screening February 28 through March 7; on March 3 & 4 at 7:00, Geo Wyeth will present “Storm Excellent Salad”; and on March 6, you can catch Stewart Uoo’s “It’s Get Better III” at 3:00 and Angie Keefer’s roundtable “What Is Authority?” at 4:00.