twi-ny recommended events

CONEY ISLAND USA SPRING FUNDRAISING GALA: CONEY ISLAND HORROR STORY

Coney Island USA
1208 Surf Ave. between Stillwell Ave. & West 12th St.
Saturday, March 28, $100-$150, 7:00 – 12 midnight
www.coneyisland.com

Arts fundraisers can be pretty stuffy affairs, so leave it to Coney Island USA to do things just a little bit differently. On March 28, their gala spring fundraiser — taking place for the first time ever in its home base on Surf Ave. — will feature daring burlesque, sideshow performers, a Mystery in a Box, and more. The Coney Island Horror Story theme is a riff on this past season of American Horror Story, which was set at a freak show, and AHS star Mat Fraser will take part in the festivities, along with his wife, Julie Atlas Muz, and a fab cast of characters that also includes Deity Von Cuchi, Velvet Crayon, Jennifer Miller, Clara Coquette, Ginger Twist, La Maia, Puss n Boots, Sincerely Yours, Sizzle Dizzle, Tiny D, Zoe Ziegfeld, Adam Realman, Wae Messed, Betsy Propane, Divina GranSparkle, Sabrena Sunshine, Agent Topchik, Betty Bloomerz, Ray Valenz, Princess Pat, Alejandro DuBois, Sean Coleman and the Quasars, and Lara Hope and the Ark-Tones. In addition, the Great Fredini will be on hand, making his Scan-a-Rama 3D portrait, and there will be a silent auction. All of the proceeds go into Coney Island USA’s unique programming, consisting of such favorites as the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Film Festival, the Coney Island Museum, Burlesque at the Beach, and the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. (VIP tickets entitle you to early admission, a meet-and-greet with some of the performers, a gift bag, and unlimited beer, wine, and food.)

HELENA RUBINSTEIN: BEAUTY IS POWER

“Beauty Is Power” exhibition includes a wall of portraits of Madame Rubinstein (© The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo by: David Heald)

The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.,
Thursday – Sunday, $12-$15 (pay-what-you-wish Thursdays from 5:00 to 8:00, Saturdays free 11:00 to 5:45),
212-423-3200
thejewishmuseum.org

“Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power” is more than just a bountiful look into the art collection of the legendary entrepreneur; it’s a wonderfully curated examination of an Eastern European immigrant who lived the American dream — and was determined to share it with as many women as she could. “When Helena Rubinstein died in 1965, age 92, she was still in sole command of her global cosmetics empire and still very much a force in the world of fashion, style, and image,” curator Mason Klein writes in the exhibition catalog. “By the time of her death, she had salons in cities worldwide and homes in London, Paris, New York, the south of France, and Greenwich, Connecticut, all but the last functioning as showcases for her decorative fantasies, replete with swelling and rotating collections. She had influenced generations of women, not only in terms of self-image, but also as a role model of individuality.” Born in Poland on Christmas Day, 1872, Rubinstein, the oldest child of a Kraków shopkeeper and a housewife, built a massively successful business that spread around the world, selling cosmetics that showed women of all means that they could be beautiful — an inner and outer beauty they could use to better their place in life.

The exhibit consists of approximately two hundred objects, from paintings, drawings, and sculptures Madame, as she was known, collected in addition to photographs, print advertisements, promotional film clips, excerpts from television interviews, jewelry, cosmetics, and personal paraphernalia that reveal her impact as an international tastemaker. On view are works by Elie Nadelman, Frida Kahlo, Max Ernst, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, and others, highlighted by a series of drawings of Madame done by Pablo Picasso and a wall of portraits of her through the years by such artists as Marie Laurencin and Andy Warhol. There’s also an ample display of her love of African and Oceanic sculpture, as well as exquisite, elegant miniature rooms. Rubinstein’s salons were not just a place of physical transformation but also a welcoming space where women could come and discuss art, literature, fashion, and the modern world, putting them on a par with men. “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones,” Rubinstein famously said. She also claimed, “Beauty is power,” a way of life for her, as this exhibition so thoroughly proves.

WONDER OF WONDERS: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

Who: Drama critic and author Alisa Solomon
What: Theatre for a New Audience’s Open Books Series 2015
Where: Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Pl. between Fulton St. & Lafayette Ave., 212-229-2819
When: Monday, March 23, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
Why: Theatre for a New Audience’s Open Books series continues with Alisa Solomon presenting her book Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof (Picador, September 2014), an engaging analysis of one of Broadway’s most popular musicals ever, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film. “As the first work of American popular culture to recall life in a shtetl — the Eastern European market towns with large Jewish populations — Fiddler felt tender, elegiac, even holy,” Solomon writes in the introduction. “It arrived just ahead of (and helped to instigate) the American roots movement. It was added to multicultural curricula and studied by students across the country in Jewish history units, as if Fiddler were an artifact unearthed from a destroyed world rather than a big-story musical assembled by showbiz professionals.” The free evening will include a conversation between Solomon and moderator Jonathan Kalb, an audience Q&A, a book signing, complimentary food and drink, and a meet-and-greet with Solomon.

REGULAR EINSTEIN / LAZY LIONS RECORD RELEASE SHOW

Regular Einstein is back with first album since 1999

The Rock Shop
249 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn
Friday, March 20, $7-$10, 8:00
718-230-5740
www.therockshopny.com

Two of the smartest bands around will be at the Rock Shop in Brooklyn on Friday night, March 20, one of them celebrating its first record in more than fifteen years, the other debuting its first full-length. There’s a good reason why we asked Paula Carino to play at our tenth anniversary party at Fontana’s in 2011; she kicks some real ass. The Brooklyn-based singer, guitarist, and songwriter, who has released such well-received solo albums as Aquacade and Open on Sunday, is back with her first band, Regular Einstein (Seven Deadly Songs, Robots Helping Robots), and is about to release the record she’s always been destined to make, Chimp Haven. On the twelve-track release, Carino’s voice is sharper than ever, perfectly in tune with her quick-witted, incisive lyrics about difficult love, the pains and pleasures of self-awareness, and searching for one’s place in the world. “I’m stumbling on all my lines / I fumbled the soliloquy / I wanted to pretend I’m fine / So you would not think ill of me / Cuz when you come back into town / I become a clumsy liar / I’m an amateur production of / A Streetcar Named Desire,” she sings on “Bad Actor,” going on to reference Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Madonna, and other Hollywood thespians. On “Never Saw It Coming” she admits, “I would always skip ahead / No one crying, no one dead / So I never saw it coming.” Featuring original Einsteiners David Benjoya on guitar and keyboards and Andy Mattina on bass, with Nancy Polstein, who joined the band in 2010, on drums, Regular Einstein sounds fresh and bursting with life on the record, which features pristine production from Love Camp 7’s Dann Baker as the band shifts from power pop to postpunk to 1960s jangle, with nods to the Kinks, the Pretenders, the Beatles, and the Ramones. How can you not love a group that declares, “From Forest Hills to Jamaica Bay / Flushing our sunny side away.” Chimp Haven, which boasts cover art by primate Cody from Save the Chimps, is a whirlwind of a record, a burst of sweet, infectious energy from one of New York City’s most underrated talents.

Lazy Lions will be at Rock Shop celebrating release of debut record

“Believe me / The good times are coming soon / The good times are here,” Carino sings on the jazz-blues charmer “The Good Times.” The bad times are here as well, as portrayed on Lazy Lions’ darker but no less brainy When Dreaming Lets You Down. . . . “Crapped out once again / Fate’s made fools of wiser men / Even the best umbrellas will complain / After weeks and weeks of heavy rain / ’Cause when the wind comes in and starts to slap / The feather’s right out of your cap / The sharpest knife can’t make the cut / You might as well sew your pockets shut,” Jim Allen sings on “Let the Bad Times Roll,” one of twelve tracks that delve into the colder aspects of life and love, feeling right on target during this brutal winter. “Jesus, it’s freezing out here,” he adds later. Singer, keyboardist, and chief songwriter Allen, guitarist Robert Sorkin, bassist Anne-Marie Stehn, and drummer Sean McMorris pay homage to Elvis Costello, Robert Gordon, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, and Graham Parker on the album, with Allen’s deep-throated voice front and center in the mix. “Did you ever feel the winter’s bite?” he asks over a soaring organ on “February.” Meanwhile, for Lazy Lions, it’s not always mind over matter; “The heart hasn’t spoken / Because the head still hasn’t gotten all the facts,” Allen explains on the honky-tonkin’ “Tiny Little Cracks.” The band certainly has its facts when it comes to crafting astute pop songs, making When Dreaming Lets You Down… a canny debut. At the Rock Shop, Regular Einstein goes on at 10:00, followed by Lazy Lions at 11:00; the evening opens with Brooklyn punks Tanuki Suit.

FREE CLASSIC SMASHBURGER DAY

Smashburger will open its doors in the Financial District on March 18 with free burgers (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Smashburger
136 William St. between Fulton & John Sts.
Wednesday, March 18, free, 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
646-666-0814
smashburger.com

Denver-based Smashburger is hitting New York City as it opens a series of eateries, including on DeKalb Ave. in Brooklyn and West Thirty-Third St. in Manhattan. On Wednesday, March 18, Smashburger will celebrate the opening of its Financial District restaurant, on William St., by giving out free Classic Smashburgers all day long. What makes this burgery different from all the others? Well, here they smash, sear, and season each 100% certified angus beef patty to order. The Classic comes with lettuce, tomato, pickle, red onion, and cheese; you can check out the full menu here.

HAMILTON

Lin-Manuel Miranda turns Alexander Hamilton into a hip-hop star in rousing musical at the Public (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Public Theater, Newman Theater
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
Tuesday – Sunday through May 3, $120
212-967-7555
www.publictheater.org
www.hamiltonbroadway.com

Six years ago, the Public Theater turned the seventh president of the United States into a rock star in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a breakthrough show that later transferred to Broadway. Now the Public, best known for its Shakespeare productions, has done it again with Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s thrilling hip-hop bio-musical about another founding father, Alexander Hamilton. The same month that Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson opened at the Public, Miranda was at the White House for “An Evening of Poetry, Music & the Spoken Word,” at which he premiered a song from The Hamilton Mixtape, which he called “a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip-hop, Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton. You laugh, but it’s true! He was born a penniless orphan in St. Croix of illegitimate birth, became George Washington’s right-hand man, became Treasury secretary, caught beef with every other founding father, and all on the strength of his writing.” Inspired by Ron Chernow’s massive 2004 biography of Hamilton, Miranda tells the story of Hamilton’s dramatic rise and fall as the determinedly ambitious orphan seeks to make a difference in the world. Miranda, whose In the Heights won Tonys for Best Musical and Best Score in 2008, once again teams with director Thomas Kail, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, and musical director and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire, with Miranda playing the title character with charm and gusto. On his journey, Hamilton meets up with future nemesis Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.), the very serious General George Washington (Christopher Jackson), the fun-loving Marquis de Lafayette (Daveed Diggs), the dubious Thomas Jefferson (Diggs) and his dour protégé, James Madison (Okieriete Onaodowan), and the beautiful sisters Eliza and Angelica Schuyler (Phillipa Soo and Renée Elise Goldsberry, respectively), both of whom he has the hots for. Miranda follows Hamilton’s ascent as a major player in the American Revolution, a rise that is ultimately thwarted by sexual blackmail and a duel with Burr.

Thomas Jefferson (Daveed Diggs) and Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) engage in a rap battle in HAMILTON (photo by Joan Marcus)

Hamilton explodes from the opening number, in which Miranda and company set the stage for what is to come, from Miranda’s almost-too-cool lyrics to David Korins’s wood-heavy set with a revolving center, from Paul Tazewell’s pristine period costumes to Lacamoire’s splendid orchestrations. “The ten-dollar founding father without a father / Got a lot farther by working a lot harder / By being a lot smarter / By being a self-starter,” Miranda declares. Miranda, who has also won an Emmy and a Grammy, glistens as Hamilton, eschewing any attempt to try to look like him — instead, he sports a mustache, goatee, and long black hair, sometimes put up in a ponytail — in favor of reaching deep inside to find what made the founding father tick. The show has several memorable set pieces, including a rap battle between Jefferson and Hamilton, a call for women’s rights led by the Schuyler sisters, and hysterical musical soliloquys by Jonathan Groff as King George that evoke The Rocky Horror Show. Exhilarating, endlessly energetic, and, yes, even educational, Hamilton is following in the footsteps of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, moving to Broadway on July 13. Advance tickets for the Public run are sold out, but a limited number of twenty-dollar seats are available through a daily lottery in the lobby.

ALBERT MAYSLES TRIBUTE AND MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER OPEN HOUSE

The life and career of Albert Maysles will be celebrated on March 22 at the Maysles Documentary Center

Maysles Documentary Center
343 Lenox Ave./Malcolm X Blvd. between 127th & 128th Sts.
Sunday, March 22, free with advance registration, 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
maysles.org

In the 1960s and ’70s, Albert Maysles, his brother, David, and Charlotte Zwerin changed the face of documentary filmmaking and cinéma vérité with such genre-redefining works as What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA, Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Grey Gardens, breaking down the fourth wall as they photographed their subjects. “As a documentarian I happily place my fate and faith in reality,” Albert explained. “It is my caretaker, the provider of subjects, themes, experiences — all endowed with the power of truth and the romance of discovery. And the closer I adhere to reality the more honest and authentic my tales. After all, knowledge of the real world is exactly what we need to better understand and therefore possibly to love one another. It’s my way of making the world a better place.” David passed away in January 1987 at the age of fifty-five, Zwerin died in 2004 at seventy-two, and now Albert has left us, saying farewell on March 5 at the age of eighty-eight, having helped make the world a better place. Of course, his legacy lives on, in the works of so many other documentarians, from Errol Morris to Andrew Jarecki, as well as with the film center that bears his name, the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem. On Sunday, March 22, the MDC will host an all-day tribute to its legendary founder with an open house, screenings, and special introductions; admission is free with advance registration. The celebration begins at 11:00 with the 1965 short Meet Marlon Brando, 1964’s What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA, and a reception. Other programs include With Love from Truman and Salesman at 2:00, Ozawa and Muhammad and Larry at 5:00, and Running Fence, Cut Piece, Salvador Dali’s Fantastic Dream, and excerpts from Muhammad and Larry and Iris at 8:00. “Remember, as a documentarian you are an observer, an author but not a director, a discoverer, not a controller,” Maysles said in describing his craft. “Don’t worry that your presence with the camera will change things. Not if you’re confident you belong there and understand that in your favor is that of the two instincts, to disclose or to keep a secret, the stronger is to disclose.” He changed things indeed.