Who: Jimmy Vivino, Mark Barden, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, Kevin Bacon, Bernie Williams, Rozzi, the Dumes, the Alternate Routes, Jen Chapin, Aztec Two-Step 2.0, more What:Benefit concert for Sandy Hook Promise celebrating film launch Where:NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 La Guardia Pl. between Third & Fourth Sts. When: Thursday, December 7, $81-$256, 7:30 Why: “Music succeeds when politics and religion fail,” Darryl “DMC” McDaniels says in A Father’s Promise: The Story of a Father’s Promise to End Gun Violence, a documentary opening December 8 at LOOK Dine-In Cinema W57. Directed by Rick Korn and executive produced by Sheryl Crow, the film follows musician Mark Barden as he takes action after his seven-year-old son Daniel was one of twenty-six people murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012.
Barden, cofounder of Sandy Hook Promise, and filmmaker Korn teamed up with Matthew Reich and Neal Saini to form Artist for Action to Prevent Gun Violence. On December 7 at NYU Skirball, Barden and the Promise Band will join musical director Jimmy Vivino and a group of all-stars to celebrate the launch of the film; among the special guests performing live will be Crow, Peter Frampton, Kevin Bacon, Bernie Williams, Rozzi, the Dumes, the Alternate Routes, Jen Chapin, and Aztec Two-Step 2.0. The evening will be filmed for a future documentary, continuing to raise funds and awareness about the horrors of gun violence, the leading cause of death for children and teens in America.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
CECILY BROWN: DEATH AND THE MAID
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Met Fifth Ave.
Gallery 913
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Through December 3, $30 (NY, NJ, CT residents pay-what-you-wish)
212-535-7710 www.metmuseum.org
London-born, New York City–based artist Cecily Brown creates paintings of deep, swirling colors that combine abstraction with figuration, echoing specific works by Jackson Pollock, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, Diego Velázquez, and others, in addition to double imagery and classical still-lifes, with objects and subjects slowly coming to life as viewers spend time with the canvases. This weekend is the last chance to catch the revelatory exhibition “Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid,” continuing at the Met through December 3. “The woman looking in a mirror is a subject I’ve returned to so many times over and over again. It’s the world reflected back at you, but you also feel like you’re seeing into another world,” Brown explains in the below Met video. “It is that sense of looking into another world that’s so fascinating about art in the first place.”
The show consists of approximately fifty paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and monotypes from throughout Brown’s more than twenty-five-year career, including pieces made for the exhibition. Among the highlights are Maid in a Landscape,Death and the Maid,Nature Morte,Untitled (Vanity),Selfie, and Aujourd’hui Rose. The utter beauty of the works are intense and rewarding, each one unfolding to reveal its multiple layers; for example, do not miss the black cat in Lobsters, Oysters, Cherries, and Pearls. Several of the larger paintings are simply staggering; this exhibition is not one that should be hustled through but instead savored, a fascinating look into other worlds as only Brown can see them.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Left, Shellyne Rodriguez, BX Third World Liberation Mixtape No. 2 (Esquire Strikes Empire), colored pencil on paper, 2021; right, Mel Chin, detail, Elements of a Trophy Frame for Leopold II, graphite on vellum, gold leaf, drafting dots, 2007 (photos courtesy of the artists)
Who:Mel Chin,Shellyne Rodriguez What: Artist conversation Where:National Academy of Design, 519 West Twenty-Sixth St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., second floor When: Tuesday, December 5, free with advance RSVP, 6:30 Why: Formerly located in the Archer Milton Huntington House on Museum Mile, the National Academy of Design has moved to Chelsea, where it is hosting its inaugural exhibition in the new space, “Drawing as Practice,” a group show featuring work by such artists as Richard Artschwager, Judith Bernstein, Cecily Brown, Mark di Suvero, Jim Dine, Frank Gehry, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Christine Sun Kim, Sol LeWitt, Ana Mendieta, Robert Mangold, Mary Mattingly, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Clifford Owens, Renzo Piano, Judy Pfaff, Howardena Pindell, Jenny Polak and Dread Scott, Liliana Porter, Joel Shapiro, Arlene Shechet, Kiki Smith, Billie Tsien, Rafael Viñoly, and many others. On December 5 at 6:30, National Academician Mel Chin and Shellyne Rodriguez, both of whom are represented in the show, will sit down for an artist talk, part of the series “Drawing Dialogues.” The exhibit, which continues through December 16, includes Chin’s Elements of a Trophy Frame for Leopold II and Convo Pool Mood Board and Rodriguez’s India and Bangladesh on Pugsley Avenue and BX Third World Liberation Mixtape No. 2 (Esquire Strikes Empire).
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Hiroshi Sugimoto will be at Asia Society on November 30 to discuss his latest work (photo courtesy Sugimoto Studio)
Who:Hiroshi Sugimoto,Dr. Yasufumi Nakamori What: Artist talk about the photography of Hiroshi Sugimoto Where:Asia Society Museum, 725 Park Ave. at Seventieth St. When: Thursday, November 30, $15, 6:30 Why: You’ll have to travel to London to catch the largest survey to date of the work of Japanese photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, on view through January 7 at Hayward Gallery. But Asia Society on the Upper East Side is offering the next best thing: Seeing Sugimoto himself. On November 30 at 6:30, the seventy-five-year-old Tokyo-born artist, who is based in Tokyo and New York City, will be at Asia Society for an artist talk, “On Photography and Japanese Art,” speaking with Asia Society museum director Yasufumi Nakamori, focusing on Sugimoto’s latest series, “Brush Impression,” featuring calligraphic brushstrokes on photographic paper, started during the coronavirus crisis.
“When I finally returned to my New York studio after the three-year-long disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, I discovered that I was in possession of a large amount of photographic paper which had passed its expiry date. Rather like fresh food, this special paper for photographic printing deteriorates over time,” Sugimoto explains in his artist statement. “The defining feature of my prints is the subtle expression of different shades, something that is very hard to achieve with photographic paper that is even slightly degraded. What I therefore did was to flip my thinking, Copernicus-style. My idea was not to accept deterioration as deterioration per se but to treat it as a form of beautification instead. When ancient works of art are exposed to the operations of time, deterioration usually causes an aesthetic improvement. The white of photographic paper looks rather like albumenized paper, while black tones acquire a certain softness on it. I decided to bring the calligraphy skills I had mastered during three years of enforced leisure into the dark room. In the dim room suffused with pale orange light, I spread out a sheet of photographic paper, then dunk my brush into the developer. In the darkness, I gropingly draw the characters which I cannot actually see. Then, just for a fleeting moment, I expose the paper to a burst of light like a flash.
“Just the areas which are touched by the brush metamorphose into Japanese characters and float to the surface in black. Having shown that it was possible to do calligraphy using a developer, I then tried dipping my brush in photographic fixer. I plied my bush surrounded by the stench of acid; this time it was white characters appearing on a jet-black ground. As I wrote, I tried to concentrate on the invisible characters, focusing my mind on the place where the meaning of the characters would manifest itself. Protean and shapeshifting, fire is an extraordinary thing. Gaze at it and you will feel yourself being drawn into another world. This planet of ours was originally born from the fires of the sun. A blazing flame is at once a sacrament of birth and an echo of a burned-out death. Sometimes, as here, the burning flame flings out its arms and legs to be transcribed as the kanji character for fire.”
Isabelle will be in person — not on the phone — at the Quad for Q&As following screenings of Jean-Paul Salomé’s La Syndicaliste
Who: Isabelle Huppert What: Screenings followed by Q&As Where:Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves. When: December 1-2 (festival continues all month) Why: For more than half a century, French actress Isabelle Huppert has been one of cinema’s brightest stars. She’s appeared in more than 130 films, working with a who’s who of international directors, including Claude Chabrol, Márta Mészáros, Jean-Luc Godard, Diane Kurys, Bertrand Tavernier, David O. Russell, Joachim Trier, Hal Hartley, Ursula Meier, Bertrand Blier, Curtis Hanson, Hong Sang-soo, Ira Sachs, Paul Verhoeven, Wes Anderson, Michael Cimino, and Michael Haneke. She’s also done more than thirty plays, including 4.48 Psychose,The Maids, and The Mother in New York.
Huppert will be back in New York on December 1 and 2, participating in Q&As following screenings of Jean-Paul Salomé’s Venice Film Festival selection La Syndicaliste, a thriller in which Huppert plays real-life Irish trade unionist and whistleblower Maureen Kearney. Huppert will be at the Quad for the 7:15 show on December 1 and the 4:15 and 7:15 shows on December 2. The Quad will also be presenting “Restorations Starring Isabelle Huppert,” part of its ongoing “From the Vault: The Cohen Film Collection” series, on three Wednesdays in December: Benoît Jacquot’s 1999 Keep It Quiet on December 6, André Téchiné’s 1979 The Brontë Sisters on December 13, and Maurice Pialat’s 1980 Loulou on December 20. Finally, her latest film, François Ozon’s The Crime Is Mine, a murder mystery adapted from a 1934 play, opens exclusively at the Quad on December 25. Huppert, who turned seventy this past March, is as resplendent as ever, so these Q&As are must-see events.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Y. Lebrun, P. Coker, X. Mack, and R. Maurice in Alvin Ailey’s For “Bird” — with Love (photo by Dario Calmese)
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER
New York City Center
131 West 55th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
November 29 – December 31, $42-$172 www.alvinailey.org www.nycitycenter.org
No matter what’s going on in the world — and in case you haven’t noticed, right now there’s a whole lot — when the end of November rolls around, you can count on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to provide a much-needed respite with its always exciting and entertaining end-of-year season at New York City Center. This time around the company is celebrating its sixty-fifth anniversary by presenting more than two dozen works, including world premieres by first-time AAADT choreographers Amy Hall Garner (CENTURY) and former Ailey dancer Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish (Me, Myself and You) and new productions of Hans van Manen’s Solo, Alonzo King’s Following the Subtle Current Upstream, Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit, and Jamar Roberts’s Ode.
Kyle Abraham’s Are You in Your Feelings? is part of Ailey season at City Center (photo by Paul Kolnik)
The programs are divided into “Premiere Night,” “Ailey Classics,” “All Ailey,” “Live Music,” “All New,” and “Pioneering Women of Ailey”; the opening-night gala, honoring former Ailey dancer, choreographer, and artistic director Judith Jamison, pairs a performance of Revelations with a live choir and a world premiere with Tony, Grammy, and Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo.
The personal CENTURY was inspired by Garner’s grandfather and is set to music by Ray Charles, Count Basie, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and others; Me, Myself and You explores reminiscence, love, and loss. “Pioneering Women of Ailey” pays tribute to Jamison, Carmen de Lavallade, Denise Jefferson, and Sylvia Waters, while rising jazz stars will perform live December 15-17. Among the other highlights the company of thirty-three dancers will perform are Paul Taylor’s DUET, Alvin Ailey and Mary Barnett’s Survivors, Roberts’s In a Sentimental Mood, and Kyle Abraham’s Are You in Your Feelings? After twelve years as artistic director, Robert Battle announced that he is stepping down immediately because of health concerns; longtime Ailey dancer and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing will take over temporarily until the board chooses a full-time successor; among Battle’s works for the company are Ella,For Four,In/Side,Love Stories,Mass, and Unfold.
Drenka Balich (Elizabeth Marvel) and Mickey Sabbath (John Turturro) are sexually linked in Sabbath’s Theater (photo by Monique Carboni)
SABBATH’S THEATER
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through December 17, $32-$112
212-244-7529 thenewgroup.org www.signaturetheatre.org
John Turturro must have been Jewish in a previous life.
Born in Brooklyn to a mother whose parents were from Italy and a father who emigrated from Italy to America when he was six, Turturro has spent a significant part of his five-decade career portraying Jewish characters, from Bernie “the Shamata Kid” Bernbaum in Miller’s Crossing and Herb Stempel in Quiz Show to Primo Levi in The Truce, Moe Flatbush in Mo’ Better Blues, and writer Barton Fink. He’s also portrayed Egyptian pharaoh Seti I in Exodus: Gods and Kings and Palestinian militant Fatoush “The Phantom” Hakbarah in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan in addition to too many Italians to mention.
So it’s no surprise that Turturro is absolutely exhilarating as Mickey Sabbath in the New Group world premiere of Sabbath’s Theater, which has been extended at the Pershing Square Signature Center through December 17, making it an excellent Hanukkah present.
Turturro and New Yorker writer Ariel Levy adapted the script from Philip Roth’s 1994 novel, which won the National Book Award. Turturro was a good friend of Roth’s; they collaborated on a never-completed one-man show of Roth’s controversial 1969 novel, Portnoy’s Complaint — which lends itself to solo performance — and Turturro portrayed Lionel Bengelsdorf, the misguided, overly trusting rabbi, in the 2020 HBO miniseries The Plot Against America, an alternate history of the rise of antisemitism in America in the early 1940s, based on the 2004 book by Roth.
Mickey is a failed puppeteer — he ran the Indecent Theater — who has had two unsuccessful marriages and has a missing daughter. He’s haunted by the death of his beloved brother, Morty, during WWII and by the ghost of his mother, who seems to hover around him, occasionally whistling, “Don’t Fence Me In.” Mickey is also a sex fiend; the show opens with him making love to the married Drenka Balich (Elizabeth Marvel), the two speaking openly and vividly about copulation. “Coming is an industry with you — you’re a factory,” Mickey says when they’re done. She wants him to be loyal to her, demanding, “I don’t want anyone else. Either forswear fucking others or the affair is over.” He replies sarcastically, “You like monogamy so much with your husband you want it with me, too?”
A moment later they are discussing a potential threesome when, still basking in the glow of sex, Mickey admits to the audience, “I was pierced by the sharpest of longings for my late little mother! I wondered if she had somehow popped out of Drenka’s pussy the moment before I entered it…”
Women are always on Mickey’s mind; his last name, Sabbath, is the Jewish day of rest, which is embodied by a Shabbos Queen, fitting Mickey’s approach to life.
Norman (Jason Kravits) and Michelle (Elizabeth Marvel) try to help their friend Mickey (John Turturro) in world premiere production (photo by Monique Carboni)
Mickey often turns directly to the audience, sharing personal tidbits, deep, dark desires, and explanations for why he is the way he is. He is a man of few morals; he has no respect for Drenka’s husband, Matija (Jason Kravits); his best friends, Norman (Kravits) and Michelle Cowan (Marvel), and their teenage daughter; or his second wife, Roseanna (Marvel), who can’t stand him. “I hated his increasing girth, his drooping scrotum,” Roseanna says about Mickey, adding, “his apish hairy shoulders, his white, stupid, biblical beard.” She then relates how she considered going all Lorena Bobbitt on him. Mickey responds by citing scripture: “She couldn’t have stuck something unpleasant up his ass? A frying pan! A rectum for a rectum. Exodus 21:24.”
When an old acquaintance, Lincoln Gelman, dies by suicide, Mickey starts having thoughts of killing himself too, but he might just love — or at least think he needs — sex too much. Then a visit with his father’s hundred-year-old cousin, Fish (Kravits), sends him careening again back into the past. “Was it good, life? Was it good to live, Fish?” Mickey asks. Fish replies, “Sure, better than being dead.”
Arnulfo Maldonado’s spare set features small pieces of furniture and a handful of props at the far left and right sides that are occasionally brought center stage by the actors or stage crew; Maldonado also designed the costumes, primarily modern-day dress save for a fab white sweater worn by Drenka and an American flag that Mickey wraps himself in. Alex Basco Koch’s projections, Mikaal Sulaiman’s sound, Jeff Croiter’s lighting, and Erik Sanko’s shadow puppet design help define the past from the present.
The story grows bumpier and bumpier in the second half as Mickey, an unreliable narrator, becomes more and more unlikable. But director Jo Bonney (Cost of Living,Fucking A) steers it back just in time before the character completely loses his way.
Turturro (Endgame,The Master Builder) is a powder keg as Mickey, a frenetic, mesmerizing whirlwind you cannot keep your eyes off of; onstage for nearly the full one hundred minutes, Turturro is relentless, relishing his acting job much how Mickey relishes sex. When, during an argument with Roseanna, she yells at him, “You cannot think straight if you’re shouting!” and he fires back, “Wrong! It’s only when I’m shouting that I begin to think straight! Shouting is how a Jew thinks things through!” it’s nearly impossible to believe that Turturro is not Jewish.
Marvel (Julius Caesar,Long Day’s Journey into Night) inhabits her characters so thoroughly that she is nearly unrecognizable as Drenka, Roseanna, Michelle, and cemetery superintendent A. B. Crawford, willing to go toe to toe with Turturro through thick and thin. And Kravits (The Drowsy Chaperone,A Play Is a Poem) sparkles as a series of schleppy men, culminating in his loving portrayal of Fish.
Developed earlier this year by New Jersey Performing Arts Center for “Philip Roth Unbound: Illuminating a Literary Legacy” in honor of what would have been Roth’s ninetieth birthday weekend — the Newark-born writer died in 2018 in Manhattan at the age of eighty-five — Sabbath’s Theater is an uneven but intriguing exploration of sex, love, and death with a heavy dose of filthy Jewish schmaltz.
Mickey might be a wholly indecent man, but underneath it all is a scared little boy. Reflecting on the many losses he’s experienced, he explains, “What’s the point of trying to find reason or meaning? By the time I was twenty-five I already knew there wasn’t any.” But just as Mickey is dishonest with others, he’s also dishonest with himself.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
