twi-ny recommended events

THE MET — LIVE IN HD: THE NOSE

William Kentridge’s unconventional version of Shostakovich’s THE NOSE will be broadcast live in movie theaters on October 26

THE MET: LIVE IN HD PRESENTS SHOSTAKOVICH’S THE NOSE
Multiple theaters in the metropolitan area
Saturday, October 26, 12:55 pm (live), and Wednesday, October 30, 6:30 (encore), $18-$24
www.metoperafamily.org
www.fathomevents.com

Back in March 2010, we called the Met debut of William Kentridge’s visually stunning version of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose “an unconventional opera, with unconventional sets, an unconventional score, and an unconventional length, clocking in at a mere 104 minutes.” The absurdist opera, based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol, deals with a minor Russian bureaucrat who wakes up one morning to find that his proboscis is missing, and, not surprisingly, he wants it back. Kentridge’s inventive staging, involving black-and-white animation, lofty sets that suddenly appear well off the ground or are dragged around by characters, and a Russian constructivist collage that serves as a backdrop for much of the action, is back at the Met for performances on October 22 at 7:30 and October 26 at 1:00. Paulo Szot reprises his role as Kovalyov, with Andrey Popov again playing the police inspector and Alexander Lewis as the Nose; the production is conducted by Pavel Smelkov. Saturday’s performance is part of “The Met: Live in HD” series, which broadcasts the show to movie theaters around the country, including the Regal Union Square, AMC Loews Village 7, AMC Empire 25, and the Ziegfeld. There will also be an encore presentation October 30 at 6:30. Kentridge fans should also be sure to check out his superb multimedia “Second-hand Reading” exhibit, which continues through Saturday at Marian Goodman Gallery on West 57th St., as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit “The Refusal of Time,” which runs October 22 to May 11.

MARIE ANTOINETTE

Marie Antoinette (Marin Ireland) discusses the state of her sheltered world in Soho Rep. production (photo by Pavel Antonov)

Soho Rep.
46 Walker St. between Broadway & Church St.
Tuesday – Sunday through November 3, $35-$50; November 5–17, $55-$75; November 19—24, $55-$80; Sunday, October 27, $0.99, first come, first served
212-352-3101
www.sohorep.org

Following more lavish productions at American Repertory Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre, David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette gets the stripped-down, minimalist treatment at Soho Rep., where it’s just been extended through November 24. The staging is stark; the seventy-three-seat general admission audience sits in two long, horizontal rows of chairs, facing a white wall that announces the name of the play, and its main character. The story begins in 1776, as Marie (the always wonderful Marin Ireland) is gossiping over tea and macarons with her friends Yolande de Polignac (Marsha Stephanie Blake) and Therese de Lamballe (Jennifer Ikeda), discussing Rousseau, revolution, and the height of their hair. “I do like to disport myself,” the Valley Girl-like Antoinette says. “I’m sorry, even buffeted by the outcries of peasants — I’m a queen. I cannot simply forfeit my luxuries.” Among her luxuries is a dazzling red dress designed by Anka Lupes and a fab blonde wig courtesy of Amanda Miller. (The previous productions featured bigger hair and numerous costume changes, but Ireland now remains in the same dress until it’s nearly ripped off of her in act two.) She wants to have children, but her husband, the diminutive and hapless King Louis XVI (Steven Ratazzi), is scared of getting an operation on his member that would help them conceive.

Hapless King Louis XVI (Steven Ratazzi) is at a loss as revolution threatens (photo by Pavel Antonov)

Eventually, the regal Antoinette is singing a very different tune after being imprisoned by revolutionaries. “I wasn’t raised, I was built: I was built to be this thing; and now they’re killing me for it,” she says. Ireland (The Big Knife, Reasons to Be Pretty) has a ball as Antoinette, and her enthusiasm is infectious. She exhibits the queen’s fall from grace with just the right amount of pathos, especially as the peasants start their vicious personal attacks on her, centered around a pseudo-autobiography that declares her a sex-addicted whore. Director Rebecca Taichman’s spare staging turns both wacky and sublime when Antoinette, who thought of herself as a shepherdess, is visited by a talking sheep (manipulated by David Greenspan). The cast also includes Chris Stack as Marie’s would-be lover, Axel Fersen; Aimée Laurence as the dauphin; and Will Pullen as an unsympathetic revolutionary. With its swift and elegant tongue placed firmly in its stylishly made-up cheek, this Marie Antoinette is an engaging, seriocomic look at a legendary historical figure who has become an unlikely pop-culture icon.

(There will be several special events associated with the play. The October 27 show will be followed by the discussion “What Is a History Play?,” the talk “How to Grow a New Play with David Adjmi” is scheduled for October 28 at 6:00, and the 7:30 performance on November 2 will be followed by the program “The Queen’s Room: French Interior Design and the State of the Nation.” In addition, Barbara Schulz will star in the one-woman show Les correspondances de Marie-Antoinette on October 24 at FIAF, and Perrin Stein will lead tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Artists and Amateurs: Etching in 18th-Century France” display on October 25 and November 1.)

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Sineglossa’s REMEMBER ME is part of second Queer New York International Arts Festival

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
October 23 – November 3, free – $18 (many shows $10 suggested donation)
212-598-0400
www.queerny.org
www.abronsartscenter.org

In a 2012 Huffington Post blog about the first Queer New York International Arts Festival, artistic codirector André von Ah wrote, “Queerness, in perhaps its barest and most basic concept, is about breaking the rules, shaking things up, and challenging preconceived ideas.” The second QNYIA continues to shake things up with twelve days and nights of performances, panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and other events at such venues as Abrons Arts Center, the Invisible Dog, La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, and New York Live Arts, but sadly, it will be proceeding without von Ah, who curated this year’s programming with artistic director Zvonimir Dobrović but sadly passed away suddenly last month, still only in his mid-twenties. This year’s festival, which is dedicated to von Ah, opens October 23 with the U.S. premiere of Ivo Dimchev’s P-Project at Abrons Arts Center, the Bulgarian artist’s interactive piece that uses words that begin with the letter P to investigate societal taboos. Italy’s Sineglossa uses mirrored screens in Remember Me, based on Henry Purcell’s opera about Dido and Aeneas. Audience favorite Raimund Hoghe pays special tribute to von Ah with An Evening with Judy, in which he channels Judy Garland, Maria Callas, and others. Poland’s SUKA OFF investigates skin shedding in its multimedia Red Dragon. Brazil’s Ângelo Madureira plays “the dreamer” in his contemporary dance piece Delírio. Croatia’s Room 100 presents the U.S. premiere of its dark, experimental C8H11NO2. Dan Fishback offers a concert reading of The Material World at Joe’s Pub, the sequel to You Will Experience Silence; Fishback will also participate in the October 26 panel discussion “Creating Queer / Curating Queer” at the New School with Carla Peterson, Tere O’Connor, TL Cowan, Susana Cook, and Dobrović. The Club at La MaMa will host the New Music Series, featuring M Lamar, Shane Shane, Enid Ellen, Nath Ann Carrera, and Max Steele. The festival also includes works by Bojana Radulović, Elisa Jocson, Guillermo Riveros, Daniel Duford, Bruno Isaković, Gabriela Mureb, Heather Litteer, CHOKRA, Antonia Baehr, and Antoni Karwowski, with most shows requiring advance RSVPs and requesting a $10 suggested donation.

VICTORIA COHEN: HOTEL CHELSEA

Third Streaming
10 Greene St., second floor
Monday – Friday through October 25, free
646-370-3877
www.thirdstreaming.com
www.victoriacohen.com

In the summer of 2011, when New York native Victoria Cohen heard that the Hotel Chelsea was being sold and would be undergoing extensive renovations, she “felt many emotions,” she writes in her debut photo book, the beautiful, deluxe, oversize Hotel Chelsea (Pointed Leaf Press, August 2013, $95). “First and foremost, as an artist, I was angry and sad that an institution such as the Chelsea would have this fate. . . . It just didn’t seem possible — at least to me — that a place with such an extraordinary history, and where so many of the greatest literary minds, visual artists, musicians, and eccentrics of the twentieth century have called home for over a hundred years, could be torn apart.” So Cohen set out to capture the heart and soul of the hotel that had helped give birth to seminal works by Jack Kerouac, Arthur C. Clarke, Leonard Cohen, William S. Burroughs, Larry Rivers, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, and so many others. For three weeks, Cohen shot what she calls “portraits” of the hotel’s guest rooms, rooftop, and hallways, although no humans are ever seen.

Victoria Cohen, “Room 1024, Chair,” C-print, 2011 (© 2011 by Victoria Cohen)

Instead, it is as if ghosts and spirits inhabit Cohen’s pictures, taken with a handheld camera using only natural light. More than two dozen are on view at Third Streaming in SoHo through October 25, wonderfully arranged by curator Michael Steinberg and Cohen. A mop and bucket, seemingly timeless, stand by themselves in a corner. An old piano looks like it might not have been played in years. Brick walls in disrepair on the roof hint at some bad times gone by. But the real mysteries of the Hotel Chelsea, which was recently sold to luxury hotel developer King & Grove, can be found in Cohen’s marvelously composed shots of the guest rooms, each one unique and different, from the dark couch in “Room 632” to the two bright-red chairs in “Eighth Floor South,” from the card table in “Fifth Floor South” to the mini-fridge and coffee paraphernalia against green wallpaper in “Room 203.” One series of photos zeroes in on made beds, while another focuses on rooms with two windows, adding a compelling geometric element to the works. One of the most striking images is “Room 1024,” the camera placed just in front of the entrance to a sparkling living room with chairs that seem to be inviting the viewer to take a seat. In each of these photos, Cohen also invites the viewer to create their own narrative about the past, present, and future, and it’s almost impossible not to.

GRUB STREET FOOD FESTIVAL

HESTER STREET FAIR
Hester & Essex Sts.
Sunday, October 20, free, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
www.hesterstreetfair.com
www.grubstreet.com

The fourth annual Grub Street Food Festival takes places today as part of the Hester Street Fair on the Lower East Side, where pushcarts gained popularity more than a hundred years ago. Approximately seventy eateries will be offering tasty bites; there will also be live music, a beer garden, and a Tailgate Zone that will be showing Sunday’s football games. Among the participating restaurants and food businesses are Doughnut Plant, Mimi and Coco NY, Macaron Parlour, Asiadog, Fat Radish, MELT Bakery, the Pickle Guys, Cuzins Duzin, Heartbeet Juicery, Brooklyn Taco Co., Luke’s Lobster, Roberta’s, Bocce’s Bakery, Oaxaca, Pop Karma, BabyCakes, Sticky’s Finger Joint, Arancini Bros., Bibingka-esk, Cheeky Sandwiches, and many more. The food festival is sponsored by Grub Street, New York magazine’s food blog.

CMJ 2013: DAY FIVE

One of our favorite breakout bands of 2013 is Heliotropes, the Brooklyn foursome whose debut record, A Constant Sea, (Manimal, June 18), is one of the best of the year. Bassist Nya Abudu, drummer Cici Harrison, vocalist and tambourine player Amber Myers, and lead singer and guitarist Jessica Numsuwankijkul put on a fab show at this summer’s 4 Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport, and now they’ll be playing a pair of gigs on the last day of the 2013 CMJ Music Marathon, October 19, at Spike Hill at 12 noon and later on at 9:00 at Grand Victory for the BreakThru Radio showcase (on a great bill with Eternal Summers, EULA, and the Meaning of Life).

Wild Honey Pie: Deirdre & the Dark, 1:20; How Sad, 2:00; Highs, 2:50; Wilsen, 3:40; Belle Mare, 4:30; TV Girl, 5:20; Little Daylight, 6:10; Hockey, 7:00; Empress Of, 7:50: French Horn Rebellion, 8:50; Caveman, 9:50; Joywave, 11:10, Cameo Gallery, 93 North Sixth St.

Green Room Music Source: Benjamin Cartel, 3:00; Blue Eyed Son, 4:00; Pete Donnelly, 5:00; Freedy Johnston, 6:00, the Living Room, 154 Ludlow St.,

BreakThru Radio: the Meaning of Life, 7:00; EULA, 7:40; Heliotropes, 9:00; Eternal Summers, 10:00, Grand Victory, 245 Grand St., Brooklyn

Happy Fangs, 7:00; the Last Kiss AKA Fuka Lata, 8:00; the Novocaines, 9:00; Highly Suspect, 10:00; Bad Cop, 11:00; the Demos, 12:00, Trash Bar, 256 Grand St., Brooklyn

L Rock Entertainment Presents: Peter Chance & Chapter 3, 7:00; Loren Benjamin, 8:00; Midnight Spin, 9:00; Mike Scala, 10:00; Animal Years, 11:00; the Young Things, 12 midnight; Shake the Baron, 1:00; BELT, 2:00, the Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St.

MezzoForte Productions + Brixton Agency Present: the Attic Ends, 7:00; Marmalakes, 8:00; Gemini Club, 9:00; Wild Adriatic, 10:00; Black Taxi, 11:00; Hockey, 12:00; Misun, 1:00; No Way Josie, 2:00, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St.

Heart Bleeds Radio Showcase: Duke Evers, 7:30; the Brooklyn What, 8:30; Slothrust, 9:30; Radical Dads, 10:30; the Planes, 11:30; My Teenage Stride, 12:15, Matchless, 557 Manhattan Ave.

International Rescue Artist Development + Drunken Piano Dub Pies Present: Eternal Summers, 7:00; Dream Shake, 7:45; Oscar Key Sung, 8:30; the Suzan, 9:15; Weird Womb, 10:00; the Shackeltons, 10:45; Ghost Wave, 11:30, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Father John Misty “Solo,” Kate Berlant, 9:00, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St.

SUNSHINE AT MIDNIGHT: POLTERGEIST

Life is about to get a whole lot creepier for the Freeling family in POLTERGEIST

POLTERGEIST (Tobe Hooper, 1982)
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves.
Friday, October 18, and Saturday, October 19, $10, 12 midnight
212-330-8182
www.landmarktheatres.com

When psychic Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) says “Don’t go into the light,” she means it in more ways than one, so be sure to take heed when Tobe Hooper’s classic modern ghost story screens at Landmark Sunshine Cinema this Friday and Saturday at midnight. Inspired by the 1962 Twilight Zone episode “Little Girl Lost,” Poltergeist, which also features the significant involvement of cowriter and producer Steven Spielberg, has all the elements in all the right places to just plain scare the hell out of you. Shortly after Steven (Craig T. Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) Freeling move into their new home in the planned California community of Cuesta Verde, things start getting very creepy, especially when youngest daughter Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) announces, “They’re here,” then disappears into the television. Meanwhile, older sister Dana (Dominique Dunne) freaks out, and brother Robbie (Oliver Robins) has a bit of a problem with a clown doll and a tree branch. Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Lifeforce) lets the tension build slowly until it eventually explodes in a no-holds-barred ending that will have you digging into the cuticles of whoever is sitting next to you. And yes, those skeletons are real human bones, not replicas. The success of Poltergeist led to two sequels, a television series, and, unfortunately, a possible remake, but there’s nothing quite like the original, a deviously delicious frightfest that continues to send shivers down the spine no matter how often one sees it. And yes, Steven’s boss is indeed played by the Pathmark man (James Karen). Sadly — some say the result of a curse — O’Rourke died in 1988 at the age of twelve, and Dunne, the daughter of writer Dominick Dunne, was murdered by a former boyfriend in 1982 when she was just twenty-two. Consider yourself warned.