this week in comedy

RESTORING CHAOS: JAPAN SOCIETY CELEBRATES YUKIO MISHIMA CENTENNIAL

YUKIO MISHIMA CENTENNIAL SERIES: EMERGENCES
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
September 11 – December 6
japansociety.org

“Only art makes human beauty endure,” Yukio Mishima wrote in his 1959 novel Kyoko’s House.

In his short life — Mishima died by suicide in 1970 at the age of forty-five — the Japanese author and political activist penned approximately three dozen novels, four dozen plays, five dozen story and essay collections, ten literary adaptations, and a libretto, a ballet, and a film.

Japan Society is celebrating the hundredth year of his birth — he was born Kimitake Hiraoka in Tokyo in January 1925 — with “Yukio Mishima Centennial Series: Emergences,” comprising six events through December 6. The festival begins September 11–20 with Kinkakuji, SITI company cofounder Leon Ingulsrud and Korean American actor Major Curda’s theatrical adaptation of Mishima’s intense 1956 psychological novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, based on the true story of extreme postwar actions taken by a young Buddhist monk. Creator and director Ingulsrud cowrote the script with Curda, who stars in the play. The stage design is by Japanese visual artist Chiharu Shiota, whose international installations, featuring red and black yarn structures, include “In the Light,” “My House Is Your House,” and “Memory of Lines.” Her latest, “Two Home Countries,” runs September 12 through January 11 in the Japan Society gallery, consisting of immersive, site-specific works created in commemoration of the eightieth anniversary of the end of WWII.

There are unlikely to be many empty seats at Japan Society for Kinkakuji and other Mishima events (photo © Ayako Moriyama)

There will be eleven performances of Kinkakuji, with a gallery-opening reception following the September 11 show, a separate gallery talk on September 12, a lecture preceding the September 16 show, and an artist Q&A on September 17. Each ticket comes with free same-day admission to “Two Home Countries.”

On September 27, Japan Society, as part of the John and Miyoko Davey Classics series, will screen Kon Ichikawa’s 1958 film, Conflagration, based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and starring Raizo Ichikawa, Tatsuya Nakadai, and Ganjiro Nakamura.

In conjunction with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival, Japan Society will present Le Tambour de Soie (The Silk Drum) on October 24 and 25, Yoshi Oida and Kaori Ito’s adaptation of Mishima’s 1957 Noh play Aya no Tsuzumi, a dance-theater piece about love and aging featuring downtown legend Paul Lazar and choreographer Ito, with music by Makoto Yabuki. The second show will be followed by an artist Q&A. On November 6, Japanese novelist and cultural ambassador Keiichiro Hirano (Nisshoku, Dawn) and Tufts University Mishima scholar Dr. Susan J. Napier will sit down for a conversation discussing Mishima’s life and legacy.

Le Tambour de Soie (The Silk Drum) will be performed October 24 and 25 at Japan Society (photo © courtesy of the Maison de la Culture d’Amiens)

On November 15 and 16, the Tokyo-based company CHAiroiPLIN brings The Seven Bridges (Hashi-zukushi) to Japan Society, a visually arresting adaptation for all ages of Mishima’s short story about four women seeking wishes during a full moon. The series concludes December 4–6 with the US debut of Hosho Noh School and Mishima’s Muse – Noh Theater, three unique programs of noh and kyogen theater comprising performances of works that inspired Mishima: Shishi (Lion Dance), Busu (Poison), Aoi no Ue (Lady Aoi), Kantan, and Yoroboshi. The December 4 performance will be followed by a ticketed soirée, and there will be an artist Q&A after the December 5 show with Kazufusa Hosho, the twentieth grand master of Hosho Noh School, which dates back to the early fifteenth century. In addition, members of Hosho Noh School lead a workshop on December 6.

“This series revitalizes Mishima’s contributions to the world of the arts through a slate of brand new commissions and premieres adapting his writings, as well as a historic US debut for a revered noh company,” Japan Society artistic director Yoko Shioya said in a statement. “This series recognizes not only Mishima’s critical legacy but the ongoing current influence of this essential postwar author on artists today.”

That legacy can be summed up in this line from his 1963 novel Gogo no Eikō (The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea): “Of course, living is merely the chaos of existence, but more than that it’s a crazy mixed-up business of dismantling existence instant by instant to the point where the original chaos is restored.”

FOOLING AROUND WITH THE BARD: REIMAGINING SHAKESPEARE THROUGH GOOGLE TRANSLATE

Who: Emily Conlon, Sevrin Willinder
What: Shakespeare Translate: The Complete Works
Where: Caveat, 21A Clinton St. between East Houston & Stanton Sts., 212-228-2100
When: Sunday, December 1, $10 livestream, $18 in advance, $23 at door, 2:30
Why: In Hamlet, the title character says about a troupe of traveling actors, “He that plays the king shall be welcome. His majesty shall have tribute of me. The adventurous knight shall use his foil and target, the lover shall not sigh gratis, the humorous man shall end his part in peace, the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o’ th’ sere, and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for ’t. What players are they?”

Shakespeare included clowns or fools in most of his works, including Costard in Love’s Labours Lost, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, the two Dromios in The Comedy of Errors, Feste in Twelfth Night, Lavache in All’s Well That Ends Well, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the fool in King Lear. On December 1 at Caveat, clowns Emily Conlon and Sevrin Willinder will present “Shakespeare Translate: The Complete Works,“ in which they will perform their favorite excerpts from every single play by the Bard, using original text that has been filtered through Google Translate fifteen times to give it a more contemporary feel; the show is directed by Melissa Ingle. Conlon describes herself as “a Brooklyn-based actor, singer, voice actor, and goofball,” while Willinder “is a ravishing young lad from Plympton, Massachusetts.” Advance tickets are $18, at the door $23; the performance, from Devon Loves ME! Productions, which was cofounded by Willinder, is also available via livestream for $10.

As Touchstone, the court jester, says in As You Like It, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Find out more at Caveat (or online) on Sunday afternoon.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

HOW TO SURVIVE AN APOCALYPSE

Who: Judah Friedlander, Aasif Mandvi, Manolo Moreno, Kyle Marian, Dominique Nisperos, Nat Towsen, surprise guests
What: Climate crisis comedy show
Where: St. Mark’s Comedy Club, 12 St. Marks Place
When: Saturday, May 25, $12 plus two-drink minimum, 5:00
Why: St. Mark’s Comedy Club is promising surprise guests at its May 25 show, “How to Survive an Apocalypse,” but the scheduled lineup is already pretty darn impressive, with Judah Friedlander, Aasif Mandvi, Manolo Moreno, Kyle Marian, Dominique Nisperos, and Nat Towsen. They will be cracking wise about climate change and rising sea levels, two of the funniest topics on the comedy circuit. Tickets are only $12 plus a two-drink minimum to laugh your head off as we face the end of the planet.

CITY WINERY DOWNTOWN SEDER 2024

Who: Alex Edelman, Judy Gold, Peter Yarrow, David Broza, Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., AC Lincoln, Terrance Floyd, Brad Lander, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, Rabbi Tamar Manasseh, Laurie Anderson, Steven Bernstein, Jared Freed, Richard Kind, Nicki Richards, more
What: Downtown Seder 2024
Where: City Winery, 25 Eleventh Ave. at Fifteenth St.
When: Wednesday, April 17, $75-$180 (livestream free), 7:00
Why: For more than three decades, Michael Dorf has been hosting all-star seders to celebrate Passover, concentrating on freedom and justice. The latest iteration takes place on Wednesday, April 17, at City Winery, which Dorf opened on Varick St. in 2008 and moved to Hudson River Park’s Pier 57 in 2020. Attendees will be treated to a plant-based meal with four glasses of wine as they go through the Haggadah, the illustrated text that tells the story of the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt. This year’s participants include multidisciplinary artist Laurie Anderson, musicians David Broza, AC Lincoln, Peter Yarrow, Steven Bernstein, and Nicki Richards, comedians Alex Edelman, Jared Freed, and Judy Gold, activist and author Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., activist Terrance Floyd, NYC comptroller Brad Lander, Rabbis Amichai Lau-Lavie and Tamar Manasseh, and actor extraordinaire Richard Kind. The setlist is likely to include “The Four Questions,” “Dayenu,” “Chad Gadya,” “Go Down Moses,” and “The Ten Plagues.” If you can’t make it to City Winery on April 17, you can follow the livestream for free here.

“Every year has local and international issues which resonate with the Passover story, and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict — which has historical connections — could not make this year’s seder conversations any more intense,” Dorf writes on the event website. “However, as José Andrés eloquently stated in his recent NYT op-ed, ‘Let People Eat,’ we all share a culture that values food as a powerful statement of humanity and hospitality — of our shared hope for a better tomorrow. City Winery’s seder takes these ancient symbols of life and hope and transcends the normal script using art, music, and humor to bring back some joy while inspiring and feeding our soul.”

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

LOVE ROCKS NYC

Who: The Black Keys, Hozier, Nile Rodgers, Tom Morello, Don Felder, Bettye Lavette, Joss Stone, Allison Russell, Emily King, Marcus King, Lucius, Dave Grohl, Larkin Poe, Trombone Shorty, Luke Spiller, Quinn Sullivan, Bernie Williams, Conan O’Brien, Jim Gaffigan, Tracy Morgan, Martin Short, Ivan Neville, Jimmy Vivino
What: Benefit concert for God’s Love We Deliver
Where: Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway at 75th St.
When: Thursday, March 7, in person $284 – $1,252, livestream $19.99, 8:00
Why: A batch of new tickets has been released for the eighth annual Love Rocks NYC, an all-star benefit concert raising money for the New York City nonprofit, nonsectarian organization God’s Love We Deliver, which, since 1985, has dedicated itself “to improve the health and well-being of men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses by alleviating hunger and malnutrition.” Presented by fashion designer John Varvatos, real estate executive Greg Williamson, and events producer Nicole Rechter at the Beacon Theatre on March 7, the evening will feature performances by the Black Keys, Hozier, Nile Rodgers, Tom Morello, Don Felder, Bettye Lavette, Joss Stone, Lucius, Dave Grohl, Trombone Shorty, Bernie Williams, and more, with the house band consisting of music director and bandleader Will Lee, Michael Bearden, Steve Gadd, Shawn Pelton, Eric Krasno, Larry Campbell, Pedrito Martinez, and Jeff Babko. (A complete list can be found above.) This year’s hosts are Conan O’Brien, Tracy Morgan, and Jim Gaffigan, and there will be guest appearances by Martin Short, Ivan Neville, and Jimmy Vivino. The event will also be livestreamed over VEEPS for $19.99.

BRENDAN HUNT: THE MOVEMENT YOU NEED

Brendan Hunt returns to SoHo Playhouse for encore run of one-man show The Movement You Need

THE INTERNATIONAL FRINGE ENCORE SERIES: THE MOVEMENT YOU NEED
SoHo Playhouse
15 Vandam St. between Sixth Ave. & Varick St.
February 7-10, $40
212-691-1555
sohoplayhouse.com
fringeencoreseries.com

Chicago native Brendan Hunt might be best known for his portrayal of Coach Willis Beard on Ted Lasso — in addition to writing several episodes and serving as producer, executive producer, and codeveloper — but he also has a deep affection for theater. The Emmy winner and Jeopardy! contestant has written and performed the solo works Five Years in Amsterdam: The True Story of How a Regular Guy from Chicago Became Absolute Eurotrash and Still Got It as well as the plays The Poe Show (where he was Edgar Allan Poe alongside Dracula, Emily Dickinson, Mary Shelley, Gen. Custer, Charlotte Brontë, Dr. Frankenstein, and the Raven) and Absolutely Filthy (An Unauthorized Peanuts Parody) (in which he appears as the mess). And he won a 2010 LA Ovation Award for Lead Actor in a Musical for Sacred Fools’ Savin’ Up for Saturday Night.

Last November, he brought his autobiographical one-man show The Movement You Need to SoHo Playhouse as part of the International Fringe Encore Series: Comedy Festival, and it’s now back for a bonus encore run, February 7-10. For seventy-five minutes, Hunt explores his complex relationship with his late mother and the only thing they could both agree on: their shared love of the Beatles. When Hunt has the opportunity to talk about that with Sir Paul McCartney himself, it doesn’t go quite as planned. The show is named after a line in “Hey Jude” — “And don’t you know that it’s just you? / Hey Jude, you’ll do, / the movement you need is on your shoulder” — a song the very young Hunt thought was about him because his mother called him Na Na (“Na, na, na, na, na na, na”).

In his high school yearbook photo, Hunt, who is now fifty-one, wore a pin that featured the Fab Four’s infamous butcher cover for the Yesterday and Today album; I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a detour this weekend to “The Fest for Beatles Fans,” taking place February 9-11 at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport.

In “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!,” the Beatles promise, “A splendid time is guaranteed for all.” For The Movement You Need, Hunt will only say, “A decent time is guaranteed for all.” He shouldn’t be so self-deprecating. As Sir Paul sings, “And anytime you feel the pain, / Hey Jude, refrain, / Don’t carry the world upon your shoulder.”

TICKET ALERT: THE MUSIC CRITIC

John Malkovich, Hyung-ki Joo, and Aleksey Igudesman star in The Music Critic, coming to the Beacon for one night only

Who: John Malkovich, Aleksey Igudesman, Hyung-ki Joo
What: The Music Critic, play with live classical music and opera
Where: Beacon Theatre, Broadway at 74th St.
When: Saturday, October 28, $66-$257, 7:30
Why: In such films as Being John Malkovich and cable series as The New Pope, two-time Oscar nominee and Emmy winner John Malkovich (Places in the Heart, In the Line of Fire) has shown that he has a wickedly clever sense of humor, especially when it comes to himself. Since appearing on Broadway four times from 1984 to 1987 (Death of a Salesman, Arms and the Man, The Caretaker, Burn This), his stage work in New York has been limited. In 2011, he starred as the title murderer in The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer at BAM, and two years later he portrayed Giacomo Casanova at City Center in The Giacomo Variations; both traveling productions combined classical music, opera, and theater.

On October 28, Malkovich will return to the city for one night only with his latest traveling show, The Music Critic, in which he plays a cynical expositor who argues that Antonín Dvořák “indulges in ugly, unnatural music,” calls Johannes Brahms a “giftless bastard,” and claims that “the music of Debussy has the attractiveness of a pretty, tubercular maiden.” It was created and conceived by Russian violinist, poet, author, director, composer, and conductor Aleksey Igudesman, who performs in the international hit with his longtime comedy partner, Korean-British pianist, composer, and educator Hyung-ki Joo; both trained at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School. The irreverent comic duo of Igudesman & Joo has previously staged such productions as And Now Rachmaninoff, And Now Mozart, and BIG Nightmare Music.

“We are all happy to be back on the road, and for the first time also in the USA, participating in an evening which consists of some of the greatest compositions in the history of classical music, paired with the perhaps rather unexpected initial reactions those compositions elicited from some of the world’s renowned music critics, along with some other surprises,” Malkovich said in a statement. Igudesman added, “The Music Critic is a project very close to my heart, and bringing it to the USA is something I dreamed of from its inception. My dear friend John Malkovich in the role of the evil critic is despicable and lovable at the same time and evokes the critic in every one of us.”

The score of The Music Critic features Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, Debussy, Prokofiev, Eugène Ysaÿe, Giya Kancheli, Astor Piazzolla, and Igudesman; Igudesman and Joo will be joined by cellist Antonio Lysy, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, and violinist Claire Wells. Be prepared for an unpredictable evening of fab music and comic high jinks.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]