this week in food & drink

KAREN FINLEY: COVID VORTEX ANXIETY OPERA KITTY KALEIDOSCOPE DISCO

Karen Finley performs latest show at the Laurie Beechman Theatre (photo by Max Ruby)

COVID VORTEX ANXIETY OPERA KITTY KALEIDOSCOPE DISCO
The Laurie Beechman Theatre
West Bank Cafe, 407 West Forty-Second St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Select Saturdays through June 24, $27 general admission, $39 reserved VIP seating (plus $25 food and drink minimum), 7:00
www.westbankcafe.com
spincyclenyc.com

In such works as Shut Up and Love Me, Deathcakes and Autism, Written in Sand, Make Love, Unicorn Gratitude Mystery, and Sext Me If You Can, Chicago-born, New York–based performance artist, musician, poet, author, and activist Karen Finley has explored such topics as AIDS, rape culture, suicide, rampant consumerism, politics, censorship, 9/11, sexual and societal taboos, and the power of art in deeply personal ways that have included chocolate, honey, yams, and nudity. In her latest show, Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco, continuing on Saturday nights through May 6 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Finley turns her attention to the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on trauma, loss, loneliness, Zoom, masks, and human connection.

Finley takes the stage to rapturous applause, wearing a hazmat suit and dancing to the 1976 disco hit “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” with Thelma Houston singing, “I can’t survive / I can’t stay alive, / without your love, oh baby.” She proceeds to deliver thirteen poem-monologues from behind a microphone and music stand. To her right is a rack of sequined costumes, where she changes between each number, putting on different masks, shawls, boas, and dresses. To her left is a screen divider with mask-scarves draped over it; sparkling glitter and sequins are everywhere. At the back of the stage is a screen on which are projected news reports, advertisements, video of New Yorkers cheering and banging pots and pans for health-care workers, and, primarily, still photos of pages from old books (encyclopedias, science texts, religious doctrine), music scores, calendars, and magazines she has written over in black marker, including such phrases as “It will get worse before it gets worse,” “It’s called war porn,” and “There is no happy ending.”

For sixty-five minutes, Finley rails against racial injustice, Zoom gatherings, the Catholic church, school shootings, anti-abortion laws, the fatigue and exhaustion the lockdown brought, and the closing of St. Vincent’s. She finds much-needed respite in baking and watching videos of interspecies love and friendship (complete with sing-along).

“Can I just pretend this isn’t happening?” she asks. “Oh grief / Here we go again / Oh loss / I am your constant companion,” she says. Addressing the goddess Venus, she demands, “Provide and support our empowerment / to transform this hate with all our creative imaginative strength / and change this oppressive senseless system forever.” When she opines, “I will try my best today / even in the smallest ways,” it is tentative as she battles despair and sorrow. A segment showing gay men dancing in a club asks us to look at how we viewed AIDS and how we view the coronavirus in what she calls her “Zoom Disco.”

Karen Finley prepares to bake while TV experts discuss hand washing (photo by Max Ruby)

But Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco is often as funny as its title. “I do not want to have a Zoom family reunion,” she proclaims. Asking a stranger on an elevator to put on a mask, Finley says, “The mask is your friend / Really, it is a very friendly mask. Trust me.” Making a cake, she declares, “Give me amaranth flour liberty or give me breath!” Watching a pair of experts discuss hand washing, she acknowledges, “Turns out none of us really knew how to wash our hands / We were doing it all wrong.” Referencing how we dressed during the lockdown, she states, “You do not know where you are / What day it is / What day you are on / What planet you are on / When you changed your clothes / Before or after Tiger King? / How long you have been wearing . . . anything . . . or nothing!”

Finley herself gained notoriety for occasionally wearing nothing onstage; we attended the show with two longtime fans, one of whom had poured honey over Finley’s naked body during one interactive performance. But this time around, the edible items remained on the table, as there is a $25 food and drink minimum in addition to the ticket price.

The production has a DIY feel to it; when Finley is done with an item of clothing, she just tosses it to the floor, the projections are not exactly HD, and a large prop at center stage blocks the bottom of the screen so all the words are not always legible, depending on where you’re sitting. (The technical director is JP Perraux, with sound by Jasmine Wyman; Becky Hubbert is the costume and prop consultant, and the production design is by Violet Overn, Finley’s daughter.)

Don’t expect a polished sheen, but that is a significant part of the show’s charm. Finley plays off the audience, which is in her corner every step of the way. The night I went, she was upset that she forgot a veil for her penultimate piece, “Eulogy,” and asked the crowd to give her a moment to prepare herself psychologically; she was warmed by shouts of encouragement and proceeded with a replacement for the veil as she related, “So many have left us — / the loss and the sorrow of never having a place to mourn. / Here is our eulogy for the lost and left. . . . Let us heal / Let us restore / Let us love / Let us forgive.”

With Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco, Finley once again explores difficult, controversial topics while helping us all heal, restore, love, and forgive.

JAN TILLEY: EXCERPTS FROM JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

EXCERPTS FROM JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
The Cutting Room
44 East 32nd St. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Friday, April 7, $40.35, $25 food & beverage minimum per person, 7:30
212-691-1900
thecuttingroomnyc.com
www.jantilley.com

Right after the two Passover seders and before Easter Sunday, rock & roll guitarist and singer Jan Tilley offers a holiday spectacular on Good Friday, an evening of songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1971 Broadway smash, Jesus Christ Superstar. Tilley, the cofounder of the Rude Girls and an early portrayer of Krzysztof in Hedwig & the Angry Inch, has led several special concerts at the Cutting Room and will next revive her portrayal of Jesus from last year, with vocalist Lisa McQuade as Judas, singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Rachelle Garniez as Mary Magdalene, and singer and actor Joe Dettmore as Simon Zealotes, Pontius Pilate, and King Herod. The band consists of Tilley with Roger Lipson, Tim Brannigan, Paul Leschen, and Junior Pauls, ready to kick some ass on such songs as “What’s the Buzz/Strange Thing, Mystifying,” “Everything’s Alright,” “Heaven on Their Minds,” “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” and “King Herod’s Song.”

Jan Tilley brings their rock-and-roll take on Jesus Christ Superstar back to the Cutting Room on Good Friday (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

If you haven’t seen Tilley rock out before at their Time Capsule 1970s/’80s shows and Heart tribute, you’re in for a treat. And with Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera closing on April 16 and his Bad Cinderella living up to its title, this is unquestionably the best Sir Andrew gig in town. (Even Ted Lasso is getting in on it all, making two Jesus Christ Superstar references in its first three episodes of season three.) Tickets are $40.35, with a $25 food and beverage minimum; the menu includes latkes in addition to burgers, salads, tacos, pizzas, and fish.

THE DOWNTOWN SEDER

Who: David Broza, BETTY, Bettye LaVette, Paul Shapiro’s Ribs & Brisket, Basya and Saadya Schechter, Mark Vincent, Gary Lucas and the Golem, Modi, Resistance Revival Chorus, Dr. Ruth, Mayor Eric Adams, Congressman Max Rose, Terrance Floyd, Vince Warren, Jason Flom, Lorenzo Johnson, more
What: Downtown Seder 2023
Where: City Winery, 25 Eleventh Ave. at Fifteenth St.
When: Sunday, April 2, $85-$125 (livestream free), 1:00
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 Sunday afternoon, April 2, 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 seated at long, communal tables and have a vegetarian 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 musicians David Broza, BETTY, Paul Shapiro’s Ribs & Brisket, Basya and Saadya Schechter, Mark Vincent, Resistance Revival Chorus, and Gary Lucas and the Golem, comedian Modi, Dr. Ruth, Mayor Eric Adams, Congressman Max Rose, Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jason Flom and Lorenzo Johnson of the Innocence Project. Terrance Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, will be asking “The Four Questions”; the setlist is also likely to include “Dayenu,” “Chad Gadya,” “Go Down Moses,” and “The Ten Plagues.”

“It says in the beginning of the Haggadah that one should recount and retell the story of the exodus from Egypt in the language that you understand. The ancient Israelites didn’t know Hebrew, so they told the story in Armenian. Americans read it in English,” Dorf said in a statement. “Our interpretation is to tell the story in the language of the arts, in ways we can relate and truly empathize with what it would be like to be in bondage, to be emancipated, and the universal civil rights we need to continually remind ourselves.” During the pandemic, City Winery livestreamed its Downtown Seders; you can check out the 2021 virtual event above. And it was just announced that the 2023 seder will be streamed live for free here.

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION WITH PHAKCHOK RINPOCHE: UNITY / THE FOUR TRANSFORMATIVE THOUGHTS

Who: Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche
What: Talk, meditation, discussion, book signing
Where: Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave. / Dharma House NYC, 60-06 39th Ave., Woodside
When: Thursday, March 23, $19 ($38.92 with lunch), 1:00 / Friday, March 24, free (donations accepted), 7:30
Why: Tibetan Buddhist teacher Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche returns to the Rubin Museum and Dharma House NYC for a pair of special events on March 23–24 in conjunction with the release of his latest book, Awakening Dignity: A Guide to Living a Life of Deep Fulfillment (Shambhala Publications, December 2022, $21.95). “Why is the joy inside us so hard to maintain? Why are we so easily lured by self-doubt, inadequacy, fear? Why do we feel so incomplete? What is the cause of this kind of suffering and what, if anything, can we do about it?” Phakchok Rinpoche asks in the first chapter, pointing out: “You are not alone.” The follow-up to Phakchok Rinpoche and Erric Solomon’s Radically Happy, the new book was written with associate history professor Sophie Wu and features a foreword by Daniel Goleman and Tara Bennett-Goleman. Awakening Dignity is divided into three parts, “Your Nature Is Pure,” “You Can Change,” and “Gaining Certainty and Trust,” and includes such chapters as “The Mirror of the Heart,” “Making Friends with ‘Sticky Mind,’” “Carefree Ease,” and “‘Who Am I?’”

Born in Kathmandu in 1981, Phakchok Rinpoche is a wonderful teacher with a unique sense of humor; I have sat in on numerous classes he’s led and lectures he’s given in Cooperstown, Westchester, SoHo, Nepal, and online, and they are always enlightening, whether you’re a practitioner or not. Last month I watched the livestream of the remarkable cremation ceremony for his father, Kyabje Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, which provided stunning insights into death, ritual, and reincarnation and fits right in with the Rubin exhibition “Death Is Not the End.” On March 23 at 1:00, Phakchok Rinpoche will be at the Rubin to lead a session of the institution’s “Mindfulness Meditation” series, consisting of an opening talk dealing with the theme of “Unity,” a twenty-minute seated meditation, and a discussion, followed by a book signing. Admission is $19 or, if you want lunch, $38.92 with food from the Indian restaurant TAGMO. The book tour continues on March 24 at 7:30 when Phakchok Rinpoche will be at Dharma House New York City to deliver the public teaching “The Four Transformative Thoughts,” also known as “The Four Mind Changings”; admission is free (donations welcome), but get there a bit early for a seat.

XOXO, ALAMO: BRIDESMAIDS MOVIE PARTY

A bride and her bridesmaids are looking for trouble in fab comesy

A bride and her bridesmaids are looking for trouble in fab Paul Feig comedy

BRIDESMAIDS (Paul Feig, 2011)
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn
445 Albee Square West
Monday, February 13, $22.36, 10:05
www.bridesmaidsmovie.com
drafthouse.com

The bachelorette partying will jump right off the screen and into the audience at Alamo Drafthouse on February 13 when the Downtown Brooklyn venue hosts its next movie party with a screening of Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids. The interactive event, specially timed for Valentine’s Eve, features lemons, poo spray, bridal veils, special cocktails and shakes, and other goodies.

The film itself is not one of those lousy SNL one-note movies, nor is it a silly chick flick. As it turns out, Bridesmaids is one of the most consistently funny laugh-out-loud romps of this century. Directed by Freaks and Geeks creator Feig, Bridesmaids is an endlessly clever and insightful examination of love, loneliness, and friendship starring SNL’s Kristen Wiig, who cowrote the smart script with Groundlings member Annie Mumolo (who makes a cameo as a nervous flyer). Wiig shows impressive depth and range as Annie, a perennial screw-up whose closest childhood friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), is marrying into a very snooty upper-crust family. After agreeing to be Lillian’s maid of honor, Annie gets involved in a battle of wits with Lillian’s future sister-in-law, the elegant Helen (a radiant Rose Byrne), who is determined to outshine Annie in every way possible and steal Lillian away from her.

Already a mess — she had to close her bakery, she shares an apartment with a bizarre pair of British siblings, she works in a jewelry store where she drives away potential customers with her sorry tales of woe, and she allows herself to be treated miserably as a late-night booty call for a self-centered businessman (Jon Hamm) — Annie experiences a series of hilarious, pathetic setbacks as she attempts to organize the bridal shower and bachelorette party, including a riotous potty-humor scene in a high-end boutique that is likely to go down in comedy history for its sheer relentlessness.

The rest of the bridesmaids are quite a hoot — Becca (Ellie Kemper), the Disney-loving kewpie doll; Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), a foul-mouthed married mom who can’t wait to go crazy away from her family; and the groom’s burly sister, Megan (the hugely entertaining Melissa McCarthy, on the cusp of superstardom), who lives life without a filter. Annie is so caught up in her own failures that she doesn’t recognize when something potentially good enters her life, in the form of state trooper Nathan Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd). Wiig gives the finest performance of her career to that point as Annie. Despite the slapstick nature of many of the jokes, Bridesmaids is filled with heart and soul, making it one of the best comedies in years. Alamo’s Movie Party series continues February 25 with Elizabeth Banks’s Cocaine Bear, with an agility course, bear claws, gummy bears, and more (but none of that white stuff).

LUIZA PRADO DE O. MARTINS: THE SERMON OF THE WEEDS

Luiza Prado de O. Martins will perform The Sermon of the Weeds at the 8th Floor on December 8 (photo by MeetFactory)

Who: Luiza Prado de O. Martins
What: Live performance installation activation
Where: The 8th Floor, Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, 17 West 17th St.
When: Thursday, December 8, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: Continuing at the 8th Floor at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation through January 21, the powerful exhibition “El Corazón Aúlla (Heart Howls): Latin American Feminist Performance in Revolt” features photography, painting, video, sculpture, and installation focusing on gender-based violence, with works by more than a dozen female and nonbinary artists from Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina. Jazmín Ra’s Falo X Falo — El Estado de Chile nos viola y nos mata (“The State of Chile rapes and kills us”), Flavia Marcus Bien’s From Night to Earth, and Elina Chauvet’s My Hair for Your Name explore misogyny, racism, and LGBTQ hate through documentation and performance, revealing serious issues and attempting to take the power back. Curators Alexis Heller and Tatiana Muñoz-Brenes explain, “These performances, their aesthetic decisions, and their particular social contexts answer questions that other artistic media cannot answer, or that could not establish an alliance with the viewer in the search for social justice. . . . Gender violence, reaching its highest peaks in feminicide and state violence, is a topic that should be howled when shouting is not enough, and that should go through political corporality and affections when common sense fails to bring about change.”

On December 8 at 6:00, Brazil-born, Berlin-based artist and activist Luiza Prado de O. Martins will activate The Sermon of the Weeds, a ritualistic circle of dirt on a white plinth, with a Jesus infinity sign on top of the small mound; the materials consist of paper, soil, Caesalpinia pulcherrima (peacock flower), Ruta graveolens (rue), Artemisia vulgaris (mugwort), Mentha pulegium (pennyroyal), and Cimifuga racemose (Black cohosh). The performance is a response to the current attacks on women’s reproductive rights in America and Brazil; Prado de O. Martins will dress as a priest, deliver a liturgical mass, and offer communion to the audience, specially made wafers (with natural ingredients used in traditional forms of birth control) and libations that equate humans and plants. (The menu includes parsley pesto; crisps; carrot, mint, and pistachio salad; seeded crackers; aged sheep’s cheese with grapes and pomegranate; fresh soft sheep’s cheese with balsamic and juniper; guava and cinnamon compote squares; pennyroyal liqueur; and artemisia iced tea.) The performance will be followed by a discussion with Prado de O. Martins and Heller. On December 10, Heller will give a curatorial tour of the exhibition, which also features works by Nayla Altamirano, Denise E. Reyes Amaya, Elina Chauvet, Cristina Flores, Regina José Galindo, Fernanda Laguna and Cecilia Palmeiro, Rossella Matamoros-Jiménez, Bárbara Milano, Wynnie Mynerva, and Berna Reale.

BITTERSWEET: THE DARK SIDE OF THE CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY

Terry Collingsworth will discuss the evils of the chocolate industry in special MOFAD event

Who: Terrence Collingsworth, Clay Gordon
What: MOFAD discussion of the history of the chocolate industry and tasting
Where: Chelsea Market Maker’s Studio, 75 Ninth Ave. between Fifteenth & Sixteenth Sts.
When: Tuesday, November 8, $45 (including chocolate three bars and beverage), 6:00
Why: Every night before we go to bed, my wife and I have several pieces of dark chocolate. We’re hoping an upcoming discussion sponsored by the Museum of Food and Drink doesn’t change our ritual. On November 8 at 6:00, International Rights Advocates founder and executive director Terry Collingsworth and Discover Chocolate author and TheChocolateLife.com and chocophile.com founder Clay Gordon will be at the Chelsea Market Maker’s Studio for “Bittersweet: The Dark Side of the Chocolate Industry,” which examines labor issues and child trafficking in the production and distribution of chocolate. The event was originally scheduled to include journalist Simran Sethi, who wrote in a June 2021 article for The Counter, “Chocolate brought Americans sweet respite in 2020 — more than usual, according to recent research into pandemic purchasing. But the great irony in our chocolate indulgence is that it’s also a product borne out of great suffering.”

Collingsworth and Gordon will examine specific human rights cases and screen a clip from Miki Mistrati’s 2022 documentary The Chocolate War, which follows Collingsworth over a five-year court battle. The evening will conclude with a tasting of three bars from Missouri-based small-batch purveyors Askinosie Chocolate.