Who: Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Joe Mantello, David Canfield
What: Live virtual discussion about The Boys in the Band
Where: 92Y online
When: Friday, October 2, free, 7:00
Why: In the spring of 2018, Mart Crowley’s 1968 play, The Boys in the Band, finally made its Broadway debut; at the time, I called it “a raucous fiftieth-anniversary adaptation lavishly directed by Joe Mantello. . . . All these years later, it is evident that Crowley, who wrote a sequel, The Men from the Boys, in 2002, captured more than just a moment in time; he was embracing individuality as well as the very zeitgeist of homosexuality, even as the party devolves amid the onslaught of personal demons coming to the fore. Crowley also touches on racism and anti-Semitism in addition to homophobia.” The show starred a cast of out actors playing gay men at a birthday party: Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Robin De Jesús, Andrew Rannells, Tuc Watkins, Michael Benjamin Washington, Brian Hutchison, and Charlie Carver. The production has now been made into a movie produced by Ryan Murphy that will debut on Netflix on September 30 with the full, original Broadway cast. On October 2 at 7:30, the 92nd St. Y will host a free, live discussion with Parsons (Michael), Quinto (Harold), Bomer (Donald), and Mantello, moderated by EW’s David Canfield, that will explore this illuminating and controversial exploration of gay culture in New York City. Sadly, Crowley, who cowrote the screenplay with Ned Martel, passed away on March 7 at the age of eighty-four.
this week in (live)streaming
HOW I MISS BROADWAY
Hillary Clinton will discuss how much she misses Broadway in livestreamed New York Times discussion
Who: Hillary Clinton, Audra McDonald, Danielle Brooks, Jessie Mueller, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Paulson
What: New York Times Offstage event
Where: New York Times online
When: Thursday, October 1, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: In February 2017, I was at the Palace Theatre, waiting for Sunset Boulevard, the musical with Glenn Close, to start. We all soon realized why the curtain was being delayed: Hillary Clinton was just coming in, being ushered to her orchestra seat. The applause was enormous, lasting several minutes in an outpouring of love and respect for our near-president; in fact, it was the best part of the evening. Hillary, with and without Bill, is a Broadway regular; on October 1 at 7:00, she is the centerpiece of the livestreamed discussion “How I Miss Broadway.” The New York Times “Offstage” event will be moderated by theater reporter Michael Paulson; after the initial talk, they will be joined by six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald (Porgy and Bess, Master Class), Tony nominee Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple, Much Ado About Nothing), and Tony winners Jessie Mueller (Waitress, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) and Neil Patrick Harris (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cabaret). Registration is free; Broadway may be dark because of the pandemic, but this should be a cathartic experience bringing part of the theater community together for an evening.
The Times’s “Offstage” series kicked off June 11 with “Opening Night: Explore Broadway as It Was, Is, and Will Be,” featuring critic at large Wesley Morris speaking with Adrienne Warren, Daniel J. Watts, Celia Rose Gooding, and Kenny Leon, followed by discussions with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Sonya Tayeh, and Jeremy O. Harris and performances by Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Stanley, Mare Winningham, and the casts of Company and Six. You can watch that presentation here.
THE DANCE NOW STORY
Who: Honorees Gus Solomons jr., Robert Battle, Jane Comfort, Claire Porter, Satoshi Haga, David Parker/the Bang Group, many dance companies
What: Annual festival moves from Joe’s Pub to online for twenty-fifth anniversary
Where: Dance Now online
When: September 10 – May 20, performances $10, performance plus celebration $20,
Why: Dance Now is celebrating its silver anniversary by looking at the past and into the future with “The Dance Now Story,” a six-part virtual series that kicked off September 10 with new five-minute digital commissions from Ayodele Casel, Mike Esperanza, and LMnO3 in addition to archival works from HUMA, Tricia Brouk, and DN honoree Gus Solomons jr.; it will be followed by a live, virtual Artist-to-Audience Celebration on October 1 at 7:00 hosted by TruDee. Chapter two takes place October 8 with new digital commissions from Jamal Jackson and Nicole Wolcott & Katy Pyle, along with archival works from Wanjiru Kamuyu & Katherine Helen Fisher and DN honoree Robert Battle; the live celebration is set for October 22 with host Christal Brown. “The DN Story” continues November 12 with new digital commissions from Mariana Valencia and Nicole Vaughan-Diaz & Orlando Hernandez and archival works from Take Dance & Amber Sloan and DN honoree Jane Comfort, with the celebration set for December 3 with host Sara Juli. Chapter four launches on February 11 with new digital commissions by Kate Ladenheim, Alice Sheppard, Subject: Matter, and Maleek Washington and archival works from Adam Barruch and Mark Gindick, with a February 25 celebration honoring Claire Porter with host TruDee.
On March 11, chapter five features new digital commissions by Tsiambwom M. Akuchu, Brendan Drake, and Jasmine Hearn and archival works by Ruben Graciani and Megan Williams, with a March 25 party honoring Satoshi Haga, hosted by Germaul Barnes. And the series concludes May 6 with new digital commissions by Sarah Chien, Kayla Farrish, and Joshua L. Peugh and archival works by John Heginbotham and Paula Josa-Jones, along with the final live Artist-to-Audience Celebration, honoring David Parker/the Bang Group on May 20, hosted by Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott. The Dance Now festival usually takes place at Joe’s Pub, so maybe parts of the event will be allowed to move indoors by the time some of the later chapters come up. Virtual tickets are $10 for each chapter performance, which you can watch any time once it releases, and $20 for access to the chapter as well as the live party.
BUNHEADS: MISTY COPELAND IN CONVERSATION WITH VANITY FAIR’S RADHIKA JONES
Who: Misty Copeland, Radhika Jones
What: Online discussion
Where: 92nd St. Y online
When: Wednesday, September 30, $10, 7:00
Why: “When Miss Bradley announced they’d be performing the ballet Coppélia for the recital, everyone in Misty’s class shouted excitedly and gathered around to hear their teacher tell the story of Coppélia. Misty didn’t know what Coppélia meant, and she was too shy to ask — especially since it was her first ballet class ever! So Misty took a spot on the floor, and before she knew it, she was completely entranced as Miss Bradley told the tale.” So begins Misty Copeland’s second children’s book, Bunheads (Putnam, September 29, $17.99), the follow-up to her debut, The Firebird. The start of a new series, Bunheads, illustrated by Setor Fiadzigbey, shares Copeland’s initial foray into the world of ballet as a child; she would grow up to become the first African American female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre. On September 30 at 7:00, she will launch the book in a livestreamed conversation with Vanity Fair editor in chief Radhika Jones in a talk hosted by the 92nd St. online. You can listen to a clip of Copeland reading from the book here.
ARTISTS JUDITH BERNSTEIN AND KIM JONES: HUMOR AND POLITICS IN ART
Peter Saul, Ronald Reagan in Grenada, acrylic on canvas, 1984 (Hall Collection. Courtesy Hall Art Foundation. Photo: Jeffrey Nintzel)
Who: Judith Bernstein, Kim Jones, Gary Carrion-Murayari
What: New Museum Conversations
Where: New Museum Zoom
When: Wednesday September 30, free with advance RSVP, 8:00
Why: There doesn’t seem to be a lot to laugh about these days, what with the Covid-19 crisis, protests over police brutality, an economy in freefall, the battle over the next Supreme Court justice, and the upcoming contentious presidential election. But artists Judith Bernstein and Kim Jones are going to try to make us smile even given our current state of chaos when they sit down for the New Museum Conversation “Humor and Politics in Art” on Zoom with curator Gary Carrion-Murayari. The provocative seventy-seven-year-old Newark-born, NYC-based Bernstein has been fighting the status quo in her work for more than fifty years, while seventy-six-year-old California-born, NYC-based performance artist Jones has been stoking controversy in his oeuvre since the mid-1970s. The talk will focus on eighty-six-year-old California-born artist Peter Saul’s “Crime and Punishment,” which is on view at the New Museum through January 3. You can see Saul’s February 27 pre-shutdown talk with New Museum director Massimiliano Gioni here.
Bernstein was at the New Museum with her 2012-13 solo exhibition “Hard”; she also participated in the group shows “After Hours: Murals on the Bowery” in 2011 and “The Last Newspaper: Contemporary Art, Curating Histories, Alternative Models” in 2010-11 and such talks as “Who’s Afraid of the New Now?” in 2017; Jones’s relationship with the museum includes “Kim Jones as the Mudman” in 1986, “Temporarily Possessed: The Semi-Permanent Collection” in 1995, and “Collage: The Unmonumental Picture” in 2008. Expect a raucous, no-holds-barred discussion with little subtlety.
THE NAATCO NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP PROJECT: ROMEO AND JULIET
Who: National Asian American Theatre Company, Two River Theater
What: Virtual benefit reading of modern verse translation
Where: Two River Rising,
When: Wednesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 1, $25, 7:00
Why: In 2015, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced “Play On Shakespeare,” an ambitious project in which thirty-six contemporary playwrights would provide modern translations of all thirty-nine of the Bard’s plays. On September 30 and October 1, the NAATCO National Partnership Project (NNPP), in a collaboration between the National Asian American Theatre Company and Two River Theater in New Jersey, will present an online benefit reading of South Korean playwright Hansol Jung’s (Wild Goose Dreams, Cardboard Piano) interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, originally commissioned for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. The all-Asian American cast features Mitchell Winter as Romeo, Stephanie Hsu as Juliet, Joel de la Fuente as Capulet, David Huynh as Mercutio, Tina Chilip as Tybalt, Vanessa Kai as Lady Capulet, Mia Katigbak as the nurse, Andrew Pang as Friar Laurence, Jon Norman Schneider as Petruchio, and Jeena Yi as Benvolio, with all performers taking on multiple roles; Obie winner Chay Yew (A Language of Their Own, Wonderland) serves as director.
“To most theater lovers, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a dramatic palimpsest; resonant and complicated, it remains a core myth for many,” TRT artistic director John Dias said in a statement. “Itself layered with borrowed stories and cultural appropriation, R&J beats with a universal heart of love and hate. The play still has much to teach us, and I love the echoes and layers that Hansol has added to it.” The first part of the show will be livestreamed on September 30 at 7:30, with part two streaming October 1 at 7:30, followed by a Q&A. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Asian Pride Project, which “celebrates the journeys, triumphs, and struggles of LGBTQ individuals and our Asian and Pacific Islander families and communities.” Future NNPP productions include NAATCO collaborating with Long Wharf Theatre on Madhuri Shekar’s Queen in February 2021 as well as with New York Theatre Workshop and Soho Rep.
VIRTUAL READING: THE TRIBUTE ARTIST
Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist goes virtual September 30 – October 4
Who: Charles Busch, Mary Bacon, Julie Halston, Keira Keeley, Carole Monferdini, Jonathan Walker
What: Virtual reading
Where: Primary Stages, 59E59
When: September 30 – October 4, $35 (opening night $50 with Zoom talkback and reception)
Why: In 2014, Primary Stages presented Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist at 59E59. In my review, I wrote that the show “is a wonderfully entertaining homage to the classic screwball comedies and films noir of the 1930s and ’40s. . . . Busch is a hoot as Jimmy, chewing up the scenery in Gregory Gale’s fab costumes and Katherine Carr’s wacky wigs while mixing in the wacky slapstick of Lucille Ball and the grace of Katharine Hepburn, and Julie Halston has a field day as his loud, acerbic, quick-witted sidekick. Busch veteran Jonathan Walker supplies a big dose of testosterone to the proceedings, including a scene-stealing monologue late in the second act.” The original cast, which also features Mary Bacon, Keira Keeley, and Carole Monferdini, is back for six live readings, directed again by Carl Andress, from September 30 through October 4 via the renewed partnership between Primary Stages and 59E59; tickets are $35 except for opening night, when $50 also gets you into a Zoom talkback and reception with members of the cast and crew. Primary Stages is also hosting the online workshop “Seeing Between the Lines” (September 29, $40, 6:00) with associate artistic director Erin Daley. Busch previously reunited with the cast of The Confession of Lily Dare for a terrific Plays in the House one-time-only benefit reading for the Actors Fund; you can get a sneak peek at the Zoom edition of The Tribute Artist here.