this week in music

BROADWAY DOES MOTHER’S DAY

broadway

Who: More than fifty Broadway performers
What: Mother’s Day benefit for the Broadway Cares COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund
Where: Broadway.com
When: Sunday, May 10, free (donation suggested), 3:00
Why: Broadway tickets are a popular Mother’s Day gift from children. This year, there is currently no Broadway, and most Americans will not be able to visit their mothers because of the coronavirus shutdown. So Broadway.com has teamed with Broadway Cares for a holiday spectacular, presenting Broadway Does Mother’s Day, a one-time-only livestreamed event featuring more than fifty Broadway stars (and their children and mothers) in a Sunday matinee of comedy sketches, musical numbers, and surprises. The celebration will include performances from the casts of such shows as Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Beetlejuice, Chicago, Come from Away, Company, Dear Evan Hansen, Diana, Girl from the North Country, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jagged Little Pill, Mean Girls, Mrs. Doubtfire, Sing Street, and Moulin Rouge! All proceeds go to the Broadway Cares COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund, which “helps entertainment professionals meet coronavirus-related expenses and other challenges brought about by the evolving pandemic” and are part of a matching program. Below are the announced participants in this holiday extravaganza.

Jill Abramowitz • Annaleigh Ashford • Kate Baldwin • Jenni Barber • Laura & Linda Benanti • Denée Benton • Betty Buckley • Liz Callaway • Carolee Carmello • Miguel Cervantes • Linda Cho • Victoria Clark • Jenn Colella • Chuck, Eddie & Lilli Cooper • Lea DeLaria • Claybourne Elder • Eden Espinosa • Beanie Feldstein • Harvey Fierstein • Victor Garber • Leah C. Gardiner • Molly Griggs • Ann Harada • Jennifer Holliday • Robyn Hurder • James Monroe Iglehart • Sheryl Kaller • Ryan Kasprzak • Judy Kaye • Celia Keenan-Bolger • Kylie Kuioka • LaChanze • Raymond J. Lee • Lesli Margherita • Ellyn Marie Marsh • Michael McElroy • Alexis Michelle • Bonnie Milligan • Brian Stokes Mitchell • Anisha Nagarajan • Manu Narayan • Bernadette Peters • Greg Anthony Rassen • Amanda Spooner • Jason “SweetTooth” Williams • NaTasha Yvette Williams • Vanessa Williams • Betsy Wolfe • Shahadi Wright Joseph

MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL

city winery

Who: Billy Bragg, Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Steve Earle, Shovels & Rope, Rufus Wainwright, Richard Thompson, the Indigo Girls, Jorma Kaukonen, Todd Snider, KT Tunstall, Loudon Wainwright, Amy Helm, Joseph Arthur, Stella Donnelly, Andrew Bird, Fink, Joan Osborne, the Mountain Goats, Valerie June, Stephin Merritt, Rita Houston
What: Special livestreamed Mother’s Day benefit concert from City Winery
Where: Private YouTube link sent two hours before showtime
When: Sunday, May 10, $10, 5:00
Why: “I love you and that’s why I’m going to stay away,” Billy Bragg sings to his mother in his March 21 video, “Can’t Be There Today.” The English singer-songwriter and activist was quick to follow social distancing guidelines, even if it meant not seeing loved ones. He has now teamed up with City Winery, where he is a regular performer, for a livestreamed Mother’s Day concert on Sunday, May 10, at 5:00, and there is an all-star lineup joining him from wherever they are sheltering in place. The roster so far features Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Steve Earle, Shovels & Rope, Rufus Wainwright, Richard Thompson, the Indigo Girls, Jorma Kaukonen, Todd Snider, KT Tunstall, Loudon Wainwright, Amy Helm, Joseph Arthur, Stella Donnelly, Andrew Bird, Fink, Joan Osborne, the Mountain Goats, Valerie June, and Stephin Merritt, hosted by Rita Houston.

Tickets to the YouTube show are $10, with all proceeds benefiting the United Nations Foundation, which “addresses sexual and reproductive health and rights in the COVID-19 pandemic.” Showing as always that he is ahead of the curve, Bragg explained in a statement about the song, “The coronavirus pandemic is going to affect our lives in ways we’ve yet to grasp. In the coming months, most of us will be forced to miss family gatherings, including Mother’s Day, which in the UK fell on the first weekend of isolation [March 22]. My new song touches on the emotional cost of this crisis.” Watch the concert with your mother, or in your mother’s memory. And stay safe and healthy out there; it’s not worth risking your life — or your mother’s — just to tell her you love her in person on Sunday.

A LONE WOLF RECITAL CORPS PERFORMANCE FEATURING BLANCHE BRUCE

Lone Wolf Recital Corps will present live musical meditation on works composed by Terry Adkins on Performa Radical Broadcast (Performance view of Facets: A Recital Compilation by Terry Adkins, November 8, 2012, at the Arthur Zankel Music Center, Skidmore College presented as part of the exhibition Recital at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. Photograph by Patrick O’Rourke)

Who: Blanche Bruce, Clifford Owens, Kamau Amu Patton
What: Livestream performance
Where: Performa’s Radical Broadcast website channel
When: Friday, May 1, free, 4:00
Why: In 2017, MoMA hosted a series of performances and talks in conjunction with the exhibition “Projects 107: Lone Wolf Recital Corps,” one of which I was fortunate enough to see. The exhibit focused on the work of artist and musician Terry Adkins (1953-2014), the founder of the performance collective Lone Wolf Recital Corps. This spring the Pulitzer Arts Foundation was scheduled to open “Terry Adkins: Resounding,” consisting of sculptures, instruments, digital videos, and various personal ephemera. Along with the postponement of the show, several live performances were canceled, but on May 1 at 4:00, the Pulitzer, in conjunction with Performa and organized by corps members Clifford Owens and Kamau Amu Patton, will be presenting “Radical Broadcast: Lone Wolf Recital Corps,” a livestream performance featuring Adkins alter ego Blanche Bruce (named after former slave and US senator Blanche Kelso Bruce) revisiting the early scores “Second Mind” and “Alto Age,” with Owens joining from his New York City apartment and Patton working from his Chicago studio. (Owens participated in the 2005 Performa Biennial and Adkins in the 2013 edition.) Adkins once said, “My quest has been to find a way to make music as physical as sculpture might be, and sculpture as ethereal as music is. It’s kind of challenging to make both of those pursuits do what they are normally not able to do.” That is especially true of playing live music in the age of coronavirus.

TAKE ME TO THE WORLD: A SONDHEIM 90th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

A parade of Broadway stars will celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s ninetieth birthday Sunday night on YouTube

Who: Meryl Streep, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Christine Baranski, Donna Murphy, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, Aaron Tveit, Maria Friedman, Iain Armitage, Katrina Lenk, Michael Cerveris, Brandon Uranowitz, Stephen Schwartz, Elizabeth Stanley, Chip Zien, Alexander Gemignani, Melissa Errico, Ann Harada, Austin Ku, Kelvin Moon Loh Thom Sesma, Annaleigh Ashford, Laura Benanti, Beanie Feldstein, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Kuhn, Linda Lavin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, Randy Rainbow, Lea Salonga, Victor Garber, Joanna Gleason, Nathan Lane, Steven Spielberg, Raúl Esparza
What: Live online celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s ninetieth birthday
Where: Broadway.com YouTube channel
When: Sunday, April 26, free, 8:00
Why: Stephen Joshua Sondheim was born in New York City on March 22, 1930. Over his long career, the Oscar, Tony, and Grammy winner has written the music and lyrics for such shows as West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and many others. A much-lauded revival of Company was set to hit Broadway on March 22, joining a revival of West Side Story, but both shows were closed down when Broadway went dark March 12 because of the coronavirus. But an all-star lineup will be paying tribute to Sondheim from their homes with “Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration,” a gala event being held on April 26 at 8:00. Sponsored by Broadway.com, the party will be streamed live on YouTube for free, but watchers are encouraged to donate to ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty), an NYC Service organization that seeks to “unite New Yorkers in service to advance lifelong civic engagement for a more equitable and inclusive city.” Above is the remarkable guest list of performers and well-wishers; the evening will be hosted by Tony winner Raúl Esparza, a veteran of Sunday in the Park with George and Company. Sondheim might be ninety, but we got used to seeing him all the time at the theater, as an audience member. Sunday night he’ll take center stage, where he belongs.

ZOOM OPERA: all decisions will be made by consensus

here arts center

Who: Paul An, Hai-Ting Chinn, Zachary James, Joan LaBarbara, Adrian Rosas, Kamala Sankaram, Joel Marsh Garland
What: Livestreamed opera from Here Arts Center
Where: Here Arts Center Facebook page and Zoom link (limited capacity beginning fifteen minutes before showtime)
When: Friday, April 24, 1:00, Saturday, April 25, 7:00, Sunday, April 26, 3:00
Why: Here Arts Center will be presenting what it is calling the “first ever Zoom opera” this weekend, a fifteen-minute production created specifically for the streaming platform. The team behind the 2019 multimedia Here show Looking at You have joined forces again for all decisions will be made by consensus, featuring music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel, and direction by founding artistic director Kristin Marting. The opera, which deals with a Zoom meeting of activists, will be performed by Paul An, Hai-Ting Chinn, Zachary James, Joan LaBarbara, Adrian Rosas, and Sankaram, with special guest Joel Marsh Garland. “With the current health crisis and its related cancellations, artists have found themselves trying to find new ways to connect with their audiences,” Sankaram said in a statement. “As always with new technologies, adapting traditional models can be an uneasy fit. So, I began this project with a question: What would happen if you created a piece specifically intended to be performed live over a conferencing platform like Zoom? The result is an experiment, an absurdist comedy, and a first answer to that question, hopefully leading to new ways to connect in this new world we’ve found ourselves in.” There will be three free performances, April 24 at 1:00, April 25 at 7:00, and April 26 at 3:00; I got a sneak peek at a tech rehearsal, so I can say I’m indeed looking forward to the final version, especially since I’ve also had my fair share of Zoom meetings and am well aware at how strange they can get.

DUET: LONNEKE GORDIJN IN CONVERSATION WITH LEE RANALDO

Lonneke Gordijn (photo by J. W. Kaldenbach) and Lee Ranaldo (photo by Cara Stricker © Lee Ranaldo) will discuss art and collaboration in the age of coronavirus on April 23 over Instagram

Who: Lonneke Gordijn, Lee Ranaldo
What: Online conversation hosted by Pace Gallery
Where: Pace Gallery Instagram Live
When: Thursday, April 23, free, 5:00
Why: If you haven’t been to Pace’s huge new home in Chelsea yet, it will be a little while longer before you get to check it out. But during the lockdown, Pace is hosting a series of livestreamed performances and conversations. On March 12, musician, composer, visual artist, writer, producer, and Sonic Youth cofounder Lee Ranaldo was scheduled to play a duet with EGO, a shapeshifting sculptural installation by DRIFT, a Dutch studio that was established in 2006 by Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn to bring people together with nature and technology. That event was cancelled because of the coronavirus, but on April 23 at 5:00, Ranaldo and Gordijn will take part in “Duet: Lonneke Gordijn in Conversation with Lee Ranaldo.” The free talk, focusing on creative collaboration in today’s complex world, will be streamed live on Instagram.

RICHARD THOMPSON LIVESTREAM

Who: Richard Thompson
What: Livestreamed couch concert
Where: Somewhere in Montclair, New Jersey
When: Sunday, April 19, 4:00
Why: London-born Richard Thompson is one of the greatest guitarists and singer-songwriters of the last fifty years. On March 29, the master raconteur played a twelve-tune live show from his couch in Montclair, where he is sheltering in place with his partner, singer-songwriter, author, and adoption advocate Zara Phillips. (You can watch it here.) The setlist included songs from throughout Thompson’s long career, from his days in Fairport Convention to teaming with his wife at the time, Linda Thompson, to deep cuts from his solo records. Among the songs he performed on his acoustic guitar were “I Misunderstood,” “Now Be Thankful,” “Down Where the Drunkards Roll,” “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight,” and the pandemic-related “Keep Your Distance,” accompanied by Phillips on several numbers. They also did some Covid-19 shtick. Thompson was as acerbic and funny as always, his infectious smile so necessary at this time. He is returning to his couch on April 19 at 4:00 for another livestreamed concert, benefiting the Community FoodBank of New Jersey; you can donate to the fund here. If you’ve never seen Thompson live, you’re missing one of the best performers around; don’t miss this next chance to see him in about as intimate a setting as you can imagine. And maybe by then he and Phillips will have figured out where to place the camera and how to turn the stream off at the end.