Tag Archives: ars nova

THE NETFLIX PLAYS

netflix plays

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
January 30 – February 9, $15, 8:00
212-352-3101
www.arsnovanyc.com

Since 2007, Ars Nova’s Play Group has been putting together festivals of short works and live music dedicated to pop-culture themes and internet memes, beginning with “The Wikipedia Plays” and continuing with “Playlist,” “Missed Connections NYC,” “The Wii Plays,” and “The Urban Dictionary Plays.” This year the Play Group turns its attention to online movie streaming with “The Netflix Plays,” twelve works inspired by Netflix’s recommendation categories and people’s guilty pleasures. The queue consists of Josh Koenigsberg’s Because You Watched Weekend at Bernie’s 2: A Kantian Morality Tale directed by Wes Grantom, Rachel Bonds’s Because You Watched Sherlock: Jack of Hearts directed by Portia Krieger, Sarah Gancher’s Understated Foreign Coming of Age: December 2011, Budapest directed by Jess Chayes, Sarah Burgess’s Inscrutable European-Set Thrillers: Bolzano directed by Jesse Jou, Dipika Guha’s Because You Watched Downton Abbey: Violently Overstated British Period Drama for Ages 19-100 directed by Jou, Bess Wohl’s Watch It Again: Happy New Year directed by Chayes, Sharyn Rothstein’s Heartfelt Noncontroversial Political Tearjerkers: October Surprise! directed by Chayes, A. Zell Williams’s Emotional Foreign Father-Daughter Films: The Foreign Affair, directed by Jou, Nick Gandiello’s Hip-Hop Documentaries: How I Feel directed by Krieger, Stephen Karam’s Watch It Again! directed by Grantom, Michael Mitnick’s Because You Watched Frasier: BECAUSE YOU WATCHED FRASIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! directed by Krieger, and Jon Kern’s Inspiring Fight-the-System Movies Based on Real Life: The Cable Bill directed by Grantom. But you need not worry too much about the bill, as the evening, in which all the plays are performed, is a mere fifteen bucks. The cast, which, based on the plays’ titles, should be having a lot of fun themselves, includes Kyle Beltran, Deonna Bouye, Nadia Bowers, Megan Byrne, Ben Graney, Drew McVety, Sarah Steele, and Eddie Kaye Thomas.

NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812

The cast of NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 toasts creator Dave Malloy, who also plays Pierre (photo by Ben Arons)

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through November 17, $30, 8:00
212-352-3101
www.arsnovanyc.com

Inspired by a section of Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 epic, War and Peace, Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is a rousing and rollicking immersive rock opera filled with treachery, deceit, romance, humor, and food and drink. Scenic designer Mimi Lien has transformed Ars Nova into an 1812 Moscow club, where patrons are seated together at small tables, banquettes, and a long, curved bar and greeted by a complimentary bottle of vodka and a plate of potato pierogis and pumpernickel bread. The action takes place everywhere, as the actors pop up on the bar, sit at a table, and wander through the audience, Bradley King’s expert lighting and Matt Hubbs’s sound design helping people locate the actors. Russian epics can get rather complicated, so the show opens with a prologue in which the characters introduce themselves one by one and set up the story, which involves a beautiful young woman, Natasha (Phillipa Soo), who is engaged to Andrey, who is off fighting the war against Napoleon, but Natasha soon falls for engaging cad Anatole (Lucas Steele), who is the brother of town tart Hélène (Amber Gray), who is married to the hapless cuckold Pierre (Malloy, who also plays piano in the live band, which is scattered throughout the space). “Everyone’s got nine different names,” the cast sings, “but look it up in your program / We’d appreciate it / Thanks a lot.” Indeed, the program includes a plot synopsis as well as a map of who’s who and how they are connected.

Natasha (Phillipa Soo) is caught in a dangerous love triangle in rollicking new rock opera (photo by Ben Arons)

The talented cast also features Brittain Ashford as Natasha’s well-meaning cousin Sonya; a scene-stealing Blake DeLong as Andrey’s crotchety father, Prince Bolkonsky; Amelia Workman as Natasha’s overprotective godmother, Marya D; Gelsey Bell as Andrey’s very serious sister, Mary; Nick Choksi as Anatole’s best friend, Dolokhov; and associate musical director Paul Pinto as troika driver Balaga. The bawdier first act is followed by a mellower second act highlighted by a show-stopping performance by Bell as Sonya laments what has befallen Natasha. The rock-solid music is played by cellists Brent Arnold and Raymond Sicam III, clarinetist Mark Dover, bassist John Murchison, oboist Sally Wall, and violist Pinky Weitzman, giving a Russian twist to the Jesus Christ Superstar-like score. Directed with flair and verve by Rachel Chavkin, who previously worked with Malloy (Beowulf — A Thousand Years of Baggage, Clown Bible) on the Obie-winning Three Pianos, the world premiere of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 offers adventurous theatergoers a fabulously good time, a unique experience that is fun for all in a wide variety of ways.

54/10 MUSIC MARATHON

Alice Lee, the Henry Millers, and Night Fevers play the Ars Nova 54/10 Music Marathon on August 4

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. at Tenth Ave.
August 1-11, $5 in advance, 8:00
212-489-9800
arsnovanyc.com/5410

The third annual Ars Nova 54/10 Music Marathon features more than two dozen up-and-coming bands playing the Hell’s Kitchen venue August 1-11, in a mix of genres that should titillate adventurous music lovers. The Lobbyists and Jake Winstrom will get things going on Wednesday night, with the Pete Ayres Band, Roof Access, and Curtis & Reinhard taking the stage August 2 and Hawk and Dove, Kate Kilbane & the Cellar Doors, and the Bengsons scheduled for August 3. Among the other participants are the Henry Millers, Molly & the Class Acts, Lady Moon, Jaggery, and Miko and the Musket. The marathon comes to a close August 11 with the Weight Boys Band, Pigpen Theatre Co., and Die Roten Punkte. The above website includes a bio and sample song from each performer, revealing the diverse array of sounds, from country, bluegrass, indie and experimental pop, and retro Tin Pan Alley to jazz, folk, New Age, and techno. Advance tickets are only five bucks; the price goes up to $10 online and $15 at the door starting August 1.

ANT FEST / soloNOVA ARTS FESTIVAL

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s FORMOSA is part of ANT Fest 2012 at Ars Nova

ANT Fest 2012, Ars Nova, 511 West 54th St., through June 28, $10
SoloNOVA Arts Festival, the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher St., through June 17, $20

This month, it’s easy to get confused with a concurrent pair of theater festivals that offer fresh new work at low prices but boast similar names and unusual capitalization. At Ars Nova on West 54th St., the fifth annual ANT Fest continues through June 28, focusing on all-new talent (ANT) presenting genre-defying work, with all tickets a mere ten bucks. The festival includes such intriguing productions as Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s Formosa, which involves a 1960s Taiwanese Barbie doll factory; the historical musical Folk Wandering; Andrew Scoville’s Love Machine, Part 1 . . ., about a NASA-obsessed teenage girl; and the one-man show Oomphalos: Evening of Diagrams, Theories, and Preposterous Arcana from the Face Hole of Brendan Hughes. At terraNOVA, the ninth annual soloNOVA Arts Festival highlights one-person shows for twenty dollars. The series continues through June 17 with such productions as unFRAMED, in which Iyaba Ibo Mandingo combines storytelling with poetry and painting; the multimedia comedy I Light Up My Life: The Mark Sam Celebrity Autobiography; Daniel Irizarry’s UBU, about the King of the Great Expanding Universe and his love of steak; Human Fruit Bowl, in which Harmony Stempel portrays a naked model preparing for a different kind of still-life; and the dark Convergence, with Avery Pearson facing some deep-seated fears.

THE LAPSBURGH LAYOVER

The Berserker Residents offer weary travelers a refreshing breath of wacky Eastern European air in THE LAPSBURGH LAYOVER at Ars Nova (photo by Ben Arons)

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through September 24, $30, 8:00
212-489-9800
www.arsnovanyc.com/lapsburghlayover

Layovers during airplane travel are usually tiring and boring if not downright frantic, but the lovely people of Lapsburgh are doing something about that. In the delightfully silly lo-fi The Lapsburgh Layover, running at Ars Nova through September 24, the Philadelphia-based Berserker Residents (The Giant Squid) have turned the West 54th St. arts space into the Shogoth Elder reception hall, where a quartet of semitalented Lapsburghians are presenting an evening of regional dinner theater while the audience’s plane is being refueled. After filling out a Customs form that includes such yes-or-no phrases as “I am under the influence of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, firearms, weapons, ammunition, explosives, pornographic material” and “Chicken or shrimp,” people are ushered into the exceedingly small and narrow hall, where they have the choice of sitting around the sides, in the back, or up front at the VIP table, where they very well might be asked to participate in the show. Going in and out of character on Lisi Stoessel’s playful set, Olaf / Mickey McElroy (Dave Johnson), Jeb / Carmen / Mark Able the Remarkable (Bradley K. Wrenn), Olaf / Fizzy / Big Fancy Mayor / Lilly (Justin Jain), and Zelda (Leah Walton) put on “Detective Mickey and the Case of the What Happened at the Club Regard,” a slapstick comic noir that cleverly twists standard genre clichés while tempting the audience to consider time-shares in the beautiful nation of Lapsburgh, which is still recovering from a legendary battle with killer frogs. “My city has a new diet,” says sexy chanteuse Zelda, Lapsburgh’s leading lady. “She will only eat hard-boiled justice and truth shakes. But who will feed them to her?” Cheap props, wild costumes (courtesy of Sydney Maresca), a not-quite-PowerPoint projection, and natural and unnatural disasters ensue as Mick tries to track down a murderer leaving victim after victim in his/her wake. Developed and directed by Oliver Butler, The Lapsburgh Layover is witty and fun, if a bit repetitive and a tad long, a jolly good way to spend your time in between flights. While you don’t actually get dinner with your theater (and VIPs would probably do best to avoid the salad they are served), you can purchase popcorn, the bourbon-based traditional Lapsburghian cocktail the Fancy Bicycle, and other snacks from the bar before the show takes off. At the very beginning, Zelda promises, “We shall make this time of waiting for your plane the most fancy for you.” And in their own quirky way, the Berserkers deliver.

THE Wii PLAYS


Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
February 1-12, $15, 8:00
www.arsnovanyc.com/thewiiplays

Ars Nova’s annual Play Group production goes the gaming route in February with THE Wii PLAYS, a collection of short works with live music by Brooklyn-based indie pop band Super Mirage. Each play is based on the name of a Nintendo Wii game; the collaborative has previously put on evenings based on Wikipedia entries, missed connections, and favorite songs, and in this case had nearly one thousand titles to choose from. First released in November 2006, the Wii instantly gained notoriety for its wireless ability, taking on such video-game leaders as the Xbox and PlayStation 3. This year’s theatrical lineup at Ars Nova features Wii Tennis by Molly Smith Metzler, Barbie as the Island Princess by Tasha Gordon-Solmon, Let’s Tap by Janine Nabers, Marvel Superhero Squad by Chad Beckim, Buck Fever by Samuel D. Hunter, Alien Monster Bowling League by Matthew Lopez, Tomb Raider: Anniversary by Kara Lee Corthron, Burger Island by Gregory Moss, All Star Cheer Squad by Jenny Connell, Sword Play: Speed Slice by Kristoffer Diaz, Bob the Builder: Festival of Fun by Amy Herzog, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games by Joe Tracz, with direction by Lila Neugebauer, Portia Krieger, Stephen Brackett, and Laura Savia, costumes by Tilly Grimes, and lighting by Grant Yeager. The cast includes Jenni Barber, Andrew Garman, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Christopher Jackson, Zach Shaffer, and Robbie Sublett. Be sure to leave your consoles at home.

20 AT 20

Through September 19
Tickets: $20
www.20at20.com

It’s time for the annual 20at20, when more than two dozen theatrical productions will be selling tickets for twenty bucks twenty minutes before curtain for nearly two weeks, including THE ACCIDENTAL PERVERT at the Players Theatre, ZERO HOUR: THE ZERO MOSTEL SHOW and BLACK ANGELS OVER TUSKEGEE at the Actors’ Temple Theatre, THE 39 STEPS and NAKED BOYS SINGING! at New World Stages, THE FLYING KARAMAZOV BROTHERS at the Minetta Lane Theatre, and NOW CIRCA THEN at Ars Nova, among others. While they might not be exactly the hottest shows out there, you can still save some big bucks, and you know that you’ve been dying to check out AWESOME 80s PROM at Webster Hall. When you reach the box office — there might be lines, of course, so get there a little early — just say “20at20” to receive the discounted ticket, one per person, as long as there are any left. Some theaters will accept cash only, so have those Andrew Jacksons ready.