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DISTANT WORLDS: MUSIC FROM FINAL FANTASY

Final Fantasy multimedia concert experience comes to BAM April 1-2 (Final Fantasy XIV © 2010 Square Enix Co., Ltd. Final Fantasy is a registered trademark of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. All material used under license.)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
Friday, April 1, and Saturday April 2, $65-$175, 8:00
718-636-4100
www.ffdistantworlds.com
www.bam.org

Final Fantasy began as a role-playing video game in 1987 and has since expanded into manga, movies, television, and much more, emerging as an international phenomemon with a legion of dedicated fans. In addition to its amazing imagery using cutting-edge technology, Final Fantasy features symphonic scores composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who began making the music for the series shortly after accidentally bumping into creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. On April 1-2, Uematsu and conductor Arnie Roth will present “Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy” at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, performed by the Distant Worlds Philharmonic Orchestra, the Riverside Choral Society, and various soloists, accompanied by a screen showing memorable images and videos from the games. The April 1 program includes FF VII: Prelude, FFVIII: Liberi Fatali, FFXI: Memoro de la Stono — Distant Worlds, FF VII: J-E-N-O-V-A, FF VIII: Fisherman’s Horizon, the American premiere of FF XIV: Answers, FFX: To Zanarkand, FFVI: Terra’s Theme, FFXII: Kiss Me Goodbye, FFV: Clash on the Big Bridge, FFVII: Opening — Bombing Mission, and FFVIII: Don’t Be Afraid, while April 2 consists of FF VII: Aerith’s Theme, FF V: Dear Friends, FF IX: Vamo’ alla Flamenco, FF VI: Opera “Maria and Draco,” FF IX: A Place to Call Home — Melodies of Life, FFX: To Zanarkand, FFVI: Terra’s Theme, FFXII: Kiss Me Goodbye, FFV: Clash on the Big Bridge, FFVII: Opening — Bombing Mission, and FFVIII: Don’t Be Afraid. “Distant Worlds” has been touring the world, delivering its multimedia concert experience to fans who can’t get enough of Final Fantasy and its depiction of the ultimate battle between good and evil. Tickets start at $65, but if you splurge for the $175 package you get to meet Uematsu and Roth and attend an autograph and photo session. (If you use code 13999, you’ll save $10 on all tickets.)

TWI-NY TALK: JENNIFER EGAN

National Book Critics Circle Award winner Jennifer Egan will be celebrating the release of the paperback edition of A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD with a series of very different events in New York City in the coming weeks (photo by Pieter M. Van Hattem/Vistalux)

It’s almost impossible to overstate just how accomplished a writer Jennifer Egan is. Born in Chicago, raised in San Francisco, and based in Brooklyn, Egan has penned the short story collection Emerald City (1993) and the novels The Invisible Circus (1995), Look at Me (2001), The Keep (2006), and A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) in addition to numerous articles and cover stories for the New York Times Magazine and other publications. Her fiction writing and journalism have garnered a host of honors, the latest being the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award, which she won March 10 for A Visit from the Goon Squad, out in paperback today (Anchor, $14.95). Goon Squad is a swirling delight of a novel, jumping through time and space from chapter to chapter, each narrated by a different character and built around two engaging protagonists, kleptomaniac Sasha and record producer Bennie Salazar. Organized like an interconnected collection of short stories that can stand on their own, Goon Squad is a literary tour de force, a thrilling symphony that leaves readers breathless with anticipation at the conclusion of each chapter. Just before winning the NBCC Award, Egan talked to twi-ny about obsession, affection, obscurity, and chemistry.

twi-ny: Considering the daring experimental structure of Goon Squad and the tendency for works in progress to periodically threaten to fall completely to pieces, what helped you stay with this project through the years, especially during times when you may have been doubting it?

Jennifer Egan: The primary thing that held me steady as I worked on Goon Squad was an ongoing curiosity about—you might even say obsession with—the characters. They were in my head pretty much all the time. Also, since one of my goals was to make every chapter completely self-sufficient, I had a sort of built-in Plan B: If the whole construction didn’t combust in the way I was hoping it would, at least I’d have a solid story collection to fall back on. That was my hope, and although my goal was definitely higher than that, it was consoling to think that I would end up with some kind of book either way.


twi-ny: The novel is told from multiple POVs, with multiple narrators. Which one did you find most challenging to write from, and which was easiest? Which was your favorite, or did you have one?

Jennifer Egan: The character that came to me most easily was probably Bennie. I’m not sure why that is, but I had a special affection for him, and I also kind of identified with him—though I’m happy to say that we’re not alike! The most difficult character was probably Lou, because he has a lot of bad qualities, and there was a danger of his seeming like a monster, rather than a human. Personally, I feel a lot of sympathy for Lou—I see him as a tragic figure—but not all readers share that view, so it may be that I didn’t completely succeed at humanizing him.

twi-ny: You’re nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in the Fiction category with Jonathan Franzen, David Grossman, Hans Keilson, and Paul Murray, none of whom were finalists for the National Book Award. (You were previously a National Book Award finalist for Look at Me.) How do you feel about book awards in general, and how they relate to your career specifically?

Jennifer Egan: Being a finalist for the National Book Award saved Look at Me from complete obscurity (it came out the week of 9/11, when most fiction disappeared without a trace), so I know how helpful those little medallions can be! I’ve also been a judge of the National Book Awards (2009), and I think that probably cured me of any sense that awards are personal. It’s all chemistry; how a particular group of people’s tastes interact, individually and together, with a gigantic body of work published in one year. Judges are judged themselves on their choices, and I think they generally agonize in their effort to do a responsible job. When I think about last year’s National Book Awards, my first thought is not that I wasn’t a finalist but that they did us all a huge service by honoring someone of enormous talent—Jaimy Gordon [Lord of Misrule]—who was not widely known. I envied them for having pulled that off.

Jennifer Egan will be at BookCourt on Monday, March 28, at 7:00 (free), for a discussion and signing; at Symphony Space on Wednesday, March 30, at 7:30 ($15-$25) for a Thalia Book Club event with Siri Hustvedt and Margot Livesey revisiting Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; at BAM on Thursday, March 31, at 6:30 ($50) for an Eat, Drink & Be Literary dinner moderated by Deborah Treisman; at the April 14 Westchester Libraries Author Luncheon at Abigail Kirsch’s Tappan Hill at 12 noon ($75-$1,250) with David Shenk and Diane Mott Davidson; and at the New York Public Library also on April 14 at 7:00 ($25) for the Live from the NYPL program “Jennifer Egan in Conversation with Laura Miller.”

THE DIARY OF A MADMAN

Geoffrey Rush is a whirlwind of psychological and physical energy in Belvoir’s THE DIARY OF A MADMAN (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
Through March 12, $25-$95
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Back in 1989, an Australian actor named Geoffrey Rush starred as Poprischchin in David Holman’s adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 1853 short story “The Diary of a Madman,” staged by the relatively young Belvoir Street Theatre company by director Neil Armfield. Now, with Armfield stepping down from his position as Belvoir’s artistic director after some seventeen years, he and Rush have decided that his swan song will be a revival of The Diary of a Madman, which has arrived at BAM following a recent run in Sydney. Rush is a whirlwind of energy as the lowly clerk of the ninth grade with big dreams, prancing about the stage with his bizarre hairstyle and ragged clothes, determined to be more than just the chap who mends his boss’s quills (while lusting after the boss’s daughter, one of several female characters wonderfully played by Yael Stone). A quirky, somewhat endearing character at first, the civil employee begins a slow descent into madness as he insists he smells dumplings, reads letters written from one dog to another, and thinks he is destined to fill a royal vacancy. The play stumbles here and there, flirting with political allegory, and meandering a bit too much in order to allow Rush to let go, and let go he does — interacting with the audience, evaluating the two-man band (Paul Cutlan and Erikki Veltheim) that plays Mussorgsky and adds creative sound effects, and gesturing wildly with his face and limbs in clownish, cartoonish ways. (Both he and Armfield have claimed Daffy Duck as a major influence.) Stone is outstanding as Poprischchin’s foil, primarily as his maid, the tough Tuovi, who is struggling to learn English, and also as the beautiful woman in white, Sophia, whom the clerk fumbles over whenever she is near. Mark Shelton’s splendid lighting design casts multiple, at times hulking shadows onto Catherine Martin and Christopher Tangney’s green, red, and yellow set, which juts out over the stage, evoking Poprischchin’s deeply troubled psyche. Rush’s 1989 tour-de-force performance led to his getting the role of David Helfgott in Shine, setting him off on a stellar film career that has included Shakespeare in Love, Quills, and The King’s Speech, each of which has resulted in Oscar nominations and/or wins, in addition to his 2009 Broadway debut, Armfield’s Belvoir production of Eugène Ionesco’s Exit the King, which earned Rush a Tony. It is a joy to have him back on the New York stage, and so quickly, especially in another exciting theatrical event.

The Brooklyn run, which continues through March 12, is nearly sold out, so get your tickets now; you’d be mad not to. Rush and Armfield will be participating in an Artist Talk at the Harvey on February 20, while writer Adam Phillips will give a lecture on “Acting Madness” in BAM’s Hillman Attic Studio on February 26, discussing The Diary of a Madman, Macbeth, which Cheek by Jowl brings to the Harvey April 5-16, and King Lear, which comes to BAM April 28 – June 5 in a Donmar Warehouse production starring Derek Jacobi.

MLK DAY 2011

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would have turned eighty-one this month

In the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Arizona congresswoman Gabrilelle Giffords, today’s many tributes to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., should take on added meaning. At BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, the twenty-fifth annual free event, beginning at 10:30 am, features a keynote address by writer Walter Mosley, live performances by the Persuasions and the Reverend Timothy Wright Memorial Choir of the Grace Tabernacle Christian Center, and a screening of NESHOBA: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM (Micki Dickoff & Tony Pagano, 2010). The Children’s Museum of Manhattan continues its Martin Luther King. Jr., Festival with “Raising Citizens: Make a Difference Medal” at 12 noon. At the newly reopened Museum of the Moving Image, associate producer Richard Kaplan will introduce a free screening of KING: A FILMED RECORD . . . MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS at 3:00. At Symphony Space, the fourth annual JCC in Manhattan program, “Artists Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” includes a keynote address by the Rev. Dr. Suzan D. Johnson Cook, live jazz from Craig Harris, Juel Lane performing choreographer Bridget Moore’s REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST, and singers Neshama Carlebach and Reverend Hambrick with members of the Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir, emceed by Ruth Messinger (free, 6:30). Tonight Jazz at Lincoln Center will present a Jazz Celebration featuring the Juilliard Jazz Ensemble, Cyrus Chestnut, and special guests ($20, 7:30 & 9:30).

VOLLMOND (FULL MOON)

Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND is a wet and wild experience (photo by Laurent Philippe)

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Through October 9, $25 – $85 (October 1 performance reviewed)
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de

Returning to BAM for the first time since the sudden death of their founder and artistic director, Pina Bausch, in June 2009, Tanztheater Wuppertal is dazzling audiences in Brooklyn with the U.S. premiere of the 2006 evening-length piece VOLLMOND (FULL MOON). A large rock sits alone on a sparse black stage above a shallow, barely visible river of water. The first half of the 150-minute show is an utter delight as the twelve-member company enacts vignettes of love, romance, and the playful battle between the sexes, the men dressed in dark pants and button-down shirts, the women in elegant evening gowns and high heels. They flirt, kiss, and tell jokes, occasionally giving way to sparkling solos by the diminutive Rainer Behr and Ditta Miranda Jasjfi and others. Water, the elixir of life, is at the center of it all, whether the men are pouring drinks for the women or they all go for a swim in the river, rain crashing down in a breathtaking display.

Women dominate the battle of the sexes in VOLLMOND (photo by Jan Szito)

But the second half takes a darker turn, as costumes dim and tend toward black, the kissing and jokes replaced by violence and pain, the high tides of the full moon now pulling more turbulent currents to the surface. The first three solos are performed by the troupe’s older members, new co-artistic director Dominique Mercy (who has been with the company since Bausch took it over in 1973), longtime comic relief Nazareth Panadero, and the lithe, rail-thin Julie Anne Stanzak, their movements sharper and less fluid than those of the younger dancers. Where wooden sticks were earlier used to create a cool thwooshing sound, now they are weapons. Instead of filling a wineglass with a drink, a man now shoots a plastic cup off a woman’s head using a water pistol. The music also borders on the morose, including Cat Power’s eerie “Werewolf.” But soon the sexes are back in each other’s arms for a wet and wild finale. Bausch’s unique melding of dance, theater, comedy, and music is in abundant evidence throughout VOLLMOND, another terrific crowd pleaser from one of the world’s most gifted talents. Athough no one takes the customary choreographer’s bow after the show, Bausch’s presence is felt all night long. At one point, Panadero brings out a chair and warns a man away from it, stating that even ghosts need to sit down; everyone in the theater instantly understands whom she is talking about. Discussion and speculation over the future of Tanztheater Wuppertal swirl around whether it can go on without Bausch; VOLLMOND is a must-see on its own merits, but even more so considering the possibility that it could be the company’s last stand in New York.

DELUSION

Laurie Anderson is back at BAM with another multimedia examination of the personal and the political (photo by Leland Brewster)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
Through October 3, $20-$60
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Examining the twenty years of her life she has spent sleeping, Laurie Anderson’s new show, DELUSION, running at BAM’s Harvey Theater through October 3, consists of approximately twenty short mystery plays that move smoothly between the personal and the poltical, an intimate multimedia work about dreams and the state of the nation. Commissioned for the 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, DELUSION features some of Anderson’s sharpest writing in years, performed in her unique talk-singing style either as herself or as deep-voiced alter ego Fenway Bergamot. Anderson glides between several microphones on a stage that includes video projections on a loveseat, shredded paper, a small scrim, and a large screen in back, depicting leaves flying in the wind, smoke drifting endlessly, a chalkboard filled with hard-to-decipher words and images, moonscapes, a child witnessing her mother’s death, and giant live shots of Anderson herself, playing her specially made violin. Joined by Colin Stetson on bass saxophone and Eyvind King on a more traditional violin, both men primarily seen in silhouette, Anderson, dressed in her trademark white shirt and thin black tie, tells jokes and stories about age, memory, Iceland, nineteenth-century Russian space theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, punctuation, and her own heritage. The centerpiece of the show is “Another Day in America,” from Anderson’s latest album, the just-released HOMELAND; “And so finally here we are, at the beginning of a whole new era, the start of a brand new world,” she sings as Bergamot. “And now what? How do we start? How do we begin again? . . . And so which way do we go?” Throughout the ninety-minute performance, Anderson, who has previously staged such pieces as THE END OF THE MOON, SONGS AND STORIES FROM MOBY DICK, EMPTY PLACES, and the seminal UNITED STATES: PARTS I-IV at BAM, is warmer and friendlier than ever, filled with charm and good humor, making strong eye contact with the audience as she delves into fascinating topics with a wink and a knowing smile.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

Don’t get washed out of getting tickets to see Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND at BAM (photo by Laurent Philippe)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave.
BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St.
September 23 – December 19, $20-$85
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Now in its twenty-eighth year, BAM’s Next Wave Festival is, as always, a terrific collection of productions scouted from around the world. Single tickets go on sale Monday, August 30, for Laurie Anderson’s phantasmagoric DELUSION and Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND, an extremely strong one-two punch to get the season going, featuring a pair of longtime BAM favorites; we recently caught Anderson at (le) poisson rouge, and she’s still at the top of her game, while VOLLMOND is the final piece from the inventive, innovative, and endlessly entertaining Bausch, who passed away in June 2009, leaving behind a BAM legacy that included the thrilling BAMBOO BLUES, NEFÉS, and FUR DIE KINDER VON GESTERN, HEUTE, UND MORGEN, among other splendid shows. The rest of the series goes on sale September 7, with such highlights as Ralph Lemon’s HOW CAN YOU STAY IN THE HOUSE ALL DAY AND NOT GO ANYWHERE?, Stew’s BROOKLYN OMNIBUS, Julia Stiles in the Ridge Theater’s PERSEPHONE, Sasha Waltz’s GEZEITEN, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s version of Akira Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD, Thomas Ostermeier’s take on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, Gísli Örn Gardarsson and Nick Cave’s experimental exploration of Franz Kafka’s METAMORPHOSIS, and Mikel Rouse’s multimedia extravaganza GRAVITY RADIO. Subscription tickets are available right now; if you buy seats to four or more shows, you can save up to forty percent and receive such benefits as priority access to future seasons, flexible scheduling, and discounts for additional tickets.