Gossip Central

Hamptons Journal: Allman Betts Band at Guild Hall, Tony Oursler, Joel Grey at the Bay Street Theater Gala

Two decades ago, the legendary Allman Brothers Band swept through the Hamptons landing at Montauk’s Deep Hollow Ranch for an unforgettable outdoor concert, the audience poised on haystacks when the crowd wasn’t whooping it up to the great music. It was huge! On Saturday night, their kids, led by Devon Allman and Duane Betts, showed off their talents at Guild Hall. The genes don’t lie. Yes, the concert was part of Guild Hall’s popular guitar series; the rockers gave that big concert feeling inside the intimate East Hampton arts venue, where dancing in the aisles for the “Eat a Peach” classic, “Blue Skies” was irrepressible.

And the thrill of Nashville-based JD Simo joining them for “Purple Rain!” His trio opened the set, bringing down the house with “Mind Trouble,” and his cover of Joe Cocker’s “[High With] A Little Help From My Friends:” “What would you do if I sang out of tune?” he crooned. Trust me, he doesn’t.

Kronos Quartet: A Thousand Thoughts at Guild Hall

A “live documentary” by the filmmaking team Sam Green and Joe Bini, A Thousand Thoughts is a true celebration of collaboration in media ("live documentary") and joyful art-making. At Guild Hall this week, in a production with the Hamptons International Film Festival, Sam Green narrated the Kronos Quartet history in a film, in the presence of the string quartet, performing on violins, viola, cello, and for one selection, water-filled glassware. That’s the live part. The players, David Harrington, John Sherba, Hank Dutt, and Sunny Yang, accompany themselves and the many artists who have worked with them, including Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, and Laurie Anderson, present on this dynamic night.

Rolling Thunder Revue on Netflix, and More: Allen Ginsberg Never Gets Old

Just before his death in 1997, Allen Ginsberg wrote to President Bill Clinton advising him that just in case he was going to name an American poet laureate, this would be a good time to honor him. As we know, that never happened. But look around: Allen, over 20 years after his death, is everywhere. In Martin Scorsese’s documentary of Bob Dylan’s tour, Rolling Thunder Revue on Netflix, the poet is named “The Oracle at Delphi,” giving him some classic, other-worldly stature. Seated Buddha-style he lends a religious benediction to a rock and roll tour that features Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Sam Shepard, Anne Waldman, Ronnie Blakely, and others. Dylan’s great music is of course the star, but Allen exercises his chops. A highlight of the tour that starts in 1975 is a visit to fellow poet Jack Kerouac’s grave, near his birth home in Lowell, Massachusetts. Only recently dead since 1969, Kerouac may have enjoyed Ginsberg and Dylan cavorting and reciting from “Mexico City Blues” and otherwise paying homage to the dead beat.

It’s Me, Sylvia: Legendary Actress Sylvia Miles Remembered

 Sylvia Miles passed away today at 94. She always said she would not leave this earth without her academy award but sad, to report, that she did. A two-time nominee for just minutes of screen time in Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Farewell My Lovely (1975), Sylvia was a New York actress who would not relocate to Hollywood for greater fame and fortune, or better roles. Just last month MoMA featured the work of Abel Ferrara: in his Go Go Tales (2007), Sylvia Miles wears a Chanelesque jacket, as she performed opposite Burt Young, landlords to a downtown dance club run by Willem Dafoe. The movie ends with her sweet rendition of “Bed, Bath, and Beyond,” because the big store was going to replace the edgy pole dancing venue. Ah, gentrification. Sylvia made much of that jacket and the way it defined her character. I am so happy that she urged me to the screening, so I could see her in action from a bygone time, even if only in a movie. She wanted me to report any press to her, in the event that attention was paid.

Designing Women in its 20th Year: The Look of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Game of Thrones, 60 Minutes

Photo: Regina Weinreich

The makeup, hair people and costumers behind the scenes rarely get their due attention, but for 20 years, New York Women in Film and Television, has been celebrating them. While women are under represented in media, and often paid less than men doing the same jobs, makeup artists, hair stylists, and costume designers enjoy a distinct parity, even if they are not as publicly visible. As comedian Zainab Johnson, host of last evening’s star-studded event at the Directors Guild Theater pointed out, “Women can do anything.” Everyone in this room could laugh at how banal that sounded.

TONY Awards: Celebrating the New: Network, Rodgers’ & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!

Not so long ago, having dinner with a friend at Café Un Deux Trois, a stone’s throw from the Belasco Theater where Network was doing brisk business, I could see the actor Tony Goldwyn on the street walking pensively. We waved and he waved back. Having not yet seen the show, I did not know that in a minute he would be in a fierce embrace with co-star Tatiana Maslany and that the audience for Network was watching too, thanks to some inventive camera work. The show’s star Bryan Cranston was already dubbed this year’s Best Actor in a Drama, word of mouth, and I was determined to see Network before its closing. Suddenly it was the last week of the show and somehow I snagged the very last ticket for the last week’s Wednesday matinee.

Piranhas Opens Film at Lincoln Center’s Festival of New Italian Cinema

Open Roads, an annual festival of new Italian cinema, kicked off this week at Film at Lincoln Center with a screening of Piranhas, directed by Claudio Giovannesi. Introducing his film, Giovannesi recalled having begun the script two years ago in New York, when he met with the novelist Roberto Saviano, the famed author of Gomorrah, about Neapolitan mobsters; their script for Piranhas won the Silver Bear in Berlin.

Michael Shannon in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune: Love as Home Invasion

A bed sits center stage at the Broadhurst Theater, in a Hell’s Kitchen apartment from the 1980’s. As Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune opens, Michael Shannon as Johnny and Audra McDonald, Frankie, make passionate love. From the grunts and groans, it’s pretty good sex we are witnessing, and when Johnny turns over, applause breaks out at the sight of his bare rump. Bodies are not all that’s naked in this intimate two-hander: as these co-workers in a diner have this night together, they talk and peel back histories of hurt.

The Prompter: Behind the Lines at Bay Street Theater

As the Tony Awards draw near, it is worth noting, at Bay Street Theater, in one very funny scene of a new play, The Prompter, an actress makes her Best Actress acceptance speech without thanking the very person most responsible for her award, her prompter. In her return to theater after a 20 year hiatus, Irene Young (the marvelous Tovah Feldshuh) simply cannot remember her lines and requires the services of Wade Wade Dooley, co-star and writer) to whisper through an ear piece the entirety of the work she is performing down to her stage movements. As narrated by the charming and talented Wade, Irene’s thank-yous are the source of angst. He knows how crucial he is to her performance, and by gosh, he deserves it. Besides, his mother is watching.

Mary Wilson Reigns Supreme at the Café Carlyle

Photo: David Andrako

Most women are loath to tell their age. Not Mary Wilson, the former Supreme now holding court at the Café Carlyle. When you see her, as you absolutely must, you will understand why 75 is a point of pride. Sassy and smart, sublime and simply gorgeous, she commands the stage, singing songs you know. When she forgets the lyrics to the 1966 hit, “My World is Empty Without You,” she’ll tell you, I was too busy doing my “oohs, ahs, and baby babies” behind Diana Ross (also 75, by the way) to actually say those words. And the audience, eating it up, helps her out, even as she segues into “Fever.” We are all backups for the night.