Gossip Central

A Chorus Line: A Singular Sensation at New York City Center

New York City Center celebrated its 75^th year with a performance of the iconic A Chorus Line followed by dinner at the Plaza Hotel. Back in 1975 when it first hit the stage at the Public Theater, A Chorus Line was a game changer of a musical. Scripted from taped interviews with theatrical types: singers and dancers, the book, written by Michael Bennett, collaborating with lyricist Ed Kleban, with music by Marvin Hamlisch—well, this was the winning dream team that made A Chorus Line the Hamilton-scale hit of its day. Re-visioned now 43 years later for this one-week engagement, the musical feels fresh, and simply fabulous.

Variety and The History Channel Host the Second Annual Salute to Service: Honoring Those Who Stand Up

“Thank you for your service is not enough,” said Montel Williams, a US Navy veteran, who also said, “I promised not to cry” as he accepted his award at the 2^nd annual Salute to Service luncheon hosted by Variety and The History Channel at Cipriani 25 Broadway. Ken Fisher, a friend who had accompanied Williams to Dover to meet with Gold Star families, introduced him as a “veteran’s veteran.” Having recently suffered a massive stroke, Williams showed up anyway, for veterans, and was teary-eyed reminding everyone to do more. They may be home, he said, but “their service is not over.”

Alfonso Cuaron Goes Local: Roma at the Whitby Hotel

No Oscar list this season will fail to have Alfonso Cuaron’s latest masterpiece Roma at the top. On critics’ minds: will the award be for Best Foreign Language Film or a straight Best Picture? But that’s not what’s on this director’s mind. Already an Oscar winner for Gravity, he turned his talents to a black & white, acutely detailed, Spanish and indigenous language realization of a key figure in his childhood, a maid he renamed Cleo who came to live with his family in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. A mother figure to him, from a disadvantaged class, he asks himself, what does she represent in the world of now?

John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey Tell “American Stories” at the Café Carlyle

John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey hit the Café Carlyle stage singing-- that is Jessica sang Paul Simon’s “American Tune” accompanied by John on the guitar. At this point, as regulars at the Café Carlyle and so familiar on NPR with their highly entertaining Radio Delux, first names are in order for this couple, married in life and music. There is simply nothing like settling into their sublime show, especially after the tensions of Election Day in the rain. With a superb Konrad Paszkudzki on piano and an excellent Mike Karn on bass, there was no talk of religion or politics.

Mercedes Ruehl in Torch Song: If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother

Family values loom large in the revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway. The hyper loneliness of Arnold, a gay man who performs in drag is what the actor Michael Urie kvetches about in his pursuit of love. Dressing as the play opens under its neon Torch Song lights, Arnold could be anyone longing for a lover, with spider lashes and red lips, equal only to the spectacular Andrew Garfield’s Prior Walter in the recent revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. While that great show explores an AIDS ravaged America, this setting inhabits more intimate space: a ‘70’s gay bar’s backroom, a bed, and a kitchen. That’s where Arnold’s mom comes to visit, and she is every bit as large and terrifying as any woman painted by de Kooning, or penned by Philip Roth. As performed by Mercedes Ruehl, she’s a nightmare in pastel, but she’s Arnold’s, and in due course, even as they spar for supremacy in suffering, they belong to each other.

Margarethe von Trotta’s Anxiety of Influence: Searching for Ingmar Bergman

Actress, director Margarethe von Trotta was not thinking of making a documentary film, but when offered the opportunity to honor Swedish director Ingmar Bergman who would be 100 this year with a film about him, she could not say no. Von Trotta is best known for her feature films, Rosa Luxemburg, Rosenstrasse, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (co-written and co-directed with her ex-husband Volker Schlondorff), among them, now screening at Quad Cinema for a retrospective of her work. And with Criterion putting together a boxed DVD set of Bergman’s films, she accepted the challenge of making the documentary, wondering, she told me this week on the phone from Munich, “how can I make a film about such a genius?” Told, do it in a personal way, she made Searching for Ingmar Bergman a most insightful, entertaining tribute from one filmmaker to another.

Maggie Gyllenhaal Crosses the Line as The Kindergarten Teacher

1 Jake Gyllenhaal, hosting a special screening of his sister’s new film, The Kindergarten Teacher, at Metrograph, was all praise for Maggie Gyllenhaal. “I’ve been watching her act all my life,” he smiled broadly at a crowd that included Christopher Lloyd, Israel Horowitz, Diane Sawyer, and many others including his Wildlife director Paul Dano and co-writer Zoe Kazan. The titular kindergarten teacher joins a roster of edgy women brought to life by Gyllenhaal’s ample talents. Think Secretary where her character enjoys a good spanking. In this movie, she’s a thwarted poet who recognizes the poetic gifts of one of her students, a five-year old Jimmy Roy played by one of the producer’s children’s classmate Parker Sevak. Wishing to nurture his verse, Gyllenhaal’s Lisa goes creepy, unacceptable. Every parent will get the willies watching what she does, all with a “good heart.”

Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman: Already This Season’s Best Play

In Northern Ireland in 1981 The Troubles pit Irish against Irish, resulting in a great deal of anguished, epic drama. Think Michael McDonagh, and the movies of Ken Loach. In Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, at the Bernard B. Jacobs theater on Broadway, a monumental 3 hours and 15 minutes zip by, beginning with the news: the body of a ten-years missing man, turned up in a bog, hands and feet bound. Nearby his wife holds the fort, living in her husband’s brother Quinn’s lively household with her son, now a teen. To celebrate the harvest they are cooking goose, and just as the family learns the news about the recovered body, the once live bird hangs on a hook at the kitchen window, bound, emblematic of Seamus’ remains, best left to the imagination.

The Price of Everything: Poons, Koons, and Balloons

“Contemporary art is a luxury brand,” declared HBO’s Richard Plepler, introducing Nathaniel Kahn’s excellent, entertaining documentary, The Price of Everything, at a posh premiere at MoMA last week. “And the artist is our last best hope.” These words were not lost on a crowd that included artists like George Condo, Marilyn Minter, Larry Poons and Jeff Koons, all featured in the film. In addition, museum curators, private collectors, and auction house personnel were all part of the mix celebrating a movie about a market that keeps its prices up. After all, “you can’t have a golden age without gold,” as someone wisely put it. All the while, the work created on camera, as some question what makes art art, or good art, seems to ignore the vagaries of commerce, allowing the money minded to thrive.

Gloria: A Life: A Talking Circle in Union Square

Emily Mann’s Gloria: A Life, a theatrical event about journalist, feminist, activist Gloria Steinem is not so much a drama, but an exposition of the history of this wave of feminism, the feminist discourse of our time. As the titular Christine Lahti, sporting Gloria’s signature black bell bottom jeans and native American inspired belt with just a change of vest to jacket to bunny ears, wants women to speak their truth and consider the power in numbers. Yes to pussy hats!