Gossip Central

Iris Premieres at the Paris Theater

Orange would not be the new black for Iris Apfel, who wore that color in fur for the movie premiere of Iris last week at the Paris Theater: the brighter the better, it was practically neon, and contrasted with saucer-sized turquoise beads. The outfit would be unusual for anyone, let alone the 93 year old “geriatric starlet” Iris Apfel whose resume includes textile designer, model, and now professor of fashion for students from The University of Texas, Austin. The students come to New York to learn “real” lessons about the glamorous world of fashion from this style icon: what’s trending, licensing, history; Iris complains that designers today do not know how to sew, a craft like beading near lost. Iris teaches the business side often omitted in the traditional curriculum. She knows from what she speaks, having had a giant successful show at the Metropolitan Museum, an honor normally accorded to high profile designers with world careers like Alexander McQueen or Jean-Paul Gaultier. She can put together ensembles most could never concoct, matching fantastic fabrics with highend designer dresses with street fare, but her specialty is layered bangles and neckpieces.

Robert Redford Honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center: “Hello, Gorgeous”

Barbra Streisand, presenting the 42^nd Chaplin Award to Robert Redford, her co-star in The Way We Were, recounted a story about a fan screaming “Hello, Gorgeous.” She thought it was for her, for Funny Girl. But no, the “gorgeous” was for Robert Redford. Indeed, there was no elephant-in-the-room in the spacious Alice Tully Hall: every woman presenting from Jane Fonda to Elisabeth Moss spoke about Redford’s good looks. But clearly, he is much more than eye candy.

Josh Grisetti’s Broadway Debut in It Shoulda Been You

In this comedy about a wedding, It Shoulda Been You, the “you” is a young man, the former boyfriend of the bride-to-be, played with gusto by Josh Grisetti in his Broadway debut at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. His Marty Kaufman is Jewish, so of course he’s perfect for the bride, who has instead chosen a goy (David Burtka) who insists upon learning Yiddish. I’ve had a crush on Josh Grisetti ever since I died laughing watching him in Enter Laughing at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater a few seasons ago. The show went on to a run Off Broadway. Now Grisetti gets to display the full force of his talents in a show of eminent performers including Tyne Daly as mother of the bride, and Harriet Harris as mother of the groom, who go head to head, curlered to coiffed. Directed by David Hyde Pierce, this farce including the genre’s traditional slamming doors, is a shtick fest with a twist.

Doctor Zhivago’s Sound

The musical based on that Russian classic Doctor Zhivago inevitably evokes comparisons with the Omar Shariff-Julie Christie, David Lean 1965 movie, from Boris Pasternak’s 1957 novel. A Broadway show with name recognition, Doctor Zhivago has played in Australia and South Korea—in Korean—and was much loved. Given its politics, that’s a coup. Les Miserables Russian style, under Des McAnuff’s direction, Doctor Zhivago has The Broadway Theater exploding with war, unexpected petards from the rafters, casting the stage in smoke and fire, and jarring the audience with attention commanding noise. By contrast, Lucy Simon’s score with lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers features memorable songs: “Now” and “Love Finds You” are standouts.

At Lunch With Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts

La Grenouille experienced a British invasion yesterday for a lunch celebrating the film Far From the Madding Crowd, based on Thomas Hardy’s beloved 19^th century novel. Carey Mulligan, currently starring in Skylight on Broadway, plays Bathsheba Everdene, a strong-willed and occasionally wrong-headed heroine, a pre-feminist, you could call her. Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts portrays Gabriel Oak, the pre-feminist hunk who protects her. He is loyal, kind, brave, talented, hard-working, and dreamy. When I asked Schoenaerts, memorable for his performance opposite Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone what he thought of this character, he enthused, “I can learn from him. I want to BE him.”

Sarasota Film Festival: A Juror’s Journal

As film festivals go, Sarasota Film Festival is hard to beat, for films, parties, and people. In addition to the awards listed below, Jane Seymour spoke about her career in film with Regina Weinreich, representing her latest, Bereave, directed by Evangelos and George Giovanis. Rachel Weisz, spoke with David Edelstein about her work producing Radiator, directed by Tom Browne, and Blythe Danner, star of the festival’s closing night film, I’ll See You in My Dreams, directed by Brett Haley, received the festival’s Impact Award at a ceremony at the Sarasota Opera House. Blythe Danner noted that this festival screened over 100 films by women. Then guests moved onto the stage for Sarasota Film Festival President Mark Famiglio’s closing night dinner, where, in an informal tribute, legendary documentarian Albert Maysles was remembered.

The Enchantment of Finding Neverland

At heart, Finding Neverland, now charming audiences at the Lunt-Fontaine Theater on Broadway, is about the creation of theater: this is the backstory to J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Following closely enough to the Johnny Depp starred movie, the Broadway musical begins with J.M. Barrie’s colossal writing block when the playwright (Matthew Morrison) is past deadline with theater impresario Charles Frohman (Kelsey Grammer). Among the many joys in this musical is seeing the backstage shenanigans of actors who, quite frankly, need the work Barrie fails to deliver. Where can the writer find inspiration? A man who won’t grow up, he finds it in the park with the Llewelyn Davies boys including Peter (Aidan Gemme for the opening) and their lovely if ailing mother (Laura Michelle Kelly).

An American in Paris on Broadway

As An American in Paris opens at the Palace Theater, a Nazi flag seemingly draped over an entire city, drops down and floats away. The city is Paris, its narrow streets dour until we get to a café, where an American soldier, Jerry (Robert Fairchild) meets an American composer, Adam (Brandon Uranowitz), and a Frenchman, Henri (Max von Essen) who wants to sing cabaret. As color and light envelop the city, all three fall in love with the same girl, Lise (Leanne Cope), a shop girl who aspires to dance. If you know the 1951 movie on which it is based, this story provides the perfect premise for a traditional Broadway musical. This new incarnation features George Gershwin’s classic score, well known, (“I Got Rhythm,” “S Wonderful”) and lesser known songs (“I’ll Build a Stairway to Heaven” and “Fidgety Feet”), Craig Lucas’ book, Bob Crowley’s costumes and set, and the prodigious talents of Christopher Wheeldon, ballet choreographer extraordinaire working the Broadway musical genre for the first time, as choreographer and director. Given this mix of gifted artists, this production promised to be wonderful, a Tony contender, a huge hit—and indeed it is.

Hilary Mantel: The Star of Wolf Hall

Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived. School kids learn the fate of Henry VIII’s six wives in this chant. At the end of the daylong Wolf Hall Broadway premiere on Thursday, at the restaurants in Rockefeller Center where a lively celebration for the epic holding court at the Winter Garden Theater was underway, my hands were clasped in those of Nathaniel Parker, the actor who so winningly portrays Henry VIII in Wolf Hall, and we were singing it in unison. Wolf Hall, based upon historic fiction by Hilary Mantel, focuses on the period in his reign when the king, smitten with the sexy Anne Boleyn, concocts a strategy for ridding himself of his wife of 18 years, Catherine of Aragon, and then tiring of Anne in favor of Jane Seymour, finds Anne guilty of treason in the form of adultery. That costs the new queen her head. As to kings having their way, it doesn’t get juicier.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus in VEEP: Chicken Soup for Politicians

As the vice president, Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) was just a heartbeat away from the presidency. Call it fate: the president has stepped down to care for his ailing wife, and Selina, whose bungling White House antics we’ve gleefully enjoyed on VEEP for three HBO seasons, now gets her shot at the most powerful post in the land. In her first episode as president, screened for the show’s premiere this week at the SVA Theater, Selina addresses Congress as her teleprompter goes blank mid-sentence. In the second, she unwittingly has a work of art painted by a Native American, a yellowish abstract called “Massacre,” removed from the oval office, causing a PR nightmare. Heads roll. Needless to say, she and her hilarious team-- including aides, advisers, press secretary, strategist played by a great cast, Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Mike McClintock, Gary Cole, --surface intact, the great fun of observing this behind the scenes glimpse of government a la showrunner Armando Iannucci.