Gossip Central

Ralph Fiennes as Richard III at the Almeida Theater in the Time of Brexit

Onstage, gravediggers at an excavation site discover a crooked spinal cord. That could only belong to one figure, Richard III. Flashing back to Shakespeare’s play, his history, in the person of Ralph Fiennes unfolds in the Almeida Theater’s stunning production under Rupert Goold’s direction, the image of the misshapen bone only begins to tell you what’s in this man’s heart. Having just murdered Lady Anne’s father and husband, he woos her, Shakespeare’s language suggesting everything you can possibly do with a cane.

Peter Beard: Last Word from Paradise at Guild Hall: Out of Africa

Peter Beard occupies the last house on the East End, and from his perch the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean is compelling. Having made art, collages and photography for decades, both here and on exotic travels, and featuring an array of celebrities including Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Bianca Jagger, Lee Radzivill, the two Edie Beales, Karen Blixen, Kamante Gatura, his wife Nejma, and himself often with his head in a fish, he’s taken more than a note about fame from Andy Warhol, his erstwhile neighbor. At Guild Hall’s new exhibition, “Last Word from Paradise,” celebrities and animals mix it up: there’s more than a hint of nostalgia for travels to remote places. Beard’s artwork juxtaposes party photos from Studio 54 with pictures of endangered animals like the elephant, or alligators that live best in the wild suggesting lost worlds: What about precious, fragile Nature on our planet?

What Price Kerouac? “The Joan Anderson Letter” Auctioned at Christie’s

Two Joans were on display at Christie’s on June 16, one was the much-missed Joan Rivers with a sampling of her sequined gowns adorning mannequins in the auction house entrance, going on the block the following day. The other was the famed subject of a 1950 letter to Jack Kerouac from his pal, Neal Cassady, long thought lost. You may have read about it 18 months ago, when Jean Spinosa found the letter among her father’s papers in Oakland, California. Then came a bit of legal wrangling among Cassady’s heirs, the Kerouac estate, and the letter’s finder. Because Kerouac claimed this letter was inspiration to his spontaneous prose, the letter has entered legend. Cassady, famed for fast driving and cocksmanship, met Joan Anderson on a Greyhound bus, convincing her to make it with him, the writing fast, rambling, and rhapsodic. Now on display on the auction floor, with only the first of 16-pages showing, the letter held some surprises.

Lena Hall at the Café Carlyle: “Oh! You Pretty Things”

A whiff of David Bowie hung over the air at the Café Carlyle as Lena Hall opened her two-week run. Whipping her head punk style, Hall treated her audience to her bad girl history with boys as a way of explaining how a nice girl got here, musically. “I’m pretty sure no one has done a Sex Pistols song at Café Carlyle,” Hall introduced “Holiday in the Sun,” a John Lydon collaboration with John Beverly, Paul Cook, and Steve Jones, and went on to cover The Beatles (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”), Billy Joel (“We Didn’t Start the Fire”), and Elton John (“Someone Saved My Life Tonight”). Rocking on, Lena Hall gave details about the various boys, and her dark side, but it is her  voice that emerges, and a story of how music saved her from marriage to the wrong guy.

Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins: “We Went for More is More”

Meryl Streep can do anything. In her new movie, Florence Foster Jenkins, she is the title character, a real life self-created diva, Florence Foster Jenkins, who was the subject of ridicule for her very bad voice, at the same time that she had a cult following of fans—and still does. This period movie directed by Stephen Frears in gorgeous saturated color emphasizes Streep’s extravagant brocade wardrobe and her peachy cheeks as she portrays this turn-of-the-century heiress, paying off her singing coach, her pianist Cosme McMoon (“Big Bang Theory”’s Simon Helberg really playing), and whoever, so as to promote her singing career. The penultimate moment is her performance at Carnegie Hall. Aided by her husband, St. Clair Bayfield, a sublime Hugh Grant—trust me, if you are remembering him as the callous beau in the Bridget Jones movies, here he is positively tender, she is mocked until a floozy (Nina Arianda is just adorable) quiets the laughing audience. Renee Fleming, who knows a thing or two about voices, said of Streep, introducing a special screening, you have to have a really good, versatile voice to play one so bad.

De Palma: The Director’s Director Still Horrifies

Directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow pay tribute to Brian De Palma in the best way possible in the documentary, De Palma, by showing his work. With an interview with this Hitchcock-influenced filmmaker at its core, the film features clips of De Palma’s extraordinary career, with lots and lots of anecdotes about craft, compromises, and critical reception. De Palma is a master class with a master.

Yo Yo Ma Crosses Borders: The Music of Strangers: Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble

Typical of Yo Yo Ma: he hides behind the scenes. A prime mover of musical happenings, this world famous, prodigy cellist recedes into the backdrop, even when the event is about him, as in Morgan Neville’s new documentary, The Music of Strangers. You expect an interview with the maestro about his life and work, some talking heads, and what you get is that, including an archival appearance on “Mister Rogers,” and so much more: the story of the international musicians he works with on a global scene, often natives of war-torn countries, Afghanistan, Syria, and contemporary post-revolution Iran, so the film limns the political landscape of our time, and some unusual instruments, such as Kayhan Kalhor’s kamancheh, making beautiful Persian music that transcends a tragic personal story.

Halley Feiffer’s “A Funny Thing Happened . . .” at the Lucille Lortel Theater

As anyone who has ever spent time in a hospital room knows, the laughs are few. On opening night of Halley Feiffer’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City” at the Lucille Lortel Theater on Tuesday, the audience filing in did not think otherwise: two beds separated by a curtain, two people asleep, a set so familiarly appointed, prepared for the worst, you might think nothing comic could happen here, not even on the television monitor perched above woman stage left, until you see Karla (Beth Behrs of  tv’s “2 Broke Girls”), in oversized sweater and goofy knit cap, as she moves antic testing a monologue for her stand-up act. (Picture: a younger Sandra Bernhard.) With mom (Lisa Emery) in bed, Karla’s got a captive if comatose audience. As she contemplates—loud—the joys of rape with her vibrator, an anguished schlep named Don (Erik Lochtefeld) enters stage right to usher his mom (Jacqueline Sydney) to her final rest. For Feiffer, and for director Trip Cullman, it’s a set up made in comedy heaven.

Stars in the Alley: A Smorgasbord of Broadway

Running up to the Tony Awards, a special lunchtime event celebrated Broadway last week: Stars in the Alley, that’s Schubert Alley fitted with a special stage and eats by Junior’s. Moderated by Sean Hayes and Mo Rocca, two comedians of the first order who kept things funny and zipping along, this show comprised of bits from most shows is a yearly treat. Sean Hayes is now appearing in Act of God in the neighboring theater, “the only theater named after the brother of an actor who killed a president in another theater.” Got it?

Herb Alpert and Lani Hall Bring “A Taste of Honey” to the Café Carlyle

Herb Alpert kept checking in about his pin stripes, asking a rapt audience, some of whom traveled from Florida just to hear him perform at the Café Carlyle for opening night this week: “Was I wearing this suit?” Like a woman who does not want to repeat an outfit for the same group, he joked, told stories, and played that sweet trumpet, bringing in the crowd for an entertaining night of his greatest hits. Beside him was his wife of 42 years, Lani Hall, whose crystalline vocals in Portuguese and Spanish perfectly put everyone in the Tijuana/ Jobim mood. “I love it when she talks to me in Yiddish,” he laughed, as their ensemble with Bill Cantos on piano, Hussain Jiffrey on a six-string bass he can play like a guitar, and Michael Shapiro on drums created a musical dialogue all their own.