Gossip Central

Relevance at MCC Theater: A Case of Righteous Victimhood

Feminists come in all shapes and sizes. JC Lee’s Relevance, an MCC production at the Lucille Lortel Theater, presents a clash between a seasoned author and old school academic, Theresa (the formidable Jayne Houdyshell), and a freshly minted writer Mesmaji (Pascale Armand), given to texts, tweets, and social media. Age and looks aside, these two spar on a panel moderated by the ambitious and opportunist Kelly (Molly Camp), Theresa must have been something in her day. In a hotel room with her agent (Richard Masur) we learn of a long ago affair, but now she’s hit a time when all attention is on the new improved version: smart, sexy and African-American. But shouldn’t feminists be on the same side, fighting against economic inequity and gender harassment? In Relevance, the old and the new do not even speak the same language.

Athena Honors J. J. Abrams, Bridget Everett, Amma Asante, and Barbara Kopple

Dedicated to celebrating courageous and audacious women leaders, the Athena Film Festival captures the Zeitgeist. Under the auspices of Barnard College, Athena honored J. J. Abrams, presenting him an Athena Leading Man award, among its stellar women in film honorees this year, Amma Asante, Athena Breakthrough awardee Bridget Everett, and Barbara Kopple its Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award. In accepting, awardees are asked to speak about a woman influence, excluding mother. Introduced by Lena Dunham, Abrams spoke about his wife, Katie McGrath. You’ve gotta love a man who honors his wife. She and Abrams run his Bad Robot production company. She is also one of the forces in the Time’s Up movement; many at Athena wore the pin, the much talked about accessory at the Golden Globes. And then, defying the rules, he did thank his mother. What a mensch!

Hello, Dolly with Bernadette Peters: The Best of Old New York

Now that’s a Broadway musical! One breathtaking moment in Hello, Dolly is Dolly, professional meddler, glamorous in red descending the stairs. As in the grand tradition of Dolly Levi before her, Bernadette Peters takes her turn in the superb revival of Hello, Dolly at the Schubert Theater, replacing the much-adored Bette Midler. At a recent performance, we did not miss Bette, as good as she was. Feisty, petite and taking Dolly as a practical businesswoman, Peters fits the role like a fine kid glove, dancing, and oh that voice. She’s a Broadway star without the diva posture and best of all, she has chemistry galore with Victor Garber as the curmudgeonly Horace Vandergelder. These Broadway musical veterans look like they are having a wonderful time in old New York, and watching them, so are we.

Screaming with Laurie Anderson at Guild Hall

In honor of Yoko Ono’s birthday this weekend, Laurie Anderson led guests at Guild Hall in a face-reddening scream. The occasion was a talk between Anderson, who now looks remarkably like Christopher Walken with spiky hair and otherworldly pallor, and curator Christina Strassfield, who is putting together a show of Anderson’s work at Guild Hall set for this summer. Among the many stories that kept Anderson riffing for over an hour, was the story of Ono’s primal scream following the election of Donald Trump. The audience complied and screamed with relish.

John Lloyd Young: Heart to Heart at the Café Carlyle

A Valentine’s Day tradition at the Cafe Carlyle, John Lloyd Young’s dreamy tenor conjures romance better than a box of chocolates. Some men just don’t get old: Dark glasses cannot hide John Lloyd Young’s dimple-chinned prom date good looks, but then again, his music does not age either. As he says about “Sherry” from Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, before crooning “Sherrrrreee Baby,” some songs just follow you around. Ditto for his signature hits: “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” from the same songwriting team, and “Jerry Fuller’s “Show and Tell.” Exuding confidence, this “Jersey Boy” leaves the stage allowing his superior band: Tommy Faragher on piano, along with a cool Bashiri Johnson on percussion, and a nice touch, Gokce Erem on violin, to show their chops. Not only a sideman, Tommy Faragher is also a writing partner.  The ensemble performed their “Slow Dawn Calling,” and  “Almost There.”

Flight: Dreaming of Bruce Willis, Action Hero

The McKittrick Hotel is well known for unusual theatrical events—cue the long-running immersive Sleep No More. Now fresh from Edinburgh’s International Arts Festival comes Flight, a much-awarded incomparable narrative art installation. Plucked from the headlines of refugees fleeing war, Flight tells the story of two brothers on a journey escaping Afghanistan, adapted by playwright Oliver Emanuel from journalist Caroline Brothers’ novel Hinterland. The brothers—Kabir (Nalini Chetty’s voice) and Aryan (Farshid Rokey)—composites of the author’s interviews with many young people on such a nightmare odyssey, appear as figures in diaramas as they rotate on a carousel; the viewer accompanies them across Europe as they encounter a not so nice “smiling man,” bird police, a freezer truck filled with hanging carcasses. The tale goes light as they invoke the name Bruce Willis for inspiration, and, when some rich American-Iranian tourists buy them food and new sneakers in Paris. But this story, told in Kabir’s 8-year old voice—well conceived with fine lighting and music—while enchanting, is no fairy tale.

Liz Smith: Remembering a “Natural Blonde”

AAt the Majestic Theater last week, Renee Zellweger called her Blondie and Tommy Tune sang “The Way You Look Tonight” with pictures of him dancing the “East Texas Push” with her, but that was not the showstopper at Liz Smith’s memorial: The distinction went to a video of Liz crooning “I’m an Old Cowhand, from the Rio Grande” in duet with Ann Richards, each one in full cowgirl regalia. Joni Evans told the stellar crowd—a who’s who of actors and show biz types-- about getting Liz Smith to write her memoir, Natural Blonde, taking a seven-figure contract to actually get the gossip columnist to sit down. One speaker after another, from Barry Diller to Lesley Stahl to Holland Taylor and Bruce Willis, attested to the key ingredient of Liz Smith’s success: she was nice.

Peter Hujar: Photographs of a Bygone Era at the Morgan Library & Museum

At an opening at the Morgan Library & Museum celebrating exhibitions of Peter Hujar’s photographs and Tennessee Williams’ memorabilia, a gentleman in a maroon jacket marveled that the Morgan, known for collections of old master drawings and manuscripts would now show photography, especially of the type created by Hujar. While Williams’ scripts and Playbills form the kind of closeted history right up the Morgan’s proverbial alley, well, Hujar’s work is something else. A decade older than Robert Mapplethorpe and Nan Goldin, Hujar too documented the downtown demimonde, its denizen in drag. Hujar’s portraits—black & white-- haunt, testament to the era before AIDS, a vibrant artistic world in the autumn of life.