Hamptons Journal: Bay Street’s Camelot, Robert Longo at Guild Hall, Diana Frank at Tripoli Gallery

Legends of King Arthur and his court are having a moment: The Green Knight in theaters, and out east, Bay Street Theater’s production of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot --under the stars! Now a classic, its signature song “If Ever I Would Leave You” sends a particular nostalgic chill—ah love—especially for the musical theater genre that Bay Street does so well! Remember the glorious revival of Annie Get Your Gun, Bay Street’s very last production before the COVID shut down? Or the intimate production of Evita a year before? With Camelot--outdoors—BayStreet’s setting conveys less castle and more country as Camelot wields its special charms.

King Arthur in this imagining is a fair and just ruler, looking for equal representation in his governance, hence the knights’ round table. His liberal ideas come after he meets and weds Guenevere; at first, a dated gender bias marks the musical’s first act, especially brow-raising in our current discourse on the roles of men and women. The king’s attitudes progress when Sir Lancelot enters the story, as Arthur (Jeremy Kushnier), “Jen” (Britney Coleman), and “Lance” (Deven Kolluri) sing about good leadership, marriage, and loyalty, all performances solid and square. But, in this three-way expression of courtly love, a stylized representation of king and his knight/ knight and the queen --where the younger pair fall in love at their own peril, heat would be good. But that does not come till the second act.

This Camelot has a secret weapon: Arthur’s son Mordred, played with panache by Aaron Dalla Villa. A standout among ensemble members including Hope Hamilton, Julie Andrews’ granddaughter, Aaron Dalla Villa lights a needed fire to the production. Pirouetting, cartwheeling, this actor is so good at bad, as he betrays his father and the young lovers, you gotta love his pixie spunk.

Robert Longo’s new exhibition at Guild Hall, "A History of the Present," features a fresh take on modernist masters. Think De Kooning’s women in black and white. Celebrating his achievement at the annual summer gala, at a nearby waterfront estate, attendees included Longo and Sophie Chahinian, Cindy Sherman, Richard Price, the Baldwins, Alec and Hilaria, Udo Rondinone, Peter Marino, Rashid Johnson, and many more adhering to all rules of social distancing.

Tripoli Patterson attended too. And the next day, he hosted his own opening at his Tripoli Gallery in Wainscott, featuring the photography of Diana Frank whose gossamer images of women look as though they wear angel wings ready for takeoff.