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Sarah Paulson in Appropriate Makes for Sensational Theater

If you see a plantation, the ghosts of slaves must be haunting. That’s the complicated plot of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play Appropriate at the Hayes Theater in a nutshell. As Toni, the eldest sibling preparing the property for sale, Sarah Paulson is perfection, plucked from her mean-as-can-be role in Steve McQueen’s award-winning movie, 12 Years a Slave. Caretaker to her ailing dad before his death, even she is clueless about his secrets—starting with, but not exclusive to, his racism against blacks. This being theater, his legacy of outsized hateful behavior goes far. In Ibsenesque fashion, it is fair to say the sins of the father are visited upon the sons. There are two: Corey Stoll plays a New York sophisticate called Bo who arrives to survey the spoils with Rachael (Natalie Gold), his “Jew” wife (that’s what dad called her) and their two kids. And, Michael Esper’s Franz brings along his girlfriend River, in Elle Fanning's Broadway debut. As family histories go, this one has everything—drug abuse, rape, murder, and some kinky obsessions. But in the end, it’s all about the real estate.

At the matinee I attended, even the theater ushers gushed at the writing. It is indeed a marvel that so much drama can shape a family backstory. Without revealing a lot, let’s just note: Siblings on call to cash in on this Arkansas property have much to mull over. High histrionics ensue—and each cast member takes a moment to shriek. Franz seems the most fragile, having disappeared for a while in the effort to change his life. As a young man, while living here in this house, he got an underaged girl pregnant. Now, he’s an agent for redemption. His girl River resembles a flower child—although Bo thinks she’s Native American, adding to the levels of identity here misnamed.

Isaac Mizrahi’s Snazzy Reboot of Prokoviev’s Peter and the Wolf at the Guggenheim

Prokoviev’s classic Peter and the Wolf is reimagined at the Guggenheim Museum, an ingenious recreation from Isaac Mizrahi. The fashion designer cum cabaret performer has worked costuming for theater for decades, and for the Guggenheim’s program of “Works and Process” the Peter and the Wolf story is set, where else, but in the neighborhood, in Central Park.

Grandfather (Norton Owen), deaf and disoriented, speaks, through Mizrahi’a narration, with a Yiddish accent. Mizrahi-dressed, Peter (Kara Chen) wears a beanie with propeller, and Bird (Paige Barnett Kulbeth) wears gym shorts. Most brilliant of all, ill-fated Duck (Marjorie Folkman) looks like an edgy Park Avenue matron in tulle tutu and beaded cardigan, head covered in a schmatte. Cat (Zac Gonder) is suitably clad in velvety paws and pompoms, fashionably black with white and pink trims, while the gray Wolf (Daniel Pettrow) sports Ugg-like feet, with the Hunter (Derrick Arthur) an oversized boy scout. The look of this Peter and the Wolf is reason enough to attend, better still, to entertain your grandkids and their mother too. A more formidable reason is the talent of the musicians and dancers, who bring this simple story to life—with Mizrahi as host explaining how the instruments “color” these delightful characters.

Max (8) and his brother Zac (5), my companions, mesmerized by the musicians warming up, did not want the 30-minute performance to end, even after Wolf was suitably punished after eating Duck whole. This moment, offstage, could have been a deal breaker. No one wants Duck to disappear in Wolf’s belly. Spoiler alert: Duck is seen at end, knitting in orange, just like her webbed feet—disaster averted.

ORIGIN Premieres at Alice Tully Hall: A Docu-Drama of Ideas About Societal Divisions

At the swank premiere of Ava Du Vernay’s new film ORIGIN at Alice Tully Hall last week, made evident: this director is fearless. Taking Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, a 2020 best-selling book by Isabel Wilkerson, DuVernay created her own genre, taking the lessons of the book, folding them into the narrative of the writer writing the book, and adding elements ripped off the headlines.

The film starts with the actual soundtrack of Trayvon Martin’s murder, significant because this horrible killing put the situation of innocent black men at risk on the proverbial map. But on the geographic map, DuVernay’s reach brings together key far flung places—Germany, India, the United States, to show how caste, not race, drives the methods of subjugation, dehumanization, humiliation, creating cultural divisions, separating target groups from equal status.

Lately, research into the Nazi agenda illustrates how antisemitism of the 1930’s was informed by the study of how Americans constructed slavery. Filming in Berlin, DuVerney’s fictional Isabel, in a fine performance by Aunjanue-Ellis Taylor visits the famed Jewish Museum archive. The film transitions to a story of a Nazi party member who refused to signal “heil” because he was in love with a Jewish woman. Having stripped Jews from citizenship, confiscated their property, murdered them, the concentration camp system seems a logical consequence of this ideology—if you claim supremacy--no matter how baseless, heartless, inhumane, and self-serving.

The caste system in India works on a similar level of dehumanization. Focused on the Dalits (“Untouchables”), the film shows men neck deep in sewage, made to clean without the use of tools, with their bare hands—it’s an image you cannot unsee.

The story of artist Al Bright makes for a riveting mini-movie, when as a 9-year old he was not permitted into a swimming pool with his teammates. That he was led around the pool on a rubber float, repeatedly told not to touch the water, is hilarious in its pointlessness, if it were not a sad reminder of the basic stupidity of segregation.

Matthew Heineman: Pennebaker Career Achievement Award at Hamptons DocFest

A sure path to a hit documentary is a subject as brilliant, dynamic and charismatic as musician extraordinaire, Jon Batiste. Filmmaker Matthew Heineman, accepting the Pennebaker Career Achievement Award at Hamptons DocFest this week, told a rapt audience in Sag Harbor how he made his latest film, AMERICAN SYMPHONY, about Batiste on a musical, emotional journey.

When he scored THE FIRST WAVE, Heineman’s harrowing glimpse of a hospital ward at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020 seen through the life and death ordeals of several New York families, Jon Batiste talked about preparing an “American Symphony” to be performed at Carnegie Hall. Heineman began filming the original composition’s process, but soon pivoted to the deeper drama of Jon Batiste’s life. His wife, writer Suleika Jaouad’s leukemia had returned after 10 years in remission. She would undergo a bone marrow transplant as Batiste won five Grammy awards. At one point he’s cradling the statuettes; in another he’s holding her, hair shaved, tubes protruding. Heineman’s camera gets up close and personal—for 62 straight days of shooting. The viewer actually feels the emotion that fuels the art.

As with his oeuvre to date, Heineman’s portrait of this loving relationship stands with his films of courage, even danger. He has embedded with troops in Afghanistan and drug lords in Mexico. War—dire circumstance-- seems to be his thing. “Fear drives me a lot,” he said, and he could relate to Batiste’s unwavering care for his wife because his father, who attended the event, had battled cancer. The hardest part was sneaking into the Grammy Awards and filming on his iphone, he said. But as to the art of film, D. A. Pennebaker’s classic DON’T LOOK BACK, an unvarnished look at Bob Dylan back in the day, guided him.

Besides Jon Batiste, other outsized personalities featured at this content-and-narrative rich non-fiction festival included The Hite Report author Shere Hite, writer Rose Styron, pioneer in dance, stage lighting and design, Loie Fuller, American photographer George Platt Lynes, German artist Anselm Kiefer, “Lambchops” creator/ puppeteer Shari Lewis, television newsman Dan Rather—to name a few.

Barbie at the Peninsula: A Doll Rules

In the doll metaverse, Barbie is queen. A party at the posh Peninsula Hotel brought together her movie creators with members of the Academy to anoint her with awards. The movie about her has had world domination in sales. Even in Morocco, where I saw it when it was released in July along with Oppenheimer—famously creating the “Barbenheimer” unit—it was a hit, I was happy to report to Margot Robbie, who spear-headed the collaboration with Mattel and starred, and Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, scriptwriters with Gerwig directing. The phenomenon spoke of girl power, and what men have to do to measure up. So where was the movie’s primary Ken, Ryan Gosling?

Ryan Gosling made the movie a musical, his song and dance numbers major entertainment a la La La Land. Mark Ronson filled me in on creating the movie’s sound: he just followed Greta’s script. There wasn’t even supposed to be music, but fortunately she, a major music maven, and fan, was keen on creating a sound. Eschewing the pink cocktail of the evening—a prosecco with cotton candy, Ronson said he was overstuffed from Thanksgiving with family, and following a routine, waking at 7 to write. How do you follow up on Barbie? Ronson is writing a book on DJing in the ‘90’s.

“What would I do without acting!?,” exclaimed F. Murray Abraham at the party, agreeing, his White Lotus character should be continued into the next season. “Didn’t you love the writing,” he asked. “I would follow Mike White’s writing anywhere,” he said, so happy to be working. Next up: he’s the husband in the Broadway production of The Queen of Versailles, based on Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 excellent riches-to-rags documentary, with Kristin Chenowith as his wife.