Gossip Central

Sandra Bernhard Brings “Sandemonium” to Guild Hall

Photo: Showbiz411

Topical and terrific, Sandra Bernhard brought her no-holds- barred mouth to Guild Hall this week for a one-night only tour de force performance. Reaching out to Melania in the wings, “You are in a safe space here,” she consoled her. And, “Ooh, I like your jacket.” Calling out to a college student in the front row, she was both confrontational about her choice to quit Sarah Lawrence and go out west to study fashion, and supportive, sort of. “I could have talked to Marc Jacob for you.” She gave with one hand and took back with the other. And it was funny as hell. As she told me in a phone chat earlier this year: “I do not disappoint.” And she didn’t, giving one of the most spontaneous performances yet.

The TONY Awards: Party to Party

Some like to watch mega award shows from the comfort of home, but the long night that is the TONY Awards is a worthy schmooze fest. Everything said from the rose festooned red carpet at Radio City Music Hall to its ample stage about the generosity, talent, commitment to decency of the theater community is true in spades. Sure, Robert Di Niro’s expletives deployed against the present regime—deleted for television but you can well imagine-- were not welcome to some ears, but with his well-meaning heart he introduced his pal Bruce Springsteen –Di Niro calling his Broadway one-man show “Jersey Boy.” 

Here are some of my favorite moments from the 72nd TONY’s: Chita Rivera exclaiming “There’s still salt in this shaker.” Andrew Garfield, so gorgeous in a turban and gown in Angels in America as AIDS ridden Pryor Walter accepting his TONY: “Let’s all bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake.”Katrina Lenk dedicating her Band’s Visit TONY to the Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz who brought her character to life in the movie original. Tony Shaloub honoring his immigrant father: “May we never lose sight of what they taught us.”Nathan Lanequipping even Tony Kushner’s emails are Pulitzer worthy. The British Glenda Jackson reminding everyone: “America is always great!”

 

Joe Pintauro Finds Salvation at the Parrish Art Museum

If Sag Harbor based playwright Joe Pintauro is serious about not always wanting to be identified as a former Catholic priest, he is going to have to stop focusing his consciousness on the human foibles of men of the cloth. While that is impossible, let’s hope he never does, because Pintauro’s work asks us to engage more deeply with our core beliefs, and our identity as human beings. On Friday night, the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill staged Salvation, an art song trilogy based on three of Pintauro’s one-acters, published in 1997. Kevin Jeffers composed the book, music and lyrics, having discovered Joe Pintauro’s work as he was looking for plays to put to music. The ethical and spiritual dilemmas of Salvation speak to faith in the unknowable, the divine.

Linda Lavin’s Debut at the Café Carlyle

Beloved Broadway and television star Linda Lavin plays the Café Carlyle as if she is the most gracious host, inviting guests into her living room for an intimate soiree. One of those guests on the night we attended was Hal Prince who directed her in Candide, a reminder that though she’s known more for dramatic roles, and comedy, she can sing. As chanteuse for her Café Carlyle debut she is warm, charming, providing a distinct comfort zone of classic tunes. Age-less in sparkling blue, she wants to know, “I look pretty good, don’t I?” as if she needed to ask!

Megan Hilty at the Café Carlyle: Incurably Soprano

Introducing her song, “Popular,” on her opening night at the Café Carlyle, Megan Hilty quipped, ““Wicked” is about a beautiful blond who helps others.” Tweaking the theme of the popular Broadway musical, making her Glinda the star, was a glimpse into the humor and charm Hilty brings to her intimate supper club act. At the Café Carlyle, it would be odd to have an evening of musical theater from Megan Hilty without this signature number, this being her fourth time at the Carlyle, she says proudly, “and I’m not pregnant.” She studied opera, she tells us, and learned she loved musical theater. Revealing the demands of the genre for a soprano, she goes low for the tune “Alto’s Lament,” obsessed with the songwriters Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler, and warning everyone, this would be a weird, eclectic set.

At Lunch with Priscilla Presley: HBO’s Elvis Presley: The Searcher

At lunch at the Rainbow Room recently, Priscilla Presley joined a panel of Elvis experts, journalists and filmmakers to illuminate "The King's" rags to riches career. Certainly an American original, Elvis Presley was a dreamboat to teens when he first began to sing, swiveling his hips on the Ed Sullivan Show. Of course they famously photographed him from the waist up for television’s primetime viewing. But on stage, that was something else. Music aficionados knew his sources, gospel, country, and rhythm and blues, idioms of the South. While many thought his moves brazen, no one contested his musicianship. Priscilla Presley, keeper of the flame who has worked well to maintain his legacy in the public eye, wants everyone to know he was a “Searcher,” the theme of the new two-part HBO documentary about him, that she hopes will force a reappraisal of his art.

MATA Celebrates 20

At the Paula Cooper Gallery for MATA’s 20^th birthday celebration, Mexican percussionist Diego Espinosa faced the challenge of performing a 1967 work by Philip Glass, with the world-class composer seated several feet away. Instrument: an ordinary caterer’s foldup table. Soon in the cathedral style space, the sound of rhythmic scratching rose to the skylights. The piece, “1 x 1,” had been created on a kitchen table, Espinosa explained later, and he memorized the notes, applying them freely. Crouching down, he added the metal of the table’s spindly legs to the act, improvising on every surface. If a definition of “new music” were needed to kick off MATA’s week of experimental music concerts, this opening performance illuminates.

Judy Collins at the Carlyle: “I’m the American Idol of 1957”

“I love you,” Judy Collins, a vision in white from mane to silvery toe, shouted out to Clive Davis, and to everyone present at the Café Carlyle for opening night of her enchanting show. She calls the evening “A Love Letter to Sondheim,” but her range of feeling, and vocals, encompasses all, even in her finale, “Send in the Clowns,” which she introduces with a most subtle political jab, “we know where the clowns really are.”

Her own composition, “Maria,” a nod to West Side Story, reminds her, “This land was made by dreamers.” Of course her career spans lots of political moments, as she knew Dylan, Stephen Stills, and Leonard Cohen. When she sings his “Suzanne,” her crystalline voice fills the room, and out pour memories of his coming to her with material because he knew she could sell a song: “What can I tell you about Leonard Cohen?” Her friend brought him to her, saying, “His poetry is obscure. He’s never going to go anywhere.” But, says Judy, he was the smartest one. He died the morning of the election.

John Pizzarelli’s Tribute to Nat King Cole at the Café Carlyle

For his run at the Café Carlyle this week, John Pizzarelli focuses on one of his inspirations, Nat King Cole, who would be 99. On guitar and vocals, John fronts an outstanding band of jazz musicians: Mike Karn on bass, Konrad Paszkudski on piano and “the sheriff” Andy Watson on drums for standards including “Paper Moon,” “Sweet Lorraine,” and “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” Yes, regulars wanted to know, where is Jessica? Well John’s wife and partner in music Jessica Molaskey was taking the night off. And how is Bucky? John’s father doesn’t make the rounds any more. Still, Bucky Pizzarelli is often the star of the lore and anecdotes by which this erudite and schmoozy performer laces together his not-to-be-missed show.

Escape to Margaritaville: Last Mango in Paradise

Brrr! It’s been so cold in New York, the tropical island in the new musical, Escape to Margaritaville at the Marquis Theater, is a vision of welcoming palm trees asway in a warm breeze. Who wouldn’t want to veg in Paradise, drink in hand, with hunks all around? But early on in this entertaining show of Jimmy Buffett’s greatest hits, you feel the grind for those who make it their life, dropouts like Tully (Paul Alexander Nolan) and his sidekick Brick (Eric Petersen), and Marley (Rema Webb) who owns the rundown resort where the guys serenade on guitar and tend bar, respectively. Serving the never ending ferry loads of vacationers sporting wide brim straw hats, Hawaiian shirts, and sandals, Tully for one has island fatigue when we meet him. Well, you know what they say about nirvana, it’s so boring. That is, until, and you can guess, a smart and snappy workaholic scientist named Rachel (Alison Luff) arrives with her best pal Tammy (Lisa Howard) who’s set for, not a fling but a flirt, on the eve of her wedding to the wrong guy.