Gossip Central

Isaac Mizrahi: Peter and the Wolf at the Guggenheim

Prokoviev’s classic Peter and the Wolf is reimagined in a snazzy reboot 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.

A Chorus Line: A Singular Sensation at New York City Center

New York City Center celebrated its 75^th year with a performance of the iconic A Chorus Line followed by dinner at the Plaza Hotel. Back in 1975 when it first hit the stage at the Public Theater, A Chorus Line was a game changer of a musical. Scripted from taped interviews with theatrical types: singers and dancers, the book, written by Michael Bennett, collaborating with lyricist Ed Kleban, with music by Marvin Hamlisch—well, this was the winning dream team that made A Chorus Line the Hamilton-scale hit of its day. Re-visioned now 43 years later for this one-week engagement, the musical feels fresh, and simply fabulous.

John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey Tell “American Stories” at the Café Carlyle

John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey hit the Café Carlyle stage singing-- that is Jessica sang Paul Simon’s “American Tune” accompanied by John on the guitar. At this point, as regulars at the Café Carlyle and so familiar on NPR with their highly entertaining Radio Delux, first names are in order for this couple, married in life and music. There is simply nothing like settling into their sublime show, especially after the tensions of Election Day in the rain. With a superb Konrad Paszkudzki on piano and an excellent Mike Karn on bass, there was no talk of religion or politics.

Mercedes Ruehl in Torch Song: If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother

Family values loom large in the revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy on Broadway. The hyper loneliness of Arnold, a gay man who performs in drag is what the actor Michael Urie kvetches about in his pursuit of love. Dressing as the play opens under its neon Torch Song lights, Arnold could be anyone longing for a lover, with spider lashes and red lips, equal only to the spectacular Andrew Garfield’s Prior Walter in the recent revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. While that great show explores an AIDS ravaged America, this setting inhabits more intimate space: a ‘70’s gay bar’s backroom, a bed, and a kitchen. That’s where Arnold’s mom comes to visit, and she is every bit as large and terrifying as any woman painted by de Kooning, or penned by Philip Roth. As performed by Mercedes Ruehl, she’s a nightmare in pastel, but she’s Arnold’s, and in due course, even as they spar for supremacy in suffering, they belong to each other.

Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery: Two Lost Souls at the Café Carlyle

Photo: David Andrako

Warming up with “When You’re Smiling,” the charismatic, jazzy backup band for Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery cued the Café Carlyle audience: we were set for a night of music and laughs. The “Two Lost Souls” came onstage, like a pair of Chaplinesque hobos, foils of one another, and funny. Reaching up, Jane Lynch, the more “Sapphic” of the duo could hit the ceiling. And crouching down, Kate Flannery, “by way of Jameson,” had a low center of gravity. Between the two, such songs as “One Note Samba,” “Bei Mir Bist Du Shon,” and “Good King Wenceslas,” rose to lively, harmonious levels. Kate’s “Shy,” belted out, was hilariously unconvincing. And Jane did a great “Mambo Italiano.” And on they went till the near finale, Jule Styne’s “The Party’s Over,” followed by Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”

Ethan Hawke’s Blaze of Glory

As a filmmaker, Ethan Hawke is something of a wildchild, fresh, irreverent, unexpected and totally loveable. His new movie, Blaze, about a little known country western singer/guitarist Blaze Foley is a marvel to watch, because everyone involved seems to be having so much fun immortalizing a man, a wildchild, who lived life in a no holds barred way, following his passions and foibles without restraint. Looking and acting the quintessential flower child, Blaze Foley could take no sound advice about his abundant talent as a musician and songwriter, nor about his life, blessed with true love, hokey as that sounds. Sybil Rosen, a Jewish girl with kinky hair joined him for a romp for a time, until the real world made their Edenic world unlivable. Blaze died tragically in 1989 at age 39, trying to help a friend, and Sybil wrote a book about him, Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley, the backbone of this thrilling movie.

Aretha Franklin: Accessorizing the Queen

As the tributes to Aretha Franklin’s extraordinary career and legacy attest to the number of people she touched, and her incredible song list awakens our memories of decades of indelible music, it is good to remember her as a natural woman. Not only because she sang the song Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote for her, but because she was a stealth warrior as a feminist, whether or not she cared about that term. Old school, no nonsense. No #MeToo for her, and you know she had stories.

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.