NEWS & POLITICS ARCHIVES Listings
by Village Voice
WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 22
Art
GLENN KAINO
“Simple System for Dimensional Transformation” links a minuscule, flapping origami bird to a jackalope on a rotating Astroturf hill to a showerhead that powers a big, toothy waterwheel splashing into an inflatable pool. Simple? It’s about the power of causality and the continuum from a flat bit of paper to the fourth dimension. Says the hot young Californian artist, “I like to imagine that the bird powers the whole thing. Actually, it’s the other way round.” LEVIN
Through November 1, the Project, 37 West 57th Street, 212.688.4673
Dance
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE
Revivals of Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Symphonic Variations, and Agnes de Mille’s Three Virgins and a Devil highlight opening week of this grand national touring troupe’s fall season of intimate works. Also on view are dances by Balanchine, Graham, Forsythe, Kylian, and others. Opening night’s a gala. ZIMMER
At 7, and Thursday and Friday at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8, Sunday at 2 and 7:30, Tuesday at 7:30, and October 29 through November 9, City Center, 135 West 55th Street, 212.581.1212
‘BLACK BURLESQUE (REVISITED)’
Reggie Wilson’s Fist & Heel Performance Group collaborates with the Zimbabwe-based a cappella group Black Umfolosi and Trinidad’s Noble Douglas Dance Company on a work that unites African, Caribbean, and African American styles with modern dance language, growing out of Wilson’s longtime engagement with sacred and secular materials in the African diaspora. ZIMMER
At 7, and Thursday through Saturday, and October 29 through November 1, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, 212.924.0077
Film
ITALIAN FILM POSTERS
Subtitles in reverse, these vintage Italian movie posters—many from the collection of critic Dave Kehr, author of a new book on the subject—transform familiar Hollywood movies like Spellbound, On the Waterfront, In a Lonely Place, and Funny Face into something hot, lush, and exotically Mediterranean. HOBERMAN
Opens today, Posteritati, 239 Centre Street, 212.226.2207
Music
’14TH ANNUAL CABARET CONVENTION’
The staunch fighters for the perpetuation of the Great American Songbook, including chapters currently being written, finish their week demonstrating for the cause. Due to campaign, whether they’ve recently done local boîte time or not, are Elaine Stritch, Lynn Redgrave, Marian Seldes, Barbara Carroll, Christine Ebersole, Jason Graae, Marcia Lewis, Mark Nadler, Baby Jane Dexter, Joyce Breach, and Johnny Rodgers, plus less well-known names. FINKLE
Through Friday at 6 and Saturday at 2, Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, 212.840.2824
THE NEW DEAL+MY MORNING JACKET+ KILLING JOKE+VHS OR BETA+ BLACK BOX RECORDER+THE FEVER
CMJ’s opening bash is marathon length, but boasts a quality lineup as usual. Locals the Fever bring the synth-rock, Brit sophisticates Black Box Recorder bring the synth-pop, resurrected post-punk pioneers Killing Joke bring the synth-goth, stoner country boys My Morning Jacket bring the jam-band guitar noodling, and Canadians the New Deal bring the jam-band electro noodling. You bring comfortable shoes and a tolerance for hobnobbing industry people. PHILLIPS
At 8, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, 212.353.1600
Theater
‘THE COLLEEN BAWN’
The Victorians loved Dion Boucicault’s tale of a fair (“bawn”) colleen, a shiftless rogue, a hypocritical hunchback, and a climactic rescue from drowning. You may fall for it too in another of Charlotte Moore’s pocket-sized productions for the Irish Rep. Heather O’Neill plays Eily, the fair girl of the title, with Paul Vincent Black in Boucicault’s own role, the scamp Miles-na-Coppaleen. FEINGOLD
Through November 30, Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, 212.727.2737
THURSDAY
OCTOBER 23
Books
MAGGIE ESTEP+NELLY REIFLER+
AMANDA STERN
In The Long Haul, Amanda Stern’s slim, concentrated debut novel, the nameless heroine unearths a list she drew up at age 12, a life plan. The enumerations include anticipated rituals (#1: “Get ears pierced?”), domestic matters (#19: “Buy a farmhouse. Grow vegetables”), and ladder rungs for an artistic career. She finds that she derailed at #5 (“Study painting”) but can at least do #8: “Leave home. Done. Crossed out. I’m gone.” PARK
At 7, Housing Works Used Bookstore & Café, 126 Crosby Street, 212.334.3324
Film
‘RED-HEADED WOMAN’
The ultimate Jean Harlow flick, written by Anita Loos, features Hollywood’s slinkiest sex bomb as an implacable (and unpunished) home wrecker. This 1932 movie is wonderfully, shamelessly pre-Code; MGM producer Irving Thalberg evidently figured that, as long as the audience took it as comedy, his studio was in the clear. Loos biographer Cari Beauchamp will introduce. HOBERMAN
At 6, MOMA at the Gramercy, 127 East 23rd Street, 212.777.4900
Music
MARTIAL SOLAL TRIO
After decades of invisibility on this side of the pond, the brilliant French pianist is getting his due. Last summer he reunited with Konitz; this time it’s Phil Woods and Steve Lacy, as part of the J@LC “As of Now” series—and that would surely be enough, but this concert also offers a chance to hear the American debut of Herve Sellin, the pianist and arranger, leading a 10-piece band. Never seen Solal? He will amaze you. GIDDINS
Today and Saturday at 8, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, 65th Street and Broadway, 212.721.6500
Photo
BRUCE DAVIDSON
Greenberg inaugurates its handsome new space with a museum-worthy show of Davidson’s previously unexhibited vintage prints, including outtakes from several of his most famous extended photo-essays. The range is broad and deep, the stance never less than fully engaged. Davidson treats civil rights activists, teenage Brooklyn gang members, circus performers, and the unflappable residents of East 100th Street with a combination of evenhanded objectivity and passionate concern. The results are riveting. ALETTI
Through November 1, Howard Greenberg Gallery, 41 East 57th Street, 212.334.0010
Theater
‘LISTEN TO MY HEART’
Tireless songwriter David Friedman’s probably better known as the principal arranger-conductor for Disney’s animated block- busters. But his own songs carry an emotional freight that’s made them cabaret standards. This selection of Friedmania, staged by cabaret know-all Mark Waldrop, opens a new performing space; the cast includes two of New York’s better-loved divas in embryo, Alix Korey and Anne Runolfsson. FEINGOLD
Opens today, Upstairs at Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, 212.239.6200
‘THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW’
As far as we know, nobody in William Nicholson’s new play even thinks he or she is Napoleon. But with Eileen Atkins and John Lithgow in the leads, some fairly imperial acting should be going on. Director Daniel Sullivan’s skilled hand may help matters too. FEINGOLD
Opens today, Booth Theatre, Broadway and 45th Street, 212.239.6200
FRIDAY
OCTOBER 24
Film
‘ELEPHANT’
A poetic disaster film inspired by the Columbine massacre, Gus Van Sant’s most successful experiment is designed for maximum glide—the near avant-garde structure involves long traveling shots over complex sound bridges. Divisive, disturbing, and deeply tactful, Elephant is stronger on specific “empty” moments than motivation. Van Sant skims the surface of a particular autumn morning as long as possible before everything is capsized and dragged into the fathomless depths. HOBERMAN
Opens today
Music
DEATH COMET CREW+ROGERS SISTERS+ GLASS CANDY
Arguably the originators of backpack hip-hop, Rammellzee’s group DCC have a fucked-up new EP of muted cut-and-scratch, DCC America. They’re playing their first gig in 20 years, alongside Troubleman labelmates the Rogers Sisters (Brooklyn’s own B-52’s, and I mean that in a good way) and Glass Candy (mascara fanatics who’ve rarely lived up to the jabbing post-punk promise of their early singles). CMJ Event. Also: Broke Revue, King Cobra. WOLK
At 7:30, Knitting Factory Main Space, 74 Leonard Street, 212.219.3006
THROTTLEROD+FIVE HORSE JOHNSON+ HALFWAY TO GONE
If Molly Hatchet, Point Blank, and Blackfoot had toured together in their primes, it conceivably might’ve made for a heftier r&b-and-c&w-grilled redneck boogie-metal bill than this Altamont-ready showcase from Detroit’s Stone Sour Records, but don’t count on it. Throttlerod are four Virginia dudes; Five Horse Johnson are a Toledo quartet; Halfway to Gone are a trio from Jersey. They all make Pantera sound like pussies. EDDY
At 8, CBGB Downstairs Lounge, 313 Bowery, 212.228.1790
Photo
MARK WYSE
Like many photos of surfers, Wyse’s are also pictures of water. Foaming, sparkling, turbulent expanses of blue green liquid flood his frames with radiant color and all but swamp the tiny wet-suited figures bobbing on boards like so much scattered flotsam. As if he were a hovering bird, Wyse sees these alert, crouching men from above, giving us an exhilaratingly omniscient view all the more remarkable considering he’s only leaning over a pier or perched on a cliff. ALETTI
Through November 8, Wallspace, 547 West 27th Street, 212.594.9478
Theater
‘WILDER’
A song-and-dance show about the author of Our Town? Definitely not. The hero of this “erotic chamber musical,” by playwright Erin Cressida Wilson and Red Clay Ramblers alumni Jack Herrick and Mike Craver, is a man looking back on his coming of age in a Depression-era whorehouse. Doesn’t sound much like Grovers Corners. Sounds promising, though, given a cast headed by John Cullum, last seen not being the bunny in Urinetown. FEINGOLD
In previews, opens Sunday, Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, 212.279.4200
SATURDAY
OCTOBER 25
Music
EMMYLOU HARRIS
As graceful promulgator queen of Americana, Emmylou is “curator” of this week’s strong Carnegie Hall series; her recent Louvin Brothers salute CD contribution recaptures the country tones and song-catching taste that won the crown. She’s worked different sounds for eight years now; her own new CD combines them with words almost as simple as the old twang songs’—another step forward, 30 years into a singular career. MAZOR
At 8, Carnegie Hall, Isaac Stern Auditorium, 881 SeventhAvenue, 212.903.9600
THE SHINS+THE THERMALS+
THE CONSTANTINES+MICHAEL YONKERS BAND
The Thermals’ witty, crackling More Parts Per Million is crystalline punk rock concentrate, terse and savagely emphatic. They’re joined for this Sub Pop showcase by the Shins (who sort of aspire to be John Ashbery backed up by Badfinger), the Constantines (post-Fugazi slam-bam from Toronto), and the Michael Yonkers Band (whose psych-fried 1969 art-rock album Microminiature Love finally appeared this year). Also: Arlo, All Night Radio. CMJ Event. WOLK
At 7, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, 212.533.2111
SUNDAY
OCTOBER 26
Music
RZA+OL’ DIRTY BASTARD
Wu-Tang Whatever. It’s no surprise that in order to make the best music of their careers, the key members of the Wu have had to unshackle themselves from the rest of the fam. RZA is fresh off scoring Kill Bill and a new solo album, Birth of a Prince, that’s not nearly as disappointing as one would have thought. Ol’ Dirty Bastard—now Dirt McGirt —has been passed around from collaborator to collaborator for the past few years, and other people steadily see the great in him that he’s not fully aware of. CARAMANICA
At 8, B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, 212.997.4144
Theater
‘NOBODY DON’T LIKE YOGI’
And what’s not to like? The guy caught, he threw, he batted, and he apothegmatized. Pennant winning was never the same for the Yanks after Steinbrenner canned him—an event that’s likely to play a large part in this new solo drama, written and directed by unknowns but starring Ben Gazzara, virtually unseen on the New York stage since he locked horns with the late Colleen Dewhurst in the 1976 revival of Virginia Woolf. FEINGOLD
Opens today, Lamb’s Theatre, 130 West 44th Street, 212.239.6200
MONDAY
OCTOBER 27
Books
TODD MCEWEN
A Californian exiled in Scotland, McEwen’s written the quintessential New York novel—with kind of a strange title—Who Sleeps With Katz—packed full of italics and ALL CAPS—and sometimes ALL-CAP ITALS—lofted by acts of high-wire stream-of-consciousness derring-do—do people still use that word-phrase—?—and punctuational high jinks—dashes—not to mention heroic meditations on grub. A breath of fresh air, not to be missed. PARK
At 7:30, Barnes & Noble, 396 Sixth Avenue, 212.674.8780
Film
‘WILD IN THE STREETS’
Back in the Nixon-‘Nam years, everything was metaphor, but this 1968 AIP hippie dystopia seems more lifelike every day. A millionaire rock star (Christopher Jones)—it could’ve been a millionaire movie star—buys and bullies his way into the presidency and immediately imprisons everyone over 30. Expert guidance through the movie-movie then and the real-life now is provided by the Voice‘s J. Hoberman, whose new book, The Dream Life: Movies, Media and the Mythology of the Sixties, explores the cultural moment when cinema and life began earnestly commingling. ATKINSON
At 4:30, 6:50 (with Hoberman), and 9:10, BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, 718.636.4100
Music
GERALD WILSON ORCHESTRA
One of the last big-band legends, he started out with Lunceford, but really hit in the early ’60s with a series of starry West Coast bands. His current record, New York, New Sound, is a glimmering reworking of his classic charts, and many of its players will be at this very rare appearance: Jon Faddis, Jimmy Owens, Dennis Wilson, Benny Powell, Frank Wess, Jesse Davis, Jerry Dodgion, Renne Rosness, Anthony Wilson, and Lewis Nash. GIDDINS
At 9 and 11, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, 212.581.3080
TUESDAY
OCTOBER 28
Art
LESLEY DILL
Continuing to draw strength from language, frailty, and a will-o’-the-wisp sensibility in ways that rival Kiki Smith, Dill’s work keeps developing in subtlety. With cast-paper fragments, a white bronze figure dehydrated by its text, and black figures emitting prickly words like porcupines, plus a tangled wire ghost and an enormous curtain made of 700,000 strands of white thread hung from wire text, it’s a well-paced show. The words are from Kafka and Emily Dickinson. LEVIN
Through November 15, George Adams Gallery, 41 West 57th Street, 212.644.5665