Results tagged “lamama”

EVENT: Angels and Kings is hosting a Nerd Nite, described as: "the Discovery Channel with beer." This evening brings zombies to life, sort of, with a presentation on the undead titled "Zombies Are Real: Actual Zombies of the Natural World And Why You Might Be One." Drink, learn, be nerdy.

FOOD: Drinking With the Professor: a Look at Jerry Thomas and His Liquid Legacy: Join cocktail maestro Dave Wondrich as he shares recipes from his latest book, Imbibe! plus a few that were cut in the editing process. Wondrich has an in-depth knowledge of nineteenth-century classic cocktails, so step up and taste the benefits. - Laren Spirer

FAIR: The International vintage poster fair has arrived. It's time to take that ironic velvet Elvis off the wall and class up your joint. The fair will include "over 25 international dealers with more than 10,000 original vintage posters." More info here.

THEATER: Theodora Skipitares is a Greek-American playwright, director and puppeteer who uses near life-size puppets and Greek tragedies to look at our current situation in Iraq. (Her rendition of the Iliad and the Odyssey was a sold-out hit at La MaMa last year.) Her new show, which features puppetry and video, is The Exiles, an adaptation of the Orestes/Electra myth. “In this particular story of betrayal and vengeance, these puppets are an eerie construction of facade and public display, while their operators are a shadow of primal, often raw emotions and personal desires.” (Read last month's Times profile of Skipitares here.) - John Del Signore

EVENT: Nerd Alert! Come on by for Nerd Night tonight at Orchid Lounge where there are two geeked out presentations awaiting you. Presentation #1: "Genesis Rules! Wait, I Meant To Say Neurogenesis". Something about Adult Neurogenesis and Phil Collins, or something. Presentation #2: "TETROMINOWLEDGE: How Four Blocks, Arranged In Different Patterns, Have Changed the World, Kind Of". This one is mostly about Tetris. So put the Wii down and get out of the house.

Wallace Shawn has long enjoyed a fruitful career as a character actor in mainstream movies (Clueless, Princess Bride, Chicken Little). He also happens to be one of the world’s most significant dissident writers. His plays The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon and The Fever – to name just a few – have garnered much praise (and controversy) for their unflinching examinations of brutality. Shawn’s plays are political but not polemical; through his writing he questions everyone’s complicity – liberal intellectuals especially – in the horrors unleashed out of sight and out of mind.

MUSIC: Once we saw Men, Women & Children open up for Gang of Four and were pretty unphased. We then saw them play the Annex, and we couldn't stop smiling. Not really our type of music - but they put on quite a show, to say the least. Tonight they headline Bowery with Army of Me, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad and The Guts. Watch the below video to get an idea of what you're in store for:

THEATER: It’s Friday night, and what better way to cut loose than an evening of interactive theater – set in plague-ravaged New York City! In All Fall Down, a savage battle rages for the dwindling supplies of the vaccine, but soon a question arises: "Is the cure worse than the disease?" Theatre Recrudescence vows to explore our “post 9/11 hysteria with elements of carnival, clowning and rock and roll.” (All Fall Down is in previews, so there are no reviews; we'll have to take them on their word that the show “includes the audience, but doesn't embarrass them.”) - John Del Signore

READING: KGB Bar's Non-Fiction Night is playing host to the Subway

Maybe it’s just us, but even with spring’s approach an unusual degree of anomie seems to be hanging over everything, slightly twisting and darkening many of the new season’s shows. Not all of them, of course; it is possible to still to see truly lighthearted fare on stage. So do you want to see something that matches the prevailing mood or challenges it? Here are a few options that go both ways:

Playbill reported yesterday that South Pacific, the only Rodgers & Hammerstein musical not yet revived, will be back next year. No surprise there – every other hit show from the 20th century has had a second stint now, so it’s more a wonder that this one has taken so long. A Chorus Line just closed in 1990 and is already scheduled to reappear this fall; there are even rumors of Cats embarking on a second life in the not-too-distant future, and it only closed in 2000. This is why we would keep going to off-off-Broadway shows even if we could afford the big tickets: while there are certainly plenty of small troupes that perform from a standard repertoire of old classics, these are often adapted beyond recognition, and in general at any given time there are far more brand-new works than warmed-over, recycled stuff.

It's all about lesbian chic in City Hall these days! First, gay City Council member Christine Quinn is made the City Council Speaker, and now, City Council member Margarita Lopez dubs Mayor Bloomberg an "honorary lesbian"! And the Mayor didn't admit to watching the L Word or thinking about adopting a baby from China with his girlfriend - all he did was turn over a few city buildings on East Fourth Street to arts organizations in Lopez's district. Lopez's designation (Sapphicization?) of the mayor was in the context of saying she wanted the mayor to perform in a theater piece and he'd be "part of the group of people that I am part of, the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender community. And I'm making him an honorary lesbian." Mayor Bloomberg did laugh and say, "Let the record show that the mayor moved right along after that." Hmm, would Brian Ellner call Mayor Bloomberg an "honorary homosexual?"

The cool air inside theaters that we touted all summer isn’t exactly an attraction now – at times you might find yourself wishing you were under the nice warm spotlight – and most off-off-Broadway shows don’t have plush seats you can snuggle into, but there are a number on this week that should make you forget the cold, at least mostly. House of No More, at Dance Theater Workshop, sounds like the kind of show that will both enthrall and assault you enough to do this warming well. It’s the final installation of Caden Manson/Big Art Group’s Real Time Film trilogy and uses three cameras and three screens to manipulate images and create, um, a real time film. It sounds like the plot (a thriller about a woman searching for her missing child) takes a distant third in importance compared to the artistic philosophy and avant-garde execution, but we’ll go with it – just from the trailer on the group’s website, it looks pretty overwhelming, in a good way.

With such strange, non-wintery weather, it can be hard to comprehend that the holiday season is upon us – or at least it would be if retailers weren’t so insistent with their decorating and constant gift idea promotions. Theater companies are doing their part, too, gearing up with a wide variety of traditional and anti-tradition productions. One of these, closer to the latter pole, is Balletto Stiletto at La MaMa. It’s loosely based on the Grimm Brothers’ “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” and tells the story of “the Appliance King of New Jersey” who locks his nine daughters in their room each night only to find every morning that their shoes bear the signs of long hours of partying. If it doesn’t sound like it has much to do with the holidays, well, that’s just one more thing it has going for it.

Last week we went on about all the theatre festivals that have found their way to stages lately; this week it seems like there’s a citywide Hamlet-fest or some sort of Shakespeare bug in the air. There are three productions of Hamlet going, so you can choose your poison. Still in previews is what looks like it will be a thoroughly, wonderfully traditional production of the play, at Classic Stage starring Michael Cumpsty, most recently of The Constant Wife and Democracy on Broadway. The other two versions are rather less “classic” in their approach: at La MaMa, Kanako Hiyama not only has pared the play down to an hour and a half, shuffled scenes and told the story from different perspectives, she literally puts you in the action, with the Ghost narrator in the audience and spectators cast as courtiers. Then, at Harlem’s Morris-Jumiel Mansion, Gorilla Repertory is doing the play in full, but *free* and outdoors in a roving, environmental manner. It would be pretty interesting (though pretty exhausting) to see all these adaptations in quick succession – just think how you might be talking after such an experiment.

EVENT/MUSIC: It's Children's Day at South Street Seaport this Saturday. With Gordon from Sesame Street, The School House Rock Stage Show and They Might Be Giants! Wait...AND fireworks! [via FreeNYC]