New York Notebook :: September
With Labor Day slinking in so late, Manhattan won’t be putting on its back-to-business face til mid-month at the earliest. And heavens knows, we’ve earned a little extra summer. You might want to keep that street-corner doo-wop vibe going with The Persuasions at B.B. King Blues Club September 3. And feast away right through the September 7 cut-off date for the charitably extended Restaurant Week. The city’s just a tad over-built (you’ve heard about this little blip called the recession?), so hotel deals are pretty easily had for the asking.
Week 2: The Dutch Descend to Party as Broadway Reawakens
On September 8, Edie Falco joins Carl Capotorto, author of "Twisted Head" (a growing-up-Italian-American-gay memoir) for a reading at Borders Columbus Circle in the Time Warner Center. That same night, the York Theater Company kicks off its 40th season with the musical "Blind Lemon Blues," co-created, directed, choreographed, and starring Akin Babatunde. And Michael Feinstein teams up with Christine Ebersole for a five-day gig at Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency.
The DanceNOW Festival, September 8-12, gathers 75 choreographers in three downtown venues in hopes of hooking you up with "your new artistic crush." We already have a few proven honeys, including the Bang Group and Doug Elkins.
BAMcinematek will be hosting two eminently crush-worthy stars to accompany tributary series this month. "Robert Redford: Artist & Activist" runs September 8-15 (he’ll appear on the 12th, in the company of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, for a screening of "All The President’s Men"); and "Rendez-vous with Juliette Binoche" September 11-30. She’ll be turning up at occasional aftertalks there, and dancing September 15-26, in "In-I," a performance piece that launches BAM’s Next Wave Festival. On the 8th she’ll be at the French Institute Alliance Francaise for "Juliette Binoche: sketches for a portrait," a documentary produced by her sister. From the 10th to October 9, her paintings and poems will be on view at the French Embassy. On the 11th, you’ll find her at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble signing her book "Portraits In-Eyes." Oh, and she has a new film out: Cédric Klapisch’s "Paris," opening September 18. Whatever happened to mere triple-threats?
Can it really be four centuries since Henry Hudson first laid foot on Manhattan soil? Indeed, and the Dutch - including HRH the Prince of Orange, HRH Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, and Johannes Vermeer’s "The Milkmaid" (coming to the Met) - want to help us celebrate, during NY400 Week September 8-13. There’s so much going on, mostly of a harbor-celebratory nature, that you’ll just have to plumb the website. And it segues handily into the September 10-20 New Island Festival, a plethora of Dutch performing-arts events on artsily reclamated Governors Island.
After a record-breaking season in ’08-09, the theatrical powers-that-be have named September Back2Broadway Month. Festivities include Seth Rudetsky’s ongoing free, live SiriusXM Radio programs at the Times Square Information Center, resuming September 9; the annual "Broadway on Broadway" concert (September 13); the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market (September 27); and Kids’ Night on Broadway (September 15-16). Brace yourself as well for public karaoke and dance lessons in Times Square.
Foodie fans of WLIW, New York Public Television, will want to attend the Autumn Gourmet Classic at the Astor Center September 9, for demos and tastings from such top chefs as Lidia Bastianich, Jacques Pépin, and Aaron Sanchez (the genius behind our Tribeca fave, Centrico). Or for something a little different (chuck the apron), consider the opening soiree for the 3-Legged Dog multimedia art show, "Why Aren’t You Naked?," running through October 3. Expect "contradictory multi-valent experiences of our image-stuffed world" - and a whole lotta skin.
Off-Broadway cranks back into action starting on September 9 with a two-fer by David Mamet - the comic one-acts "Keep Your Pantheon" and "School" - presented by the Atlantic Theatre Company; Colman Domingo’s "A Boy and His Soul" at the Vineyard Theatre; and Ari Gold in "The Hole" -- a new musical about the late gay East Village nightclub -- at Theatre at St. Clements.
September 10-27, the Ensemble Studio Theatre offers "The River Crosses Rivers," a festival of new work by fourteen women playwrights of color (including Ruby Dee and Lynn Nottage). Young phenom Annie Baker is part of an eight-member panel who’ll be discussing their upcoming works at Playwrights Horizons in "New Plays, Tough Times," September 10.
Two Broadway shows start previews that night: Roundabout’s revival of "Bye Bye Birdie" - with Gina Gershon, Bill Irwin, Jayne Houdyshell, and Dee Hoty - at the new Henry Miller’s Theatre; and Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman playing Chicago cops in Keith Huff’s "A Steady Rain" at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
Oh, and if you didn’t manage to make it to all 201 shows at the New York Fringe Festival - slacker! - you’ll have a chance to catch the top contenders (including the divine Ridiculous-inspired "Devil Boys from Beyond") at the Fringe NYC Encore Series September 10-26.
They’ll be overlapping with the start of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, which in five success-packed years has earned a reputation as "the Sundance of musicals." It kicks off September 10 with the world premiere of the movie Clear Blue Tuesday, featuring cameos by Broadway babies such as James Naughton and Kelli O’Hara. Showcases include Sam Forman and David Eric Davis’ "F#@king Up Everything"; Dane E. Leeman and Billy Butler’s "Gay Bride of Frankenstein"; and Sammy Buck and Dan Acquisto’s "Andy Warhol Was Right." Readings include the Stew/Rodewald "Punk Princess" and the Leiber/Stoller "Nightingale and the Satin Woman," based on a book by William Kotzwinkle. And don’t forget the opening and closing night celebrations, plus the "Next Broadway Sensation" contest judged by "American Idol" alum Diana DeGarmo, currently appearing in "The Toxic Avenger" (a hilarious homage to the Garden State).
"Three Ways of Looking at the Earth" -- part of "Systematic Landscapes," a traveling exhibit by sculptor Maya Lin -- rolls into Chelsea’s PaceWildenstein gallery September 10 (there’s an opening reception that evening - and her Museum of Chinese in America opens in Chinatown on the 22nd). On the 11th, the Morgan Library unveils "William Blake’s World: A New Heaven Is Begun." You really need to see these works close up to appreciate their trippy intensity. (Close on Blake’s heels comes a "Celebrating Puccini" exhibit, opening September 15.)
For an amazing journey on your own home turf, consider joining the September 12 Manhattan Wonderwalk organized by the artists’ salon Secret City.
On your way through Central Park, pause at the East Meadow to check out "Le Bal NYC," an afternoon dance party/picnic, part of the French Instititute Alliance Francaise’s "Crossing the Line" fall festival. The event is free, but you might want to spring for a bento box with contributions culled from chefs such as Wiley Dufresne and Momofuku’s David Chang, who’ll be participating in a culinarily outrageous "Five F**king Dinners" event September 14. There’s also a whole day of hands-on cooking events - "Omnivore New York" -- planned for the 13th, and a full complement of out-there performing arts running through October 3.
September 12 sees the first preview of Jude Law as Hamlet (the Donmar Warehouse production, imported) at the Broadhurst; for details - on this and every other play in town, down to the fringiest, keep up to date via TheaterMania.com. The 12th is also when John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman open in the Public Theater’s "Othello," directed by Peter Sellars, at NYU’s Skirball Center.
On the afternoon of the 13th, designers from "Project Runway" and famous Broadway costumers like Wiliam Ivey Long will auction off custom backbacks at the West Bank Café’s Laurie Beechman Theatre to benefit Project Backpack, which helps provide back-to-school supplies for hundreds of children in New York, New Orleans, and Africa. Cocktails and surprise guests are on the agenda; one sure to show is Tituss Burgess.
On the 14th, you could attend a preview screening of Jane Campion’s "Bright Star" - about a late-life romance involving John Keats - at the Directors Guild Theater, presented by the Museum of the Moving Image. For the same price as an ordinary flick at at your local cineplex, you’ll get to hear the noted New Zealand director discourse on her vision.
And good news! The juicy schadenfreude-fest "Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words" is back to enliven Monday evenings at the Triad. Michael Urie ("Ugly Betty") is booked for September 14, and on that night, the 21st, or the 28th, you could double-dip and stay on for a late show by Tony Award-winner Lillias White.
While we’re on the topic of celebrity absurdities: We can’t wait to see "The Piven Monologues" at Joe’s Pub September 14. The fact that the mercury-ODing has now been exonerated by Equity detracts not in the least from the dicey underpinnings of this particular Bunbury. Other Joe’s Pub events worth booking in advance: singer-songwriter Lance Horne’s session on September 18, with guests Alan Cumming, Cheyenne Jackson, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and the aforementioned Michael Urie; "The Intern," prodigy Freddy Wexler’s new musical, set in a post-conglomerated record industry (September 20): and "The Coterie" (September 21), a rock-jazz-pop-Broadway crossover initiative featuring Lauren Worsham and other up-and-coming hybridists.
Back to the 14th, it’s benefits galore:
-- The National Asian American Theatre Company presenting an all-Asian performance of Terrence McNally’s "Love! Valour! Compassion!" at the Cherry Lane Theatre; the cast includes the amazing Francis Jue
-- Richard Thomas reading "Timon of Athens" to help out the Red Bull Theater
-- A comedy night at the Highline Ballroom with Jonathan Ames, Eugene Mirman, and assorted late-night writers to benefit 826NYC, which provides one-on-one writing tutorials for New York schoolchildren.
Up next: what’s hot and happening in NYC in the latter half of September.
