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New York Times
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Billy Porter in ‘La Cage aux Folles' Highlights City Center Season
A musical comedy about a half-boy, half-bat creature, directed by a Tony winner, and an all-Black revival of the farce 'La Cage aux Folles,' starring Billy Porter, will highlight the 2025-26 Encores! season at New York City Center. The four-show lineup is the first chosen by the center's new vice president and artistic director of musical theater, Jenny Gersten, who is taking over programming from Lear deBessonet, who was named the artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater. Gersten, who had for three years been the artistic director of the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts before joining New York City Center as vice president and producer in 2020, said she aimed to focus on the original mission of the 32-year-old concert series, which stages short-run productions of decades-old musicals, many of which are rarely revived. 'A lot of people think about the Encores! series as being for revivals of musicals that you might not otherwise see, but the rationale for Encores! was always the chance to hear the orchestrations as they were originally intended,' she said. First up is the annual gala presentation, which will be 'Bat Boy: The Musical' (Oct. 29-Nov. 9). This irreverent horror-rock musical, inspired by stories from a supermarket tabloid, centers on a cave-dwelling creature (Bat Boy) who searches for acceptance and love in a small town. It will be helmed by Alex Timbers, who won a Tony Award in 2021 for directing 'Moulin Rouge! The Musical.' The story and book are by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, with music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe ('Legally Blonde: The Musical'). Next, the Encores! series will begin with a production of the supernatural musical comedy 'High Spirits' (Feb. 4-15), based on Noël Coward's 1941 play 'Blithe Spirit' about a man coping with his dead wife's ghost. Though the musical, whose score and book are by Hugh Martin ('Meet Me in St. Louis') and Timothy Gray, was nominated for eight Tonys, it won none and was never revived on Broadway. It will be directed by Jessica Stone ('Kimberly Akimbo,' 'Water for Elephants'). Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: Dance Theater of Harlem, Reshaped and Back at City Center
When Robert Garland was chosen to take over as the artistic director of Dance Theater of Harlem in 2023, it was the ultimate inside hire. After performing with the company for 13 years, he spent more than 20 as its resident choreographer and the director of its school. The choice seemed to promise continuity, and so far, continuity is what Garland has delivered. Still, a new director inevitably reshapes a company's identity. Since Garland — unlike his predecessor, Virginia Johnson — is a choreographer, it makes sense to watch his choreography for signs of change. The company's programs at New York City Center this week feature the first work he's made since taking over: 'The Cookout.' Garland's choreographic signature is a combination of classical ballet influenced by his chief model, George Balanchine, and Black vernacular dance, what he has called 'Harlem swag.' 'The Cookout' is in this mode, applying ballet vocabulary to tracks of funk, neo-soul and disco while mixing in the kind of party steps that would normally go with such music. At its best, this gambit can reveal hidden continuities, mainly of rhythm, as well as the code-switching versatility of dancers. But the juxtaposition also risks cross-bleeding dilution, since classical ballet and African-diasporic forms hold the body in opposite ways, particularly around the pelvis. Ballet dancers can have trouble getting down — stiffening swag steps, pulling them up — and ballet made casual can become merely sloppy. That's a limitation in 'The Cookout,' though ultimately the piece is just innocuously slight. Garland divides it into four sections, three about kinds of dignity (work, culture, sorrow) followed by one about joy. Work is weakly represented by a broom; culture, by a few of the intricate handshakes known as daps; joy, by red Solo cups. Moments of magic, as when the women in the sorrow section are suddenly lifted off at its end, are scarce. Garland has had more success in choosing his company's repertory. Picking up on one of Johnson's final moves — commissioning a piece by William Forsythe — he has added another, 'The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude.' That 1996 work, set to part of a Schubert symphony, is a challenging exercise in the 19th-century style of divertissement. Here and there, through Stephen Galloway's floppy-frisbee tutus or a snuck-in body roll, the work winks, reminding you that it isn't that old. The less exact the dancing, the less thrilling it is. And while the Harlem dancers start tight, they soon loosen under the stress, especially the women, who struggle with the demands of the quick pointework. Alexandra Hutchinson holds her poise, and David Wright gives and gives with gusto. But the company, which looked terrific in Forsythe's much less classical 'Blake Works IV,' doesn't have this one under its belt yet. Jodie Gates, the former Forsythe dancer who staged 'Vertiginous,' also choreographed a world premiere, 'Passage of Being.' Set to dreamy indie-electronica by Ryan Lott and his band, Son Lux, Gates's work is all misty, silken flow, circling and spiraling and threading long loops into loops. The six Harlem dancers take to this very well, capturing not just the fluency but also the little embroideries and pauses for breath that bring the choreography to life. These are good choices, giving the dancers something they can handle and something to reach for. More important, though, is Garland's handling of the company's connection to Balanchine: the mentor to Garland's mentor and the company's co-founder Arthur Mitchell. And here, he's on a roll. After Balanchine's 'Allegro Brilliante' in Johnson's last season came 'Pas de Dix' in Garland's first. Now, he has added 'Donizetti Variations,' and it's another winner. 'Donizetti,' like 'Vertiginous,' is in the mode of a 19th-century divertissement. But while using similar formulas, it's much more formally playful and inventive. It's a fast, fun game of threes, and the dancers, coached by the former New York City Ballet star Kyra Nichols, find the right calibration of energy to make it bounce and fizz. They deliver the work's many interwoven garlands and close canons with a confectionary exactitude that is composedly thrilling. As the central couple, Hutchinson and Wright shine: she strong enough to be soft, he adding extra torque and bend to spins that are truly vertiginous. This is a 'Donizetti' danced with a dignity that doesn't preclude a party-like atmosphere. Traditionally, it opens a program, but Garland put it at the end on Thursday. There, it did what 'The Cookout' tried to do: close with joy.
New York Times
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Sara Mearns and Jamar Roberts Know This: Dance Is Tough Love
The first time Sara Mearns stepped into a studio with Jamar Roberts, she knew they were cut from the same dance cloth. 'We both had the same energy of, 'What are we doing?'' Last summer, Mearns was cast in a work by Roberts at Vail Dance Festival, where both were artists in residence. Their humor aligned. They were dance lovers and dance sufferers! Their energy picked up. Mearns, 39, a longtime principal at New York City Ballet, and Roberts, 42, a choreographer who spent years as a leading dancer at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, are devoted to dance. But they're not rah-rah about it every second of the day. They know its pain. At Vail, Mearns was pondering what to do for her Artists at the Center program, which opens Thursday at New York City Center. After working with Roberts, she said she knew: 'This is it.' The resulting collaboration, 'Dance Is a Mother,' with choreography by Roberts and music by Caroline Shaw, pairs Mearns with a stellar cast: the former Ailey dancers Jeroboam Bozeman and Ghrai DeVore-Stokes; and Anna Greenberg, who Roberts met at Miami City Ballet. The surprise is that Roberts is dancing in it too, but that makes sense given the context: The work is a love letter to dance. And for both Roberts and Mearns, it's testament to a life spent pursuing it. 'I think we have very similar feelings about dance and our careers, our relationship to dance,' Roberts said. 'It's sort of this love-hate thing, at least for me.' 'Dance Is a Mother' is a reminder of why they fell for dance in the first place. The program's other work, 'Don't Go Home' — conceived by Mearns, the choreographer Guillaume Côté and the writer Jonathon Young — is a foray into dance theater that depicts the struggle a dancer goes through while preparing for a role. 'They couldn't be more opposite if they tried,' Mearns said of the two works on the program. Recently Mearns and Roberts joined up for a video interview about their shared sensibilities, their time working together and why dance is the mother you love to hate. Or is it hate to love? In either case, here are edited excerpts from that conversation. So how is dance a mother? ROBERTS Dance nurtures, and it's grown me up so much, from the time I entered the professional space at 18 until now. It teaches you the hard lessons. Dance mothers you, and sometimes you just hate her, but no matter what, you love her. You're kind of stuck with her forever. How did this collaboration start? MEARNS We met in a park, and he asked me: 'What do you want to feel when you go out there? What head space are you going to be in when you go out onstage? What do you want to look like?' I had never been asked those questions before about a piece. I almost didn't know how to answer. But it started this conversation about how we feel at this point in our careers. In what way? MEARNS We've both had very long careers and been through a lot: a lot of baggage, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of pain — but a lot of great things too. We started talking about that love and joy that we had when we were 10 years old. Is that still there? Only people at this stage would understand that or be able to answer that question or not answer that question. So I thought that was a very cool way of going in to make a piece. Jamar, how did you want the dance to feel? ROBERTS I remember agreeing that we wanted to make a slow piece. Because everything is just mad turbo these days, myself and my work included. And I wanted it to feature Sara in the way that she felt the most comfortable. When we were at the park she said, 'I don't have to be the first one onstage.' It's probably something that I would say if somebody was choreographing a piece for me. I wanted it to feel like each dancer's contribution was equal for the most part. Even though the piece is for the audience, I wanted it to feel like a glorified dance studio. MEARNS But if this is slow to him, I don't even want to know what fast movement is. ROBERTS Listen, I said it would be a good challenge. Part of this experience is being able to dance with others on equal terms? MEARNS I think I did want to have a communal situation, because I don't really get to have that. Even if I'm part of a bigger piece, it's usually, Sara, this is your movement. I'm not saying there's anything bad about that, but I miss dancing in a group. This is a very close group of five people that are dancing together and that are on the same train, going the same place at the same rate. Jamar, why did you want to be in the piece? ROBERTS That's kind of a deep question. Loaded. Choreography was feeding me in a certain way when I first started, and over time the honeymoon phase wears off, and so the question of purpose came into play. Not so much purpose in the grand sense, but a daily sort of purpose. The nearest thing that gave me that same sort of satisfaction or gratification was dance. How did you announce your plan? ROBERTS I said to Sara, 'What would you think if I danced in the show?' I was a little concerned only because I was like, It's Sara's show. Sara's a thing. I'm a thing. And I didn't want to be up there taking the shine away from Sara. Tell her what you said, Sara. MEARNS I sent back an entire text of exclamation points. I had been waiting for this moment. I was like, I can't ask him to be in it. I just can't do that to him because I don't think he's in that place anymore and I'm not going to force it. How is it going? Are you finding that satisfaction from dancing? ROBERTS I don't really need the stage and the lights and the audience to get what I need from dance. So, yes. It's tough having to divide myself between the dance maker and the dancer. But I think it's reminded me of a certain power that you get from being able to will your body into doing things. It's a strange ego booster. It's an interesting little tool that dancers have. Do you relate to that? MEARNS Oh yes. That's what I mean when we both walk in the studio the same way. I feel like we both have that feeling of, 'I don't know if this is going to happen today.' And then you get into the rehearsal vibe and you start learning steps and then you get into this groove. It's this unbelievable feeling. No one else can do that for me. I have to get there. It was much easier to get to the top, to get to this place many years ago. But then to consistently come back every single day and do it? Have you been able to return to that place of why you started dancing in the first place? ROBERTS I have. The love has always been there, even when I'm not performing. I don't think it'll ever go away. MEARNS I was told once that I was an anomaly because of how I feel about dance. I don't feel this way about anything else in my life. And sometimes that has shut me off from the world. That has made me feel alone or lonely or not like anybody else. But I wouldn't have it any other way, because this is what I've dedicated my life to.
New York Times
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Lost Great American Musical Returns, Over 75 Years Later
For some people, seeing the musical 'Love Life' in 1948 was an eye-opening experience. As a new show with music by Kurt Weill, and a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, it was a major Broadway event. So Stephen Sondheim got himself a ticket, as did his future collaborator Hal Prince. One night Fred Ebb, of Kander and Ebb, was in the house; another night, Bob Fosse. All of them would be influenced by 'Love Life,' which tells the story of an American marriage over 150 years through a series of vaudeville acts. It's by no means a classic, but its form pioneered the concept musical, a genre that would blossom a generation later in shows like Kander and Ebb's 'Cabaret' and 'Chicago,' and Sondheim's 'Company' and 'Follies.' Ebb would look back on 'Love Life' as 'a marvelous piece of theater.' Yet it hasn't been seen in New York since that original run. Because of a musicians' union strike, it was never recorded, nor was it published. Some songs lived on, but eventually it gained a reputation as the lost great American musical. That is about to change. 'Love Life' is finally returning to Manhattan on Wednesday, after decades of neglect and a five-year pandemic delay, for an Encores! production at New York City Center, directed by Victoria Clark and starring Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell. 'It's always seemed that 'Love Life' was jinxed,' said the scholar Kim Kowalke, who runs the Kurt Weill Foundation. 'Maybe the jinx is off now.' 'LOVE LIFE' WAS the only collaboration between its creators. Weill was near the end of his brief life but at the height of his skill, having reinvented himself as a composer for the American stage after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933. Always interested in top-shelf librettists, he had recently written the 1947 Broadway opera 'Street Scene' with Langston Hughes. Lerner, nearly 20 years younger than Weill, was several shows deep into his career-defining partnership with Frederick Loewe, and was fresh off the success of 'Brigadoon,' which briefly overlapped with 'Street Scene' on Broadway. Later that year, Rodgers and Hammerstein opened 'Allegro,' a failed musical about an ordinary man against the backdrop of modern life, told with Brechtian devices and a Greek chorus. 'Allegro' took a step toward the concept musical, but because of its reception, Rodgers and Hammerstein returned afterward to the integrated approach they had perfected in 'Oklahoma!' and 'Carousel' earlier in the 1940s. 'Love Life,' however, would take something more like a leap. It was inspired, in part, by Lerner's recent divorce. He was interested, he told Weill, in writing 'a cavalcade of American marriage.' The show that they developed was called 'A Dish for the Gods' at first, and, with a bit of armchair sociology, it aimed to trace how industrialization and modernity had affected relationships. They created a generic couple, Sam and Susan Cooper, and matched the phases of their marriage to developments in American history. In 1791, they would move to a small town with their two children; by the present day, they would divorce in New York. Along the way, they would never age, like the family in Thornton Wilder's 1942 play 'The Skin of Our Teeth,' and each scene would be commented on obliquely through vaudeville acts. In the age of the integrated musical, Weill and Lerner were about to serve Broadway audiences something that was disorientingly both nostalgic (vaudeville) and experimental (the concept musical). Anticipating some confusion, even resistance, they wrote an article in The New York Times shortly before opening night that imagined a conversation between them and a man on the street: 'Love Life' allowed Weill to survey American musical idioms. The opening, pastoral numbers have a quaintly Coplandesque sound, which is followed by styles like the foxtrot, boogie-woogie and 19th-century parlor song. Some of those styles came and went as the show was revised on its way to New York. And as the team behind it grew, so did expectations. Especially for Elia Kazan, who delayed rehearsals for 'Death of a Salesman' so he could he could direct 'Love Life.' Reviews, though, were mixed. In The Times, Brooks Atkinson described the musical as 'an intellectual idea about showmanship gone wrong,' even though he thought that Weill had 'never composed a more versatile score with agreeable music in so many moods.' With chilly reception and high operating costs, 'Love Life' ran on Broadway for less than a year, despite its Susan, Nanette Fabray, winning a Tony Award. Often, shows were able to extend their reach beyond New York by releasing cast albums and publishing a few hit numbers, which with any luck would be covered by popular artists and broadcast on the radio. None of that was possible for 'Love Life.' A labor action known as the Petrillo Ban meant that the pit musicians weren't allowed to record the show; it also curtailed the release of any songs on their own. The score went unpublished, as did Lerner's script. With no tour or film on the horizon, the show was doomed to obscurity. (The materials, however, were preserved and provided the basis of a recently published, exhaustive critical edition.) Nearly 20 years after the show closed, Kander and Ebb opened 'Cabaret,' which had elements of an integrated musical and 'Love Life'-style numbers that commented on the plot through nightclub acts. Prince was the director, and the set design was by Boris Aronson, who had also worked on 'Love Life.' Aronson went on to design the sets for 'Company' and 'Follies,' two Sondheim shows, like his much later 'Assassins,' that could be seen as descendants of 'Love Life,' with more evolved style and showmanship. In a 2011 interview, Sondheim acknowledged the similarities between 'Company' and 'Love Life,' and wondered whether it could have been even more influential if it had been a real success. 'If 'Love Life' or 'Allegro,' had been smash hits,' he said, 'the musical theater might very well have accelerated in terms of experimentation.' THE ENCORES! PRODUCTION aims to show how much of a success 'Love Life' could be. It came about seven years ago, over a lunch between Clark and Jack Viertel, the long-serving artistic director of Encores! until 2020. In an interview, Clark recalled telling Viertel that he needed 'more women directing these shows.' And she had herself in mind. Before she was a Tony-winning star, she was a director; she had studied with the likes of George C. Wolfe and Winnie Holzman in graduate school at New York University, and even earlier, as a student at Yale, had directed the first post-Broadway production of 'Merrily We Roll Along.' When Viertel asked Clark what show she would want, she said 'Love Life,' a musical she didn't know well but was intrigued by because of its subject matter. (She and her husband had divorced when their son was 4, but had remained close and even traveled together.) Viertel told her yes, and joked that no one else would direct it anyway. 'I'm the only director stupid enough to take it on,' Clark said. In a total coincidence, Duke University asked her soon after whether she would be interested in spending a semester there directing a workshop of, yes, 'Love Life.' Now, she just had to find a way into the story. 'This style of musical is very much in my bones and in my blood, but what didn't make sense to me was the script,' Clark said. 'It just wasn't landing, and I don't want to spend any time in the theater if I'm not learning something about myself, or learning what it means to be a human being.' The key, for her, was in the opening scene, a magician's act that brings Sam and Susan onstage from the audience, forcing them together as a catalyst for their 150-year retrospective. If she replaced the magician with the two children, she thought, that could provide an emotional spine for the entire musical. 'Who has the most at stake for their parents to talk and learn how to communicate again?' Clark said. 'The children. Then it feels like we're watching two children who love both of their parents and want them not to get together again, but to get to the point where they could all go to Shake Shack together.' The script didn't resist her idea; after all, 'Love Life' ends with the children watching as Sam and Susan slowly, cautiously walk toward each other on a tightrope. Other changes that Clark has made are more practical: There isn't enough time to properly rehearse a madrigal number, so it's gone. And the book has been streamlined to bring the show down to about two hours, its pace inspired by the way someone might flip through a photo album. If Clark does her job well, she said, today's audience members will be just as inspired as Sondheim was in 1948. 'Hopefully more people will want to see it, want to hear it and want to do it,' she added. 'My goal is for people to go, 'Oh my gosh, where has this show been all my life?''
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
New York Theater to See Now: Isabelle Huppert, ‘Urinetown' and More
Let some brilliant theater artists — like Jeff Hiller in 'Urinetown,' Susannah Flood in 'Liberation' and Tonya Pinkins in 'My First Ex-Husband' — tell you a story this month. Here are 10 shows to tempt you, Off Broadway and beyond. If you are allergic to bathroom humor, Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann's Tony Award-winning musical satire probably is not for you. Winkingly Brechtian, with echoes of Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People,' it's set in a dystopia where private toilets are illegal and public facilities charge for use — a situation ripe for rebellion. Directed by Teddy Bergman ('KPOP') for New York City Center Encores!, this brief revival stars Jordan Fisher, Rainn Wilson, Keala Settle and Jeff Hiller. (Through Feb. 16, New York City Center) A marionette made of ice plays a wandering, melting, disappearing Oedipus accompanied by his daughter Antigone in this puppet piece by the French company Théâtre de l'Entrouvert, which uses bits of text from Henry Bauchau's novel 'Oedipus on the Road.' Conceived and directed by Élise Vigneron, whose interest in ephemerality has led her to work repeatedly with ice puppets, it is presented with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival as part of Basil Twist's Dream Music Puppetry program. Recommended for ages 11 and up. (Through March 2, Here) The New York Times once described Charlie Chaplin's longtime assistant, Toraichi Kono, as 'the keeper of his privacy.' An immigrant from Japan who made fleeting appearances in Chaplin films, this 'combination valet, bodyguard and chauffeur' is the title character of Philip W. Chung's historically based play, which follows Kono's fortunes as he is suspected of espionage and imprisoned in an internment camp during World War II. Jeff Liu directs the world premiere for Pan Asian Repertory Theater. (Through March 9, A.R.T./New York Theaters) This new two-hander by the Obie Award winner Samuel D. Hunter ('A Case for the Existence of God') stars Brian J. Smith and Paul Sparks as estranged brothers with different fathers, discrete wounds and far-flung lives — one in their Idaho hometown, the other in a city thousands of miles away. But they have a shared filial task: caring for their sick mother. Jack Serio ('Uncle Vanya') directs for Signature Theater. (Through March 16, Signature Theater) The Obie-winning playwright Rajiv Joseph ('Guards at the Taj') spent three years serving in the Peace Corps in Senegal. That country is the setting for his new thriller, about a Peace Corps volunteer who finds himself under the protection of a State Department operative as the year 2000 approaches. May Adrales directs this world premiere for Manhattan Theater Club. (Through March 23, New York City Center) The New Group can be relied on to sprinkle its shows with stars, and so it goes with this revival of Sam Shepard's 1977 Obie winner, a poetic tragicomedy about a family living the flip side of the American dream. Directed by Scott Elliott, it's led by Calista Flockhart as Ella Tate and Christian Slater as her drunken, combustible husband, Weston. Cooper Hoffman, whose father starred in Shepard's 'True West' on Broadway, plays their teenage son. (Through March 30, Pershing Square Signature Center) Bess Wohl, who so deftly traced an older woman's feminist awakening in her Broadway comedy, 'Grand Horizons,' here tells a mother-daughter story, stretching from Ohio in 1970, during the era of women's consciousness-raising groups, to a half-century later. In a world-premiere production for Roundabout Theater Company, Whitney White directs a cast that includes Betsy Aidem, Susannah Flood and Kristolyn Lloyd. The show contains nudity, and audience members are required to place their phones in locked pouches during the performance. (Through March 30, Laura Pels Theater) Rotating casts filled with boldface names are the lure for this collection of comic relationship stories written by Joy Behar, who performs them alongside Susie Essman, Tovah Feldshuh and Adrienne C. Moore through Feb. 23. Judy Gold, Susan Lucci, Tonya Pinkins and Cathy Moriarty take over from Feb. 26 to March 23, followed by Veanne Cox, Jackie Hoffman and Andrea Navedo, March 26 through April 20. Gina Gershon joins them from April 2 to April 20. (Manhattan Movement & Arts Center) The Irish dramatist Enda Walsh, a St. Ann's Warehouse favorite last seen there with his shattering 'Medicine' in 2021, returns with this fractured memory play, woven through with original music by Anna Mullarkey. Directed by Walsh for the Abbey Theater in Dublin, it stars Kate Gilmore in an acclaimed performance. Walsh, a Tony winner for the musical 'Once,' is drawn to explorations of abuse and its damages. This is one of those. (Feb. 15 through March 2, St. Ann's Warehouse) The letters of Mary Stuart — the 16th-century Scottish queen whose own cousin Elizabeth I of England ordered her beheaded — form the basis of this 90-minute monologue about a life full of royal plots and scheming, spoken on the eve of her execution. Starring Isabelle Huppert and directed by the avant-gardist Robert Wilson, this highly stylized production is the third time Huppert has starred in a show of Wilson's. Written by Darryl Pinckney, with a classical score by Ludovico Einaudi, it is performed in French with English supertitles. (Feb. 27 through March 2, NYU Skirball)
