Toasting Lear: The Young Producer’s Benefit

Photo: Elena Olivo

On the night of January 15, BAM celebrated the opening of Chichester Festival Theatre's lauded production of King Lear at the Harvey Theater, directed by Angus Jackson. The Young Producers, a group of young professionals who make up one of BAM's newest and most forward-thinking patron programs, celebrated as well. And it did so in style: the annual Young Producer's Benefit was a sleek, wine- and food-filled party with the cast and crew.

The night began with a performance of King Lear, starring Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee Frank Langella as the mad king and disgraced patriarch, one of the most coveted roles in theater. Moments after the actors took their bows, the crowd flooded into the Campbell Lobby for a special post-show reception. The cast and crew joined the celebration, with an English-themed food spread—complete with mini shepherd pies and single servings of fish and chips. In addition, Brooklyn Gin designed a specially themed cocktail for the night, and the lobby was lushly decorated by Bella Meyer and the design team at Fleurs Bella.

Top Ten BAM Blog Posts of 2013

By Robert Wood

Carl Einhorn and Karen Weiss in Paradise Now, Living Theatre, 1968.
Photo: Kenneth L. McLaren

For most respectable publications, the window for posting 2013-related top 10 lists closed a few weeks ago. But any blog representing the "home of adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas" is obligated to flout journalistic convention. Besides, the year would feel incomplete without at least a cursory look back at our year in self-publishing, so here, without further ado, are our top 10 most popular posts from 2013.

10. King of New York: Remembering Lou Reed at BAM

As we implied above, BAM has always committed to being a home for adventurous artists, and never has that mission excluded the chain-smoking, poker-faced, proto-punk-innovator set. Lou Reed, who died in October of last year and who performed at BAM frequently throughout the 90s, was an important part of that pantheon. Susan Yung remembered Reed in this lovely piece.

9. John Cassavetes: Criminal Minded

What’s cooler than being a pioneering director of American independent film? Being a pioneering director of American independent film who also steals people’s sweaters. Critic Pauline Kael had it coming, according to John Cassavetes, who was the subject of a retrospective at BAMcinématek in July. BAM’s own Nate Gelgud recreated the director’s sleight-of-hand vengeance in this comic.

8. BAM Illustrated: John Turturro Mid '80s Hat Trick

It’s John Turturro’s own fault that he’ll always be known as “The Jesus.” That’s what happens when you lick a bowling ball while wearing a purple onesie and it’s all caught on film. If Turturro’s other roles with the Coen Brothers—and to a large extent, Spike Lee as well—were no less iconic, they also overshadowed lesser known but equally fantastic turns in '80s films from Woody Allen, Susan Seidelman, and William Friedkin. BAM illustrator Nate Gelgud paid homage to these underrated roles in conjunction with Turturro’s stint in Ibsen’s The Master Builder.

NYC Porno

Puppies!

This week, Isabella Rossellini continues her one-woman monologue, Green Porno, about the fascinating and sometimes surprising mating rituals of animals, insects, and sea creatures. Inspired by her enthusiasm and our own love of animals, we at the BAM blog decided to look into the sexual antics of some of our local New York City fauna—critters we encounter (and in some cases, dread) on a regular basis.

Our NYC Porno is more Prospect Park than 1980s Times Square, and 100% safe for work, though you may never look at an adorable little French Bulldog in the same way.

If I were a pigeon...

• If I were a male, I’d bring my mate one stick, laying it in front of her, and she'd accept the stick. We'd repeat this, and build our nest.
• In courtship, I would strut around a prospective mate, and if a female approved, she’d put her beak inside mine.
• I would have no external sex organs, which makes it difficult to tell whether I’m male or female. During sex, I would ejaculate very quickly.

Happy Birthday, José James

We were lucky to have jazz crooner José James as one of the musical guests at BAM's annual Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a lively celebration of the great man that also featured remarks by activist Angela Davis, a surprise appearance by "Brooklyn Bill" DeBlasio and his wife Chirlane, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in rare form as MC, and others. It just so happens that James, who finished off his set with a lovely slow-rolling arrangement of Sam Cooke's anthem "Change Is Gonna Come," turns 36 today as well. Happy birthday, velvet-voiced one!

 

In Context: Green Porno

Green Porno runs at the BAM Fisher through January 25. Context is everything, so get even closer to Isabella Rossellini's kinky beasts and bugs in this curated selection of articles, audio, and video related to the show. For those of you who've already seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.

Billy Budd—The Far-Shining Sail

by Marina Harss

Photo: Richard Hubert Smith

In January 1949, Benjamin Britten, librettist Eric Crozier, and novelist EM Forster met at Britten’s home in Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast, to discuss ideas for a new opera, based on Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd. “Ben made a rough drawing of what he thought a three-masted schooner was like, going by what Melville had written,” Crozier recalled in a recent documentary. “That was the exact genesis of the opera.” The battleship, HMS Indomitable, with its various decks, cramped quarters, and maze of public and private spaces, contains the whole world of Billy Budd. It is a world of men; the absence of the fairer sex is striking. (Treble voices are supplied by kids playing the “powder-monkeys,” boys who carried gunpowder on warships.)

The Indomitable is a “seventy-four” (a ship with 74 guns), engaged in Britain’s wars against revolutionary France. The year is 1797. As the action begins, the men near enemy waters; tension is high, not only due to of the imminence of battle but also because of recent mutinies on Royal Navy ships (inspired, in part, by radical ideas from France). The naval officers keep a close watch, ready to sniff out the slightest hint of rebellion among the men. “Life’s not all play on a man-of-war,” an officer gruffly reminds them, whip at the ready, as they scrub the deck with holystones. The sailors moan their discontent in the haunting, chant-like chorus, “O heave, O heave away, O heave.” The sense of compulsion and cruelty is as heavy as their lament.

In Context: Billy Budd

Photo: Richard Hubert Smith

Billy Budd runs at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House from February 7—13. Context is everything, so get even closer to Glyndebourne Festival Opera's spectacular production with this curated selection of articles, videos, and original blog pieces related to the show. For those of you who've already seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.

In Context: King Lear

Photo: Johan Persson

King Lear runs at the BAM Harvey Theater through February 9. Context is everything, so get even closer to Frank Langella and the rest of the production with this curated selection of articles, videos, and original blog pieces related to the show. For those of you who've already seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.

BAM Blog Questionnaire: A Peek at The Pop Ups

by Jessica Goldschmidt

In preparation for this Saturday's BAMkids performance, Brooklyn "kindie" rocker Jacob Stein (half of the Grammy-nominated duo The Pop Ups) offers up a little insight into the band's clever lyrics, sparkling melodies, and groovin' drum lines (not to mention The Pop Ups' passion for Silver Glitter crayons and the guiding light that is Prince).

What are some of The Pop Ups  biggest musical influences?

We listen to a lot of 80s dance music, Prince, Chromeo, Paul Simon, loved that recent Daft Punk album, and early 90s hip-hop.

You talk a lot about color in your song “Box of Crayons.” What three colors would you use to describe your music?

Jason, who sings the song, is actually color blind, so it's quite an adventure figuring out what colors are what! That said, I'd have to go with Deep Purple, Silver Glitter, and Hot Hot Pink.

On Langella's Lear

by Brian Scott Lipton

Chu Omambala and Frank Langella. Photo: Johan Persson

It’s long been a truism in theatrical circles that every actor of a certain age considers his career
incomplete until he has played the title role in Shakespeare’s King Lear. Without question, the
Bard’s proud monarch is a banquet for every seasoned thespian to feast on. Now, Tony Award
winner Frank Langella tackles the role.

Similarly, many a great director, from John Houseman to Jonathan Miller, has put his own stamp on Lear. Now, Angus Jackson takes his turn with this classic play. His production arrives at the BAM Harvey Theater on January 7 for a five-week run after a month-long stint at England’s Chichester Festival.

“Angus Jackson’s excellent production becomes the theatrical equivalent of a pressure cooker, scalding in its intensity,” writes Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph. “Throughout, the play emerges with clarity and insight as well as dramatic power.”

“It’s a play I always admired, and connected with emotionally, from the first time I saw it with Robert Stephens at the Royal Shakespeare Company when I was a teenager. I even remember the standing ovation,” says Jackson. “Then, a few years ago I did a production of Bingo by Edward Bond at the Young Vic with Patrick Stewart. That play is a bit of a riff on Lear and I did a lot of research on Lear while doing it. It got me thinking about the themes of the play, especially how people abuse their power and then injustice occurs. Plus, I love these dark, epic plays with these very compromised characters whose fortunes keep changing. It’s like a roller-coaster ride.”