Around the Town
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 6:00 PM by Jaclyn Levin
(From Andre Poulin, TODAY Producer)
One of the privileges of living in the Big Apple and working on TODAY is having access to New York City’s spectacular cultural life. As a producer and someone who enjoys the arts, I’ve spent many an extraordinary night attending the best shows on Broadway and world class ballet and opera productions at Lincoln Center. The evening sometimes includes rushing out of the office and sprinting to the theater to catch an 8 o’clock curtain. A post-show dinner sometimes follows at one of the city’s great late night restaurants where friends and I will talk about what we’ve just seen. We don't always agree on a show’s merits. Everyone’s a critic you know!
Over the summer, I saw the TONY award winning actress and singer, Patti LuPone tear into the role of Mama Rose in a three-week run of a revival of the 1959 musical, GYPSY. For a third time, I saw IN THE HEIGHTS, an off-Broadway musical written by a 27 year old Dominican-Cuban man named Lin-Manuel Miranda. It’s headed for Broadway next spring. There was also a most unusual evening spent at a South Street Seaport venue called SPEIGELTENT where a show described as a cross between THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW meets CIRQUE DU SOLEIL is being performed. It’s called ABSINTHE and is not for the faint of heart. It closes September 30th.
Perhaps what stands out most was DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). It’s commonly referred to as THE RING CYCLE, WAGNER’S RING or simply THE RING. The Kirov Opera of St. Petersburg, Russia performed this Lincoln Center production. It’s a marathon effort to attend all four operas that make up THE RING – I saw it on four consecutive nights – roughly 15 hours worth of opera. It was at times daunting but more than anything, absolutely thrilling. The program notes say the opera is “arguably the longest and most elaborate successful work of musical theater in the Western tradition.” Sounds good to me. And oh, by the way – Wagner wrote THE RING over the course of 26 years.
But I digress – The 2007 Fall season is firing up in the Big Apple. On Tuesday night, September 11th I attended the opening night performance of an opera written by none other than Toni Morrison, recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. It’s called MARGARET GARNER with a libretto by Morrison and music composed by Richard Danielpour. Based on a true story, it’s the wrenching tale of a slave named Margaret Garner. The program notes tell us that on January 28, 1856, Margaret Garner, 22, was facing recapture and return to slavery when she killed her two-year-old daughter, Mary and attempted to kill her other three children to prevent them from being re-enslaved.
Toni Morrison and Richard Danielpour
Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 novel, BELOVED was inspired by the Garner story. New York City Opera at Lincoln Center will perform GARNER through September 29th.
Just recently, the former Catwoman herself opened at the Café Carlyle. Eartha Kitt’s “voice is in full growl,” says New York Times critic, Stephen Holden. I was there last Thursday night, September 20 and heard that growl for myself. The singer also purrs. At one point she tells the audience “I may be 80, but I’m still burning.” Who’s going to argue that point? Not me!!
That’s it for now, but there's much more to come.
