Buke and Gass keep their feet busy, too. (Photos © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Plus a PREVIEW OF THEIR NEW SONG!

It’s been more than a year since Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?  mentioned Buke and Gass. We’re overdue.

Arone Dyer on buke.

Maybe you’ve already noticed that there’s something different about this intense duo — their name. They’re now Buke and Gase, in what appears to be a slightly sad surrender to phonetics.

For those who have been paying close attention, the morphing began late last fall when the band posted this brief, cryptic bulletin on its website:

October 26 – Just played a show in Canada and our name is morphing.

But the reality didn’t sink in until we saw announcements for the band’s May 4 appearance at The National‘s Bryce and Aaron Dessner-curated Crossing Brooklyn Ferry series at BAM. We thought somebody had made a typo. On further investigation, we discovered the band had indeed changed the spelling.

Aron Sanchez on gass.

Although the pronunciation of the band name was easy to remember once you knew what it stood for — baritone ukulele=Buke, while guitar+bass=Gass — it appears the second half of the name was too often the butt of jokes rhyming with ass. So Arone Dyer, who plays the buke, and Aron Sanchez, on gass, gave in and changed the spelling.

But they didn’t change the sound, as you’ll hear on this great preview track from their next album, which they hope to release in September.

If you can’t make it to Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, or you just want more Buke and Gase, check out the lineup they’ve curated (they’re not listed as performing, just curating) through May 15 with Terry Riley‘s son Gyan Riley, at The Stone, John Zorn‘s music venue in Manhattan’s East Village.

The 66th annual Tony Award nominations are out this morning, with a movie remake, Once, topping the list. But another film takeoff, the just-opened Leap of Faith, also got one in the Best Musical category.

There’s lots of other news to report, including the snubbing of big stars Bernadette Peters and Ricky Martin and the revamped Spider-Man, but we’ll leave that to other reports.

The full list is here.

New York Daily News theater critic Joe Dziemianowicz‘s report is here.

New York Times ArtsBeat blog report here.

Billboard’s take here.

Playbill.com offers coverage here and reaction here.

We told you Condola Rashad was great! Now the Tony Awards panel backs us up by nominating her as best featured actor in a play

Condola Rashad outside the Cort Theatre after a performance of Stick Fly. (Photo © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

The Alicia Keys-produced play Stick Fly hung on at Broadway’s Cort Theatre for just 93 performances last winter. The play may have fallen a bit flat, despite every promotional effort. But one member of the cast made a big impression that has lasted well beyond that last performance on Feb. 26.

Condola Rashad (yes, the daughter of The Cosby Show alum Phylicia Rashad and former NFL wide receiver Ahmad Rashad) was that show’s secret weapon, as Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? told you back in December.

On Tuesday morning, she was nominated as Best Featured Actor in a Play.

So she’s crossed the first hurdle. The Tony nominators have joined with WYMMWIG? in recognizing this young superstar. Now, Tony judges, it’s time to vote for her and give her the award she earned and so richly deserved.

Her reaction was sweet and humble, as you’d expect from the sassy-smart young actress. She took to Twitter to tell her fans:

Funny fact about Condola: She never watched The Cosby Show when she was growing up. “I was on the set!” she says in this interview with The Associated Press:

The first night of the two-night Benefit for Lucinda’s Kids was a great night of almost 7 hours of entertainment on Sunday, April 29 at The Bowery Electric, with a great crowd and a fantastic lineup of artists, including Marah, Jesse Malin, Jimmy Gnecco, Willie Nile (who almost missed the show because of a delayed flight from Chicago), Jim Boggia, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Michelle Casillas (Ursa Minor), Mystie and more. As of Sunday night, there were still tickets left for the second night of the benefit to raise money for the trust fund that will benefit the two teenagers left behind when their mom, super music fan Lucinda Gallagher, committed suicide last December.

Here’s the Monday lineup.

Monday, April 30, doors at 7 p.m.
Tommy Stinson (The Replacements)
HR (Bad Brains)
Alan Vega (Suicide)
James Maddock
Aaron Lee Tasjan

Tickets are $20 and available here.

And here’s what you missed on Sunday.

Jesse Malin

Many, many more photos after the jump.

Jesse Malin

Jesse Malin

Jesse Malin

Michelle Casillas of Ursa Minor and Jesse Malin

Jesse Malin

Jesse Malin

Marah's Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith

Christine Smith on the drum kit.

Marah

Christine Smith on keyboard.

Dave Bielanko

Willie Nile

Willie Nile

Willie Nile

Aaron Lee Tasjan

Michelle Casillas

Dave Milone and Jimmy Gnecco

Jimmy Gnecco

Jim Boggia

Mystie and friends

Marah: Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith perform an acoustic number mid-crowd at the Benefit for Lucinda's Kids at The Bowery Electric in Manhattan's East Village on Sunday, April 29. (Photo © 2012, Steven P. Marsh)

Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith talk about Mountain Minstrelsy, living (almost) off the grid and whether Serge Bielanko will rejoin Marah

How many lives has the rock band Marah had?

It’s hard to say, but it’s one of those bands that has survived surviving changing lineups, internal strife, and wildly fluctuating stylistic directions, all the while being encouraged and praised by celebrities.

Marah with flugelhorn at The Bowery Electric on April 29. (Photo © 2012, Steven P. Marsh)

Started in Philadelphia, Marah quickly became notable for the stage antics of its core duo, brothers Dave and Serge Bielanko from Philadelphia suburb Conshohocken. They had a loose but seemingly perfectly choreographed stage presence together. Their sound, early on, featured rootsy, Americana-flavored rock and roll with a particular treat for anyone who has an affinity for Philadelphia: jangling banjos played in the style of Philadelphia Mummers Parade string bands.

A band version of Marah at Bowery Electric in 2010. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

This is a band that novelist Stephen King in 2005 dubbed “probably the best rock band in America that nobody knows.” They’ve also been the darlings of writers Nick Hornby (who did a tour with the band) and Sarah Vowell.

It’s a band that became pals with Bruce Springsteen and got him to sing and play on one of their albums. And Steve Earle liked them enough to add them to the roster of his now defunct record label.

It’s also a band whose list of former members on Wikipedia at this writing tops out at 20 — a lot for the 19-year-old a band, which generally has performed as a quartet or quintet.

In working there, they’ve discovered something magical, something that has returned the band to its roots in a way, and turned it in a new direction in another way.

Dave and Christine are working with a handful of local musicians in their Pennsylvania hideaway on a project they call Mountain Minstrelsy. (Check it out on Facebook, too.) They’re holed up in an old church that they’re using as a recording studio.

Basically, one of their musical pals in Pennsylvania showed them a book of collected lyrics, “Mountain Minstrelsy (as sung in the Backwoods Settlements, Hunting Cabins and Lumber Camps in the “Black Forest” of Pennsylvania, 1840 – 1923)” by Henry W. Shoemaker. It struck a chord, literally and figuratively, with Dave and Christine, so they set out to build an album around their new music for the found lyrics. They’ve been recording the new-old songs with some of their friends and neighbors for an album they hope to release late this year.

After the jump, read the full interview, plus a video of Dave, Christine and friends in a Mountain Minstrelsy rehearsal.

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?:

I’ve watched Marah from pretty early in the band’s career. It’s evolved quite a lot in 19 years. To some fans, I guess, it seems like a long, strange road, from roots rock in Philadelphia to folk music in the woods of Pennsylvania. How would you describe the band’s evolution? I mean, Marah has always seemed like an urban band, and you spent much of your time in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Tylersville, Pa., (that’s where your farmhouse is, right?) must be a very different world. What’s your connection to the area? It sounds like a very un-modern life out there — rustic farmhouse, a phone for incoming calls only, etc. Is this a deliberate move to change your lives or is it an economic necessity?

Dave Bielanko:

From early on in my teenage years I have traveled to a hunting cabin in central Pa. Our band would often set up temporary recording situations here to do overdubs for our albums here as well. This place always seemed like an escape for me, a place to flee to when life got too ridiculous…walk in the woods, build a fire, etc. We finished the “Life Is A Problem” record here too but that time we never left. As far as Marah is concerned, I tend to think we woulda made “sense of place” oriented music regardless of where we were plopped down on the planet, the urban stuff kinda correlating with our residence at the moment. But that said, from our first record “Lets Cut the Crap…” traditional American (country, folk,bluegrass, jazz) was a pretty obvious fascination….in fact a lotta people called that record “Alternative Country” which freaked us out pretty good at the time. We consequently embraced our “R&R” leanings a bit more after that. Rock & Roll seemed like a bit of a broader of an umbrella to try and get under…hey look, there’s Little Richard!

WYMM:

Do you and Christine have “day jobs” or are you scraping by with Marah music? I gather Christine is teaching piano, too. Anything else, if you want to talk about

DB:

Christine is independently wealthy, so money has never been an issue. I don’t ask questions. We throw a lotta dinner parties, I will say that.

Christine Smith:

Yeah, we basically live off the royalties from this big hit single I had back in the 80’s. I also invented the “Post-It.”

Mountain Minstrelsy Project

WYMM:

I’m fascinated with your Mountain Minstrelsy project. When and how did you come across the Shoemaker book that you’re basing this project on?

DB:

Jimmy James, who is playing the stand-up bass on this stuff, had the book. He gave it to me one snowy night last winter and I think I was just genuinely blown away by the fact it even existed ….I borrowed it, I still have it….I’ll have to remember to give it back to him when the album is finished….it’s the 3rd edition.

WYMM:

Why are you doing it? (I’d love to hear more about your rediscovery of recorded music via your purchase of a record player.)

DB:

Why, that’s a great question. I’m not sure I am able to be completely honest but I’ll try:

1) because it’s there to be done

2) because it’s nice to put a little distance between yourself and your own past sometimes

3) because I really want to be around smart, kind, egoless, talented people right now and hang out in a church

4) because I really, really love the songs that have revealed themselves….they also say that on your deathbed you’re more likely to regret the things you didn’t do a whole lot more than the things you did

I can also add that “Mountain Minstrelsy” was originally designed to be only a short, small, fun project to get the church studio sussed out before beginning our next original record, but we got all caught up in it. Now we’re on a mission to make a great record out of it…I think we can, I think we are.

More on the record player at the end….

CS:

I feel like this project has put us more in touch with the people and history of Pennsylvania, past and present. It has given us a tremendous sense of place and community – friends, neighbors, families…people of all ages around here have been so enthusiastic and supportive of our project, and we are definitely feeling that positive energy.

WYMM:

Who came up with the idea of taking a leap from the book to a recording? And why? It seems a little bit like the ongoing Woody Guthrie projects crossed with “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” How do you guys see it?

DB:

Me and Christine came up with the idea of making this record. I see it as a relevant way to do something in music with a bit more purpose beyond “self promotion.” I’m not saying that this will be a history lesson, but I think it may kickstart peoples imagination a little, get you thinking about the role music played in people’s lives before it became a “career opportunity”….I also think that our “rule-less” approach to recording these songs will lead to a very unique, very honest record that may surprise a lot of people who might be expecting something more akin to a Civil War reenactment…I think this may feel more like a cool, spooky, pretty, slightly more traditional R&R record that falls perfectly in line with our existing albums.

WYMM:

What appeals to you about this music?

DB:

Simply the fact that it’s a “ghost world” – an admittedly “inaccurate” collection of song lyrics/fragments recollected (to the best of their ability) by the failing memories of old folks a hundred years ago. Henry Shoemaker, the collector, felt like he was the last person who even cared about any of this stuff, and here we are a hundred years past that and I’m suddenly intimately involved in it…I like the parallels. I’ve always been interested in history.

BTW, Shoemaker gets criticized a lot for being an overly romantic, nostalgic, fabricator. They say he filled in a lot of blanks and took liberties in his writing…we all liked that aspect as well.

Last thing, I gotta say that this process has been at least as challenging for us as that of making original albums. We are trying to capture an “atmosphere” that we feel the book contains…salvage whatever we can of the existing words, then rewrite, then make them sound like us, then create music that feels appropriate, then record versions that feel unique to the way we play music etc….it’s been a lotta work, but different, ya know, exciting.

WYMM:

What do you think you’re bringing to the table, what contributions do you hope to make?

DB:

Well certainly nothing that we could possibly judge in our lifetimes, but that is the path of folk music, keep the ball rolling, whisper down the lane…time will sort it out. It’s our only wish that the music becomes “music” again…today it’s just old words in a dusty library book. We wanna make it available to at least be considered (and then possibly be played really loud in cars.)

CS:

The process of adapting lyrics and writing new music for these ‘lost songs’ has been a lot of fun. They’re great story songs that speak through all the archetypes of humankind, embodying all the emotions and circumstances of the human condition. Because of that, I feel the songs will always be relevant…timeless.

WYMM:

How did you find the players for this project? Are they locals? I particularly want to know who your fiddler is. You identify him only as Gus on the website. Is he really 8? He’s pretty amazing.

DB:

Gus is just Gus…like Slash is Slash, like Sting is Sting. The players all live in central Pennsylvania but were chosen for their unique individual talents. For example, Kai Shaft who plays wicked banjo is a professor of folk studies and had wisdom and ideas and input that me and Christine needed to hear before we could even start getting our heads around making this into an album. Jimmy seems to us like he just stepped out of the damn book so he was in right off the bat. Chris Rattie played drums on tour with Marah and has become a very close and trusted musical friend… and Gus simply represents the future of music to all of us right now. He is a very badass, young fiddle player without fear or expectations or ego or any other weird stuff that life shoots you full of as you proceed. He also agreed to be paid in Snickers bars and Star Wars men, so, ya know, ka-ching.

Technology and recording

WYMM:

What’s the role of technology in this recording? I gather you’re shying away from Pro Tools and other computer magic. Talk about the importance of that and the difficulty of avoiding it. Talk a little about the process of recording in a church.

DB:

I can only speak for myself but I (at least temporarily) have lost the ability to really “perform” in front of a computer. I know that it’s only a side effect of my personal musical beginnings (making records on tape recorders) but it is what it is…the computer makes anything seem possible, which in turn makes me feel lost and bored.

Tape recording songs is very exciting…there are scary moments, crazy tension, then big rewarding moments that make it all seem worth while. Once something is on tape it kind of dictates what needs to follow…it points towards the end of the song. The computer points aimlessly into an infinite abyss of possibility, which inevitably leads to the pub, for people like me anyway.

CS:

Without computers, the music just absolutely sounds so much better….alive and real and true. And with limited tracks, you are forced to choose only what really needs to be recorded, and to track as many instruments at once…which means playing together live more often. And isn’t that a good thing!?

WYMM:

Do you have a target release date for this album? Are you going to self-release?

DB:

Dunno, October? Everyone wants it to be released on our humble little Valley Farm Songs label but ya never know, maybe we’ll need someone else’s help? We’ll see…We already have 372 Facebook fans so it’s obviously blowing the fuck up ; )

CS:

October seems right. Hopefully two records. I’m all for Valley Farm Songs, all the way.

The end of rock and roll for Marah?

WYMM:

Does the Mountain Minstrelsy project mark the end of the rock and roll era for Marah? Or is it a detour? Or do you think it’s just being absorbed into your musical world to become a part of your overall sound?

DB:

End of R&R era? I hope not. It’s all just more music that has moved through our world as we continue along. I imagine that when this is over we’ll prolly wanna play more electric band music for a while…we’ll see.

CS:

I agree with Dave, who’s still debating whether or not to include any electric guitars on the Mountain Minstrelsy record. Rock n Roll will never die!

WYMM:

What’s next for Marah? Is there another rock record coming? Where do you see the band going?

DB:

Yeah, seems like there is 2 records happening together, so when Mountain Minstrelsy is finished we’ll probably just keep working and finish our new songs as well, maybe even release ‘em together?

Where’s Serge?

WYMM:

What about your brother, Serge? I know he rejoined the band for the Spanish tour last year. Will he be playing with you again? He’s living nearby, right?

DB:

Nah, we played some beautiful shows together over there in Spain but he has walked away from all that again. It’s a terrible shame (to me.) I don’t think we’ll see him playing music anymore. I really don’t know why.

WYMM:

Does the celebrity of having Bruce Springsteen sing on one of your records and having Nick Hornby and Stephen King praise your band and your music in writing have any effect on you? Is that a meaningful thing for Marah?

DB:

Bruce and Nick are really cool people that we got to know personally so that was awesome…great people. Stephen King I never met, so he still seems like a hologram to me, but I have read so much of his writing and like it so much I kinda feel like I know him…. he is definitely in my top 3 “would love to meet” list. Maybe someday…

WYMM:

Anything else on your mind? Share it, please!

DB:

Oh, the record player thing…. I found an old record player at a yard sale 2 years ago, I also bought “The In Crowd” by The Ramsey Lewis Trio there for $.25. Suddenly I realized that I hadn’t really listened to music for many years…one thing led to another and now our record player is the hardest working machine in America. Polkas, Waltzes, Milt Jackson, Mambos, Bo Diddley, the Mummers, Coltrane, Mingus, Marlene Dietrich, Country Blues, Russian Gypsy guitar, whatever…all night, every night…no TV, no Facebook. It’s a real joy and I’d seriously recommend it to anyone who has grown tired of watching “Storage Wars.”

CS:

Hunting for records in thrift stores and yard sales is great fun, and we’ve turned quite a lot of our friends into vinyl junkies too. Now we swap records and even hang out listening together too. I think the best musical experiences are shared – whether it’s listening or making music together.

Daniel Breaker and his crew at Joe's Pub. (Photos 2012, Steven P. Marsh)

Broadway star spices up his elegant cabaret set with help from fab up-and-comer Jo Lampert and Broadway vet Morgan James

The inimitable Daniel Breaker at Joe's Pub.

We’re hoping Daniel Breaker is going to be a regular on the Joe’s Pub stage. His performance there Sunday night, April 22 — his second cabaret show there — showcase the winning singer/actor even better than the first. He seemed more comfortable in his role as a front man, and less like an actor putting on a show.

Jo Lampert kills it at Joe's Pub, with drummer Christian Cassan in the background.

With the help of a dozen or so musical compatriots — including drummer Christian Cassan and music director/guitarist Jon Spurney from his time in the hit musical “Passing Strange” — Breaker put on a great show.

He sang original and classic cabaret numbers, and even dipped into rock with Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” charming the crowd all evening.

Breaker’s special guest vocalists once again gave him a run for his money. In Breaker’s last show at Joe’s, guest Condola Rashad  threatened to steal the spotlight altogether with her amazing power and charming stage persona.

Breaker clearly didn’t feel threatened. He chose equally intense guests for this show. Jo Lampert, who not long ago was a production assistant at Joe’s Pub and who was involved in the Public Theater’s incarnation of “Passing Strange,” blew the doors off with her rendition of Beyonce‘s “Halo,” and also filled in superbly on backing vocals.

Morgan James, currently in the cast of "Godspell" on Broadway, at Joe's Pub.

Morgan James, who’s in the ensemble with “Godspell” on Broadway, also did a great job.

Kelvin Dinkins Jr. and William Jackson Harper (a must-see in our book after his amazing work “The Total Bent” at the Public Theater) helped out on backing vocals.

Marah: Christine Smith and Dave Bielanko

In recent years, the wild, Philadelphia-born rock band Marah has stripped down. Essentially, it’s now just Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith at the core, performing as a duo at time and recruiting bandmates for bigger shows.

After a stint in Brooklyn, they’ve have moved into an old farmhouse in the wilds of central Pennsylvania, with a phone line for incoming calls only. They’ve been working on a couple of records, about which more in our next post.

But for now, let’s focus on this week. Marah is coming out of wilderness to do a few shows, one of which is this Sunday, April 29, at The Bowery Electric at 327 Bowery in Manhattan.

They’re performing on the first night of two-evening benefit concert for a friend who took her own life last year and left two teenage children behind.

Marah to play at Benefit for Lucinda’s Kids

It looks like this benefit will be a real blast, with a lot of other amazing artists.

It’s all to raise money for the children of Lucinda Gallagher, a 37-year-old super music fan from Hoboken who took her life in December.

In an exclusive Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? interview (which we’ll share fully in our next post), Christine spoke about Marah’s connection with Gallagher:

Lucinda was part of a close community of friends, musicians and music lovers. Sadly, she took her own life last December leaving behind two young teenagers who are both gifted budding musicians. 100% of the proceeds will be placed into a trust for the children. Our friend Harry Greenberger asked us to do this benefit and we are very glad to be a part of it with Jesse Malin and other great artists.

Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith at The Bowery Electric. (Photo © 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

Aside from Marah and Malin, performers include HR (Bad Brains), Tommy Stinson (The Replacements / Guns N Roses), Alan Vega (Suicide), Jimmy Gnecco & Dave Milone (Ours), James Maddock, Willie Nile, Jim Boggia, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Petter Ericson Stakee (Alberta Cross) as well as special guests.

Click here to listen to Greenberger and Tasjan talk with WBJB-FM host Jeff Raspe (aka UnkaJeff) about Lucinda and the benefit.

An auction and raffle are also part of the proceedings, offering items donated by Mary Louise Parker, Fender, Bob Gruen, Danny Clinch, The Morrison Hotel Gallery and others.

New World Stages marquee, 340 West 50th Street, Manhattan. (Photo courtesy New World Stages)

‘No conversations’ about staging the Kander and Ebb musical, says NWS managing director

When we reported the news that one of the producers of The Scottsboro Boys publicly proclaimed the show was returning soon to an NYC stage, Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? offered it with a grain of salt.

It’s a good thing, because the the people at New World Stages, the house specifically named by the producer, are denying shooting down the idea — at least for now.

Michael Coco, NWS managing director, got back to us with this response:

Currently, all five theaters at NWS are filled with successful productions all with open ended contracts.  We do not anticipate any changes in our programming in the near future.

We followed up with Coco on this to clarify further. Naturally, with a full house, Coco needs to avoid offending producers of his existing shows while looking ahead to the inevitable need for change. So we asked whether he had ever spoken to the producer in question, or anyone else connected with The Scottsboro Boys, about such a move. Coco replied:

Not intending to say that anyone was being untruthful nor if they have the intentions to speak to me in the near future, but I have not had any conversations about The Scottsboro Boys playing at New World Stages at any time in the future.

Is that the definitive answer? Hard to say, but it seems like we won’t be seeing John Kander and Fred Ebb’s fascinating, unsettling musical comedy about a key moment in the history of American race relations on the boards at NWS soon. (It was one of Kander and Ebb’s final collaborations, and didn’t make it to Broadway until six years after Ebb’s death.) If you have a real hankering to see it again, you can catch it on the West Coast over the next couple of months, first in San Diego and then in San Francisco.

We know what the producer said, and, while we didn’t immediately recognize him, we have confirmed his identity beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Was his statement about opening at NWS an empty boast? Was he getting ahead of himself? Did something go wrong? Was he mistaken about where the show will be mounted?

Stay tuned for more. We’ve reached out to the producer three times, and have also requested comment from Boneau/Bryan-Brown, who repped The Scottsboro Boys. UPDATE: BBB responded: “Sorry, we are not associated with the show at this time.” We’ve also reached out to the production team through West Coast venues where the show’s being presented next. Neither has responded so far.  Still no word from the producer.

New York’s Public Theater has just announced its schedule for the 2012-2013 theater season.

We’re particularly excited to see the world premiere of  David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s musical Here Lies Love on the bill and are looking forward to the New York premiere of the musical Giant, based on Edna (Show Boat) Ferber’s novel with lyrics and music by Michael John LaChiusa.

But then there’s Colman Domingo‘s play Wild With Happy getting its world premiere, too!

See for yourself, after the jump.

“These plays, explosive and lyrical, raw and sophisticated, by young artists and masters, are a rich expression of the huge range of theater that finds a home at The Public.”
- Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director

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NEW MUSICALS
New York Premiere
GIANT
Book by Sybille Pearson
Music and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
Based on the novel by Edna Ferber
Directed by Michael Greif
Choreography by Alex Sanchez
October 26-December 2, 2012

Based on the classic novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber, GIANT spans generations in an epic chronicle of Texas, our “Heartbreak Country.”  Amid a tumultuous culture of big-business greed, racial bigotry, and unyielding family allegiance, a cattleman and ranch heir, his East Coast sophisticate wife, their family and friends – as well as their enemies – embrace and confront the joys and sorrows that loom as large as the landscape of America’s Lone Star State. GIANT is a co-production with Dallas Theater Center.

World Premiere
HERE LIES LOVE
Concept and Lyrics by David Byrne
Music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim
Directed by Alex Timbers
Choreography by Annie-B Parson
April 2-May 5, 2013

Within a throbbing dance club environment, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim deconstruct the astonishing journey of Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos and her meteoric rise and subsequent descent into infamy. This wholly immersive spectacle combines disco beats, adrenaline-fueled choreography, and a remarkable 360-degree scenic and video environment – to go beyond Imelda’s near-mythic obsession with shoes and explore true questions of power and responsibility.

Directed by two-time Obie Award-winner Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Peter and the Starcatcher), HERE LIES LOVE is a unique theatrical experience that raises the pulses and quickens the blood.

WORLD PREMIERE PLAYS

World Premiere
WILD WITH HAPPY
By Colman Domingo
Directed by Robert O’Hara

October 9-November 11, 2012

Colman Domingo, star of Passing Strange, explores the surreal, bizarre, and outrageous comedy that lies in dealing with death and healing. WILD WITH HAPPY follows the journey of a young man named Gil who plans to scatter his mother’s ashes in the place where she was the most happy. The Tony Award nominee is also featured in this four person, multi-character, wild magic ride of a play.

World Premiere
SORRY
Play Three of The Apple Family Plays
Written and Directed by Richard Nelson

October 30-November 18, 2012
Opening Night: November 6, 2012
Public Lab

A year after Sweet and Sad, the Apple family again share a meal in Rhinebeck, as they sort through personal and political feelings of loss and confusion on the morning of the day the country will choose the next president. Like the first two plays, Sweet and Sad and That Hopey Changey Thing, SORRY will open on the day that it is set, November 6, 2012 – Election Day.

World Premiere
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAN
By Nathan Englander
Directed by Barry Edelstein

November 7-December 9, 2012

Best-selling author Nathan Englander (What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank) adapts this warm and deeply moving new play from his acclaimed short story of the same name. Set in a Soviet prison in 1952, Stalin’s secret police have rounded up twenty-six writers, the giants of Yiddish literature in Russia. As judgment looms, a twenty-seventh suddenly appears: Pinchas Pelovits, unpublished and unknown. Baffled by his arrest, he and his cellmates wrestle with the mysteries of party loyalty and politics, culture and identity, and with what it means to write in troubled times.

World Premiere
DETROIT 67
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah

February 26-March 17, 2013
Public Lab

It’s 1967 in Detroit and Motown music gets the party started. Chelle and her brother Lank transform their basement into an after-hours joint to make ends meet. But when a mysterious woman winds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over much more than family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and the flames of the ’67 Detroit riots engulf them all. DETROIT 67 is presented in association with the Classical Theatre of Harlem.

English Language Premiere
NEVA
Written and Directed by Guillermo Calderón
Translation by Andrea Thome

March 1-March 31, 2013

In a politically charged, haunting yet humorous meditation on theater and the revolutionary impulse, Chilean writer-director Guillermo Calderón’s NEVA tells the story of Anton Chekhov’s widow, the actress Olga Knipper, who arrives in a dimly lit rehearsal room in St. Petersburg in the winter of 1905.  Calderón savagely examines the relationship between theater and historical context in this ominous and tightly crafted work that allows a palpable terror to creep through the theater walls.

World Premiere
OLD FASHIONED PROSTITUTES
(A TRUE ROMANCE)
Written, Directed, and Designed by Richard Foreman

April 30-June 2, 2013

Snapshots from an enigmatic fairy-tale in which Suzie, the elusive coquette, brings Samuel to his knees – from where he worships a life he only half understands. OLD FASHIONED PROSTITUTES (A TRUE ROMANCE)  is an expressionistic chamber-play that twists emotional heartache into a landscape of continual mental invention, marking the return to theater of a celebrated artist who the New York Times has dubbed “the Godfather of the American avant-garde.” Presented in association with Ontological-Hysteric Theater.

MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT

RICHARD III
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Amanda Dehnert

Touring the 5 Boroughs: July 17-August 5, 2012
At The Public: August 7-26, 2012

One of Shakespeare’s most charismatic villains cuts a scorched-earth swath through the politicos, power-mongers, and even family members who stand between him and the crown.  But before King Richard III can enjoy the fruits of his ill-gotten gain, something stirs that freezes him in his tracks: conscience.

This reinvention of Joseph Papp’s Mobile Shakespeare program—the original impulse of the New York Shakespeare Festival that would grow over decades into Shakespeare in the Park and The Public Theater—takes professional Shakespeare for free to prisons, homeless shelters, centers for the elderly, and other community venues throughout the five boroughs before playing at The Public for a limited run.

The Mobile Shakespeare Unit is made possible with the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.  Additional support is provided by Bloomberg.

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Pictured (from top): Natalie Cortez and Matt Doyle by Karen Almond; David Byrne by Simon Luethi; Colman Domingo by Joseph Moran; Laila Robins, J. Smith-Cameron, and Maryann Plunkett by Joan Marcus; Nathan Englander by Juliana Sohn; Dominique Morisseau by Joseph Moran; NEVA original production, courtesy of Guillermo Calderón; Richard Foreman by Joseph Moran.

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The cast of The Scottsboro Boys.

BREAKING NEWS: New World Stages reacts. Click HERE.

UPDATED: An earlier version of this post conflated the Broadway show where this news was overheard with the source’s current Broadway credits. This update clarifies the source’s credits and reflects that Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? has now reached out to New World Stages and the producer for comment.

Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? has heard an interesting bit of theater gossip. We’re not generally given to reporting gossip, but the source of this one seems impeccable.

At intermission during the matinee performance of Leap of Faith on Broadway Saturday, April 7, a man greeted some friends near the bar. We couldn’t help but hear him reveal to his friend that he’s a Broadway producer. We didn’t immediately recognize him, but he mentioned that he’s producing Clybourne Park, a straight play now on Broadway, as well as a current Broadway musical comedy.

As the conversation went on, the subject of the short-lived Kander and Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys,came up. It turns out the guy also was a producer of that provocative, somewhat unsettling minstrel-style musical about an infamous racist incident involving accusations of rape by a white girl against nine black teenage boys in 1931.

“It’s coming back, soon, to New World Stages,” he said with obvious pride. Lately, New World is where Broadway shows that, for one reason or another are no longer viable in a Broadway house, take on new life. Rent was revived there, Avenue Q and Million Dollar Quartet live on there. And soon, it seems, The Scottsboro Boys will find new life there, too.

We didn’t recognize the producer who was doing all the talking. T-+here are only one or two producers whose images who are seared in our memory, including Elizabeth McCann and Steve Klein, both of whom were involved with Passing Strange. But a few minutes of research on IBDB.com and Google Images helped us figure out that the guy was, indeed, a producer of the shows in question. So we’re guessing he knows what he’s talking about.

Scottsboro got good reviews in its off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre. (Full disclosure: Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? is friend and huge fan of Colman Domingo, one of its stars.) It took us a bit of time to get past our feeling that it was somehow wrong to laugh at such a serious true story from the sad history of race relations in the United States. But once we set that aside and got into the spirit of the show, we really enjoyed it. But others in our audience, including a black couple we encountered nearby after the show, left feeling more uncomfortable than entertained.

The show fell flat when it moved to Broadway, running for just 29 previews and 49 regular  performances in the fall of 2010. The feelings of discomfort dogged it from the beginning of its run, and the show drew protesters who claimed it was racist. It also earned 12 Tony Award nominations and gained some rabid fans who continue to beat the drum for its return.

The Scottsboro Boys hasn’t disappeared. It got an extended run in Philadelphia earlier this year, and is set to begin performances April 29 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Calif. And it’s scheduled to play at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco starting June 21.

Colman Domingo, John Cullum (seated) and Forrest McClendon.

Starring stage and TV veteran John Cullum as well as the fabulous  Domingo, who achieved a great deal of exposure in “Passing Strange,” the show tackled the serious subject in a rather comical light. And it left audiences feeling more than a little uncomfortable about the urge to laugh at what was essentially a horrifying subject.

We’ve emailed the producer and the folks at New World Stages for comment. Stay tuned!

Wild Flag at Webster Hall in New York City on April 1, 2012. From left, Rebecca Cole, Mary Timony, Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein. (Photos 2012, Steven P. Marsh)

Wild Flag is an all-female supergroup whose members are drawn from three ’90s bands — Sleater-Kinney, Helium and The Minders. But thanks to her incredible stage presence (and her seeming ubiquity as a result of her cult hit cable TV show “Portlandia”)  guitarist Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney), was the one who really owned the stage at Webster Hall in Manhattan on April Fool’s Day.

Carrie Brownstein, with Janet Weiss on drums.

Brownstein shares lead vocals in Wild Flad with Mary Timony (the Lolita-esque former frontwoman of Helium). But only Brownstein behaved like a rock star onstage. She pranced, jumped and stretched like a cat (not much purring, though, as her vocal delivery was aggressive) throughout the band’s tight, well-paced set. Despite being encumbered by her guitar for most of the evening, Brownstein, with her lithe figure, managed to evoke Mick Jagger with her moves.

That’s not to say that the other three were slacking. Timony, keyboard player Rebecca Cole (The Minders) and drummer Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney) each held up their end of the bargain quite well.

Wild Flag

It didn’t take Wild Flag long to run through its repertoire. The band has released just one album, whose songs, however spectacular in recorded form, sound even better live. We were having too much fun listening and watching to keep a set list, but it didn’t appear that the band offered any new or unrecorded tunes. And tunes from band members’ previous bands were off limits, too. (Though it would have been delicious to hear them tackle Sleater-Kinney’s “I Wanna Be Your Mary Timony,” given her presence in Wild Flag.

Carrie Brownstein performs Fugazi's "Margin Walker."

Wild Flag treated the audience to an encore that dipped into rock ‘n roll history with three covers.

They kicked off with the 1978 Rolling Stones tune “Beast of Burden,” turning surprising to Timony for the lead vocals. (Perhaps it was a decision to play against type, but we still felt the song would have been much better with Brownstein on the vocal.)

Next came the rock ‘n roll chestnut “Do You Wanna Dance,” written by Bobby Freeman and released by him in 1958. While the song’s been recorded by many bands, including the Beach Boys, Wild Flag offered a pretty faithful copy of the Ramones’ take on the bouncy tune.

For the last tune, Brownstein put down her guitar and served up a song that she said “I don’t know how many of you will know.” She proceeded to knock us out with a great, sexy version of Fugazi’s “Margin Walker,” which was released in 1989.

Hospitality opened the evening with an energetic set.

Hospitality at Webster Hall