ICON

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SEPTEMBER EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

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LESLIE ODOM JR.

MORE FILM

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ESSAY Lessons Learned

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EXHIBITIONS I Gail Bracegirdle Solo Exhibit 30 Years: Art at the Michener, 1988-2018

FOREIGN Maktub

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DOCUMENTARY Generation Wealth

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Michener Art Museum

Lace, not Lace: Contemporary Fiber Art from Lacemaking Techniques

John Cheer, Sting-Ray, ceramic.

New Hope Arts & Crafts Festival.

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Bits & Bites

PRODUCTION

EXHIBITIONS II

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25th New Hope Arts & Crafts Festival New Hope-Solebury High School

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Trudy Lynn

A. D. Amorosi

Jimmer & Syd

Robert Beck

Beth Snapp

Jack Byer

Blue Yonder

JAZZ/ ROCK/CLASSICAL/ALT

THEATER & OPERA

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THE PHOTOJOURNALIST

The Quick

Esther Lamneck Marc Mellits/New Music Detroit

Christopher Durang.

Photo: Susan Johan.

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NIGHTLIFE

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ON THE COVER: Leslie Odom Jr. Page 20 Photo: Paragon Productions 4

FILM ROUNDUP Bisbee ‘17 BlacKkKlansman Hal Mandy REEL NEWS First Reformed Western Hearts Beat Loud Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

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Peter Croatto Geoff Gehman

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CINEMATTERS The Bookshop

Rita Kaplan

Joe Ely

John Coltrane

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Megan Flanagan

SINGER / SONGWRITER

Riverside Festival of the Arts 2018

FILM

Raina Filipiak / Advertising filipiakr@comcast.net

MUSIC

756 Worthington Mill Rd., Newtown

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EDITORIAL Editor / Trina McKenna

FOODIE FILE

Hunterdon Art Museum

Larry Holmes and Riverside Drive, Easton

Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

Richard DeCosta

Art At Kings Oaks

Bill Nighy in The Bookshop.

icondv.com facebook.com/icondv PRESIDENT

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Touchstone Art Gallery

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Filling the hunger since 1992 215-862-9558

ART

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The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, opinion and mad genius

CHRISTOPHER DURANG

Clarence Holbrook Carter, Nude in Motion.

Michener Art Museum.

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ICON

Arianna Neikrug

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JAZZ LIBRARY

Mark Keresman George Miller Bob Perkins Keith Uhlich Tom Wilk

Subscription: $40 (12 issues)

Della Reese PO Box 120 • New Hope 18938 (800) 354-8776 Fax (215) 862-9845

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POP The September Of My Years

ETCETERA 36 |

HARPER’S FINDINGS

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HARPER’S INDEX

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L. A. TIMES CROSSWORD

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AGENDA

ICON is published twelve times per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2018 Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.

ART ESSAY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

Lessons Learned Don’t get water in your boots.

WILLIS WASN’T LISTENING TO his father. He was too excited. He just got boots like his dad and he was off playing in the water near the wharf with his model boat. Willis’ father worked in high boots, which was what this was all about. If they lived somewhere else, not an island off the coast of Maine, it might be chaps or a hardhat. Willis had been asking his mother to get him boots like that for a long time. They had to take their boat to the mainland, order them at the store in town, and wait for weeks, but Willis got the boots.

“He told me if I got water in my boots, I’d get a dunkin’.”

Seventy years later, Willis, a legendary lobster boat builder, was telling me the boot story behind the boat shed where he had created many exquisite examples of form and function which would likely give Frank Lloyd Wright the chills. We’ve known each other long enough for me to be a familiar face, worthy of endless tales and the occasional clap on the back. There was no particular reason for him telling me about the boots. It just came after the frying pan story, and before the one about his teeth.

While we talked, Willis and I looked out toward the Beals Island Bridge, where fog had settled onto the reach. Sometimes you could sort of locate the construction cranes that were working on replacing the structure, sometimes you could barely see your feet. If it weren’t for the fog, Willis would be out tending his lobster traps, but when he showed up that morning he couldn’t see the boats on their moorings, and he decided to get some work done in the shop instead. I stopped by to paint the bridge construction in the fog and…well, there we were.

As his story went, Willis was small and his boots were long and he had to fold down the tops. He didn’t notice that the backs were drooping, and he got water in them. His father saw it and Willis got a dunkin’.

Like it or not, lessons often involve consequences, with many of the early ones delivered by parents. That’s because life is a parade of consequences, and the sooner someone learns to anticipate the results of their actions the more likely they will survive to take care of their elders. But dunking sounds like backwoods discipline—certainly not how

we teach our Ethan and Emma, here in the land of the cold-foam cinnamon latte. However, not only does water in high boots make them difficult to dry and impossible to remove, in some instances they can hold you upsidedown in the water. That’s not a lesson to be learned the hard way. There is an educational efficacy to a dunkin’, especially in a culture where life has to be met head on.

Two days before my chat with Willis, a new captain who had taken over a lobster boat from the recently deceased owner ran the boat up on a ledge, just off the island. There aren’t many fishermen who haven’t done that at one time or another. The boat’s keel and prop were extensively damaged, and the rudder shoved up through the hull. She had no power and was taking on water. He managed to ground the boat before it sank, patch the hole from underneath while up to his waist in an unsympathetic tide, and get it towed to the shipyard where it was hauled out for repair. It was dramatic and dicey from start to finish.

Clearly upset with himself, the young man leaned against the hull, hung his head, and said that the owner, were he alive, would have kicked his ass for running aground. A man at the shipyard told him that he had done well to get the boat back to land. He could have lost it.

Lessons aren’t the boots and ledges, they are the realization of how things could have gone differently. They are workshops on where to focus your attention and where to place your respect in the future. The boot lesson was something Willis remembered his whole life, for sure. So did his dad.

“When my father was dying he asked me if I was still mad at him for dunkin’ me,” said Willis, looking out into the fog, hand in his pocket, fingering the pencil he always keeps there. “I told him, ‘no, I’m not mad at you.

You told me I’d get a dunkin’ if I got water in my boots. I did . . . and I got it.’” n ICON, SEPTEMBER 2018 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

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EXHIBITIONS I

Choi + Shine Architects, the Urchins, 2017, Crochet resembling reticella, 2.7 x 5 meters in diameter. Courtesy of the artists.

Escape

Gail Bracegirdle Solo Exhibit Touchstone Art Gallery 11 East Afton Avenue, Yardley PA Touchstoneartgallery.com September 8–October 7, 2018 Opening reception, 9/8, 6–8 Gail Bracegirdle enjoys exploring different surfaces for her watercolors. Several years ago, she discovered paper that is handmade in India, and enjoys challenging herself with it and different subjects.

Classic European watercolor papers have a sizing applied, so that changes can often be made. The papers, however, are somewhat absorbent so that each application is permanent. “These papers require a more ‘meditative’ way of planning a painting and they are much more challenging,” she says.

On exhibit will be botanical-style florals; landscapes from a trip to Australia; small, card-sized studies; and a few large, abstract paintings.

Antonio Pietro Martino (1902-1988), Oakview Road, 1927.

O/C. 36 x 30 in. Gift of Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest.

30 Years: Art at the Michener, 1988-2018 Michener Art Museum, 138 So. Pine St, Doylestown 215-340-9800 MichenerArtMuseum.org September 16, 2018–January 6, 2019 Since the Michener opened its doors in 1988, it has expanded its vision and its collection, which numbers more than 3,500 objects. 30 Years explores the stories behind the art and the collectors and celebrates the generosity of individuals who have transferred their private collections, ensuring that their art and legacies will be enjoyed for generations to come. Featuring works that are beloved by the community as well as pieces that have never before been exhibited, 30 Years provides a unique glimpse into the treasures contained in the Michener’s vault. The show also features a selection of works curated by local middle and high school students enrolled in Michener’s Student Curators class.

Lace, not Lace: Contemporary Fiber Art from Lacemaking Techniques Hunterdon Art Museum 7 Lower Center St., Clinton, NJ 908-735-8415 Hunterdonartmuseum.org September 23–January 6 Tues.-Sun., 11am–5pm Reception Sept. 23, 3–5pm This groundbreaking exhibition highlights how lacemakers are expanding the traditional boundaries of their art form to create exciting work that investigates contemporary themes, materials and forms. The show reveals how contemporary fiber artists are applying bobbin and needle lace techniques to a multitude of fibers and filaments in unlimited colors and textures to interpret their world.

The opening features talks by Thein at 4 p.m. and artists Jin Choi and Thomas Shine, at 5 p.m. Opening includes live music, a food truck, and the lighting of the Urchins at dusk. The Urchins are two lace orbs, each 15 feet in diameter that will hang above the Museum’s Toshiko Takaezu Terrace. This exhibition ends October 7, and marks the first U.S. appearance of the Urchins.

Another showstopper is Lieve Jerger’s Carriage of Lost Love, which the artist has spent four decades creating. The work is a life-size carriage made of copper wire using bobbin lace technique.

The exhibition features 41 works of lace art by 28 artists from around the world.

Hunter Valley.

Zinnias.

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Arrah Lee Gaul (1883-1980), Ryukon, n.d. O/C. H 25 x W 30 in. Michener Art Museum. Bequest of the Estate of Harry W. Lownsbury.

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Lieve Jerger, Carriage of Lost Love (detail). Copper wire, steel, Belgian bobbin lace, 6 ft.x13.5 ft.x6.5 ft. Courtesy of the artist.

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EXHIBITIONS II

Artist: Stephen Brehm

25th New Hope Arts & Crafts Festival New Hope-Solebury High School, New Hope, PA Newhopeartsandcrafts.com Sept. 29-30 | Saturday: 10-6; Sunday 10-5

Riverside Festival of the Arts 2018 Larry Holmes and Riverside Drive, Easton, PA 631-455-2195 Eastonriversidefest.org September 15 & 16, 10–5

Linda Brenner, Fortress. Walnut, maple, aluminum, beads, nails, 19”x9”x9”

Art At Kings Oaks 756 Worthington Mill Rd., Newtown, PA 215-603-6573 Kingsoaksart.wordpress.com October 5–21 Opening Reception 10/5, 6–9 Closing Reception 10/21, 2–5

Located in the historic river town of New Hope, PA, known for its arts community, this event always attracts 10,000-plus visitors. This is an outdoor event (rain or shine) with $1 admission, ample parking, a complimentary shuttle, festival food, and music. New Hope’s business district is just a few minutes’ walk away. This is a quality, juried event and our artists will be recognized with ribbons and cash prizes.

Works on paper, sculpture, and textile featuring 26 artists in an historic barn and chapel near Newtown, PA. Artists include Rotem Amizur, Brett Baker, Charity Baker, Linda Brenner, Alex Cohen, Dennis Congdon, François Dupuis, Perky Edgerton, Miriam Hitchcock, Kenichi Hoshine, Martina Johnson-Allen, Matt Kleberg, Albert Kresch, John Lees, Heidi Leitzke, Aubrey Levinthal, Susan Lichtman, David Ludwig, Kristen Peyton, Ron Prigat, Brian Rego, Jackie Shatz, Clintel Steed, Gwen Strahle, Robert Winokur, and John David Wissler.

Artist: Phillip Singer

Susan Lichtman, Moments with Pets Caught, Oil on linen, 66” x 60” 8

Artist: Joanna Krasnansky

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Over 60+ curated fine art, fine artisans, and jewelry exhibitors will showcase their creations at Riverside & Scott parks in historic Easton, PA. Explore the Juried Arts Gallery: “Plein Air,” “Hair as Art,” “Food as Art,” and “Wing Wars” competitions.

Enjoy live entertainment with bands on two stages including Blues Hall of Fame artist Tom “The Suit” Forst, the Freddy’s Theater Group, performance art, folk dance, open mic at Riverside Amphitheater with host, Helsi Duster, Skin as Art face painting, art demos, and free children’s hands-on art projects at the Crayola booth using new Crayola products. The festival features plenty of libations, tasty snacks and free admission. Family-friendly. Celebrate creativity with us.

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THEATER & OPERA VALLEY

CITY

Man of la Mancha. Star of the Day Productions presents this irresistibly entertaining, magnetically moving tale of a wildly chivalrous senior citizen who seeks knighthood while battling a windmill, courting an inn waitress and chasing impossible dreams with his long-suffering, supportive squire. (McCoole’s Arts & Events Place, 4 Main St., Quakertown, Sept. 14-16) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Stephen Sondheim’s third musical hit, the first featuring both his music and words, is a rollicking, ridiculously clever vaudevillian farce revolving around a Roman slave slaving away to get his freedom by getting a girl for his master. The original 1962 Broadway production was hot enough for a mention in an episode of Mad Men. (Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Rd., Bethlehem, Sept. 28-29, Oct 5-7, 11-14) Machinal. Sophie Treadwell, a playwright, journalist and suffragette, electrified 1928 Broadway with her provocative, profound portrait of an oppressed stenographer executed for murdering her husband/boss after an affair makes her lust for life.

Guest directing the Muhlenberg College production is Lou Jacob, whose global credits include Saturday Night Fever, Shakespeare, Moses and Joe Papp and the first staging of Sam Shepard’s The God of Hell. (Baker Center for the Arts, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, Sept. 27-30) Dog Act. The spirits of Beckett and Brecht float through this post-apocalyptic comedy about a female performer/pilgrim headed from America to China with a young man morphing into a dog. One reviewer declared that author Liz Duffy Adams “spins language like a juggler twirls chain saws.” (Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, Sept. 28-30, Oct. 3-6) Billy Elliot. Civic Theatre of Allentown christens its restored Art Deco home with this rousing, arousing musical about a working-class, motherless English kid who hurdles obstacles—a miners’ strike, a doubting dad, short-sighted adults—to join the Royal Ballet School. Composer Elton John opens his farewell tour on Sept. 8 at the PPL Center in Allentown, a cosmic coincidence. (Civic Theatre, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown, Oct. 12-13, 18-21, 25-28)

WHEN OPERA PHILADELPHIA COMMENCES its 44th season with now world famous “O Fest” and its second iteration, “018”—September 20 through 30—the creation of General Director & President David B. Devan relives several of its initial moves from last year’s “O17.”

There are several prominent, dramatic opera world premieres—a theatricality and a concept which was a big aspect of Devan joining Opera Philadelphia in 2006, before being appointed general director of the company in 2011. The Sky on Swings world premiere at the Perelman Theater finds beauty in memory loss through an exploration of living with Alzheimer’s disease; “not a sad, public service announcement, but rather a delicate and epic chamber opera,” noted Devan (during a radio interview I conducted at 106.5) with legendary singers Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson capturing the work of composer Lembit Beecher, librettist Hannah Moscovitch, and director Joanna Settle.

The Cocteau-based Ne Quittez Pas with vocalist Patricia Racette at the Theatre of Living Arts may not be a premiere itself, but it is a vibrantly reimagined take on La voix humaine, with a rich musical score by Francis Poulenc. Theatre of Living Arts will also house the world premiere of Queens of the Night: A Three-Night Serial, devised by its singing stars Stephanie Blythe and Dito van Reigersberg, with direction by Daniel Kazemi and text by John Jarboe. Then there is the Barnes Foundation’s Glass Handel: a world premiere and an album release party (for his debut record, Arc) in one starring (and devised by) young glam gay countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo with Calvin Klein and Raf Simons (they are costuming Costanzo), 2018 Tony award-winning choreographer Justin Peck and the filmmaking team of James Ivory (that one, Merchant-Ivory) and Mark Romanek (who directed music videos for Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Jay Z, Taylor Swift).

This experimental opera sensation—who appeared during O17’s gloriously glum Written on Skin—is staging this new work, dedicated to the music of Philip Glass and George Frideric Handel, with Costanzo remaining stage center and he audience swirling around him, in what Devan states “Is an opportunity to curate your own experience of what Anthony is doing.”

C

Richard II. Presented in repertory with Shakespeare in Love, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival staging of this history in verse was, like the play itself, glossy, chewy, minor-league Hamlet. Christian Coulson started out fey and foggy as King Richard, whose misguided diplomacy costs him crown and life. He eventually entered his wheelhouse, bubbling with bile and smoking with ashy poignancy. Christopher Coucill stoked John of Gaunt, Richard’s uncle, with the rage of King Lear, his juiciest festival character. Standout actors—Mairin Lee, Luigi Sottile, Christopher Patrick Mullen—were merely whelming in underwhelming roles. Gina Lamparella directed a handful of scenes beautifully—Richard’s prison monologue buzzed with lovely loneliness—but still ended up with a fairly flat historical pageant. n

urating one’s own experience, and finding unique opportunities—and locations—to do so, is also a huge part of “018.” The Academy of Music may be home to the lustrous new production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with coloratura soprano Brenda Rae and OP Maestro Corrado Rovaris, and Sky on Swings does premiere at the Perelman Theater (“our spiritual home,” said Devan, as his 017’s first productions occurred there). But after those hallowed halls, the remainder of 018 happens in oddball spots such at the usual rock concert venue, Theatre of Living Arts. “It has character; remember it used to be a live theater for underground performances,” said Devan, while I added that legendary theater producer actor and director Andre Gregory had a piece of the TLA at its start. “It’s perfect for the drag meets opera effect of Queens of the Night.

As for the Barnes and Roth Costanzo’s Glass Handel, the space is not only grand in its use of high ceilings and wide rooms with ample space—the life of the building and its connection to its curated collection (that of the good doctor Albert Barnes) was an inspiration to Costanzo when coming up with the work in the first place.

“I share the opinion of many audience members and critics, that Opera Philadelphia is one of the most forward-thinking, innovative and high-caliber companies in the country, leading the charge on many fronts,” said Roth, who first came to this city and Opera Philadelphia for Phaedra, as Artemis, before returning for Written on Skin. n

— GEOFF GEHMAN

— A.D. AMOROSI

Shakespeare in Love. Adapted by Billy Elliot author Lee Hall, this fantasy spins around a playwright bedeviled by blocked creativity and dueling demanding producers until he meets a muse of fire in a woman who defies Elizabethan tradition and law by playing a man in public. Directed by Patrick Mulcahy, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival version was delightful: stinging, tickling, teasingly smart. Luigi Sottile’s Shakespeare was a stumbling scream. He dovetailed with Mairin Lee’s finely feisty, finely focused Viola, the cross-dressing muse/rebel. Brandon J. Pierce animated Ned Alleyn, the star actor/entrepreneur, with snappy, savory charisma. Starla Benford filled Queen Elizabeth with winking haughtiness and imperial balderdash.

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THE PHOTOJOURNALIST

The Libyan Migrant Trap World Press Photo Contest 2017 Daniel Etter, Contemporary Issues, third prize singles Nigerian refugees cry and embrace in a detention center housing hundreds of women in Surman, Libya.

Refugees in such centers face indefinite detention. Many report sexual and physical violence, and insufficient food and water. A large number try to reach Europe by being smuggled over the Mediterranean Sea. According to the International Organization for Migration, the number of Nigerian women travelling by boat from Libya to Italy almost doubled in 2016, to 11,009.

Commissioned by Der Spiegel, August 17, 2016 12

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Daniel Etter.

Daniel Etter is a photographer and feature writer.

He moved to India in 2010, where he began exploring social inequality, with a particular focus on child labor. Since 2012, he has reported extensively on migration and refugee issues along Europe’s external borders and conflict zones across the Middle East.

In 2016, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the John Faber Award of the Overseas Press Club of America with a team of photographers working for The New York Times. He lives on a farm in Sant Aniol de Finestres, Spain.

NIGHTLIFE

SEPTEMBER

CURATED BY A.D. AMOROSI

6–9 DAVE ATTEL

19 HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR

27 BLOOD ORANGE

Comedy Central’s angriest jokester returns to Philly—with attitude to spare. Helium Comedy Club, philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com

Modern, melodic four on the floor disco has no better friend (and wonkier atmospheres) has no better friend than Hercules. The Fillmore, thefillmorephilly.com

With the Boss off spending the remainder of 2018 on Broadway, the E Street guitarist—also known for his tenure with Neil Young, Ringo Starr, hits the acoustic trail. Steelstacks. steelstacks.org/event

Dev Hynes—the gay British singersongwriter also known as Lightspeed Champion—is the most radically productive pop artist. He plays with Philip Glass, and writes for Kylie Minogue and Carly Rae Jepsen and Travis Scott. And now, he’s released a brand new Blood Orange album, Negro Swan, with contributions from Puff Daddy, ASAP Rocky, Steve Lacy, Janet Mock and Georgia Anne Muldrow. Messy in a good way.

The Fillmore. thefillmorephilly.com

20 STING & SHAGGY

28 WANDA SYKES

11 DONNIE MCCASLIN

As the bandleader on David Bowie's final album Blackstar, saxophonist Donny McCaslin made a star for himself on a plane beyond experimental jazz. On his new album, Blow, he goes further with a blend of avant Bop, eerie electrionica and booming art-rock. The Foundry at The Fillmore. thefillmorephilly.com 11/12 ELTON JOHN

With the passing of Bolan, Reed and Bowie, glam rock has but two remain-

ders: Iggy Pop and Elton John. Move from there to consider John’s expanded role as melody schlockmesiter, garish dresser, Disney stage stooge and such —and I’m not insulting him—this promised last tour is a must-see. Wells Fargo Center. wellsfargocenterphilly.com 13 MARITA GOLDEN

The co-founder and President Emeritus of the Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Foundation, and a heralded author of 16 works of fiction and nonfiction including After and The Edge of Heaven and the memoirs Migrations of the Heart, Saving Our Sons reads from her weighty catalog.

Zoellner Arts Center. zoellner.cas2.lehigh.edu 13 SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO

Last month’s ICON cover artist brings the laughs and stories of working with Scorsese. Just a reminder.

Wells Fargo Center. wellsfargocenterphilly.com 13–22 MARILYN MAYE

The award-winning Ms. Maye ap14

peared 76 times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the record for a singer. The simplest Marilyn Maye accolade came after one of her showstopping appearances, when turning to his audience of millions, Carson said, “And that, young singers, is the way it’s done.” Dino’s Backstage. dinosbackstage.com 14 HOLLY BOWLING

19 NILS LOFGREN ACOUSTIC

If this sounds as weird and goofy as it reads, this could be a ghoulish reggae

This now-seemingly-local classical pianist is making her name and her

bones pounding out nuanced solojammy interpretations of the Grateful Dead and Phish. Ardmore Music Hall, ardmoremusichall.com

After leaving Roseanne, the veteran comedian comes back to her roots with the “Oh Well” tour. Keswick Theatre. keswicktheatre.com treat. The Fillmore. thefillmorephilly.com

29 EDDIE PALMIERI & HIS SALSA ORCHESTRA

The crooner sings from his debut album, The Judy Garland Songbook, in the swanky supper club. Don’t miss it! Dino’s Backstage. dinosbackstage.com

22 CAFÉ TACVBA

Together with Hector Rosado and his Orquestra Hache, Latin jazz pianist

15 WAYNE KRAMER + MC5

26 TIM HEIDECKER & GREGG TURKINGTON: ON CINEMA, LIVE!

15 MICHAEL RICHARD KELLY

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of (arguably) one of punk’s first rabblerousers, Michigan’s MC5, its remaining living member Wayne Kramer— also hitting the boards to celebrate the release of his autobiography, The Hard Stuff—joins forces with Soundgarden to further (and for the final time) kick out the jams.

Union Transfer. utphilly.com 15 SAL VALENTINETTI

Sal Valentinetti is an Italian-American crooner known best for his flawless vocals, larger than life personality, and his heart of gold. Keswick Theatre. keswicktheatre.com

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The most mad bad Mexican hard rock act celebrate 30 years of punk Espanol. The Fillmore. thefillmorephilly.com

The Tim half of the Phily-born avant garde comedy duo Tim & Eric and the Aussie behind the loutish Neil Hamburger character join forces to make fun of movies and music you love. The Fillmore. thefillmorephilly.com 27 PETE YORN

After time away from the solo singer songwriter machine—making music with Scarlett Johansen—the muskiest of dusky inide rock guys of the ’90s returns with an acoustic guitar and a dream. Oy. Ardmore Music Hall. ardmoremusichall.com

Palmieri lets loose elements of his past and present in all forms of music in what promises to be a glorious evening of spicy song. Plus, LU Undergrads attend for FREE. Zoellner Arts Center, zoellner.cas2.lehigh.edu/events-page 30 LEON BRIDGES

Retro R&B and simmering old soul has a new best friend in Bridges and his recently released album, Good Times. The Fillmore. thefillmorephilly.com n

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CINEMATTERS

BY PETE CROATTO

The Bookshop THE BOOKSHOP FEATURES COUNTLESS shots of winding country roads and verdant, lush forests. It’s part of veteran director-writer Isabel Coixet’s ruse—and the main factor behind a promising film’s downfall. The same quaintness that her antagonists seek to promote is ultimately what reduces a satirical roar to barely a whisper, making us wish indispensable assets Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, and Patricia Clarkson had more to work with.

Mortimer plays Florence Green, a widow who moves to the working class seaside English town of Hardborough in 1959, where she buys a rundown property and turns it into a bookstore. A store from Frank Capra’s storyboard should serve as an immediate asset. Local aristocrat Violet Gamart (Clarkson), Boss Tweed in a ball gown, wants the spot for an arts center. Never mind that the bookstore could serve as a destination for concerts and lectures, the town revolves around Violet, so she should get it as a matter of course. For Florence, who lives in the space and owns it, running a bookstore is a lifelong dream. That logic fails to satisfy Violet, who proceeds to cajole and manipulate her way to secure the building. At every point, the gentle Florence resists.

It’s a battle for who controls the culture, a petty argument that has very real consequences. Books offer freedom—the chance for the residents to choose their entertainment; Violet could easily control what comes into the arts center.

Coixet allows us to piece the characters’ backstories ourselves, especially via wardrobe: the embroidered starchiness of Violet’s fancy gowns; the simple, bold 16

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colors of Florence’s dresses (she wears a red to her first event in town); the rigid formality of the suits worn by Mr. Brundish (Nighy), the gaunt outcast who reads away the days in his dusty, dank estate. When Brundish, who is revived by the bookstore and its proprietor’s intelligence, and Florence get close under an overcast sky, their movements mimic the material of their clothes. They’re restricted by the weight of themselves.

These deft touches provide a wobbly conduit for a pointed take on provincialism. Coixet uses the leitmotiv of quaint countryside shots as a subterfuge for the bureaucratic machinations occurring between the characters and their bidders. It’s a move she pulls once too often, so it becomes the defining tone instead of a clever accent. We’re lulled to complacency; the richness of the characters and their motivations gets buried under bucolic padding. There are still things to treasure in The Bookshop. Any chance to see Emily Mortimer onscreen is a gift. Coixet portrays the group-think that lies beneath small-town tranquility, though it becomes another patch on a homemade quilt instead of a sobering moral. A character admits they double-crossed Florence because they were pestered into it. The matter-of-factness of the statement should chill us; instead, we’re left wondering why it sounds like an afterthought. Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel, The Bookshop warns us to mind who orchestrates the environment we live in—and if they want collaborators. How much viewers get from the film depends on their willingness to work through the obstacles Coixet puts in her way. [PG] n

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17

FILM ROUNDUP

Andrea Riseborough in Mandy.

REVIEWED BY KEITH UHLICH

Bisbee ‘17 (Dir. Robert Greene).

Documentary.

Director Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine) offers up another potent doc-fiction hybrid with this feature about the centenary of the Bisbee Deportation. In 1917, the white powers-that-be in Bisbee, Arizona, under the pretense of busting up a coal mining union, exiled a number of “undesirables” from their community. One hundred years later, the residents of Bisbee (all races, ages and creeds) prepare to re-enact those events—in part, as one subject cheekily describes, for “group therapy.”

There’s much more to it than that, of course, from the personal (for one, the way the history radicalizes Hispanic re-enactor Fernando Serrano, who was previously unaware of the affair) to the political (how the deportation and its aftermath resonates with a number of our own horrific current events). Greene blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, most provocatively in how he often keeps in the awkward silences that occur before and after one of his interviewees speaks on camera. It hints at a communal deception that the play-acting of the Bisbee Deportation is meant to expose, explode and, ideally, purge.

[PG] HHHH 18

BlacKkKlansman (Dir. Spike Lee). Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier. Truth can certainly be stranger than fiction, and Spike Lee’s whopper of a tale nearly gets by on its sorta-basis in fact. In the 1970s, black Colorado Springs police officer Ron Stallworth, played by Denzel Washington’s son John David Washington, did indeed clandestinely infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. His Jewish partner Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) acted the in-person role of the new recruit. Lee mines the situation for much fish-dangerously-out-of-water comedy (funniest scenes involve Topher Grace’s geekily evil Klan leader David Duke, with whom Stallworth becomes phone buddies) as well as for healthy dollops of pathos. The best scene sees Harry Belafonte relating a tale of a lynching to a roomful of stunned black nationalists, which Lee intercuts with Duke and his Klan folk rowdily watching D.W. Griffith’s racist blockbuster The Birth of a Nation (1915). Everything else is very good to wish-it-wasbetter, with a few thudding nods to the Trump era, and an unfortunate use of Laura Harrier as the militant activist whom Stallworth falls for and who, by the end, egregiously becomes his redeemer. [R] HHH

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Hal (Dir. Amy Scott). Documentary. Director Hal Ashby’s influence is harder to pin down than his fellow ’70s film brats like Spielberg or Scorsese. Their styles could be more easily distilled to impactful essences. By contrast, Ashby—a hippie, humanist and fighter of the power through a string of superb movies such as Harold and Maude, The Last Detail and Being There—was always more idiosyncratically himself. That’s something Amy Scott’s too-short but still affecting tribute ably captures. The talking headsheavy film mostly sticks to received wisdom, namely that Ashby’s ’70s work is pantheon, his ’80s efforts (featuring unfairly maligned, if still compromised works like Looking to Get Out and 8 Million Ways to Die) is barely worth a glance. In truth, his whole oeuvre deserves more equal analysis, if only to show how Ashby was uniquely out of his time even in his heyday, and not just when Hollywood studios went more corporate in the Reagan era. Scott does, however, focus several intriguing lights on Ashby’s personal life (particularly the non-relationship he had with his daughter) that complicate his own legend as a rebel, so Hal is fortunately not mere pie-eyed hagiography. [N/R] HHH1/2

Mandy (Dir. Panos Cosmatos).

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache. Those longing to witness Nicolas especially un-Caged look no further than this uber-violent horror-romance from director Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow). It’s not right to call Mandy a slow-burn so much as a conscious exercise in bifurcation. The first half belongs to an ethereal Andrea Riseborough as the eponymous character, who creates otherworldly art and lives a tranquillizingly idyllic existence with Cage’s lovestruck lumberjack Red. Then whacked-out cult leader Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache, obliterating the line between good and bad acting) murders Mandy and puts Red on a most-memorably vengeful path. There are demon bikers from hell (seemingly the spawn of Hellraiser’s Cenobites), two gleefully off-kilter cameos from genre stalwarts Bill Duke and Richard Brake, and an LSD-infused climax that features a blood-drenched Cage crushing heads and wielding a chainsaw like an Arthurian knight. It’s also the tenderest of love stories, and how many movies featuring a self-fellating, pornography-obsessed evil spirit can you say that about? [N/R]

HHHH

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19

T INTERVIEW

BY A.D. AMOROSI

Leslie Odom Jr. talks about Failing Up and life after Hamilton

THAT PHILLY’S EAST OAK lane-raised Leslie Odom Jr. needs no real introduction is pretty great. The 37-year-old actor, singer and author not only won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album as a principal vocalist for his role as Aaron Burr in the Broadway rap-musical Hamilton—all this after having made his Great White Way debut 20 years ago in Jonathan Larson’s Rent.

Along with another Larson show, 2014’s Tick, Tick... Boom! (where he first appeared with Hamilton star and author Lin-Manuel Miranda), Odom has appeared in the musical television series, Smash (2012–2013), films such as 2012’s Red Tails, 2017’s hit Murder on the Orient Express, and the currently filming, Needle in a Timestack.

Somewhere in between all that, he authored

I LOVE DOING THE STANDARD SONGBOOK AND

MUSIC THAT WAS MADE FAMOUS BY GUYS LIKE FRANK,

DEAN AND SAMMY…[BUT] I DON’T WANT TO JUST INTERPRET SOMEONE ELSE’S MUSIC AND LYRICS…I WANT

To the very heights of an art form.

Exactly. Now, there were also a lot of shows that you didn’t hear about in between Rent and Hamilton. You didn’t hear of them because they didn’t work for one reason or another. Maybe it was the writing, or directing, or us, or the audiences—things just did not pan out. Maybe if I’m lucky—ten years from now—you’ll hear about some film I just did that, in reality, will be a culmination of the decades of work before that.

Why? Because you finally figured it out?

Yes. [laughs] For instance, I’m going to try my best with the next album to have it be something really special. Not that my other albums weren’t special. I was green, though, to solo album-making. I think with this next one that you’re going to truly feel the hard work that we put into it, the hard work that it’s taken to get here—all still shy of calling any of my work prior to that a failure. Look, I’m still working stuff out… especially with film.

MINE AS WELL. WE HAVE OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US, BUT WE’RE UP FOR IT.

2018’s Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning, made two jazz cover albums (one Christmas), started an original recording, had a child, and decided on making his Philly Pops debut this September (28-30) at the Kimmel Center. Somewhere within that framework, he made time to chat.

So I pulled up this thing you did for the CBS Morning Show where you discussed the importance of failure—yet you have two best-selling records, a Tony, a Grammy, roles in hit movies, and television commercials for Nationwide. Yet, there you were discussing failure. You even wrote a book about it.

Well, I think without quite calling it failure, you were watching me try to figure out who I was, who I am, and how to best use my skillsets in film, theater, and music. It took me 15 years to arrive at that Hamilton moment—to be given a piece of material, that, as an artist, was so dynamic, one that allowed me to rise to the occasion.

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So you don’t feel as if you’re there yet. How are you enjoying the two sci-fi projects you’re working on at present, Needle and Only?

I dug working with John Ridley; he wrote a really challenging role for me, and I loved it. Ridley really did the best to get that vision out of his head, and I’m liking it. These are futures that we imagined as kids. Now their tones are very different. Only is a two hander with me and Frieda Pinto dealing with an illness that wipes out a population and you track a couple dealing with that. Needle is much larger and darker, much more futuristic.

I promise I only have one Hamilton question: Lin’s musical is touring the country now, and will be in Philly in 2019. As the Tony Award-winning Aaron Burr, what tips do you have for an actor getting ready to step into his long stockings?

That he is not a villain. Historically, Burr is much more interesting and richer than traditional history books show. Instead, he is much truer to the intention of the author of that work—LinManuel Miranda—which is, at its heart, a story

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about the fracture of a deep relationship.

Where is the new album? The last time we spoke it was about winter holidays and Christmas music.

I’m excited. This time it’s all original music, which is quite challenging. This is the next and newest thing we’re focusing on, and we’re halfway there. Yes, I’m collaborating on the writing and producing side with Lizz Wright, whose jazz songs you might know. And Rafael Casal, too, who wrote Blindspotting with Daveed Diggs. [Diggs costarred with Odom in Hamilton, and won his own Tony for Best Supporting Actor.] I’ve seen Blindspotting three times, and insist on dragging all of my friends to it.

Because of its writing, obviously, which is clever, and is probably then a part of your next record.

Yes. I love doing the standard songbook and music that was made famous by guys like Frank, Dean and Sammy—but it’s amazing to listen to original tracks you’ve done go from these quiet demos on your phone with just piano and voice, to something bigger, and your own. I don’t want to just interpret someone else’s music and lyrics, even though I dig that—but I want mine as well, or stories written just for me. I’m tackling family, fatherhood, relationships and society with sensitivity, I hope. We have our work cut out for us, but we’re up for it.

How does the upcoming Philly Pops joint work?

Well, first off, all of my comp tickets are gone to my family and friends. [laughs] The Pops thing?

These artists are the crème de la crème; professional musicians with their own sound and their own thing going on, their own style. Yet, here they are, taking their cues from me. You’re going to get a little bit of everything across those nights—jazz, standards, some theater moments, some Hamilton stuff decontextualized. It will be filled with moments that we’re all comfortable with, yet challenging—and I’m happy to be able to do this in my hometown. Philly is my heart, you know. n

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21

INTERVIEW

BY JACK BYER

Quintessentially Christopher Durang “…laughing wild amid severest woe” —Samuel Beckett [quoting from Thomas Gray’s Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College]

HE HAS BEEN CALLED “the American Theater’s most gleefully satanic satirist, [who] regularly ventures where others fear to tread.” His crazy-quilt plays with their absurdist take on American life are filled with savage wit and whimsy. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You (1979) is a wicked take-down of Catholicism; Why Torture Is Wrong And The People Who Love Them [sic] (2009), is a riff on the nuttiness of rightwing patriotism; and Turning Off The Morning News (2018) is a cartoony response to racism and school

killings around us, but rather using humor to talk about serious things. It's a tricky balancing act.

more than my father. So, yes, I guess I was probably identifying with Timmy.

The unmoored characters in Turning Off The Morning News handle their anxieties in typically Durangian loopy ways. They hide their faces in pillow cases to avoid skin cancer or obsess about house plants, or recite mantras or escape into classical music. How do you personally turn off the morning news?

You had to testify against your father during their divorce.

Her family wouldn’t testify that he was a drinker.

But I did it. I felt bad for her and then felt bad for him. I got depressed. So many things were going on in my life. The Vietnam War had been going on for three years, and I thought how long do we have to

“I DON’T HAVE MANY OF MY CHRISTIAN [OR] CATHOLIC BELIEFS LEFT—THOUGH I AM PARTIAL STILL TO “BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL” AND “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS,” AS WELL AS “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO DON’T TORTURE” AND “BLESSED ARE THEY WHO DON’T RUIN THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND BANKRUPT EVERYBODY.” shootings. These plays have earned Durang a very special niche among playwrights like John Guare, David Mamet, and Sam Shepherd. In 2012, he was designated as a Master American Playwright by the Pen/ Laura Pels International Foundation for the American Theater. That same year he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

I met Durang at his Bucks County stone farmhouse set on a generous parcel of countryside that he and his husband, actor/playwright John Augustine, share with abundant deer. I expected to be sparring with savage wit and whimsy. Instead, I found him to have the grace and gentility of a choir boy.

The shooting at Santa Fe High School which killed ten happened during the run of your latest play, Turning Off The Morning News. How did it go down with the your audience at that sensitive time?

We worried that the audience might be too upset about the killing to enjoy the play. After all, the play opens with a deeply racist and aggrieved man saying to the audience: “I’m thinking of killing myself. Or maybe going to a nearby mall and killing other people, and then killing myself. Maybe I’ll go to a theater and kill people there and then kill myself. You’re lucky I’m in the play, and not in the audience.” We decided to make an announcement before the performance explaining the play was not making light of the senseless 22

I get up about 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. I usually watch Morning Joe until I can’t take it and then put on an episode of Miss Marple with Joan Hickson or an old movie from the Turner channel. I record a lot of things, so I have a lot of movies I like to go to. Unfortunately, it doesn't always calm me. I must admit that I, too, worry about exposure to the sun. I’ve become too expert on the Mohs procedure.

The bully imposing his or her will on a weaker person, often a child, is a recurring theme in your plays. In “Turning Off The Morning News,” the character of Timmy is the latest example. He and his mother are bullied and demeaned by his bigoted father, who taunts him by calling him Polly. Do you identify with Timmy?

I don't know that I was thinking about it specifically. My father had a drinking problem, but he wasn’t a bully. Some times you could just smell it on him a little bit, but he was otherwise fine. Other times, he’d just talk and talk and talk, which he usually didn't do. It drove my mother crazy. When she got angry with him when he was drunk, it would make him explode. I remember when I was eight or nine saying to my mother, “When he comes home drunk don't get mad at him. It just makes it worse. Talk to him in the morning.” She would say “Yes,” but she would never do it.

She couldn’t control her Irish anger. I trusted her

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pray before it stops. Then I was realizing I was gay.

And I thought oh God, that’s not good news. You know people say you can’t be happy. Blah, blah. So I just went into this depression during my second year at Harvard.

Your mother died of cancer when you were thirty, but she seems to remain an inspiration. In your “thank you” speech accepting the Tony Award for “Vanya and Sonya,” you looked skyward and said to the audience, “I think my mother wants to thank you all as well.”

My mother was very warm. She loved theater. I wrote a two-page play in second grade and she was so excited. She gave me a lot of confidence. And she had the ability to find much of the family craziness funny.

People in my family would be furious with one another but insist they weren’t or would say, “I forgive you, but … and what followed the “but” was the reminder of all the things they were mad at. In the middle of it all, she’d say, “Boy, we’re all acting crazy now.” She could see through the family lunacy while it was going on.

When I went home from college for Christmas, my mother wanted a Christmas tree. Everyone fought at Christmas. They were drunk and mean to each other.

>

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23

Chris Durang with their dog, seven-year-old Alfie, rescued from a shelter when he was 18 months old. Photo: John Augustine.

REEL NEWS

Isle of Dogs

Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons in Hearts Beat Loud.

DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

First Reformed HHHH Cast: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Philip Ettinger Drama, thriller/R Written and directed by Paul Schrader The dwindling congregation of Rev. Ernst Toller’s (Hawke) 250-year-old church, First Reformed, is the least of his problems. By day the man of God consoles and offers hope, by night he vents his despair in his journal and drowns his tortured soul in drink. We learn that his son died in Iraq, his wife left him, and guilt and anger make him question not only his faith in God and church, but also the meaning of life itself. The reality test comes when Mary (Seyfried), a pregnant parishioner, seeks his help with her husband Michael (Ettinger), who is opposed to bringing a child into this dystopian society. Rev. Toller visits the distraught man, but leaves spiraling even closer to the black hole that tugs his soul toward the abyss. Like a classic horror movie, escape seems impossible from the metaphysical hell. With Toller spiritually anchorless and emotionally adrift, the plot takes a sharp turn, not toward redemption but perhaps towards justification. The film doesn’t demand that viewers suspend belief in reality, but to consider the reality around us with a different consciousness.

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Western HHHH Cast: Meinhard Neumann, Reinhardt Wetrek Drama/NR In German, Bulgarian, and English, with English subtitles.

When a German construction gang arrives in a remote Bulgarian valley to build a hydroelectric power plant, the ensuing social clash mirrors the typical High Noon standoff of old western movies suggested by the film’s title. Yet the conflict, and the characters, are far more nuanced than the classic good vs. evil of Hollywood. While the hot-headed construction boss, Vincent (Wetrek), inflames the locals with his bigoted and brutish attitudes, Meinhard (Neumann), a strong, silent former Legionnaire (i.e. iconic John Wayne type), begins to assimilate with the villagers.

He values their culture and develops trust and friendships, which will be tested to the limit as the animosity escalates. Vincent’s distain of Meinhard is as profound as his contempt for the villagers, who still resent the German invasion of Bulgaria during World War II. The meandering arc of the movie invariably veers in unexpected directions, but at its core it explores the possibility that cultural and personal conflict isn’t inevitable if the calming force of friendships can gain a foothold.

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Hearts Beat Loud HHH Cast: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons Drama-comedy/PG-13

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? HHHH Cast: Fred Rogers Documentary/PG-13.

This feel-good movie comes at a time when politicians light up social media with molten criticism, and blockbuster thrillers embrace fantasy and superheroes. Then along comes this father-daughter bonding movie that focuses on real relationships and real issues. Frank Fisher’s (Offerman) dream of becoming a pop music star fizzles when his wife and band partner die and leave him with one-year-old Samantha (Clemons). For the next 17 years he passes time in his Brooklyn record store and devotes himself to rearing Sam, which might be considered his only success, albeit one of life’s sweetest. She inherited both her parent’s musical talent, and jamming together has been the highlight of Frank’s life. Now his record store is closing and his dream is to launch a new music career with his daughter.

Jamming with her, they come up with a song, the titular title of the film. But her dream is to go to medical school.

Life and their relationship get complicated when he posts one of their jam session songs on Spotify and it goes viral. The conflict comes down to dad’s fantasies versus daughter’s realistic life goals.

Fred Rogers graduated from Presbyterian Seminary as an ordained minister with a mission. He dedicated his life to saving preschoolers from the crass exploitation of children’s television, which viewed them as just another market segment to be manipulated.

He believed that “what we see and hear on the screen becomes who we are,” and was determined to give children a safe “Neighborhood” with the self-affirming message that we are all worthy of love. While sponsors wanted to plant the seeds of consumerism with alluring scenes of cereal and toys, Rogers’ goal was “to make goodness attractive.” Director Morgan Neville focuses on how Rogers created a supportive, loving, and understanding neighborhood— impressive in today’s society where hatred and greed overrule civility and compassion. Neville interviews family and co-stars, shows episodes that addressed hard issues, and shows Rogers the man testifying before Congress on the value of non-commercial PBS. The film is more than a nostalgic blast from the past; it’s a renewal of Rogers’ challenge that couldn’t be more pertinent in today’s fractured society—“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” n

s e . r ” a y t g l w , — d y s n e m t t

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25

FOREIGN

Maktub

E

SOME TV SHOWS AND films deftly combine genres—Wild Wild West was a fusion of the Western and spy genres (with a touch of science fiction that now would be termed steampunk); Roswell combined teen drama with science fiction and contemporary paranoia—Dawson’s Creek meets The X-Files. Analyze This combined The Sopranos with a gently mocking satire of people-in-therapy and mob movies. The Israeli film Maktub (Israel, 2017) combines aspects of Quentin Tarantino and romantic comedy (with a touch of screwball comedy) and does it quite well.

The setup: Two low-level gangsters, Chuma (Guy Amir, also co-writer) and Steve (Hanan Savyon, also co-writer), are in charge of making cash “collections” from small businesses in Jerusalem for a local mobster. One day they happen to be in a restaurant hit by a terrorist bombing—as luck (or Providence, or Maktub, the Arabic word for Fate) would have it, they are the only survivors.

They take this as a Sign From Above to stray from their criminal path and do good deeds. People make wishes at the Wailing Wall—writing them down on small bits of paper and inserting them into cracks in the Wall. Inspiration alights: Why not make some of these wishes come true? So, with the aid of a briefcase full of cash—courtesy of a fellow “collector” that dined with our dynamic duo but was killed in the bombing—they go about doing just that. Meanwhile, their boss Kaslassy (Itzik Cohen), while aware of the restaurant bombing, isn’t quite ready to write-off that one collection agent’s satchel of cash as an unforseen business loss. You, Dear Reader, can probably see where this is going.

Chuma and Steve are of The Sopranos and Tarantino schools of criminals, namely, thugs, gangsters, and reprobates are people too. They amiable bicker like good buddies do and they have witty, tender, sentimental, and thoughtful sides to their personalities, which we get to see when they are not smashing chairs over people and dangling uncooperative types out office building windows. As with Goodfellas and Tarantino films, relatively calm slices-of-life are interrupted by sudden, convulsive (albeit not too bloody) bits of violence. While not exactly overly “sympathetic” these Israelifellas are somewhat likeable—the superstitious Chuma has the wholesome grass-fed looks of an Indiana farmer in the 1880s and the calculating, slightly sleezy-looking Steve has some of the roguish (yet ruthless) charm of Robert DeNiro and Robert Mitchum. Steve has a wife (or girlfriend—not made clear) Lizo (the lovely and earthy-looking Chen Amsalem) with a son and he’s estranged from them; Chuma thinks this is not cool so he brings gifts and cash to them and tells her it’s all from Steve. Steve and Chuma find they enjoy the fairy Godfather (pun intended) roles they play—getting a pay-raise for a beleaguered dweeb of a family man and arranging and paying for a grand bar mitzvah for the son of a financially-struggling Russian émigré (Anastasia Fein)…and then they get more ambitious.

Maktub is a buddy fantasy/comedy with dramatic overtones—it cheerily plays with the trope of bad guys embracing concepts of Goodness, Compassion, and, yes, Love without leaving behind the coarser sides of their natures, namely badass-ery and deviousness. Amir and Savyon have great chemistry as guys that can be nasty bastards (for a living) yet like and care about each other while often moments away from throttling each other. The pacing, while not exactly brisk, keeps things moving at a nice pace and there’s a hospitable balance between moments that are somewhat benign whimsy and Goodfellas brutality. Cohen as understatedly yet chillingly effective as a mob boss that’s easygoing one moment and a stone killer the next. This is an import well-worth seeking out. n MARK KERESMAN

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DOCUMENTARY

Generation Wealth

EVER SINCE GORDON GEKKO (Wall Street, 1987) said, “Greed is good,” the world hasn’t been quite the same. What used to be garnish is now the main course. In the last century, Gekko would’ve been seen as a robber baron—now he is, to the Reagan Youth and Goldman Sachs, a role model.

Photographer Laurie Greenfield is the director of the documentary Generation Wealth, a film outlining the culture of the filthy rich, about how money, or rather the lust for it, goes hand-in-glove with lust for fame, material possession, and narcissism. The viewer meets several individuals and recounts their journey from not being wealthy to super flush—a banker, a porn star, a female business tycoon, including Greenfield and her family. Via talking-head interviews and a juxtaposition of film clips, we see the environments that produce the wealthy, as well as the worlds they make for themselves—the ones we see on reality TV shows, the news, and documentaries like this one.

And yet, for nearly every success story, there’s one about how it doesn’t last, how a structure built on a shaky or unstable foundation eventually collapses under its own weight.

Among the happy, peppy people we’re privileged to meet: The son of the lead singer of REO Speedwagon; hedge fund king Florian Homm; a classmate of Katie Holmes, a contestant in Toddlers and Tiaras and her mother, a businesswoman so devoted to “success” she is virtually an empty suit with a bad hairstyle. What is good about GW: The filmmaker doesn’t dwell on the obvious (and obliviousness) of her subjects—they mostly hang themselves, but after their (inevitable?) decline, some are shown as hurt and humbled. The Kardashians? Yeah, they’re here, but they’re too obvious a target. There are also some people from the periphery, friends of the director who were nursed and grew in the zone of wealth but never achieved fame and notoriety—we and they see the people they were then, and the people they are (or think they are, at any rate), before and after.

Where the doc flounders a bit: some tedious/hackneyed blather about our culture and “what it all means”—we’re nearing “collapse,” as in ancient Rome—from some academic type. Greenfield inserts herself and her family, which has its relevant moments—her observations from the inside-out, so to speak. But there’s a bit too much about her photography book, shown at various phases of the publishing process. Sorry, Ms. G, but that part comes across as self-serving.

Generation Wealth is a somewhat enlightening and entertaining documentary—well worth seeing but, yes, it could’ve been so much more. n MARK KERESMAN

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27

FOODIE FILE

BY A.D. AMOROSI

Ari Miller & Christopher Curtin

Adan Trinidad & Eli Collins

Aaron Gottesman & Nich Bazik

FROM HERE TO ANDIARIO Under a tin ceiling and wide windows on Gay Street in West Chester, Chef Anthony Andiario and life-business partner Maria van Schaijik have crafted a handsomely burnished and flavorfully propulsive sort-of cuisine where delicate handmade pastas with unique and sumptuous sauces (check the colorful wide bigoli with house cured guanciale and blistered cherry tomatoes or the hearty ricotta casoncelli with black trumpets and mushroom crema) and wood-fired meats and fishes (braised pork shoulder with sweet corn and torpedo onions, duck breast with smoked apple jus), are elevated to an art form. Even simple pleasures such as a veal carpaccio with plump blackberries and meaty chanterelles are a neat and tasty trick.

THE NEW ITALIAN MARKET ISN’T SO ITALIAN It wouldn’t be the first time that someone has written of the charms of the evershifting Italian Market as it has—increasingly more so in the last decade—opened its arms, hearts and collective stomach to cuisine including Mexican and various forms of Asian fare. Now, and within the last month, there’s been the addition of the Koukouzeli Hellenic Grille to the lower half of South 9th Street, a yogurty Greek restaurant from the team at Old City’s Brickhouse Café. Located next door to Connie’s Ric Rac, the 20+ seater will be open Wednesday through Sunday, a perfect skewering for the late-night crowds rocking out at the Ric Rac. Opa! Along with a still un-named Jamaican restaurant opening with the promise of tangy jerk chicken and such (and near the Cheesesteak Vegas of Pat’s and Geno’s), there’s the multinational Market at Ninth, directly across from Blue Corn, that specializes in café, gourmet fare with flair.

All this occurs in the shadow of the expansion of the El Compadre /South Philly Barbacoa empire as co-owner-chef Cristina Martinez and Benjamin Miller stretches onto the corner of 1140 S. 9th Street. What will happen is that Martinez’s tender lamb barbacoa will be served from the wee early hours (5 a.m. on!) during Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, while El Compadre will remain in business, Monday through Fridays, serving tacos, tortas and guisados.

THE NEW FERGIE’S, SAME AS THE OLD FERGIE’S When Fergus Carey lost his Fergie’s Pub co-founder Wajih Abed to cancer in 2017, no one knew what he could have in store next, for his future and the future of his nearly 24-year-old Sansom Street saloon and social meet-ery. Carey, however, looked from within, and found his longtime bartender/manager Jim McNamara, along with Rebecca Strapp, a bartender at South Philly’s Garage. Word has it that nothing at all will change at Fergie’s, and that Carey had only just signed a new 10year lease.

PAIRING UP FOR FEASTIVAL There are several big changes on board for this year’s Fringe Festival-funding Feastival, Thursday, September 27 at Fringe Arts headquarters. Along with taking on a fourth partner in Top Chef-winning Nicholas Elmi, chef/co-founder Michael Solomonov and restaurateurs Stephen Starr and Audrey Clare Taichman, have creat28

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Michael Solomonov, Jesse Ito, Townsend Wentz & Nick Elmi

Seth Petit & Rakesh Ramola

ed a pairing-up concept among its celebratory chefs, where each team tackles ideas and cuisines linked to particular areas of the city. While the tickets cost $300 a shot ($450 for VIP), here are the teams you can look forward to tasting, and here’s where you can buy tickets (http://phillyfeastival.com) Tackling South Philly’s Italian, Southeast Asian, and Mexican heritage: Chris Buretta, Continental Midtown and Abigail Dahan, Parc Jezabel Careaga, Jezabel’s and Clark Gilbert, Louie Louie Jason Cichonski, Ela and Andrew Farley, High Street on Market Joncarl Lachman, Noord and Ben Puchowitz, Bing Bing Dim Sum and Cheu Noodle Bar Richard Pepino, Drexel University’s Center for Hospitality and Michael Yeamans, Audrey Claire Seth Petitt, Urban Farmer and Rakesh Ramola, Indeblue Representing West Philly cuisines Indian, African and Caribbean: Aaron Bennawit, The Good King Tavern and Scott Schroeder, Hungry Pigeon Eli Collins, a.kitchen and Adan Trinidad, Sancho Pistola’s Nick Elmi, Laurel and Nick Macri, La Divisa Meats Matt Fein, Federal Donuts and Jon Rodriquez, Mission Taqueria Nate Horwitz, Morimoto and Todd Lean, Pod Armando Jimenez, Harp & Crown and Charlie Schmidt, Philadelphia OIC Representing Chinatown’s Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian cuisines: Nich Bazik, Kensington Quarters and Aaron Gottesman, Oyster House Camille Cogswell, Zahav and Manny Perez, Walnut Street Café William Kells, Capofitto and Peter Woolsey, La Peg Michael Loughlin, Scarpetta and Jeremy Nolen, West Reading Motor Club Michael Strauss, Mike’s BBQ and Michael Sultan, Revolution Taco Representing Kensington and Port Richmond’s Polish, Lithuanian and Irish cuisines: Kenneth Bush, Bistrot La Minette and Richard Landau, V Street and Vedge Jonathan Cichon, Lacroix and Ari Miller, Lost Bread Co. Christopher Curtin, Eclat Chocolate and Ari Miller, 1732 Meats Chris Kearse, Will BYOB and Joe Thomas Jr., Bank & Bourbon Francisco Ramirez, Tredici and Zavino and Greg Vernick, Vernick Food & Drink Representing Northeast Philly’s Jewish, German and Russian heritage: Kiki Aranita and Chris Vacca, Poi Dog and Marc Vetri, Vetri Cucina Michael Brenfleck, La Calaca Feliz and Doreen DeMarco, American Sardine Bar Rob Cottman, World Café Live and Andrew Wood, Russet Jesse Ito, Royal Izakaya and Townsend Wentz, Townsend, A Mano and Oloroso Samuel Kennedy and Matthew Hettlinger, The Farm at Doe Run and John Patterson, Fork n

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SINGER | SONGWRITER REVIEWED BY TOM WILK

Joe Ely HHH1/2 Full Circle: The Lubbock Tapes Rack ‘Em Records For Joe Ely, Full Circle: The Lubbock Tapes serves as an audio portrait of a developing artist. Recorded between 1974 and 1978, the album offers a look at the West Texas native finding his voice as a singer and developing his craft as a roots-rock songwriter.

“Windmills and Watertanks” opens the album with a declaration of his country roots that recalls his time in the Flatlanders with a vocal that contains echoes of Jimmie Rodgers. Ely effortlessly shifts gears with the rockabilly-flavored “Road Hawg,” one of six songs composed by Butch Hancock, his bandmate in the Flatlanders. Ely gains confidence with as a songwriter with “I Had My Hopes Up High,” a seamless fusion of blues, rock, and country, and the philosophical ballad “Because of the Wind.” On “All My Love,” Ely reveals his growth as a singer while he expands his vocal range.

Ely’s band, which includes lead guitarist Jesse Taylor and pedal-steel guitarist Lloyd Maines, provides a solid foundation for the wistful “If You Were a Bluebird” and the honky-tonk rumble of “BBQ and Foam.” Ely and his band capture a sense of economic frustration on “I Keep Gettin’ Paid the Same.” Four decades after its recording, Full Circle: The Lubbock Tapes can be seen as providing an artistic blueprint for Ely’s rich and varied career. (15 songs, 48 minutes) Trudy Lynn HHH1/2 Blues Keep Knockin’ Connor Ray Music During the course of a recording career that spans parts of four decades, Trudy Lynn has been an ambassador for the blues. She continues that tradition with Blues Keep 30

Knockin’, her 13th studio album, which finds her in strong voice at 71.

She starts off the CD with a sprightly reading of “Blues Ain’t Nothin’” that features a lively bassline that echoes the theme from the “Peter Gunn” TV series. The mid-tempo “That’s Alright,” co-written by Jimmy Rogers, finds Lynn dealing with sexual politics and its inherent double standard for woemn. Lynn performs the title track, which she wrote, as a brisk shuffle and finds her taking on the omnipresence of the blues. She branches out with a spoken word/sung version of the blues standard “One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show,” which follows the spirit of Big Maybelle’s 1955 version. She turns “Never Been to Spain,” an early 1970s hit for Three Dog Night written by Hoyt Axton, into a jazz/blues workout.

Ballads bring out the best in Lynn. She stretches out vocally for the nearly sixminute “I Sing the Blues” as the rhythm section of bassist Terry Dry and drummer Matt Johnson provide her with a steady groove. She makes “Pitiful,” featuring Bob Lanza on guitar, into a memorable torch song. “Please have mercy on this achin’ heart of mine” she sings, turning the request into an earnest plea for deliverance.

(10 songs, 41 minutes) Jimmer & Syd HHH1/2 Shoulder to Cry On Chace Recordings Jimmer Podrasky, former leader of the Rave-Ups, and Syd Straw, a mem-

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ber of the Golden Palominos, a solo artist and backing singer for Rickie Lee Jones and Daniel Lanois, among others, have teamed up on Shoulder to Cry On. It’s an intimate-sounding EP featuring songs of surviving hard times and romantic setbacks.

“The Girl Next Door” sets the tone with an acoustic guitar/harmonic introduction which then incorporates an electric guitar to give the song a folk/rock feel that evokes mid-1960s Bob Dylan. The singers’ voices achingly blend for a bittersweet farewell. The wistful “So Long Blue” and emotionally direct “More Than Mine” showcase Podrasky’s gift for lyrics. “Funny how I think about your life more than mine” he sings on the latter as he contemplates the loss of a lover. Terry Wilson’s sitar playing gives “Big Wide River” a memorable backdrop that echoes Roger McGuinn’s 12-string guitar work with the Byrds. “Shoulder to Cry On” captures the melancholy aftermath of a breakup with some fine guitar/banjo interplay. “Reaching out for romance/We’re better off as friends” effortlessly sums up the feeling of an affair that has run its course.

(6 songs, 19 minutes) Beth Snapp HHH Don’t Apologize Newsong Recordings Don’t Apologize finds Beth Snapp confronting issues of self-doubt in overcoming obstacles and confronting the world’s imperfections. The Tennessee-based performer and her back-

ing band deliver a melodic and thoughtful set of music on an EP that mixes country, folk and a touch of pop.

“I can be a little hard to handle,

but I can be so easy to love,” she breezily declares on “Easy to Love,” which features nimble banjo work from Jason Crawford and soaring fiddle from Kevin Johnson. The soothing title track offers reassurance in fighting off feelings of inadequacy. Snapp switches gears for a darker sound, heightened by Dave Eggar’s foreboding cello, on “The Princess Dream.”

On “Counting Down,” which features Cruz Contreras of the Black Lillies on supporting vocals, Snapp delivers a heartfelt lyric on the joys of anticipation. The up-tempo “Little Much” and “Scream” show her diversifying her sound with the latter track featuring percussion-fueled dance rhythms. (7 songs, 27 minutes) Blue Yonder HHH1/2 Rough and Ready Heart NewSong Recordings The members of Blue Yonder— singer/songwriter and guitarist John Lilly, electric guitarist Robert Shafer, and acoustic bassist Will Carter— keep the spirit of traditional country music alive on Rough and Ready Heart, the band’s second studio album. The West Virginia-based trio incorporates other genres into the mix to maintain a fresh sound.

“Standing by the Side of the Road” kicks off the album with a free-spirited account on the joys of hitchhiking and the open road. “I’m satisfied/Waiting for my ride,” Lilly sings as pedal steel guitarist Russ Hicks adds a touch of Western Swing to the music. The title track serves as a declaration of romantic resilience and a vow to rise above any setbacks along the way. “Lonely Hour,” a honky-tonk lament, recalls the work of newer traditionalist singers such as Dwight Yoakam and Wayne Hancock. “Well Acquainted with the Blues” shows Lilly’s ability to turn a phrase and would fit in on a Johnny Cash album from the late 1950s or early 1960s. Lilly displays his vocal versatility on the smooth phrasing of “Memories and Moonlight,” a romantic waltz, and the rockabillytinged “Green Light,” the exuberant closing track. With Blue Yonder, there there’s new ground to be explored in classic music forms. (12 songs, 39 minutes) n

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JAZZ, ROCK, CLASSICAL, ALT REVIEWED BY MARK KERESMAN

John Coltrane HHHHH Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album (Deluxe Edition) Impulse It could be argued that saxophonist John Coltrane (1926-1967) is one of the Holy Trinity of post-Charlie Parker jazz—the other two being Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman. These three cats influenced, directly and indirectly, the paths jazz has taken and will take, not to mention that of A LOT of nonjazz music. (The late rock icon Lou Reed named Coleman as an influence, and if/when you hear rock musicians improvising/stretching out it’s due to the inspiration of Miles and ‘Trane.) Recently tapes of a pre-

viously unissued 1963 studio session by the classic Coltrane Quartet—JC, tenor & soprano sax; McCoy Tyner, piano, Jimmy Garrison, bass, and Elvin Jones, drums—was discovered. It’s such a “raw” find that some of the tracks are, simply, “Untitled Originals.”

This is not only a major historical occasion but a momentously musical one too—this was Coltrane at one of his peak periods with his regular combo, up there with the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Dave Brubeck Quartet in terms of established/working ensembles, playing with the unity and empathy only a BAND can have. Coltrane was working on freer modes of expression at the time; Both has aspects of that but he’s very much in the vein of “My Favorite Things”— volatile and pushing the envelope but swinging in a powerful and direct manner. The pleasures of this two-CD set are many and varied—a version of “Impressions” sans Tyner; the dreamy balladry of “Nature Boy,” the volcanic intensity of Jones, the measured calm-in-the-eye-of-the-hurricane lyricism of Tyner, ensemble playing that surges and amazes on visceral, cerebral, and, dare I say it, spiritual levels. Another 32

selling point: the Coltrane unit was not only in a creative groove but an accessible one too—the day after this session this group recorded the classic Ballads album with singer Johnny Hartman. This set is SO recommended to both Coltrane novices AND fanatics. (14 tracks, 90 min.) vervemusicgroup.com Esther Lamneck HHHH1/2 Tárogató Constructions Innova The tárogató is a reed instrument often heard in the traditional folk music of Hungary and Romania— it has a melancholy, plaintive sound, imagine a cross between an oboe and a clarinet. Speaking of which, Esther Lamneck is a Julliard-bred clarinetist who has played with symphony orchestras and with no less than Pierre Boulez and Isaac Stern. She also plays the tárogató, and here are works written for it by contemporary composers who specialize in making music with combinations of electronic and acoustic instrumentation. Mara Helmuth’s “Irresistible Flux” is sonorous, full of folk-like simplicity and directness— she plays alongside herself electronically—that’s both lovely and heartrendingly sad. That gives way to some agitated playing evoking none other than John Coltrane’s early-’60s soprano sax. The listener is in an enchanted forest, one that has austere and gentle beauty and terrible secrets. Jorge Sosa’s “Enchantment” takes the listener into Pink Floyd territory (pre-Dark Side of the Moon, to be sure)—still beautiful but with some judicious, slightly industrial-sounding dissonances. Needless to say, this is not music to accompany afternoon tea with Mom; it’s more along the lines of sending your consciousness onto the Cosmic Turnpike where the exit ramps are never permanent. Eerie, haunting, dreamlike, at times nightmarish—and highly recommended. (8 tracks, 71 min.) innova.mu The Quick HHHH Mondo Deco – Expanded Edition Real Gone Music In the ragtag history of rock & roll there are bands that had the right sound (or song) at the wrong time—such a band was The Quick. Formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, they came (seemingly) outta-nowhere, released one album in 1976, then promptly returned there (also seemingly), reissued here (1ST time on CD) with 11 bonus tracks. Thumbnail: The youthful fivesome The Quick sounded as if they were the bratty younger brother(s) to Queen— fey vocals; arching (with a touch of anguished whine) guitar, keyboards shining like the North Star, Keith Moon-like drums, thundering chords redolent of The Who and Cheap Trick, songs the listener finds catchy despite him/her-self. “My Purgatory Years” could be a

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teenaged Bowie exorcising pre-adult angst, and “Anybody” ought to have been in the soundtrack to teens hanging out in Kroger’s parking lots in ’76 (or now).

The downside: The Quick could be a tad too smarmy for its own good—note covers of the Beatles’ “It Won’t be Long” and Four Seasons’ “Rag Doll.” Yes, it’s of its time but still has pleasures a-plenty for discriminating, smart-assed rock & rollers of all ages. PS: Quick singer Danny Wilde went on to The Rembrandts, who provided the theme song for a TV show modestly called Friends. (21 tracks, 76 min.) realgonemusic.com Marc Mellits/New Music Detroit HHHH1/2 Smoke Innova Chicago-based Marc Mellits is a composer of notated (“classical”) music—but while the beast known as classical conjures connotations of an orchestra in a swanky concert hall, Mellits subverts those notions immediately. “Smoke,” for sax, electric guitar, marimba, and percussion, comes out of the gate like TV and movie themes used to, getting the listener ready for a thrill-ride. He mixes Reich/Glass-like minimalism (cyclic repetitions) with thorny, twist-y, sardonic themes that reflect Warner Brothers’ cartoon music and Frank Zappa in his large-ensemble modes (in other words, instrumental sarcasm) sprinkled with

some gnarly, metal-flavored guitar—brash, bracing, energetic, and refreshing as a gallon of ice water on a 95-degree day. “Red” for two marimbas is more like straight-up minimalism but essayed in a cool (as in temperature), spry, almost impish manner…then it shimmers like a fever-dream, then dances over your inner ear with West African folk-like melodies. “Tapas” for string quartet commingles Glass-like writing for strings with baroque-ish structure and stylishness and classical (as in Haydn/Beethoven/Schubert) elegance. But be hip: Mellits is not doing a mix-‘n’match-up—everything got to come from someplace, and he slices up the map and the signposts thereon

to get to where he wants to take you. Recommended if you like the aforementioned minimalist composers (not to mention the latter half of David Bowie’s Low), quirky jazz writers such as Carla Bley, jazz-influenced classical gas-ers such as Gunther Schuller and Igor Stravinsky, and progressive rock fans and indie rock youths that want to get into classical music composed post-1968. Zoot! (23 tracks, 66 min.) innova.mu Arianna Neikrug HHHH Changes Concord Jazz If you’re going to try to make a splash, then make a big one—that’s what 25-year-old jazz singer Arianna Neikrug did with this debut platter. She’s a straightup jazz singer, albeit one that lives in the same world as us. Which is this writer’s semi-snide way of stating Ms. Neikrug is not stuck in some idealized past, mired in the Great American Songbook tradition.

Nothing wrong with the GAS, mind you, but she’s not rendering the oft-done-to-death standards—she applies her lithe, lightly tart soprano voice (with a slight, emotive vibrato) to Al Green’s ‘70s R&B gem “Let’s Stay Together,” making it seem like an old-time

aching ballad. Neikrug’s take on Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me” sounds as if the song were written for her (which is what a great song stylist does, really.) Neikrug’s approach combines youthful insouciance with a gravitas seemingly beyond her years—her version of the Jackson Five’s “I’ll Be There” is gloriously majestic yet it maintains some of the starry-eyed romance of the original. But dig this, GAS diehards—she expertly essays evergreens “After You’ve Gone” (with some Ella Fitzgerald-ish scat-singing too) and “The Song is You.” Her band is aces—piano, bass, and drums understatedly provide flair, swing, and judicious punch.

Changes is thoroughly chill (as the young people say) without being monotonous. Like they say in the old Western films: There’s a new sheriff in town. (10 tracks, 48 min.) concordmusicgroup.com n ICON, SEPTEMBER 2018 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

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JAZZ LIBRARY

BY BOB PERKINS

Della Reese

TO SUGGEST THAT THE famed singer/actress Della Reese lead an “interesting” life, would be an understatement. There is no getting round the fact that Della Reese was a multi-talented entertainer, capable of singing the stuffing out of any song, in any genre placed before her.

Reese was born July 6, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan. Her father was African-American, her mother, Native-American. She was named Delloreese Patrica Early—she changed her name to Della Reese when she became a professional entertainer.

She began singing in church at a young age. In her youth, she liked to attend movies and see famous film actresses; she would then go home and act out what she’d seen. Her gospel leanings, along with the drama in her singing, were certainly not hidden in her stage delivery and on record She attended Detroit’s storied Cass Technical High School, and when possible toured with Mahalia Jackson’s gospel group—keeping her grades up all all the while, and graduating in 1947 at age 15. Della was forced to drop studies at Wayne State University and find work, because of financial difficulties at home. When her mother died, she moved from the family home because she disapproved of her father taking up with another woman.

She won a contest sponsored by Detroit’s Flame Show Bar, which led to an eight-week engagement at the club. Although rooted in gospel, the voices of Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald influenced her, and she began to pursue a career in secular music. Her first recording contract was in 1953. Her career was picking up, nightclub and recording-wise, and in 1957 a new star was born with her recording of “And that Reminds Me.” The single sold a million copies, and Della was hailed by several music industry magazines as “The Most Promising Singer.” Two years later she registered another monster hit with “Don’t You Know,” which sold more than a million copies. Over the years, the song and the name, Reese, became synonymous.

From the latter 1950s, until her death, more than a half-century later, her name became a household item, credited to airplay of her recording on radio, guest appearances in TV dramas and sitcoms, and surely due to her starring role in the popular television series, Touched by an Angel.

What may not have been known about Della is that she had been married four times—once to Duke Ellington’s son, Mercer—who was quite a musician and bandleader in his own right. The marriage to Mercer was annulled because Mercer’s Mexican divorce was ruled invalid.

Della’s strong religious leanings held true when she became a woman of the cloth, ordained through the Christian New Thought branch, known as Unity. She thus became known in some circles as the Rev. Dr. Della Reese.

Martha Reeves, founder of the singing group Martha and the Vandella’s, was such an admirer of Della Reese, that she revealed the name Vandella’s was a joining of Detroit’s Van Dyke Street, with Reese’s first name.

Much like the legendary Ella Fitzgerald, Della Reese could sing the names in a telephone directory and sound great doing it. She was on a first name basis with gospel, blues and standard, popular music. And if there is any doubt about her jazz chops, check out her CD Della Reese in Hollywood in a live performance with jazz veterans Jack McDuff, Herb Ellis and Bobby Bryant, to name a few. On the standard, pop side, get hold of Della’s CD, Voice of an Angel.

Della’s health had been in decline for several years prior to death claiming in her on November 19, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, at age 86. n

Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Mon. through Thurs. night, from 6–9 and Sunday, 9–1.

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POP

BY A.D. AMOROSI

Paul McCartney.

Paul Simon.

Van Morrison

The September of My Years

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HIS ISN’T THE FIRST time I have written about a collection of over-50-year-old artists making handsomely burnished music into the future (I almost said ‘golden years,’ but shouldn’t each year be gilded?), but, sadly, as time marches forward, we’re finding fewer artists to discuss (RIP Tom Petty), and fewer still who are crafting the interesting, intricate art of their formative years. By the way, this age bracket thing will soon catch up the alternative crowd: both Death Cab for Cutie and Aminol Collective, each with brand new albums out, are on the ass-end of their 40s, and have been in the professional music business for 20 some years. Same for Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce whose new album, And Nothing Hurt, is his first in six years. Time marches on, you know. I don’t know if hearing that Eric Clapton will make his next album a holiday recording makes time’s march thump softer, but it’s his dime.

Two of September’s most prominent albums come from vets of the game, and pop’s two Pauls, McCartney and Simon, with one faring tons better than the other.

With his Carpool Karaoke appearances and James Corden antics, Paul McCartney has seemed a bit desperate as of late. So did his teaming with Kanye West on new songs such as “Only One,” “FourFiveSeconds,” and “All Day,” seem reaching. Then again, competing against himself and his decades-long list of classics—as he has with his last few albums—could make any man mad, let alone the one-time Beatle. And, for the record, I applaud anyone forging forward with new music at a time when most audiences shamefully hit the top pricey concert trail for hits-and-nothing-butthe-old-hits. McCartney’s first new in five years, Egypt

Station, seems lost in both its rocky execution (the foot stomping “Come On to Me” was a terrible choice for a first single) and meandering songwriting, both melodically and lyrically. The one great thing about Egypt Station as a whole is McCartney’s voice: rarely has it sounded so craggily passionate and deeply and emotionally invested. I only wish that McCartney had something better to invest his time, energy and voice in, and that its yield was more dynamic.

Dynamism, then, is what Paul Simon has at his command on his new album, In the Blue Light. Currently touring in what he says is his last round up, Simon hasn’t depended on pop’s cockles when it has come to making records, which is why each of his albums since the experimental Graceland (think about it: wordy pop balladeer records exclusively with South African musicians and rhythmatists) have been more satisfying—and often big selling—than the last. Blue Light is a bit of a cheat, as it finds Simon capturing some of his past catalog’s work and mining that for golden hues. Yet, these aren’t hits he’s rendering anew, but rather unusual favorites of the author’s that he wished to re-dabble with in terms of new collaborations and fresh arrangements. More often than not, Simon’s choice of players are atmospheric avant-rock guys such as The National’s Bryce Dessner, or jazz-bos such as bassist John Patitucci and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, dolling up songs as far back as There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973) and Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) or as recent as You’re The One (2000) and So Beautiful Or So What (2011). This is heavenly stuff Simon has re-performed and one wishes that he

would extend his farewell to include showcases of just these arrangements with these new musicians.

One elder of pop, soul, rock and jazz who has made himself into one of 2017 and 2018’s most interesting singers is Van Morrison, who’ll hit these parts courtesy Wellie Nelson’s Outlaw Tour at Camden, NJ’s BB&T Pavilion on September 15. Within the last 12 months, Morrison has made one album with Philly’s son of the Hammond organ, Joey DeFrancesco (and his quartet), You’re Driving Me Crazy, and two with Van’s own righteous R&B-jazz ensemble for Roll with the Punches and Versatile.

Each of Morrison’s new albums find him showing off his tender obsessions with the work of Chet Baker and Mose Allison, both in terms of his choice of vintage aged blues-jazzy covers and Van’s own similarly comported original songs such as “Start All Over Again,” “Only a Dream,” and “Affirmation” (found on Versatile), “Close Enough for Jazz,” “Goldfish Bowl,” and “Evening Shadows” (on Driving Me Crazy, several penned with DeFrancesco), and “Fame, “Too Much Trouble,” and “Ordinary People” on the blues rockish Roll with the Punches. While the latter allows the gutsy Morrison to punch, swaggeringly, against the dark bluesy guitar and organ lines of big names such as Jeff Beck, Chris Farlowe and Georgie Fame, Driving Me Crazy gives Morrison a chance to saunter, simmer, bill and coo—nice and rough—while nestled against the curvaceous organ fills and subtly dramatic rhythmic cushion provided by DeFrancesco & Co. At 72, Van Morrison is going to go out roaring like he came in, and continue on like time never mattered. n

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harper’s FINDINGS Polarized political partisans are impatient not with their opponents’ views but with all politics; political consensus between parents and children has been rising since the Sixties; liberals are more likely to read news sources that use serif fonts. The language of inmates represents the prison as an animal kingdom. The more a man associates women with birds, the more sexist he tends to be. Women are likelier than men to assume male feminists look feminine. The more educated an American man is, the less likely he is to change his name when he gets married. Hyposexual Czech women confer mercy sex on their male partners four times as frequently as do hyposexual Italian women. High vocal pitch offsets antisocial speech content. Men with high testosterone direct more swear words and sexual words at their romantic partners and more “achievement” words at their children. Both male and female psychopaths have fewer children than average, whereas male narcissists have more. Both male and female narcissists have thicker, bushier eyebrows.

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The highly educated tend to underestimate how much time they have left to live. Most adults, starting in their early twenties, feel younger than their chronological age, by 15 percent on average; those who feel older are at double the risk of dying. It remained unclear why positivity peaks late in life. Eighteen percent of men in their seventies and only 1 percent of women remain open to having sex with different people. Sex becomes more important and less enjoyable as people age, and frequent sex in old age does not correlate with slow cognitive decline. The most common porn search criterion is youth. End-of-life medical spending was falling. The annual US economic loss from childhood sexual abuse exceeds $9 billion. Jack Russell terriers achieve peak cuteness at 7.7 weeks. Duke University’s Jonathan Anomaly argued for a return to eugenics.

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Sitting in a hard chair makes people want to impose harsher punishments, as does seeing other people exhibit a willingness to punish.

The “honesty” that has been observed in Parkinson’s patients is the result of a dampened dopaminergic reward system, which reduces the incentive to deceive. Researchers claimed to have transferred memories between snails via injection. The Sunk Cost Fallacy persists even when someone else has sunk the cost. Mirror-touch synesthetes can tickle themselves. Happy teams score more World Cup goals.

Nigerians, Colombians, and Ghanaians are likeliest to say that they are having a good day. Women wearing fat suits eat more snacks. Huntergatherer men achieve maximal hunting efficiency only in their late forties. The body odor of anxious dental students worsens the performance of other dental students, nests built with aromatic herbs make starlings better parents, and a male crested auklet’s sexual attractiveness is proportional to his citrus scent. Large Trinidadian guppies signal aggression toward smaller ones by turning their eyes black. Astronauts who weigh more on earth experience more changes to their eyeballs in microgravity. Bees are confused by iridescence but understand zero. Low clouds were becoming rarer over southern California. Large portions of disappearing South American rainforest are not naturally distributed but were planted by preColumbian peoples. The red hats of Easter Island statues were put in place with parbuckling. Malaysian oil-palm harvesters dislike their hard hats foremost because they are too hot and heavy. A colony of dead star coral from the southeastern United States washed up on a Normandy beach, transported by stray polyurethane. n 36

INDEX Percentage increase since 2012 in the number of Americans who play lacrosse: 35 Rank of lacrosse among sports with the highest rates of concussions in adolescents: 2 Centimeters at which the Korean Basketball League caps the height of foreign players: 200 Portion of players in the 2017–18 Golden State Warriors roster who would be disqualified: 13/16 Rank of North Korea’s nuclear program among South Koreans’ greatest sources of anxiety: 6 Of air pollution: 1 Estimated average age, in years, of a car in Poland: 17 Number of the European Union’s fifty most polluted cities that are in Poland: 33 Estimated total number of trees that US urban areas lose each year: 28,000,000 Portion of adult New York City apartment dwellers who smelled cigarette smoke from the street or another unit in 2016: 1/2 Estimated additional rent paid by New Yorkers in 2016 because of Airbnb: $616,743,319 Estimated percentage of homeless people in New York City who are unsheltered: 6 Of homeless people in Los Angeles: 75 Percentage of urban Americans who say they know most or all of their neighbors: 24 Of rural Americans: 40 Percentage of US couples with an annual income of less than $75,000 who are “very happy” with their sex life: 46 Of couples with an annual income of more than $200,000: 65 Percentage of Irish aged 14 to 24 who consider internet articles useful for information about healthy sexual relationships: 91 Who consider their parents useful: 51 Portion of Irish aged 18 to 24 who believe one can contract HIV from sitting on a toilet seat: 1/5 Percentage of Alabamians who oppose gay marriage: 51 Number of other states in which a majority of residents oppose it: 0 Percentage of LGBTQ teenagers who say they can “definitely” be themselves at home: 24 At school: 27 Percentage of US public school teachers who spend their own money on school supplies: 94 Average amount a teacher spends each school year: $479 Percentage change since 2008 in the average US public-school teacher’s salary: −4 Percentage change from 2010 to 2017 in the number of foreign teachers arriving annually to work in US public schools: +140 Percentage of white evangelical Americans who think the United States has a responsibility to accept refugees: 25 Of religiously unaffiliated Americans: 65 Portion of US refugee resettlement offices that have closed since Donald Trump’s inauguration: 1/7 Estimated average number of guns legally purchased in Mexico every day: 33 Of guns smuggled into Mexico from the United States: 246 Percentage change this year in the number of police and public safety officers employed by US colleges and universities: +30 Percentage of US college freshmen in 2010 who described themselves as having a psychological disorder: 4 In 2016: 11 Percentage of US dog owners who say their pets sometimes have anxiety or stress issues: 85 Who say they gave their pets medication to manage anxiety, calm them down, or control mood: 8 Minimum number of scientific papers published on nomophobia, the fear of not having access to cellular service: 55 SOURCES: 1 Sports and Fitness Industry Association (Silver Spring, Md.); 2 Zachary Kerr, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; 3 Korean Basketball League (Seoul); 4 Golden State Warriors (Oakland, Calif.); 5,6 Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (Sejong City); 7 European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (Brussels); 8 World Health Organization (Bonn, Germany); 9 US Forest Service (Syracuse, N.Y.); 10 NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; 11 Office of the New York City Comptroller; 12 NYC Department of Homeless Services; 13 Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority; 14,15 Pew Research Center (Washington); 16,17 eHarmony (San Francisco); 18,19 Youth Work Ireland (Dublin); 20 HIV Ireland (Dublin); 21,22 Public Religion Research Institute (Washington); 23,24 Human Rights Campaign (Washington); 25,26 National Center for Education Statistics (Washington); 27 National Education Association (Washington); 28 US Department of State; 29,30 Pew Research Center; 31 US Department of State; 32 Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (Mexico City); 33 Topher McDougal, University of San Diego; 34 College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (Knoxville, Tenn.); 35,36 Higher Education Research Institute (Los Angeles); 37, 38 Packaged Facts (Rockville, Md.); 39 National Library of Medicine (Bethesda, Md.).

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22 CHRISTOPHER DURANG

And if they weren’t that way on Christmas, they were on New Year’s Eve. Not my mother, of course, but my father and many of the others. So my mother just wanted the tree. But, as I told you, I was too depressed to care about it. And that made her sad. So I said, “OK, let’s have a crazy Dada Christmas tree.” And she agreed and just got into it. We put socks, clothes hangers, clothespins, rags, a wig and all sorts of nutty things on that tree. It was just silly. And I loved her for it.

There’s another true-life example of familial craziness that you used in your most autobiographical play about your parents, “The Marriage of Betty and Boo.” Yes, in the play, during a horrendous family Thanksgiving, a drunken Boo spills gravy on the rug and then tries to vacuum up the gravy, while Bette screeches at him, “You don’t vacuum the gravy!” But in this case my mother didn’t find it funny. At least, not immediately.

I saw my mother’s psychologist—a woman who had encouraged her to get the divorce. She said I should try to stay away from that family. I should try not to live with that family. And I took that to mean with my mother. I tended to live her life for her. She had had three stillborn babies, the first when I was three years old. My mother told me later she went through a year of not knowing I was alive.

You attended Al-Anon for relatives and friends of alcoholics. What is your faith practice, if any? You wrote in one of your blogs for the Huffington Post: “I long ago stopped finding the Church a useful messenger of Christ. And I doubt if Pope Ratzinger [sic] will change my mind. I’ve come to believe the “kingdom of heaven” is within—we’re all part of the soul of God.” As I wrote in another one of those blogs: “I don’t have many of my Christian/Catholic beliefs left—though I am partial still to “Blessed are the merciful” and “Blessed are the peacemakers,” as well as “Blessed are those who don’t torture” and “Blessed are they who don’t ruin the financial system and bankrupt everybody.”

And “Blessed are they who don’t tailgate.”

I can’t help thinking that the loopy characters spewing non-sequiturs in your crazy-quilt plays have their roots in your dysfunctional family.

Maybe so. There are alcoholics on both sides of my family. Eventually, they all got into AA although they didn't really benefit. Their alcoholism stopped any problem from ever being solved, and I began to view the world that way—that every action is doomed. My Uncle Billy was a bully. He and my grandmother forbade people in the house from speaking against the war in Vietnam. He would say in arguments, “Well, you have the right to be wrong.” His way of being tolerant. My grandfather—his father—didn't like him in the way that straight fathers sometimes don't like the sons they think are gay. And my elderly Aunt Marian, who isn’t strong on analyzing things, accuses me of being logical, as if it’s a bad thing. She’s terrified of the word “socialism” even though she’s on Medicare and lives in a federally subsidized senior citizens apartment building.

The great friendships you formed at Yale Drama School with Sigourney Weaver, Wendy Wasserstein, Meryl Streep, and Albert Innaurauto—I guess you consider Sigourney your BFF. Yes. We started our careers together in New York. She was in my first off-off Broadway show Titanic, and she and I wrote and performed an after-hours cabaret sketch called “Das Lusitania Songspiel,” a musical spoof of Brecht-Weil music. We were paid five or ten dollars a performance. And after her Hollywood success, she asked me to do some of it with her when she hosted SNL. Sigourney says we bonded over our love for crackpot things. She was in a children’s play of mine at Yale called Better Dead Than Sorry. She sang the title song while receiving shock treatments.

She constructed a “shock treatment” hat all herself—a bathing cap with empty thread spools on top, out of which came little wires. The song would be interrupted with the sizzle of electric shocks, and Sigourney would widen her eyes and move her head kind of slowly and look blank for a second, before continuing with the song. It was inventive and funny.

And quintessentially Durang. n ICON, SEPTEMBER 2018 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

TV PARTNERS

By Ross Trudeau

ACROSS 1 7 11 15 19 20 21 22 23 26 27 28 29 30 32 34 36 37 41 42 43 44 46 49 50 53 58 60 61 62 63 64 65 69 70 72 73 74 75 76 80 81 82 83 84 86 89 38

Thin Mint cousins Music-playing Apple Campus residence, maybe “I touched your nose!” sound Luke’s mentor Choice Casino city near 32-Down Part of A.D. Show in which the Tanners move to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?

“All __ are off” Had Usual method: Abbr.

Selena’s music style Block “Star Trek” actor Big name in foil Justice Kagan appointer Show in which Daenerys questions her suitors?

“Phooey!”

Doofus Knighted Irish rocker “... but maybe I’m wrong” Twin Cities campus, informally Old horse “The A-Team” actor Show in which Gloria and Lois commiserate about lazy husbands?

Half a comedy duo Riviera saison One-eighties People couple Better ventilated Insole material Show in which a Time Lord becomes a live-in domestic worker? ’60s war zone Panini cheese Inlets Lamb pen name Civil War letters Lifted Show in which zombies invade an 1870s South Dakota town?

Program named for its broadcast day, for short Lower, as lights “Are you __ not?”

Beloved 1981 bride Thor’s father Cambodia neighbor Sgts.’ superiors

90 Show in which Richie and the Fonz write a soap?

99 Silent and amazed 100 Anklebone 101 Scourges 102 Went up again 104 Chop shop wheels 107 Strain 108 Show ending?

111 They may be inflated 112 Installment of each of the “shows” in six puzzle answers?

116 Like blokes 117 “I know! Call on me!”

118 Curds in blocks 119 Hardened (to) 120 Raced 121 Too curious 122 Little branch 123 Way out

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 24 25 31 32 33 35 37 38 39 40 41 44

One may be L-shaped Be flush with Race distance Hogwarts mail carrier Expresses awe over JWoww’s title pal in a “Jersey Shore” spin-off Hosp. hookups Burns, e.g.

Great Plains tribe Kanye West label Italian director Zeffirelli Put new shingles on “Your point being?”

Trash Gen Xer’s parent, perhaps Solo As scheduled Impersonate Overturn NASCAR’s Yarborough Ripped Western resort “Can __ now?”

Good way to keep an enemy Unwelcome flower Feeling down Yours, in Tours Swine Sits in, say Swatch Group products

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45 47 48 49 51 52 54 55 56 57 58 59 63 66 67 68 71 76 77 78 79 81 85 87 88 90 91 92 93

94 Like melting snow puddles Plod 95 Contract exceptions Enters daintily 96 __ Fitzgerald Folk story 97 Where “the birds began to sing” Prepared for a filling 98 Annoying Slickers 103 Nobel Prize subj.

Traitorous acts 105 Swear Robert De __ 106 Better mtge. deal Not many 108 Real snoozefest Guru’s lodging 109 Dire March time “Golly!”

110 London jazz duo?

Have sum trouble 113 Pi follower Fleet 114 Shag or throw China setting 115 Big __ Surprisingly, what the “O” in OPEC doesn’t stand for Answer to August’s puzzle, SOUNDS LIKE A SNOOZE Literary pen name Soccer cheer Naysayers?

Succeed in __ contendere: court plea 1965 Pulitzer author Shirley Ann __ Charms Accomplished Easter supplies Earth, for one Gray shade Seraglios Possible barrier to romance Way out of jail Bumpkins

AGENDA FINE ART

THRU 9/31 Jennifer Hansen Rolli. Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art, 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA (in Buckingham Green, Rte. 202.) 215-794-4300.

Silvermangallery.com THRU 10/6 Summer Show. Celebrating the Four-Year Anniversary. Closing reception 10/6, 6-9. , Bethlehem House Contemporary Art Gallery, 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-419-6262.

Bethlehemhousegallery.com THRU 11/3 Peter d’Agastino: COLD / HOT, Walks, Wars & Climate Change.

Works are accompanied by a 40page catalogue with essay by Muhlenberg Professor David Talfer. Public Recep.: 9/12, 5–6:30.

Artist Talk, Sept. 17, 5–6, Martin Art Gallery, Recital Hall, Baker Center for the Arts. Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. Muhlenberg.edu/gallery 8/30-1/2/2019 David Mann: In Focus. Recep.: Sept. 12, 5–6:30. Artist talk:, 11/ 7, 5–6. Recital Hall, Baker Center for the Arts. Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. Muhlenberg.edu/gallery 9/4-11/17 Kate Gilmore, In Your Way, Videos. Lafayette College Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610-3305361. Galleries.lafayette.edu 9/8-11/25 Niki Kriese: Organic. Public Recep. 9/12, 5–6:30. Artist talk: 10/24, 5–6. Recital Hall, Baker Center for the Arts. Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. Muhlenberg.edu/gallery 9/16-1/6/2019 30 Years: Art at the Michener, 1988-2018. The James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, PA. 215-340-9800.

Michenerartmuseum.org 9/20-10/20 Barnaby Ruhe Regenesis, The

Baum School of Art. Reception, 9/20, 6-8. 510 Linden St., Allentown, PA. 610-433-0032.

Baumschool.org 9/21 Sweven: Paintings by Rebecca Migdal. Reception and gallery talk, 6-9. Enter a world of magical and nightmarish dreams and visions.

Artist is Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance grant winner. hYpErSpAcE @book&puppet, 466 Northampton St. Easton, PA. Bookandpuppet.com 9/21–12/16 Patricia Johanson: Architecture and site project images, 1968– 2018. Also Lindsay Fort: Lost Found Free. New Arts Program Gallery 173 W. Main, Kutztown.

Fri/Sat/Sun 11–3. Reception Fri., Sept. 21, 6–9; talk @8:00. One-hr private conversation with Johanson Sept. 21, 22 by appt. 610683-6440. newartsprogram.org.

9/22–10/28 Phillips Mill 89th Juried Art Show, 1-5 daily. 2619 River Road, New Hope, PA. 215-862-0582.

Phillipsmill.org 9/23–1/6/2019 Lace, not Lace: Contemporary Fiber Art from Lacemaking Techniques. Hunterdon Art Museum, 7 Lower Center St., Clinton, NJ. 908-735-8415.

Hunterdonartmuseum.org ART FESTIVALS

9/6–9/23 2018 Fringe Festival presented by FringeArts and The Met Philadelphia. Experience the Festival by attending one of the many performances at multiple locations.

Presenting world-class, contemporary performing arts, including dance, theater, music, and everything in between. Philadelphia.

Tickets: 215-413-1318.

FringeArts.com 9/29–9/30 New Hope Arts & Crafts Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Visit and shop at the outdoor festival showcasing over 160 artists. Rain or shine, free shuttle

service. New Hope-Solebury High School, New Hope, PA. Newhopeartsandcrafts.com DANCE

9/13–9/15 Caen Amour by Trajal Harrell, part of the 2018 Fringe Festival.

FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, PA. 215-4131318. FringeArts.com/8051 THEATER

THRU 11/10 The Goblet of Poison, Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. Fridays & Saturdays at 7. Ages 14 & up.

Peddler’s Village, Rte. 263 & Street Rd., Lahaska, PA. 215-7944051. Peddlersvillage.com 9/15 Dream Puppet Theater Challenge. Puppets perform dreams contributed by the audience. Improvised comedy for grownups with live music. Saturdays, 8:00.

Admission: roll of one die plus $3. Refreshments served. Book & Puppet Co., 466 Northampton St. Easton, PA. 484-541-5379.

Bookandpuppet.com 9/16 Cirque Éloize Hotel, Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. Free event parking. 610-758-2787.

Zoellnerartscenter.org 9/26–10/7 Picnic, by William Inge. DeSales University, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-2823192. DeSales.edu/act1 9/27–9/30 Machinal. Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3333.

Muhlenberg.edu/theatre DINNER & MUSIC

Every Thurs.-Sat., Dinner and a Show at SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA. 5-10:00, table service and valet parking. For more informa-

tion, menus and upcoming events visit SteelStacks.org CONCERTS

9/2 Lambertville Songwriters; Carol Heffler, Carol Lyman, and Mindi Turin. 7:30. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ 609-3926409. 1867sanctuary.org 9/21 Grammy winning guitarist David Cullen. 8:00. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ 609-3926409. 1867sanctuary.org 9/22 The Ultimate Queen Celebration, starring Marc Martel. 8pm, Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. Free event parking. 610-758-2787.

Zoellnerartscenter.org 9/22 Jazz Trumpeter Danny Tobias and Friends, featuring Warren Vaché.

2:00. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ 609-3926409. 1867sanctuary.org 9/28-9/30 Leslie Odom Jr., Celebrating the POPS 40th Anniversary. The Philly Pops, 300 South Broad St., Philadelphia, PA. 215-893-1999.

Phillypops.org 9/29 Eddie Palmieri & His Salsa Orchestra with Hector Rosado & His Orchestra Hache. 8:00. Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. Free event parking. 610-758-2787.

Zoellnerartscenter.org 10/6 Pomp and Passion. Chamber orchestra with soloist Agnès Maurer, viola. Works by Handel, Haydn, Hindemith, Mendelssohn. 7:30.

Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, PA. Tickets- $20-$35 in advance/at door.

610-434-7811. PASinfonia.org

10/14 Diana Krall, Turn Up The Quiet, World Tour 2018. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132, 1-800-999-State.

Statetheatre.org MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org SEPTEMBER 5 Brothers Osborne 18 Young the Giant 19 An Evening with Nils Lofgren Acoustic Duo 21 Glass Blast 22 Boyce Avenue 28 Milky Chance DINO’S BACKSTAGE 287 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside, PA 215-884-2000 Dinosbackstage.com SEPTEMBER 7, 29 Dibbs Preston & The Detonators 8 The Backstage Beauties Burlesque 13, 14 Marilyn Maye 15 Michael Richard Kelly 21, 22 Marilyn Maye 28 Deirdre Finnegan EVENTS 9/6-9/23 FringeArts presents 2018 Fringe Festival. Experience the Festival by attending one of the 175+ events in neighborhoods across Philadelphia. World-class, contemporary performing arts, including dance, theater, music, and everything in between. Tickets available at FringeArts.com or 215413-1318.

10/20 Autumn Alive. Fun, food & festivities for everyone. Crafters, vendors, pet rescue organizations, pet parade, live entertainment, children’s activities, authors corner and much more. Downtown Quakertown, PA, Broad St. from 4th to Hellertown Ave., and down Branch St. 215-536-2273.

Quakertownalive.com n

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