FILMS

film roundup

KEITH UHLICH

The French Dispatch (Dir. Wes Anderson). Starring: Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright. The latest Wes Anderson diorama is overstuffed even by his standards. A massive cast of regulars (Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman) and newcomers (Timothée Chalamet, Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody) fill every fussed-over frame of this period dramedy set in a fictional French city at a vaguely New Yorker-ish publication. The film is conceived as a magazine issue in motion, with three primary stories penned/enacted by Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Jeffrey Wright, the latter of whom—playing a character loosely based on James Baldwin—hits the most resonant emotional notes. The movie begs to be seen as a love letter to print journalism, though its worldview is, unsurprisingly for Anderson, much more voguishly myopic, though not unentertainingly so. Better than Isle of Dogs, at least. [R] HHH1/2

Memoria (Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul). Starring: Tilda Swinton, Elkin Díaz, Jeanne Balibar. You’ll have to keep your eyes open for the newest film from Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul, given its unconventional release strategy—playing for one week at a time, one theater at a time as it makes its way across the U.S., and never to be officially released on home video. You’ll also have to keep your ears open during the film itself, since sound is the most important facet of its story. This is a seemingly simple

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WINTER FESTIVITIES I

CHRISTMAS CITY, USA BETHLEHEM

Bethlehem, the Christmas City, has a rich holiday heritage that dates back to the 18th century, when the Moravians who settled the city christened it “Bethlehem” on Christmas Eve, 1741. Since 1937, the city has officially been known as Christmas City, USA. From guided walking tours of the city’s Historic Moravian District, one of the finest collections of 18th Century Germanic-style architecture in the nation, to the Christkindlmarkt marketplace and Christmas Carriage rides through the city, there are dozens of attractions and activities for all ages. It all culminates on Dec. 31, when the community comes together at PEEPSFEST®, featuring fireworks and the dropping of a 400-pound lighted PEEPS® Chick to welcome in the New Year.

The Elf On The Shelf

A Christmas Musical Nov. 12, 6 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org

Tree Lighting Ceremony

Nov. 19, 5 PM–6 PM. Presented by the City of Bethlehem. Parow Plaza/City Hall in Bethlehem, 10 East Church St., Bethlehem. Enjoy free cookies, hot chocolate and a visit with Santa. There will also be live performances. (484) 280-3024

Christkindlmarkt at SteelStacks

Nov. 19–Dec. 19. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Christkindlmarkt, named one of the top holiday markets in the world by Travel + Leisure and one of the top holiday markets in North America by USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice competition, featuring dozens of artisans offering thousands of handmade gifts and holiday items. (877) 212-2463, ChristmasCity.org

Bethlehem By Night Bus Tour

Nov. 19–Dec. 23, Dec. 26, Dec.31, 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 7 p.m. Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, Visitors Center, 505 Main Street, Bethlehem. Deemed “the best way to see Bethlehem,” this bus tour explores the history and traditions of Bethlehem with guides in period dress. HistoricBethlehem.org, (800) 360-8687

Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides

Nov. 19–30, Dec. 2–19, Dec. 22–23, Dec. 26–31, 3–9 PM Central Moravian Church, 73 W. Church Street, Bethlehem. Presented by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Enjoy the beauty of Bethlehem's downtown National Historic Landmark District in a Christmas carriage ride. HistoricBethlehem.org, (800) 360-8687

Bethlehem Christmas Carriage Rides

Downtown Bethlehem Nov. 19–Jan. 2., 3 PM–9 PM. Rides depart from the corner of Church and Main Street. (in front of Central Moravian Church). For more Info: Bethlehemcarriage.com (610) 730-4973

Christmas City Stroll Walking Tour

Nov. 1–30, Dec. 2–19, Dec. 22, 23, & 26, 1 PM, 3 PM, and 6 PM. Visitors Center, 505 Main Street, Bethlehem. Presented by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites See The Christmas City on a walking tour of one of America's National Historic Landmark Districts with certified guides. HistoricBethlehem.org (800) 360-8687

Trees of Historic Bethlehem

Nov. 19–Jan. 9, Thurs.–Sun. 11 AM–6 PM. Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, 66 West Church Street, Bethlehem. Single Sisters’ House, 50 West Church Street, Bethlehem. Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, 427 N. New Street, Bethlehem. Luckenbach Mill, 459 Old York Road, Bethlehem. 1810 Goundie House, 501 Main Street, Bethlehem. The display is a timehonored tradition with more than 26 trees on display across five historic sites, HistoricBethlehem.org (800) 360-8687

S IN LEHIGH VALLEY

Christmas Classic Matinee Series

Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. White Christmas: December 2, 3, 4 The Shop Around The Corner: December 9, 10, 11 It’s a Wonderful Life: December 16, 17, 18 All screenings are Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 12 PM

Chris Collins & Boulder Canyon: A John Denver Christmas Dec. 3, 7:30 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org

Christmas Vespers

Lehigh University Choral Arts Dec. 5, 4 PM and 8 PM. Packer Memorial Church, 18 University Dr, Bethlehem. Presented by Zoellner Arts Center. Lehigh University Choral Arts presents its annual Christmas gift to the community. Free. LehighUniversity.edu. (610) 758-2787 ext. 0

Christmas City Follies XXll

December 2–19, Thurs.–Sat. 8 PM, Sun. 2 PM, *Dec. 18, 2 PM. Touchstone Theatre, 321 East 4th St., Bethlehem. Celebrate the holiday season in the Christmas City with Touchstone's high-spirited, homegrown, vaudevillian variety show. Touchstone.org, (610) 867-1689

Free Family-Friendly Activities

The Banana Factory Arts Center Dec. 4, 1–3:30 PM, Banana Factory Arts Center, 25 West 3rd Street, Bethlehem. Presented by ArtsQuest: Creative Family Workshop: German Wooden Dolls with Rebecca Kelly Kids will create their own wooden toys inspired by the wooden dolls that Seiffen, Germany, is known for. bananafactory.org, (610) 332-1300

Floral Letter Illustration with Lauren Beck

Dec. 8, 6:30–8:30 PM, Banana Factory Arts Center, 25 West Third Street, Bethlehem. Presented by ArtsQuest. Step-by-step guidance on combining botanical elements inside a single monogram letter, you’ll design your own unique illustration. The completed monogram will make a great holiday gift.

A Christmas Carol

Dec. 10, 7 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org. bananafactory.org, (610) 332-1300

Holiday House Tour

Bethlehem Historic District Dec. 11, 10 AM–4 PM, Single Sisters’ House, 50 W. Church Street, Bethlehem. Presented by Bethlehem Historic District Association. Tour ten unique homes as well as other distinctive sites within the Historic District, all festively decorated for the holidays. HolidayHouseTour.com

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

December 11, 8 PM, First Presbyterian Church of Allentown. December 12, 4 PM, First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem. December 12, Virtually, 4 PM. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Christmas Concert. Join us for a Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Parts 1, 2 & 3, Sat. Tickets and information at bach.org. (610) 866-4382

Westminster Concert Bell Choir

Dec. 17, 7:30 PM. In the spirit of the holiday season, bells will be ringing. The Westminster Concert Bell Choir has appeared on Today, performed at Carnegie Hall, and joined Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for an acclaimed tour of A Royal Christmas. Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University, Bethlehem. Zoellnerartscenter.org

Kenny G, Holiday Tour

Dec. 19, 7:30 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org

PEEPSFEST

Dec. 30 & 31. Presented by Just Born Quality Confections. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. The annual two-day New Year’s Eve festival celebrating the fun and excitement of the PEEPS Brand. PEEPS Chick Drop, a 4’ 9” tall, 400lb. lit Peeps chick that descends on Dec. 31 to commemorate the beginning of a new year. n

interview

A.D. AMOROSI

The Bittersweet Saga of Johnny Showcase

DDAVID J. SWEENY IS A chill resident of bucolic Germantown by day with his wife and three children, two of them twins. After having moved from frenzied South Philadelphia at the top of the pandemic, Germantown is a gentle comedown from the frenzy of 2020’s shifting moods and Covids. Besides, by night Sweeny’s cool, collective personality takes on another, flashier side.

For 2020 brought with it the rise of Sweeny’s swaggering lounge-funk entertainer Johnny Showcase on a larger playing field, beyond local fame. With the help of Terry Crews, Simon Cowell, NBC-TV and the reality competitive series America’s Got Talent, Sweeny’s unzipped, unhinged down-and-dirty Showcase character, and his mega-watt 16piece show band, went from Philadelphia-famous to nationally beloved and awed. Think Prince meets Tom Jones with a mad dash of performance artist/comedian Andy Kauffman, and you’re halfway to knowing the loud, brash and disarming charms of Showcase (and his occasional children’s musicmaking personae, Johnny Shortcake) that AGT television audiences were thrilled by, beyond Sweeny’s calm demeanor. “Ultimately, I’m a song-and-dance man,” says the thoroughly modern, thoroughly provocative Sweeny of his Johnny Showcase. A.D. Amorosi: Let’s start this story at the end: where are you now after the renown of America’s Got Talent? David Sweeny: America’s Got Talent was a whirlwind. I’m re-grouping now because it was almost a year of non-stop thinking about, then executing the performances. Everything else stopped, and the whole Johnny Showcase experience blew up into this pretty big thing. Then, everything stopped. Now, I have a handful of single recordings I made that were waiting for a larger audience. I’m figuring how to roll those out. There’s one from 2017 that is just too special, that’s coming out by the top of next year. Then, we’ll figure out how to tour in different cities.

A.D.: Because America’s Got Talent opened up countless audiences across the U.S., as well as on YouTube.

DS: Yes. These are people who are amazed by the fact that they didn’t know about Johnny Showcase for the eight years he’s has been in existence. There’s an audience out there and I want to check them out and have them check me out.

A.D.: It’s amusing that in many cases on YouTube—and the dramatic uptick in viewers you’re experiencing—much of what those new audiences are looking at is stuff that is five, six years old. How did the Johnny Showcase character take form?

DS: It really started as a joke.

A.D.: It always does.

DS: When I was 19, I was living in Rhode Island and had attended this joyless Christian college outside of Boston, and would take off to spend time at Berklee College of Music where my friends resided. We were hanging

From South Philly dives to the Kimmel Cultural Campus to America’s Got Talent, the saga of the beloved lounge-funk singer goes on

out, being silly, and out came this character. Just something to mess around with. I moved to Philadelphia eventually, attended University of the Arts, toured with a children’s theater as an actor, and began working at World Café Live. There I met Rick Sorkin and Jeffrey Marsh who were putting together their own cabaret at WCL, revamping what they had started at L’Etage when they asked me if I had any ideas. A.D.: And of course, you did: Johnny Showcase. I was looking for this mediocre lounge singer DS: Indeed, but, I wanted to add other to confound expectations. I hung onto that characters around that to make a show. So I began to pull in other actors and performance because that’s how the story unfolded during artists I knew—an accordionist, a clown who the first episode of America’s Got Talentwhere specialized in the grotesque, people like that. Johnny appeared. I’m comfortable with setting Slowly, our cabaret became part of their low expectations then confounding them. cabaret.

It’s fun.

A.D.: How did your character evolve? I don’t recall him coming out of the womb, so to speak, quite so garrulously. DS: Johnny Showcase, back then, was a celebration of the mediocre. I was playing him as a failed lounge singer, as an unknown who never made it. The initial idea for doing this guy was my mom. She was proud of what I did in acting, but she always wanted me to have something to fall back on. I don’t want to give away too many of my secrets, but there used to be a chain of theaters in Rhode Island, the Showcase Cinemas. I just kind of took my name from that. Yanked that. I was acting, doing Shakespeare stuff. Fringe theater stuff. Devised theater stuff. I was doing theater, but grew up loving music, and wanted to get closer to it, inside it. Especially as I had grown up playing trumpet, and could also play bass, but wanted better musicians around me as I could hear and see what this character could be.

Singer Johnny Showcase (second from left) with Rumi Kitchen, as well as The Truth, the two female vocalists.

A.D.: Coming from an actor’s perspective, however…

DS: Right. I was looking for this mediocre lounge singer to confound expectations. I hung onto that because that’s how the story unfolded during the first episode of America’s Got Talent where Johnny appeared. I’m comfortable with setting low expectations then confounding them. It’s fun. Then I started finding better musicians and beautiful songwriters. Suddenly I could see and hear different colors, the stuff I heard in my head, where I wanted this to go. I was in another sphere. This was not devised theater-land, but rather legitimate music-land.

A.D.: When Rick and Jeffrey left for New York City, you had to find a place and a means in which to go forward for Johnny.

DS: The Lefty Lucy Cabaret got started as things with Johnny began to bubble. I brought more friends to the fold, including those from the theater scene, for what would become this whole new underground, absurdist parade. I didn’t even really know what cabaret was before all this, so we had to define it on our own.

A.D.: You had to make cabaret in your own image, which is how you got to the Prince tribute, Purple Rain show.

DS: That was a turning point in that it really showed off that we were a musical group

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