Paul Williams on the 50th Anniversary of THE PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE

 In early fall, when The Brooklyn Academy of Music announced that they would be screening PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE on December 10 with Paul Williams in attendance I reached out to the PR people to see if he was interested in doing an interview. They were kind enough to simply go “Let’s find out”. After a brief exchange of emails, a phone call was set up for the Friday before the screening.  I was told expect half an hour and we went almost a full one.

To say that I was and still am in shock that it came together is an understatement. I mean Paul Williams is a god. He is one of my all-time favorite creators ever. His music is the soundtrack of my life. His film and TV roles have entertained me. For the last six decades he has made me smile. That I was lucky enough to talk to him and actually meet him after the screening has blown my tiny little mind.

For those who don’t know Paul Williams, he is an actor, singer, songwriter and raconteur who has been working steadily since the early 1960’s. He was written songs for everyone (no really), worked extensively with the Muppets (he wrote Rainbow Connection), won almost every award under the sun including a recent Grammy with Daft Punk. He is also over 34 years in recovery and is willing to help those who need it.

He and his work have touched everyone in the world whether they know it or not and made us better.

He’s so HUGE that when I said I was going to interview him all my friends had questions they wanted answered. I went into the interview with a page of my questions and two pages of questions from friends and family. Some of the questions got asked and some didn’t. I was way too busy just trying to keep up with the man himself.

What follows is most of our talk.  As entertaining as the removed material was, I trimmed the things that were not on his career and life, I removed talk of an egg sandwich and a few other minor things.

I want to thank Ao Lan Guo at Obscured and Jesse Trussell BAM for helping me make connections. I want to thank Nancy Munoz for arranging it with Paul.

Mostly I want to thank Paul Williams not only for talking the time to talk and meet me, but for all the music and laughter that his work has brought to my life (and everyone else’s) over the years.

Paul Williams at Brooklyn Academy Of Music talking about PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE

PAUL: So, we're going to see you Tuesday, right?

STEVE: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.  I bought my tickets as soon as I found out they were on sale.

I had been trying to, trying to see if I could arrange an interview with you because it was that important. I mean, just the thought of you being here in New York, you know, being able to see you is just way too important.

PAUL: I really appreciate it. It's amazing. It's the 50th anniversary and to have something that was just basically ignored, when it came out, 50 years later, have the kind of love because of the fans that that really loved it and made everybody they know watch it. And that built and built. 

And the great thing in my life is that because some of the fans of Phantom have nice careers in music and in film and they reached out to me. So, I got, right now I'm writing Pan's Labyrinth for the stage with Guillermo del Toro.! And writing the words for that to Gustavo Santaolalla's music. And I mean, that whole thing with Daft Punk was because they met at Phantom of the Paradise in Paris.

But it's been this little movie that just has been such a gift as the years have gone by. And I mean, this year they screened it to close the, the Cannes Film Festival. And I went over and introduced it. I'm standing on that stage looking at this massive audience on the beach. They did the closing evening on the beach with all those deck chairs, hundreds of deck chairs. It looked like full of people. And I mean, I just got emotional. It was like, wow, to finally see that kind of an audience. And I wish Bill Finley was alive to appreciate it.

STEVE: I saw it sometime after it premiered. We wore out several copies of the vinyl, and cassette and 8 track and CDs of the soundtrack. It was always something where we would play the music and people go, “what is this?” It's a, it's Phantom of the Paradise. And then we got them into the movie. And now there are people I know who I got into the film when I was a kid watching the film in the seventies who now are showing their kids and their grandkids.

One of the things that blows everybody's mind, because it's how good you are, is that, you know, the breadth of the music in the film. Everything from Beach Boys to what would be hard rock at the time.  And then you say he wrote Rainbow Connection and Evergreen. And then he wrote for the Carpenters and Helen Reddy, and everybody goes, “wait, what? And it just, blows everybody away.

PAUL: Well, you know, what's interesting when you, when you look at what I had out and what I was known for, what had been hit when, when Brian DePalma came over at the A&M Records looking for somebody to do, write the songs, I was probably the worst idea you could have. I mean there was nothing that I had success with that was anything like what it seemed like was what he was going to need, you know? So it's amazing that I got the job. But what's interesting in my life is I sit down to write and a lot at that time of my life, that's just what was coming out of my chest. That's what I was writing.

I was writing also with Roger Nichols, who was writing that kind of music. And I wrote lyrics to it. But the music that I loved was like the original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.

And, you know, I was a huge, huge fan of, do you know who they are? Delaney & Bonnie & Friends? 

STEVE: Yes.

PAUL: I mean the Stone Ponies and. Poco and all the, all the guys over in Laurel Canyon that I wish I was a part of, you know, with, with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and, and it was just, what I sat down and wrote was not like what I loved until I got the chance to do it with Phantom..

STEVE: But that's one of the things I was going to ask you was Brian De Palma came to you, did he a type of song he wanted? Did he say write this type of song and this type? How involved were you in shaping all these genres that show up in the film?

PAUL: Well, in the original script, which was Phantom of the Filmore, it changed a lot while we were working on it. It became more and more about my favorite line in the picture, which is when Philbin, before the wedding and the assassination that's all set up, says to me, “why would you want to do that on television? You know, with cameras on”.  I say, “an assassination live on coast-to-coast television, that's entertainment.”

I think that what was going on, and I've talked about this before, is, you know, we're at a place where we we're watching the Vietnam War footage over our TV dinners every night. And I think we're getting to a place with the kids where it's basically entertainment and for adults watching the news, entertainment and news begin to come the same. , The separation between the two and the line between the two begins to, begins to disappear. 

Originally Beef was supposed to die in the shower, and out of our conversation with Brian, it all of a sudden it emerged that what if the kids see the murder and they, and they think it's part of the show? Because they've been seeing so much theatrical violence, you know?

STEVE: Right.

PAUL: And so, the script changed. In the very, very first script there was a thing where Annette [ed. a character mentioned in Philbin’s first monolog but not seen in this version of the film] gets her tongue cut out, and what I decided to do is, have just at the moment of that, have her scream, go, AH!, and then turn it  into Little Darling, you know? I think that, that Brian had actually mentioned Little Darling for that moment. And then he wanted Sha Na Na, and I thought, you know what, I want my own band, my own road band that knows me so well. So, when I turn to them and say, okay, we're talking, Beach Boys, they immediately start playing it, you know? I mean, we have such great communication. So with, with no disrespect meant intended for the, for Sha Na Na who I thought were terrific, that was not what I wanted.

I wanted a band that, that I could take the stolen music and shape it into these different forms. It says that at the very opening, that he was responsible for the invasion from England, and the music of the spheres. I knew that I wanted to go to a kind of a Beach Boys thing at one point.  I was really proud of was that Somebody Super Like You, Life at Last, are really good hard rock, you know?

And, God bless my band, because, you know, because they just, they were right there. I lay out the chords for them, and I start singing lines to them, I mean, right down to opening, with the guitar, you know, Bow, bow, dow, dow, dow. So, so I'm singing that shit, and then the, you know, Art Munson is playing guitar, just, you know, hits his, his peddle, and just bow, bow, dow, dow, dow. And, and the drummer, Gary Mallaber, was so killer. So we got stuff that, that, that was, sounded. And then you go, wait a minute, now I'm going to do the, the music of the spheres, what does that sound like, you know?

And it's, it's kind of pretty glam rock.

STEVE: I know you were then what Ozzy Osbourne, and everybody was doing ten years later You were just, you were ten years ahead of everybody.

PAUL: Well, it was interesting, because I was such a, you know, middle-of-the-road writer. I wrote easy listening. But I love it, you know. I approached all of it as an actor. I was an actor first. So, you know, so to me, it's like let's look at this character. What is this character writing?

I look at Winslow, and I just related to his vulnerability and, little broken soul. And then there's Bill Finley, I mean, you, you look at him looking like, as if he is a deer that's been separated from his mommy, and then he turns around and, and throws Philbin against the wall, and you know, the anger that emerges. He's so, so fucking good.

So, I write for that. 

I wrote almost all the songs for Ishtar, and I approach that as, like, these are these two guys, Chuck and Lyle, that are mismatched writers, and I cast myself as both of those characters, and so I write a line as Chuck, and then I write a line as Lyle, and, and so you wind up with… I don't know if you're an Ishtar fan or not.

STEVE: I'm mixed on it. I've never, I've never, I have friends who, like, absolutely love it.

PAUL: You know what, check out the music in it again, if nothing else, check out the music. It's intentionally bad songs that are believably bad, like somebody's trying to write something decent, and he just fucks it up, somewhere along the line. 

“Telling the truth can be dangerous business. Honest and popular, popular, don't go hand in hand,” That’s a pretty good opening. 

“If you admit that you can play the accordion, and no one will hire you in a rock and roll band” 

It's like, oh, you screwed it up, guys, man. 

You know it was just more fun, and I worked a year and a half on that. I wrote probably 50 songs, beginning to end, for the two or three lines they were using, it was all they needed, but she would have me write the whole song and teach it to them. 

STEVE: Do you end up with a lot of cut songs?

PAUL: Well, when they're, especially when they're intentionally bad, you don't exactly drag them out and use, and you use them for something else. But you know I’ve never done much with a song that doesn't have a life.

I've never pulled something out of one show and tried to stick it in another. I think that's kind of cheating, you know. I think that I was inspired by Brian's vision. I was inspired by the script as it evolved, and it's a collaborative art form, you know. So, I try to really stay in the now, and it was just a rare opportunity to, especially to do both things, you know, to, to write the songs, and yet play the songs was so cool.

STEVE: Were there any songs that were cut out of Phantom?

PAUL: Not really, not, well the one that was, you know, the Hell of It was written for a graveyard scene. It was written for a scene where after Beef dies, you're out in a kind of a frozen, wintry scene graveyard. There's an open grave with a casket over it, and a circle of fans around it, and a lot of, and a lot of microphones and cameras, and, and you follow the, again, follow the, the wires back to a hearse, and inside the hearse is Swan, who's recording live on the Death label.

And I guess we just never really found the right funeral the right cemetery, but in that moment, when they're lowering the whole thing with the people around it, I wanted to do this kind of a Nino Rota thing. Nino Rota wrote the music for the Fellini films, so I wanted to do this kind of very, very Nino Rota, because it's very kind of Fellini-esque scene, and in the, in the script, it says that a little girl runs out and jumps on the casket as it's being lowered, starts auditioning, starts tap dancing, so that's why you hear, you hear the tap dancing. And, and it was so cool that, that the editor, Paul Hurst took, took that and used it for the end credits, which is so cool, so it didn't get lost.

STEVE: That’s awesome, I love that story, thank you.

PAUL: You're welcome, you're welcome, I appreciate you being an advocate and, and, and having the interest in the picture, it's very cool.

STEVE: No, it's an absolute joy. Whenever, Phantom's on, oh, we gotta watch it.

PAUL: I love it, I love that, thank you.

STEVE: You're welcome. Question for you, Bugsy Malone became a show, I know, in London, and I know Emmett Otter's turned into a, was turned into a stage play. Why hasn't Phantom ever been really turned into a stage play?

PAUL: Well, it's funny you should ask, because we're actually very, very close to having that happen. There'll probably be an announcement, I would guess, in as much as a month.

STEVE: Oh, awesome.

PAUL: It's, it's finally gonna happen.

STEVE: Oh, I love that.

PAUL: Yeah, I've written some additional stuff, and we'll write a little more, but we've finally found a combination and the right people. And it's funny because these things, like with Guillermo and Ken's Pans Labyrinth, Guillermo keeps going off to to work on movies, so we're like, we'd be working on it, then we'd kind of wait, and then we'd get work on it again, and all that. It got to the point where I was just like, okay, I surrender. I'm gonna just give up on it.

I'm gonna take it out of my bio. I mean, I'm just gonna do whatever. Then tthe next day I get an email from, from Guillermo's office that J.J. Abrams has come on board as our producer, and that makes it absolutely real. I mean, when you get somebody like J.J. Abrams, who's now producing Broadway shows, and he says we're gonna open in 2025 in England, then bring it over to New York, it's real, you know. So I've got a lot more patience than I used to have.  and I don't really, if something doesn't do, I mean if something doesn't happen, to me, my first thought is that no is the gift. If it doesn't happen, there's something better that's supposed to happen. I've got a very Jiminy Cricket approach to life, you know, and it's all related to my sobriety. You know, it's 34 years of life lessons that have been just, that have just made me nothing but grateful.

I talk about the fact that my choo-choo runs on the twin rails of gratitude and trust, and that wound up being a book that I wrote with my friend Tracy Jackson. It hit the New York Times bestseller list briefly, and it's about recovery for people that are not addicts but have some bad habits they want to get over, gratitude and trust, you know.

STEVE: There was something my brother had wanted me to ask you, which was, you've written all these great songs, you've won all these awards and you've also done so much with recovery, you've written books, you've done advocacy, you've done all of these things. Is the advocacy what you're most proud of, or is it something else?

PAUL: Yeah, well, I'm proud of it, but beyond that, it's almost the other way around. I just see it as a total gift. I mean, I called a doctor in a blackout. I had a blackout. One of the last things I wanted to do was quit drinking. The career I thought I had had been gone for 10 years. You know you're an alcoholic when you misplace a decade. I mean, I was bad, a big cocaine addict and whatever. I had a terrible reputation by the time I got sober. 

But in a blackout, I called a doctor, and when he called me back, he said, well, I found a place for you.

And I went, what are you talking about? Well, you called me yesterday and said you were sick of lying, that you didn't want to drive with your kids in the car anymore, bloated, like your dad did with you. And boy, there was something about hearing that that I said, yeah, I want to go to treatment.

So, I got sober. But 10 years later, that's why I was just in Oklahoma doing a fundraiser for a clubhouse there.  

But what happened is I found out that I had gone, like five days before I had called a doctor in a blackout, I'd been in Oklahoma City doing a concert, and I had a full tilt psychotic episode. I mean, I went nuts. I'd been up probably two to three days and nights without sleeping. It was crazy. I was beaten up by an invisible hospital. And they postponed the gig for a day, and the promoter was just freaked out. But I ran into it. So anyway, when I did the gig, the next day I said I had a reaction to my meds, which was kind of the truth, because that was my medication in those days.

But I got on a plane to go home, and I drank on the plane, and I got drugs when I hit LAX and all. But then in that blackout, I called a doctor. I found out ten years later that what had happened is that the promoter, who was at the time seven years sober, and I didn't know it, called his sponsor, and they put together a prayer circle, and they prayed for me. They prayed that he'd enter out of the rooms that I would find from my addiction and my disease. And five days later in a blackout, I called a doctor. That's, to me, that's inseparable fact, and I think it's solidly connected.

And I have a spiritual life that believes that what they prayed, their prayers were answered, that what they asked for, what they visualized actually happened. And that's kind of basically the basis of my spiritual life, is that what we dwell on, what we create. You think you're not going to get that job.

Oh, I'm not going to have a career. It's not going to happen. And so, I heard like a prayer, and it doesn't happen.

But if you go, you know what? Something great is coming, and I can feel it. I can honestly feel it. It shows up the next day. It's amazing. And the way you describe it all in any of my work is the line, you give a little love, and it all comes back to you.

STEVE: For the most part, has your career been fun?

PAUL:Oh, my God, yeah.

STEVE: I ask because when I see you on TV you always seemed to be full of joy.  For example, when I was re-equating myself with the details of your career the one thing that kept appearing was when you did the Planet of the Apes on the Tonight Show.

PAUL: It was a classic case where I did 48 tonight shows and. I remember six vividly. But I was booked to do the show, and we're out in Malibu shooting, and I've got all the orangutan makeup on, and I said to my makeup man, I said, you know what? I mean, if, you know, we take this off and try to get to NBC in time, I'm not going to get there in time to do the show, so can you come with me, and I'll just go on like this. So, I called Doc Severinsen. I said, I just saw him on a two-top, a table with a little check tablecloth, a candle, a cigarette burning in the ashtray. I said, okay, I'll bring my cigarette holder because you can't get it in your mouth. You know, you couldn't smoke a cigarette without a cigarette holder. And I'll sing, Here's Our Rainy Day in any key.

And, I mean, I just, I always had fun with Johnny. He was the best. We never talked before we were on camera. So there wasn't any, like, it was never fake. It was never, like, hey, how you been and everything. And we had, like, a 20-minute conversation back in makeup.

We stayed away from each other. We stayed away from everybody until they were right in front of him. And we just, you know, I mean, I made him laugh. And he was just the best, the best interviewer of any of them ever. And I was great friends with Pat McCormick, who wrote most of his monologues, the craziest stuff in his monologues. And I was drinking buddies with him and with Ed McMahon, you know.

I mean, Ed McMahon and I, anybody really interesting that I was really impressed with, I'd go have dinner after the show with Ed McMahon. I had dinner with, you know, James Mason. I had dinner with Orson Welles. I'm this, you know, the run of the litter from the Midwest to construction brat who just had all these Hollywood dreams. And the next thing you know, I'm sitting there having dinner with Orson Welles. So, it's like, and the fact is, see, that neither one of us has to, because we both do this for a living, neither one of us has to give up their fan card.

I mean, I am as much of, I mean, God bless Quincy Jones. I've seen Quincy, and I've known, I mean, I wrote songs, you know, wrote stuff for Quincy and was his friend and knew him for 50, 60 years probably, or more. But anytime I ever saw Quincy, there was something in my chest that kind of went, wow, there's Quincy Jones. Hey, Quincy, that's cute. And I mean, I just got a big kick out of it.

When I love someone, I'm writing with this group called Portugal the Man, and I love them. I mean, I love Portugal the Man.

STEVE: It's a great group.

PAUL: Yeah, great group. And John Gorley and I are writing a bunch together and all. And I mean, I literally go, I'll sit there and watch him work or perform with the band, and I go, shit, man. I mean, I'm writing with John Gorley. And he's told me like that about, my God, I'm writing with Paul Williams. Well, it's so cool.

It's very cool.

STEVE: I'm feeling that right now. I mean, it's just like, you know, that I'm talking to you is like, the five years, I want to say, the little kid in me is like jumping up and down. Because I've loved your music for my whole life.

PAUL: Yeah, I love that. And you know what? I appreciate it.

But the fact is, what you're talking about feeling is what I'm talking about feeling. I've never lost that. I've never lost that.

And I think that's what maybe you see, you know. I think that at this point in my life, it's an amazing gratitude. I mean, Christmas Carol was the first movie that I wrote the songs for, words and music, after I got sober. 

You know nobody was calling me. The phone wasn't ringing. I'm not the hot property in town. And the career, as I said, that I thought I had had been gone about 10 years. And the phone rings in his hand, and it's Brian Henson. And he says, I want you to do the, you know, the songs for Christmas Carol.

Which is, think about how perfect that is. I'm having a spiritual awakening. For the first time in my life, I've come out of medical detox with no cravings. And I go, oh my God, what was I doing? This is amazing. The way that it felt, you know, just to be normal. And nothing but grateful. So, I'm this guy having a spiritual experience for the first time, writing about a guy who's having a spiritual experience for the first time. 

And I remember walking into the recording session, and Michael Caine was there. I would be in the studio with him, kind of singing with him, and almost conducting him, you know, like making a big expression when I wanted him to get big, you know. And he just, liked that. I would sing, kind of like sing along with him, and then we'd do just him singing.

But it's like, I walked in there the first time, and I said Michael, it's great to meet you. You know, it's like, a huge fan. It's wonderful to meet you.

And he said, [Paul does a spot on Michael Caine impression] are you out of your fucking mind? He said, you know, we spent an entire weekend together at the White Elephant. We gambled, we drank, we drank, we gambled, and then we drank, and then we gambled.

It was so funny. I said, oh my God, I had totally, that was evidently a largely blackout weekend for me, you know.

Whenever I meet somebody, and I've been around in those days, I always check with them. Do I owe you an amends? I mean, did I behave? Or an actress or something, and say, you know, did I behave? Oh, you were charming. You were sweet. You were kidding. No, you were fine. And then there were the cases where I know that I was nuts.

I mean, by the last couple years before I got sober, it had to be awful to work with me. I mean, because I just, you never knew what you were getting. If I was going to show up as a responsible, you know, guy that was taking care of business, or was I going to show up as somebody just crazy, you know?

STEVE: How do you, being as fan of certain people, feel when you hear your songs done by them? And how do you feel when something that you've written a while ago is being redone now?

PAUL: Well, that's how I started, is I started, as a contract writer at A&M Records, and I write, you know, every week I'd be in there for a few hours every day, writing with Roger, or writing by myself, or writing with other guys, you know. My bass player, Jack Conrad, and I wrote Family of Man for Three Dog Nights. I wrote Old Fashioned Love Song alone. I wrote Out in the Country with Roger, you know, so I'm writing, I'm not writing for myself. I started recording eventually, and my albums, I mean, they, I wound up getting them because I promoted it on television, so I became known, and I got a performing career and all. But the fact is that my albums were really like demos.

I mean, I recorded songs, and other people heard them and decided to record them. So, I recorded You and Me Against the World, but no one really had the hit with it. And, you know, most of the songs that Roger and I were writing, the first person to hear them was gonna be Karen and Richard Carpenter. I mean, I remember I went, ran over and played Old Fashioned Love Song for Richard, and he didn't even listen to it through the second verse. And so my publisher sent it to Three Dog Nights, and they cut it. But what's really a treat is when there's somebody that I really wanted to record one of my songs, and they never had. And then when that happens, the classic example, I love Tony Bennett, and we were friends. The head of membership at ASCAP was John Tito, was very good friends with Tony. And I remember when Tony recorded Close Enough for Love, a song I wrote with Johnny Mandela, a title song for the movie Agatha. And it was, I mean, I was like a kid in a candy store. Oh my God, I got a Tony Bennett recording. You know, and I look up with a list of people that recorded my songs. I mean, I had, Bing Crosby recorded, We've Only Just Begun. I mean, that's how far back I go. I had songs recorded by Sinatra and Elvis and Ella Fitzgerald, and just, you know, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and just amazing to, you know, to look at that, and it's, again, nothing but gratitude.

I just, and it's a thrill, you know? And then, you know, the first song I ever had recorded was recorded by Tiny Tim. I was like, you know, Tiny was a sweetheart, but I was not, I was not bowled over with joy for a Tiny Tim cut, you know? And yet, look what happened. It's like, oh, well, that's where it wound up, okay. And it was a huge record. It was the B-side of it, and they played that as well. But then the next thing you know, you know, it's recorded by David Bowie, and it's like, oh my God, I got a David Bowie cut. And so, you know, at this point, I figured songs have a life of their own.

The longer I live, the more I feel like, you know, it's just, it's got my name on it because I sat down and wrote it, you know? But I sometimes feel like I have unseen collaborators, you know? I sit down to write a song, and then all of a sudden, it's just pouring out of me, and I wonder, oh my God, it's almost as if I'm not thinking it.

It just comes out. Is that, Harry Nelson, is that you up there? You know, is that J.D. Souther, my buddy J.D.? Are we writing this one together? Is it my brother Minter, who wrote Driftaway? Give me the beat, boys. Rewind.

You know? So I'm honestly humble about the life that the songs have and nothing but grateful.

STEVE: I think about all you've done and all you've written, and I can't imagine how your life would have been different if you had actually become one of the Monkees.

PAUL: That's why No is a gift. That's why, because if I'd become one of the Monkees, I probably wouldn't have, I wouldn't have had the life as a writer that I have. I mean, No is a gift.

You know who else would audition for them? Steven Stills.

STEVE: That would have been just weird. Can I ask you two quick questions? 

PAUL: Of course. 

STEVE: Do you still skydive?

PAUL: Oh no, I quit at 100 jumps. I actually quit because I wanted to start racing.  I bought a 308 GTB Ferrari and they sent me to anti-terrorism, anti-kidnapping school at Sears Point Raceway. And I had no intention of ever racing. But I got in that car and I got a little instruction and I went, oh my God. So I did five Long Beach Grand Prix's, I did the Watkins Glen Grand Prix I think five times as well. 

I raced Laguna Seca, Sears Point, Riverside. I mean, it just, I loved it. 

Skydiving was such a…  I'd rent a motorhome and drive it down to the drop zone, which is the most dangerous part of the weekend. And then we'd get a couple jumps in and it was kind of a crazy time. But I love free fall. You know, I made my first 33 jumps back when I was 20 years old.

It was just the beginnings of the sport. I mean, Rob Pack was the first guy to ever pass a baton to another guy in free fall where they left in planes separately. You know, two guys in free fall separate, flew to each other, passed a baton, opened their parachutes and landed.

So relative work, which was almost nonexistent when I made my first 33 jumps. When I was asked to come back and jump when they found that they were looking for a celebrity that had skydiving experience, they saw my name in the Parachute Club of America's logbook. And they went, is that you? That's not you, is it? I went, yes, it is. And the answer is yes.

I wound up shooting, making a bunch of jumps with the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army Golden Knights, and got my certification. I became a star recipient for being a seven-man diamond. We shot that and I kept jumping until I got to 100 jumps and I was done.

But it was a great experience and it's funny because things slow down. When you're in free fall, there's no real sensation of speed. It's like when your hand's out the window of your car and you're playing with the wind.

That's what your whole body feels like. It's kind of a secure feeling. With the Golden Knights, we were cleared to jump all the way up to 12,500 feet. So we get 80 seconds of free fall. It was like amazing.

STEVE: Oh, I'm so jealous.

PAUL:Get out and do it.

STEVE: I will, I will. One last question. The song that you did for The Odd Couple? Is that available anywhere?

PAUL: I don't think so. I never record it. You know, it's like I wrote it that morning and we shot it.

Because they kept changing the script  so the whole thing was that Tony gave me a note for his daughter and I used the note to write the song. But they didn't write the note for Tony until the day that we actually shot it. So that morning, from that morning to the time when we shot it that night, was that later that afternoon with an audience in there and all, is when I wrote the song.

And I don't play piano, so I'm sitting there trying to remember where the hell the chords are and whatever. But it's funny, a lot of people talk to me about that. It's a sweet little song and that was long before I had any kids.

But I have to tell you that now with a daughter who's just turned 40 and the son is 44, I know how all those feelings felt. You know, I wasn't much there when they were growing up because I was a mess. But I got sober in 1990, I had my last drink in 1989 and my son was eight and my daughter was five.

And so from then on they've never seen me loaded. But I was not there for those early years and all. As my daughter said to me recently, Dad, you may have been before, you're now a full-tailed papa bear and that's as good a compliment or review as I've ever gotten in my life.

STEVE: That's the best one. That's absolutely the best one.

PAUL :Yeah. 

(A report on Paul Williams post screening Q&A will be appearing soon)

Robe of Gems (2022) opens today at BAM

Natalia López Gallardo first film as director is a hard film to describe. Following a number of people in Mexico who end up looking for a missing person in the country.

While absolutely a beautiful film, with some stunningly stage sequences and images that burn into your brain for all time, ROBE OF GEMS is narratively confused. Gallardo strives very hard to make a film that you have to work with  but ends up making a film that isn't very clear.  Watching the film I stopped it a couple of times to look at material on the film in the hope of finding something that I felt a I missed and didn't catch by replaying a sequence or two.

This is a film that is very much about something- though it's not completely clear what that is. Actually this is a film that is clearer when you read the official material- which for me is a big no no, since it is my feeling everything we need should be on the screen.

A beautiful and visually haunting miss that has hung with me since I saw it last year on the festival circuit.

BAMCinema Fest 2022 starts this week.

The always interesting BAM Cinemafest starts this week.  This is the annual look at cinema treasures that you need to see.  I've been a fan of the fest ever since I first went in 2014. Every year since then it has brought a great number of really cool films to my attention.

This year I'm not going to be able to truly wade into the festival. Part of the problem is I got lost with Tribeca, but it was more I have seen a good number of the films previously.  Below you'll find a list of of the feature films we've previously covered.

CHEE$E

UNKNOWN COUNTRY

ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (Udeyonv) (What They’ve Been Taught)

SIRENS

CROWS ARE WHITE

FREE CHOL SOO LEE

2^ND CHANCE

Do yourself a favor and look at the schedule and then go see somethiung.

For more information and tickets go here

Quick word on NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN (2020) which is playing BAM's Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema

I was not planning on seeing any films in Brooklyn Academy of Music's Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema because I simply was too busy to do so. Then I got an email from Liz Whittemore of Reel News Daily insisting that I had to see NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN. Liz does not flood me with must sees, and when she does I take notice because when she come knocking it's usually for something wonderful.

NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN is something wonderful.

A mystical young man, literally seven years older than the Chernobyl explosion appears in a Polish gated community and begins to help take away their pain.

Yes, we have been kind of sort of here before, but at the same time we have not been here like this. Charming, mannered, at times joyous and always mysterious NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN is film that takes the idea of an outsider changing a community and gives it new life. Its a film where we kind of know where its going and yet we don't. We delight when it does what we expect and are even more delighted when it does something different. 

I smiled from start to finish. Frankly I loved the film so much that I wanted another go through the film rather than go back to the films I said I was going to cover.

NEER GONNA SNOW AGAIN plays at BAM's Kino Polska starting April 30th and is highly recommended.

Thoughts on Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia at Brooklyn Academy of Music

Seeing Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia at the Brooklyn Academy of Music was one of those moments where you could feel the world shift with in you. It was a magical experience that seemed to change the very core of your being.

Entering the theater we were given while shrouds to drape over our shoulders. We were going on a journey and we had to dress appropriately. We then witnessed a procession as the performers and others walked through the audience and up and around on the stage. Snaking around and behind the stage they picked up “packages” and then brought them to the foot of the stage where a young woman arranged them. The musicians, dancers and chorus then took their places and the performance began.

Mixing dance, music and film the Howard Gillman Opera House was turned into a large place of mourning. Traditional Cambodian instruments mixed with a chamber orchestra and the voices of a chorus and solo singers to tell the story of the lost and the survivors of the Khmer Rouge. Faces of the lost, of the war, of the killing fields and the sky filled not only the screen over the stage but the walls of the opera house- We couldn’t look away- we were in that place…

On the stage the offerings were rearranged. People danced, and moved.

In the audience the universe shifted, our souls traveled. We mourned those we lost but never met. We celebrated those that survived and bore witness.

This was a performance that transcended the earthy notion of a kind of requiem mass to be a universal healing rite.

And when it was done and we filed out we were all given envelopes with a picture of one of the dead. A reminder of the evening and of the loss of a life.

Words cannot express what happened Friday night. It was more than theater, more than cultural rite. It was something greater. It was something almost other worldly and glorious.

BAMcinématek & Romanian Film Initiative Announce the Lineup for Making Waves

The Romanian Film Initiative, BAMcinématek and the Jacob Burns Film Center announce the lineup for the 12th edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema,November 30-December 7   Highlights include Bogdan Mirică’s FIPRESCI prize-winning Dogs, Călin Peter Netzer’s Silver Bear Winner Ana, Mon Amour, Adrian Sitaru’s The Fixer, Romania’s entry to the Academy Awards® foreign language competition, and a spotlight on Anca Damian, one of the most compelling Romanian directors working today   New York, NY — November 22, 2017 — The Romanian Film Initiative, BAMcinématek, and the Jacob Burns Film Center are proud to present the 12th edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, to run November 30-December 7. The survey of new Romanian cinema has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal as having “helped define and establish the southeastern European country as a stronghold of socially incisive, independently minded personal cinema.”   New York’s longstanding Romanian film festival comes to BAMcinématek for the first time, with an exclusive program that features the award-winning works of a new generation of talents, including Bogdan Mirică’s Balkan Coen-esque thriller Dogs; a zany social comedy from second-time filmmaker Paul Negoescu, Two Lottery Tickets; and a quiet backwater drama from actor-turned-director Emanuel Pârvu, Meda or the Not So Bright Side of Things. The festival also turns a spotlight on Anca Damian, one of the most compelling Romanian directors working today, who has forged a singular path with her visually arresting documentary, narrative and animation hybrids or her intellectually challenging fiction films. The three-film showcase consists of  In Perfect Health, Crulic: The Path to Beyond, and The Magic Mountain.   “The national cinema of Romania continues to make waves internationally. We are proud to join forces with the Romanian Film Initiative to bring these critically acclaimed films to New York city audiences,” said Gina M. Duncan, Associate Vice President, Cinema, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music).   “In complementary programming, the Jacob Burns Film Center showcases for the 5th year the best new releases of the year, seeing the return of audience darling Nae Caranfil, who gets to open this year’s festival with his new musical extravaganza, 6.9 on the Richter Scale,” writesMihai Chirilov, the festival’s Artistic Director. “International film festival highlights such as Adrian Sitaru’s The Fixer, Călin Peter Netzer's Ana, Mon Amour and Iulia Rugină’s Breaking Newsjoin the party, adding to the mix the tales of convoluted relationships and morally charged dramas that New Romanian Cinema has become known for. And so does a contingent of promising first-time filmmakers: Anca Miruna Lăzărescu, with her highly enjoyable Iron Curtain dramatic comedy The Trip We Took With Dad, the duo Cosmin Bumbuț and Elena Stancu, with their exquisite piece of anthropological cinema The Last Kalderash, and Șerban Georgescu and his mordant social satire Cabbage, Potatoes and Other Demons. This year’s program is a hell of a ride, with The Gambler by Ignas Jonynas on board — courtesy of this edition’s guest country, Lithuania. With its dash of black humor, it could easily pass as Romanian. Enjoy!”   Guests of this year’s festival include directors Anca Damian (this year’s director in focus), Adrian Sitaru (The Fixer), Iulia Rugină (Breaking News), Paul Negoescu (Two Lottery Tickets), Emanuel Pârvu (Meda or The Not So Bright Side of Things), director and DP Adrian Silișteanu (Written/Unwritten, The Fixer), actor Anghel Damian (In Perfect Health), and producer Miruna Berescu (Meda or The Not So Bright Side of Things).   As well as introducing these filmmakers’ voices to U.S audiences, Making Waves aims to help them connect to, and network within, the American film industry. With this in mind, an industry event will also accompany the festival screenings and gala events.   Corina Șuteu, Festival President, says, “BAMcinématek is the ideal place to put new talent on stage, but also to start a meaningful conversation about the similarities and differences between the Romanian and American film industries. Having a strong platform and a reputation established in New York, Making Waves reinvents itself in 2017 at BAM.”   Making Waves was founded by the Romanian Film Initiative and is co-presented in partnership with BAMcinematék and the Jacob Burns Film Center. Co-founded in 2012 by Corina Șuteu, Mihai Chirilov and Oana Radu, the independent Romanian Film Initiative aims to preserve and enhance the festival’s critical and creative spirit. Leading support for the 12th edition of Making Waves is provided by The Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Filmmakers Union of Romania, and Blue Heron Foundation. Film Industry Talks is supported by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund of Romania.   Schedule[U2]

Nightcap 3/19/17: Boston Underground starts Wednesday,Notes on NYC Comic Con, 887 at BAM, thoughts on Derrick Walcott and Capeman

NYICFF is now officially over-here is a sketch that I did on the back of a ballot card. A full report soon

The wonderful Boston Underground Film Festival starts Wednesday. This little gem of a festival shows a great selection of genre and out of the mainstream films. Last year I go to see some really good films that hung with me all the way to the end of the year.

This year the festival has come around and it looks to be a killer one. The fest is running Brian Harrison‘s HELL FOLLOWS which I loved. I loved it so much I even interviewed Harrison. It is also running DAVE MADE A MAZE which JB loved.

As this posts we’re still putting together our coverage- which is not going to be as big as we’d like because of real world events are colliding with our plans- however do expect some reviews and reports.

If you’re going to be in Boston this week and weekend I suggest you check it out-tickets and more information can be had here
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New York Comic Con- yea well.

NY Comic Con sent out an email Friday concerning this year’s Con. The key points of the email broke down as follows:

1. Pre-registration is required but if you did it last year you’re still registered. If you registered for last year you’re on the list for this year and you’ll get a shot at pre-sale tickets.

2. The on sales are going to be on a weekend (dates to be determined)

3. They have eliminated the 3 and 4 day passes. You will have to buy single day passes…They say that because the Javitts will have construction this will allow more people to attend…

… and I don’t believe it.

Sorry- I don’t. I think there is another reason behind it other than maximizing attendance. (And I know being bitchy will limit my chance for a press pass- but since they cut me off last year odds are they’ll cut me off again this year so I’m going to speak my mind.)

The trouble with the reasoning behind the elimination of the multi-day badges is faulty. Unless there is going to be severe construction that is going to close a huge chunk of the Javitts center it will be no different than what attendees had to deal with any number of the last five or six years when the Javitts was doing construction and sections were closed. There were pass-throughs the construction area which chopped up the con. Each year with the construction the convention set new attendance records.

I suspect that the real reason is the convention is eliminating the multi-day passes because that if you buy passes for each day you’re paying double or more than multiday. I think the real reason is they are doing it is to maximize profits.

Will I make an effort to go?

Yes.

Do I expect to get there?

No- I suspect that I will be cut off for a press pass and I suspect the on sales will be so jammed I’ll be lucky to get a badge.
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Robert Lapage’s 887 is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. On one hand the show is pure theatrical magic. We watch a giant doll house spins and turns and opens up like, in the words of Hubert Vigilla a giant Rubik’s Cube on a lazy Susan. On the other hand the show burns itself into your sub conscious and works on you in such a way that days later I’m still pondering it and it’s images and stories have become part of my DNA.

Nominally the story of Lepage’s attempt to learn a poem for a presentation the show spins out to be a memory play about growing up in the apartment he shared with his family, how we remember, Canadian history and a lot of other stuff I’m still pondering.

I still have no words beyond my mind is blown and its one of the most magical evenings I’ve ever spent in the theater. It moved me and made me rethink how we tell stories.

If you can you have to see this. The show runs through the 26th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. For tickets and more information go here.
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The great poet Derrick Walcott has died.

My introduction to his work through the book of Paul Simon's Broadway Musical CAPEMAN which starred Marc Anthony, Ruben Blades and Sara Rameriez.

Despite Simon's excellent score the show failed to find an audience.

There have been several attempts to restage the musical all of which have been for naught. The reason was not what you think. The truth of the matter is the play hasn't been revived because Walcott wouldn't allow changes to be made to his script. I remember when the show was on Broadway there were reports of frantic meetings between Simon, the producers and director Mark Morris who were asking for changes but Walcott refused to make them with the result the show could never be fixed. This is the same problem that has prevented the show from being reborn.

This may piss off people I am hoping that with Walcott's passing the show can be rescued- assuming his estate allows changes to be made.

A Man of Good Hope at BAM

A Good Man of Hope currently play a very brief run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is a tough play/musical. The story of Asad Abdullahi, a Somali refugee, who has spent his life trying to find a better life despite all that life throws at him is a tough play. Bad things happen, a lot of bad things and it’s hard not to feel as beaten up by his life as the man himself. The whole thing takes on even darker tones thanks to Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and we quickly see what can happen if we allow stupider heads to prevail.

The play started as a series of interviews Asad gave to Jonny Steinberg who, at first thought his story would be 10 to 20 pages in a book on refugees. However Steinberg realized there was a whole story here and he changed the focus of the book. The book was then turned into a musical by the Isango Ensemble and the Young Vic.

The show is framed by  Asad giving an interview to Steinberg. The play then flashes back to the day when Asad watched his mother die after being shot by Somali rebels. What then follows is thirty year march as friends and family, wives and children come and go and Asad simply tries to go on. It’s a story that will break your heart as people die, the locals abuse him for being an immigrant and all his possessions are stripped away. Light and happy it is not. It’s the first time I've ever seen a story that makes you feel pain when a character says he’s coming to America.

Seeing the show four weeks into the Trump administration was incredibly tough. Here on stage was the true life story of what could and will happen if the president’s worst nature is allowed to fan the flames of hatred across the country. There were frequent uneasy ripples of emotion through the audience as lines and actions took on unexpected and shattering meanings in the wake of the president's first month of insane rantings. The way the story plays out now, in this place, especilly in Brooklyn and its multicultural community was nothing BAM or the theater companies could have known when they booked the engagement.

I cannot explain what the effect of the show was on the audience last night except to say that when the show ended there was a stunned silence. No one wanted to move, I'm not sure some of us could. While the whole audience rose to their feet as one very few applauded to start, they simply stared at the stage in shell shock, it was as if they didn't know how to applaud. Then as the cast waved and smiled, applause grew as those around us came out of a spell. The applause grew louder through each of the three curtain calls. Then the audience filed quietly out into the night- few people talking. We were all stunned into silence laid low by the life of one man and his drive to go on.

A Good Man of Hope is the very definition of affecting theater.

And I need to say this really isn’t a happy musical. Asad whose story this is hasn’t read the book of his life. Steinberg says that the reason is that the only way that Asad can go on is by facing forward and not looking back. As is implied in play and even in Steinberg‘s pieces on the book the reason is Asad doesn’t want to face the sadness once again. To be honest had I known what the play was I probably would not have bought tickets. However now that I’ve seen it I’ve seen a theater piece that I can’t shake and has left me rattled in the best way possible.

If you can get to BAM before the run ends this weekend, do so, just be prepared to be broken.

Man of Good Hope plays through Sunday February 19th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. For more information and tickets go here.

rambling thoughts on the super cool BRENT GREEN AND SAM GREEN: LIVE CINEMA at Brooklyn Academy of Music

I wrote this in the wee hours last night after seeing LIVE CINEMA. Its wild and rambling and I should fix it to be more proper (or at least fix the tenses)- but to hell with it- the show just dropped my heart in my hands and made me feel things so I'm leaving this rambling piece that's full of feeling as is. ( I also should point out this review relates to the performance not the films- Nate Hood, who went with me, sent me one of the films last night after I finished the review.Seeing it with out being at BAM was a different experience. All thoughts therefore are in relation to the show as performed last night)

You walk into the Fishman Space at BAM to find before a gigantic screen to in front of which was an an assortment of instruments. There was a bar to one side and rows of couches and comfy chairs all laid out in front of typical risers with chairs in the back. The email that BAM sent out to ticket holders was that the bar would open in the theater half an hour before show time and then be open during the performance and we should feel free to get a drink at any time (Its repeated on the web page).

When filmmakers Brent Green and Sam Green came out the first thing they said was we were to feel free to get a drink at any time. This was a social event with everyone communing and drinks were part of that. They were bothered that the night before no one got up and got a drink because they had fought to get a bar into the theater and they felt it should be used. Drinking and being in the space would help the enjoyment.

And then it started proper and the universe changed...

Actually it began with Sam Green's piece about the last person in the phone book and the examination of the need to be last instantly made you go "oh wow this is something special". It was a simple piece about how people changed their listings in the phone book over decades to get the last place in the book. Seemingly simple but wickedly and deceptively not because it sent your mind going out in all sorts of directions.

The universe changing bit came when they did a piece around a short documentary called CARLIN about Brent Green's aunt. It was kind of like God coming down and doing a spoken word piece with a rock band and animated visuals- and as you're fighting your tears you end up leaping to your feet applauding because you've just seen what could very possibly be the greatest thing you've ever seen in a movie theater...

...and you're terrified that that it can't get better than that...and you're probably right but it doesn't get worse and you're on cloud nine for the next hour and change because what you're seeing is just so fucking cool that you don't know how to react... I mean you can't stop the show and call up every one you know and say come down to BAM because everyone will think you're nuts and it's the middle of the performance... and the rest of the audience will get mad...though odds are they're thinking the same thing...we have to call people and tell them this thing is happening.

Anyway I'm rambling... but Live Cinema will do that to you....

The next piece was Sam's deeply moving piece called 116 CANDLES about being the oldest person alive...Its about a woman who is 115 and her 85 year old niece and its about the course of life and there was such beauty and poetry to it that suddenly you find how you're viewing the world changes...and considering what being the oldest really means and what it takes...lots of love I would think.

There was a new short piece about a house being banged like a drum that lead into EE about Brent's grandfather who was in his words "an asshole" Jagged and pointed and angry much like the lightning which kept striking him it was a good little rock and roll piece.

DRINKING WITH LOUIE was Sam's stellar piece on the audio recordings of Louie Armstrong. Armstrong had a tape recorder and made hundreds of recording of his life his music and the things that interested him. Many-as we hear are personal. This was one of the highlights of the evening with the piece bridging time and space to put you somewhere else in some other time. The only thing comparable is the work of the theater group Complicite whose work like Mnemonic or The Encounter wreck the notion of being in a theater and instead put the audience into a completely new world. It was awesome.

A new short piece following stories about building battleships out of ice gave way to an animated bit about swimming with battle ships. Brent's animation was simply - wow.

Sam's piece on FOG was another awesome piece, The montages of the fog rolling through San Francisco when combined with the music were just hypnotic. and the sort of thing that transported you to another time and another place...and perhaps more than any other film you didn't want it to end

In between the FOG film and the next one Brent was goaded into talking about getting stuck in a revolving door with Mick Jagger...

Everyone then tore into a piece that had something to do with sewing a spacesuit for a dog on a Singer sewing machine in Russia and it just went...off the scales. Don't ask me more than that except that the animation was just awesome. It was stop motion and mixed media and...Yea,wow.

There was a final piece an encore of such about a pet cemetery that was a nice quiet way of bringing everyone back to earth.

The show over the bar remained open and the filmmakers and the band talked to the audience. I should have talked to them but I was overwhelmed, I had nothing constructive to say other than "that was awesome". Nate waded in and spoke to Brent about some of his pieces.

I know to see the films and the pieces outside of this would be different, but here with the band (who was awesome) and the space and the audience and everything they became something more than just a digital file in a computer.

I have no words.

It was something extraordinary. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a "movie" theater ever. It was one of the best theatrical experiences of the year. I desperately want to see it again...and I want to drag everyone I know to see it.

Go while you can- go while lightning is still in the bottle- go see the magic made real and movies once again become a communal and live experience

The last two screenings happen tonight and tomorrow at BAM. For tickets and more information go here.

Battlefield at BAM Next Wave 2016

BAM presents Peter Brook's reduction of his epic 9 hour MAHABHARATA which played BAM several decades ago and was subsequently filmed and turned into two films, a full length one and shorter three hour version.

Battlefield is a revised 70 minute segment focusing on what happened after the massive war that killed millions. As the dead are collected the new king wanders the battlefield looking for solace and guidance.

To say that the first half of the play is one of the most moving things I've ever seen is a gross understatement. The simple explanation of the cost of war kicked me to the curb and back with it's eloquence. Equally moving is the shows discussion of grief and guilt on the part of the survivors and especially those who called for the war. It is as timeless a piece of writing and theater as anything I've ever experienced.

The problem for me is that in the final third the play loses it's focus. What was a wonderful rethinking of the epic play spins out as we jump through time as we see what happens to characters and we get the appearance of Gods and beings that were fine in the full epic, but here distance the play from today. We were not brought into a world of gods at the start and their sudden appearance weakens the universality of the first part of the piece. Worse it drones on too long to the point I had to stifle laughter when the river goddess appeared with a shriek that caused a large number of the sleeping blue hairs in the audiences to suddenly wake up.

I really liked it, but I wanted to love it.

If nothing else it has me searching for the DVDs of the full show.

Battlefield plays through October 8. For tickets and more information go here.

The Undertaking (2016) BAM Next Wave Fest 2016

The Civilians meta look at death has a fictional Steve Cosson interviewing his friend Lydia about death for a play about death where we will hear the actual words of the people he interviewed. Its an examination of the things that happen as we die, after and why we are so afraid of it.

Largely intriguing play mixes actual interviews with projections and sections of Jean Cocteaus's film ORPHEUS in order to chart Steve's exploration of death. Its a show that frequently has great power when recounting the words of those who have confronted  death in one way or another.

The problem with the show is that some where just past the half way point the script which is largely designed as a conversation between two people with illustrative interjections, becomes a spirit quest as Steve makes a journey to the land of the dead in order to confront his fears. It works up to a point but begins to unravel as they build a pillow fort and what felt real (I'm guessing due to much of it being transcriptions of real conversations)  suddenly feels contrived as the dialog structure disappears into navel gazing. The show recovers in the end but not enough to stir the emotions.

I talked with Unseen Films contributor Hubert Vigilla about the show for almost an hour afterward and in the end I came away feeling that the show is one more draft away from being where it should be. There is so much there that works that if something could be done with the vision quest they could have a truly great piece.

That said- I recommend the show because it gets your brain going.

THE UNDERTAKING plays through Sunday though only standby tickets are available.

Monumental -BAM Next Wave 2016

What do you get when dance troupe The Holy Body Tattoo dances to live music from Godspeed You! Black Emperor?

You get something monumental or at least called MONUMENTAL.

Actually when it all comes together it is one of the most hypnotic things you'll see all year.

The promotional material says something about the piece being about the daily grind of existence, yes, on some level it is. I don't think that's completely the case since any sort of thread disappears for extended periods of time to motion, music and occasionally some form of projection- either text or motion picture.

I think the reason that the daily grind thing is latched on to is because the text seems to tie together as a commentary of events that occur during one's life. Is that really what the piece is about? I'm not sure because in this case the pieces don't equal the whole- the whole is something frequently and ultimately transcendent.

Nominally dancers dance on the stands that can be seen in the pictures. They are all separate. Eventually they end up off the stands and moving enmass around the stage. Meanwhile behind them, partitioned off by a scrim on which the text and film is projected the musicians play. The music is an amalgam of previous material from God Speed! re-purposed as dance tunes.

The effect is quite striking as the various pieces come together to work on the audience in a deeply visceral manner. We don't see it we feel it. We don't register it intellectually as much experience it as sensory overload as if dropped in to a tank where every nerve and every sense is forced to fire at full throttle.  The result is giddiness, a heightened sense of awareness and exhaustion- I wanted to curl up and go to bed when it as done- hell I was dreaming when I was awake wasn't I?

Sadly the piece is only getting two shows at BAM with last one tonight.

What can I say that was one of the coolest things I've seen all year and more proof that the BAM Next Wave this year is something special (as if THE LONER, BRIDGE OVER MUD and PHEADRA(S) Wasn't already)

Phaedra(s) BAM Next Wave Festival 2016

Isabelle Huppert ends any discussion as to her place in the pantheon of all time  great actresses with PHAEDRA(S) which is playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music trough the weekend. How she dismantles three ties over the course of an evening is a feat that those of us who were there will be discussing for decades to come. Her performance is one of the must sees - ever. Period

The show itself is another matter.

The show is a triple telling of the story of Phaedra, queen of ancient Greece who married a kind and then had incestuous thoughts for her stepson which ends badly for pretty much everyone. Its a heavy story and despite the humor is a tough slog since the versions, especially the first two, are a little too similar for my taste. If I could have seen this over three nights- or at the very least broken up by two intermissions instead of one I think this would have played better. Diving from the first version into Sarah Kane's mind fuck of family dysfunction is a bit too much. Worse the similarities, especially in the first half of the show, reduce the character down just woman "burning" for her stepson instead of giving us greater resonances.

To be honest I have to say that some of my lack of love was due to some technical issues concerning my seat.  Sitting in the lower orchestra all the way to one side in row G I found that the extension of the walls of the set out past the proscenium effectively removed anything that happened on  one side of the stage unless I watched things in the mirror (when visible). It also removed anyone walking down stage left from my view so when Phaedra staggers down to the front of the stage toward the end of the second part I had no idea she was walking while the scene in her stepson's room continued on.

To be honest had I been seated center and back so I didn't have to choose to read the super-titles or watch the performance I would have liked it much more.

Still having Huppert break apart 20 feet in front of me was amazingly cool and the sort of thing you don't need words to move you in every possible way.

Recommended for Huppert's performance more than anything else, PHAEDRA(S) is still a kick in the ass.

(addendum- I have no idea where it would fit, but the use of  slow motion version the shower scene from PSYCHO as background for a seduction going off the rails is one of the more chilling things I've ever seen on stage- though the power gets lost 9th or 10th time through.)

Bridge Over Mud at Brooklyn Academy of Music

FuturePerfect Productions 2016: Verdensteatret's "Bridge Over Mud" Tours New York and Seattle from FuturePerfect on Vimeo.


Bridge Over Mud comes from the collective Verdensteatret. It a weird mash up of an avant garde film mixed with a train set and guy playing a tuba.

I’ll let that sink in.

It really is a weird mishmash of weird imagery- cabs seemingly floating down a street- live video from a train going around a tracks in front of us in a world make up of colored china, lights projected on screens, odd pimages coming from someones subconcious drifting across the screens and some guy sitting to one side playing a tuba and having its weird sounds converted to images.

It’s a one of a kind live experience. Something video (see above for an official abbreviated version) can’t truly duplicate – I mean the sound comes at you from at least 15 loud speakers all around the audience, many set up right in front of the audience so sound drifts around. Plus the the scale of the thing laid out before us is kind of staggering.

The real question is how is it?

Depending on the moment either one of the coolest things you’ve ever seen (the images from the train) to complete and utter pretentious bullshit (the cabs). You swing from never wanting it to end and wanting to find a large wrench and beat the entire collective to death because it's just so gawd awful and dull

Yes it’s one of those.

I found it to be an interesting show because, for one of many reasons, including how the randomness and seeming arbitrary construction resulted in dead silence when it ended- not because it didn’t deserve applause (some of it did) rather because there was no sense of ending the lights remained on and there was still feedback coming from the speakers. We all thought there was more coming…it wasn’t until one of the collective leapt on to the stage applauding that we knew it was done. There are simply no clues how to react or as to when things begin or end its just this ever continuing piece that goes until it just stops at a random moment.

The big problem with the piece is its not a piece, its random pieces. We enter in semidarkness and lights in our eyes, the theater goes dark and we experience weird circles and noises coming at us from a side screen. This gives way to the cab thing (neither motif is ever referenced again) then we have various images from the train set, things happen with the tuba guy, there are hypnotic projections. Yes we see bits kind of repeat- especially with some of the train stuff, but nothing builds, there is no thrust or building of momentum it just happens and then stops. As Hubert  Vigilla, who sat next to mesaid " it's almost like everyone in the collective got to put a piece in randomly whether it fit or not."

Did I like it?

As a once in a life time experience it was cool- but nothing I need to see again.

I understand why Brooklyn Academy of music booked it but at the same time it’s the sort of thing you really want to grab the person responsible and shake them and go "you really are that deranged a art film loving model train enthusiast that you you’re subjecting paying audiences to this." Its a thing I admire in my head but not in my heart

As I said to Hubert when it was over- "Yea, that was a thing that happened"

Not sure you need to see it.

More to the point how could anyone do it more than once and why would anyone want to see it more than once?

It's running a few more times- take a look at the video above and you can decide what you think and if you need to go.

the theater film hybrid HELEN LAWRENCE at BAM

Helen Lawrence is a cinema/theater hybrid that has the cast performing the show live on stage behind a scrim/screen while the performance is combined with backgrounds and projected onto the screen in front of them. Its neither full stage performance nor a film one but a blending of the two where sometimes one style takes the fore front over the other.

Set in 1948 the show is set in Canada in and around Hogan’s Alley, a seedy backwater of the city the town is trying to clean up- which is a fancy way of saying the powers that be want to take over the properties/illegal activities for their own ends. As the locals try to find their footing on the shifting landscape a mysterious woman enters looking for a man named Percy. Could this Percy be the local bookie who is looking to set up in a ritzier surroundings once the digs he’s in is torn down? And could it be linked to a splashy murder in LA the year before?

Of course.

It takes a little bit to get your brain around the shifting levels of the show, sometimes the live performance is interesting, sometimes the film is, sometimes we are not given a choice what to watch. Your eyes bounce from the bare stage to the image on the screen which through the magic of computers is a fully realized location. While you know how it’s done there is still some part of your brain that can’t fully grasp how the actors can both be nowhere and somewhere. For 15 or 20 minutes you have to work to with the duality, and then it becomes easy and natural. It’s a clever trick that’s fun for the show but it isn’t something would want to watch on a regular basis.

Technically the show is very good. For the most part the blending of live actors with fictional backgrounds is nearly flawless. A real world is created.

The cast is also very good, though some of the hard boiled lines can occasionally be delivered with too much of a knowing smile in the voice.

The weakness of the show is the script which is good but not quite as good as it should have been. The scripts flaws come from two places. The biggest weakness is the result of a slack first two thirds which moves the plot along and builds character, but isn’t as gripping as exciting as it could have been. Watching the show at BAM last night there were numerous walk outs, I’m guessing because for a chunk of the tale it’s a weird roundabout that seems to be setting a great deal up. Yes the show picks up and moves like the wind in the final third- but it all culminates in a series of blackouts that end the show which reveal the shows other major flaw- nothing is resolved. And while several characters do end up dead, none of the major plot lines are resolved. That would be okay if the show didn’t have fifteen or sixteen balls in the air, but it does and when THE END came up on the screen the audience, myself included just sat there staring. There was no applause. The final unresolved bit would have been fine if all of the other bits had been resolved – but nothing was and even the dead bodies created more questions as to what happened next. I could have excepted it as if there was some clue as to possible resolution at fade out but there is none, and a show that had started to pay off dividends for the slow start stumbles over its own feet and crashes through a window to end up in a bruised lump in the final minutes. What should have been a great show ended up being just okay.

This live film noir show is the second show at BAM this season to explore live performance as cinematic event. The other show, Nufonia Must Fall was a kind of living cartoon with puppets telling a robotic love story. While Nufonia wasn’t as technically whiz bang as Helen Lawrence it was better written with the effect that Nufonia will always have a warm place in my hear while Helen Lawrence is doomed to fade and be forgotten.

a few words on Tabac Rouge at Brooklyn Academy of Music

James Thierrée is the grandson of Charlie Chaplin.

It doesn't mean much where his talent is concerned since he is at least his grandfathers equal if not his superior.  I only mention it because Thierree's  build and grey hair mixed with some of his mannerisms makes it seem that Chaplin about the time of THE GREAT DICTATOR is on stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Thierree and his theater company are performing in TABAC ROUGE through Sunday and if you want to see some of the most amazing things you will ever see go get tickets now. And that's not hyperbole I am in awe of what I saw and some of it is so far beyond WOW and any other superlatives that I simply can not explain what I saw. Frankly I should have been crying from the sheer joy and disbelief at what I was seeing by quite simply I couldn't and still can't process what I just saw.

The evening began with a mishap- there were technical difficulties and the start was delayed roughly an hour. Hubert and I kind of wondered what all of that was about. What could delay things an hour?

When the curtain rose the stage was litter with lighting rigs, music played, lights flickered. The house lights stayed on. Eventually people were carried on to stage, things happened and a man blew out the house lights. From there wonders came one after another as a huge wall moved around and revealed more people- who slide and danced and contorted their way across the stage Everything was constant motion. Somewhere a dictator or god like figure dealt with the people around him. It all ends with a giant mobile spinning on stage as the audience stood and went berserk with applause.

I kept thinking that was the coolest thing I had ever seen until the next thing happened that made me think that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. And somewhere  in there I started to tear up because I was seeing something that had put me so far past words that all I could do to express myself was to cry.

I can not tell you what the show is. If you look at pictures or clips you'll see stuff that's in there but you won't see what the whole show is. It will not and can not convey what it is like to be in the theater when this thing happens. If pressed I will say its some weird fable that is kind of like watching Charlie Chaplin trapped in a silent post apocalyptic Samuel Beckett play that is occasionally invaded by Bill Irwin.

Its just- WOW.

I'm not going to lie and say everyone is going to love it. It's not for all tastes. There is a loose through line but how and why and what it all means are not specified. Things happen and you either accept it or you'll go mad. Hubert ,who went with me, kind of summed up the best way to handle it which was after a while he just stopped trying to make sense of it and just let the show happen. Frankly the people  who walked out missed one hell of a show stopper at the end. No clue what the giant whirling spinning mobile meant but god damn it was cool.

The show plays through Sunday and you really have to rearrange your life, cancel the wedding, sell the kids, put grandma in hock in order to see this. Trust me you will see wonders the likes of which you have never seen and will be better for it.

For tickets and more information go here.