As we quietly chanted a self-affirming (however desperate) "you can do this" to ourselves while rocking back and forth in the fetal position, The Observer's phone lit up with a surprise last minute invite to something a little off the beaten path: A two-hour reserved-seating Q&A session with screen legend Gary Oldman. The invite washed over us like an awesome wave.
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When Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in May of 1913, its thorny polyrhythms and pagan-inspired choreography completely unnerved the audience, whose booing and catcalls eventually erupted into a full-blown riot. Even after the police intervened, chaos reigned for the remainder of the performance as bar-room-style brawls broke out in the Parisian aisles, sending the evening into the annals of music history. Read More
If you worked anywhere along NYC's longest street, you may have seen a familiar sight yesterday evening: the Occupy Wall Street protesters! They were back!
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While Stephen Spielberg is busy promoting his adaptation of the Tony-Award winning War Horse (you know, the one with the life-size horse marionette...which unfortunately will be played by an actual horse in the movie), the Broadway show has gained a new--and terribly attractive--lead actor.
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As concertgoers funneled out of Avery Fisher Hall on Monday night, a middle-aged couple kissed passionately on the first-tier balcony, earning hoots of approval from below. Earlier in the evening, a seemingly inebriated mink-wrapped woman sitting next to The Observer spoke to her husband at full-volume before unceremoniously slumping asleep in her plush seat.
Perhaps something had been slipped into the wine served at the preceding gala dinner, or perhaps the audience was simply overstimulated from the evening's orchestral excitement. Whatever the cause, the classical crowd was in strange form, which only served to highlight the magnificence of the Lincoln Center's “Great Performers” concert that took place.
As the members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra stormed the stage, an older woman in front of us clapped in slow motion, her hands extended over her head, picking up the pace as Met maestro of the moment, Signore Fabio Luisi, made his entrance. Greeting the audience with a smile, the 52-year-old planted himself curtly on the podium, his greying hair neatly combed and his round spectacles perfectly adjusted. Read More
The Observer went to the opera last night and found Occupy Wall Street, sort of. Rounding the corner and ascending the steps of the plaza at Lincoln Center about fifteen minutes before the performance of Anna Bolena was to begin, we expected to see the iconic fountain and maybe a few patrons milling patiently about. Read More
Preparing to watch the wizarding world's final battle unfold, hundreds of muggle fans are engaging in a battle of their own. It may not be a fight of good versus evil, but that doesn’t make their struggle any less determined. "We sleep in shifts," said a fan who has camped for five days outside Lincoln Read More
Last night Champagne was the beverage of choice at Nespresso's Madison Avenue salon. After a special preview of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s As You Like It, the Young Patrons of Lincoln Center gathered for cocktails and canapés. The crowd, composed almost exclusively of financiers under thirty, hobnobbed around the stainless steel espresso machines, sharing Shakespearean sentiments.Young Read More
Wednesday, June 1
Lincoln Debates
Not all is well at Lincoln Center--the City Opera finally bolted for greener (hopefully more acoustically sound) pastures, and the City Ballet's season was described by our venerable dance critic as "schizophrenic." Plus, they have a theater named after a tea-partying Koch brother! But the site's ongoing redevelopment continues apace, Read More
New York City Ballet married Broadway and Balanchine at their annual Spring Gala, which featured the premiere of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins, a collaboration between the ballet's company and the Tony Award-winning singer Patti LuPone. The veteran Broadway actor Victor Garber (best known for his role in Titanic and soon Read More
The first show of Fashion Week is always greeted with an air of excitement. But, still, a few words to the wise on the matter.
Wear flat shoes because you will be standing around – a lot. Wear clothing that can take you from New York’s freezing weather to the furnace --- like, for example, temperatures Read More
Parties The Shindigger Shindigger
"Here, close your eyes," Hearst president David Carey told the Observer. Mr. Carey, dressed like The Publisher in a Gray Flannel Suit with a red tie, held a copy of the September Marie Claire in his hands. Mr. Carey dropped the magazine on the floor. Thwack. "It didn't sound like that in January!" Mr. Carey Read More
A release from brokerage Cushman & Wakefield confirms that Century 21 will indeed open its second Manhattan store in the space evacuated by the Lincoln Square Barnes & Noble. Century 21 had just yesterday denied rumors that the switch was afoot.
MyUpperWest reported that the department store would be opening a branch at the 61,000-square-foot uptown Read More
A set of persistent neighbors opposed to Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus have failed to block the school from expanding through a court case.
As with most every major controversial development, the opponents of the expansion—chiefly residents of the Alfred, a condo tower that shares a superblock with Fordham's campus—filed a suit in court to block Read More
Premieres, revivals, debuts ... With our two major ballet companies both in residence at Lincoln Center (as they are every May and June), the last few weeks have been a revolving door of sensational triumphs, disappointments and fiascoes.
Let's get the worst over first. Melissa Barak, an ex-City Ballet dancer and sometime choreographer, Read More
