In April, the blockbuster King Tut exhibition will open at the Discovery Times Square Exposition. But starting Tuesday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open a more low-key Tut exhibition that focuses on the less flashy elements of the burial process of the boy king.
“Tutankhamun’s Funeral” at the Met is made up of mummy bandages, linen sheets, mud seals and bags of natron and sawdust from the embalming process. Discovered in 1907 by Edward S. Ayrton, some of the funeral items bear the name of King Tutankhamun, and helped lead Howard Carter to his nearby discovery of the actual tomb in 1922.
Ayrton was working for New York lawyer and amateur archaeologist Theodore M. Davis, who later donated the funeral items to the Met Museum. (All the items in the new exhibition are normally on display, but have been given a special room and new book to coincide with the major Tut exhibition at Times Square.)
“We thought it might be a good idea to give people another aspect of the story,” Dorothea Arnold, curator and chairman of the Department of Egyptian Art at the Met, said in an interview at the museum Monday. “You can start here and get the context.”
Indeed the Met offers deep context, with one of the best Egyptian art and textile collections in the world. When the original King Tut exhibition came to New York in 1979, it was on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art . In 2004, officials from the Met said they opted out of this tour because they did not want to add a higher entry fee. (Times Square tickets will cost $27.50 for the single exhibition, while the Met is always a $20 suggested admission for the entire museum.)
'Next Fall' mixed reviews: best new play or Cliché City
The new drama “Next Fall” opened on Broadway on Thursday to reviews mixed with praise for its deft comic touch but criticism for clichéd characters.
Tackling religion, homsexuality and other issues about love and commitment, the play by Geoffrey Nauffts transferred from Off-Broadway with the financial backing of co-producer Elton John.
Directed by Sheryl Kaller the cast members are Patrick Breen, Maddie Corman, Sean Dugan, Patrick Heusinger, Connie Ray and Cotter Smith.
“Next Fall” has an open-ended run at the Helen Hayes Theater, 240 W. 44th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $81.50 to 116.50. Premium seats are $176.50 to $226.50. Student rush tickets are usually available at the box office two hours before curtain for $26.50.
Age advice: The story is about the romance between two gay men. It contains strong langauge and children under the age of 4 are not permitted in the theatre.
The “Next Fall” Broadway reviews:
New York Times - “‘Next Fall,’ which opened Thursday night at the Helen Hayes Theater, is that genuine rara avis, a smart, sensitive and utterly contemporary New York comedy.”
Wall Street Journal - ” Alas, “Next Fall” is cliché-infested and cloyingly sentimental, and the fact that it has transferred to Broadway after a successful Off-Broadway run means only that you can fool some of the people most of the time.”
Variety - “The laughter and sobs emanating from the audience at “Next Fall” reinforce the impression of a sure-footed return to somewhat unfashionable territory. Calling it a thoughtful, funny-sad soap opera is not intended as a putdown.”
Associated Press - “‘Next Fall’ is expertly cast, enormously entertaining and even laugh-filled despite the underlying seriousness of its subject matter.”
Subway archaeology to go on display at Transit Annex
After a renovation, the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex at Grand Central Terminal will reopen March 18 with a free exhibition of New Amsterdam artifacts discovered while building a subway extension in Lower Manhattan.
“Archeology at the South Ferry Terminal” will include more than 100 of the 65,000 artifacts — ceramic sherds, shells, coins, tobacco pipes, and architectural materials — found at the site before it reopened in February 2009 as the South Ferry subway station.
“Among the most important finds of the excavation were pieces of two 18th century landmarks — the Battery Wall and Whitehall Slip,” museum officials said in announcing the exhibition. “Stones from the Wall are on view, as are photographs of a section of the Wall that was reinstalled in the new South Ferry station. Whitehall Slip was built in stages from the 1730s to 1790s using landfilling and dredging. It allowed boats to dock and spurred the commercial and military use of lower Manhattan. Excavation of the Slip uncovered stone, construction material, 19th century English ceramics, household goods, refuse, and animal bones, furthering our knowledge of the city’s commerce and its residents’ lifestyles.”
Lego repairs come to NY Public Libray, Central Park
It looks like artist Jan Vormann has had a busy trip to New York City.
A few weekends ago, NewYorkology spotted his Lego fill-in work at the wall of Chelsea’s General Theological Seminary, but apparently he was also hard at work in the West Village, Central Park, Times Square, Dumbo and other locations around Manhattan and Brooklyn. Even the New York Public Library needed a little work done.
Vormann’s website has a new section, DispatchWork -New York, filled with pictures of the work.
“In cooperation with the Gallery Jarmuschek+Partner and the kind support of Henk Holzheimer (LEGO Graffity Styles Convention), I went to New York City, as part of the VOLTA artshow, to support Mayor Bloomberg in his everyday-struggle to make this city even more amazing,” Vormann says on the website.
Previously his DispatchWork Lego installations have popped up in Berlin, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Quito, Belgrade and other cities.
Update on March 9: “I am now back in Berlin, but I loved it in New York,” Vormann said in an e-mail to NewYorkology late Monday. Also, a story in today’s New York Post notes that almost all of the Lego installations have already been removed.
Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
(Editor’s note: Credit goes to 14-year-old Christopher Langfield who first spotted the Chelsea Legos on Feb. 21 and said it looked like the work of a European artist he’d read about.)
'Behanding' Broadway review roundup: Walken kills it
Christopher Walken last night opened to great reviews in “A Behanding in Spokane,” Martin McDonagh’s new dark comedy that nonetheless divides the critics on the overall merits of the play.
Pretty much across the board they love Walken doing Walken, but McDonagh’s writing takes hits for not fully fleshing out the characters, not telling a bigger story and missing the opportunity to say more considering it’s his first play set in America. Reviews for co-stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie, Zoe Kazan are generally good to very good. John Crowley directs.
Be warned that some of the reviews give away a little too much of the play, which is about a very determined, one-handed man who has spent his life trying to track down his missing part. The whole play is set in a seedy hotel room visited by the receptionist and a pair of pot dealers who are trying to sell a severed hand for $500.
“A Behanding in Spokane” plays through June 6 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $61.50 to $116.50. Premium seats are $176.50 and $201.50. The $26.50 rush tickets go on sale daily at the box office only.
It runs 90 minutes without intermission.
Age advice: While producers merely warn the play “may be inappropriate for 11 and under,” the Daily News notes the “un-PC humor” and the New York Times describes the oft-uttered “racial and sexual epithets, of a nature to make David Mamet flinch. …”
The Broadway reviews for “A Behanding in Spokane”:
New York Times - “The rest of the erratically enjoyable ‘Behanding’ — directed by John Crowley and featuring Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan — never matches the strange genius of its star.”
Daily News - “Walken’s performance is amazing, the stuff Tony Awards are made of.”
Variety - “Imagine the actor’s hidden-wristwatch tale from ‘Pulp Fiction’ bulked up into a freestanding narrative and you have an approximate idea of ‘A Behanding in Spokane,’ a piece of virtuoso storytelling fashioned out of a slim anecdote. There’s no broader theme, no veiled subtext and no underlying allegory. The playwright makes no pretense of doing anything beyond spinning a good yarn. Entertaining as it is, however, the black comedy remains insubstantial. “
Wall Street Journal - “I mustn’t be too specific, this being a play full of grisly surprises, but there’s one thing about which I can be absolutely precise: ‘A Behanding in Spokane’ is the funniest new play to open in New York since I started writing this column.”
New York magazine - “Only Rockwell, one of the most underrated actors around, really finds solid purchase in his character. He’s the closest thing this story has to a storyteller—more of a story-seeker, really, a Travis Bickle type congenitally estranged from humanity, waiting desperately for something exciting to happen, an opportunity to be welcomed back into mankind a hero.”
'Miracle Worker' review roundup: Breslin and Pill shine
Stars Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill elicit mostly strong reviews for their performances in “The Miracle Worker,” which opened on Broadway last night, but critics have a lot of neggatives things to say about the theater-in-the-round staging of the Helen Keller story.
Set in Alabama in the 1880s, “The Miracle Worker” tells the true story of a child who lost her sight and hearing, and turned completely unruly until a teacher from Boston taught her how to communicate. Based on Keller’s autobiography and the letters of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, William Gibson’s “The Miracle Worker” first played Broadway in 1959.
While the stars in this production get mostly kind reviews, the supporting cast is dinged, though more than one critic chalks that up to the writing. Kate Whoriskey’s direction does not fare well as multiple reviewers complain about poor sightlines, distracting furniture hovering above the stage and a slow-moving story. (The New York Times calles it “sadly pedestrian.”)
Breslin and Pill share the stage with Matthew Modine, Jennifer Morrison, Tobias Segal and Elizabeth Franz.
“The Miracle Worker” has an open-ended run at the Circle in the Square Theater, located at 235 W. 50th St., map. Regular tickets are priced at $117. Premium seats are $202. There is a daily lottery for $26 seats.
Post-show talkbacks with the cast are scheduled for March 9, 16, 23 and 30.
Age-appropriate advice: Children under 4 are not allowed in the theater. The play “contains no objectionable content; the content might best be understood/enjoyed by children who have started elementary school,” producers advise. The review from Variety notes the large number of well-behaved children in the audience during previews, which “indicates that the half-century-old play and Keller’s struggle still exert a hold on young imaginations.”
The “The Miracle Worker” Broadway reviews:
Variety - “Kate Whoriskey directs William Gibson’s midcentury chestnut with sensitivity, if not with any startling new insight. But the volatile battle of wills between the young Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, remains dramatically and emotionally effective, played with conviction by Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill.”
New York Times - “You are likely to feel, though, that the tears haven’t been truly earned by a production that delivers full emotional frissons only in its final, fail-safe scene. “
NY1 - “‘The Miracle Worker’ is likely emblazoned in your mind with the images of Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke slugging it out. And while it’s doubtful that Alison Pill and Abigail Breslin will erase the memory of those two Oscar-winning performances, they certainly put their own one-two punch on the roles in what I have to say is a touchingly faithful revival of the great William Gibson drama.”
Daily News - “But Broadway’s first revival of William Gibson’s 1959 biodrama seldom summons high stakes or deep feelings. It’s a respectable production, but it’s often wan. Occasionally it’s d-u-l-l.”
Limited morning cab share program starts in Manhattan
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission today launched a limited share-a-cab experiment along three designated routes in Manhattan that will operate weekday mornings from 6 to 10 a.m.
The first three routes are in Midtown, the Upper East Side and Upper West Side only.
The shared-ride fares are $3 or $4 per passenger (depending on the route) and can be paid in cash or by credit card. Passengers may only enter at one of three Group Ride taxi stand locations and then may be dropped off along the routes, which all end at Grand Central Terminal. The yellow cabs may not pick up additional passengers along the route and may not go to any other destination, according to the TLC’s taxi share passenger info card (in pdf).
The location and fares for the three Group Ride stands:
West 57th Street at 8th Avenue - Fare: $3
West 72nd Street at Columbus Avenue - Fare: $4
East 72nd Street at 3rd Avenue - Fare: $4
“It’s both a transportation and a social experiment,” TLC Commisioner Matthew Daus told NY1 this morning.”But it worked in the 2005 transit strike — people loved it. Mayor Bloomberg wanted us to try it as a pilot, or an experiment around the city so we’re starting with the three stands and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
Three more taxi stand locations have been approved for Manhattan plus one for US Air and Marine Air Terminals of LaGuardia Airport, the TLC announced in February (pdf).
Other stand locations planned for Manhattan:
Grand Central Terminal to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $3
Penn Station to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $4
Port Authority Bus Terminal to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $3
Technically, tipping is optional and in addition to the flat-rate fare.
New mural, video, sound installation for Times Square
Times Square today is adding new outdoor public art — in paint, sound and video — to coincide with the Armory Show and other art fairs descending on the city this week.
The eight-story Nasdaq video screen will display “Black Sun,” the work of Alexandre Arrechea, every night at 11:50 p.m. until midnight. The video, which shows a wrecking ball repeatedly bouncing against the building, will screen through March 8.
Up in Duffy Square at 46th and Broadway, a sound sculpture by David Ellis and Roberto Lange will play percussive, rhythmic beats and tones generated by buckets, bottles, trash cans, paper shreds and cardboard boxes. The intention is to play on the public’s perception of trash.
Outside the Times Square Theater, Pratt graduate Sofia Maldonado has painted a 92-foot mural of NYC women from her Puerto Rican-Cuban heritage, (pictured, top.)
The art is all part of Public Art Program of the Times Square Alliance and made possible by the Cuban Artists Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, NASDAQ, Times Square Squared, The New 42nd Street, Magnan Metz Gallery, Scope Art Fair and Anonymous Gallery.
Wales Week USA begins today in New York with a focus on the poetery of Dylan Thomas.
Starting Tuesday, the Morgan Library & Museum will serve a special Welsh Tea and open the exhibition Dylan Thomas: Last Poems, featuring ” a characteristically playful and flirtatious letter from Dylan Thomas to Ellen Kay, a 22-year old aspiring poet with whom Thomas was enamored.” It will be on public view through Sunday.
On Sunday, a Dylan Thomas Walking Tour of Greenwich Village will cover the poet’s favorite downtown spots starting at 9:30 a.m.
Other events inlcude a Saturday concert led by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, who will conduct his own work at Carnegie Hall including the U.S. debut of his Euphonium Concerto.
Wales Week, sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government in the U.S., runs from March 1 through 7.
Image source: Morgan Library & Museum. Vernon Watkins (1906–1967) Photograph of Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin Macnamara, undated. Bequest of Edwin V. Erbe, Jr., 2007; MA 7172.1
Empire State Building lights up in Olympic Ring colors
The Empire State Building this weekend will pay tribute to the athletes of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games by lighting up in the colors of the Olympic Rings.
The lighting schedule:
North side: blue and black
East side: yellow and black
South side: green and black
West side: red and black
The top tiers of the tower will be lit up in Olympic colors from Friday night through Sunday night.
The Olympic Rings represent the union of the continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world at the Olympic Games.
