CHELSEA TABLE + STAGE will present Broadway’s hunky gay ex-Mormon dad Claybourne Elder, star of Company, Sunday in the Park…, and HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” on Friday, April 28 at 9:30 PM
Cisco Bradley
12 February 2021
Bassist, composer, and scene-maker William Parker has a colossal figure in creative music since the 1970s, particularly as a musician who has defined the sound of New York beyond the mainstream. His range is astonishing, but so is his focus. His recorded output is vast, particularly lately.
Shying away from dealing with it all is understandable. Parker’s recordings as a leader exceed 100 albums, with sideman work particularly with Cecil Taylor, Charles Gayle, David S. Ware, and Matthew Shipp easily tripling that figure. How can we begin to grasp it all, particularly when the music ranges from modern jazz to free improvisation, from string quartet to vocal art songs?
Lawrence Michael Levine’s fourth feature,
Black Bear, really messed with my equilibrium. I first saw the film as part of Nightstream, a collaborative virtual horror film festival, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it stirred up something deep in my psyche. The plot unfolds in three distinct strands. One follows a filmmaker and former actress named Allison (Aubrey Plaza) who heads to a wooded retreat to seek inspiration for her next film while navigating the awkward tension of the cabin’s caretakers, Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and Blair (Sarah Gadon). The second departs from almost everything established by the first, picking up on the final day of shooting for a film directed by Gabe and costarring Blair, whose apparent chemistry with Gabe informs Allison’s starring performance at the cost of her sanity. The third strand involves Allison meditating by the lake in a red bathing suit. Feeling disoriented yet? Fear not.