Sandra Bernhard (Photo by Brett Erickson)
JOE’S PUB ANNOUNCES THE RETURN OF SANDRA BERNHARD: SOUL’D OUT DECEMEBER 27-31
COMING UP THIS WEEK: LIZA PAUL & BAHIA WATSON’S MASHUP ting! AS PART OF THE JOE’S PUB 2022-23 NEW YORK VOICES ARTIST COMMISSION PROGRAM
JOIN DANCE NOW AT ASTOR ALIVE! OUTDOORS AND FREE ON SEPTEMBER 17 WITH MEGAN WILLIAMS DANCE PROJECT: ONE-WOMAN SHOW AND TAKE DANCE: SOMEWHERE FAMILIAR MELODIES
CATCH ALYSHA UMPHRESS’ SOLO SHOW, JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN, MODERN-DAY YMA SUMAC MOLLY LEWIS, AND THE BLACK OPRY REVUE
PLUS AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH BRIDGET EVERETT!
Liza Paul & Bahia Watson: MASHUP ting!
Thursday, September 15 at 7:00 PM
Friday, September 16 at 9:30 PM
Bahia Watson and Liza Paul invite you with pleasure to their amazing show, MASHUP ting!, a fresh, new island-kissed vaudeville extravaganza. With tight vignettes and original songs, this vibey cabaret fuses raucous humor with whip-smart cultural critique and puts it to music. Join a pair of flamboyant hosts as they animate the stage with a revolving door of colorful acts and poke glorious fun at the abundant absurdities of life. The path to liberation sparkles with laughter. Come one, come all. It’s a celebration! This work was commissioned as part of the Joe’s Pub New York Voices program. New York Voices is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Saturday, September 17 from 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Free and Open to the Public at Astor Place
DANCE NOW features Megan Williams Dance Project’s One Woman Show at 3 PM and 5 PM and Take Dance’s Somewhere Familiar Melodies at 4 PM and 6 PM. Both events are hosted by Tru Dee, AKA Deborah Lohse (comedian, dancer, and choreographer). She has performed at Joe’s Pub, American Dance Festival, Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, and the beloved Stonewall Inn. SILO and many more. This event is sponsored by Select Equity.
Take Dance: Somewhere Familiar Melodies
Saturday, September 17 at 3 PM & 5 PM
Free and Open to the Public on Astor Place
Directed and choreographed by Takehiro Ueyama, Somewhere Familiar Melodies explores how past events can be ignited by sense memories–-sights, scents, places, and sounds. With this work, Ueyama embraces a range of emotions sparked by memories of time spent with family and friends in Japan. In talking about Somewhere Familiar Melodies, Ueyama said, “after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, I felt that my heart was torn apart by the tragedy and devastation to my country and my people. Wanting to reflect back on the memories in Japan that gave me joy, I found myself listening to the music that flooded my ears through records, radio, and television during the 70s and 80s. Nostalgic memories came rushing back with every song creating a window back into my childhood in Tokyo.” Somewhere Familiar Melodies is set to these popular Japanese songs and will be performed by Brynt Beitman, Lynda Senisi, Corinna Lee Nicholson, and Khris Beeson. Costume design by Jesse Dunham. Somewhere Familiar Melodies was commissioned by DANCE NOW, as a part of its 2013 Dance-mopolitan Commissioned Artist Series.
Megan Williams Dance Project: One Woman Show
Saturday, September 17 at 4 PM & 6 PM
Free and Open to the Public on Astor Place
Megan Williams is an independent dance artist, choreographer, and internationally renowned teacher with a BFA from the Juilliard School, an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and close to 40 years in the field. She was an esteemed member of the Mark Morris Dance Group and has more recently performed in the works of Netta Yerushalmy and Rebecca Stenn. She was an Artistic Partnership Initiative (API) Fellow at The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University in 2019 and had recent commissions from the Katonah Museum of Art and The Young People’s Chorus of NYC. She revisits and reframes excerpts of her 2018 One Woman Show, a post-post-modern dance theater follies for the small stage, and swings it hard into today’s political climate. While channeling tragic and comedic heroines of golden-age Hollywood, Williams grapples with questions about how we live with the ways we learned about sex, misogyny, beauty, aging, romance, and love. Embracing spectacle, camp, and bravura dancing, Williams will be joined onstage by dance artists Antuan Byers, Derek Crescenti, Réka Echerer, Chelsea Hecht, Mykel Marai Nairne, and Daniel Morimoto. With costume design by Barbara Erin Delo and sound design by Sam Crawford. One Woman Show was commissioned by DANCE NOW for its 2018 Dance-mopolitan Artist Series.
Monday, September 19 at 7:00 PM
Rebecca Pidgeon is an actress and singer/songwriter. She has starred in acclaimed feature films (The Spanish Prisoner, Heist, Red), TV shows (“Phil Spector,” “The Unit”), and on stage at venerable theaters across the globe (Speed the Plow, Royal National Theatre, London; The Old Neighborhood, The Booth Theatre, Broadway). Pidgeon’s prolific work as a songwriter and vocalist is akin to her mesmerizing performances on camera. In 2019, Pidgeon released two critically-acclaimed studio albums, Sudden Exposure to Light and Comfort, which follows a celebrated recording career with producers such as Thomas Bartlett and Larry Klein that includes the releases “Bad Poetry”, “Slingshot” (GRAMMY award winner), “Behind the Velvet Curtain”, (used on the soundtrack of the film Redbelt), “The Raven”, (used on the soundtrack of the film Phil Spector), “Tough on Crime”, and others. In Autumn 2022, she will release her latest album, Parts of Speech, Pieces of Sound — her most ambitious album yet featuring lush string arrangements, drum ensembles, and Eastern-leaning instrumentation under the co-production mastery of Pidgeon and Fernando Perdomo.
International Contemporary Ensemble featuring Lesley Mok & Chris Ryan Williams
Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00 PM
The International Contemporary Ensemble presents the world premieres of new works by Lesley Mok and Chris Ryan Williams as part of the Ensemble’s 2021-2022 “Call for ____” Commission Program. Lesley Mok’s Stilled leaf-chatter emerges from the contemporary improvisational sensibilities of pianist Cory Smythe, guitarist Dan Lippel, violinist Josh Modney, and drummer Lesley Mok. The piece explores a sense of the narration that can emerge from structural frameworks and is an attempt to find a poetic resonance in the simultaneity of individual expressions. Chris Ryan Williams’ Odu: vibration 1 brings together vocalist Fay Victor, bassoonist Rebekah Heller, and cellist Lester St. Louis.
Tuesday, September 20 at 9:30 PM
Lucibela projects an intriguing intensity, moving from pure emotion to audacious gambles to firm opposition. She explores the issues including being a woman and a Cape-Verdean, living far away, and loving with sensuality and grace. The secret of Lucibela’s extraordinary vocal technique lies in her ability to explore the deep register of Brazil’s great sambistas while adding a thrilling vibrato.
Wednesday, September 21 at 7:00 PM
Since his earliest infatuations with guitar, Buffalo Nichols—Fat Possum’s first solo blues signing in nearly 20 years—has asked himself the same question: How can I bring the blues of the past into the future? After cutting his teeth between a Baptist church and bars in Milwaukee, it was a globetrotting trip through West Africa and Europe during a creative down period that began to reveal the answer. “Part of my intent, making myself more comfortable with this release, is putting more Black stories into the genres of folk and blues,” guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist Carl “Buffalo” Nichols explains. “Listening to this record, I want more Black people to hear themselves in this music that is truly theirs.” That desire is embodied in his self-titled debut album, composed largely of demos and studio sessions recorded between Wisconsin and Texas.
Say the Word: A Night of Art and Action for Abortion
Wednesday, September 21 at 9:30 PM
Say the Word: A Night of Art and Action for Abortion is a multi-artist evening from The Meteor held at a crucial moment in time: Roe v. Wade has been overturned—and now’s the time for us to come together. MC’d by comedian Kate Rigg and featuring award-winning musicians, artists, and writers like Toshi Reagon, Madison McFerrin, Janeane Garofalo, Padma Lakshmi, Mahogany L. Browne, Amber Tamblyn, Mazz Swift and Mishti, Resistance Revival Chorus, Chase Strangio, Marlene McCarty, and more. Join these artists and more in the community with the New York Abortion Access Fund and raise your voice!
Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 PM
What do you get when you mix a pinch of surrealism, a bit of modern folklore, a heaping helping of talharpa revival/rebellion and blend it through effect blocks and loopers? The answer is the neo-zombie-post-folk Estonian duo Puuluup! Ramo Teder (aka Pastacas) and Marko Veisson have virtually resurrected the ancient talharpa (bowed lyre), popular in Northern Europe since the early middle ages and played on Western Estonian islands until the beginning of the 20th century. But this is not an ethnomusicological romp. Puuluup directs the vibrations of the talharpa’s horsehair strings through effects, using alternative bowing and rhythm techniques. The mellow signs of talharpa are paired with electronically amplified echoes, knicks, creaks, and crackles, while still maintaining the instrument’s natural sound. And it is all presented with a unique sense of humor, originality, and what can only be described as offbeat charm.
BITCHCRAFT: How Bitch Became Bitch Starring Bitch (A Musical Play)
Thursday, September 22 at 9:30 PM
Performance artist and musician Bitch tells the story of her life in this musical one-woman show. From the moment she ‘rides’ her broomstick onto the stage, she weaves a colorful tale of how a shy and introverted child goes on to reclaim the word Bitch for a name. This empowering, funny, and heartfelt show is woven together with violin-forward pop songs from her most recent album Bitchcraft, which came out earlier this year on Kill Rock Stars.
Friday, September 23 at 7:00 PM
Longtime New Yorker, Joan As Police Woman, is a highly acclaimed singer/songwriter in the tradition of Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen. Joan will be appearing at Joe’s Pub, as part of a select series of solo shows, her first in NYC since January 2018. Joan will perform highlights from her remarkable 11 album songbook, starting with her 2006 debut classic, Real Life. For Joe’s Pub, utilizing her voice, piano and guitar, Joan strips back her original music to its essence. With an extensive global fanbase, Joan’s solo shows are in high demand, living long in the memory of her passionate world-wide audience.
Friday, September 23 at 9:30 PM
Fémina is a female-powered band from Argentina that channels blissed out, harmony-soaked soul music with a purpose, lyrically poignant with hip hop and Latin folk major influences. A project of sisters Clara and Sofia Trucco who hail from the beautiful mountain town of San Martín de Los Andes in the southern region of Patagonia, the group sings in Spanish waxing on themes of gender equality and race. Their songs are characterized by show-stopping harmonies and magical on-stage chemistry and incorporate traditional Latin American instruments and melodies. A unique and thrilling combo, they have toured internationally in the US, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Europe, and have released three albums. Their breakout 2019 album Perlas & Conchas was produced by Quantic and championed by Iggy Pop.
Saturday, September 24 at 7:00 PM
Sunday, September 25 at 9:30 PM
Molly Lewis’s compositions seem to float into our ears from distant shores. They’re otherworldly, drawn more from landscapes of a dream than from anywhere you could find on a map. Lewis is a unique presence in music today. Her trademark whistle, which brings to mind the great Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac, has graced recordings of everything from Schumann lieder and Brazilian jazz to Spaghetti Western ballads and noir lounge.
Four Seasons of Julian Fleisher
Saturday, September 24 at 9:30 PM
Better late than never! What’s a couple of years between horn sections? What a difference a pandemic makes. Say what you will, Julian Fleisher has been waiting two years to tell his story. And in that time, the story’s only gotten weirder. Just like yours has. Backed by his legendary Rather Big Band and flanked by a glittering roster of very special guests, Fleisher will spend the year in residence telling the story of the many strange seasons of Love and other things on the stage of his creative home, Joe’s Pub. Each performance will dive deeply into the elusive subjects of love, sex, nature, and time with Julian’s signature blend of humor, charm, soaring vocals, and roof-raising arrangements. It’s been a long cold lonely Winter, Little Darling. Here comes the Sun. This performance is presented as part of the Joe’s Pub Vanguard Residency, honoring the memory of Barbara Maier Gustern.
Sunday, September 25 at 4:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Merging the folklore roots of Venezuela, modern production, and Andalusian inspirations, her sound resounds in every corner of the globe. Not only has she packed venues throughout the United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, and the UK, but she has also accompanied Alejandro Sanz, Jennifer López, Carlos Vives, Luis Enrique, Susana Baca, Los Amigos Invisibles, Monsieur Periné, Caramelos de Cianuro and Guaco as a soloist. Notably, Academy® Award winner Asghar Farhadi recruited her to join the A-list cast of his film Everybody Knowsalongside Academy® Award winner Javier Bardem, Ricardo Darín, and Academy® Award winner Penélope Cruz. Illuminating her talents, she performed songs written exclusively for the screenplay. It opened at the Cannes Film Festival to rapturous applause.
Bridget Everett & The Tender Moments
Monday-Wednesday, September 26-28 at 9:30 PM
Bridget’s legendary take-no-prisoners live show is a perennial sold-out hit and has garnered a faithful cult following. Bridget’s legendary and take-no-prisoners live act is a perennial sold-out hit and has garnered a faithful cult following. She has been seen in a string of recent television shows and movies, but to experience Bridget is to experience her live. Her in-your-face comedy is mixed with one outrageous rocking and original song after another. Dripping with hard-earned sweat in her sparkling and revealing House of Larréon dresses, she swigs from a bottle in a paper bag while telling stories about her dysfunctional family and her struggles with incontinence. Prepare yourself for motor-boating, money notes, and Chardonnay-soaked memories. Shit is about to get ridiculous. This show is not for the faint of heart. Bring a chaperone. No two shows are the same, ever.
Sarah Elizabeth Charles: Blank Canvas Album Release
Tuesday, September 27 at 7:00 PM
Sarah Elizabeth Charles and her band SCOPE celebrate the release of their fourth album, Blank Canvas. Championing the choice to start new in the midst of difficult, complex, and beautiful circumstances, Blank Canvas is Charles’ most lyrically and musically dynamic release yet. Featuring her band/team of twelve years: Jesse Elder, Burniss Earl Travis II (Boom Bishop), John Davis, Jordan Peters, Jesse Fischer, and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, this widely anticipated album will be their first in five years and will be released amongst family via Christian Scott’s Stretch Music label in partnership with Ropeadope. Sarah Elizabeth Charles is an alum of the Joe’s Pub Working Group.
Eljuri: Reflexión Record Release
Wednesday, September 28 at 7:00 PM
Cecilia Villar Eljuri inspires us all. The vibrations ripple through the space between us. Touted as one of the top Latina guitar players in the world, Eljuri is celebrating the September 2022 release of her fifth studio album, Reflexión. The Eljuri power-trio delivers hypnotic and undeniable melodies that are familiar and foreign all at once. With her heavy guitar-driven grooves; rock, Latin, world, and funk, that envelop socially conscious stories, you are invited to be a part of the symbiotic live musical bubble at Joe’s Pub.
Thursday, September 29 at 7:00 PM
Friday, September 30 at 9:30 PM
Lee Jin Ah is a South Korean singer-songwriter and jazz pianist. Her distinctive musical style combines jazz with pop and R&B, often featuring whimsical lyrics. In January 2022, Jin Ah’s most recent single “Rum Pum Pum” was released with critical acclaim. The experimental epic title song was a collaboration of more than 20 musicians. This performance is Lee Jin Ah’s first appearance in New York. She will be performing with her trio for this special evening with a special guest, Grégoire Maret.
Thursday, September 29 at 9:30 PM
Derek Gripper has created original music from his diverse influences, from Africa: Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Arvo Pärt, and Egberto Gismonti. Derek has also spent many years performing and recording his own translations of Bach’s violin and cello music, infusing his interpretations with his lessons from the oral traditions of Africa. His works for string quartet, larger ensembles or installations have been performed/exhibited at The Venice Architecture Biennale, Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival in the UK, and used in films such as Five Fingers For Marseilles.
Friday, September 30 at 7:00 PM
Black Opry is a home for Black artists and Black fans of country, blues, folk, and Americana music. Country music has been made by and loved by Black people since its conception. For just as long, Black people have been overlooked and disregarded in the genre by fans and executives. Black Opry wants to change that. We invite you to discover, support and enjoy the Black artists that make magic in this space. One of the most valuable aspects of country music is its versatility and diversity in sound. Country, blues, folk, and Americana music often overlap or weave together- these artists explore all of those sounds and intersections. The Black Opry Revue showcases the diversity in sound and stories that Black artists offer to these genres.
Mary Bridget Davies in Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own”
Saturday, October 1 at 7:00 PM
Tony nominee (for her role as Janis Joplin) Mary Bridget Davies embodies Virginia Woolf in the concert version of A Room Of One’s Own. The text, a landmark in feminist thought, is a rhetorical masterpiece and has never been out of print since 1929. Now, with kind permission of the Estate of Virginia Woolf, it is a play with music, directed by the award-winning Kirsten Z. Cairns (Benjamin Britten’s Turn Of The Screw, Curlew River) and with original music by Mark Berman (“Sex and The City,” Bullets over Broadway) and Ms. Davies’ Music Producer T.J. Armand (The Queen’s Six, Sama: An American Requiem).
Alysha Umphress and things… like this
Saturday, October 1 at 9:30 PM
Sunday, October 2 at 7:00 PM
Monday, October 3 at 9:30 PM
Finally! After a lot of excuses and protestations, Broadway baby Alysha Umphress will bring a solo show to the NYC public for the first time since 2008. What the hell? Why has it taken this long? A question she asks herself daily. But hopefully, it will have been worth the wait. What to expect? Who can say? Isn’t it best to have no expectations one way or the other and just get on board? Alysha Umphress and things… like this promises to be filled with whimsy, humor, at least one costume change (possibly two), a gorgine band, video components, sickening arrangements and belting, almost exclusively. Won’t you come?
Tuesday – Saturday, December 27-31
Tuesday, December 27 at 7:00 PM
Wednesday, December 28 at 7:00 PM
Thursday, December 29 at 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM
Friday, December 30 at 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM
Saturday, December 31 at 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM
“Honey, if you haven’t shaken it all off it’s time to get ready. I am leaving all the pain, shame, & blame behind me now. I’m feeling strong ready to take it all on. Lord knows a lady could use a little love, so I find my people & keep them close. I need you! So you better make yourself pretty & keep it fresh, cause I’m back baby, & I’m SOUL’D OUT ! I’ll be taking you to places you’ve never been, I’ll be shaking, breaking but never faking! That’s how I roll, with the SANDYLAND SQUAD BAND in top form. Step up, rock with me baby. Joe’s Pub will be as hot as hell!”
Our audience policy requires complete COVID-19 vaccination by the date of attendance for access into the facility, theaters, and restaurant. Please read the full policy here.
JOE’S PUB, a program of the Public Theater, was named for Public Theater founder Joseph Papp. Since it opened in 1998, Joe’s Pub has played a vital role in The Public’s mission of supporting artists at all stages of their careers with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe’s Pub presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, community, and artistic freedom. In addition to one-night-only concerts and multi-night engagements, Joe’s Pub is home to the annual Habibi Festival, which hosts artists representing contemporary and traditional music of the SWANA (Southwest Asia/North Africa) region, and The Vanguard Award & Residency, a yearlong curation series that celebrates the career, and community, of a prolific and influential artist—including Nona Hendryx, Judy Collins, Laurie Anderson, and Barbara Maier Gustern. With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe’s Pub presents over 700 shows featuring artists from all over the world and hosts over 100,000 audience members annually. Beyond public performances, Joe’s Pub also leads artist development programs like New York Voices, a commissioning program that helps musicians develop new performance projects, and Joe’s Pub Working Group, an artist-led development and collaboration cohort. Current commissioned artists include Daniel J. Watts & Nick Blaemire, Liza Paul & Bahia Watson, Sunny Jain, Vuyo Sotashe & Chris Pattishall, and treya lam. Joe’s Pub is supported in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Connect with Joe’s Pub
www.publictheater.org/programs/joes-pub
www.youtube.com/user/joespubNY
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