GRAND TIMES WITH YOUR GRANDKIDS
By Hal Drucker

THEATER

(L-R) Annika Boras (Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax), Wayne Wilcox (John Worthing, J.P.), Lynn Redgrave (Lady Bracknell), and Cynthia Mace (Miss Prism) in the Paper Mill’s lively production of The Importance of Being Earnest
Photos: Gerry Goodstein

(L-R) Annika Boras (Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax) and Zoë Winters (Cecily Cardew)

The Importance of Being Earnest
Paper Mill Playhouse
22 Brookside Drive
Millburn , NJ
973-376-4343
Through Feb. 15

 
Reviewed by Lily Feinberg (8)

I give this amazing show five bows.  It is not only about two men fighting over the name "Ernest,” but both of them trying to be "earnest" (not that they ever succeed). Jack and Algernon both pretend to be called "Ernest" for a short period of time.  Jack likes someone named Gwendolyn and wants to marry her.  She only wants to marry someone named Ernest.  (Gwendolyn is Algernon's cousin.)  Jack is "Ernest" in London and "Uncle Jack" in the country.  In the country, he is supposed to have a brother named Ernest.  Algnernon sneaks into the country, pretending to be Jack's long lost brother Ernest, in order to meet the pretty 18-year-old Cecily, Jack's ward.  Algernon and Cecily then get engaged.  Cecily only wants to be married to someone called Ernest.  Watch as the two different engagements unfold in this funny farce, The Importance of Being Earnest. I liked this show because it was funny, and I wanted intermission to be over immediately so I could watch more.  My favorite character was Cecily (Zoe Winters) because she was funny and silly.

Click here for James Feinberg’s review of The Importance of being Earnest in his column: Grandkid’s Eye View.

Taoub Caption Going with the flow (aka Taoub) on the
stage of The New Victory. Photo: Richard Haughton

Taoub
Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger
Tangier, Morocco
The New Victory Theater
209 W. 42nd St.
646-223-3010
Through Feb. 22.

Like Webster’s Dictionary you and your grandkids will figuratively be Morocco-bound after 60 minutes of daunting young aerobic strategists filling the stage with multiple back flips, dizzying cartwheels, human pyramids and vaulting trampoline stunts. What means Taoub? Well, I’m told it’s an enormous flowing sheet that transforms before your eyes into a majestic gown and other ethereal bodies. With evocative staging and brilliant aerial exploits, Taoub is a mélange of mesmerizing music and surreal imagery. 60 minutes. Ages: 6+

Matthew Amendt is Harry the King in the touring Acting
Company’s production of Henry V. Photo: Michal Daniel

The Acting Company/Guthrie Theater Production Of
Shakespeare’s HenryV
The New Victory Theater
Feb. 27 – March 8

Henry V, which my friends and I referred to lovingly as HANK CINQ, was and remains my favorite of all Shakespeare plays. I was enraptured by Laurence Olivier’s chauvinistic screen version which he directed and of course played the title role. The making of the movie, with external shots including the Battle of Agincourt, was undertaken in Ireland at the time of the Battle of Britain in 1944. I was 13 at the time. And so here is an opportunity for my grandkids and yours to view and relish the language of the Bard’s great history play as I did. Was ever there a more wondrous line than, “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today that sheds his blood with me, will be my brother?” So said King Henry to his troops at Agincourt. As thrilling as the heroics of battle with the complex reactions of soldiers struggling to make sense of their crusade, so too is the delightful wooing scene in which Henry roguishly charms Katherine the French Queen, who had scant knowledge of English, “And Kate, I love France so much that I will not part with a single village of it ” Ages 12 +. 2 ½ hours.

Golly Gee Whiz!
TADA! Youth Theater
15 W. 28th St.
(212) 252-1619
Through Feb. 15
Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. & 4 p.m.

Marking its 10th anniversary, Golly Gee Whiz! is a family musical performed by New York City kids from 8 to 18. It is based loosely on the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney 1939 film Babes in Arms with the time-honored "Hey, kids let's put on a show!/My father's got a barn!" routine. One hour.

Paper Bag Bicycle Racers - (L-R) Esther Ammon, Ted Brackett, Nikki E. Walker, Kevin Richard Woodall. Photo by Carol Rosegg

Make a Little Room for Me
The Paper Bag Players
Symphony Space
2537 B’Way @ 95 th St.
Tel: 212-864-5400
Feb. 21 – 11 a.m. & 2 p.m.; Feb. 22 - 3 p.m.
The Jewish Museum
1109 5 th Ave. & 92 nd St.
212-423-3337
March 1, March 29 – 11:30 a.m. & 2 p.m.

For the better part of the half-century of The Paper Bag Players’ existence, my kids and their kids have delighted in the whimsy and charm of the proceedings, and the inventive ways the cast uses paper and cardboard for costumes and scenery. This musical fantasy revue about a bossy bathtub, a breathtaking bicycle race and an elegant paper lady is funny, colorful, and wildly imaginative with plenty of audience participation. 60 minutes. Ages 3 - 8.

MUSEUMS

Susie MacMurray
A Mixture of Frailties, 2004
Inside-out yellow washing gloves stitched onto calico

Johnny Swing
Nickel Couch, 2001-2008
Approximately 7,000 nickels, 35,000 welds;
substructure of stainless truss work using
350 feet of stiffing rods

Jill Townsley
Spoons, 2008
9,273 plastic spoons, 3,091 rubber bands

Terese Agnew
Portrait of a Textile Worker,
Clothing labels, thread, fabric

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary
Museum Of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
212-299-7777
Docent Alan Levine Hosts MAD’s Stunning Inaugural Exhibit That Transforms Ordinary Mass-Produced Objects into One-of-A-Kind
Works of Art.
Extended Through April 29th
Were it not for my friend Alan Levine, Docent Par Excellence for The Frick Museum and the new The Museum of Arts and Design, who insisted that I visit this remarkable new museum, which blessedly replaced the banal Huntington Hartford Museum and the mundane offices of NYC’s Dept. of Cultural Affairs, I would have missed out on viewing one of the most adventurous and rewarding exhibitions in memory. I refuse to let you make the same mistake, and while you’re about it, I insist that your grandchildren, as I have every intention of doing. The centerpiece of the museum’s inaugural exhibition program is MAD’s new special exhibition Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary, featuring 51 contemporary artists from 17 countries who hav e painstakingly transformed discarded, commonplace, or valueless objects into compelling works of art. They include new commissions and site-specific installations, created from gun triggers, spools of thread, tires, combs, hypodermic needles, dog tags, nickels, old eyeglasses, and telephone books, among other manufactured and mass-produced objects. Highlighting the creative processes that repurpose these objects, the exhibition explores the transformation of the ordinary into the extraordinary and stimulates debate on function, value, identity and social commentary. Among the works I admired other than those pictured and captioned are:

• Madame C. J. Walker , by U.S. artist Sonya Clark, is an 11-foot high portrait of Walker (1867-1919), the storied African-American millionaire and philanthropist from Indianapolis, whose fortune was made from developing and marketing hair products and cosmetics for African-American women. Clark’s imposing portrait is constructed of thousands of black hair combs, which create a pixilated image of the woman.
• Trinity: Grandma, Spike, Bubbles ( 2007) by American artists Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth. These custom-chromed chandeliers are designed in traditional neoclassical form, but are made of hypodermic needles, gelatin capsules and Swarovski crystal which reflect drug culture themes. While seductive in their beauty, the chandeliers are a chilling reminder of a darker side of contemporary life.