STAGE TUBE: Brian d'Arcy James Reads Mark Twain's 'A Presidential Candidate'

Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, Brian D’Arcy James, Richard Thomas, Bryce Pinkham, Jay O. Sanders, Ari Graynor, Katherine Waterston, Emily Young, Oliver Platt, Justin Levine and Heath Calvert and Lapham’s Quarterly Editor Lewis Lapham celebrated the release of Lapham’s Quarterly’s new POLITICS issue on Monday, October 15 at Joe’s Pub at The Public. The evening featured songs and selected readings centered on politics, money and power. 

Below is a clip of Brian d'Arcy James reading Mark Twain's "A Presidential Candidate", written in 1879. Click to watch!

For a single memorable night, actors from stage and screen gathered to perform some of the greatest ruminations on power and money from writers such as Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Aristophanes. Lapham's Quarterly takes as it mission the importance of understanding history as our greatest legacy, and with the fall elections around the corner, these wise and lively voices of the past have much to tell us. The evening was hosted by Lewis Lapham and the emcee was Oskar Eustis.

Readings included: Oliver Platt reading H. L. Mencken; Ari Graynor, Katherine Waterston and Emily Young reading a scene from Lysistrata by Aristophanes; Richard Thomas reading Timon of Athens; Brian d'Arcy James reading Campaign Promises by Mark Twain; Bryce Pinkham reading from Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Jay O. Sanders reading from Julius Caesar; Justin Levine, Heath Calvert and Emily Young singing “Rich People” from Michael Friedman and Alex Timber’s adaptation of Love’s Labors Lost and Justin Levine singing David Byrnes’ “God Draws Straight” from Here Lies Love.

For more information on Lapham’s Quarterly Politics Event: Shakespeare & Company on Money and Power, click here.