Symphony Space Announces Spring 2023 Programming

Symphony Space has announced its Spring 2023 programming, featuring a robust lineup of visionary artists and writers in unique, one-night-only, only-at-Symphony Space events. In these evenings of literature, music, musical theater, comedy, and more, Symphony Space creates intimate exchanges between artists and audiences-producing shows centered on everything from fresh-off-the-presses literature to fresh, creative interpretations of integral music. This season, Symphony Space continues its commitment to the hybrid presenting model it inaugurated in 2021-22, with select live events streamed in real-time and high-definition to audiences around the world.

Symphony Space's best-known series, Selected Shorts, was conceived over 35 years ago with a simple premise: take great stories by well-known and emerging writers and have exceptional actors perform them live. It continues in Spring 2023 with events traversing various genres and media. The prescient literary titan Margaret Atwood hosts an evening of stories from her new short story collection Old Babes in the Wood, with actors Ellen Burstyn, Cherry Jones, and Maggie Siff; comedian Wyatt Cenac; and author A.M. Homes, March 8. Author and Selected Shorts radio show host Meg Wolitzer leads a program on the theme of entanglements, featuring actors Julianna Margulies and Richard Kind, April 19. The shape-shifting literary quarterly McSweeney's Quarterly Concern celebrates its 25-year anniversary in a Selected Shorts evening featuring performances of selected pieces from across the publication's existence. The event, on May 10, is hosted by John Hodgman and features musical guest Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. Closing out the season's Selected Shorts offerings, Symphony Space presents Selected Shorts Goes to the Movies, an evening looking into the romance between literature and cinema, on June 14.

Another favorite Symphony Space literary program, Thalia Book Club, brings readers and writers into intimate conversations about compelling new books and classics in fiction, essays, memoirs, and more. This Spring, the series features Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad, Manhattan Beach), looking into her 2022 novel The Candy House in conversation with Sherry Turkle (The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir), with a reading by actor Dylan Baker (March 9); Nicole Chung (All You Can Ever Know) discussing her latest memoir, A Living Remedy, with novelist Jasmine Guillory (Drunk on Love, By the Book), on the day of its release (April 4); and Lorrie Moore (A Gate at the Stairs) in conversation with Meg Wolitzer about Moore's first novel in almost 15 years, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home (June 22).

Storytelling series No, YOU Tell it! comes to Symphony Space March 16 with an evening of stories surrounding the theme "College Try." Washington Post humor columnist Alexandra Petri is joined by Karen Chee (Late Night with Seth Meyers) and Josh Gondelman (Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!) in a discussion of Petri's witty book of imagined historical documents, Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) on April 12, the day after its publication. In an April 26 event, Academy Award winner Laura Dern and her mother, the legendary actress Diane Ladd, continue the deeply personal conversation that fills the pages of their new book, Honey, Baby, Mine. Tony-nominated, Grammy-winning actor Andrew Rannells celebrates his new essay collection, Uncle of the Year, on May 16, the day of the book's publication; and, on May 17, comedian Samantha Irby comes to Symphony Space for an evening honoring her new book, Quietly Hostile, also out on May 16.

Symphony Space's Wall to Wall series of marathon performances revisiting towering legacies this season turns toward the women who pioneered soul music, with tributes to Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, and Mavis Staples, and performances by Nona Hendryx, The Rakiem Walker Project, and others to-be-announced (April 1).

In evenings throughout the season, laughter and heated debate-of such pressing topics as Remote Vs In-Person (April 11) and Introverts Vs Extroverts (June 13)-flourish in Symphony Space's absurd comedy series, Uptown Showtown, hosted by Matthew Love.