Lincoln Center Local Series, With FELA, Kristin Chenoweth, SWEENEY TODD and More, to Expand to All Five Boroughs
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 13, 2015
Lincoln Center is expanding its Lincoln Center Local series, offering free screenings of world-class performances to library branches around New York City's five boroughs. The Lincoln Center Local: Free Screenings series, running from January to June 2015, is part of a pilot program run by Lincoln Center Education, and expands upon last year's Lincoln Center Local HD series.
The 2015 Lincoln Center Local: Free Screenings offers digital streams of programs from Lincoln Center's growing digital content collection from recent performances, including programs from the Emmy Award-winning series Live From Lincoln Center.
There will be more than 30 events this year; additional events will be announced at a later date. Of these events, ten are "featured" screening events, which include discussions with guest artists and speakers following the showing. Each screening event offers content from a diverse range of past performances at Lincoln Center, coming from several organizations and series including exclusive viewings of performances from Lincoln Center Out of Doors, American Songbook, Lincoln Center Theater, and the New York Philharmonic.
Lincoln Center Local was launched in 2012 to bring Lincoln Center's varied and rich programming options to communities beyond the performing arts center's campus in Manhattan, part of Lincoln Center Education's mission to bring high quality resources to new and underserved audiences and communities. Lincoln Center is expanding the Free Screenings series beyond Brooklyn and Queens, where it was presented last year, to library branches across the city. Participating library branches are granted online access to content via new software created by Lincoln Center made specifically for streaming HD quality video. Library staff also receives support and training on how to use the new technology, host a screening event, create complementary live programming, and develop audience engagement strategies.The schedule for "featured" event programs and locations follows below. Some guests/speakers are listed and more will be announced at a later date:
January 24, 4:00 p.m.
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch
Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture
A Memorial Concert for Pete and Toshi Seeger
Peter and Toshi Seeger's legacies run deep: from transforming the way we listen to our American roots to demanding social justice and successfully advocating for grassroots environmental change. Organized by their grandson Kitama Cahill-Jackson, an all-star line-up of family and friends pays tribute to these leaders in folk music and activism. Featuring performances by Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow, Martha Redbone, Tom Chapin & The Chapin Sisters, Dar Williams & Dan Zanes, and speakers including Harry Belafonte and more. Taped at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park, July 2014, as part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors. This event also marks the one year anniversary of Peter Seeger's death. A moderated panel will discuss Seeger's legacy after the screening including Kitama Cahill-Jackson, Seeger's grandson and organizer of the Memorial Concert, and Dan Zanes, award-winning children's performer and folk-rock musician, who performs in the screening.
February 9, 6:30 p.m.
Queens Public Library, Flushing Library, Queens
Red Hot and FELA LIVE!
The defiant spirit and groove-heavy music of Nigerian firebrand Fela Anikulapo Kuti lives on as Afrobeat icon and Fela's master drummer Tony Allen teams up with the cinematic dance rockers of Superhuman Happiness and stars of the next generation of Afrofuturist innovators. Scheduled speakers include: Sahr, originator of the role of Fela in Fela On Broadway and Stuart Bogie, founder of the band Superhuman Happiness, both featured performers in the screening.
March 5, 6:30 p.m.
New York Public Library, Jefferson Market, Manhattan
Kristen Chenoweth: The Dames of Broadway . . . All of 'Em!!!!
Broadway and television star Kristin Chenoweth ("Wicked," "Glee," "Pushing Daisies") has made her mark on stage and screen. In this concert for Lincoln Center, she offers a fond salute to the great ladies and show-stopping scene stealers of Broadway, creating a night at once intimate and filled with "Broadway razzle dazzle." Taped in February 2013 as part of Lincoln Center'sAmerican Songbook series.
March 7, 2:30 p.m.
New York Public Library, Bronx Library Center, Bronx
Villalobos Brothers
Masterfully blending the indigenous rhythms and melodies of their native Veracruz with the intricate harmonies of jazz and classical music, the Villalobos Brothers deliver an intoxicatingly virtuosic musical brew that that will redefine your notions of Latin song. Born and raised in Xalapa, Mexico, the brothers took up the violin as children and eventually moved on to specialize in classical violin and composition, developing their own style called "fast-chatting violin."
April 2, 6:30 p.m.
New York Public Library, Jefferson Market, Manhattan
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Murder, mayhem, and the ultimate revenge: Stephen Sondheim's musical masterpiece returns to life in a bold new performance by the New York Philharmonic starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson. Classics including "Johanna," "Worst Pies in London," "By The Sea," and more take center stage.
April 11, 4:00 p.m.
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch
Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture
The Nance
Nathan Lane gives the performance of a lifetime as Chauncey Miles, a comedian of the 1930s who plays a gay man for laughs -- at least on stage. With a touching love story at its core, Douglas Carter Beane's Tony Award-nominated play is also a fond and funny tribute to the golden age of burlesque.
April 18, 2:00 p.m.
New York Public Library, Richmondtown, Staten Island
Heritage Blues Trio
When not performing with their nine-member, Grammy-nominated Heritage Blues Orchestra, guitarist and harmonica player Bill Sims, Jr., vocalist and percussionist Chaney Sims, and guitarist and vocalist Junior Mack moonlight as the intimate Heritage Blues Trio. Just as the blues is full of joy and sorrow, the program will range from upbeat and celebratory to somber and reflective.
May 9, 2:30 p.m.
New York Public Library, Bronx Library Center, Bronx
Red Hot and FELA LIVE!
The defiant spirit and groove-heavy music of Nigerian firebrand Fela Anikulapo Kuti lives on as Afrobeat icon and Fela's master drummer Tony Allen teams up with the cinematic dance rockers of Superhuman Happiness and stars of the next generation of Afrofuturist innovators.
May 16, 2:00 p.m.
New York Public Library, Richmondtown, Staten Island
Ring Them Bells! A Kander & Ebb Celebration
Rob Fisher's lively tribute to the music and musicals created by John Kander and Fred Ebb stars Broadway's Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, and two of Kander & Ebb's best-known collaborators, Chita Rivera and Joel Grey. From Cabaret toChicago to Kiss of the Spider Woman, Kander and Ebb's work sparkles with wit even as it channels the deepest, sometimes darkest, reaches of the human heart.
June 8, 6:30 p.m.
Queens Public Library, Flushing Library, Queens
James Naughton: The Songs of Randy Newman
A Tony winner for performances in City of Angels and Chicago, theater, film, and television star James Naughton rose to fame on stage and went on to star in films such as The Paper Chase and The First Wives Club, and was most recently seen on the television show Hostages. The seasoned entertainer presents an evening of cherished songs by Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy winner Randy Newman, whose pop songs and film scores have delighted for decades.
Additional events in each of the five boroughs can be found here: lincolncentereducation.org.
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