Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its nightly performances running May 18-29. Scroll down for details, or visit www.joespub.com for a complete list of shows!
Wednesday, May 18 at 7:00PM
$16
Celisse Henderson, who made her Joe's Pub debut in Bridget Everett's Rock Bottom, returns with an evening of her own groundbreaking solo material. From songs of love and blues on the piano and guitar, to songs of joy on the ukulele, with some spoken word on the side, Henderson shares her gifts on multiple instruments and pairs it with her soulful vocals to create an evening of musical magic. She recently returned from an acclaimed tour Live from the Heartland with Matt Alber. She is also known for her work in the Broadway Revival of GODSPELL at Circle in The Square Theater and her work on The Electric Company. Henderson recently released a live EP entitled Celisse LIVE @ Rockwood Music Hall, which is available on iTunes.
KIKI AND HERB: SEEKING ASYLUM!
Wednesday-Sunday, May 18-22 at 9:30PM
SOLD OUT!
Mx Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman will revive Kiki and Herb, the legendary and fanatically-loved cabaret duo with a new show entitled Seeking Asylum! For 15 years, Bond and Mellman, as Kiki and Herb, shocked and charmed audiences with their political prowess, wild historical narrative and belligerently profound wit. Their use of pop music - ranging from Eminem to Kate Bush to Bob Dylan to Radiohead - and their utter lack of inhibition invigorated the genre of cabaret. Seeking Asylum! is part of New York Voices, the Joe's Pub artist commissioning program. This run is also part of Bond's yearlong celebration of v's 25th Anniversary of cabaret, which commenced with the revival of Dixie McCall's Patterns for Living, V's first-ever cabaret show and collaboration with Mellman, and continues monthly with shows from Bond's catalog.
In keeping with The Public Theater's commitment to making great art accessible for all, Joe's Pub offers 10 free standing room tickets to each performance. Entries will be accepted in-person, beginning at 5:30PM, on the evening of each show. Names will be pulled at 6:00PM.
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH WITH CATIE LAZARUS
Guests: Patti LuPone, Tituss Burgess & Jon Hamm
Thursday, May 19 at 7:00PM
SOLD OUT!
Say you want a revolution, well, Employee of the Month - the only late night talk show all about work - celebrates three revolutionaries, each in their own way. At this month's installment, creator and host Catie Lazarus will interview and honor Broadway starlett Patti LuPone, Unbreakable Kimmy Shmidt's Tituss Burgess and Mad Men's Jon Hamm. The New York Times, New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine all agree, Lazarus is an exceptional interviewer and each show is its own delight. Guests receive the coveted Employee of the Month Award, which is somewhere between a Pulitzer Prize and free coffee.
BARB JUNGR: SHELTER FROM THE STORM
Friday and Saturday, May 20 and 21 at 7:00PM
$25
Barb Jungr is delighted to return with her new album and live project, Shelter from the Storm, marking her return to Linn Records' jazz roster. Released in February 2016 in the U.K. and April 2016 in the U.S., Shelter from the Storm sees Jungr, regarded as one of the finest interpreters of popular song, join hands across the Atlantic in a collaboration with Laurence Hobgood, the American progressive and contemporary jazz piano virtuoso. The album features three original songs by the duo, alongside material by Dylan, Cohen, Mitchell, Springsteen, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, Peter Gabriel and Bacharach and David.
ECO-MUSIC BIG BAND: MR. MYSTERY, THE RETURN OF SUN RA TO SAVE THE PLANET
Sunday, May 22 at 3:00PM
$16
The Eco-Music Big Band is a 16-piece, multigenerational and unique big band that includes some of the nation's most acclaimed jazz musicians. Eco-Music regularly commissions works by younger and emerging composers, and performs music with a vision for a better world. At this performance, they will celebrate Sun Ra's 102nd birthday. The dynamic jazz ensemble Eco-Music Big Band presents scenes from Mr. Mystery: The Return of Sun Ra to Save Planet Earth!, a free-jazz opera by Fred Ho and Marie Incontrera, with libretto by Quincy Troupe. In this freewheeling odyssey, visionary jazz musician Sun Ra is summoned back to life to save the world from impending destruction brought on by war, global warming, and economic decline.
THE MEETING* HOSTED BY JUSTIN SAYRE
Sunday, May 22 at 7:00PM
$20
The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show hailed as "rambunctious, uproarious and unpredictable" by The Wall Street Journal, has returned to its downtown roots this year for another season of shows. Each month, Sayre's International Order of Sodomites (I.O.S.) gathers to honor an artist or a cultural work that is iconic to the gay community. Sayre is the show's creator, writer and host, serving as the Chairman of the Board of the I.O.S. This month's show will be a tribute to honor Prince, with guests Michael Cavadias, Bridget Barkan, Tony DeSare and more to be announced.
PUBLIC FORUM: THE SOUND THAT MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND
Monday, May 23 at 7:00PM
$25 - $35
Just in time for The Total Bent, the new musical from Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Public Forum continues its ongoing series of conversations about contemporary music and theater. This evening will welcome icons of the music industry including Gabriel Kahane (February House at The Public, The Ambassador), Toshi Reagon and others to discuss the politics of popular music as well as the complex relationships of music producers, artists and the art of song. Public Forum, now in its sixth season, brings together talented members of the theater community and interesting individuals from the arts, media, politics, and society to discuss, debate, and further explore the ideas present on The Public Theater's stages.
Monday, May 23 at 9:30PM; Tuesday, May 24 at 9:30PM and Thursday May 26 at 9:30PM
$20
Inspired by David Bowie, the entertainer Sven Ratzke creates his own new and dazzling character: STARMAN. Ratzke, the entertainer extraordinaire, is celebrated worldwide sensation. The weirdly mad and entertaining universe of Ratzke will merge with legendary Bowie universe into a grandiose music show. Taking the audience on a journey from New York to Berlin, the show showcases an entertainer on stage who might come from another planet, like a "Baron Munchausen out of space." He is accompanied by his brilliant three-man band, led by the longtime collaborator Charly Zastrau. The music grooves from Seventies glam rock into sound collages and intimate moments. STARMAN is a starburst of cabaret and rock show: prepare for a crazy, intimate, funny and rock 'n' roll ride.
CHARLOTTE CARDIN W/ OPENER TANGINA STONE
Tuesday, May 24 at 9:30PM
$12
Twenty-year-old Montreal gem, Charlotte Cardin, used to split her days as a model and student but feeding her musical passion at night. It was while in Paris working for world-famous modelling agency that Cardin decided she would give herself the chance to embark on a different journey. Back in Montreal, the news of Cardin's leap of faith traveled at light speed. Taking a year to define her artistic vision and style, she spent the summer in the studio, recording with her newly formed band. Originally, the was no plan of releasing music before the end of summer but an enticing last-minute proposal from the Montreal Jazz Festival called for a turnaround. Cardin was offered to open for international pop star Mika.
Essence Magazine deemed Tangina Stone as "new & next." Stone's sound - soul, rock, pop and R&B fused into one - was set ablaze by The Fall, her debut EP in 2014. The Deli Magazine named her one of the Best Emerging NYC Soul Artists in 2015, and Okayplayer says, "she represents a sound that harkens back to an era where the sound came from a pure and honest place."
BOB DIPIERO: NASVILLE SONGWRITERS SERIES FT. TIM NICHOLS, LEE MILLER & DREW BALDRIGE
Wednesday, May 25 at 7:00PM
$35
Nashville Songwriters Series welcomes back Hall-of-Fame Songwriter Bob DiPiero with Tim Nichols, Lee Miller and Drew Baldridge. Every show is an unscripted, unpredictable and unique opportunity to hear these hit songwriters perform their songs that have been recorded by the likes of Brooks and Dunn, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Montgomery Gentry, Alan Jackson, Trace Adkins, Dustin Lynch and many more! This special edition will also feature fresh new music from up-and-coming country artist Drew Baldridge!
BRIDGET EVERETT & THE TENDER MOMENTS
Tuesday & Wednesday, May 17 & 25 at 9:30PM
SOLD OUT!
New York's downtown darling Bridget Everett returns with her band The Tender Moments, and a bottle of chardonnay to sing all her favorite love songs and share the stories of the men that made her...feel? From tender moments to prison sex, Everett invites her audience to get inside her. New York Magazine describes Everett as, "a one-woman liberation movement for anyone with genitals."
LEMUR CONSERVATION FOUNDATION BENEFIT CONCERT FT. RAZIA SAID
Thursday, May 26 at 7:00PM
$20-220
The Lemur Conservation Foundation (LCF) is a small non-profit dedicated to the preservation and conservation of lemurs - the primates from Madagascar - through captive breeding, scientific research and education. Singer, songwriter and environmental activist Razia Said spent her childhood in the vanilla-growing region of Madagascar's northeast coast. After years of living abroad, she returned to discover her country's landscape ravaged by illegal logging, slash and burn agriculture and the impact of climate change. In an effort to raise awareness at the local and international level, Razia organized the Mifohaza Masoala (Wake Up Masoala) music/environmental festival, which took place at the edge of the Masoala Rainforest in October 2011. Before the concert, local inhabitants planted a total of 20,000 trees.
Friday, May 27 at 7:00PM & 11:30PM
$25
Tina Dico has never forgotten her folk roots in an expansive career that has taken her from the top of the album charts in Denmark and collaborations with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra to working with Zero 7 in London to Iceland, where she now lives. Her ninth album, Whispers, departs from the grandeur of her Orchestra collaborations and eschews previous dalliances for more electronic terrain, to get to the core of her songwriting. For Dico, it all comes back to re-connection with her beginnings as a songwriter; doing so by stripping away the layers and leaving a process that remains pure and true to herself.
Friday, May 27 at 9:30PM
$15
Birthday Sax is your favorite 1980s soundtrack songs re-imagined by a German überfan and a saxophone quartet at his birthday party. Come rock out with Manheim Tuttlingen, his Frauleins, and The Garden State Saxophone Quartet as they crank out his all-time favorite hits from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Back to The Future, The Goonies, Sixteen Candles, The Neverending Story and more. Created and performed by Tim Girrbach (Squirm and Germ), Birthday Sax is filled with lederhosen-dropping surprises plus direction and choreography by Wendy Seyb (The Pee Wee Herman Show (Broadway/HBO), Murder for Two, The Toxic Avenger Musical).
Saturday, May 28 at 7:00PM & 9:30PM & Sunday, May 29 at 9:30PM
Through June 15
SOLD OUT!
While Gad Elmaleh is arguably the most widely known and beloved comedian in Europe, he has now embarked on the newest chapter of his career: breaking through to the American audience. For this, he has crafted, Oh My Gad, a new stand-up show entirely in English, building upon the jokes that made him famous overseas and including new observations from his life in America.
Elmaleh debuted his first all English show in a sold-out ten-night run at Joe's Pub in Fall 2015, introducing his singular humor and insight to a new audience. During his current run, he will continue the enormous task of not just speaking a new language fluently, but of using it with the timing, nuance and syntax required for great stand-up comedy. Says The Guardian, "The chance to see Elmaleh spreading his wings in the U.S. is not one to be missed."
Sunday, May 29 at 7:30PM
$20
Former Daily Show correspondent and acclaimed star of HBO's Looking, Lauren Weedman returns to New York for one night only to sing songs and tell stories about heartbreak, gay boyfriends and coffee enemas. The award-winning comedic actress, playwright and author's newest late night concoction is a high-octane, stream-of-consciousness, gay cabaret as done by a straight woman. The evening includes cover songs by artists like Helen Reddy, Loretta Lynn, Neil Diamond and Ludacris, and features the soulful sounds of Brady Harris on guitar. The Stranger has called Weedman, "the funniest woman alive," and LA Weekly says, "Her self-deprecating humor is not just funny, its excesses contain jaw-dropping revelations on the intersections of passion and fear."
For tickets, go online at joespub.com, call 10AM-7:00PM daily at 212-967-7555, or visit in person at The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC (Opens daily at 2PM). There is a $12 food / two (2) drink minimum per person per show, unless otherwise noted.
Named for Public Theater founder Joe Papp, Joe's Pub at The Public opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists 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. The organization also offers unique opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that provides musicians the resources and tools needed to develop original theater works. Commissioned artists have included Ethan Lipton, Toshi Reagon, Bridget Everett, Allen Toussaint and more. In 2011, the Pub received a top-to-bottom renovation, leading to improved sightlines, expanded seating capacity and a new menu from acclaimed Chef Andrew Carmellini. With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe's Pub presents talent from all over the world as part of The Public's programming downtown at its Astor Place home, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually.
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