Sandra Bernhard, Justin Vivian Bond and More Coming Up at Joe's Pub for the Holidays
By: BWW News Desk Nov. 13, 2017
The holidays are already upon us! 'Tis the season for family, because that's what Joe's Pub at The Public has got on tap for the month of December.
Rev Billy is back with a month of Sundays with a new show called Now Now Now! This one will really lift your spirits...really. Peace is at hand in this six-part screaming gospel that beckons people to lift their heads from their screens as catastrophe looms around every corner.
Further on, the Justin Vivian Bond's Bi-Polar Express rolls in with all the radical empathy you need to get you through. And of course, Joe's will host its annual rager with the one and only Sandra Bernhard.
Check out the full lineup below!
REVEREND BILLY & THE STOP SHOPPING CHOIR
SUNDAYS, NOVEMBER 26 & DECEMBER 3, 10 & 17 at 2:00PM
$15
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir is a award-winning, New York City-based radical performance community, with 50 performing members and a congregation in the thousands. We are wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth loving urban activists who have worked with communities on four continents defending community, life and imagination. Our Devils over the 15 years of our "church" have remained the same: Consumerism and Militarism. In this time of the Earth's crisis - we are especially mindful of the extractive imperatives of global capital.
We employ multiple strategies, including cash register exorcisms, retail interventions, and cell phone operas. We have performed in Redwood forests, between cars in traffic jams at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, on the Staten Island Ferry, at Burning Man and Times Square and Coney Island, and on the roof of Carnegie Hall in a snowstorm. Reverend Billy has been arrested about 70 times.
DIRTY HONEY xxMAS
FEATURING BROWN GIRLS BURLESQUE & NUCOMME
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2 at 9:30PM
$20 ADV / $25 DOOR
It's time for a Dirty Honey Xmas! Tis the season for a funky shakin' and quakin' around the Christmas tree. The ladies of Brown Girls Burlesque - Chicava Honeychild, CeCe BrownSuga, Genie Adagio and Tutu Toussaint - will fill your stockings with joy alright. The Dirty Honey Shake band Kwame Brandt-Pierce, Gregory Jackson and Ramsey Jones sleigh the groove and take us on a ride through a night of unconventional and sexy holiday tunes of funky soul, grooves and blues. Nucomme is joined by guest vocalists Onome On and Elijah Rocq to wrap it all up in a bow that's outta sight!
IKE FOR THE HOLIDAYS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7 at 9:30PM
$15
The holiday season comes but once a year, which makes the decision of how to mark the occasion a special one. Comic entertainer Ikechukwu Ufomadu invites you to consider Ike for the Holidays - an evening of humor, warmth and musical joy, featuring special guests.
PUBLIC FORUM'S THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10 at 7:00PM
$25 MEMBERS / $70 NON-MEMBERS
The Public Theater's program Public Forum returns with their beloved holiday tradition but now with a brand new cast! Thornton Wilder's beautiful play takes place over one hundred years of Christmas dinners with the Bayard family, where they see triumph and heartbreak, birth and death, and a changing world - while some things, like family and tradition, remain constant. The cast will feature Thornton's nephew and literary executor, Tappan Wilder, and more.
THE SKIVVIES: SLEIGH MY NAME
SUNDAY & MONDAY, DECEMBER 10 & 11 at 9:30PM
$40
The Skivvies are Lauren Molina and Nick Cearley, actor/musicians doing stripped down versions of eclectic covers and comedic, genre-hopping mashups. Not only are the arrangements stripped down - cello, ukulele, glockenspiel, melodica - but they literally strip down. Undie-rock at its finest! Featured in People Magazine's Hottest Bodies Issue as the Most Playful performers, The Wall Street Journal calls them "highly original... smart...ingenious". Molina (Rock of Ages, Sweeney Todd, Candide) and Cearley (Pageant, A Midsummer Night's Dream, All Shook Up) started The Skivvies on YouTube becoming sensations covering artists like Robyn, Carole King and Rihanna. Their live show, featuring Tony Award-winning special guests, is wildly fun, packed with big voices, crazy harmonies, surprises, but no pants.
Tori Scott: VODKA IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12 at 9:30PM
$25
Tori Scott, "the Bette Midler of the new millennium" (Provincetown Magazine), returns with her annual holiday show Vodka is the Reason for the Season. The "soul-baring singer and sharp comedian" (Huffington Post) recounts her early childhood fascination with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and her time spent as a singing elf in an old folks' home. Scott will take you on a festive autobiographical journey to celebrate what is truly special about this time of year (spoiler: it's alcohol induced blackouts). Scott's shameless holiday show includes stories new and old and songs by Dolly Parton, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and more.
Vodka is the Reason for the Season is written by Scott and Adam Hetrick, directed by Seth Sklar-Heyn (Broadway: Associate Director, Miss Saigon, Evita and A Little Night Music) with musical direction by Jesse Kissel (Broadway: The Visit and Leap of Faith).
Justin Vivian Bond: MANGER DANGER! JESUS AS A WEAPON AND A TOOL
DECEMBER 14-27 & 19-23 at 9:30PM
$35 TUE-THU / $45 FRI-SUN
In an attempt to practice radical empathy Mx Justin Vivian Bond is stepping out of their liberal champagne bubble and venturing on a cultural fact finding mission across America. Sticking with their credo, "Keep it Pretty, Keep it Shallow, Keep it Moving," Mx Bond asks, "Why alienate when you can infiltrate?" Share thoughts, ideas and world views with this trans-genre phenomenon and as they explore what common links we can enjoy with the right social lubricants and musical interludes but never forget, "Glamour is Resistance!" The Bipolar Express is pulling in to a rest stop near you.
A MURRAY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
STARRING Murray Hill, Bridget Everett, ANGIE PONTANI, Dirty Martini & MORE
FRIDAY-SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15-17 at 7:00PM
$25 BAR or OBSTRUCTED / $30 STANDARD / $50 VIP
NYC's beloved comedian and larger-than-life personality Murray Hill (aka Mr. Showbiz) gives the much needed gift of holiday cheer and showbiz denial with his legendary Yuletide holiday show, A Murray Little Christmas. The show will be a cozy, chestnut warming, homey affair featuring hilarious and wacky skits with the cast, Hot Toddy burlesque, a sleigh full of cheesy holiday songs, plenty of nuts, fruits and tree trimming. Guests include Hill's swinging band THE CRAIGSLIST QUARTET (Jesse Elder MD, Matt Parker-sax, Arthur Vint-drums, Steve Whipple-bass), neo-Burlesque icon and Italian stallionette ANGIE PONTANI, Dirty Martini, Santa Claus AND Rudolph (who happen to look a lot like you know who). A Murray Little Christmas is a cocktail-style variety show packed with silver bells and holiday hi-balls. It's the liveliest Christmas cocktail party of the season - everyone is guaranteed to have a gay old time!
STARSKY & COX: DASHING THROUGH (THE TWELVE SIGNS OF CHRISTMAS)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20 at 7:00PM
$20
The original magi of mysticore, Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox present a frankly magical program of inspiring words and seasonal music by songwriters born under each of the twelve astrological signs. The tunes do the talking as Starsky + Cox illustrate how none of us can escape our archetype-that we are all born under wondrous stars that outline our individual natures and direct us toward our own divine dates with destiny. Musical director Matt Ray helms the baby grand with and Patrick Johnson on percussion and vocals. To receive a nifty cosmic Christmas gift from Starsky + Cox, send your name and birth date, time and place, plus your show seat number to Trip@StarskyandCox.com.
Sandra Bernhard: SANDEMONIUM
TUESDAY-SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26-30 at 7:30PM & 9:30PM
$65
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31 at 9:00PM & 11:00PM
$125-200
Sandemonium is swirling all around you, minute to minute "breaking news." No one knows what's coming next. Climate disaster, Russian invasion, unhinged leaders, slut-shaming, gender identity, wildfires, opioids, GMOs! What else? You've been swept up in Sandemonium! It's time for a psychic break. Sandra Bernhard will bring you back from your bad trip. Soothe your aura and calm your chakra's, shut down your electronics, find your mantra, do a meditation, let it all go my darling!
Sandy is here to make it all right. Sandemonium is a brief respite from the endless madness. Come on her magical mystery tour, listen to the sights and sounds, sample her exotic offerings. Just stop! Look, listen to Sandra Bernhard along with the Sandyland Squad Band. Sandy will make it all better.
GARLAND JEFFREYS
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31 at 7PM
$50
After two stellar albums within three years, Garland Jeffreys stays on a returning-champion roll with 14 Steps to Harlem (2017), a spirited summation of virtually all the styles and subjects he's explored through a nearly five-decade career. The cognoscenti still agree: as "woke" New York rock standard-bearers go, Jeffreys remains at the head of the class. A documentary is in the works and interviews with luminaries such as Harvey Keitel, Graham Parker and Laurie Anderson attest to his multi-faceted appeal, but his NYC cred might be best expressed in the premiere episode of HBO's new series "The Deuce" with an actor portraying him performing a song from his 1973 debut album. Proving that rock and roll never dies, Jeffreys continues to sing like a man half his age and to leave it all on stage.
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, committed to diversity, production values, community and artistic freedom. The venue also offers unique opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program; Joe's Pub Working Group, an artist development initiative; The Vanguard Residency, an award given to an iconic American artist; and nationwide programming partnerships. 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.
The Public Theater is theater of, by, and for the people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public's wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, The Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City's five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Studio, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe's Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Leguizamo's Latin History for Morons. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 169 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Desk Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes.
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