PAVED PARADISE REDUX: The Art Of Joni Mitchell Runs 6/18-27 At Abrons Art Center

Obie Award Winner John Kelly Premieres PAVED PARADISE REDUX: The Art of Joni Mitchell
Limited Engagement runs June 18 - 27 at Abrons Arts Center

"There's drag and then there's transformation through spiritual osmosis, and that's what John Kelly accomplishes with this tribute... Magnificent." -- New York Times

"Sounds like pure camp on paper, but when the willowy Kelly sings Mitchell's songs, his haunting, crystalline countertenor is somewhere between male and female, human and angel."-- New York Magazine

"It is an homage that transcends" -- Daily News

After an eight-year absence, two-time Obie Award winning artist John Kelly once again inhabits the persona of Joni Mitchell in an entirely new evening of songs and stories. Conceived and performed by John Kelly, produced by TWEED TheaterWorks in association with Robbi Kearns, and directed by Kevin Malony, PAVED PARADISE REDUX: The Art of Joni Mitchell runs for 7 performances only beginning June 18 at Abrons Arts Center.

In PAVED PARADISE REDUX: The Art of Joni Mitchell, John Kelly's performance is a musical and visual homage to the great Canadian singer/songwriter. His countertenor uncannily evokes Mitchell's own smoky soprano as he sings songs from the various stages of her career in their original key. He also plays dulcimer and replicates Mitchell's guitar style by way of her signature open tunings. Kelly is accompanied on keyboard by musical director Zecca Esquibel, as well as additional musicians. The evening also features an original video component featuring Kevin Joseph (Broadway's Threepenny Opera, a.k.a. Flotilla DeBarge) as journalist Tavis Smiley in a recreation of his PBS interview with Mitchell.

"As a kid growing up in New Jersey, I would put on my headphones and be swept into Joni's world," explains Kelly on his love for Mitchell's music. "Hers is a world rich with wanderlust, emotion and innuendo. Her songs have the power to transport a lonely individual into another world. I suppose it was the words as much as the music. The combination of the two was, and remains powerful, beautiful and compelling." The Boston Globe recently wrote, "No less a critic than Joni Mitchell herself has been surprised by the impact of Kelly's cabaret tribute. ‘I was braced for a lampooning,' she told The New York Times after seeing "Paved Paradise" in Manhattan in 1997. ‘I didn't expect to be so touched. I cried in two places.' Mitchell is now one of Kelly's biggest fans."

An exhibition of Kelly's self-portraits will be on display at Alexander Gray Associates in Chelsea from May 20 - June 26. Kelly will also sing The Joni Mitchell Songbook in "Songs for a Shiny Hot Night" at Castle Clinton in Battery Park on August 6th as part of the annual River to River Festival.

John Kelly is an author, choreographer, director, performance and visual artist. He has received numerous awards including two Bessies, two Obies, the American Choreographer Award, a CalArts Alpert Award, and fellowships from The Guggenheim Foundation and The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Last year he was a Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Art at The American Academy in Rome. In a career that spans over two decades Kelly's works have been staged at venues including BAM, Lincoln Center, PS 1, The Warhol Museum, London's Tate Modern, PS 122, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop and Carnegie Hall. In 2004, he appeared as the opening act for Natalie Merchant's Ophelia touR. Kelly was also an original cast member of James Joyce's The Dead on Broadway and won an Eliot Norton Award for Best Actor in the American Repertory Theater production of Dido, Queen of Carthage. In 2010, he will be an artist-in-residence at The Park Avenue Armory and at The Civitella Ranieri Foundation. He recently staged a workshop of The Escape Artist as part of Music Theatre Group's Here/See Series, which includes original songs written in collaboration with singer/songwriter Carol Lipnik. He is also developing a project with writer/director Moises Kaufman. For more information visit www.johnkellyperformance.org.

TWEED TheaterWorks was founded by Kevin Malony in the early eighties and has grown from tiny late night shows in East Village dives to full-scale productions at premier Manhattan venues. For two decades TWEED has produced innovative and unusual live theatrical work, including performance art, plays & musicals, dance theater and category-defying extravaganzas. The TWEED New Works Festival (1985-1995) presented the early work of many of today's recognized theater artists, including John Kelly. TWEED's long involvement with Kelly began in the late eighties with the first theatrical incarnation of Pass The Blutwurstte, Bitte, and has continued in one form or another, for the past 20 years. The TWEED Fractured Classicks Series, a cult phenomenon, presents staged readings of classic American plays and films employing unique casting choices.

Robbi Kearns and Kearns Artists Services has produced and managed concerts, events, and theater projects worldwide since 1995. He has produced concerts both small and large, ranging from performances with singer/songwriters to The Lord of the Rings Symphony composed by Academy Award winning composer Howard Shore with over 200 musicians performing on stage. Robbi has produced Posteriors, Extra-Ordinary People and FOLLY: Vaudeville for the New Depression with Kevin Malony and TWEED TheaterWorks.

PAVED PARADISE REDUX: The Art of Joni Mitchell runs June 18 - 27, Thursday - Sunday at 8pm, Abrons Arts Center is located inside Henry Street Settlement at 466 Grand Street (accessible from the F train to East Broadway or Delancey, D/B trains to Grand Street and J/M trains to Essex Street). All performances are at 8:00pm. Tickets are $20 on Thursday & Sunday, $25 on Friday & Saturday. For information and reservations call 212-352-3101 or www.TheaterMania.com.

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