Symphony Space BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY XXIX 6/16, Features Colbert & More

Symphony Space will present the 29th annuAl Bloomsday on Broadway, a reading from James Joyce's classic novel Ulysses, on Wednesday, June 16 starting at 7:00 p.m. This year's event, devoted to tracing the parallels between Ulysses and Homer's Odyssey, on which the novel is modeled, features readings from a selection of passages from both works. Performances will include comparisons of Odysseus' descent into Hades with Leopold Bloom's visit to the Dublin cemetery; Odysseus' dalliance with the enchantress Circe and Mr. Bloom's visit to the nighttown brothels; Odysseus' violent encounter with the monstrous Cyclops and Mr. Bloom's fracas with the anti-Semitic troglodytic Irish patriot; and Ulysses' ultimate return home to his beloved Penelope with Leopold Bloom's return to his bed next to his incomparable wife, Molly. As is often the case, Bloomsday on Broadway will conclude with the complete, uncensored, vivid nighttime monologue of Molly Bloom performed by Fionnula Flanagan.

Featuring readings by actors and avid Joyceans, including television personality Stephen Colbert, critically acclaimed Irish novelists Colum McCann and Malachy McCourt, Broadway stalwart Marian Seldes, stars of stage and screen Tony Roberts, John Shea and David Margulies and many others, the event will be hosted and staged by Symphony Space Artistic Director (and host of nationally syndicated Selected Shorts radio program) Isaiah Sheffer.

Bloomsday on Broadway XXVIII celebrates June 16, 1904, the most famous fictional date in literature, when Leopold Bloom walked around Dublin in the pages of James Joyce's Ulysses. Since 1981, hundreds of acclaimed actors have joined avid Joyceans, writers, critics and scholars on stage at Symphony Space to read selections from the book that heralded the birth of modern literature.

Tickets for Bloomsday on Broadway are $20-$25 and available at the Symphony Space Box Office, Broadway and 95th Street, Tuesday-Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., by calling the box office at (212) 864-5400, Tuesday-Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., or on-line at www.symphonyspace.org
When Symphony Space opened its doors in 1978 with its first production, Wall to Wall Bach, it gathered together an eclectic group of musicians, professional and amateur, well-known and emerging. What began as a natural outgrowth of the cultural epicenter that is the Upper West Side, traditionally home to many of the great actors, writers, dancers and musicians of our time, remains a unique melding of world-class artistry with the informality and intimacy of a neighborhood salon.

Photo Credit: BWW-Staff