Earl Dax & Abrons Arts Present UTE LEMPER LEMPER: THE BUKOWSKI PROJECT

Ute Lemper, international chanteuse and Broadway star ("Chicago") teams up with downtown impresario Earl Dax ("Joey Arias in Concert," "Weimar New York") to present the full scale version of "Ute Lemper: The Bukowski Project." for 6 performances only at Abrons Arts Center. Created at the invitation of the 2009 Milan Literature Festival (La Milanesiana), an intimate cabaret version of the show play to critical acclaim last year at Joe's Pub. The Abrons production marks the New York City debut of the full show including video projection and installation by Brock Monroe (Joshua Light Show).

Describing her inspiration for the show, Lemper says, "I am fascinated by the rather dark universe of Bukowski's work. The poetry is very situational, like short movies, absolutely unpretentious and very much down to the bone in honesty and realism. It bares the nakedness of a lost soul, lost in a life and in
a society that does not care about his survival. The rage of this angry man finds salvation in the bottle and in the words he feeds into his typewriter."

Ute Lemper: The Bukowski Project plays a strictly limited engagement of 6 performances, Thursdays through Saturday nights, April 14 - 21 at 8:00 pm at Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street (at Pitt), New York, NY 10002. Tickets are $35 (General) / $50 (VIP Reserved) and available online at www.theatermania.com.

MORE ABOUT THE SHOW
In the show, Lemper invents a journey through Bukowski's poetry set to music. Reading through Bukowski's entire body of work Lemper focused on a set of 30 poems from three of Bukowski's poetry books:

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire
The last night of the earth poems
You get so alone sometimes that it just makes sense

Fueled by a passion to find the heartbeat, the pulse and the musical landscape that captured the essence of the words, "The Bukowski Project" is a collage. Lemper walks thematically through various aspects of the poet's life starting with more philosophical explorations about life and death and his
feeling of being trapped in between like a lost dog. From there she moves on to his rather battered upbringing with his abusive father who always reappears in his poems like a tyrant. Next Lemper delves into Bukowski's twisted relationships with women who he seemed to consume and abuse insatiably like beer and vodka. Towards the end she focuses on the political poetry. Bukowski presents apocalyptic descriptions of the society and a total loss of trust, morality and dignity in the political and economic systems, finding a connection to Bertold Brecht. The directness of his words and the observations of crime and injustice, outcasts, decadence, the losers, loners and the whiskey bars, evoking the world of "Mahagonny," an early collaboration between Brecht and Kurt Weill. "The Bukowski Project" captures the poet's prophetic visions which seem remarkably prescient 30 years later.

MORE ABOUT Ute Lemper
Ute Lemper has made her mark on the stage, in films, in concert and as a unique recording artist. She has been universally praised for her interpretations of Berlin Cabaret Songs, the works of Kurt Weill and French chanson and for her portrayals on Broadway, in Paris and in London's West End. Lemper made her professional debut as Grizabella and Bombalurina in the original Vienna production of "Cats," and she has since played Peter Pan in "Peter Pan" (Berlin); Sally Bowles in Jerome Savary's "Cabaret" (Paris, Moliere Award for Best Actress in a Musical); Lola in "The Blue Angel" (Berlin); and she created the part of Velma Kelly in the West End production of "Chicago" (London, Laurence Olivier Award) and eventually assumed the role on Broadway. Lemper also appeared in many Weill Revues with the Pina Bausch Tanztheater, and her solo concerts, which include "Kurt Weill's Recital," "Illusions," "City of Strangers" and "Berlin Cabaret Evening" have been produced in prestigious venues throughout the world. Her symphony concerts include "The Seven Deadly Sins," "Songs from Kurt Weill," "Songbook" (Michael Nyman) and "Songs from Piaf and Dietrich" with the symphony orchestras of London, Israel, Boston, Hollywood, San Francisco, Berlin The Paris Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Illusions Orchestra (Bruno Fontaine) and the Michael NymanBand (Michael Nyman). Lemper's many film credits include "L'Autrichienne" (Pierre Granier-Deferre), "Prospero's Books" (Peter Greenaway), "Moscow Parade" (Ivan Dikhovichni), "Pret a Porter" (Robert Altman), "Bogus" (Norman Jewison) and the most recent releases, "Combat de Fauves" (Benoit Lamy), "A River Made to Drown In" (James Merendino) and "Appetite" (George Milton). She has appeared on television in "Rage/Outrage," "The Dreyfus Affair" (Arte), "Tales from the Crypt" (HBO), "Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill" (Bravo), "Illusions" (Granada), "Songbook" (Volker Scholendorff), "The Wall" (Rogers Waters)
and "The Look of Love" (Gillina Lynn).

MORE ABOUT BROCK MONROE
Brock Monroe is a live cinema artist and designer, working mainly in the connection of improvisatory projections to music. In collaboration with the Joshua Light Show and Mighty Robot A/V Squad, Brock has created visuals at The Kitchen, PS1, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Netmage festival (Bologna), Aurora Picture Show's Media Archeology festival (Houston), Houston Museum of Fine Art, ISSUE Project Room, and the New Museum. Upcoming projects include a video lecture / opera in collaboration with Nick Hallett as part of an Armory Show showcase funded by the Calder Foundation, and a Joshua Light Show commission for the Hayden Planetarium.

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