Dan's Papers - June 29, 2007

The singers, dancers, musicians and actors stopping in at East End venues this summer are so numerous and varied, it looks like an ongoing Hamptons performing arts festival. One can mix days of beaches, watersports, golf and tennis with nights enjoying top-draw performers. How about attending a concert to hear Prince, or Billy Joel, James Taylor, Hall & Oates, Dave Matthews, Randy Newman, John Pizzarelli, Debby Reynolds, Linda Ronstadt, Rufus Wainwright or the Neville Brothers? Prefer classical music? There's the Bard Music Festival of the Hamptons, Perlman Music Program, Pianofest, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival and Opera of the Hamptons. Modern dance -- see Momix, Armitage Gone! Dance Company, or Jennifer Muller/The Works. Theater? Attend Bay Street Theatre's mainstage productions and Comedy Club series, or the John Drew Theatre, which is temporarily relocating to several East Hampton sites while its home is restored. From Westhampton Beach to Amagansett, here is a rundown of who/what/when/where.

The prime piece of entertainment news is from East Hampton's private Ross School, where five concerts by big-name singers are scheduled as benefits for its scholarship fund. Performers at Hamptons Social @ Ross School are Prince (July 14), Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds (July 28), Billy Joel (August 4), James Taylor (August 11), and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (August 25). Tickets are quite pricey -- $15,000 for a pass to all five concerts (800-803-6644) -- but it includes gourmet food and drink in a luxe setting.

The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center does a great job of bringing a wide range of performing artists to its stage every summer weekend -- pop and world music, jazz, comedy, cabaret, folk and blues. Upcoming performers include Manhattan cabaret favorites KT Sullivan & Mark Nadler (June 30), Buckwheat Zydeco (July 1), Daryl Hall & John Oates (July 6), humorous acrobatic dance group Momix (July 7), Randy Newman (July 14), Portuguese fado singer Mariza (July 15), comedian Craig Ferguson (July 20), Debbie Reynolds (July 21), pop jazz favorite John Pizzarelli (July 22), world music singer Angelique Kidjo (August 5), NYC Opera (August 11), Michael Feinstein (August 12), Linda Ronstadt (August 17), Rufus Wainwright (August 18) and many more. PAC also screens outstanding independent movies and presents children's music and theater performances. The schedule and ticket sales are available on the website www.whbpac.org or at the Main St. theater box office (631-288-1500).

Music Festival of the Hamptons has teamed up with the Bard Music Festival to become the Bard Music Festival of the Hamptons. With eleven programs scheduled between July 13 and 22 at East Hampton Studios, Sag Harbor's Old Whalers Church, Woelffer Estate Vineyards and the Southampton Cultural Center, the Festival offers something for all classical musical lovers. The opening concert on Friday, July 13, is at East Hampton Studios and honors the Festival's longterm artistic director, Lukas Foss. The new artistic director, Leon Botstein, will conduct the American Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Arnaud Sussmann in romantic works by Foss, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and others. There is a family chamber music program with the Bard College Conservatory Chamber Players (free admission) the next morning at 11 a.m. The Daedalus Quartet with special guests play some Mozart, Berg and Beethoven on Saturday evening in Sag Harbor. Tickets to concerts start at $35 (several programs offer free admission to children and AARP members) and the entire schedule is online at www.bardmusicfestivalhamptons.org or by calling (800) 644-4418.

Composer/conductor/concert pianist and Hamptons resident Lukas Foss is also being honored on his 85th birthday with a special performance of his choral masterpiece, The Prairie, next Saturday, July 7, at the Channing Sculpture Garden in Bridgehampton. More than 60 years ago, when Foss was a young refugee from Hitler's Germany who became a U.S. citizen, he expressed his love for this nation in The Prairie, a piece for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra set to poet Carl Sandburg's words. The Choral Society of the Hamptons, the Greenwich Village Singers and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, directed by Mark Mangini, will perform The Prairie, plus Foss's "Renaissance Concerto," with flute soloist Carol Wincenc and Aaron Copland's "Old American Songs" for this special evening, which starts at 7 p.m. (tickets from $35 at www.choralhamptons.org or 631-204-9402).

Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theatre is deep into its busy summer schedule. The very compelling comic drama The Night Season is having its U.S. premiere through this Sunday. On July 10, a new rock opera, Turandot: The Rumble for the Ring, has its world premiere at Bay Street. Created by Diane Paulus and Randy Weiner (of the Off-Broadway hit, The Donkey Show), the show runs through August 5. Brilliant female impersonator/actor Charles Busch then brings his 1940s satire, The Lady In Question, to Bay Street from August 14 through September 2. When the actors are off Monday nights, the Bay Street Comedy Club takes the stage. Comedians scheduled are Caroline Rhea (July 10), Louis CK (July 23), Craig Showmaker (Aug. 20), Lewis Black (Aug.27), Robert Schimmel (Sept. 3) and Zach Galifianakis (Sept. 8). Tickets to all Bay Street shows start at $50. The schedule is online at www.baystreet.org or at the box office (631-725-9500).

East Hampton's John Drew Theater is undergoing restoration, but its summer programming continues at different East Hampton locations. Celebrated pop/jazz guitarist and singer/songwriter John Pizzarelli and his talented Broadway vocalist/songwriter wife Jessica Molaskey give a special performance tonight at the Maidstone Tennis Club as a benefit for the theater's restoration (cocktails/dinner/show $350 donation; call 631-324-0806). Two outstanding Manhattan-based modern dance troupes will perform outdoors at two different East Hampton estates -- on July 21, choreographer Karole Armitage presents her Armitage Gone! Dance Company in the new "Ligeti Essays" suite. And on August 18, Jennifer Muller's The Works performs three dances (both shows at 5 p.m. Limited tickets start at $30, no charge for children 12 and under).

The John Drew's popular theater and cabaret performances move to East Hampton Studios in Wainscott this summer. Steve Martin's Off Broadway comedy hit, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, is onstage August 14 through September 1. The popular American Musical Theatre Salutes hosted by Lee Davis are August 5 ("Heart to Hart -- The Warmth and Wit of Richard Rodgers and Lorenze Hart" with KT Sullvan, Eric Michael Gillet and music director James Followell) and August 26 ("Irving Berlin in Hollywood" with Melissa Errico and George Dvorsky). Playwrights' Theatre of East Hampton continues its John Drew Theater partnership with three evenings of staged readings featuring Manhattan actors -- Joe Stein's comedy Enter Laughing (August 12); David Mamet's dramatic Oleanna (August 19); and Ruth Wolff's new comedy Shakespeare Road (Sept. 2). Tickets to all John Drew Theater offerings are available at the John Drew Theater/Guild Hall box office (631-324-4050) or online at www.guildhall.org.

Pianofest, the weekly recital program for emerging concert pianists, began its performance series on June 25 at the Southampton Cultural Center. Recitals continue there on July 2 and 9 (5 p.m., $10 adults, free student admission). On July 7, Pianofest transports its talented keyboardists to the beautiful and whimsical gardens of artist Robert Dash's Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack for a benefit garden party and musicale (5 to 7 p.m., $75). Weekly concerts continue on Mondays, 5 p.m., July 16 to August 6, at the Avram Theater at Stony Brook's Southampton campus ($10) with the Grand Marathon Finale starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 11, at the Avram Theater. To check for weekly schedule changes, call Pianofest at (631) 329-9115 or go online to www.pianofest.com.

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival is the longest-running classical music series out here (24 years!). Thanks to its artistic director Marya Martin, BCMF offers fresh and innovative programming every year, performed by world-class musicians. BCMF opens its season on the grounds of the Bridge Hampton Historical Society, July 25, with a free outdoor program of classic Italian music (Vivaldi, Puccini, Verdi, etc.) at 6:30 p.m. There is an elegant benefit dinner and concert at the Atlantic Golf Club on July 28 and regular concerts start on July 29 at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. BCMF introduced "offbeat" concerts last year -- young musicians performing new fusions of rock, classical and electronic music. They continue this year on August 3 and 8 in the handsome outdoor amphitheater of the Children's Museum of the East End. A program of American "roots" music (Gershwin, Copland, etc.) is part of a wine-tasting evening at Channing Daughters Winery on August 10. The family concert this year is called "Wolfgang Amadeus Schmutzinberry," on August 16. A full schedule is online at www.bcmf.org or call (631) 537-6368 starting July 17.

Opera of the Hamptons is a professional troupe featuring international performers beginning their careers. The next production is Puccini's La Boheme on July 21, 5:30 p.m. at Duck Walk vineyards in Southold (North Fork). On August 18, the troupe performs a selection of songs from operas and Broadway musicals at Duck Walk in Southold and on September 16, they do a full production of Verdi's La Traviata at the Southampton Cultural Center. Tickets start at $45 and may be purchased online at www.operaofthehamptons.org or by calling (631) 728-8804.

The Perlman Music Program is a music camp for gifted string instrumentalists on Shelter Island, created and run by Itzhak and Toby Perlman with an outstanding faculty. The students play informal works-in-progress programs on most Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., through August 25 and the public is encouraged to attend (no admission charge). The programs vary each week, so call the camp at (631) 749-0740 for the latest schedule.

Well-known performers are also booked at local clubs. One of the best known is the Stephen Talkhouse on Main St. (Montauk Highway) in Amagansett. Some of the acts expected at the Talkhouse this summer are the New York Dolls (rock, July 15), Richie Havens (folk, July 20), Leon Russell (rock, July 22), Neville Brothers (R&B, July 27), Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (rockabilly, Aug. 12). Call or go online to book tickets and check for schedule changes and additions (631-267-2117 or www.stephentalkhouse.com). A few doors down from the Talkhouse is Estia Cantina, which has become a great little jazz club on weekends. Their schedule is also online at www.estiacantina.com or call (631) 267-6321.

Stony Brook Southampton brings a new aspect to classical programming. Sustainable Pleasures features classical singers in concerts at the Avram Theater -- tenor Anthony Dean Griffey (July 14), mezzo-soprano Kristine Jepson (Aug. 4), cabaret with Liz McCartney (Aug. 15) and Christine Goerke and Friends (Aug. 29) -- all at 7:30 p.m. Call (631) 632-8000 or visit www.stonybrook.edu/pleasures.

Southampton's Parrish Art Museum has an outstanding independent film series on summer Friday evenings. Famed filmmaker Sydney Pollack's documentary on architect Frank Gehry will be screened at 8 p.m. tonight, followed by the award-winning documentary of underground cartoonist Robert Crumb (July 6), Katharina Otto-Bernstein's intimate portrait of artist/director Robert Wilson (July 20); Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (August 3); Jean Cocteau's enchanting fantasy, Beauty and the Beast (August 17); Kirosawa's masterpiece, Rashomon (August 24); Bunuel's Viridiana (August 31) and Fellini's La Strada (Sept. 7). The Parrish also has a special summer series for young, hip adults called The Project. On three summer nights, the Museum offers informal drinks, music and art for a modest $5-$10 admission. This Saturday, June 30, the Project spotlights "Eco-Vision," sculptures constructed of recycled materials. On July 28, it's "Hot-Shot" photos and on August 25, a big concert is planned.

There are often additions and changes to all the programs listed in this article, so check Dan's Papers "Day-by-Day" calendar and the "Take Five" column each week.