36 ARTS &
Week of May 11 – May 17, 2018
Entertainment
New: Beekman Street
Pop-up Art Opening SARATOGA SPRINGS — New for the 2018 season on Beekman Street, the first in a series of Pop-up Art openings will be staged 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, May 11. Future Beekman Street Pop-up Art openings will be held on the second Friday of the month, from May through October. Friday’s lineup includes: Faces on Beekman, 30 Beekman St. Two Fox Studios, hand-crafted hats; Plum and Crimson, 51 Ash St. at Beekman - Kate Edwards, Saratoga painter; Blue Peregrine Salon, 55 Beekman St. - David Post, wood sculptor; Khymanyo Studio- 60 Beekman St., open studio, designer clothing; Living Resources- 70 Beekman St.,
Kathy Gavitt, printmaking class; U M C West, 70B Beekman St. Terri Messinger, local landscape painter; Kraverie, 74 Beekman St. - Eric Margan, musician; The Black Circle, 79 Beekman St. Deborah Kirkpatrick, stained glass windows; Francelise Art Studios, 79 Beekman St. Francelise Dawkins, silk collage; 79 Beekman St. Studios - open studios: Carolyn Justice, pastels, Kelly Smith, drawing and painting, Emily Vallee, photography, Alice Kaplan, painter, Laurie DeVault, painter, Tatiana Schynol; Textile Studio, 143 Grand Ave. at Beekman St. - Susan Rivers, art quilts; The Barrelhouse – live local music.
Saratoga Arts Hosts Opening Reception Saturday SARATOGA SPRINGS — An opening reception of Elemental Narratives, featuring photography by local artists Ronda Anderson, Janene Bouck, Daniel DeRusso, Brian Hoffman and Phil Scalia, will be held 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, May
12 at The Arts Center Gallery at Saratoga Arts. The exhibition will be on display from May 12 - June 16. Everyone is also cordially invited to join us for Saratoga Arts Annual Meeting at 5:30 p.m., before the opening reception.
Broadway Stars Set to Stage Intimate Performances in Historic Saratoga Space by Thomas Dimopoulos Saratoga TODAY ROCK CITY FALLS — Six miles from Broadway stands a grand 19th-century estate where a series of Broadway legends and Tony Award notables will soon be showcased in an intimate performance space. It is, says Mansion Inn co-owner Jeffrey Wodicka, one of the area’s best kept secrets. “We thought it would be fun to bring some top Broadway New York City performers up to the area and have them in a small, intimate setting. So, we decided to put together a supper - where a three-course dinner is served – and have major talent for a 90-minute performance in an intimate room that seats 120 people,” he says. Wodicka and partner Neil Castro took over the historic Mansion Inn on Route 29 in 2001. Originally built in 1866 as a 23-room Venetian, villa-style estate and recognized by The National Register of Historic Places, the mansion was once the grand home of 19th Century industrialist George West - a renaissance man of sorts who established an art and archaeological museum in Round Lake, served as a member of the New York State Assembly and the House of Representatives, and owned as many as 10 paper mills, which earned him the nickname the “paper bag king.”
The inn has remained virtually unchanged during the past 150 years and hosts about 45 wedding celebrations annually as well as retreats and – for the past few years - a supper club theater. The 801 Supper Club season opens May 24 with an appearance by Bobby Conte Thornton, who made his Broadway debut as Calogero, the leading role in Robert DeNiro’s musical version of “A Bronx Tale.” Thorntown’s show, “Blame It On My Youth,” offers songs written by artists ranging from Irving Berlin to Sting. TV actor Ryan Raftery performs “The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Martha Stewart” on June 21. Andrea McArdle – who rocketed to stardom as Broadway’s original “Annie” – stages a brandnew show that celebrates The Great American Songbook, Broadway and contemporary music on July 26; Broadway Legend Lillias White, who secured a Tony Award for Cy Coleman and Ira Gasman’s “The Life,“ starred in 2010’s “Fela!,” and starred in “Dream Girls” on Broadway performs at The 801 Supper Club Aug. 23. Singersongwriters and Carnegie Hall headliners Will and Anthony Nunziata stage their show Sept. 20, and Josh Young - nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” presents an evening of showstoppers comprised of Andrew Lloyd Webber favorites on Oct. 18. The
concert includes songs from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” and “Phantom of the Opera.” “These are top, top people – and they love coming here, because they’ll come up in jeans and a piano player for a very intimate performance you wouldn’t normally see,” says Wodicka, who grew up on Long Island and relocated to Saratoga after the completion of his college years. “A property like the Mansion Inn needs to be used, there are not many like it. In downtown Saratoga Springs there are quite a number of older homes and properties, but they’re not on any land – they’re on postage-stamp size lots and don’t have a lot of space. Here, we can accommodate a lot of people. We’re on acres with a pond and a carriage house and a barn, so we can do all kinds of things,” he says. The atmosphere during the supper theater, he says, is something special. “It’s intimate. You sit around a table with people you’re probably meeting for the first time, you have the dinner conversation back-and-forth, then the show comes on and you know, it’s electric. There is no bad seat. You really get the effect.” Tickets are $75 and include a three-course meal and a 90-minute show. For more information about the 801 Supper Club at the Mansion of Saratoga, go to www. themansionsaratoga.com.
Spring Street Gallery: Catharsis and Concrete, Steel and Skin Opens Saturday SARATOGA SPRINGS — Spring Street Gallery will host an opening of a new dual exhibition – “Catharsis,” featuring Rebecca Zeh, and “Concrete, Steel and Skin,” depicting the work of Matthew Grandy, 6-8 p.m. on Saturday, May 12. The gallery is located at 110 Spring Street and is otherwise open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays. Spring Street Gallery will also host a performance by musician Mike Donovan 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.
Tickets, on a sliding scale, are $5-$10. Donovan is currently touring through the eastern states before heading to Europe. The blurb: “Mike D takes busman’s holiday on keyboards; the shards and trinkles from this brokedown music-box are slivers of aloneness, echoes of weird scenes and falsetto-hued odes all designed to break…” A music video sample of Donovan’s work may be viewed at: www.dragcity. c om / ar t ist s / m i ke - d onov an / videos/cold-shine.