REVIEWS & ARTICLES

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Queens Irish Center. Courtesy newyorkirishcenter.org
Music
Holli Harms

Irish and Brazilian Samba at the NY Irish Center

The theme of the evening, if there was one, was “Let’s See What Happens.” And what happened at the New York Irish Center was a fusion of Irish and Brazilian Samba that created an earth-shattering beauty that is our essence, our deepest truth. The space was filled with microphones, music stands, chairs and instruments; over there lies an accordion, next to the accordion a banjo and fiddle, over there in front of the piano keyboard were two small tamborims with strikers, in the back on the other side of the room was surdos, and a conglomorate of other drums. The performers were hanging out, not knowing what to expect themselves, relaxed, talking, and chatting as the audience entered the space at the New York Irish Center in Long Island City. It was a relaxed performance, much like improvised performances in Irish pubs. You arrive with your instrument, tune up, and settle in to creating music with strangers who quickly become mates through the magic of music.

Healing Mined, by James Manuel Meneses and presented by Theater Lab. Courtesy healingminedplay.com
Off Broadway
Holli Harms

Healing Mined by Theater Lab

Healing Mined is about loss and grief. Loss of a wife, a mother, a friend.  What the play does is teach us to mine our pain. Going down into the labyrinth of grief, where it is dark, deep, and so all-encompassing that life no longer feels manageable. Sleep is the only way to hide from it. But even in sleep, there are haunting images of a tsunami approaching, crashing over you, and washing you away from existence. The tsunami is the dark deep pain, because like a tsunami, pain looms in the distance and then with little warning, suddenly there it is crashing over you, drowning you, carrying you away, tumbling you in all directions. Meneses’ beautiful, heart-endearing poetic prose is the story of this tsunami pain, the deepest pain humans experience, and how we manage it, or don’t. It is a poetic fable of human resilience and beauty, and the stories we tell ourselves, the realities we create to live by.

The Charlie Mingus Big Band at Birdland Jazz Club. Photo by Holli Harms
Jazz
Holli Harms

Mingus Big Band at Birdland

Charles Mingus, virtuoso bass player and visionary of music whose compositions transcend melody and rhythm with kinetic reimagining and human emotion, was like no other composer. He lived in a time of huge upheaval in this country through the 50s and 60s, and his compositions often addressed his disgust and anger at the total disregard for its citizens.

Celia Berk: For the Record, at 54 Below. Photo by Holli Harms
Cabaret
Holli Harms

Celia Berk: For The Record

Once you hear the music though, the sounds are oh so familiar, the melodies already have a place in your heart, and Celia’s vocal range will take you into the time of the heyday of jazz when life was not fraught with phones, text, emails, instagrams, and all the distractions that keep us from the beauty of the moments of everyday magic.

In the Unlikely Event of an Actual Emergency at the Chain Theatre. Courtesy unlikelyplay.com
Off Broadway
Holli Harms

In the Unlikely Event of an Actual Emergency at the Chain Theatre

Fear stops us from doing our art and from being the whole person we can be, but what if we were faced with an unbelievable life-threatening moment that wakes us up to our true selves? That life-threatening moment comes to life in this remarkable true story about the World Airways Flight 30 accident on January 23, 1982. The plane skidded off the end of the icy runway and into the frigid waters of Boston Harbor.

BOOP! The Musical. Courtesy boopthemusical.com
Broadway
Holli Harms

BOOP! The Musical: A Timeless Broadway Sensation

BOOP! The Musical will enchant, delight, and have you cheering for Betty and her cast of friends, feminists, and doubters. It is the ultimate New York show about the city and the many possibilities it brings to all who choose to venture into and experience every space and backspace she has to offer, creating hand-clapping, heart-grabbing, joyful, poignantly human musical scores that lift us to the top of our skyscrapers and beyond!

Bill T. Jones. Courtesy newyorklivearts.org
Off Broadway
Holli Harms

Bill Chats: Bill T.Jones in Conversation with Judith Butler

Jones and Butler shared the stage for one night only to discuss the insanity they see around them and what must be done. They spoke of a divisiveness that our nation has not only embraced with the vote of 47 but is pushing further and further into all aspects of our daily lives. The discussion touched upon the separation and segregation of the haves and have-nots, pillaging institutions of education, health, home care, elder care, the military, and government departments. This destruction, they warned, will deepen poverty and hardship for all except the billionaire class.

Irish and Brazilian Samba at the NY Irish Center

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