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Archive for the ‘Berlind Theatre’ Category

Yasmin Williams with The Dream Quartet (Berlind Theater, Princeton, NJ, March 12, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, The Dream Quartet, Yasmin Williams on March 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 12, 2026] Yasmin Williams

I saw Yasmin Williams open for Michael Kiwanuka.  But she started early and I missed all but her last song.  It was wild fingerpicked guitar (she lays the guitar on her lap and has a kalimba at the end of it as well.  So much fun to watch.

I was psyched that she announced a show at McCarter and I snatched up two tickets.  But my son came home from college that night and we decided to stay in and celebrate his homecoming instead.

When I saw her she was solo.  For this show, she played with The Dream Quartet who I had never heard of.  Their bio says

The New York City based Dream String Quartet quartet is made up of founding members Malachi Brown, Dwayne Beach, Elizabeth Hendy, and Maggy Simon. The quartet was built on desire to invent, curiosity to experiment, and passion to collaborate. True to our name, we are dreamers at heart, dedicated to sharing our music and art with the world. The quartet takes pride in incorporating singing and movement into its performances and creations, bringing a dynamic and multidimensional energy to the stage. The four members thrive on improvisation.

I was looking forward to seeing her solo although I’m sure the Dream Quartet would have only added lovely components to her songs.

 

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DakhaBrakha (Berlind Theater, Princeton, NJ, March 7, 2026)

Posted in Berlind Theatre, DakhaBrakha, Princeton, NJ, Ukraine on March 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 7, 2026] DakhaBrakha

Four years ago I saw DakhaBrakha and was blown away.  It was a very emotional time as Russia had just invaded Ukraine–support and anger were very high.  The music was beautiful and powerful and the messages of hope and resistance were very strong.  Their home base is in Kyiv and they have first hand experience with the tragedy.

It is simply unbelievable that four years later, the war is still going on.  And now with our new regime and Putin’s puppet in place, Ukraine is in even worse straights (although the EU does seem to be helping).

After seeing them, I wanted my wife to experience them as well.  I’m sad it took four years to see them again, but I’m glad they can still tour the U.S.  I asked the rest of my family if they wanted to experience this as well (and bravo to them all for saying yes with the very vague descriptions I gave).  My daughter couldn’t go because if a last minute commitment, but my wife and my son really enjoyed it.

The band is a quartet: Marko Halanevych.  He plays more than this but for tonight he did: vocals, goblet drum, harmonica, accordion guitar and certainly other things.

Then there was Olena Tsybulska, vocals and drums.  She had a small kit but a huge sound.  Next to her was Iryna Kovalenko who played everything.  She sang and played mostly keyboards, but also drums, djembe, flute, buhay, piano, ukulele, zgaleyka, and a tiny accordion.  And last but not least, Nina Garenetska sang and played cello.  The cello was the one major constant through the songs–she made bass lines, rhythms and even cool effects through pedals.

Each woman’s voice was amazing–powerful and resonant.  And when the women sang together, wow.  It was mesmerizing.  Marko sings lead on many songs.  He has a falsetto and also a deeper vocal style.  He played accordion for many of the songs.

They sing almost entirely in Ukrainian.  Marko speaks English between songs (and the women chimed in from time to time).  And there were two songs in English, the light-hearted “I’ve Boarded the Wrong Plane” [“Ye Siv Ne v Toy Litak”] and the kind of silly Baby. (more…)

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Kim’s Convenience (Berlind Theatre, McCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ, February 12, 2026)

Posted in Berlind Theatre, Canadian Content, Funny (ha ha), Ins Choi, Kim's Convenience, Princeton, NJ on February 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 12, 2026] Kim’s Convenience

My wife and I really enjoyed Kim’s Convenience when it aired.  My mother-in-law enjoyed it and then recently, my son watched it on his own.

When this performance–the play that started it all, performed by the writer–was announced at McCarter, I grabbed my wife and I tickets ASAP.  Then when my son found out about it he wanted to go as well.  He couldn’t go the night we had tickets, but I was able to exchange our tickets for another night and get an extra one for my son.  I haven’t been to the Berlind Theater for a long time and I forgot how tiny it is.  So even though our seats were near the back, they were still really close.

McCarter had a lot of fun with this production, setting up a Canadian/Korean market in the lobby with Canadian flags and sweaters and lots of posters. They sold Korean goods (from the local Woori Mart) and may have even brought it some Canadian favorites (some drinks and ketchup flavored potato chips). (more…)

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Avi Avital (Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, March 13, 2016)

Posted in Avi Avital, Béla Bartók, Berlind Theatre, Ernest Bloch, Fritz Kresiler, Funny (ha ha), Heitor Villa-Lobos, Itamar Doari, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ksenija Sidorova, Manuel de Falla, Nikolai Budaskhin, Princeton, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sulkhan Tsintsade on March 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 13, 2016] Avi Avital

aviA few months ago I wrote about Avi Avtal’s Tiny Desk concert.  I had never heard of him, but his mandolin playing was amazing.  And then about three days later I saw that he was going to be playing in Princeton.  Well, I immediately got tickets.

And today we saw him and he was even more amazing in person.

In the Tiny Desk show, he played solo.  But in this show (and tour) he played with two people accompanying him: Ksenija Sidorova on accordion and Itamar Doari on percussion.

The only complaint I had about the show was that there was no progamme, so I had to look up everything online to know what we had just seen.  Fortunately I was able to find a setlist, because I never would have remembered what he told us.

Anyhow, in this show, titled Between Worlds Avital and company explore the borders between folk and classical music.  What that means is that they play music from classical composers, but also some very traditional folks songs from around the world.

Mandolin doesn’t seem like the instrument of choice for classical music, but Avital, who has been playing since he was little is amazing at the instrument–playing incredibly fast and clear and managing all of those Bach notes like nobody’s business. (more…)

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Zoyka’s Apartment (Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, November 19, 2015)

Posted in Beer, Berlind Theatre, Boris A. Morozov, Bronson Pinchot, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gender, Play (Drama), Princeton, NJ, Revenge, Russia, Sex, Sexism, Surreal, Unfinished, Zoyka's Apartment on November 20, 2015| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 19, 2015] Zoyka’s Apartment

zoykaI was offered free tickets to this show.  I read a brief review, saw the word “farce” and decided it would be fun to go to it.

This play was written by Mikhail Bulgakov, an author I’ve heard of but know little about.  Turns out that all of his plays were banned by the Soviet government.  Including this one, even though it was not an anti-Soviet play.  After the banishment, he wrote to Stalin requesting permission to emigrate, but was denied.

As this play opens, there is a lectern at which an announcer reads a 1990 review of the play by Frank Rich in the New York Times (which you can read here).  Perhaps the most fascinating thing that I heard from the review was this:

Boris A. Morozov’s production of Mikhail Bulgakov’s ”Zoya’s Apartment” at the Circle in the Square. Mr. Morozov is resident director of the Maly Theater in Moscow. His New York cast is headed by such actors as Bronson Pinchot.

Since Pinchot is my new favorite audio book reader, I immediately paid attention. (more…)

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Black 47 (Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, April 4, 2014)

Posted in Beer, Berlind Theatre, Black 47, Funny (ha ha), Irish Writer, Princeton, NJ, Set in New Jersey! on April 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 4, 2014] Black 47

b47logo I was a fan of Black 47 when they first came out (even though my Irish friends dismissed them out of hand.  What with the “Bridie!” and the “Fiddlee diddlee deidely dee!” and, yeah, Larry Kirwan’s voice, they were just too much for actual Irishmen.  But Irish-Americans loved them.  And now 25 years after they burst onto the scene with “Funky Cieli,” they are calling it quits.

As far as I can tell Kirwan is the only original member left in the band (I’m not inclined to do the research on that).  Actually, I didn’t even realize they were still together.  But they have been releasing albums over the years–some of which have been lauded and other not so much.  (Kirwan has also published some books and is a host on Sirius FM).  They have a brand new going-away album called Last Call, and if the live versions of the songs were any indication, they sound quite good.  And Kirwan is just as political as ever: “If you’re Irish you have to be political.”

I actually saw Black 47 back in, oh, 1993.  I remembered the show, but had misremembered the venue.  It wasn’t a concert, it was a small club in Allston, Mass.  I don’t seem to have any photos.  The bar was packed, I could barely see the band, and I’m not even sure if the people there were there to see the band.  I don’t even know if there was a cover charge.  So it only seems fitting that this concert, one of their last on their farewell tour, should also be free.  As part of the Princeton University’s Fund for Irish Studies, the band played a free 90 minute set in the tiny Berlind Theater.

I have seen a few theater shows there, so I was a little surprised that the sound wasn’t great (well, mostly Kirwan’s lyrics were hard to understand, but that may be a common problem for him), but my seat was great–a few rows back in dead center. (more…)

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Much Ado About Nothing (Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, November 14, 2013)

Posted in Beer, Berlind Theatre, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gender, Joss Whedon, Kanye West, Much Ado About Nothing, Play (Drama), Princeton, NJ, Revenge, Sex, Sexism, William Shakespeare on November 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 14, 2013] Much Ado About Nothing

much adoDespite all of my reading, I am fairly ignorant of Shakespeare. I’ve read or seen most of the big ones, but I don’t know a lot of his works first hand.  As a young reader I realized that reading Shakespeare was hard—as, really, any play with dozens of characters tends to be.  It’s not easy to keep character straight when there are no descriptors about them.  So I more or less gave up on reading Shakespeare and decided I would watch him when I could.

When the Princeton University theater offered us tickets to see Much Ado About Nothing, it seemed a great opportunity to brush up.

This was a student production, and I have to complement all of the students on their wonderful performances.  They never broke characters, and their Shakespearean dialogue was flawless (as far as I know).  What I found interesting was that it took about fifteen minutes before I was absorbed in the dialogue and understood, well, about 45% of it.  Well, maybe 60%.  They did speak a little fast sometimes.

What was incredibly helpful about the dialogue was…the actors.  Duh.  But really, the language comes to life when you see people actually performing the lines (making Shakespeare’s bawdy jokes that much more bawdy).  And while some of the performances seemed almost over the top, I have little doubt that that is how it was performed back in the day—why would they go for subtle when there’s jokes about sex? (more…)

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Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, October 3, 2012)

Posted in Anton Chekhov, Berlind Theatre, Christopher Durang, David Hyde Pierce, Funny (ha ha), Play (Drama), Princeton, NJ, Sex, Sigourney Weaver, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike on October 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 3, 2012] Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Berlind Theater is on the back side of the McCarter Theater on Princeton University’s campus.  I’ve seen a number of shows at McCarter, but none at Berlind.  Berlind proved to be an even smaller and more intimate venue than the gorgeous McCarter.

What better place to see Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce in starring roles?  Especially when I managed to get $20 seats that were in row K.  That’s right, Row K, as in 11 rows from the stage.  All for $20 and free parking…suck it, Broadway!

Sorry, that was very unclassy.  Let me start again.

Christopher Durang wrote the play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as a kind of loving nod to Chekov’s Uncle Vanya.  The booklet that came with the play is very funny in which Durang interviews himself and gets most of the details wrong (he keeps calling it a parody of Uncle Vanya, which he explicitly states it is not).

The play is set in Bucks County, PA (just a hop skip and a jump from Princeton).  David Hyde Pierce played Vanya, an older man who lives with his sister Sonia.  Sonia, who is played by Kristine Nielsen, was adopted as a little girl.  Their parents loved Chekov and named them after the characters in Uncle Vanya.  And when thy became infirm, Vanya and Sonia stayed in their childhood home to take care of their ailing parents.  Now Vanya and Sonia are much older, unemployed and curmudgeonly.  She and Vanya have a hostile, co-dependent relationship.   (more…)

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