Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Little Island begins summer performances with Twyla Tharp’s gloriously unruly HOW LONG BLUES

• By drediman
• June 21, 2024
• No Comments

This summer, Little Island is coming alive with robust live performance programming at its wonderfully-designed amphitheater. Starting things off this June was the premiere of the latest evening-length work by iconic American choreographer Twyla Tharp. Entitled How Long Blues, the piece is essentially a dance theater romp that follows the adventures of two well-dressed middle aged men — allegedly based on the philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre (!) — as they find themselves mixed up in a parade of increasingly madcap situations.

The hourlong work is set to a vivid new score by T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield that seamlessly and expertly blends recorded music and live music-making, the latter courtesy of a fabulous jazz band a female vocalist (the sensational Andromeda Turre) perched atop two platforms at the far end of the amphitheater adjacent to the Hudson River. Although there’s a loose narrative that culls from segments of Camus’s 1947 novel The Plague, it’s best to think of How Long Blues purely as an absurd summertime divertissement devoid of plot and designed for pure amusement. If I were to discern some semblance of meaning from the piece, however, I would perhaps point its loose commentary on how quickly things can cascade into absurdity, especially true in this day and age. The gloriously unruly piece also works as a reflection of the ceaseless energy and velocity of New York City itself.

Tharp’s freewheeling fantasia throws the game Laurel and Hardy-like duo of John Selya — a longtime Tharp usual suspect and in his heyday quite the explosive dancer — and chameleonic Tony-winner Michael Cerveris into a dizzying array of farcical scenarios involving larger-than-life puppetry, slamming doors, soccer playing, a spooky demon, flying boulders, and so forth. The hurricane that repeatedly descends upon the two philosophers is embodied by an ensemble of young dancers, who perform Tharp’s quirky and varied choreography with energy and enthusiasm. How Long Blues is at its most effective and thrilling when it’s breathlessly careening into pandemonium, which is the case far more often than it is not.

RECOMMENDED

HOW LONG BLUES
Dance theater
The Amphitheater at Little Island
1 hour (without an intermission)
Through June 23