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Lindsey Cherner

By Lindsey Cherner 7/24/12 3:00pm

Broadway Baby

Ripley Sobo at the Broadway Stands Up for Freedom benefit concert. (Andy Kropa/Getty Images)

Broadway Stars “Stand Up for Freedom” at NYCLU Benefit Concert

“And then we were entertained by that little pipsqueak,” concluded a woman as she sipped white wine from a plastic cup amidst a throng of acclaimed Broadway performers.

The Observer was at NYU’s Skirball Center for the 10th Annual New York Civil Liberties Union benefit concert entitled “Broadway Stands Up for Freedom,” and the nearby woman was referring to eight-year-old Ripley Sobo, child star from the Tony award-winning show Once and the talk of the evening.  (Later, when asked whose dress Ms. Sobo was wearing, she answered, “Mine.”)

The crowd, a mixture of Broadway performers, NYCLU activists, and those simply in favor of freedom, donned casual wear including TOMS, summer dresses and, if you were a certain eight-year-old, bedazzled high-top converse. Read More

By Lindsey Cherner 7/19/12 5:00pm

invitation to the dance

TK TK Patricia Ward Kelly TK TK.

Two Evenings of Gene Kelly Lore at Lincoln Center, Hosted by his Archivist and Widow

Patricia Ward Kelly, the widow of legendary performer Gene Kelly, wrote down everything her husband said—and we mean everything.

Mrs. Kelly recalled this prodigious note-taking yesterday in an interview with The Observer. “It was constant: what we were doing, what we were eating, the people we were meeting, what Gene was saying,” she said. “In fact, we were sitting at dinner once and he said, ‘You’re not writing anything down.’ And I told him, ‘I’m eating!’”

Over two nights this week, Friday and Saturday, Mrs. Kelly will give two special multimedia presentations at Lincoln Center about the life and work of her husband, who she calls “more of a creator than a performer,” culled from this rich archival material. Her program is part of the Film Society’s 23-film retrospective entitled “The Invitation to the Dance: Gene Kelly @ 100,” which honors the centenary of Mr. Kelly’s birth and runs through July 26. Read More

By Lindsey Cherner 7/11/12 2:00pm

movie screenings

Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson. (Patrick McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com)

Joshua Jackson Would Do a Dawson’s Creek Reunion If He Were “Out of Work for Enough Years”

At the North American premiere of uniFrance Films’s Farewell, My Queen, aptly held at the Museum of Modern Art, and presented by Peggy Siegal Company on Monday night, Joshua Jackson did his very best to let Diane Kruger, the star of the film and his girlfriend since 2006, have the spotlight. But we couldn’t help but wonder what was next for the Fringe actor. Perhaps a Dawson’s Creek reunion?

“We killed Michelle, so I don’t think that’s ever going to happen,” Mr. Jackson said candidly, referring to the death of cast mate Michelle Williams’s character on the show. Onlookers were crestfallen.

“But I would never say never. If I’m out of work for enough years, absolutely! I would be old, gray, and nasty by the time that would get done though,” he said.

With that important business out of the way, we asked the German-born actress what it was like to play infamous French queen, Marie Antoinette. Read More

By Lindsey Cherner 7/05/12 2:15pm

Friendly Competition

3 Photos

Uncle Sam Wants You to Eat 45 Hot Dogs

At Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, Women’s Champ Sonya Thomas Cheered on Joey Chestnut as He Tied His Personal Best

What happens if he loses?” asked a father with two hot dogs in his left hand and his son gripping his right. The crowd (or at least those that could hear over the incessant chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”) turned to face the apparent newbie to the sport with a look of disdain. The male contestants in yesterday’s 97th Annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition on Coney Island had four and a half minutes left in their ten-minute bout, and this was not the time for ignorant (although seemingly rhetorical) questions from a Fourth of July tourist.

We stood amid a throng of patriotic spectators, food enthusiasts and right next to Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, a tiny woman of 105 pounds who only minutes earlier had won the women’s championship after consuming 45 hot dogs and buns, setting a new women’s world record. Afterward, she told us and everyone else within earshot that she was still hungry. We couldn’t help but remain skeptical.

“Wow, just wow,” the only words Ms. Thomas could utter to The Observer over the cheers for the favored Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, a man ranked first by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Read More

By Lindsey Cherner, Michele Narov, Margaret Nickens, Sarah Sassoon and Jess Schiewe 6/22/12 4:15pm

Music Events

elec guitar

Five Mini-Profiles of the Music Makers of Make Music New York

Yesterday saw over one thousand concerts in the greater New York area, organized under the umbrella of Make Music NY, a rambling participatory music festival that spills over into this weekend. The sheer number of concerts means it’s more than any one news organization could ever hope to cover (and, in fact, interest in MMNY was so great that their website crashed yesterday due to too many visitors), but we did our best. We sent correspondents to four single-instrument “Mass Appeal” events, where musicians of any level could be involved in a group performance. Below the cut, we chat with players of the guitar, drums, bagpipes (complete with a dude in a kilt!) and the ukulele–the event for which was held in Williamsburg, natch. Read More