A Listening Party with Michael Imperioli and ZOPA; Harlem Walking Tour; 'Liberation' off-Broadway; Orin O'Brien, 'The Only Girl in the Orchestra'
When actor Michael Imperioli isn't starring in shows like "The White Lotus," he's playing with his rock band Zopa, who put out a new album on Friday, Diamond Vehicle. Imperioli joins us with bandmates Olmo Tighe and Elijah Amitin for a Listening Party.
As part of our series on Harlem for Black History Month, we learn about venues and places of historical significance from Carolyn Johnson, founder of Welcome to Harlem, which hosts walking tours of the neighborhood. Johnson also created the Monopoly spinoff board game, Harlem-Opoly, featuring historical sites and figures of the Renaissance era.
The latest production from playwright Bess Wohl blends the present and the past to examine the Women's Lib movement in the 1970s. "Liberation" stars Susannah Flood as Lizzie, a woman who, to better understand her mother's past, embodies her mother to witness how she started a consciousness raising group with other women in her Ohio community. One of those women is Celeste, played by Kristolyn Lloyd, a Radcliffe-educated student who has her own thoughts on what it means to achieve liberation. Wohl, Flood, and Lloyd discuss the show, running now at the Laura Pels Theatre through March 30.
The documentary, "The Only Girl in the Orchestra," is nominated for an Academy Award this year for Documentary Short Film. It tells the story of double bassist Orin O'Brien, the first female musician hired to play in the New York Philharmonic. O’Brien retired from the Philharmonic in 2021, after she was first hired by conductor Leonard Bernstein in 1966. Director Molly O'Brien (who is Orin's niece), discusses her aunt's story and the short film, streaming now on Netflix.
