Arts & Entertainment
Baltimore arts preview: John Waters, Tina Turner, and more
Busy season in Charm City with ‘Hamilton,’ Randy Rainbow among standouts
What sort of art does gay writer and filmmaker John Waters collect? Does it reflect his subversive sense of humor and empathy for outsiders? How did he get to be such a savvy art collector?
Fans will get some answers from “Coming Attractions: The John Waters Collection,” an exhibit opening Nov. 20 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. It’s one of many shows and exhibits coming to Baltimore this fall, including the national touring productions of “Hamilton,” “Jagged Little Pill” and “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” and appearances by Randy Rainbow, Trixie Mattel, Chelsea Handler and others.
“Coming Attractions” will feature about 90 works of art selected from 372 works that Waters, a BMA trustee, plans to leave to the museum upon his death. When his donation was announced in 2020, representatives promised the museum would have a preview of what’s to come while Waters was still alive, and this show is it.
Although Waters’s donation to the museum includes works by himself and others, “Coming Attractions” will focus on art he has collected and displayed at his homes in Baltimore, New York City, and San Francisco.
The guest curators are photographer Catherine Opie and artist Jack Pierson, both of whom have been friends with Waters for years and are represented in his collection. The exhibit is organized by Leila Grothe, the museum’s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art.
Among the featured works are paintings, sculptures, photographs, and prints by Diane Arbus; Nan Goldin; Mike Kelley; Richard Prince; Cindy Sherman; Gary Simmons; Cy Twombly; Andy Warhol; Christopher Wool and others.
Part of the exhibit is a grouping of works that represent Waters’s relationships with people in the art and film worlds, such as Brigid Berlin; Colin de Land; Cookie Mueller and Warhol. There’s also the first work of art by a non-human that the BMA has ever agreed to display (or add to its collection) – a painting by Betsy the Chimpanzee, who lived and painted at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore in the 1950s.
“We have both known John Waters for years as an auteur filmmaker, a writer, an artist, an art collector, and a friend. We are honored to have the opportunity to curate a presentation of his collection, which so richly reflects his personality and imagination,” Opie and Pierson, who both identify as queer, said in a statement.
“Our hope is to share with audiences another aspect of John’s creative vision by offering a glimpse into what he values: artists who are unafraid to take risks, who do not compromise, and who create their art on the margins.”
Waters’s last major show at the BMA was “John Waters: Indecent Exposure,” a retrospective of his own work as a visual artist, which ran from Oct. 7, 2018 to Jan. 6, 2019. “Coming Attractions” will be on view until April 16, 2023.
Other major shows opening this fall at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, include:
“Darrell Ellis: Regeneration,” from Nov. 20, 2022 to April 23, 2023. This is the first comprehensive museum exhibition devoted to the work of a multi-faceted artist who died of AIDS-related causes in 1992 at the age of 33. The show is co-organized with The Bronx Museum of the Arts.
“A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration,” from Oct. 30, 2022 to Jan. 23, 2023. For this exhibition about Black Americans moving from the South to other parts of the United States starting around 1900 and continuing into the 1970s, the BMA and the Mississippi Museum of Art co-commissioned 12 artists to create works that examine the impact of the Great Migration on the social and cultural life in the United States. Participating artists include: Akea Brionne; Mark Bradford; Zoe Charlton; Larry W. Cook; Torkwase Dyson; Theaster Gates Jr.; Allison Janae Hamilton; Leslie Hewitt; Steffani Jemison; Robert Pruitt; James Richmond Edwards and Carrie Mae Weems.
“Baltimore, Addressed: Baker Artist Awards,” from Nov. 13, 2022 to March 12, 2023. Five past winners of the coveted Baker Artist Award — Laura Amussen; David Page; Ernest Shaw; Susan Waters-Eller and Pamela Woolford — respond to “the past, present and imagined future of the city.”
“Omar Ba: Political Animals,” from Nov. 20, 2022 to April 2, 2023. This is the first U.S. museum exhibition of the work of painter Omar Ba, a leading contemporary African artist.
“Stanley Whitney: Dance with Me Henri,” from Nov. 20, 2022 to April 23, 2023. Works on paper by a Philadelphia-born artist whose compositions and use of color and light have strong parallels to the work of Henri Matisse.
More visual arts events:
American Visionary Art Museum: The next “mega exhibit” at the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway, is “ABUNDANCE: Too Much, Too Little, Just Right (Championing good, honest work from the hand and the heart),” from Oct. 8, 2022 to Sept. 2023. The curator is AVAM curatorial and development curator Gage Branda. It’s the first major exhibit at AVAM under new director Jenenne Whitfield, who this month succeeded founding director Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, who retired in April.
Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles St. After cancelling its fall gala last year, the Walters has scheduled its 2022 celebration and fundraiser, An Evening at the Walters, for Oct. 15 from 6 p.m. to midnight. More information about that event and others is on the museum’s website, thewalters.org. Its current blockbuster, “Activating the Renaissance,” opened in April and continues until February 26, 2023.
The Peale, 225 Holliday St. After a five-year, $5.5 million renovation, Baltimore’s historic Peale Museum reopened in August as The Peale, Baltimore’s Community Museum. Inaugural exhibits include “Spark: New Light,” a collaboration between Towson University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, featuring the work of more than 20 faculty members and MFA student artists celebrating the building’s reopening with “illuminated and illuminating works of art, until Sept. 25, and Peale Faces, until Aug. 13, 2023, featuring artist and “participatory history specialist” Lauren Muney’s hand-cut silhouette portraits of city residents. More information about Peale events is at ThePealeCenter.org.
Maryland Center for History and Culture: 610 Park Ave. On Nov. 5, the Mount Vernon history center will open “Claire/McCardell,” a yearlong exhibit about Claire McCardell, an influential designer of women’s clothing from the 1930s to the 1950s and beyond. More information about the history center and its collections is on its website, mdhistory.org.
Performing arts events:
Hippodrome Theatre, 12 S. Eutaw St.: Fall shows include Hamilton, October 11 to 30; State Ballet of Ukraine – Swan Lake, November 5; Randy Rainbow: The Pink Glasses Tour, November 11; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, November 15 to 20; Nutcracker! Magic of Christmas Ballet, December 7 and 8; Paw Patrol Live! The Great Pirate Adventure, December 10 and 11; Little Jagged Pill, December 13 to 18.
Lyric Baltimore, 140 West Mount Royal Avenue: CoComelon Live!, September 16; Trixie and Katya Live, featuring drag stars Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, September 19; Michael Blackson and Jess Hilarious, September 24; The Price is Right Live, October 7; Baltimore Soul Jam; October 15; Disney Junior Live on Tour, October 21; and Whose Live Anyway?, featuring Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis and Joel Murray, October 29.
Also Joe Gatto Night of Comedy, November 4; Taylor Tomlinson, The Have It All Tour, November 5; New Jack City Live On Stage, November 6; Spy Ninjas Live, November 18; Alton Brown Live: Beyond the Eats – the Holiday Variant, November 19; Disney Princess Concert, November 25; Cameo Featuring the Rolex Band, November 26; Steve-O (from Jackass) The Bucket List Tour, November 30; Steven Crowder and Dave Landau’s Rebel with a Cause Tour, December 3; Mannheim Steamroller Christmas by Chip Davis, December 4, Chelsea Handler, December 15; Eddie B. Teachers Only Comedy Tour, December 16.
Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Avenue: On October 6, drag performer Betty O’Hellno and friends will host two singalong presentations of a 1975 cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Costumes are encouraged. The following two nights, October 7 and 8, Creative Alliance will present “Chocolate Covered Rocky Horror,” a musical performance that promises to take the Rocky Horror experience to “a whole different dimension.” A full calendar of events, including Sidewalk Serenades, Dr. Sketchy’s classes in “life drawing with a twist,” and the popular Art to Dine For series, is at creativealliance.org.
Baltimore Center Stage, 700 North Calvert Street: Our Town, September 15 to October 9; Kulu Mele African Dance and Drum Ensemble and the Osagyefo Dance Company, September 17; Baltimore Butterfly Sessions, September 19, November 7 and December 5; BCS Sound Check with Michelle J. Rodriquez in Concert, October 21; Ain’t No Mo’ (in association with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company), October 27 to November 20; The Rocky Horror Picture Show, featuring EarlOrrin Productions’ Chocolate Covered Rocky Horror, in partnership with Creative Alliance, October 28 and 29; and BCS Sound Check with Eze Jackson in Concert, November 18.
Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette Street: Dinner and Cake, September 6 to October 2; The Lion in Winter, October 18 to November 13; Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, December 6 to January 1, 2023.
Doors Open Baltimore: A popular annual program that allows participants to tour places that aren’t usually open to the public returns on October 1 and 2, with more than 40 sites open this year. Examples include the Arabber Preservation Society; the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower; Chesapeake Shakespeare Theater; the H. L. Mencken House and Humanim at American Brewery. The complete list is at doorsopenbaltimore.org.
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: One highlight of the BSO’s fall series is a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore on September 16, 1982. To mark the occasion, the BSO has planned a 40th Anniversary Season Opening Celebration for September 17, with Jack Everly as conductor and Ledisi as vocalist. More information about the symphony’s fall schedule is on its website at bsomusic.org.
Baltimore Soundstage, 124 Market Place: Madonna Gaga Britney Dance Party!, September 16; Shrek Rave, September 17; Old 97’s with Vandoliers, September 18; Pusha T, September 20; Wednesday 13, Bag of Humans, Space Lumberjacks, September 22; Dead Like Disco with Brothers Clair, September 23; Maddie & Tae with Sacha and Abbey Cone, September 24; The Get Up Kids, September 27; Nine Inch Naans Tour with Bloodywood, A Killer’s Confession and Iris Divine, September 29; and Japanese Breakfast, September 30.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The umbrella LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C. held its annual Night of Champions Gala at the Georgetown Marriott on Saturday, April 18. Team D.C. presented scholarships to local student athletes and presented awards to Adam Peck, Manuel Montelongo (a.k.a. Mari Con Carne), Dr. Sara Varghai, Dan Martin and the Centaur Motorcycle Club. Sean Bartel was posthumously honored with the Most Valuable Person Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Television
‘Big Mistakes’ an uneven – but worthy – comedic showcase
In the years since “Schitt’s Creek” wrapped up its six season Emmy-winning run, nostalgia for it has grown deep – especially since the still painfully recent loss of its iconic leading lady, Catherine O’Hara, whose sudden passing prompted a social media wave of clips and tributes featuring her fan-favorite performance as the deliciously daft Moira Rose. Revisiting so many favorite scenes and funny moments from the show naturally reminded us of just how much we loved it, even needed it during the time it was on the air; it also reminded us of how much we miss it, and how much it feels now like something we need more than ever.
That, perhaps more than anything else, is why the arrival of “Big Mistakes” – the new Netflix series starring, co-created and co-written by Dan Levy – felt so welcome. We knew it wouldn’t be the Roses, but it seemed cut from the same cloth, and it had David Rose (or at least someone who seemed a lot like him) in the middle of a comically dysfunctional family dynamic, complete with a mother who gets involved in town politics and a catty sibling rivalry with his sister, and still nebbish-ly uncomfortable in his own gay shoes. Only this time, instead of running a charmingly pretentious boutique, he’s the pastor of the local church, and instead of a collection of kooky small town neighbors to contend with, there are gangsters.
As it turns out, it really does feel cut from the same cloth, but the design is distinctly different. Set in a fictional New Jersey suburb, it centers on Nicky (Levy) and his sister Morgan (Taylor Ortega) – he openly gay with an adoring boyfriend (Jacob Gutierrez), yet still obsessive about keeping it all invisible to his congregation, and she drudging aimlessly through life as an underpaid schoolteacher after failing to achieve her New York dreams of show biz success – who inadvertently become enmeshed in a shady underworld when a gesture for their dead grandmother’s funeral goes horribly awry.
They’re surrounded by a crew of equally compromised characters. There’s their mother Linda (Laurie Metcalf), whose campaign to become the town’s mayor only intensifies her tendency to micromanage her children’s lives; Yusuf (Boran Kuzum), the Turkish-American mini-mart operator who pulls them into the criminal conspiracy yet is himself a victim of it; Max (Jack Innanen), Morgan’s live-in boyfriend, who pushes her for a deeper commitment and is willing to go to couples’ therapy to prove it; Annette, his mother (Elizabeth Perkins), who lends her society standing toward helping Linda’s campaign against a misogynistic opponent (Darren Goldstein); and Ivan (Mark Ivanir), the seemingly ruthless crime boss who enslaves the siblings into his network but may really be just another slave himself. It’s a well-fleshed out assortment of characters that helps our own loyalties shift and adapt, generating at least a degree of empathy – if not always sympathy – that keeps everyone from coming off as a merely “black-and-white” caricature of expectations and typecasting.
To be sure, it’s an entertaining binge-watch, full of distinctive characters – all inhabiting familiar, even stereotypical roles in the narrative – who are each given a degree of validation, both in writing and performance, as the show unspools its narrative. At the same time, it makes for a fairly bleak overall view of humanity, in which it’s difficult to place our loyalties with anyone without also embracing a kind of “dog eat dog” morality in which nobody is truly innocent – but nobody is completely to blame for their sins, anyway.
In this way, it’s a show that lets us off the hook in the sense that it places the idea of ethical guilt within a framework of relative evils, as it permits us to forgive our own trespasses by accepting its “lovably” amoral characters, each of whom has their own reasons and justifications for what they do. We relate, but we can’t quite shake the notion that, if all these people hadn’t been so caught up in their own personal dramas, none of them would have ended up in the compromised morality that they’re in.
However, it’s not some bleak morality play that Levy and crew undertake; rather, it’s more an egalitarian fantasy in which even “bad” choices feel justified by inevitability. Everybody’s motivations make enough sense to us that it’s hard to judge any of the characters for making the choices – however unwise – that they do. In a system where everyone is forced to compromise themselves in order to achieve whatever dream of self-fulfillment they may have, how can anybody really blame themselves for doing what they have to do to survive?
Of course, all things considered, this is more a relatable comedy than it is a morality play. As a comedy of errors, it all works well enough on its own without imposing an ideology on it, no matter how much we may be tempted to do so. Indeed, what is ultimately more to the point is how well this pseudo-cynical exercise in the normalization of corruption – for that is what it really about, in the end – succeeds in letting us all off the hook for our compromises.
In the end, of course, maybe all that analysis is too deep a dive for a show that feels, in the end, like it’s meant to be mostly for fun. Indeed, despite its focus on being dragged into the shady side of life, the arc of its messaging seems to be less about a moralistic urge toward making the “right” choice than it is a candid recognition that all of us are compromised from the outset, often by choices we only force upon ourselves, and that’s a refreshing enough bit of honesty that we can easily get on board.
It helps that the performances are on point, especially the loony and wide-eyed fanaticism of Metcalf – surely the MVP of any project in which she is involved – and the directly focused moral malleability of Ortega; Levy, of course, is Levy – a now-familiar persona that can exist within any milieu without further justification than its own queer relatability – and, in this case, at least, that’s both the icing on the cake and substance that defines it. That’s enough to make it an essential view for fans, queer or otherwise, of his distinctive “brand,” even if he – or the show itself – doesn’t quite satisfy in the way that “Schitt’s Creek” was able to do.
Seriously, though, how could it?
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