Release Date: Mar 17, 2014
An Evening at The Lambs Club
Wednesday, March 26, 10:00 p.m.–12:00 a.m.
132 West 44th Street, New York, NY
Photo courtesy of The Lambs Club
(NEW YORK) — In a nod to Times Square of old, The Lambs Club is the site for the March 26th new cabaret After Hours, the series of ephemeral installations and performances hidden in Times Square’s unique venues. Featuring performances by classically-trained musicians and vocalists in jazz and opera in a speak easy environment—Joseph Keckler, Helga Davis, and Michael Hanf—An Evening at The Lambs Club (132 West 44th Street) will evoke the history of the venue as a legendary place of performance in Times Square.
After Hours, a collaboration between Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, and Clocktower, the legendary alternative art project, brings experiential, multimedia programming to select venues around Times Square. The event is by invitation, sign up at TimesSquareNYC.org/AfterHours. It will be livestreamed on Clocktower.org, Clocktower’s online radio station, audio archive and website.
The Lambs Club, housed in the iconic Stanford White-designed building on 44th Street, originally opened in 1905 as home to the prestigious Lambs, America's first professional theatrical club. Since the club's founding, there have been more than 6,000 Lambs, with an elite roster reading like a who's who of American theater and film: Lionel and John Barrymore, Irving Berlin, Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, John Wayne, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Spencer Tracy, and Fred Astaire, who was famously quoted as stating, "When I was made a Lamb, I felt I had been knighted."
The After Hours event on March 26 reflects the influence of old time cabaret houses, featuring performances by artists whose work crosses between art, performance, and music throughout gallery, theater, and site-specific platforms. Joseph Keckler is a classically-trained operatic bass-baritone whose work fuses music and performance, while vocalist and performance artist Helga Davis mixes rock, jazz, soul, and funk to create her own unique brand of music, and vibraphonist Michael Hanf entrances us with otherworldly sounds. Each artist will perform a unique set during the event, from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
The program is curated by Clocktower in partnership with Times Square Arts. The curatorial committee is Alanna Heiss, Clocktower Director; Joe Ahearn, Clocktower Curator of Performance and Installation; Beatrice Johnson, Managing Director and Associate Curator; and Jim Toth, Curatorial Advisor.
David Rabin, Partner, The Lambs Club, said: “We're so thrilled to collaborate with the Times Square Alliance on this After Hours event. It's a perfect fit for us at The Lambs Club.”
Alanna Heiss, Clocktower Director, said: “Come to An Evening at The Lambs Club on March 26th. You'll come in like a lamb, and out like a lion!”
Sherry Dobbin, Director of Times Square Arts, said: “We redefine cabaret nestled in the sumptuous art deco club where performance art meets sheer vibrato.”
Each After Hours program is included in an artist film, which is released on the Clocktower’s website, Clocktower.org. The live radio stream and broadcast are organized by the Clocktower radio and production team, David Weinstein, Jeannie Hopper, and Willis Arnold.
Guests will also be invited to view the Midnight Moment, the nightly digital art gallery on the electronic billboards of Times Square from 11:57 p.m. to midnight. The March Midnight Moment features Zach Nader’s film optional features shown. Midnight Moment is a monthly presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts.
About After Hours
After Hours is a series of ephemeral installations and performances hidden amongst the Times Square district’s diverse venues, and broadcast live on Clocktower.org. The 2014 series consists of events in February, March, April and July. Taking advantage of the quiet moments before midnight, and a surreal array of different settings nestled throughout the Times Square area, the Times Square Alliance, in partnership with Clocktower, offers tantalizing glimpses of these spaces as creative catalysts. Pairing musicians and artists with each of these unique contexts, the artists create work specifically designed to draw on the neighborhood's history as a social and artistic melting pot. The fleeting nature of these late night experiences highlights the power found in taking the synchronicity and spontaneity of an afterhours encounter beneath the bright lights, and using it to inspire and indicate future audio, video, and performance work. Entry to After Hours is by invitation only. Sign up to receive invitations to upcoming After Hours here: TimesSquareNYC.org/AfterHours. Attendees to each After Hours event receive a limited edition lenticular postcard artwork.
Follow @TSqArts and @ARTonAIR on Twitter, and use #AfterHoursTSq.
PRESS TICKETS: There are a limited number of press tickets available. Please contact Daniela Stigh, Rubenstein Communications, at 212-843-8269 or dstigh@rubenstein.com, if you are interested in attending.
Artists available for interviews.
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Times Square Arts, the public arts program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by ArtPlace America and ArtWorks. Visit www.TimesSquareNYC.org/arts for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @TSqArts.
Clocktower Productions is an art production institution working in the visual arts, performance, music, and radio. Founded in 1972 in Lower Manhattan by Alanna Heiss, Clocktower is the oldest alternative art project in New York. For 40 years, the institution has produced seminal exhibitions and performances by some of the most important artists of our time. After leaving its historic Tribeca tower in December 2013, Clocktower immediately engaged in contracted program partnerships with six cultural institutions in three boroughs. Clocktower produces multidisciplinary art projects all over the city through these creative collaborations with Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Knockdown Center in Queens, Playland Motel & Gallery in Far Rockaway, and Times Square Arts, Neuehouse, and Red Bull Studios in Manhattan. These spaces host Clocktower exhibitions, performances, residencies, radio, and administrative activities. Visit Clocktower.org for more information. Follow @ARTonAIR.
Before becoming The Chatwal New York and The Lambs Club Restaurant and Bar, this iconic Stanford White-designed building was the epicenter of American for the 20th century. The building originally opened in 1905 as home to the prestigious Lambs, America's first professional theatrical club. Organized in 1874 by a group of actors and enthusiasts, The Lambs occupied a series of rented quarters before settling at 44th Street. The American club took their name from a similar group in London, which flourished from 1869-1879, in the name of drama critic and essayist Charles Lamb. The Lambs Club offers Chef Geoffrey Zakarian's modern approach to American cuisine with distinct ingredients, highly seasonal menus and a signature approach to hospitality. Located off of the lobby of The Chatwal Hotel, this luxe but comfortable room serves breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner and seats 80 comfortably among spacious red leather banquets and an oversized 18th Century French fireplace. Executive Chef Eric Haugen, who works closely with Zakarian on menu development, was named Zagat's 30 Under 30 in New York City and noted as one of the "culinary world's major up-and-comers". Head Sommelier Aj Ojeda Pons recently earned The Lambs Club the prestigious Two Glass award from Wine Spectator, noting The Lambs Club as having one of the best wine lists in the United States. As The Lambs Club is one half block from Times Square, the restaurant features both Pre and Post theater menus and Live Jazz every Sunday during brunch.