Austin Pendleton and Barbara Bleier return to downtown’s hideaway, Pangea, in May, with Beautiful Mistake The Songs of John Bucchino and Amanda McBroom. There are three performances scheduled: May 9, 18 and 23 (all at 7pm). Pendleton and Bleier are thrilled to be presenting an evening of story songs by their friends, Bucchino and McBroom, and take the title of their show from an unpublished song by the duo. Paul Greenwood is the Musical Director, and Barbara Maier Gustern directs.
Together, Pendleton and Bleier have made several appearances at Pangea, in critically lauded shows that position them as old friends with a “past.” Beautiful Mistake is “all about the songwriters, who are our friends. We’re singing as us, as real friends singing music we love and admire from our two good friends.” Pendleton and Bleier will perform solos and duets along with stories about the music, the songsmiths, and themselves. The repertoire includes some unpublished work from McBroom and Bucchino, as well as known songs including McBroom and Gordon Hunt’s “Errol Flynn” (an NPR feature pick for “Songs We Love”), and Bucchino’s “If I Ever Say I’m Over You” recorded by Art Garfunkel on Grateful: The Songs of John Bucchino.
Austin Pendleton is an actor, director, playwright and teacher of acting, whose most recent stage appearance was as the King in Lear at The Secret Theatre, a critically lauded run that just ended in early April. Pendleton’s first Broadway appearance was as Motel the Tailor in the original production of Fiddler on the Roof directed by Jerome Robbins and starring Zero Mostel. He has since appeared frequently on, off and off-off Broadway, and can be seen in approximately 200 films. His many TV appearances include roles on “Oz,” “Homicide,” “Law and Order,” and “Billions.” In New York, he has directed Between Riverside and Crazy and four shows at CSC (Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, Ivanov and Hamlet) featuring such players as Peter Sarsgaard (Hamlet), Maggie Gyllenhall and Ethan Hawke. Pendleton is the author of three plays (Orson’s Shadow, Uncle Bob, Booth) ,all produced in New York, and, in the case of Uncle Bob and Orson’s Shadow, internationally. He has most recently directed Luft Gangster for Nylon Fusion Theatre Company & Cloverleaf Collective, A Day at the Beach for the Mint Theatre Company, and A Taste of Honey for the Pearl Theatre. He teaches acting in New York at HB Studio, where he studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. He also studied acting with Robert Lewis.
Barbara Bleier is a singer, actor, and playwright who has appeared on stage, in film, and on TV, as well as in solo shows and revues in national and international cabaret. She played the mother of a psychopathic killer in the cult classic, Swoon, and appeared in the film This is Where I Leave You, with Jane Fonda and Tina Fey, and in They Came Together, with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler. Her solo show, Who’s Your Mama? was selected for production in the NYC Women at Work Festival, and her two-person revues with Austin Pendleton, Late Nights in Smoky Bars (New York, Chicago and Philadelphia) and ‘Tis the Season to Be Morbid, received critical praise in the press. She has studied acting with Austin Pendleton, singing with Barbara Maier, and musical performance with the late Julie Wilson at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center.
Downtown’s intimate supper club Pangea is the ultimate in alt, playing home to some of the best in alt cabaret. The New York Times recently called it “a bohemian oasis not unlike the fabled Max’s Kansas City from days gone by.”
Pangea is located at 178 Second Avenue, near East 11 Street in Greenwich Village. Tickets are $20 in advance online and $25 at the door. For online ticketing, visit http://pangeanyc.com, or call 212.995.0900 for information.
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