The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango

(1) Choreographer Mark Morris (left) with fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, (3) rock star David Bowie and (4) singer Joan Osborne all partied to raise funds for the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Dec. 17 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

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Attendees of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 20th Next Wave Festival gala on Dec. 17 were treated to a performance by Mark Morris and his dance group in "The Hard Nut," a wildly imaginative, glorious and gruesome interpretation of the classic holiday ballet, "The Nutcracker."

The dancers performed to Tchaikovsky’s score played live by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, under the baton of Robert Cole, and some angelic harmonizing by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Not seen at BAM since 1993, the work opens with a family hosting a drunken holiday party. Among the family members is daughter Marie (Lauren Grant), her irksome younger brother (June Omura), and hormonally charged older sister (Julie Worden), as well as the cross-dressing maid (Kraig Patterson).

The stage is brimming with the many frolicking friends of Marie’s parents, including Morris himself as a party guest in a hilarious afro, bell bottoms and, at one point, with toilet paper on his shoe. (Morris also danced the role of a heavily shrouded Arabian Princess in Act II, and audience members in the fourth row wondered aloud if the renowned choreographer had given up on underwear.)

Mark Morris Dance Group general director Barry Alterman left his administrative duties behind and played the role of the beleaguered dad.

"Barry trained as an actor," Morris told Chitter Chatter. "And as an umpire, and a florist, and he worked at Haagen Dazs - and he’s a genius! He’s a gifted performer, and that’s why he got the part!"

Lauren Grant and David Leventhal, (Nutcracker and Young Drosselmeier) who perform a magical pas de deux, are a couple off the stage, too.

The outlandish costumes, which drew comic inspiration from 1970s fashions and - in the case of the large dance numbers - possibly even Esther Williams’ glittering underwater dance spectaculars, were designed by Tony Award-winning Martin Pakledinaz ("Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Kiss Me Kate").

When asked his opinion of Pakledinaz’s work, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi said, "The costumes are so fantastic - I won’t sleep for a week knowing that I didn’t do them.

"I’m such an old bitch," he said with a laugh.
Mizrahi will have his day in the sun in March. The star of the documentary "Unzipped" designed the costumes for Morris’ gangster-inspired "Resurrection," which will be one of three New York premieres the Mark Morris Dance Group will present as part of BAM’s spring season, on March 26 and March 29-30.

Gala ticket prices were as high as $2,500 for the performance, which took place in the BAM Opera House and included a sumptuous, post-performance dinner at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The museum’s beaux-arts court was decked out as a winter wonderland replete with enormous snowflakes projected on the walls. Centerpieces were fashioned from tiny glowing lanterns suspended from silvery branches. The gala, catered by Taste, was set to music by DJ Ayres.

Chitter Chatter sat with BAM LDC chairman Harvey Lichtenstein and his family. Lichtenstein came late to the dinner, lingering at the museum’s installation "BAM! BAM! BAM! Catching the Wave for 20 Years," which offered visitors cushioned platforms so they could recline, watch and listen to video highlights of two decades of the Next Wave Festival - most of which Lichtenstein presided over. (The "BAM! BAM! BAM!" tent will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum through Jan. 12.)

The former Majestic Theater was recently renamed the BAM Harvey Lichtenstein Theater in honor of the impresario, who stepped down in 1999 after a 32-year tenure as president and executive producer.

Lichtenstein fondly recalled climbing in the window of the Majestic Theater with Peter Brook in 1987 to see if it could be salvaged and restored to stage "The Mahabharata." (His son John corrected: "He kicked in the window with Peter Brook.")

The gala dinner was also attended by rock star David Bowie and his wife, the model Iman, singer Joan Osborne, performance artist Laurie Anderson, photographer Annie Leibowitz, playwright Susan Sontag, Mabou Mines theater company director Lee Breuer and playwright Charles Mee. Actress Isabella Rossellini made the show but skipped the late-night feast.

Bowie said this was his third Brooklyn visit this year - he performed at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO in October and he came to see the "Victorian Nudes" show at the museum ("I came with some painter friends, so it was enlightening," he said). The rock icon is co-chair, with Iman, of the Next Wave Festival Friends of BAM, but explained he had to skip "The Hard Nut."

"I was working until 8 o’clock on just boring old music," said Bowie.

Kentucky girl Osborne, now a Boerum Hill resident, said she "had a cousin who danced in Baryshnikov’s ’Nutcracker.’"

"[’Hard Nut’] was great to see," she said. "The whole thing was turned on its head - and that sense of humor!"

Borough President Marty Markowitz arrived, wearing an unexplained orange, plastic lei, but wife Jamie Snow Markowitz wore vintage Kenneth J. Lane accessories. City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate Levin made the show and dinner, but Mayor Mike Bloomberg didn’t show up until a performance two days later. Other attendees included Brooklyn Museum of Art Director Arnold Lehman and Brooklyn Philharmonic CEO Catherine Cahill, shimmering in pink sequins.

Proceeds from the evening, nearly $700,000, will benefit BAM. The next BAM gala is April 29, featuring a performance by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in "Cinderella." For tickets, call (718) 636-4182.

©2002 The Brooklyn Paper