Feeling the Night

My mistake was a Greek tragedy.

Let me just point out that I keep track of a lot of events and happenings and rarely do I screw up.

But I do.

Like today when I got the time wrong on a play I wanted to see.

TheaterLab, the upstart theater workshop company that had so impressed me with "Trojans" a few months ago, was doing "The Antigone Project: A Devised Adaptation" at Gallery 5.

And this idiot walked in at intermission instead of, well, the start.

So, instead of the full story of state vs. individual, I got the most heartbreaking parts. The second act.

I saw Creon (guest artist Stephen Ryan doing a phenomenal job) realize the error of his ways but not before Antigone and her beloved kill themselves.

But at least I got the second act and at least I got the talkback.

Talking about the play and its tight three-week -production period artistic director Deejay Gray said, "I love where this piece has gotten over the past three days."

Besides a short production period, they'd lost their first scheduled performance to Sandy's bad weather.

"A third of our run didn't happen," lamented Maggie Roop, who played Antigone with grace and strength. "I'd love to have one more time with this."

I second that.

I say that the missed performance needs to happen so that those of us who screwed up can see all of this "devised" adaptation with its references to fame, families and bad behavior.

It was particularly interesting to see theater performed in G5 because it's not a traditional theater space.

The audience truly became part of the show because we were so close.

Even Maggie concurred. "The artsy fartsy actor part of me thought it was very cool to have such a limited space. The intimacy with the audience helped me get into the role."

I'm always happy to help an actor get into their role.

For my evening's pleasure, we walked over to my favorite basement restaurant in the cold night air for the recently-restarted "Live at Ipanema."

The series had been one of my faves for the entire time it ran and I'd missed it when it stopped.

Happily, it's now started up again.

I arrived in time to chat up friends, have a brownie a la mode and be given a hard time about a past romance by a favorite friend.

Good times all around.

Chris Ryan was tonight's performer and, I won't lie, it took a while for him and bass player Brian Cruse, he of Marionette and other bands, to get set up.

It was 10:30-ish when they began.

But once they did and Ryan began his first song, "Hard Road," the room went completely silent.

I've been to every Live at Ips except the first and I can tell you that is not usually the case.

But there was something very compelling about his voice and songwriting.

A friend who'd heard him online had described it pre-show as "part Randy Newman, part Springsteen" but my companion at the bar nailed it with a comparison to Ray LaMontagne.

After the first song, Ryan acknowledged it. "It's nice to have an attentive audience."

We got only more attentive with his outstanding cover of Neil Young's "Harvest Moon," with its lyrics of longing and love.

But there's a full moon rising
Let's go dancin' in the light
We know where the music's playin'
Let's go out and feel the night

Ryan said how nervous he is performing, although he said he was less so with Brian up there with him.

And Brian's fine, rhythmic help added a lot to the songs, so that sounded like a win-win to me.

His self-penned "Table for Two" had a haunting quality and then he switched from guitar to keyboards for a few songs before returning to guitar with "Day by Day."

Before "Lost in this Moment," was over, I also hard shades of Van Morison.

He warned us that it would be his last song and that he wanted to do some Curtis Mayfield because, "I really like Curtis Mayfield because he always kept it real."

They launched into an instrumental version of "People Get Ready," as fine a choice and as well-executed a last song as the devoted audience could have hoped for.

Live at Ipanema got an awesome kick-off tonight with a very talented local whom many of us were hearing for the first time.

In fact, it had been an exceptional day all around, what with Greek tragedy followed by a voice that commanded silence.

All's well that ends well.