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Performa’s Broadway Benefit Brought Fresh Magic to an Old Format

The vaudeville-inspired evening brought artists like Barbara Kruger, Lonnie Holley, Marcel Dzama and Anne Imhof to the Town Hall stage.

There was a certain New York magic last Wednesday night—an unknown and unexpected thrill in the air. Knicks fans held their breath for Game 4, and a few blocks away, at the Town Hall theater near Times Square, Performa: Live on Broadway—a one-night-only, vaudeville-inspired benefit—brought together 14 acts and more than 50 artists, spanning music, theater, dance, comedy and visual art.

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The not-for-profit behind the evening, Performa, was established in 2004 by art historian and professor RoseLee Goldberg, now the organization’s founding director and chief curator. It commissions artists from around the world—many of them visual artists who’ve never made live works before—to create new performances staged throughout New York City. Its sprawling three-week November biennial has become an art-world fixture and favorite.

Town Hall has its own history of unexpected nights, uncannily relevant. It was built in 1921 by suffragists who designed it with democratic seating (literally coining the term “no bad seats”). On a November night, one of its founders, Margaret Sanger, was arrested onstage for speaking about birth control. Her supporters followed her into the street, singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”

More than a century later, the venue was crowded with anticipation. Notable guests included solange and Tina Knowles, the actress Alia Shawkat and MoMA’s head of performance Lizzie Gorfaine and former New York Times chief art critic Roberta Smith. Artist Laurie Simmons was also in attendance, there to see Music of........

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