Happy Ending Music & Reading Series
I first met Amanda Stern, the director of the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, last year in Symphony Space’s Bar Thalia. She was looking for a new home for her series, and the literature staff here organized a meeting with me. We immediately hit it off. No doubt about it, she’s a charmer, and I loved the spirit of risk and surprise that animates her series. To me, the unpredictable and unique is what makes live performance, well…alive!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. A word or two about the Happy Ending series itself. The series started in 2003 in a Chinatown “massage parlor”-turned-bar (also named “Happy Ending” and the series’ namesake). Amanda says that she found herself bored by traditional readings, so she wanted to show that writers were just as engaging off the page as on it. She created guidelines for a reading series combining live music, comedy, and risk: readers must do something they’ve never done before onstage, while musicians must play one cover song and try to get the audience to sing along. The first event in September 2003 in that small Chinatown bar starred A.M. Homes, Mary Gaitskill, Nelly Reifler, Dan Zanes, and gave Rick Moody’s band, The Wingdale Community Singers, their first break. The premiere was so crowded, David Byrne couldn’t get in the door! Since then, the show has welcomed over 700 artists including Vampire Weekend, Laurie Anderson, Lena Dunham, Jennifer Egan, and more.
And now Happy Ending series calls Symphony Space its home. Tonight, Amanda shares the stage with legendary singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega as well as authors Samantha Hunt (Mr. Splitfoot), Colson Whitehead (Zone One), and Amanda Filipacchi (The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty), and guest artist Marcellus Hall.
What daring feats will happen in the Sharp theatre this evening? You’ll only know if you come…
