Sunday Supper: Now and Then

Father’s Day is on Sunday, June 21, and thinking of the music of fathers, I couldn’t resist resurrecting a 2013 session with Bobby McFerrin, who had recently released spirityouall, a collection of spirituals dedicated to his father, the Metropolitan Opera baritone Robert McFerrin. 

I had the privilege of sitting down with Bobby, to talk about his father’s influence, his onetime desire to be a monk (!), the power of music as a healing force, and "Don't Worry, Be Happy" as words to live by. For his set, which included "Every Time" and "Joshua," McFerrin was accompanied by a full band of musicians, including the great mandolin player David Mansfield, on three numbers.  Listen to that "Sunday Supper" session in the player above.

In a 2023 interview, the San Francisco-based McFerrin, whose talented children are musicians Madison and Taylor and actor Jevon, revealed that he had Parkinson’s disease, but he has remained active, performing this summer at the The Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California.

Meanwhile, remember the 1999 movie, "Girl, Interrupted" which starred Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, and Elizabeth Moss? It was directed by James Mangold, whose credits include the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown." The screenplay was drawn from Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir. 

Now the Public Theater is presenting an adaptation of Girl, Interrupted through July 12, directed by Jo Bonney, with music by Aimee Mann and a book by Martyna Majok, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright for Cost of Living. The cast includes Mikaela Strauss, better known as King Princess, in her off-Broadway stage debut as "Lisa," sharing the same role as Jolie in the film.

Girl, Interrupted tells the story of a half-dozen teenage girls in the late 1960s, diagnosed with schizophrenia and other mental disorders, who are patients at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. 

Aimee Mann wrote 10 songs for the production — which you can hear on her 2021 album, Queens of the Summer Hotel, including a gripping version of “Suicide is Murder.”  Mann began writing songs for the project in 2018, when she was commissioned for the project. Catch her on tour this summer.