Will the annual Bloomsday on Broadway happen this year?
Yes they said yes they will Yes.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have shut down New York’s theaters, but Symphony Space will hold a virtual version of their annual performance celebrating James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses.
Stephen Colbert will kick off the event, in which several celebrities read excerpts from Joyce’s book. Joining the talk show host will be Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Zach Grenier, Brian Cox, and more.
This will be the 39th year Symphony Space has celebrated Bloomsday with a Broadway show. The event is co-sponsored by the Irish Arts Center.
Bloomsday, celebrated on June 16—the day the events in Ulysses take place—is a huge deal in Joyce’s native Dublin but is celebrated the world over. In the U.S., some of the most famous celebrations take place in Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; and Philadelphia, where the handwritten manuscript for Ulysses is housed at the Rosenbach Museum Library.
Colbert is a longtime admirer of Joyce. When he published his 2012 children’s book I Am a Pole (And So Can You!), he arranged to have the manuscript displayed next to the Ulysses manuscript at the Rosenbach.
And in March, he recalled how Joyce’s masterpiece landed him in trouble during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at the Ireland House. “There was a stage up there with a traditional band playing and they had a football game on,” Colbert said. “I went upstage and I said, ‘Who wants to celebrate Irish culture!’And I took out a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses.There was a riot, I had to be hustled out by security.”
Bloomsday on Broadway will be available to watch on Symphony Space’s YouTube channel.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
