'Inside Llewyn Davis' Film Hosts Sardi's Party and Town Hall Concert

Sardi's is in the heart of Broadway in New York City

By A.D. AMOROSI

Writer/directors Ethan and Joel Coen, along with their producer Joel Silver, took over Manhattan on Sunday for their upcoming film Inside Llewyn Davis. The movie - due out December 2013 - is a caustic love letter to New York City’s pre-Dylan folk music scene of the early 1960s, Sunday’s Inside Llewyn Davis concert at Town Hall found several of the film’s stars (Oscar Isaac, co-stars John Goodman, Carey Mulligan, Adam Driver), soundtrack producer T Bone Burnett, and their friends celebrating its music on stage. A pre-concert party was also a treat: an old fashioned cocktail soiree with Joel Silver holding court at the legendary Sardi’s.

Sardi’s at 234 West 44th Street (between Broadway and Eighth Avenue), is the heart of Manhattan’s Theater District, a brass, dark wood, and red velvet throwback to a time when greats like Katherine Hepburn, Noel Coward, and Helen Hayes ruled the Great White Way. After opening in 1927, Sardi’s second floor became a home to Broadway stars looking for a quick drink between acts, as well as the quintessential post-show hideaway for celebrities, press and hangers-on. Sardi’s walls are a living testament to its celebrity past, with over 1,200 portraits of the bar/restaurant's famed regulars and friends of the house hanging throughout both of its floors. Those faces loomed large during the Inside Llewyn Davis party on Sardi's second floor, as many of the night's revelers admired those walls while sipping martinis.

Sunday wasn’t all about cocktails and partying, though. The night’s main focus was the Inside Llewyn Davis concert at Town Hall around the corner from Sardi’s. The evening, subtitled “Another Day, Another Time,” celebrated the film’s warm folk with star Oscar Isaac singing and playing several of his solo songs from the movie’s soundtrack, as well as participating in an all-star jam during "Please, Mr. Kennedy.” That up-tempo performance featuring Davis stars Isaac and Adam Driver and the song’s producer T Bone Burnett, had a surprise guest, Elvis Costello, subbing for another of the film’s actors, Justin Timberlake. “When you think of Justin, you think of me,” Costello said, before launching into the jaunty song. The rest of the night found the likes of non-film singers Patti Smith, Joan Baez, the Avett Brothers and Lake Street Dive wowing the packed house (including celebrity attendees Frances McDormand and Paul Rudd) with favorites from folk music’s classic catalog.

Photos by ©A.D. Amorosi for Glamorosi Magazine 2013


Posted on Wednesday, October 2, 2013