Rufus and Martha Wainwright are bringing the family Christmas show home to Manhattan. “Manhattan for the Holidays,” the latest edition of their annual holiday extravaganza, takes over Town Hall on December 6 with Cyndi Lauper, Alice Phoebe Lou, Jenni Muldaur and members of the extended Wainwright family joining the celebration.
And more guests are still to come.
Loudon Wainwright III and Lucy Wainwright Roche are among the family members already confirmed, continuing a holiday tradition that has always treated the family tree as part concert lineup, part reunion.
The evening also has a deeply personal reason for existing.
Net proceeds will benefit Folk Cancer: The Kate McGarrigle Project, created by Rufus and Martha with Cancer Can Rock in memory of their mother, singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle. Funds are administered through the Kate McGarrigle Fund’s fiscal sponsor, the Entertainment Industry Foundation.
McGarrigle died of cancer in 2010.
Her musical legacy has remained intertwined with her children’s work, and the annual holiday shows have become one way the family can celebrate that history while raising money in her name.
This year’s title makes the location part of the fun.
“Manhattan for the Holidays” brings the show to Town Hall, giving Rufus and Martha a hometown setting for an evening that has always mixed Christmas music, family history, unexpected guests and a little Wainwright chaos.
The siblings are leaning into all of it. In announcing the concert, they promised musical presents around the family tree and a night filled with “bells, lights, whistles, tinsel and menorahs.”
The fundraising partnership has been growing too.
Cancer Can Rock executive director Dirk Wooten says the organization has just experienced its biggest year, recording and premiering more artists than ever before, with its partnership with Rufus and Martha driving that expansion.
Music won’t be the only art in the room.
The Murmrr Arts Foundation will use the evening to present its third artist commission, this time featuring photographer and filmmaker Laurie Simmons. Her specially selected work explores home, family and memory through imagery of houses and castles, recurring subjects throughout her career.
For Simmons, those images reach directly into her own New York family history.
Her father was a first-generation American who grew up in Brooklyn, and the family home became tied in her mind to his understanding of achievement and the American dream. Houses, interiors and castles subsequently became recurring images in her work.
Proceeds from the sale of Simmons’ commissioned artwork will also go to Folk Cancer: The Kate McGarrigle Project.
That combination makes “Manhattan for the Holidays” bigger than a conventional seasonal concert. Music, visual art, family memory and fundraising all occupy the same stage, with Town Hall becoming a meeting point for the Wainwright-McGarrigle musical family and the artists around them.
The guest list already makes the night unpredictable.
Cyndi Lauper brings one of pop music’s most distinctive voices, Alice Phoebe Lou adds another generation of adventurous songwriting, and Jenni Muldaur joins a bill anchored by Rufus, Martha, Loudon and Lucy. With additional performers still to be announced, the final lineup isn’t finished yet.
Tickets are available now for the December 6 performance at Town Hall in Manhattan.
For Rufus and Martha Wainwright, though, the reason for gathering remains the same one that has kept the tradition alive: honouring Kate McGarrigle with family, music and a holiday show that can do some good along the way.