CALIGULA MAXIMUS Spotlight:Luqman Brown’s Mackie Riverside & the Street Pushers and Burnt Sugar Play at Funk You Party on April 24th @ Kenny’s Castaways

Get your Funk on at Luqman Brown’s BUDDHABUG RECORDS monthly dance party, FUNK-YOU on April 24, when his band MACKIE RIVERSIDE & THE STREET PUSHERS, will play with jazz arkestra BURNT SUGAR at KENNY’S CASTAWAYS, 157 Bleeker St. in New York.Tickets and info at www.mackieriverside.com.

As the Peanut Vendor Sulla in Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner’s Off-Broadway production of CALIGULA MAXIMUS, Luqman Brown is the first and the last character you see and hear. In the preshow, he is selling his wares, and during the course of the play which takes place on the last night of the infamous dictator’s life, he foretells Caligula’s demise. CALIGULA MAXIMUS is an outrageous theatrical extravaganza, combining elements of a circus, a play with music, and a nightclub installation, co-written by Alfred Preisser (ARCHBISHOP SUPREME TARTUFFE) and Randy Weiner (THE DONKEY SHOW), which recently ended it’s twice extended run at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre on April 17.

Luqman Brown hawks his peanuts as Sulla, the Peanut Vendor, in Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner's CALIGULA MAXIMUS. Photo by Lia Chang

Ryan Knowles starred as Caligula, adult film star and Penthouse Pet Justine Joli as his wife Caesonia, Lady Circus troupe aerialist Anya Sapozhnikova as his sister Drusilla and JerZ Short as circus master Helicon. The show featured award-winning competitive bodybuilders Myra Adams and Roxanne Edwards, Coney Island Sideshow tattooed muscleman Tim DAX and an outrageous collection of over two-dozen circus performers, wrestlers, showgirls and freaks.

A commercial run of Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner’s CALIGULA MAXIMUS is in the works, and will be produced by Stephen Pevner, Hammerstein & Weiner, LLC, Christopher McElroen, Alfred Preisser and Kingsize, USA. Stayed tuned to www.caligulamaximus.com.

(l-r)Ryan Knowles, JerZ Short, Luqman Brown and the cast of Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner’s CALIGULA MAXIMUS. Photo by Lia Chang

The talented composer, musician and performer is a graduate of the rock and roll streets of New York City. This hard-won education led to the founding of such seminal bands as FunkFace, Dope Sagittarius, and MACKIE RIVERSIDE & THE STREET PUSHERS. Between these and other entertaining endeavors, he has toured the US and the world since he was 17, recently showcasing Dope Sagittarius at the FIFA European football championships in Austria. Theatrical projects in the works include taking the mantle of musical director in SummerStage’s upcoming 25th Anniversary celebration production of “Etymology of a Bird”; followed by a first time father/son collaboration – he’ll team up with his father Carlyle Brown (writer of Little Tommy Parker’s Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show , and Pure Confidence), performing in his one-man show The King of 8th Street, which Carlyle will direct.

Justine Joli and Luqman Brown at the curtain call for Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner's CALIGULA MAXIMUS. Photo by Lia Chang

“Working on CALIGULA MAXIMUS was a great opportunity to stretch into theater as an actor, which is a new venture for me,” mused Brown. “As a musician/performer, it was an amazing experience to see the different approach to a live collaborative effort that exists in theater. The translation from word to action guided by the interpretation of the director’s thought, and how the actor takes that thought and makes it real. It has broadened my thoughts on live musical performance where there are many similarities. A great friendship and bond was created with the cast. Such a varied and wonderfully talented bunch of folks. I’ve enjoyed the other forms of art and personality that are represented in the cast as well as the play. I’ve learned a lot from these people. I also learned that people will purchase anything, if it cost only one dollar. All in all its been an amazing time as Sulla the Peanut Vendor.”

CALIGULA MAXIMUS director and co-playwright Alfred Preisser, Living Colour lead vocalist Corey Glover, Kareem Clarke, Luqman Brown and Yvonne Glover on the set of CALIGULA MAXIMUS at the Ellen Stewart Theatre on April 3, 2010. Photo by Lia Chang

Other theater credits include: Little Tommy Parker’s Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show (Actor), Taking Steps 313, the Musical adaptation of Crime and Punishment (Musical Director/Orchestra Leader/Actor). He worked on the film Afro-Punk and in the dance world, as musical director on Brown Girls Burlesque’s Grind High. Additional Musical Highlights for Brown include appearing on the Tony Hawk video game soundtrack, Project 8, writing interstitial jingles for Nickelodeon. He has been featured on various albums, compilations and singles in the US and abroad, shared great stages with a cadre of great musicians, and is literally in the Smithsonian for his impact as a musician.

Friend and colleague Living Colour lead vocalist Corey Glover and his wife Yvonne came to show their support and Brown was recently featured on www.boldaslove.us for his turn as Sulla in CALIGULA MAXIMUS. His record label BUDDHABUG RECORDS, plans to inject the world with new sounds and events in 2010 including the upcoming release ‘KILL THE DJ’ from electro/hiphop/punk band DOPE SAGITTARIUS (www.myspace.com/dopesagittarius), and two brand new singles from his alter-ego MACKIE RIVERSIDE & THE STREET PUSHERS.

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