Featuring and all female cast, all female design and production team, Lou is a powerful and intellectual piece about Lou Salome, an accomplished writer and psychoanalyst in the late 19th century. By spotlighting this little known thinker, Haley Rice’s work questions the equality of women in the eyes of history.
Scenic Design by Marisa Kaugers, featuring Olivia Jampol Photo by Jody Christopherson
Framed by memorabilia (set design by Marisa Kaugers), Lou opens with men singing the praises of Lou Salome (Mieko Gavia), who abruptly cuts them off to begin telling us her story. Chronicling her academic journey from tutoring with Henrik Gillot (Natasha Hakata) at the age of 17 to her private sessions with Sigmund Freud (Natasha Hakata) at the age of 50, Lou Salome’s intense spirit and charming personality is revealed in her relationships with the great thinkers of her time. Through the Baroness Malwida von Meysenbug (Valeria A. Avina), Lou meets Paul Ree (Olivia Jampol), who in turn introduces her to Friedrich Nietzsche (Jenny Leona). In her debates and conversations with Ree and Nietzsche, we get a taste of Lou’s quickness and hardness. Though she has vowed to never be with a man, both men become infatuated with her and her refusal to have either of them eventually causes them to part ways. Eventually, she takes a husband, Fredrich Andreas (Olivia Jampol), under the condition that they are companions and never lovers. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke (Erika Phoebus) finds a muse in Lou, and the two become lovers and friends.
Lou Salome is in constant search of an equal, and though it is difficult to tell if she finds one, she deeply influences some of the greatest men of her time. By helping them to become “giants” she makes her mark on history, and raises questions about what it means to be free and equal as a woman in society.
The shining achievement of this play is Haley Rice’s successful balance of content and accessibility. Her characters do not get so deep into the jargon of academia that we cannot follow the characters through their debates. The arc of the play is clear and smooth; the wit is quick and nothing is superfluous. Kate Moore Heaney’s directing excels in demonstrating equality and power without the use of forceful position. Becky Heisler Mccarthy’s lighting and Almeda Beynon’s sound design soften the moments of intimacy and shatter moments of dissonance. The talented actresses capture the minute nuances of each character, and with the help of colorful costumes by Katja Andreiev, it is easy to forget the male characters are played by women. While Mieko Gavia is a force to reckon with, she grounds the entire cast with her stunning presentation of Lou Salome.
This production generates reason to wonder exactly how long women have searched for equality and recognition in history for outstanding achievement. Lou Salome’s work suggests that society can create free and equal people while also celebrating our differences; her life and work, as presented in this production, is a testament to the reality of such a society.
Lou: Theatre 4the People at The Paradise Factory, 64 East 4th St. Closes June 3rd.
The latest leap in artificial intelligence is forcing businesses to reconsider a question that goes far beyond which chatbot they should use: How much of the work itself still needs to be performed by people?
OpenAI’s newly released GPT-6 Astra is being positioned as a major advance in AI capabilities, particularly in computer use, coding and completing complex multi-step tasks. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has even declared that artificial general intelligence, or AGI, has arrived with Astra — although that claim remains controversial and there is no universally accepted definition of AGI.
For businesses, however, the AGI label may be less important than what these systems can actually do.
The biggest change is the growing ability of AI to complete work rather than simply generate information. Instead of asking an AI to write an email, summarize a report or produce an idea, companies can increasingly give AI a larger objective and allow it to work through multiple steps toward completion.
That changes the economics of automation.
A company could eventually have AI handling portions of customer service, research, administrative operations, sales follow-up, software development and internal analysis with considerably less human intervention. The human role shifts from performing every step to setting objectives, reviewing results and handling the situations AI cannot reliably resolve.
That does not mean businesses should immediately replace employees with AI. It means companies should start examining their workflows differently.
The companies that gain the most from increasingly capable AI may not be the ones that simply purchase the newest model. They will be the ones that redesign their operations around what AI can now accomplish.
This is also why the arrival of more autonomous AI creates a new management challenge. OpenAI’s chief scientist has warned that increasingly capable agents could create consequences that organizations and society are not yet prepared to manage.
For executives, the message is straightforward: AI is moving from a productivity tool toward a potential digital workforce.
Businesses should be asking now which tasks can be automated, where humans must remain in control, and how employees can move toward higher-value responsibilities.
The competitive advantage may no longer come from simply having AI.
It may come from knowing how to reorganize the business around it.
NVIDIA is making a massive bet that the future of artificial intelligence will not be controlled solely by a handful of companies selling access to closed AI models.
The chip giant has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, one of NVIDIA’s largest acquisitions. Hugging Face has become a central platform for developers building, sharing and deploying open-source and open-weight AI models. More than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use the platform, while more than 200,000 companies rely on it for AI development.
For businesses, the deal matters because it points toward a future in which companies have far more choices about how they build AI.
Rather than depending entirely on expensive proprietary models, businesses can increasingly customize open models for specific tasks, run them across different cloud providers and potentially deploy them using their own infrastructure. NVIDIA says Hugging Face will remain open and will continue supporting different models, clouds and computing platforms rather than requiring NVIDIA hardware.
That could eventually make enterprise AI more flexible and less expensive.
But there is another message behind the acquisition: AI infrastructure is becoming the real battleground.
NVIDIA already dominates the chips powering modern AI. By moving deeper into the software and developer ecosystem, the company is positioning itself across more of the AI stack—from the computing hardware to the models and tools businesses use to build applications.
For business owners, this means the AI decision is becoming less about asking, “Which chatbot should we use?” and more about asking, “What AI infrastructure gives our company the greatest control, flexibility and return on investment?”
The companies that begin experimenting with customized models, AI agents and internal AI systems now may have an advantage as these technologies become cheaper and more capable.
The NVIDIA-Hugging Face deal is therefore more than a $13 billion acquisition. It is a signal that the next phase of business AI may be defined by open models, customized systems and control over the underlying AI infrastructure.
And for businesses, that could ultimately mean more powerful AI without being locked into a single vendor.
Nvidia is making one of its biggest moves beyond chips, agreeing to acquire AI platform Hugging Face for roughly $13 billion. The deal is significant because Hugging Face has become a major home for open-source AI models, datasets and applications, with more than 18 million developers and 200,000 companies using the platform. Nvidia says Hugging Face will remain open and support multiple cloud and computing platforms.
What It Means for Businesses
The acquisition points to an important shift in the AI market: businesses are increasingly looking beyond simply subscribing to a chatbot.
Open-source AI gives companies more opportunities to customize models, run AI within their own infrastructure and reduce dependence on a single AI provider. Nvidia’s investment could accelerate that trend by combining its computing infrastructure with one of the world’s largest open AI communities.
For smaller businesses, the bigger takeaway is that AI is becoming infrastructure rather than an experimental tool. Companies that build AI into sales, customer service, marketing, operations and internal workflows are likely to have more choices about which models power those systems.
But there is also a warning. Hugging Face has recently faced AI-related security concerns, while businesses are giving autonomous AI agents increasing access to company systems. Security researchers and lawmakers are now pushing for stronger controls around what AI agents can access and execute.
The business opportunity is no longer simply “use AI.” It is building an AI stack that is flexible, secure and capable of changing as better models arrive.
For business owners, that means the companies that avoid locking themselves into one AI model today may have a significant advantage tomorrow.
The next major shift in business AI may not be another smarter chatbot. It may be AI that actually helps customers shop.
Anthropic announced Wednesday that it is giving retailers blueprints for building AI shopping and merchant agents using Claude. The systems can make personalized product recommendations and add items to a customer’s shopping cart, while merchant-facing agents can help with inventory, pricing and marketing decisions.
The timing is significant. Shoppers are increasingly turning to AI to compare products, check availability and decide what to buy. According to Adobe Analytics, visits to retail websites originating from AI are converting at a rate about 60% higher than traffic from other sources. Anthropic also reported that one partner saw shopping carts grow roughly 30% to 35%, while customers were about 60% more likely to complete a purchase.
What This Means for Businesses
This changes the role AI can play in sales.
For years, businesses primarily used AI to answer questions, generate content or automate individual tasks. Commerce agents move AI closer to the actual revenue process: understanding what a customer wants, recommending products and helping move that customer toward a purchase.
That means businesses may soon compete not only for Google rankings and social-media attention, but also for visibility inside AI-driven shopping experiences.
For small and midsize businesses, the message is particularly important. Companies do not necessarily need to build their own frontier AI model. They need to make their products, services, inventory and customer information usable by AI systems—and begin thinking about how an AI agent could participate in their sales process.
The businesses that adapt early could gain an advantage as customers increasingly ask AI what they should buy rather than searching through dozens of websites themselves.
The bigger shift is already underway: AI is moving from helping employees do the work to helping businesses generate the sale.
Cabaret
My View: Something New In The Basement…BASEMENT AFTER DARK at 54 Below..The Music of RAYE
The Music of RAYE at 54 Below
Last night, 54 Below opened its doors to something new and exciting. “Basement After Dark: The Music of RAYE” brought a fresh musical voice to the legendary cabaret room. Produced by 54 Below’s own Stephanie Lazard in collaboration with music director and co-producer Elmo Zapp, the evening featured a first-rate band and an exceptional cast of singers who delivered RAYE’s music with energy, style, and passion. The enthusiastic audience responded with standing ovations, embracing the songs of this award-winning British superstar singer/songwriter and discovering just how powerful her music can be in a live cabaret setting.
From Stephanie Lazard, co-producer
“Elmo and I have actually been friends for about 14 years! We met when we were both living in LA and worked on shows together there, and we’ve continued collaborating since we both ended up in New York. Last night was our sixth show together at 54 Below. We previously produced 54 Sings Hanson, 54 Gets Warped Discs 1 & 2, 54 Sings Sammy Rae & The Friends, and 54 Sings Across the Universe.
Basement After Dark: The Music of RAYE was the first installment of a new series we’re calling Basement After Dark. After doing several of the “54 Sings” shows together, we started talking about what we could do next and how we could take that general idea a step further. We wanted to create something that felt a little more elevated and theatrical, still celebrating the music of an artist we love, but making the evening feel like its own cohesive show rather than simply a collection of songs.
That was a big part of what we tried to do with RAYE. Elmo created an overture to open the evening, as well as musical interludes and transitions that allowed certain songs to flow directly into one another. We also thought a lot about the order of the music, the combinations of performers, and how we could build an arc throughout the night so there was a real sense of momentum from beginning to end.
RAYE felt like the perfect artist to launch the series with because her catalogue gave us so much to work with. Her music can be theatrical, soulful, jazzy, incredibly vulnerable, and then completely explosive, sometimes all within the same evening. It also gave us the opportunity to put together an incredible group of performers and let each of them bring something different to her music while still making the show feel like one complete piece.
Our hope is absolutely to continue Basement After Dark and build it into an ongoing series at 54 Below. The idea is that each installment can have its own identity depending on the artist or music we’re exploring, while keeping that same goal of creating something more theatrical and intentionally constructed than a traditional tribute concert.”
The performers: Sara Al-Bazali, Sydney Jones, Charlotte Odusanya, Sarah Pansing, Morgan Reilly, Debbie Christine, Tjong, Zalah Vallien.
The Band: Elena Bonomo, drums, Manny Houstan, piano, Devon Meddock, vocals/trumpet, Jordan Petty, saxophone, Kat Rodriguez,vocals,Mike Rosengarten, guitar, Elmo Zapp, bass.
54 Below LIVESTREAM
CHARLOTTE ODUSANYA,ZALAH VALLIEN, MORGAN REILLY, DEBBIE CHRISTINE TJONG, SARAH PANSING,SARAH AL-BAZALI, SYDNEY JONES, KAT RODRIGUEZ, DEVON MEDDOCK
SYDNEY JONES
SYDNEY JONES
DEBBIE CHRISTINE TJONG
DEBBIE CHRISTINE TJONG
MORGAN REILLY
MORGAN REILLY
MORGAN REILLY
ZALAH VALLIEN
KAT RODRIGUEZ
KAT RODRIGUEZ & DEVON MEDDOCK
CHARLOTTE ODUSANYA
CHARLOTTE ODUSANYA
SARAH PANSING
SARAH PANSING
ZALAH VALLIEN & DEBBIE CHRISTINE TJONG
SARAH AL-BAZALI
SARAH AL-BAZALI, KAT RODRIGUEZ, DEVON MEDDOCK
BASEMENT AFTER DARK: THE MUSIC OF RAYE
STEPHANIE LAZARD, CO-PRODUCER
DEBBIE CHRISTINE TJONG
ZALAH VALLIEN, MORGAN REILLY, KAT RODRIGUEZ
SYDNEY JONES & SARAH AL-BAZALI
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