Martin Scorsese, David Johansen Talk Making ‘Personality Crisis: One Night Only’ Documentary During Pandemic
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business Editor The New York Dolls’ wildly original debut album got Martin Scorsese through the making of “Mean Streets” in 1973.
Years later, Dolls frontman David Johansen enlivened the soundtrack of Scorsese’s HBO series productions “Boardwalk Empire” and “Vinyl.” Scorsese is also a regular listener of Johansen’s Sirius XM series “Mansion of Fun.” Finally, after Scorsese caught Johansen’s career-spanning cabaret set at the Café Carlyle, the director-producer – a storied teller of New York stories – decided that the time was ripe for a documentary on the proto-punk scion of Staten Island. “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” which debuted April 14 on Showtime, chronicles Johansen’s evolution from the Dolls to the lounge-y pop of his Buster Poindexter period through his present day life as a husband, stepfather and eminence grise of New York’s music scene.
Scorsese, Johansen, “Personality” co-director and editor David Tedeschi and executive producer Margaret Bodde gathered April 25 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood for a panel session on the feature documentary.
Also joining the session were Johansen’s wife, Mara Hennessey, also an executive producer, and his stepdaughter, Leah Hennesey, who conducts present-day interviews of Johansen for the film. “The musicologist that he is is something that has inspired me for the past 25-30 years,” Scorsese told the crowd of Johansen.
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