Personality Crisis: One Night Only is not simply a concert film: Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi place David Johansen’s Café Carlyle performance alongside interviews and archival material to trace the artist behind the New York Dolls and Buster Poindexter. The film’s documented details support several revealing ways to read that portrait—but they do not establish the specific eleven-item list implied by this headline. The points below are grounded in the film’s official description and published coverage, rather than presented as a reconstruction of an unverified list.
What is Personality Crisis: One Night Only?
It is a 2023 documentary portrait of David Johansen, co-directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi. Paramount+ lists its runtime as two hours and seven minutes. Paramount+’s film page describes a work combining Johansen’s Café Carlyle performance as Buster Poindexter with new and archival interviews.
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What the film’s documented details reveal
1. The concert is the frame, not the whole story
The Café Carlyle performance gives the film a central setting, but interviews and archival footage broaden it into a career portrait. The Associated Press describes footage from a two-night engagement filmed in January 2020, interwoven with career flashbacks and intimate interviews. The AP’s coverage makes clear that the documentary is built to move between performance and recollection.
2. Buster Poindexter is Johansen, not a separate act
Paramount’s description follows Johansen from leading the New York Dolls to reinventing himself as lounge performer Buster Poindexter. At the Café Carlyle, he performs under that persona while singing from the Johansen songbook. The contrast is part of the film’s subject: one artist working through sharply different public identities.
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3. The setting sharpens the contrast
The film places the New York Dolls’ downtown glam-punk associations beside an uptown cabaret performance at the Café Carlyle. Film at Lincoln Center likewise describes Johansen performing there as Buster Poindexter, drawing songs from across his catalog. Its 2022 New York Film Festival listing provides the performance context.
4. The songbook connects the personas
Rather than treating the Dolls and Poindexter as unrelated chapters, the performance draws on Johansen’s own body of songs. That choice lets the film explore how a performer can change style and stage identity without severing the connection to earlier work.
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5. The interviews extend beyond the stage
The official description identifies both new and archival interviews, while CBS News describes pandemic-era interviews in its account of the film. That material gives the documentary room to present Johansen as an artist reflecting on his life, not just as a frontman captured during a show. CBS News’ film coverage characterizes it as a portrait of an artist rather than a conventional rock documentary.
6. The title points back to the New York Dolls
“Personality Crisis” is the title of a New York Dolls song, according to GRAMMY.com’s interview coverage. The reference links the documentary’s title to Johansen’s earlier work while also fitting a film concerned with identity and reinvention.
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7. The film’s subject is reinvention over time
Paramount’s account of Johansen’s move from the Dolls to Buster Poindexter gives the film a clear through-line: a changing public persona across a long career. The structure—performance, interviews, and archive—allows those periods to sit in conversation instead of presenting them as isolated biographies.
8. Johansen described the Dolls’ spirit as welcoming
In SHOWTIME’s March 16, 2023 announcement, Johansen recalled the New York Dolls’ intended atmosphere: “Vegetarian, gay, straight; I just wanted to bring those walls down and have a party.” The statement is his description of the spirit he hoped the band would create. SHOWTIME’s announcement also gives the film’s release timeline.
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9. The film was introduced at a festival before its TV premiere
The documentary had its world premiere at the 2022 New York Film Festival. SHOWTIME later announced an April 14, 2023 premiere. Those dates distinguish the film’s first public screening from its announced television release.
10. Punk’s legacy is part of Johansen’s wider perspective
GRAMMY.com’s interview asks Johansen, “Looking back at what you helped birth, what do you think about how it’s grown up?” The question situates his reflections in punk’s development, but it is an interview prompt—not a statistic or proof of any particular claim about the genre’s influence.
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11. The New York Dolls’ debut is a useful companion listen
The AP discusses the band’s self-titled debut and its legacy, making the album a relevant way to hear music connected to the film’s subject. It is a companion listen, not a substitute for the documentary’s broader portrait of Johansen.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the available coverage does—and does not—establish
The film’s official description and published coverage establish its directors, Café Carlyle performance, interview-and-archive structure, and release history. They do not establish the exact eleven revelations in the source article implied by the headline. The eleven points above are therefore an evidence-based guide to the film’s documented themes and context, not a claim to reproduce that unverified list.
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