COVID making you ‘coo-coo’? Watch Bob Baker’s marionettes

Dance · Theater
Feeling a little …. um …. wobbly? Who isn’t? The Bob Baker Marionette Theater Bead Men are here to give you some ‘At Home Happiness’ with their rendition of spacey track “Coo Coo U” by The Manhattan Transfer. Okay, Bead Men, do your thing! Selected lyrics for sing-a-long below. Coo coo uI think you’re coo ...

Buy Bobo, support Bob Baker Marionette Theater

Theater
In 1945, the only clown out of eight manufactured marionettes coming down the Bob Baker assembly line was Coco. One day Bob Baker decided to create a new character from the scraps and discards left on the cutting tables and floor. Bobo was born. Bobo, in his day, was a success. Thousands of Bobos were ...

‘Give in!’ Buy Gwen Verdon portrait at Bonhams auction

Dance · Film · Theater
little man little lola wants you. 12.5 x 17.75 in. As “Lola” in Damn Yankees, Gwen Verdon brought down the house with her powerhouse performance and her inimitable version of “Whatever Lola Wants,” performing the role over 1,000 times. She began both a working and personal relationship with choreographer Bob Fosse as a result of ...

David Winters ‘Cool’ solo, in ‘West Side Story’

Dance · Film · Theater
Jets boys, David Winters at center in red In an interview with Toni Basil that includes rare footage of the original Broadway cast of West Side Story, Jerome Robbins protege David Winters (1939 – 2019) explains how he conjured his unusual solo in the role of “Baby John” in 1957. When it came time for ...

Searching for Nina(s), with coffee & Al Hirschfeld

Theater · Visual arts
I don’t quite agree with the exhibition title that calls ‘looking for Ninas’ “a “national insanity.” Donald Trump has a lock on that. But apparently that was how the late great caricaturist/arts journalist Al Hirschfeld, whose charming shtick of inserting his daughter’s name into his cartoons in the Sunday New York Times Arts & Leisure ...

Kristina for king!

Ideas & Opinion · Theater
We already have a king. Some people feel we need a new one. Why not Kristina Wong? She’s nice. She’s funny. And she’s handy with a pandemic. When COVID-19 hit us with our proverbial pants down, she stepped into the breech, making face masks and using the radical route of the United States Postal Service ...

Make ’em laff, virtually! Palm Springs International Comedy Festival 2020

Film · Theater
mad, mad, mad, etc. made in palm springs For those of you having trouble eking out a grin behind a face mask, we have just the solution. Laff, guffaw, giggle, chuckle, and bray like a hyena in your mask-free living room from October 11 – 18. That’s when the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival offers ...

Guggenheim ‘Works & Process’ spurs artists in limbo

Dance · Fashion · Film · Music · Theater
by 
Dylan Crossman When performance venues shut down abruptly in mid-March, innumerable planned events were put on hold. That included the Guggenheim’s modest but high-profile “Works & Process” series, midway through its spring season which featured a mix of dance, theater and music events.  Launched in 1984, the adventurous series “explores artistic creation through stimulating conversation ...

‘Mea culpa,’ says Yuval Sharon of ‘The Industry’ 4

Ideas & Opinion · Theater
In an act of public self-berating right out of the Chinese Communist Party ‘Cultural Revolution’ playbook, Yuval Sharon, the wunderkind MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award-winning director of the Los Angeles on-site opera troupe, ‘The Industry,’ has shared a decision. After weeks of pondering the weighty issues of American racism and police brutality (as are we all), he ...

Memorial Day 2020: Los Angeles theaters we miss 1

Architecture & Design · Dance · Film · Music · Theater
coveted during covid quarantine – the egyptian theatrethis spectacular photo of the egyptian’s balcony by morgan glier for the ucla daily bruin It all feels surreal — but my essential problem during the theater shutdown of the Covid-19 pandemic is that for me, art happens at night. Rarely during the day, sometimes at matinees, and ...