“Dreamgirls”‘s Moya Angela to sing national anthem at Dodger Stadium 2
Apr
26
2016
It’s Oh say can you see & And I am telling you — all in one fell swoop. We’re all looking forward to four performances of the Tony Award-laden “Dreamgirls” at the Valley Performing Arts Center in early May. And now all the more so — having learned that the production’s star, Moya Angela, will ...
Remembering Mia Slavenska
This simply spectacular photo memorializes a tremendous dancer of the twentieth century, the great Croatia-born prima ballerina Mia Slavenska. The rock solid legs, the startling physical intensity, the blazing eyes, all Slavenska. Following her career with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Slavenska’s long and winding road led, in the 1970s, to teaching classical ballet ...
LACMA’s purchase of movie poster collection a boon to Los Angeles, says Michael Govan 2
Joyful news as the artistic merits of the marketing of movies during the High Hollywood era gets strong validation with the addition of an important movie-poster collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, announced on Saturday April 16 the acquisition of the Mike Kaplan ...
A man, his piano and his art. Prince’s final concert in Atlanta. 3
Apr
24
2016
Ironic and touching that in final performances before his sadly premature death this week, Prince played a stripped-down concert: an all-art, no-frills affair. Photo taken on the sly by Atlanta photographer Amiee Stubbs, who tweeted as follows: I snuck a photo of #Prince during his concert in ATL last week. Don’t normally break the rules, ...
Film maestro Claude Lelouch’s visual symphony, “Un + Une”
Director Claude Lelouch (far right) with his A-list cast of “Un + Une” — Jean Dujardin, Christophe Lambert, Elsa Zylberstein. The director of some fifty films brought his latest to COLCOA French film festival’s big screen last night. The film explores Lelouch’s central theme and his career concern: to plummet the love that exists between ...
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago brings rare Forsythe creation to the Barclay
Apr
23
2016
There’s history here. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago was first presented by the Irvine Barclay Theater at UC Irvine nearly 25 years ago under the auspices of its founding director, Lou Conte. The company, since 2009 under the leadership of artistic director Glenn Edgerton, has moved from its jazz-dance roots to being one of the nation’s ...
Phantasmagoria on tap in ‘Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema’
A treasure trove of hand-colored cinematic footage restored in rare films illustrate the first-ever uses of applied color in movies. Accompanied by live music, superb digital transfers of restored work from the archives of EYE Film Institute Netherlands transport viewers to a moment in time when colored moving images truly opened a portal into otherworldly ...
Do clothes make the woman? Check with Jane Szabo @ MOAH.
“Artist as Subject,” an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, California, expands upon the traditional self-portrait by exposing the artist’s inner state, body, history or habits of daily life. Featured in MOAH’s show is photography by Los Angeles artist Jane Szabo, who explores the outward ways in which women ...
French music hall revisited with “Monsieur Chocolat” @ COLCOA
“Monsieur Chocolat,” a biopic set in the fin-de-siècle world of French circus and music hall opened the 20th anniversary edition of COLCOA French Film Festival in Los Angeles last night, bringing exotica and rich visual zing to the big screen of the Director’s Guild of America. The film’s talented director Roschy Zem and its star, ...
French swashbuckling powers “On Guard” @ COLCOA Classics
Apr
18
2016
The yummy goodies that add piquancy to the jam-packed opening-night reception of COLCOA, Los Angeles’s premier French film festival celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2016, carry forth to a rich movie-menu of new releases. There’s even an ‘evergreen’ mini-festival, COLCOA Classics which provides a second look at great movies reprised on the big screen. Romance ...