Author Scott Eyman to discuss “John Wayne – The Life and Legend” Apr 14

Film · Ideas & Opinion
Just because TCM Classic Film Festival will be ramping down on Hollywood Boulevard next Monday does not mean that fantastic film events will disappear! Indeed, April 14 offers a stellar and intimate conversation with one of the nation’s leading scholars and writers of Hollywood history, discussing his latest oeuvre, his biography of John Wayne. That ...

Our critic’s game plan for TCM Fest 2014

Film
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Ramping up for the opening night of TCM Fest, we heard from our intrepid film critic Robert Koehler, who plans his festival as follows: I’m putting an emphasis on the world premiere restorations.The festival happens to slotting a few of these directly opposite each other on Saturday, when the vast majority of them are screening. ...

James Mitchell, who danced “Dream Curly” in OKLAHOMA! 1

Dance · Film
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We just lost Marc Platt, his strong dancer’s heart finally giving way, at age 100, on March 29, 2014. Platt originated the role of “Dream Curly,” a dancing doppleganger to the dramatic actor who plays the same role — the dancer picks up the plot line in choreographer Agnes deMille’s acclaimed “dream ballet” sequence created ...

Dueling divas on Hollywood Blvd: Divine vs. Shirley Jones

Film
Can’t make it to TCM Fest 2014 opener, screening “Oklahoma”? Got sold out? Then trundle across Hollywood Boulevard to where the real party people will be celebrating the DVD release of “I am Divine,” sub-titled, “The True Story of the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” Docu concerns the great drag-queen actor, otherwise known as ...

‘Oklahoma!”s dream ballet described by its creator, Agnes deMille

Dance · Film

“Oklahoma!” choreographer, Agnes deMille, appreciated 2

Dance · Film · Theater
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TCM Classic Film Festival 2014 opens Thursday April 10, 2014, with a screening of “Oklahoma!” at Grauman’s TCL Chinese Theatre. Shirley Jones, the film’s star, will be honored. Let’s learn about “Oklahoma!”‘s great choreographer who transferred groundbreaking stage choreography to the screen in 1955. AGNES (George) deMILLE b. Harlem, New York, Sept 18, 1905 d. ...

Story of Tanaquil

Dance · Film
We are so looking forward to Dance Camera West‘s special screening of “Afternoon of a Faun” at the Aero Theatre next Thursday evening, co-presented with the American Cinematheque. I will be interviewing Nancy Buirski, the documentary film’s director, after the screening. It portends to be an amazing event, mixing and matching a crowd of dance ...

Cameron Carpenter, accompanying “Caligari,” pulls out stops 1

Film · Music
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London’s Southbank Centre dearly loves a party. Give it any excuse and the architecture that some have characterized as brutalist is festooned with banners, murals and all manner of colorful whirligigs, giving this hitherto cultural bunker the air of Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island-on-Thames. The return of the Southbank’s 7,866-pipe Harrison organ after six years of restoration ...

A doctor in the house: Doc Severinsen @ Valley Performing Arts Center 2

Music · Reviews
That Doc Severinsen is a natty dresser is well known. But when he hit the stage of the Valley Performing Arts Center Friday night clad in orange shirt, red pants and a blue, sequined paisley jacket, it took several moments for the rich visual effect to sink in. With unabated high energy, the 86-year-old trumpeter, ...

Come fly with artist Dan Reisinger

Visual arts
Love the display of vintage El Al posters by Dan Reisinger (b. 1934), one of Israel’s design pioneers, known internationally for his innovative use of symbols and vibrant visual language. The entire Reisinger exhibition spans fifty years of iconic posters including ones of social and political protest (1963–1993); but the cream of the crop are ...