Happy birthday, Jerry! Love, WSS kids
When was the last time a film clip got a standing ovation? Well, it happened last night. The audience at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills erupted in appreciation after watching Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, on screen, kicking it to Leonard Bernstein’s thumping music and Stephen Sondheim’s wicked lyrics (all still ring ...
You ‘Bette’r believe it! Ms. Davis @ Larry Edmunds Bookshop
Oct
10
2018
We received this missive this morning from Jeff Mantor, who runs the Hollywood history hot spot at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard, aka Larry Edmunds Bookshop. Writes Jeff: On February 15, 1988 the legend, the one & only Bette Davis did a book signing at B. Dalton on Hollywood Blvd. For you book historians, this site was ...
House of Laemmle presents ‘House of Wax’ in 65th anniv screening 2
Oct
8
2018
In the photo, Mitch McConnell (Vincent Price) crates up Dr. Blaisey-Ford’s brain and sends it, and her, packing, back to Palo Alto. Her frozen, stunned expression captures her shock that truth-seeking holds little water for half of the population. For many, we’re living a national horror show — in a new America. To better adjust, ...
Sasha Waltz ‘Kreatur’ in U.S. premiere at German Currents Film Festival
The acclaimed German dance company, Sasha Waltz & Guests, will celebrate the US premiere of its critically hailed dance film, Kreatur, as the closing night event of the German Currents Film Festival, presenting outstanding German, Austrian and Swiss Films in Los Angeles. The annual festival now in its 12th year runs from October 19 – ...
‘Nearly live-in-movie-theaters’ Bolshoi Ballet broadcasts to restart
The performances are captured “live the same day.” That’s how it works. Because you don’t want to go to the local multiplex in your jammies at three a.m. to see a simulcast, do you? Most of us are more than happy with the ‘close to real time’ rebroadcast from the Bolshoi Theatre at the comfortable ...
How ‘Lola’ helped Bob Fosse handle Gwen’s ‘bad reputation’
In a 1991 interview with Gwen Verdon on CUNY Television, the great Gwen describes her first encounter with Fosse as her choreographer for Damn Yankees. I had seen [Fosse] at MGM studios. We had met at a party that Michael Kidd gave. I had a reputation for being difficult … and I was. I was ...
Bob Fosse ‘wunderbar’ in MY SISTER EILEEN at retrospective 5
It came as a mild surprise even to arts·meme‘s Debra Levine, despite delivering a talk, “Bob Fosse, Dancer,” prior to the two movie musicals (both named for ladies!) screened on August 25, 2018 at UCLA Film & Television Archive’s “Fosse, Fosse, Fosse!” retrospective. Bob Fosse was a good movie star! First up was KISS ME ...
Mere mortals to evoke Verdon & Fosse, giants of American dance
Nicole Fosse (middle), artistic director of The Verdon Fosse Legacy and co-producer of a newly announced FX Networks mini-series now in development about her parents’ professional and romantic bond, poses with the talented actors, Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell, slated to play the leading roles of Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse. On the one hand, ...
Check out Cinecon 54’s early movie-musicals 2
Aug
23
2018
Cinecon 54, the dawn-till-midnight film festival of the arcane, the rare, the undiscovered-then-lovingly-embraced gems of early cinema, marks the end of summer, running, as always, through Labor Day weekend. Opening night, Thursday August 30, features a reception in the Egyptian Theatre courtyard followed by the screening of a new restoration of the 1924 silent film ...
The valleys are alive with the sound of gibberish, courtesy of artist Paul McCarthy
Maria, pictured above and played by Julie Andrews in the syrupy Hollywood movie-musical, The Sound of Music (1965), delivers her iconic hilltop anthem, but in a bizarro version created by visual artist Paul McCarthy, her scale runs do ti la so fa mi re do. McCarthy created cisuM fo dnuoS ehT / The Sound of ...