The divine meets the dogged: Tippi Hedren & Edith Head reunite
High Hollywood gets a sparkling rejuvenation when the divine Tippi Hedren will meet the determined Edith Head at a theater opening on October 28. It’s the restaging at the Odyssey Theater in West Los Angeles of the one-woman show, “A Conversation with Edith Head.” Ms. Head, who was petite, loomed large as a cinema costumer. ...
Oy. Harry. Would you please lighten up? Harry Houdini goes for a dip.
European financial system on the brink … Steve Jobs dead at 56 …. distraction and dissolution everywhere. It all feels so dire. Not sure whether this photo of major meshuggenah, Harry Houdini, will lighten your mood or not. Something in this shot of Mr. Ball-and-Chain spoke to me. Seems to suit the zeitgeist. World, could’ja ...
Segerstrom Center for the Arts: 25 years of stellar international dance
The Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Photo by RMA Photography, Courtesy SCFTA On California’s huge map, Costa Mesa forms a relative pinprick. But for the past 25 years, the Orange County city has been a beacon of international ballet, as world-class troupes perform at the House that Henry (Segerstrom) Built 45 miles south of L.A. ...
Cirque du Soleil’s swell Hollywood opening night party
artsmeme’s debra levine & hollywood dance historian larry billman Fun photos of the super party the Cirques threw in Los Angeles last night posted below. The mighty Montreal’eans upped and closed, from car traffic, a humongous stretch of Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Kodak Theater. There, under a tent, to thumping, hypnotic music, attendees ...
Emilio Doorgasingh, actor, “terrorist” & funny Indian
You meet a great mix of people in L.A. Dare I say, ‘fruits and nuts’? It’s all the more fun when the chatter happens at a garden party like the one Bill Stern convened in the soft air ricocheting ’round Malibu’s Carbon Canyon Sunday afternoon. Stern’s annual fundraiser for the Museum of California Design is ...
Line-up of geniuses: West Side Story’s Broadway creative/production team
The West Side Story Broadway production team in 1957: (l. to r.) lyricist Stephen Sondheim, scriptwriter Arthur Laurents, producers Hal Prince and Robert Griffith (seated), composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins. (click for detail) Thank you, songbook1, for posting this photo. Like this? Read more: Not a Jet, but still the swingingest thing: George ...
After strong out-of-town previews, “Irene” bombs in NYC
Aug
29
2011
Bewildered international tourists departed the normally ballsy New York City confounded by a five-day terror campaign in advance of a robust wind-and-rain storm that moved through town on Sunday. The fear was transmitted in coordination by civic government and media. Head for the hills, New Yorkers, and batten down all hatches, the media carped. It ...
Irene gives her regards to Broadway 1
Aug
27
2011
In New York on a visit to the marvelous Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, it’s been a five-day, non-stop hurricane watch. No hurricane could possibly be as harrowing as the run-up to Hurricane Irene, which has succeeded in making a nervous wreck out of an entire city. And one visiting dance critic ...
What a guy! Ehrich Weiss, a.k.a. Harry Houdini
The absolutely fabulous “Houdini: Art and Magic,” which opens tomorrow at the Skirball Center along with its equally wonderful companion show, “Masters of Illusion, Jewish Magicians of the Golden Age,” injects fun, mystery and gamesmanship into the ether — right when we need it most. Jewish guys dressed in turbans and tuxedos, waving wands, and ...
Jack Cole dancer George Martin dies 5
Sad news. One of the last living connections to Jack Cole and a key member of Cole’s great brigade of film and nightclub dancers, George Martin, died in Atlanta on April, 6, 2011, we learned yesterday from Dancers Over 40. I met the Martins, George and Ethel, at a symposium on Cole last summer ...