Guggenheim ‘Works & Process’ spurs artists in limbo
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
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
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 ...
Martha Graham, Rita Hayworth share bill in 1923 2
Astonishing discovery by artsmeme‘s Hollywood dance detective … [More Hollywood dance detective stories here!] Every student of dance history knows that Martha Graham danced in the Greenwich Village Follies of 1923, produced by John Murray Anderson, first in Sheridan Square in the Village and then on Broadway. Correct? Yes, correct. Graham, above, appeared in the ...
Washy-washy, Bob Baker-style
Mar
11
2020
Well, Netflix sure is liking the shutdown of all our performing arts centers and movie theaters. But I’m not. Already immune to the cesspool of germs and inappropriate laughter that infects most audiences, I’m dismayed to see every dang show in town throw in the towel and cancel. Heartbreaking! That’s ‘cuz those theaters don’t have ...
Review: ‘West Side’ Video
Shereen Pimentel, Isaac Powell and cast. photo: Jan Versweyveld Broadway’s current revival of West Side Story—the groundbreaking 1957 musical by Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim whose dramatic power has long been associated with kinetic energy and eloquently focused movement opens simply. The Jets saunter to the front of the vast, bare ...
Raconteur remembered: Orson Bean
In celebration of a life fully lived, memorial services will be held on March 14, 2020 for Orson Bean (1928 – 2020). A consummate raconteur, actor, voice artist, writer, and undisputed triple threat on stage, Orson Bean has been a familiar name to people across the country for decades. On February 7, Mr. Bean was ...
Review: ‘Mack & Mabel,’ reunited, at City Center
Many regular attendees of New York City Center Encores! have been waiting – possibly since the series’ 1994 inception – for Mack & Mabel, a 1974 Broadway flop (it closed after 66 performances) that boasts one of Jerry Herman‘s strongest, most compelling and beloved scores. The invaluable series’ primary mission is to bring back musicals ...
Going goth: ‘Frankenstein’ at The Wallis
Similar to the Gothic novel of the same title, which tells the horror story of the creation of a terrifying artificial man from parts of corpses, the stage play Frankenstein at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills takes fragments from the novel and author’s life to piece together a singular ...
Dad, misplaced: Alfred Molina stars in ‘The Father’
Alfred Molina & Pia Shah in The Father at Pasadena Playhouse. Photo: Jenny Graham To witness the renowned actor of stage and screen, Albert Molina, persuasively morph from an engaging, witty patriarch to a disorganized forgetful dependent is both captivating and chilling. Now at the Pasadena Playhouse the production of Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” in just an ...