Jerry’s kids, and grandkids, revel in ‘Jerome Robbins’ Broadway’
“Jerome Robbins’ Broadway 30th Anniversary Celebration,” a lovingly assembled, heartfelt 90-minute program presented in the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works & Process” series, was several events bundled into one. It was a loving coda to the Jerome Robbins Centennial; an enthusiastic alumni reunion; and a celebration of a landmark Broadway production exactly 30 years after its opening ...
‘Dolly’ll never go away again’ — for three weeks — at the Pantages
Jan
31
2019
HELLO, DOLLY! cast. photo: Julia Cervantes All of this ebullience is on tap at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre where the cast pictured above, darling, and certainly relieved after a smooth opening night, gathered for a photo. The “kids” surround their “Dolly,” the Tony Award-winning actress Betty Buckley, in the Los Angeles premiere engagement of the ...
Air-con comes to Great White Way
It’s precious. Variety “slanguage” used the expression legit to reference legitimate (live) theater. Not movies, not vaudeville, not burlesque, not off-off, but bigly stuff, like Shakespeare or O’Neill. An example, “Choreographer Michael Kidd distinguished himself in legit before working in pictures.” You’ve heard of Michael Kidd the “terpser”? right? He’s the guy who directs the ...
Backstage brawl for Michael Kidd & Dolores Gray’s mother
We’re always looking for good show-biz stories involving the estimable Dolores Gray. Jack Cole, who worked with Gray on several projects — Kismet, Designing Woman among them — had a few select words about Gray … and her mother. In this case, the story concerns Gray’s hiring for Destry Rides Again, the Broadway musical adaptation ...
Puppets to bow out after Bob Baker ‘Spooktacular’
Sep
5
2018
The final show (and we hope and pray the spookiest) at the longtime home of Bob Baker Marionette Theater will enjoy a loooong run — scaring the heck out of a lot of Los Angeles kids throughout the season-‘o-ghoulishness. Soon thereafter, the puppet theater that has occupied its charming digs beneath the First Street Bridge ...
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 ...
Excuse me, Mr. Lipschitz’s sculpture, could you kindly move over?
You walk your dog, right? And you lug your groceries from the market to the car. So why shouldn’t the Los Angeles Music Center, as part of its $40 million Plaza renovation project, take its Jacques Lipschitz “Peace on Earth” sculpture for a little stroll as well? It’s been sitting in the same spot since ...
Spend quality time with Bert & Ernie
In 2011, when our society was slightly more playful mood, a petition circulated to cajole the two besties, Bert & Ernie, from the closet, and marry ’em right on Sesame Street. Who knew that five years later we would elect an actual prime-time puppet to the presidency? But to take a break from all of ...
Faster than a speeding bullet … Liza Minnelli soon at Segerstrom
That’s how she was marketed, in 1966, by The Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel — as the soaring star that she was. Liza Minnelli, born on March 12, 1946 to Judy Garland and movie director Vincente Minnelli, went on to a very public, very distinguished career as a singer/dancer/actress. We’ll catch up with Liza ...
Long Day’s Journey: a family feud, familiar fodder for Americans
Jun
14
2018
Every family has its problems. Every problem spurs its drama. I anticipate my upcoming visit to The Wallis to see Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night as a microcosm, a kind of deep dive into a Petree dish — a ‘family drama’ the likes of which our nation is undergoing now. A highly controversial ...