Koehler Clips: Sondheim, Fosse, Nicolas Rey
For those of us who think that the decline of the American musical theater (putting aside “The Book of Mormon,” coming back soon to the Pantages) is a pretty sad spectacle, we have a nice fix of the real thing with “Six by Sondheim,” an ingeniously conceived look at Stephen Sondheim’s art directed by his ...
“Inside” a portrait of the artist as his own worst enemy 1
One of the most interesting things about the reaction to “Inside Llewyn Davis” (Arcight, Hollywood; The Landmark, Westwood) is puzzlement over whether writers-directors Joel and Ethan Coen intend a sarcastic portrayal of the early ‘60s folk music scene in Greenwich Village. The question isn’t baseless. Sarcasm has sometimes been a potent tool for the brothers ...
Big-band madness: Kim Richmond’s tribe @ Typhoon
Dec
5
2013
Looking for some artful, jazz-historic fun on the holidays? Then treat yourself to a blast of the high American art form of big-band jazz, as the thumpin’, honkin’ surgin’ and ballistic Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra performs next Monday night. It all happens at the aptly named (at least for the evening) Typhoon Restaurant. The ...
Something to celebrate: Marc Platt turns 100! 4
One of the greats, Marc Platt, a veteran of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo (as Marc Platoff), Agnes de Mille’s original Broadway cast of “Oklahoma,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “Tonight and Every Night,” just turned 100. And his friends are throwing a party him in northern California this weekend. Dance lovers invited! ...
The 11th Commandment: Honor DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” (1923)
Tomorrow night, Wednesday December 4, 2013, a fantastic event: the 90th anniversary of Cecil B. DeMille’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, in a special screening accompanied by live music. The screening will commemorate the 15th anniversary of the grand re-opening of the Egyptian Theatre. Part of the Lasky-DeMille Centennial Celebration co-presented with Hollywood Heritage, with the support ...
TCM salutes Hollywood’s distinguished costume designers
We like Deborah Nadoolman Landis. She’s pretty, she’s nice, she wears spectacles, she has a cool husband, and she’s an arts·meme subscriber. Hey, she’s a Deborah! What’s not to love? More importantly, Ms. Nadoolman Landis is a huge expert in a super interesting field. She earned a Ph.D. in history of design from the Royal ...
Chicken dinner for Rudi
Nov
30
2013
Excerpted from Nureyev: The Life, by Julie Kavanaugh (New York: Vintage Books), 2007: “He was also finding it hard to accustom himself to traditional English cooking, although it was two weeks before he confessed to hating cold roast beef. Beef — preferably in the form of an entrecôte steak — had to be thick, blue, ...
Nijinsky’s costume for “Spectre” was ‘sixties’ pink
For our Thanksgiving post, no turkeys; instead, a spectre; a sixties-pink spectre of the rose. The precious togs at right were worn by Vaslav Nijinsky in the infamous Ballets Russes production of the Michel Fokine ballet circa 1911. Now they hang on display at the Vaganova Ballet Academy Museum. They come to arts·meme courtesy of Lorin Johnson, who snapped ...
“La Passion Noureev” to premiere in Los Angeles for Dance Camera West
The beautiful and moving documentary, La Passion Noureev, a labor of love by Fabrice Herrault, a filmmaker who is also a respected New York City dance instructor and himself the product of the French ballet academy, will have its American premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday December 5, 2013. The film was previously screened in ...
“Russian Los Angeles” dance exhibition opens in St. Petersburg
“Russian Los Angeles: Stravinsky, Innovation and Dance,” an exhibition co-curated by Lorin Johnson, an associate professor of dance at California State University, Long Beach and Mark Konecny, Associate Director of the Institute of Modern Russian Culture at the University of Southern California, has opened in St. Petersburg at the Russian State Museum of Theatre and ...