As the clock ticks, time well spent on ‘The Day’
Who can resist the alluring image, above, from a new theatrical production, THE DAY, presented at CAP UCLA and featuring two strong women of the performing arts, former New York City Ballet dancer Wendy Whelan (she is now associate director of the company) and cellist Maya Beiser, described as “a force of nature” by The ...
Donald Trump’s ‘perfect call’ taps Mario Puzo playbook
From the Zelensky call transcript: July 2019 telcon Donald Trump to President Zelensky of Ukraine
Bienvenue, COLCOA 2019!
Sep
20
2019
Les Miserables (2019) director Ladj Ly Our yearly reminder that life is worth living — because the French are still making movies — arrives Monday, Sept 23, 2019. That’s when the 22nd annual COLCOA French Film Festival pops the cork not on Prosecco, not on Cava nor sparkling wine, but real Champagne. It happens at ...
post sponsored by the Carpenter Center
Complexions brings dances for ‘now’ to Long Beach
Complexions Contemporary Ballet performing WOKE. photo: Nina Wurtzel Complexions Contemporary Ballet continues to prod, provoke, and entertain. When choreographer Dwight Rhoden and dance-superstar Desmond Richardson co-founded their rainbow coalition of a ballet troupe in 1994, it took hold. Spurred by their mentor Alvin Ailey, the two men staked their claim on the power of dance ...
Erin Trefry: art works ‘hard-wired’ with intimacy
Sep
16
2019
In a Los Angeles gallery season just crammed with new shows, something caught my eye in the announcement of artist Erin Trefry‘s solo exhibition at Lowell Ryan Projects, If The Moon Turns Green. I felt drawn to the images of Trefry’s paintings; in particular, her assemblage and sculptures spoke to me, I realized, on a ...
Olé, Olga Pericet!
Sep
11
2019
Ed. note: This story by artsmeme’s Debra Levine was written for The Ford Theatres and originally published as “A Flamenco Dynamite.” Flamenco is bursting with vitality—a new generation has contemporized the centuries-old form. So it’s fitting that the “new world” setting of the Ford Amphitheatre should welcome to its midst a foremost practitioner of “nuevo ...
Looks interesting: John Kelly’s latest
Photo credit: Josef Astor Adapting a text from his subject’s diaries, novels, and letters, performance artist John Kelly has fashioned a dance-theater piece based on the fantastical life of Samuel Steward (1909-1993), a gay novelist, tattoo artist, author of erotic fiction, and, according to Kelly, unabashed sexual adventurer. Underneath the Skin, commissioned by the NYU ...
Diva in concert: Darlene Love at Pepperdine
A recent hot theater ticket in San Diego was the trial run of the historic rock musical, “House of Dreams,” that told the story of Hollywood’s fabled Gold Star Studio. Over a hundred hit songs were recorded there in the 1960s — from “Rockin’ Robin” to “Good Vibrations” to “Cherry Bomb.” Owner/engineer and sound innovator ...
Gwen & Bob make personal appearance — as Michelle & Sam
It was delightful to see, appearing in person, Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell at a special screening event held on the erstwhile Twentieth Century-Fox lot (soon Disney). The duo, emitting body language that indicated real closeness, participated in a q&a session that celebrated FOSSE/VERDON’s many nominations for Emmy Awards — a whopping seventeen. The August ...
Dig it! Betty Grable in ‘Diga Diga Do’ 1
A fabulous YouTube find, a compendium of song-and-dance numbers performed by Betty Grable, in 1954, during a live television broadcast: the premier edition of Chrysler “Shower of Stars” on CBS. Opening the video is Grable in a sizzling demonstration of how song and dance were integrated during the period — in “Diga Do,” a specialty ...