To rise again in Rome: Malcolm McDowell & pals in ‘Caligula’
Nov
7
2023
Caligula (Malcolm McDowell) is an anxious young man. He seems to have lost his moral compass. But that’s understandable. He’s seen his family murdered; then, he himself adds to the bloodshed by offing his adoptive grandfather, the mad emperor Tiberius (Peter O’Toole). He’s conducting an unsavory relationship with his fetching sister Drusilla (Theresa Ann Savoy), ...
REVIEW: ‘Pal Joey’ presses ahead, at New York City Center ‘Encores’
My introduction to Pal Joey came at New York City Center in 1995, when the then-new “Encores” series presented the iconic Rodgers and Hart’s 1940 musical with its original Hans Spialek orchestrations restored. The music – which included an old-fashioned overture and a five-minute ballet (a Richard Rodgers specialty in those vintage early musicals) to ...
For the love of trees: Jody Sperling’s ecological dance at NY Society for Ethical Culture 1
Nov
6
2023
The New York Society for Ethical Culture presents the world premiere of Arbor, a free evening of ecologically themed works by its Eco-Artist-in-Residence, dancer-choreographer Jody Sperling, and her Time Lapse Dance ensemble. The residency is a unique and timely collaboration between the Society—whose mission is to encourage respect for humanity and nature and to create ...
Mini-Review: Wedding bells for PRISCILLA
Nov
3
2023
arts•meme recommends Leave it to filmmaker Sofia Coppola to make a woman’s story with a foil who is half moving target/half stick in the mud. That is Jacob Elordi playing the charmingly dumb, thick on the empathy, maddeningly faithful until he’s not, and meltingly sexy Elvis Presley, in the marvelous new bio-pic, PRISCILLA. Actress Cailee ...
New York City Ballet on your teevee, by way of Madrid
Once upon a time, USA television viewers could take for granted that the nation’s leading dance companies be showcased on television, thanks to the seminal Dance in America series on PBS. It was great while it lasted, but eventually dance programming became a rarity on PBS. Their Great Performances series broadcasts ten or more of ...
Oh, to be as ‘Driven’ as Tony Pearson
Oct
17
2023
I very much enjoyed Driven: The Tony Pearson Story, a documentary that is the labor of love of its director Andrew Menjivar. It details the life and career of legendary bodybuilder Tony Pearson, a product of several seminal training gyms up to and including Venice’s Muscle Beach and Gold’s Gym, where, ahem, I am a new member~! ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
What would Pavlova do? Ask Tiler Peck, soon at The Soraya!
Oct
17
2023
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned and previously published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. The similarities are uncanny. By 1913, Anna Pavlova, the eternal exemplar of classical-ballet artistry, having danced with the Russian Imperial Ballet and, briefly, with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, took a handful ...
Trio of ‘Priscilla’ female creatives take time-out from The King at movie opening
Last night at the Academy Museum’s Ted Mann Theater, film distributor A24 hosted the Los Angeles premiere screening of Priscilla, starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. Writer/director Sofia Coppola and executive producer Priscilla Presley were in attendance. The plot of the movie, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, goes like this: When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu ...
REVIEW: Hanging out with ‘The Holdovers’
“There are certain movies that you hang out with the characters so much that they actually become your friends. Those movies are usually quite long, because it actually takes that long of a time to get past a movie character where you actually feel that you know the person and you like them.” That now-famous ...
The Stone who stopped rolling: Nick Broomfield doc about Brian Jones
As a schoolboy aged 14, Nick Broomfield, later a British filmmaker and award-winning documentarian, met Brian Jones, by chance, on a train. Jones was at the height of his success. Six years later he would be dead. Nick Broomfield’s new documentary THE STONES & BRIAN JONES explores the legacy of Brian Jones, who, in this ...