Los Angeles dance companies to take El Capitan stage in backing Misty Copeland in Disney ‘Nutcracker’
Ready, set, go! As soon as the calendar page turns to November, off with the Halloween costume and on with the Sugar Plum regalia! That’s ‘cuz the newest Disney live-action movie, THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS, will open that night at the wonderful, retro El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Playing “the Ballerina,” in ...
O, Jackie! Mrs. K-O goes to the ballet
It is the stuff paparazzi’s dreams are made of: Jackie O, balletomane. Here we see Mrs. Bouvier-Kennedy-Onassis, posing, giggling, and shmoozing, on sidewalks, at banquets, and backstage with Rudik and Misha. Jerry Robbins is in there too. They are but a few of samples of the 50 works of the super “Rudolph Nureyev – Mikhail ...
Rat Pack-ish: Chris Walden Big Band at The Wallis
Chris Walden is the most ubiquitous musician you’ve never heard of, but whom you’ve heard everywhere. He’s one of the busiest of the current Hollywood composer-arrangers, and just a sampling of his recent album credits includes Michael Bublé, Jessie J., Michael Bolton, and Celine Dion. His film and TV writing is voluminous (your kids hear ...
The sound – and sight – of silence courtesy of Montreal’s Cas Public
Oct
17
2018
These beautiful shots by photographer Damian Siqueiros intrigue me to go see the Montreal-based Cas Public at the intimate Theatre Raymond Kabbaz, associated with Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles, presenters of artists of the French diaspora. Known for its eloquent dance, Cas Public houses an atypical performer, Cai Glover, who overcame a hearing impairment ...
All hail the Cinerama Dome at 55
Again we travel to 1963, the year when the groovy Robert Frost Auditorium found footing in Culver City, California. Across Los Angeles, those 55 years ago, a geodesic structure boasting a movie screen of 32 x 86 feet with a 146 degree curve opened on Sunset Boulevard. It’s very exciting to wish The Cinerama Dome, ...
Leaping Jerry Robbins via Buzz Miller 1
Oct
13
2018
His birthday is over so it is back to business. To admire the work of Jerome Robbins (he is currently being deified, similar to Balanchine) is to stumble upon his borrowings, and lack of crediting of others. This is so sensitive — and it’s a difficult-to-discern thin line of how the artistic process happens. Again ...
Happy birthday, Jerry! Love, WSS kids
When was the last time a film clip got a standing ovation? Well, it happened last night. The audience at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills erupted in appreciation after watching Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, on screen, kicking it to Leonard Bernstein’s thumping music and Stephen Sondheim’s wicked lyrics (all still ring ...
On Robbins’s 100th, his biographers raise a glass
I’ll leave the kudos for Jerome Robbins on this auspicious day — his 100th birthday — to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts now hosting an exhibit, Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York; New York City Ballet with its planned Robbins repertory evening tonight (Afternoon of a Faun, Other ...
You ‘Bette’r believe it! Ms. Davis @ Larry Edmunds Bookshop
Oct
10
2018
We received this missive this morning from Jeff Mantor, who runs the Hollywood history hot spot at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard, aka Larry Edmunds Bookshop. Writes Jeff: On February 15, 1988 the legend, the one & only Bette Davis did a book signing at B. Dalton on Hollywood Blvd. For you book historians, this site was ...
House of Laemmle presents ‘House of Wax’ in 65th anniv screening 2
Oct
8
2018
In the photo, Mitch McConnell (Vincent Price) crates up Dr. Blaisey-Ford’s brain and sends it, and her, packing, back to Palo Alto. Her frozen, stunned expression captures her shock that truth-seeking holds little water for half of the population. For many, we’re living a national horror show — in a new America. To better adjust, ...