Surviving maulings and marriages: Mabel Stark, tiger trainer
Mar
3
2018
Looking forward to a screening of Mabel, Mabel Tiger Trainer written, produced and directed by Leslie Zemeckis, whom we last met in connection to her prior film Behind the Burley Q. “Mabel” is receiving a special screening in Los Angeles in connection with International Women’s Day, March 8. That is truly well timed, particularly in ...
Pianissimo to the max: Terry Riley, Gloria Cheng in concert
Mar
2
2018
What a pairing. Virtuoso contemporary pianist Gloria Cheng playing the works of pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley — and then the duo playing together. At the cozy, comfortable and acoustically pristine Zipper Hall presented by our friends at Pianospheres. A rare experience. So, go. Program: RILEY: Two Pieces for Piano (1958/1959) RILEY: The Walrus in ...
Dylan Gutierrez brings his Romeo home to L.A. with The Joffrey Ballet
The Joffrey Ballet’s Dylan Gutierrez is an LA kid. Before he hit ten, he was on stage with Placido Domingo in LA Opera’s “Falstaff” and “Sampson and Delilah” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He was a student at the Los Angeles Ballet Academy in Encino – run by his former-ballerina mother – and was once ...
Delicious, de-lovely, demonstrative Lena Horne, in centenary tribute 1
Vocalist Candice Hoyes, draws from rare cinema, musical theater, jazz and soul music to debut a night of music inspired by the life of Lena Horne. One of the most iconic jazz vocalists, Horne blazed a trail of remarkable song discography and bravery as one of the leading American civil rights activists across a sixty ...
Luminario Ballet soars into March
Feb
26
2018
Choreographer/founder Judith FLEX Helle’s high-energy, vivid show-womanship in her eighth season at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre strikes us as a perfect kick-off to March. In one work alone, she takes on issues as wide-ranging as equality, drug addiction, betrayal, Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March, all while stretching, gyrating, and revolving midstream above ...
Mike & movie mavens amass for LACMA poster exhibition 3
Among the mavens who came out to celebrate “The Art of the Movie Poster: HIghlights from the Mike Kaplan Collection,” newly opened at LACMA, were several prominent ones cheering on their friend, Kaplan (at left). At right, the estimable Malcolm McDowell, whose association and friendship with Kaplan has Stanley Kubrick at its heart. (As a ...
A Jack Cole audition for KISMET (1944)
The choreographer Jack Cole is most known for his Oriental dance numbers in KISMET (MGM, 1955) directed by Vincente Minnelli. But a decade prior, also at MGM, Cole choreographed KISMET (1944) starring the non-dancer, Marlene Dietrich. Dancer/ballet instructor Joan Bayley, who went on to become choreographer’s assistant to Robert Alton, auditioned for Cole as a ...
Floating craps game at Vegas’s Sands Hotel reimagined
According to author Lynn Zook, who has written two cultural histories of the Las Vegas Strip, the Sands Hotel came to symbolize the Las Vegas of our collective memory. It was here that the color line was broken; here that Sinatra, Martin, Davis and the rest of the Rat Pack held court in the Copa ...
Happy 50th Mr. Rogers from fellow Pittsburghers at arts•meme 4
Feb
19
2018
Click the arrow above for the sweet sound of Fred Rogers inviting you to be his neighbor. “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuted fifty years ago, on February 19, 1968, produced by WQED-Pittsburgh. We’re global now. But arts•meme‘s editorial and technology team has roots in the friendly, neighborly city of Pittsburgh. Proud that Mr. Rogers drew ...
Electric Miles Davis in the new millennium, at The Soraya
Miles Davis (1926-1991) was out of the public eye in the late 1970s. The legendary trumpeter and bandleader had changed the course of music—not just jazz—several times, and was half a decade into his electric period, inaugurated by 1969’s Bitches Brew. That epoch rewrote the rules of ensemble interaction, as Miles turned eager young soloists ...