REVIEW: When opposites attract, Bridgewater & Charlap at CAP UCLA 1
It was a provocative entry to a fall jazz season: singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and pianist Bill Charlap, performing in a duo format at Royce Hall for UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. Like a pro wrestling match between a pile-driving heel and a gymnast babyface, it was a potential mismatch too tantalizing to ...
REVIEW: Fascinating time-travel with Mark Morris Dance Group at the Joyce Theater 1
numerator, photo: christopher duggan Mark Morris Dance Group was formed in 1980. The Joyce Theater opened doors in 1983. Yet while it has presented dance companies eleven months of the year, the Joyce stage had never hosted a MMDG season until now. So Tuesday’s opening night felt momentous – even historic – as MMDG finally ...
New moves for Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland‘s name is included on American Ballet Theater‘s current roster of principal dancers during its Metropolitan Opera House season (through July 22). But she is not scheduled for any performances, and has not appeared onstage with ABT since before the Covid pandemic interrupted performances in 2020. But Copeland was present nearby at Lincoln Center ...
REVIEW: Private dancer gone public: TINA, the musical, at The Pantages 1
The audience at TINA – THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL was mostly baby boomer. Which was fine by us. Because the audience was rapt. You felt the admiration, the place was oozing with it. With r-e-s-p-e-c-t for a formidable woman of entertainment, a force to be reckoned with: the late, great Tina Turner (1939-2023). The national ...
Adieu to two valiant dancing women of Los Angeles arts: Deborah Lawlor & Flip Manne 2
Fountain Theatre co-founder Deborah Lawlor, who died May 2, 2023, began her career in the ’60s as a dancer, choreographer and actor in New York, where she was a member of the Judson Church/Caffe Cino scene in the Village. She moved to South India in 1968, there pioneering Auroville, a 12-square-mile utopian international community created ...
Double Grammy-awardee Samara Joy to front Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at The Soraya
Feb
24
2023
Best wishes poured in from all around the world. But a special frisson of joy came from The Soraya Stage in Los Angeles. That’s because Sunday March 26 at 7 pm, the 23-year-old Wonder Woman Samara Joy, @samarajoysings), who (how can we put this calmly?) killed at the GRAMMY® Awards a month ago 🎉 will ...
Within her delicacy, strength: Raven Wilkinson appreciated 1
Feb
23
2023
Raven Wilkinson (1935-2018) broke as rigid a color barrier as could be found in the mid-fifties, when she was hired, in 1955, to join the all-white corps de ballet of Sergei Denham’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She went on to dance with the Dutch National Ballet as a soloist, and (similar to Janet Collins, ...
REVIEW: Cécile McLorin Salvant’s singular jazz style, at Royce Hall
While she’s no stranger to Southern California audiences, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant’s show presented by CAP UCLA’s Royce Hall on January 26 reinforced her status as a one-of-a-kind singer. Through her idiosyncratic artistry, willingness to indulge the moment, and her genial manner, Salvant charmed and thrilled the near capacity of Royce’s floor. In the broader ...
Julianne Moore, actress of our times, in ‘When You Stop Saving the World’
Dec
23
2022
eisenberg, moore, courtesy variety studio at cannes Some guys have all the luck. Take Jesse Eisenberg, for example. As an actor he has inherited the mantle of stammering Jewish neurotic as a surrogate for Woody Allen, who is now in retreat. In his feature-film directorial debut, “When You Stop Saving the World,” he has a ...
Divas of our lifetime! Dionne Warwick, Chita Rivera on stage
stellar ladies of the arts, one singer, one dancer She’s a beloved American cultural icon. She’s beautiful and well preserved. AND she has a new movie, a documentary. Dionne Warwick began singing professionally in 1961. Discovered by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the marvelous songbird went on to record 18 consecutive Top 100 singles (Don’t ...