Jayne Mansfield, we hardly knew ye 2
Jun
3
2025
Emmy® and Golden Globe® winning actress and filmmaker Mariska Hargitay was three years old when her mother, Jayne Mansfield, tragically died in a car accident at age 34—leaving behind five children. The HBO Original documentary MY MOM JAYNE, directed by Hargitay and debuting on Friday June 27, explores the complexities behind Jayne Mansfield’s public persona, a ...
Wonderful world of Allee Willis now in fun pop-up book
One of Hollywood’s most legendary homes—where every room bursts with color, music, and an eye-popping collection of American kitsch —is that of the Grammy, Tony, and Emmy-winning Hall of Fame songwriter, the late Allee Willis. The hit songwriter co-wrote Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September“ and “Boogie Wonderland,” as well as, among many many other songs, the theme ...
Andrea Miller’s ‘YEAR’ for A.I.M meets ‘The White Lotus’
We’re not suggesting that choreographer Andrea Miller‘s “YEAR” (2024) for A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, is literally “The White Lotus” in dance. No way! But somehow, Miller’s ingenious, mesmerizing, tribal, thirty-minute ballet goes for the jugular in a way that syncs with the neurotic energy with which the HBO series wrapped up its Thailand adventure. The ...
An aural ‘fountain of tears’: ‘Ainadamar,’ soon at L.A. Opera
Ainadamar, in Metropolitan Opera production, year, photo: It’s special if only because it will be conducted by Lina González-Granados, who will lead the LA Opera Orchestra premiere of the Grammy Award-winning opera Ainadamar by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The opera, dating from 2003, traces the life and work of poet-playwright Federico García Lorca (a trouser role by mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack), ...
DANCE REVIEW: Twyla Tharp talks
Feb
26
2025
Dance critics like to use the word “language” in describing the identifiable steps, movement chains, and tonality associated with choreographers of stature. At sight, you know it is Balanchine, Taylor, or Cunningham. You know it’s Fosse or Cole. But that metaphor does not often move to the next level, viz., whether (or not) in drawing ...
Film review: THE SUBSTANCE, a triumph of the insubstantial
Ed note: This review, written in August 2024, is belatedly published, thus the wishful reference to a woman president in its last paragraph. The director is French, which I found surprising. And she cannot be called young. That was my second shock, for, in watching her movie, THE SUBSTANCE, I would have sworn it was ...
Out of the blue, an accident: Margot Rose’s ‘Unconditional’ at Skylight Theatre
Melina Young, Margot Rose – photo: Sherry Ryan Barnett for SPLASH Some people transmit their profound life experiences in autobiographies. Others, in memoirs. Playwright/performer Margot Rose has fashioned a proprietary genre, a “musical memoir,” as a live-theater experience. The one-act show’s title, “Unconditional,” ostensibly refers to the quality of unbound love that she tapped, in ...
Free tix! Twyla Tharp, Sunday at The Soraya
Feb
18
2025
Yeppie, it’s Twyla. Twyla’s back and The Soraya‘s got her. First at the Segerstrom Center and then, this coming weekend at the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, February 22 and 23, Tharp is hitting the stage with fourteen best-in-class dancers in a 60th anniversary of her career as a choreographer. Here’s what ...
High fliers in Brooklyn: STREB’s ‘Do Not Try This At Home’
Feb
16
2025
photo credit: stephanie berger High-octane and daring. Action-packed and gravity defying. Surely we’re describing Hollywood stunt work, right? Wrong! We’re talking about rarefied choreography of extreme physicality, innovation, and near-misses that have made Elizabeth Streb a genre leader in this limit-pushing display of human action. Others in this niche of dance that we have written ...
Ratmansky rocks the classical ballet form, in ‘Paquita’ for New York City Ballet
We’re all about high-quality dance. And while we weren’t at the performances, thanks to the vivid writing of dance critic Marina Harss, and the superlative dance photography of Erin Baiano, we can experience Alexei Ratmansky‘s restaging of Petipa’s “Paquita” (1881) vicariously. According to Harss, Ratmansky infuses this warhorse ballet to music by Minkus with his ...