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February
Arts Rambles
Philippe Entremont Conducts, With Three Outstanding Young Pianists
in Mozart Concertos!, Mellon Lecture at the Morgan: Fantastic
Photos of Farnese Gallery in French Embassy in Rome, Collegiate
Choral Sing Bruckner's Te Deum at Carnegie: Anything But TeDious!,
Too Many Unresolved Plot Lines in Instinct on Theatre Row: What's
It All About?, Little Known Rossinis at Juilliard: Silken Ladders
& Repudiated Marriage Contracts, Renoir's Full Length French
Dancers at the Frick!, Charles Ryskamp Lives Again at the Frick!,
Demented & Defeated Artist in the Desert at Repertorio…,
Take Your Medicine! Primary Stages Prescribes RX at 59E59…,
Mile High New Play Interlude in Denver!, Prints, Prints, &
More Prints at MoMA: Even Hanging on Wash Lines!, Vistas of
Endless Lottery Ticket Mosaic Space: Ghost of a Dream/forever,
almost at Davidson!, NY City Opera Lives Again! Jonathan Miller's
La Traviata at BAM!, Masterful Kurt Masur Master Class in Conducting
at Manhattan School, THE ANNUAL: 2012—At the National
Academy! Not To Be Confused with the Whitney Biennial…,
Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna Takes a Bow at BAM!, The Steins
Collect & Degas Draws at the Met Museum:, What Is It about
Those Art Loving Jews? A Genius for Collecting Avant Garde:
Cones & Steins!, The Civil War Revisited at the Grolier:
Is That the Appomattox Courthouse?, Way Out West on 42nd Street:
CQ/CX—The Atlantic at the Peter Norton Space, Crushed
Auto Bumpers & Colorful Crumpled Truck Bodies: Chamberlain
at the Guggenheim, Learning How To Drive All Over Again: Paula
Vogel's Behind the Wheel Play Revived, More Arts Treasures Up
for Grabs [or Bids] at Christie's, Freshly Minted Rutherford
& Son Revival at the Mint Theatre!, At the New City, "Christopher
Marlowe's" Julius Caesar?, The Set Implodes & Explodes—With
Some Assistance—in Assistance at Playwrights Horizons,
Gingerbread Ahead! Amato Hansel & Gretel at the Manhattan
School!
January
2012 Roundup
Digital & Design Wonders at Newly Recreated New York Historical
Society!, Our Own Grandma Moses Foremost among Outstanding Outsider
Artists at Galerie St. Etienne, Rosemary Harris Lives On The
Road To Mecca, But Watch Out for Sudafrikaanse Dominies!, George
Washington Crosses the Delware Once Again in Met's New American
Wing!, On Auction at Christie's: Fugitive Treasures from the
American Wing?, Free Ai Wei Wei in Bregenz Last Summer, But
Now He's On Display Near Frank Ghery…, Shuffling Through
The Picture Box Yields Nostalgia, But Not Powerful Plot Inspirations,
Sparse Pickings in Contemporary Art at Phillips de Pury: Haring,
Rauschenberg, etc, At Stanford, Be Careful With Whom You Room:
Outside People May Prove a Problem!, Stage Stars' Fashionable
Costumes & Hats Excited the Matinée Ladies: Play
Pictorial at Bard, Dropping by Bonhams' To Check on Forthcoming
Auction Treasures…, Close Up Space: Literary Editor &
English Prof from Hell: Bad Dad's Daughter Speaks Russian…,
Rembrandt & Friends at the Morgan: Bold Strokes in Vivid
Centuries Old Inks!, Weegee Lenses Murder + Historic Magnum
Contact Sheets at International Photography Show, Armory's Winter
Antiques Show Echoes Met Museum's American Wing Treasures, Kevin
Spacey Astonishes in Richard III at BAM: A Bum Back & a
Bum Leg Don't Deter Him…, Master Scroll Painter Fu Baoshi
Survives Two Revolutions, Outsider Art & Effortful Amateurs
at Metropolitan Pavilion: How About Tramp Art?, Outsider Art
& Self Taught Artists at the Outsider Art Fair down on West
34!, Roy Arias Sponsors International Theatre Fest, But Match
Doesn't Strike a Light…, In Russian Transport, Lad Drives
Under Age "Models" from JFK, Working for Russki Mafia
Uncle, Cynthia Nixon Shaves Her Head for Wit, But the Brain
Is Still Sharp…, Why Didn't Martin Luther King Create
Porgy & Bess: Who's This White Guy, Anyway?, From William
Christie & Enchanted Island at the Met to Baroque Opera
at Juilliard's Tully Hall, Look Back in Anger Revived, But Young
Brits Have More Cause for Anger Now Than Then…, Thundering
Thunderbirds Take Over New City: Impressive Amer Ind Dances
& Rituals, Cultured Pearl of a Play at the Pearl: GBS's
The Philanderer: Lessons To Be Learnt!, Phantom of the Opera
breaks records.
December
in New York
Let's Beat Those Commie Russkis! The CIA Covertly Arms What
Became the Taliban!, Shen Wei Finds Artful Ways To Fill the
Park Avenue Armory with Dance Arts, Getting Falling Down Drunk
& Trashing a Motel Room on Derby Day…, The Monstrous
Golem Comes from Prague to East Fourth Street: Be Clay Once
Again!, Rent Began Life at the New York Theatre Workshop: Will
Once Move to Broadway?, Antiquities at Christie's: Headless
Statues & Bronze Man Without a Leg To Stand on!, James DePriest
at Carnegie Hall: Siwoo Kim Is Juilliard Orchestra Violin Soloist!,
Stick Fly at the Cort: Family Problems for Prosperous Blacks
on Martha's Vineyard!, One of Those Coen Brothers Returns: Happy
Hour on West 42nd Not So Much Fun…, All Women Are Not
Like That, Amadeus: Così fan tutte at the Manhattan School,
Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape at BAM: Not Sam's Last Crap, by
Any Means, Ay, Federico! Lorca's Bow Tie at the Duke: Young
Artists in New York Tie It On!, Ana Tzarev Explodes Her Paint
Tubes To Celebrate Russian Fairytales, For Booklovers &
Others at the Grolier: Imperial French Type Dies in Many Languages…,
Sex in All Its Possible Forms & Positions: Burning Down
on Theatre Row!, No Calorie Counts on the Meat Pies in Titus
Andronicus: Don't Eat Your Kids!, Maple & Vine Is Not Hollywood
& Vine: It's a Made Up 1950s "Family Values" Town!,
The Frick's New Glassed Portico: Looking Out on the Forbidden
Garden, Afternoon at the Asia Society: Sarah Sze's Fine Lines,
Plus Coins on the Floor…, A Moment at MoMA: Sanja Ivekovic--Women's
Issues/Women's Photo Portraits!, Brooklyn Museum Library &
Others at Bonham's: Librarians' Night Among Autographs, On a
Clear Day, You Can See Harry Connick, Jr!, Potential Brain Damage
at the Park Ave Armory: STREB…Falling on Mats from Heights!,
Juilliard at Tully: From Mozart's Jupiter To Prokofiev's Romeo
& Juliet, Shanghai Cirque at New Vic: Everything That Streb
Was Not!, Elizabeth Taylor's Jewels Dazzle at Christie's Sale:
$156.8 Million, Plus Luggage!, A Bread & Puppet Christmas
with Two Quite Different Shows: Attica for Xmas?, Three Met
Press Previews: Renaissance Portraits, Duncan Phyfe, Plus Amer
Ind Artifacts, Chopping Down The Cherry Orchard Down on East
13th! But No Axe Sounds?, Once, There Was Carmen Jones: Now
We Have Lysistrata Jones, Who's No Relation…, Bonnie &
Clyde: Where Is Faye Dunaway When We Need Her? Warren Beatty?
Turkey
Week and End of November
Juilliard Chamber Symphony at Alice Tully: Standing Violinists,
Sitting Cellos!; Peter Brook's Beckettian Fragments at Barishnikov:
Gestures & Words…; Weak King Richard II Surrounded by Favorites
at Court: Gay Buddies Bad Policy!; Who's Banging on That Door?
Who Fucked Up on That Military Mission?; Challenge To Book of
Mormon: Musical Version of Silence of the Lambs!; The Horrors
& Joys of Gay Marriage! Standing on Ceremony Comes Out of
the Closet!; The Great War Re Visited: The Blue Flower Sings
of Lives Destroyed & Collaged.; Into the Woods with Wild
Animals You Should Know: Watch Out for Feral Teenage Boys!;
Japanese Narratives at the Met Museum: Plus Fabergé, Renaissance
Venice + More…; Important American Paintings & Sculptures
at Christie's: Rich Collectors Need Cash?; Suicide, Incorporated
Appropriately Sited in the Black Box at the Pels on 46th &
Sixth.; Seminar with Alan Rickman at the Golden: $5,000 Apiece
To Learn How To Write Fiction?; Moses Confronts Pharaoh at Carnegie
Hall: Not the Aida Legend: Rossini, Not Verdi!; Hanging Boys
& Hanging Artworks In Guggenheim Rotunda + Stuffed Dead
Horses!
Town
Hall to MoMa and More
No Performer Mikes on stage at Town Hall: Scott Siegel's Broadway
Unplugged 2011!; Into Space & Beyond Planet Earth at Museum
of Natural History: Just Press the Button!; No Cantonese, If
You Please: Try To Learn Ch'inglish—But It Loses In Translation…;
Why Are There No Skinny Boteros? Acres of Latin American Art
at Christie's!; Cowardian Comedy of Manners Elegant But Mannered:
Kim Cattrall in Private Lives.; The Usual Suspects in MoMA's
Contemporary Galleries: From 1980 to NOW…; New Maxwell
Davies Opera: Students Under Oppression: From Hitler to Mao
to Ole' Miss.; Gender Bending American Art at Brooklyn Museum:
HIDE/SEEK—Who's Gay or Not?; Look Where It Comes Again!
Not Hamlet's Ghost, but the Specter of GODSPELL!; Who Would
Believe John Malkovich as a Viennese Serial Killer? With an
Orchestra?; Lusty Dancing for Lughnasa, But Tragic Lives for
Brian Friel's Ballybeg Mundys…; Musical Sunday Downhill
From Riverside Church: Opera Scenes & Eschenbach.; Don't
Take It Straight! Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights' Horizons!
From
Diego Rivera to Orwell and more
Diego Rivera's 1930s MoMA Murals Again at MoMA: But No Frida
Kahlo…, Two Nights Downhill from Grant's Tomb: Creationism
from Haydn + Opera Arias!, New York City's Oldest Museum Now
Its Most Digitally Modern: NY Historical Society, Art Plunderer
Sherrie Levine Uses Walker Evans, Plywood, & Four Billiard
Tables…, The Tower of Brooklyn Could Be Our Tower of Babble
On: BAM's Brooklyn Babylon, On Forty Second Street, Once Again
TAPS IS TOPS! Untapped at the New Victory, PETA Alert! Check
Out Venus in Fur! Did Any Foxes Die for This S&M Romp?,
Park Avenue Armory Transformed with Pavilion of Art & Design
New York: Deco & More!, Atmosphere of Memory Not So Spherical--Nor
Empirical…, Before 1984: George Orwell on British Imperialism
in Burmese Days.
There
wasn't any post-Halloween letdown
In the Depths of The Great Depression, Lefty Lenses at Work
in the NY Photo League…, Which Is Worse: To Be a Foster
Child or To Be Adopted? How About A Charity Case?, Stunning
Auction Catalogues at Phillips de Pury: Own Your Own Art Gallery
for Only $35!, Giant White Ghosts on Chicken Footed Stilts Save
Shackleton Puppets at BAM!, Swedenborgian Angels Dance Once
Again: Not at BAM, But at LaMaMa's Ellen Stewart…, Print
Fair at Park Ave Armory: Penny Plain/Tuppence Colored Not So
Cheap Anymore!, The Good Old Days at Judson Hall Live Again:
Queen of the Mist Subtly Sings…, Sam Waterston Bravely
Climbs That Final Actors Mountain: KING LEAR, Around the Corner
from Ladurée/Paris: Mental Earth Growths & Smears
at Knoedler!, Other Desert Cities, Reborn from Lincoln Center,
Now in the Tiny Little Booth Theatre!, Brits Off Broadway at
59E59: Hop on Over To See Bunny!
What
went on around the October snows?
Last Week, Islamic Art at the Morgan; This Week, More at the
Met Museum!, Splintered Souls Over on West 43rd Street: Call
Beth Israel!, Ronald Lauder's Treasures at Neue Galerie: All
That Money Can Buy…, Sons of the Prophet: Not Sa'udi Arabs,
But Lebanese, If You Please!, Nicole Awai's Almost Undone Show
Almost Over…, Pete Gurney's 1974 Children Come Home To
Roost at Beckett, Flaming Twenties Live Again in Brooklyn: Youth
and Beauty!, Ingmar Bergman's Cries & Whispers Drastically
Deconstructed at BAM!, Silver Screen/Silver Prints: Hollywood
Glamour at the Grolier Society!, Film Noir Fashions on Parade
at Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library, Chris Marlowe's Love's
Labour's Not at All Lost at Public Theatre…, Master Pianist
Alfred Brendel Gives a Master Class at Juilliard!
All
around, it was a bad week.
Visible In the Flesh Ghost in the Machine at New City: How Did
She Die?, There's the Grand Canal in Venice; Then There's the
Root Canal Over on East 40th… , Woody Allen, Ethan Coen,
& Elaine May Pen Plays, Relatively Speaking… , Islamic
Manuscript Illuminations at the Morgan: But The Prophet Nixed
Human Images! , Beijing Dance Theatre Ensemble Moves Through
a Haze at BAM! , Young Gay Jewish Playwright Makes a Submission
to the Humana Festival. , Shtetl Tales: The Learning Play of
Rabbi Levi Yitzhok, Son of Sarah, of Berditchev… , Very
Athletic [Abridged] Complete World of Sports at the New Vic:
Olympics, Anyone? , Meanwhile, in Future Holiday Destination,
Libya, They Shot the Bad Guy!
A
good "Cymbeline," Steichen's Vintage Photos and more
Broadway's Own Paul Gemignani Gives Our Regards to Broadway
from MSM…, Steichen's Vintage Photos & Stieglitz's
Artists Emerge from Met Museum Vaults!, Stop! Don't Take That
Bus! Watch Out for Born Again Christians & Arson!, Man &
Boy on 42nd Street: Father Pimps Son To Save Big Business Deal!,
Thursday Gallery Night on 57th Street: So Much Art—So
Little Time To See It!, AIDS Support Group Metaphorically on
the Raft of the Medusa: Shark Alert!, Marta Eggerth Still Singing
at 99: The Queen of Viennese Operetta Returns!, Garment Workers:
Awake & Sing! Pins & Needles Revue Makes a Comeback!,
Best Cymbeline Staging Ever by Fiasco Theatre Definitely No
Fiasco…, Chinese Slave Labor Children Made Your iPad:
Mike Daisey's Steve Jobs Takedown
From
Picassos to Actress Zoe Kazan
Savoring Early Picassos at the Frick: From Collage to Cubism
& Onward!, With Woodie King at the Castillo: New Federal
Moves To 42nd Street!, David Smith’s Steel Constructions
at the Whitney: Welders of the World Unite!, Martin Luther King’s
Last Night at the Lorraine Motel: Early Check Out—, Actress
Zoe Kazan Writes a Play: We Live Here at Manhattan Theatre Club.,
Could Edgar Bergen Have Done This: A Singing Ventriloquist in
a Musical?, Nicky Silver Strikes Again: Linda Lavin Is Your
Basic Jewish Mother!, Another Kind of Jewish Mother at 59E59:
She Deserts Her Husband for a Paramour!
Bregenz
Festival 2011
The Arrival of Austria's President, Dr. Heinz Fischer, To Open
The Bregenz Festival! / Festrede for the 2011 Festival: Changes
To Be Made--New Horizons! / Inside Jean Paul Marat's Head: Umberto
Giordano's André Chénier Loses His Own Head! /
Schöpfung with England's Judith Wier… / On an English
Achterbahn or Roller Coaster: Burning the Kebabs Wagon! / Lake
Stage André Chénier Will Survive the Alpine Winter
To Live Again Next July! / A Potent Plea from Kunsthaus Bregenz:
Free Ai Wei Wei!
Munich
Festival 2011
Look Where It Comes Again! Munich's Annual Opera Festival--In
Various Venues… / Don't Kill Bambi's Mother! Dead Deer
Violated in "Director's Theatre" Rusalka! / Da Ponte's
Don Giovanni Staged in Perambulating Cargo Containers! / Brilliant
Post Modernist Minimalist Ariadne auf Naxos: Truths Revealed…
/ In Ferrara, Don't Drink the Wine when Lucrezia Borgia Is Pouring!
/ Tired of Romeo & Juliet? How About Focusing on Capulets
& Montagues Instead? / Outside the Official Festival--But
Still a State Theatre: The Gärtnerplatztheater! / Very
Early German Opera: Georg Philpp Telemann's Der geduldige Socrates…
/ Madame Butterfly in the Middle of Munich: Modernist Japonoiserie
auf Deutsch! / Wright & Forrest's Grand Hotel Still Open
for Business & Monkey Business Also. / Getting Ready for
Oktoberfest in July: Looking Forward To More Beer Busts!
Report
on Charleston's Spoleto Festival USA: May 27 to June 12, 2011
Channeling Gian Carlo Menotti in a New Medium…, Elizabeth
Futral Channels Émilie du Chatelet: Fearing Death &
Translating Newton!, More Genius from Cornwall & Emma Rice:
Not The Red Shoes You Thought You Knew., Brilliant Dancing &
Choreography from the Corella Ballet: Come Back to Manhattan
Next Time!, Mozart's Magic Flute Gets the French Treatment:
Falling Through the Floor a Lot…, No Khmer Rouge Makeup
for Cambodian Khmeropédies: Ritualized Court & Temple
Dancing., Anne Marie McDermott Brings Louie Gottschalck Back
To Vibrant Life: The Union.
Troubled
Humanity On Stage at the Humana Festival
Adam Rapp Is Inspired by Jean Genet’s The Maids for The
Edge of Our Bodies, A Devil at Noon Is Not Quite the Same Thing
as The Noonday Witch, Bob Is Destined for FAME: He Sees Himself
Right-Up-There on Mount-Rushmore!, Store-bought Bright &
New: Living Now in the 1950s—Maple & Vine!, Gun-Control
for Edith: Do Not Shoot Your Father’s New Squeeze!, Elemeno
Pea Is Really L-M-N-O-P! The Rich Are Not Like Us!, The End,
the Interns’-Show, Needs a Stronger-Conclusion…,
Three Ten-Minute Plays in More Than Ten-Minutes!
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Opera
set in Stalin's era premieres at LaGuardia High School
Two Broadway artists and the real-life high school that inspired
the movie "Fame" have put their heads together to
create an opera about artists trying to make a movie musical
in Stalin's Russia. "Life of the Party," by the husband
and wife team of Nell Benjamin and Lawrence O'Keefe -- known
for their work on the Broadway show "Legally Blond: The
Musical," as well as "Cam Jansen" and "Sarah,
Plain and Tall" for Theaterworks USA -- was written for
New York City's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music &
Art and Performing Arts. Benjamin and O'Keefe said their work
was inspired by an 1997 documentary, "East Side Story,"
about Soviet movie musicals that tried to be both ideologically
correct and entertaining. By Ellen Freilich.
A
children's folk song animates a dance made in silence
“Pinguli, Pinguli,” choreographed by Nelly van Bommel,
draws upon multiple cultures and dance forms, the choreography
is a unique blend of theatricality, humor, and raw athleticism.
A work for nine dancers that explores community rituals and
practices, is set to traditional music from Sardinia, Sicily,
and Greece, sung by celebrated singer Savina Yannato. By Philip
W. Sandstrom.
Movement
explores brain mapping.
The Brodmann Areas is a new ballet that delves into the gaps
and synapses that define the 52 areas/regions of the cerebral
cortex of the brain. Vast and complex, these areas form a web
of collaborations among different parts of the brain. At its
basic level, these are the areas responsible for our interpretation
of sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. As science continues to
map the mind and its methods of perception, this ballet ventures
into decoding the impulse to action and the movement of language.
An interview with Julia K. Gleich by Philip W. Sandstrom.
4
Walls/Doubletoss Interludes
Philip Sandstrom interviews Robert Swinston, Artistic Associate
of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, about the creation of
"4 Walls/Doubletoss Interludes." Esteemed Russian
pianist Alexei Lubimov gave the Moscow premieres of several
works by John Cage in the 1960s. He has since performed an extensive
repertoire on stages throughout the world, ranging from Lincoln
Center to the Salzburg Festival. In this program, Lubimov plays
Cage’s Four Walls [1944] with a new staging of Merce Cunningham’s
Doubletoss [1993], arranged by Robert Swinston. Performed by
former Merce Cunningham dancers, "4 Walls/Doubletoss Interludes"
is a unique merging of the voices of Cage and Cunningham, interpreted
by artists deeply influenced by them.
Sidra
Bell in " Duel"
Philip Sandstrom
interviews Sidra Bell as she prepares her production of "Duel"
at Baruch Performing Arts Center in Manhattan.
Stephanie
Skura's "Two Huts"
Philip Sandstrom interviews Stephanie Skura as she prepares
her production of "Two Huts" at Roulette Space in
Brooklyn.
A
Tribute to Judy Garland and The Art of American Movie Dance
Town Hall's Seventh Annual Broadway
Cabaret Festival concludes with "A Tribute to Judy Garland
and The Art of American Movie Dance" hosted by Scott Siegel
with Lorna Luft and Susan Stroman. By Paulanne Simmons.
Songs
My Mother Taught Me
In “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” Lorna Luft combines
the repertoire that audiences associate with her mother and
personal memories that speak of humor and love. By Paulanne
Simmons.
The
6th Annual Weasel Festival: "The Red Letterbox" by
Alexandra Collier
Inspired
again by the genius of scribbler Mac Wellman, this year's 6th
annual Weasel festival features talented playwrights Caitlin
Brubacher, Alexandra Collier, Sara Farrington and Ariel Stess
with director Sarah Rasmussen. This experimental festival is
fast becoming an exciting platform for America's downtown playwrights
who are taking over from Broadway's blandness.We talk to award-winning
Australian playwright Alexandra Collier about her play "The
Red Letterbox." By Georgia Clark.
"Laughing
Liberally: This Ain't No Tea Party" by Justin Krebs
"Laughing Liberally: This Ain't No Tea Party"
mixes humor, musical numbers, video, and political satire to
spread understanding of liberal ideas, advance progressive values
and provoke the Tea Party. We spoke to Justin Krebs about the
nuts 'n' bolts of putting this show together. By Gerogia Clark.
"Bring
Us The Head Of Your Daughter" by Dereck Ahonen
"Bring Us The Head Of Your Daughter" is the latest
effort from those Off-Broadway darlings, The Amoralists. Playwright/director
Derek Ahonen explains his biting examination of an unconventional
family. By Georgia Clark.
Too
Much Light? Never!
The New York Neo-Futurists launch the sixth year of "Too
Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind"; a lightening-paced
attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. By Georgia Clark. |
