Fame or Famine

I swear, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
In the category of “stage to screen” I could probably somewhat justify Al Gore’s famous slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth. After all, it went on to become not just a book but also a Nobel-Peace-Prize winning movie. Well, ok, Mr. Gore got the prize, but it wasn’t for his work as V.P.
Turning It Up to Eleven
Now, however, it’s going the other way, as Giorgio Battistelli of Milan’s La Scala opera house is going to undertake to turn it into an opera, set to debut in 2011. Yes, that’s right, an opera about global warming.
Battistelli …read more

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I’m very excited to read that the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is going to host the premiere of the new musical Little House on the Prairie. Directed by Francesca Zambello, it’s a re-telling of the classic 70’s television show.
Melissa Gilbert: Typecasting or Resource?
I find myself questioning the casting of Melissa Gilbert in the role of “Ma Ingalls” – not because I doubt her abilities as an actress, but more because there is quite a difference between acting – even on a stage – and performing in a musical. She has more than enough cred with “straight plays”: A Shayna Maidel …read more

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The Show Tracker at the LA Times brought up an interesting point about So You Think You Can Dance. Specifically, Claire talks about her surprise – at first – at the snippy and irritated way the judges treat the dancers auditioning. Unlike American Idol, they seem truly annoyed with not only the dancers who truly have no chance, but also with some dancers like “Stepford Dancer” Paige Jones, who puts in an honest effort but still… has no real chance.
Her theory is that unlike Dancing with the Stars, which doesn’t really have an audition process, SYTYCD has a very limited …read more

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Lynn Devries, my fellow B5Media blogger, has a nice prequel to the So You Think You Can Dance season coming up. She snagged an interview with the host, Cat Deeley, along with the folks over at TV Guide.
One of the more interesting things I found in it was Cat’s comments about the true purpose of the show. “…this isn’t just a dance competition. It’s to find America’s favorite dancer…” That explains a lot to people who complained last year that so many technically proficient dancers were being given the boot while those who engaged more with the audience stayed in …read more

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What better way to kick off the start of So You Think You Can Dance tonight but with an announcement of another opportunity to dance with some stars?
Li Chiao-Ping is a choreographer and dancer originally from San Francisco, now living in Wisconsin. Her dance company has toured all over the world, and she has dedicated her company to “offering programs of emotionally charged and athletic works, with striking visual design and the music of contemporary composers.” She has been the chair of several dance departments and is the wife of award-winning video artist Douglas Rosenberg.
The auditions will be held June …read more

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We’ve had our own insight into the brave dedication of the cast of Beirut’s High School Musical, including the gracious input of Milia Ayache, whose sister Rania plays Sharpay Evans. But ABC news has also taken note, and draws a correlation between the theme of the performance and the fact that literally during the performance the warring factions that caused the strife were agreeing to put aside their weapons in favor of talking over their differences.
There was another part of the article, a minor part, that I found very interesting from a theatrical point of view. Apparently, when the streets …read more

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A couple of fascinating literary works have come out – one journalistic, one autobiographical – that serve to really highlight how much the world has moved on from the days of Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov leaping over airport turnstiles to defect to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Alexei Ratmansky
In the New York Times Chip Brown has written a piece about the very young artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, Alexei Ratmansky. At 39 he has become “one of the most sought after choreographers in the world.” Instead of plotting his escape from totalitarianism, the …read more

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Remember back in the day?
Back when entertainers were more than a pretty face (not that pretty faces don’t work hard, I wouldn’t say that)? But when there were people like Sammy Davis Jr., who could sing, dance, act, and do a mean stand up act, all at once. It’s been a while since we’ve had triple threats like that in stardom.
Usher: a Man of All Stages
While he came to fame as an R&B singer, Usher made the move to Broadway with a role in Chicago. You have to give credit to someone who reaches beyond their immediate skillset – it …read more

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I had the distinct pleasure recently of dining at the Med Hookah lounge in Madison, WI, which aside from having great Mediterranean food also feature middle eastern dancers (aka bellydancers, though some don’t like that term).
Those Who Can, Teach
One of the performers there is Arielle, a teacher at the Madison Multicultural Dance Center with Mona N’wal and others. Though very young, Arielle’s been dancing since she was fourteen, and that leads to quite a bit of experience as well as talent.
That evening she did a three-part set, starting with two traditional songs and then a blended hip-hop/bellydance routine of her …read more

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Well, I didn’t follow the Dancing With the Stars competition as closely as I’d like – got sidetracked into dancing myself for a month. But I’m not surprised that Kristi Yamaguchi is the clear winner. As I said at the beginning of the season, it almost seems to be an unfair advantage – the goal of the show is to get people who may not be normally dancers to dance well. An Olympic Gold Medalist in figure skating is going to have a pretty good idea of how to move her body, I think.
Still, the purpose is entertainment, and she …read more

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