Video projector: check
Black t-shirt, tight jeans: check
Glass of water, supply of whiskey: check
Comfy couch: check
Surround sound: check
Room to dance: check
Laptop to record snarky comments, not about performers, but about the way the show is going to shamelessly manipulate the audience’s feelings: check
Yep, I’m ready for Grease: You’re the one tonight. Are you?
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I can’t help it. I’m really excited.
I shouldn’t be. I’m a grown man, for goodness sake.
But today Mary Poppins opens on Broadway.
Now, don’t get me wrong–I’m very wary of what they may have done to this show. In fact, the word that they have actually changed the canonical Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious has me fuming. (Listening to it, I personally think it’s too slow and not an improvement). But I can’t wait to hear what they do with “Feed the Birds” and “Chim Chim Cheree.”
You can supposedly hear some of the new stuff over at NPR. However, right now the streaming media is …read more
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that there were two shows that I’d been looking forward to that were flailing and not doing too well. While I went on and on about The Times They Are A-Changin’, I didn’t mention the other one.
The writers of Miss Saigon and Les Miserables had teamed up to produce a very eagerly anticipated epic called “the Pirate Queen”. Visions of “Pirates-of-the-Caribbean meets Riverdance” were floating around, and the luscious billboards going up around Chicago almost made you hear the uilean pipes as you floundered through yet another confusing interchange…
Apparently, not so much. Reviews …read more
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That quote from Apollinaire Scherr is part of an interesting dialogue with another dance blogger, Dan Fox. I’m not sure that the mitutiae would be as fascinating to most readers of this blog as it is to me (I was weaned on dance crit and interactive theory, and reading their exchange is like coming home, in a way).
However, one particular part does have some direct relevance to the popular cultural performing arts this blog covers. Dan conveys the idea that watching a dance is a passive activity, and wonders how more "participatory culture" would enhance an audience’s experience. Scherr responds, …read more
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If you’re not familiar with the story behind the creation of the musical "RENT", you should look it up.
"For every burst of applause and prestigious award, there is the reminder that its creator is not here to share in its glory. In fact, it was only one week before Rent’s first preview that Jonathan Larson felt the first thump of the aortic aneurysm that would take him away…"
–From the official site.
And while his work has garnered many wonderful reviews, brought joy to many people and more than that, comfort where needed, I’m especially glad to hear that the Library of …read more
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Full disclosure: I am a flaming liberal. I’m even almost a militant liberal, as I am not one of those willing any more to say "Oh, live and let live" to the far right. Personal reasons; they threaten my lifestyle and that of my family, and frankly, anyone who wants to take freedom away from my daughters will have my enmity…but I digress.
In theatre, and tv, of course, the liberal media rules. The West Wing had a great president (liberal) so did Commander in Chief, and even if they paid lip service to conservatism here and there, they really didn’t …read more
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The Martha Graham Company performed in my town last night.
I’m very, very sad I missed it. It’s one of the curses of being a Real Person, as opposed to that glorified and totally unrealistic view of the American Artist. Me, I had a kid who was sick and needed to go to the doctor, a podcast that needed to be edited, a wife who needs my attention (since I’ve been spending so much time writing and such), and there really weren’t the finances to go and see it anyway.
I shouldn’t feel bad–there was a time when no one was seeing …read more
Say hello to Sara Michelson. I have an instant affinity for her dancework, since she made her debut at PS 122 in NYC, which was also the site of my first semi-pro gig (I was only a technical advisor, but it was NEW YORK, baby!).
The woman is making quite a splash in the dance world with some pretty unusual pieces–when Baryshnikov commissioned her to do a piece for his White Oak Project, for example, she responded by choreographing a piece where he was shackled and (mostly) stripped. Her P.S. 122 piece actually hid the dancers for a good portion of …read more
My wife and I decided, when we were planning our own wedding ceremony, that the first thing we wanted to do as husband and wife was to dance the Argentinian tango together. We’d been learning it for several months, loved the movie Tango, and plus liked the idea of surprising everyone. It was nerve wracking–she even had nightmares about it, but we created a little comedy version based on the bad dream. It was danced by myself and the dancer Sarah McAlister for an improv dance festival back in ‘98:
The wedding tango itself went off without a hitch. I still …read more
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With merely minutes left in my vacation, I’m getting back to the regular postings here, unfortunately with a bit of an apology.
Namely, I was listening to one of the podcasts that I recommended, the Common Tone podcast, which is supposed to be about classical music. Now, it really is about classical music…but it’s mainly with the talking and talking of a couple of old friends, occasionally discussing esoteric aspects of music theory.
Nothing wrong with that. They are quite pleasant, and knowledgeable, but they really don’t address the direct performative aspects of the arts.
No, for music I would recommend …read more
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