February 23, 2009
The big week-end is over. Saturday night both boos and bravos greeted The Los Angeles Opera’s premiere of Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”, the first in his four-opera saga based on Norse legends. Achim Freyer, 74-year-old German artist, designed and directed this unique, surreal production. Its basic theme is the timeless war between love and power acted out in a mythic realm. My full review is on CurtainUp.com so I’ll only say here that the Gods were giant puppets, the dwarfs wore masks, the Magic Helmet was a gold top hat and the characters emerged from Freyer’s dim mysterious lighting like exotic sea creatures. I came down hard on the side of the bravos.
No boos were heard, though some may have been hissed, at the Oscars, Hollywood’s New Year’s Eve and raison de etre. Hugh Jackman was Master of Ceremonies for the best production they’ve done in years. I much preferred his song-and-dance presentation of the top films to innumerable clips and would be happy to watch the multi-talented Jackson for the whole three hours. Another happy innovation was having each nominee introduced by a previous winner, so we saw such legendary stars as Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Robert DeNiro, Sir Ben Kingsley stepping out to acknowledge individual nominees. Even those who didn’t win went home feeling eulogized.
There were some upsets, particularly Sean Penn over Mickey Rourke in the Best Actor category. A lot of people were rooting for the Comeback Kid but Penn’s superb performance and the powerful speech he gave for equality rang with undisputable power. Penn’s speech reinforced that of “Milk”’s screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, who won for Best Original Screenplay.
Best Supporting Actress Award went to that fine, delicious actress Penelope Cruz whose talent no one can debate but memory still clings to the unforgettable work of Viola Davis in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt”. She had just one scene, that of a mother fighting for her child in a mid 20th-century Catholic school when his sexual orientation would have doomed him. She whispered to the nun, played by marvelous Meryl Streep, what his life was like, what he was like. No one who saw it will ever forget this scene which was the cornerstone of John Patrick Shanley’s mesmerizing play. One can only hope Davis’s talent opens the door for many more opportunities to share her range.
One always wonders as the awards ceremony winds through its three hours, numbingly long, no matter who tries what, if some of the technical awards could have been presented on a separate occasion. There’s always much moaning about the ratings so there’s an obvious conflict between what the Academy wants to do and what the networks feel they need. One option is a separate banquet/presentation for technical awards which could then be briefly announced at the Oscars.
On the other hand, the good students among the viewers can listen to the excellent expositions given by the actors who introduced the technical awards and learn. The rest of the audience are forcibly back in school to learn what learning is all about.
Or you can have another drink and graze the buffet table as those of us did at the Oscar party at my former travel partner’s home. Everybody brought hors d’hoevres or wine, gossiped, fought, filled out the ballots for the Oscar pool, were amazed that the pool winner flew by the seat of his pants with no insider knowledge, and wound up singing around the piano, a great thing to do at show-biz parties.
February 20, 2009
Reprise Theatre Company, which offers 2-week revivals of beloved Broadway musicals with professional casts, has struck it rich with its current production “Man of La Mancha”. Artistic Director Jason Alexander was right when he astutely observed in his Program Note that Don Quixote, the Knight of the Woeful Countenance, hits a resonant chord in his devotion to “impossible dreams” in grim times. In the end, as the Inquisition marches him away, it’s the courage and inspiration he leaves behind with his fellow prisoners that triumphs.
This superb production, directed by Michael Michetti who collaborated with the original adapter Dale Wasserman, stars Brent Spiner as an unostentatious but determined Miguel de Cervantes, the actor/writer imprisoned for debt, who actually wrote “Don Quixote” in prison. Here he performs it in a desperate attempt to fend off the other prisoners who want to pillage his chest of actors’ props and destroy his treasured manuscript.
He transforms lead into gold, particularly the brave brutalized scullery wench Aldonza (Julia Migenes) who, in his eyes, becomes his adored Lady Dulcinea. (See my review on CurtainUp.com.) Those who want to see Migenes on film can find “Carmen” with Placido Domingo directed by brilliant Italian director Francico Rosi or “Three Penny Opera” with Richard Harris and Raul Julia.
The “Man of La Mancha” music by Mitch Leigh with lyrics by Joe Darion still resounds and “The Impossible Dream” gets a thunderous ovation every time.
February 15, 2009
I’m all over the web this week. Monday I went to my first poetry reading with my first poem, an exhilarating new experience. There’s a big poetry community in Los Angeles which meets in bookstores, cafes and homes. The one I visited, Moonday Poetry, was in The Village Bookstore, Pacific Palisades (see MoondayPoetry.com). I was inspired to start a new magazine section, “Poetry”, below under Enthusiasms.
Covered two theatre premieres, “Time Stands Still” a new play by Donald Margulies in which two journalists explore the nature of war, the media and their relationship with bite and wit at The Geffen Playhouse and “Dracula”, an erotic chiller which gives new meaning to the concept of “bite” at Noho Theatre Ensemble in North Hollywood. See reviews on CurtainUp.com.
Whether you devote Valentine’s Day to love or romance, the perfect thing to do is put on a red dress and dance the tango, “the dance of love” as one popular song croons. The millonga I went to was hosted by the appropriately named Linda Valentino and the music seemed to be especially enfolding. There were many other events and dances all over town but my heart has been lost to the tango which I was introduced to five years ago by an Italian actor who grew up in Buenos Aires where he danced the tango every night. He’s still the best tanguero I know. For more information, see Linda’s website at A Puro Tango.com or Tango Afficionado.com.
February 8, 2009
“Minsky’s”, the bubbly new burlesque musical, debuted at the Ahmanson Friday night. (See my review on CurtainUp.com.) Barry Manilow was spotted speeding out the door afterwards. Ace producer Susan Loewenberg of LA Theatre Works blanched after a glance at her cell phone revealed that funding for the National Endowment for the Arts was on the government hit list. That would impact the arts as we know them! Hopefully someone will step up to the bat before the vote and strike a blow for the life of the spirit.
On a brighter note, 80-year-old musical star Anne Jeffreys just got an offer to do the revival of Jerome Kern’s “Music in the Air” in New York. She’s turned it down to stay here with us. Someone should mount “A Little Night Music” with Anne.
Anne may be too young to return to chilly New York but my 90-year-old girlfriend Frances Bay (“Happy Gilmore”’s grandma) just postponed our cocktail date for Tuesday because she had a job.
February 3, 2009
Welcome to February which began with the most unique and marvelous birthday party I’ve been to yet.
My friend Linda invited half a dozen girlfriends to the Olympic Spa on Olympic Boulevard, a superb Korean massage parlor, for an afternoon of steam room, hot tubs and an hour-long massage which ranged from scrub through shower to the kind of pounding, stroking, in-depth massage of your dreams, including a shampoo. We emerged to lie on the hot tile resting platform looking ten years younger. As we dried our hair with the hair dryers they provided, we were glad to be glowing for the rest of the party.
That included champagne and caviar at the home of our hostess and dinner in a Korean restaurant followed by tango lessons from Jason, an imported tango teacher who was gorgeous and smooth. What can you say to a hostess who thinks of everything? Just be glad she has a birthday every year.
February 23, 2009
The big week-end is over. Saturday night both boos and bravos greeted The Los Angeles Opera’s premiere of Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”, the first in his four-opera saga based on Norse legends. Achim Freyer, 74-year-old German artist, designed and directed this unique, surreal production. Its basic theme is the timeless war between love and power acted out in a mythic realm. My full review is on CurtainUp.com so I’ll only say here that the Gods were giant puppets, the dwarfs wore masks, the Magic Helmet was a gold top hat and the characters emerged from Freyer’s dim mysterious lighting like exotic sea creatures. I came down hard on the side of the bravos.
No boos were heard, though some may have been hissed, at the Oscars, Hollywood’s New Year’s Eve and raison de etre. Hugh Jackman was Master of Ceremonies for the best production they’ve done in years. I much preferred his song-and-dance presentation of the top films to innumerable clips and would be happy to watch the multi-talented Jackson for the whole three hours. Another happy innovation was having each nominee introduced by a previous winner, so we saw such legendary stars as Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Robert DeNiro, Sir Ben Kingsley stepping out to acknowledge individual nominees. Even those who didn’t win went home feeling eulogized.
There were some upsets, particularly Sean Penn over Mickey Rourke in the Best Actor category. A lot of people were rooting for the Comeback Kid but Penn’s superb performance and the powerful speech he gave for equality rang with undisputable power. Penn’s speech reinforced that of “Milk”’s screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, who won for Best Original Screenplay.
Best Supporting Actress Award went to that fine, delicious actress Penelope Cruz whose talent no one can debate but memory still clings to the unforgettable work of Viola Davis in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt”. She had just one scene, that of a mother fighting for her child in a mid 20th-century Catholic school when his sexual orientation would have doomed him. She whispered to the nun, played by marvelous Meryl Streep, what his life was like, what he was like. No one who saw it will ever forget this scene which was the cornerstone of John Patrick Shanley’s mesmerizing play. One can only hope Davis’s talent opens the door for many more opportunities to share her range.
One always wonders as the awards ceremony winds through its three hours, numbingly long, no matter who tries what, if some of the technical awards could have been presented on a separate occasion. There’s always much moaning about the ratings so there’s an obvious conflict between what the Academy wants to do and what the networks feel they need. One option is a separate banquet/presentation for technical awards which could then be briefly announced at the Oscars.
On the other hand, the good students among the viewers can listen to the excellent expositions given by the actors who introduced the technical awards and learn. The rest of the audience are forcibly back in school to learn what learning is all about.
Or you can have another drink and graze the buffet table as those of us did at the Oscar party at my former travel partner’s home. Everybody brought hors d’hoevres or wine, gossiped, fought, filled out the ballots for the Oscar pool, were amazed that the pool winner flew by the seat of his pants with no insider knowledge, and wound up singing around the piano, a great thing to do at show-biz parties.
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