Sunday, November 17, 2024
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation is review-proof. Creator/Writer/Director Gerard Alessandrini started parodying The Great White Way in 1982, and The Triad Theatre (158 West 72nd Street) was packed with show-tune types for its first reincarnation in five years. Running through November 30, the 80-minute revue is the best kind of tried-and-true evening, matinee or celebratory time out with a great cast and Fred Barton at the piano. Alessandrini didn't have to look hard for new material. Most of the skewering is for movies turned into musicals - a formula with mixed creative and box office results. Moulin Rouge!, Tootsie and Beetlejuice all get
Author: Patricia Contino
Next Wave 2019: ‘The Second Woman’ at BAM Fisher
The happiest and worst memories are those that last, re-playing over and over in one's head. Movies have the same effect, like smiling when thinking about Han Solo winking at Princess Leia in the throne room, or grinding teeth because the sights and sounds of La La Land won't ever go away. Co-creators Nat Randall and Anna Breckon apply the continuous loop to The Second Woman. Starting in BAM Fisher on Friday,October 18 at 5 PM and ending 24 hours later, the intrepid, amazing Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Transparent, Drunk History) repeated the same awkward love scene with 100 actors. An
William Forsythe: A Quiet Evening of Dance at The Shed
Walking to The Shed, NYC's newest cultural center on West 30th Street and 11th Avenue, is a visual lesson in urban planning. After exiting the A train on 34th Street at the eyesore that is Penn Station and crossing Eighth Avenue, signage indicates that there will be the new Moynihan Station. (Among the many reasons to see Ed Norton's Motherless Brooklyn when it opens next month is the recreation of the original Penn Station.) Heading towards 11th Ave. and the Hudson River are more glassy complexes way closer to completion than the long-delayed station. There's also Neiman Marcus. The Shed's physical address, 545 30th Street, is
Co•Lab Dance at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
"What did you do on your summer vacation?" is a big conversation starter this time of year Dancers dance, whether on tour, as featured guests at festivals, or for members of American Ballet Theatre, exploring their art at Co•Lab Dance . Led by Founder-Director and ABT colleague Lauren Post, On September 6 and 7, Co•Lab showed two sold-out audiences at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center what they did between ABT's two seasons at Lincoln Center. The four engaging new works were created by female choreographers; something their home company is seriously trying to address. Here this was a matter-of-fact new normal. Forming Co•Lab''s sophomore company were ABT Soloists
Ma-Yi Theater Company Presents the World Premiere of “Felix Starro” at Theatre Row
Like many musicals, Felix Starro, opening Ma-Yi Theatre Company's 30th anniversary season at Theatre Row, is about the tenuous connection between family and faith. What makes Felix's strong ensemble of voices unique is that they are heard in the first Off-Broadway Filipino-American musical where pain may be imaginary but always real. Jessica Hagedorn's book and Fabian Obispo's score is based on Lysley Tenorio's short story. Filipino psychic surgeon Felix (Alan Ariano) and his teenage grandson Junior (Nacho Tambunting) are in 1980s San Francisco on the older man's latest mission to heal those in pain. His technique combines prayer and a lot of faith on the part of the seeker.
Lara Spencer Won’t Read This and I Don’t Care
My first reaction to Good Morning America anchor Lara Spencer's insensitive remarks about young Prince George taking ballet lessons was primal outrage. Ballet is one of my "things" - despite the entitlement and snobbery I still encounter because, well, someone from a suburban working class home doesn't belong. That she and her GMA audience think ballet is laughable is something else. Mocking a six-year-old's participation in an activity combining physical fitness and aesthetics or anything else is alarming. Is it okay for girls to rightly emulate the world champion U.S. Women's Soccer team but boys can't aspire performing The Nutcracker Prince?
Joyce Ballet Festival Program C, or The Art of the Arabesque
Arabesque: "One of the basic poses in ballet, arabesque takes its name from a form of Moorish ornament. In ballet it is a position of the body, in profile, supported on one leg, which can be straight or demi-plié, with the other leg extended behind and at right angles to it, and the arms held in various harmonious positions creating the longest possible line from the fingertips to the toes. The shoulders must be held square to the line of direction. The forms of arabesque are varied to infinity...Arabesques are generally used to conclude a phrase of steps, both in
Yang Liping Contemporary Dance’s ‘Under Siege’ at Mostly Mozart
Since there is no longer a Lincoln Center Festival (the moral being never hire a former college president who believed locals could summer in Salzburg or other pricey European festivals just like ex-colleagues and students/alums can), Mostly Mozart successfully transitioned to a more inclusive schedule. Choreographer/Director Yang Liping's Under Siege, an entertaining retelling of the Ancient Chinese Chu-Han Contention may seem a bit of a stretch, but at its conclusion when pieces of red paper symbolizing dead warriors and one fiercely loyal maiden fell, its message is very clear: a world without harmony.is dangerous. Audiences filing in to the Koch Theater saw the
Midsummer Dance Card: Tradition Defined
A delightful part of ballet history was at the Joyce July 7-14. The Dance is an art because it demands vocation, knowledge, and ability. It is a fine art because it strives for an ideal, not only in plastic but also in lyrical respect. The beauty to which the Dance ought to aspire is not dependent upon taste or pleasure, but is founded on the immutable laws of nature. Dancer/Choreographer August Bournonville (1805-1879) Let's start with the finale. Ida Praetorius and Ulrik Birkkjaer, who danced so beautifully earlier in the evening, rejoin their colleagues. They are the first of several couples performing tarantellas with stunning degrees
Final Performances of Megan Monaghan Rivas’s ‘Three Musketeers: 1941’ This Weekend!
Even if King Arthur didn't return to the aid of Great Britain during World War II, other heroes like Wonder Woman, Captain America, Sherlock Holmes and The Scarlet Pimpernel aided the Allies. Now they are joined by Megan Monaghan Rivas's Three Musketeers: 1941 at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres. June 27-30 are Rivas's likable re-imagination's final performances. Hopefully her smart update will find audiences beyond NYC. Commissioned for the Women in Theatre (WIT) Festival, the four loyal guards are now dedicated female Resistance fighters. The time transition is so smooth that there's no need to be familiar with the 1844