Dance & Theater
36 posts found
-
Gang of actors reaches a new stage
The Actors' Gang, now in residence at the historic Ivy Substation in Culver City, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The substation, constructed in 1907 by the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, looks more like a Spanish mission than an electric power facility, strangely appropriate for The Actors' Gang, which is both a theater troupe with a strong sense of mission and a longtime source of power plays and electric performances (and that's as far as I'm willing to stretch this metaphor).… -
The Great Wall of Bernstein
Over the course of a year, I collect books I should read and books I want to read, but -- should have/would have/could have -- many I never get around to reading. Over the last few months, as last year came to a close and this new one began, and as a side benefit of watching less TV during the strike, I decided to tackle a stack of them. As is often the case, the books I read could be… -
Crystal Clear (700 Sundays)
Billy Crystal has something he wants to share with you. Crystal has had a diverse and varied career, with plenty of ups and downs, as a stand-up comic, a TV performer and a movie actor. On the one hand, he starred in "When Harry Met Sally," a movie that convinced many non-Jewish women to imagine that they were Meg Ryan and that they could find true happiness by sleeping with a short, funny Jew (we owe you big). On the… -
In Search of Himself (Bruce Goldsmith's "When It Comes to Women")
The High Holidays are always a good time to reflect, and this year, as I was serially sermonized in ways both inspirational and depressing, I was asked to consider that we can always start anew — that, as the dorm posters used to say, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.†Which reminds me of what Reb Jackie Mason said on the subject: “If we live every day like it’s the last day of our lives… -
"History Happens" (David Hare's "Stuff Happens")
After the intermission, the lights start to dim. A lone woman is on stage. She waits for the audience to settle in. She is well dressed, well groomed. She begins: “For the Palestinians, there is no other context. We see everything in the context of Palestine.†In the June 26 Los Angeles Times’ Art Notes, Don Shirley reported that this speech draws the most intense reactions — applause and boos — of any scene in “Stuff Happens,†David Hare’s play… -
Heart to Hart
A few weeks ago, the Geffen Playhouse showcased a memorable special event: “Here’s to Life,†Kitty Carlisle Hart’s cabaret-style one-woman show, accompanied by her musical director, David Lewis. Hart, 94, performed for a little over an hour, reminiscing and singing songs from some of her late friends such as Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Cole Porter, presenting in one evening a short history of the American musical theater. My daughter, who is 7, knows Kitty… -
"Old Lessons Never Die" (Abby Mann's "Judgment" in Long Beach) 6-17-05
If, as the bard wrote, "All the world's a stage," then let me direct you to a current production that, though seeming of another time, and another era, and based on a film more than 40 years old, offers enduring truths that seem particularly relevant to current events. "Judgment At Nuremberg" Abby Mann's courtroom drama about the post-World War II trial of Nazi-era German Judges is having its Southern California stage premiere this Friday, June 17 at the International City… -
The Way It Was (Growing up Jewish in New York)
Last week, playwright Donald Margulies, The Manhattan Theater Club and The Forward weekly newspaper announced the winners of a contest they sponsored on the topic of “What It’s Like Growing Up Jewish in New York.†You can read the winning entries at www.forward.com. I regret to say you will not find my name among them (what do they know?). Still, my great consolation is being able to share my account with you: Growing up Jewish in New York as the… -
Dancing Queen (Liane Weintraub and Dance in LA)
Amid myriad reasons for moving to and living in Los Angeles, let me add one: this is a city where one dedicated individual can still have a major cultural impact. This came to mind recently when I made the acquaintance of Liane Weintraub, a new mother in her mid-30s. Weintraub lives in Malibu and no one could blame her for enjoying the life she is fortunate enough to lead. Instead, she has taken on a different challenge. In a short… -
Listening to Lenny (Lenny Bruce)
One night many, many years ago, I was at The Comedy Store on amateur night when Robin Williams walked in off the street and jumped onto the stage. For the next 45 minutes, the air inside the club turned into nitrous oxide as Williams made us all feel a bit brighter, a bit wittier, a bit more manically high just for being able to keep up with him. It felt like being inside a comic mind that was both unhinged… -
Newman Cares (Randy Newman)
Are we the luckiest people in the world to live in Los Angeles, leading the lives others only dream about? Or is this the most unfair city in the nation, where the few are insulated from the harsh realities of the many? And what, you may wonder, does any of this have to do with Randy Newman? Those are among the many questions that came to mind while attending "Shock and Awe: The Songs of Randy Newman," a recent UCLA… -
Delightful Offensiveness Key to 'Producers' Genius
src="http://www.s121907096.onlinehome.us/tommywood/articleImages/producers.06.06.03.jpg" width="200" height="222" align="right" vspace="5" hspace="10"/>To understand something of the success of "The Producers," it helps to understand something of its history. There is probably no person on the planet who doesn’t know the story of how this sensation of a musical came to pass, but let me quickly recap: In the early ’60s, Mel Brooks writes the book for the Charles Strouse-Lee Adams musical "All American." Their last musical "Bye Bye Birdie" was a hit. "All American" was not.…