Terry Gilliam on directing The Damnation of Faust with his tongue stuck firmly in his cheek!

 other  No Responses »
Apr 302011
 

Terry Gilliam’s pro­duc­tion of  The Dam­na­tion of Faust is about to open at the Eng­lish National Opera — here are some of his com­ments about opera, Faust and directing opera:

“The operas I went to when I was younger were tedi­ous, so I was never lured back.”

“People have been badger­ing me for years to do opera. I’ve always res­isted, but they caught me at a low point in my life. I signed the piece of paper and now I’m damned.”

“Berlioz’s music in Faust is so sur­pris­ing and bril­liant; there’s humour in it, there’s beauty in it.”

“Who wants a for­eigner, who is not part of the opera world, com­ing in and mess­ing with their toys?”

“I don’t think this pro­duc­tion is about the visu­als, we don’t want to upstage the music. Actu­ally I’m very musical — I play the banjo and I can tap my toes in the right tempo.”… con­tinue reading

Joel Grey is almost 80 and working as hard as ever — but take a look at him at 22

 musical theatre  No Responses »
Apr 302011
 

Grey is cur­rently in the Broad­way revival of  as Moon­face Mar­tin and is also the dir­ector of  ’s “The ” which has just opened on Broad­way. Not bad for a 79 year-old.

Where does he get his energy from? Well look at this won­der­ful super-charged clip of him singing, dan­cing and clown­ing in 1954.

… con­tinue reading

“The Book of Mormon” leads the 2011 Drama Desk nominees

 awards, musical theatre, theatre  No Responses »
Apr 302011
 

“The Book of Mor­mon,” the satir­ical Broad­way show about Mor­mons by the cre­at­ors of “South Park” has 12 nom­in­a­tions for Drama Desk awards. It was nom­in­ated for out­stand­ing musical, best dir­ec­tion and best lyr­ics, as well as earn­ing three acting nods.

Daniel Rad­cliffe was singled out for his role as the ambi­tious J. Pierre­pont Finch in a revival of the 1962 Pulitzer-Prize win­ning show “How to Suc­ceed in Busi­ness Without Really Trying.” It was the movie star’s Broad­way musical debut, three years after he hit Broad­way as a dis­turbed stable boy in “Equus” in 2008.

The revival of the Cole Porter musical “” nabbed 10 nom­in­a­tions, includ­ing one for its Tony-award win­ning star Sut­ton Foster.

’s per­form­ance as Shylock in “The Mer­chant of Venice” won rave reviews and helped bring the play’s total tally of nom­in­a­tions to seven.

Geof­frey Rush and were nom­in­ated for their per­form­ances in the plays “The Diary of a Mad­man” and “Good People” respect­ively.… con­tinue reading

New York bookstore which stocks only one book

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Apr 302011
 

Vis­it­ors to a New York City book­store can browse its “New and Note­worthy” or “Sci­ence” sec­tions or even “Staff Favor­ites” but all they will find is thou­sands of cop­ies of a single book.

“Please let us know if we can help you find some­thing,” Andrew Kessler told cus­tom­ers on Fri­day amid shelves and tables piled with copy after copy of a hard­cover called “Mar­tian Sum­mer: Robot Arms, Cow­boy Space­men, and My 90 Days with the Phoenix Mars Mission.” It’s author, Kessler, 32, said that in the last few weeks he has sold nearly 500 cop­ies of the only book he stocks.

“It’s so hard to get people to notice if you’re a first-time author,” said Kessler, who is oth­er­wise the cre­at­ive dir­ector at an advert­ising agency.

The $27.95 book is a behind-the-scenes account of the three months Kessler spent in 2009 observing the sci­ent­ists who worked on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander mis­sion, which is cel­eb­rated for con­firm­ing the pres­ence of water on the planet.… con­tinue reading

Milan celebrates Giò Ponti — native hero of 20th-century Italian design

 architecture, design  1 Response »
Apr 302011
 

Two exhib­its in cel­eb­rate the work of homegrown archi­tect and hero of 20th-century Italian archi­tec­ture and design, Gio’ Ponti (1891–1979). The shows open on May 6 in the Ponti-designed and the Tri­en­nale Museum in Parco Sempione.

The Pirelli Tower’s “Gio’ Ponti” exhibit, which marks the 50th anniversary of the lithe, wafer-shaped land­mark, offers a rare sur­vey of his early cre­at­ive work and — as he was inspired by the Nove­cento Itali­ano art move­ment — his efforts to cre­ate neo­clas­sical dec­or­at­ive art in the 1920s.

The Nove­cento Itali­ano art move­ment was foun­ded in Milan and spear­headed by ’s mis­tress — a Jew­ish intel­lec­tual, journ­al­ist and critic — and art gal­lery owner Lino Pesaro. The move­ment chal­lenged the European artistic van­guard by seek­ing inspir­a­tion from clas­sical art. It also sup­por­ted Fascism.

The “Gio’ Ponti” exhibit focuses on the architect’s ceramic designs made for Richard-Ginori from 1923 to 1930, which revo­lu­tion­ized products offered by the fine-china maker foun­ded in 1735.… con­tinue reading

London’s Shrek talks about fatsuits and farting lessons

 musical theatre  No Responses »
Apr 302011
 

opens at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane next Fri­day. who plays the green man talked to The Times about his first fat­suit fitting:

After lunch it’s my first fat­suit fit­ting. First they stick on the fat­suit worn on Broad­way for a year by the actor Brian d’Arcy James. It’s lovely to be so close to Shrek at last, less to be so close to Brian. Even with the air­holes, punched in by an indus­trial rivet-maker, there’s twelve months of reek­ing Shrek sweat in here. I hold my breath as the huge, pad­ded, slightly moist two-piece suit goes on, then the all-in-one tartan strides, the hes­sian top and brown belt, six-inch-heeled boots, and the green cowl.

My first impres­sion is one of intense excite­ment. Then the heat hits me. I’ve only been stand­ing here for five minutes but feel as if I’d done a two-hour alfresco step class at noon in Ouagadougou.

… con­tinue reading

Patrice Chéreau on English actors, the theatre, and his homosexuality

 theatre  1 Response »
Apr 292011
 

The Guard­ian went to meet  who is in to rehearse the first play he has ever dir­ec­ted in the UK. It’s a coup for the Young Vic. The play he is rehears­ing is I Am The Wind, a spare, con­cen­trated two-hander writ­ten by the Nor­we­gian Jon Fosse.

He talked about work­ing with Eng­lish actors:

They are very dis­cip­lined, very open, and because of the con­di­tion of the Eng­lish theatre, they work very quickly. In France, we have a lot of time. Act­ors there like to wait for inspir­a­tion to arrive.”

About French and Eng­lish theatre:

France is the coun­try of the dir­ect­ors; here, you are the coun­try of the writers.”

And about being gay and how it has affected him as an artist:

I’m not really inter­ested in know­ing what it affects. I never wanted to spe­cial­ise in gay stor­ies, and gay news­pa­pers have cri­ti­cised me for that. Every­where love stor­ies are exactly the same.

… con­tinue reading

‘Catch Me If You Can’ grabs six Astaire award nominations

 other  No Responses »
Apr 292011
 

The musical “Catch Me If You Can” earned a lead­ing six nom­in­a­tions for the Fred & Adele Astaire Awards, which recog­nize excel­lence in dance on Broad­way and in film.

The nom­in­ees for best Broad­way cho­reo­graphy include Rob Ash­ford for “How to Suc­ceed in Busi­ness Without Really Try­ing,” Kath­leen Mar­shall for “Any­thing Goes,” Jerry Mitchell for “Catch Me If You Can,” Toby Sedg­wick for “War­horse,” Susan Stro­man for “The Scott­s­boro Boys,” Anthony Van Laast for “Sis­ter Act,” Danny Mef­ford for “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jack­son,” Mar­guer­ite Der­ricks for “Won­der­land” and Casey Nich­olaw for “The Book of Mormon.”

Sut­ton Foster for “Any­thing Goes” and Daniel Rad­cliffe for “How to Suc­ceed in Busi­ness Without Really Try­ing” are both indi­vidual award nominations.

The awards will be handed out May 15.… con­tinue reading

New York City Ballet and in talks with dancers on contracts and deficits

 other  No Responses »
Apr 292011
 

As New York City Bal­let pre­pares for its spring gala on May 11, the com­pany is engaged in con­ten­tious nego­ti­ations with its dan­cers over their union con­tract, which expired in August, said the New York Times.

A fed­eral medi­ator has been brought in to help with the talks, which have grown unusu­ally acri­mo­ni­ous over issues like salary increases, over­time, sick-pay policies and dan­cers’ par­ti­cip­a­tion in small off-season tours.

“It was never like this,” said Alan S. Gor­don, national exec­ut­ive dir­ector of the Amer­ican Guild of Musical Artists, the union rep­res­ent­ing the dan­cers. “Our goal is to make a deal, not to prompt a strike. I’m not optimistic.”

Facing a $6 mil­lion defi­cit on an oper­at­ing budget of $62 mil­lion, the bal­let com­pany says it is simply try­ing to grapple with the tough eco­nomic con­di­tions affect­ing all cul­tural organ­iz­a­tions, namely a drop in repeat attend­ance and flat fund-raising. Kath­er­ine Brown, City Ballet’s exec­ut­ive dir­ector, said the company’s policies regard­ing dan­cers have been “very gen­er­ous” and often more than the industry stand­ard.… con­tinue reading

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