Less of an opera, more of a musical: ‘Porgy and Bess’ returning to Broadway

 musical theatre, opera  No Responses »
Jun 302011
 

A revamped ver­sion of George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” star­ring Audra McDon­ald, Norm Lewis and David Alan Grier, will go to Broad­way soon after it com­pletes its run, pre­vi­ously announced, at the Amer­ican Rep­er­tory Theater in Cam­bridge, Mass.

Pro­du­cers announced that the show — which plays down its roots as an opera and fea­tures a reworked book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning play­wright Suzan-Lori Parks and new arrange­ments by Diedre Mur­ray — will open at the Richard Rodgers Theater on Janu­ary 12, with pre­views begin­ning on Decem­ber 17.… con­tinue reading

Minnelli in London: Here’s to us, Who’s like us? Damn few.

 music  No Responses »
Jun 302011
 

Mark Shenton’s enter­tain­ing and well-written blog is one of my fre­quent inter­net stops. Here’s what he says about Liza Min­nelli, last night at the Albert Hall:

Instead, return­ing to the Albert Hall last night with a trun­cated “greatest hits” set, she stayed within her own new lim­it­a­tions — she men­tions the two replace­ment hips and new knee — to offer a show that was full of spirit. And that’s pre­cisely what the audi­ence have come to col­lect­ively cel­eb­rate: her own his­tory and ours with her…

…And she’s thin again, too. The voice may at times be more of a throaty, breath­less rasp and she hits some really bum notes, but the spirit is still will­ing, even if the flesh (and voice) is less so. But her vul­ner­ab­il­ity and palp­able need have sur­vived: she needs us almost more than we need her. Her declar­a­tion of love for the audi­ence doesn’t feel like some phony show­biz sen­ti­ment, but one she really feels; “you are my fam­ily now”, she declares.

… con­tinue reading

Haley Joel Osment drawn back to the dead

 cinema  No Responses »
Jun 302011
 

Twelve years after The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment has returned to fre­quent dead people. This time around, he’s using them as sci­ence projects.

Osment will star in “Wake the Dead”, an upcom­ing adapt­a­tion of Mary Shelley’s “Franken­stein”. Based on Steven Niles’ Frankenstein-themed graphic nov­els, Osment will play Vic­tor Frank­lin, a col­lege stu­dent mor­bidly exper­i­ment­ing with the lim­its of human death.… con­tinue reading

‘On a Clear Day You Can See Forever’ returns to Broadway with Harry Connick Jr.

 musical theatre  No Responses »
Jun 292011
 

How to Suc­ceed in Busi­ness Without Really Try­ing and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum are prob­ably the two record hold­ers for the longest musical title, and now On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, at 8 words, is head­ing back to Broad­way star­ring Harry Con­nick Jr. It will open on Decem­ber 11 at the St James Theater.

With music by Bur­ton Lane and lyr­ics by Alan Jay Lerner, the new pro­duc­tion of this clas­sic musical will fea­ture a new book by Peter Par­nell (“QED”), based on the ori­ginal book by Lerner. The Tony Award-winning Michael Mayer (“Spring Awaken­ing”) will dir­ect the show. Con­nick, the singer, actor and bandleader, will play Dr Mark Bruck­ner, a psy­chi­at­rist pin­ing for his dead wife. When Dr Bruck­ner takes on the case of David Gamble, a florist’s assist­ant, he dis­cov­ers that Gamble might have had a former life as Melinda Wells, a 1940s jazz singer with whom the psy­chi­at­rist falls in love.… con­tinue reading

Elizabeth Taylor’s belongings to tour the world and benefit her AIDS Foundation

 other  No Responses »
Jun 292011
 

Eliza­beth Taylor’s col­lec­tion of jew­ellery, art and designer cloth­ing will be exhib­ited around the world, Christie’s auc­tion house has announced. The three-month tour will start in Septem­ber and include stops in Moscow, Lon­don and Dubai before the items are sold at an auc­tion in New York.

Known for her love of dia­monds, the act­ress owned some of the world’s most expens­ive stones.

The Eliza­beth Taylor AIDS Found­a­tion will receive pro­ceeds from the exhibit.… con­tinue reading

Italian President gets honorary degree from Oxford

 other  No Responses »
Jun 292011
 

Italian Pres­id­ent Gior­gio Napol­it­ano received an hon­or­ary degree in law from the Uni­ver­sity of Oxford today. Napolitano, the first former Com­mun­ist to become Italian pres­id­ent, appeared “vis­ibly moved” by the hon­our, which came on his 86th birthday.

The presid­ing pro­fessor recalled that Oxford liked to recog­nise heads of states who have “furthered the well­being of their people and friend­ship between nations”.

Napol­it­ano, a WWII Res­ist­ance fighter, was praised for “the struggle in his youth against tyranny and for the free­dom of his coun­try” and for qual­it­ies includ­ing “the abil­ity to stay calm, fair and incor­rupt­ible in the most crit­ical situ­ations” as well as his “saga­city, wis­dom and cul­ture”.… con­tinue reading

Francis Bacon’s Study for a Portrait 1953 sells for £18m

 art  No Responses »
Jun 292011
 

A Fran­cis Bacon paint­ing has sold for nearly £18m at auc­tion in Lon­don on Tuesday. Study for a Por­trait 1953 exceeded expect­a­tion as Christie’s had val­ued the mas­ter­piece at £11m. The oil can­vas, which has not been up for auc­tion before, was described as “an arrest­ing and dark study in the degrad­a­tion of power”. It was pre­vi­ously owned by two of Bacon’s con­tem­por­ar­ies — Rodrigo Moyni­han and Louis Le Brocquy.

The work was the second most valu­able piece to be sold at one of Christie’s post-war and con­tem­por­ary art sales. The highest selling work in this cat­egory was Bacon’s Trip­tych, which went for £26.3m in Feb­ru­ary 2008.… con­tinue reading

ABT’s Swan Lake: the unemotional performances meant there probably wasn’t a damp eye in the house

 ballet  No Responses »
Jun 292011
 

“Unemo­tional”, “express­ive lim­it­a­tions”, “without real excite­ment”, not a good start to the ’s cur­rent run of . The pro­duc­tion maybe doesn’t help the prin­cipals, as Alistair Macaulay points out, “unless you think that 32 fou­etté turns are what bal­let is all about, this pro­duc­tion really doesn’t show­case the greatest fea­tures of .” While cer­tain that other casts will bring other emo­tions, here is what three New York papers have to say about the opening night:

‘Swan Lake’ is one of ballet’s great tear­jerkers; bring a hanky — or two — for the end­ing. But at Amer­ican Bal­let Theatre’s open­ing night on Monday, the unemo­tional per­form­ances meant there prob­ably wasn’t a damp eye in the house.

Jose Manuel Car­reno per­formed as the hero, Prince Siegfried, and played the dual role of the cap­tive, enchanted white swan Odette and the evil black swan Odile. Both dan­cers are con­sum­mate pros who have each been with the com­pany for more than 15 years, but all that exper­i­ence added up to act­ing by rote…

…But though the skill is there, the emo­tion isn’t.

… con­tinue reading

Annie Lennox collects her OBE for charity work from the Queen

 awards, charity, music  No Responses »
Jun 292011
 

Annie Len­nox has col­lec­ted an OBE from the Queen at Buck­ing­ham Palace for her char­ity work fight­ing Aids and poverty in Africa.The former Eurythmics singer, 56, said: “Its quite magical. Its really mean­ing­ful to me that its for charity work.

“To get this acknow­lege­ment means people are listen­ing. Cam­paign­ing has been tak­ing up a great deal of my com­mit­ment for quite a few years, and what it means is that theres a sig­ni­fic­ance to what Im doing — Im not just work­ing in a void”.… con­tinue reading

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