“Shep Houghton, who turns 100 today, could shape his era if he wanted. … During a career that stretched from Josef von Sternberg silents to Streisand musicals, Houghton was propositioned by a Munchkin, blew off Lucille Ball, and taught Greta Garbo to waltz.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Tony Broadcast Cut The ‘In Memoriam’ Segment – And Lots Of People Are Unhappy
Said one Broadway producer, “It looks like somewhere along the way theater people have lost control of the Tonys, and CBS is pushing them around. So we end up with a star like Jennifer Hudson singing a song from Finding Neverland even though she isn’t in the musical – and the musical isn’t even on Broadway.”
Spielberg Wants To Make Tony-Winning LBJ Play Into Miniseries
All The Way won statuettes for best play and best leading actor – Bryan Cranston, already a hot television property for starring in the just-concluded Breaking Bad. “Spielberg wants Cranston to reprise his role in a drama that begins with the Kennedy assassination, and spans the first year of Johnson’s administration,” including passage of the Civil Rights Act.
When I Met The Apartheid-Era Assassin I’m Now Playing Onstage
“Eugene de Kock was the head of South Africa’s death squad, which tortured and killed opponents of apartheid. Matthew Marsh, now playing De Kock in A Human Being Died That Night, recalls an astonishing meeting with the assassin in a Pretoria jail.”
Seattle Symphony’s ‘Baby Got Back’ Video – Enterprising Viral Hit Or Cheap And Tawdry Gimmick?
That’s the (predictable) debate that has arisen since a video of the orchestra’s performance with Sir Mix-a-Lot and a few dozen boogie-ing women started racking up the YouTube views. But that clip came from an actual concert of contemporary classical music, including a premiere by one Gabriel Prokofiev.
Composer Elodie Lauten, 63
“[Her] style, which incorporated elements of minimalism, pop, jazz, blues, classical composition, electronic music and improvisation and often combined traditional orchestral instruments with ambient sounds like bird song, sirens and amplified heartbeats – defied handy categorization. While not every critic warmed to that style, many praised her as a skilled melodist who could write music of surprising, satisfying consonance in a dissonant age.”
Daria Klimentová’s Parting Wish: Stop Mucking About With The Classics!
“Classical ballet is already getting smaller and smaller. I hope that it is not going to disappear. But what I see around me is a lot of choreographers who are destroying the classics. I wish that instead of doing Sleeping Beauty in some crazy new way, they would just go and invent their own full-length ballet story.”
Hong Kong’s Top Traditional Dance Company Moves Toward The Modern
“For more than three decades, the Hong Kong Dance Company has been synonymous with Chinese dance, especially traditional folk and ethnic disciplines. But with Yang Yuntao now at its helm, this focus is likely to shift.”
Will This Calder Be The Next Work The Delaware Art Museum Sells, Er, Deaccessions?
“Alexander Calder’s prominent Black Crescent mobile has been removed from the Delaware Art Museum’s East Court and its collections database, making it potentially the third work the museum will sell by October.”
The Problems With French Cinema, From a Producer Who Really Knows
Richard Brody talks with Marin Charmitz, who has produced films by directors from Godard, Resnais, Chabrol, and Malle to Kieslowski, Kechiche, and Kiarostami.