Acclaimed British playwright Joe Orton’s life has been the subject of a book and film (‘Prick up Your Ears’) and now Lanie Robertson’s farcical play comes to Los Angeles for its West Coast première, fresh from its hit run off-Broadway. Orton’s story is an interesting one. He spent his adult years living in a tiny [...]
Entries from November 2008
November 27, 2008
D’unbelievables
Sending up ‘Oirishness’ to the nth degree is D’Unbelievables, otherwise known as Pat Shortt and Jon Kenny. The hugely popular duo sold out every seat for the entire eight-week run of their last show, ‘D’at’s Life’, within hours of the tickets going on sale. For their latest offering, they are moving into Vicar Street for [...]
November 26, 2008
Russian Caricatures (1930-2000)
Communist leader Gennsday Zyuganov is transformed into a small dog at the Museum of Contemporary History in a charming exhibition of caricatures. The last 70 years have seen various changes in caricatures, from portraying the enemies of the Soviet state in the 1950s to the philosophical tone of perestroika. Organised by Moscow caricaturist Igor Smirnov, [...]
November 21, 2008
Cézanne to Van Gogh: The Gachet Collection
Paul Ferdinand Gachet was the doctor who cared for Van Gogh during the last 70 days of the painter’s life, but Cézanne, Pissaro, Monet and Guillaumin were also welcome guests of the medic, and they similarly exchanged their paintings for advice, allowing Gachet to slowly build up an impressive collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works. [...]
November 20, 2008
Mickaël Bethe-Selassie’s The Magic Woods
Ethiopian artist Mickaël Bethe-Selassie has created a forest of towering and colourful papier-mâché sculptures, which evokes a magical world of wombs and warriors, ghosts and mutant beasts. He sees himself as a symbolic reconstructor of those forests, which supplied the wood for the paper he works with. While strongly drawing from the mythology of his [...]
November 18, 2008
DJ Roccness
One of Germany’s most promising DJs takes one step further into the limelight at the Nitsaclub/Apolo. Co-director of the tiny but excellent label Pärfum, the youthful Roccness is fast winning a name for himself for his exquisite fusion of dance and pop. The boy wonder perhaps owes some of his knack for blending things to [...]
November 17, 2008
San Michelle
Large gates and a new sign have been going up on 23 Tverskaya ulitsa. Lenin once spoke from its balcony but it is now to be the home of the new club San Michelle which promises to be an outdoor haven from the smog of Moscow’s main street. Alongside the club a French restaurant will [...]
November 15, 2008
Jolson: A Spectacular Musical
‘Jolson’ is a musical biography of Al Jolson, replete with the entire spectacle and scandal that surrounded the man who called himself ‘the world’s greatest entertainer’. The show, which won the Olivier Award for Best Musical in the UK, includes such memorable songs as ‘Mammy’, ‘Babyface’, ‘Swanee’, ‘Give My Regards to Broadway’ and ‘Blue Skies’ [...]
November 13, 2008
Amadeus
Opening the Ahmanson’s 33rd season is Peter Shaffer’s ‘Amadeus’. Set in opulent eighteenth-century Vienna, the play tells the tale of composer Antonio Salieri, who is the toast of the town until a young upstart called Mozart arrives. The play and its wonderful score chronicle Salieri’s love/hate relationship with Mozart, a struggle that ultimately destroys his [...]
