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Simon Boccanegra: Who Let the Doge Out?

February 20, 2012 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

simon boccanegra

Widely perceived as a hoity-toity elite art form for the 1%, opera often gets a bum rap as stuffed shirts’ sonic sphere, but Giuseppe Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (based on a similarly named historical figure) gives the lie to this cliché. Marx and Engels wrote in 1848’s Communist Manifesto that “the history of all hitherto existing [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Ana MaríA, Benito Mussolini, Bum Rap, Communist Manifesto, Conductor James, Fiesco, Giuseppe Verdi, Il Duce, James Conlon, Jump Cuts, Language Equivalent, Marx And Engels, Mistaken Identities, Patrician Class, placido domingo, Plebians, Robert Millard, Simon Boccanegra, Stuffed Shirts, Tenor Placido Domingo, Venetian Dialect, Vitalij

For Colored Girls: Ntozake Shange’s “choreopoem” about African American Women No Shangri La

February 12, 2012 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

colored girls

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF Theater Review February is Black History Month, a time when those often overlooked finally receive a measure of the recognition they’re due, from the annual Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) to theatrical performances. When Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: African American Women, African Ancestry, African Film Festival, American Females, Black History Month, Black Tank, Broadway Productions, Cabin In The Sky, colored girls, Dramatic Structure, Film Adaptation, Film Historian, Hispanics In Hollywood, Luis Reyes, Lyric Theatre, Michelle Campbell, ntozake shange, Obie Award, Pacific Islanders, pan african film festival, Solo Performer, Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf, York Stage

20th Century: A Screwball Comedy for Any Century

February 8, 2012 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

20th century

There’s no reason to board a streamlined train and chug down (or rather up) to the Sierra Madre Playhouse to see 20th Century – unless, that is, you relish experiencing laugh riots on the live stage. Bard Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1930s play and movie versions of 20th Century retain [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Alan Brooks, Ben Hecht, Charles Macarthur, Egomaniacal, First Among Equals, Footlights, Ken Ludwig, Kimberly Lewis, Kleptomaniac, Live Stage, Luxury Lounge, Mood Swings, Moving Train, Passion Play, Ruination, Screwball Comedy, sierra madre playhouse, Streamlined Train, Streamliner, Theatrical Production, Zany Characters

Bye Bye Verdi

February 3, 2012 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

justin preston and thea rubley

THE INDIANS ARE COMING TO DINNER Theatre Review There is a feminist saying that “the personal is political,” and playwright Jennifer Rowland does a skillful job interweaving private lives with public service in The Indians Are Coming To Dinner. The Indians in the title refer, as Iranian comic Maz Jobrani puts it, to “dot,” not [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Archetypal, Dinner Theatre, Distant Relation, Dull Company, Foreign Service, Gandhis, Indigenous People, Indira Gandhi, Intimations, Kingmaker, Lighting Designer, Maz Jobrani, Politicking, Prime Minister Indira, Private Lives, Reagan Regime, Rikin, Sinecure, Tragicomedy, Youthful Dreams

Awake and Sling

January 20, 2012 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

Awake and Sling: Awake in a World That Encourages Sleep — Theatre Review Playwright and co-star Raymond J. Barry’s Awake in a World That Encourages Sleep is being advertised with the tagline: “Occupy this play!” However, although this one act, three actor production takes place entirely in a park (not Zuccotti or the lawn at [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Act Three, Ben Gazzara, Business Associate, clifford odets, Co Star, Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man, Corporate Ethics, Corporate Government, group theatre, John Perkins, Leo Tolstoy, Mass Movement, Paul Joseph, Plot Spoiler, Random Act, Rapid Fire, samuel beckett, Sunny Afternoon, Tacey, Waiting For Godot, waiting for lefty

Brain Heat

January 13, 2012 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

molly ivins

Red Hot Patriot, The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivans Kathleen Turner can’t say that, can she? Oh, but the star of 1981’s Body Heat most certainly can – at least while she’s in character as the outspoken journalist Molly Ivins in Red Hot Patriot. The tall Texan, who was one of America’s leading literary lights [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Aplomb, Arnone, Body Heat, Classic Film, Co Stars, Copyboy, Cuss Words, Journalistic Career, Kathleen Turner, Molly Ivans, Molly Ivins, News Flashes, Romancing The Stone, Scenic Designer, Speaking Part, Tall Boots, Tall Texan, Venality, War Of The Roses, Woman Show

Fela! — Occupy Africa!

December 15, 2011 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

fela

The unoriginal run of the mill crop of shows currently on the not so Great White Way, dominated by revivals and highly derivative retreads from other mediums, such as comic books and films (and often mediocre movies, at that), is disheartening. Of course, this sorry trend has more to do with cashing in on the [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: African Garb, Ahmanson, August Osage County, Book Of Mormon, Books And Films, Broadway Show, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Fela Kuti, Lds Church, Lincoln Center, Male Dancers, Media Marketplace, Premiere Theatre, Retreads, Sierra Leonean, Ticket Buyers, Tracy Letts, Trey Parker, Trey Parker And Matt Stone, Unique Show

Hanoi: A Day In The Life

December 9, 2011 By Jim Rhodes Leave a Comment

Students

Students are always happy when Friday rolls around as many of them go to their respective homes in the countryside and escape the congestion of this city of 9 million people. The freshman class of English Translation and Editing has their last class of the afternoon but rather than rush for buses that head out [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Arthur Miller, Bayliss, Cake Candles, Chris Keller, Culture Critic, Fan Si Pan, Freshman Class, Ha Long Bay, Hanoi, Hoang Lien, Huu Phuong, Joe Keller, Larry Keller, Le Khanh, Lone Exception, Main Artery, Oanh, Quynh, Thanh Binh, Travel Down, Tuyet, Wife Nina

Moses Supposes: Four Not So Easy Pieces

November 22, 2011 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

cast

One of the joys of theatre in L.A. is the wealth of talent the stage here has to draw from. Stars of today, tomorrow and yesteryear trod the boards here in the City of the Angels. So when I heard that the legendary Karen Black was appearing in Ellen Melaver’s Moses Supposes I was excited [...]

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Afi Film Festival, Boyhood, Burnt Offerings, Candice Bergen, City Of The Angels, David Proval, Day Of The Locust, Easy Rider, Family Plot, Five Easy Pieces, Great Gatsby, Jane Fonda, Karen Black, Laura Gardner, Master Of Suspense, moses supposes, Mother Country, Rare Opportunity, Return Engagement, Skippy, Youth Culture, Zephyr

Romeo et Juliet: The Greatest Love Story Ever Sung

November 8, 2011 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

romeo-et-juliet-wide-2

“Placido, Placido, wherefore art thou, Placido?” If you want to know where the world famous tenor Placido Domingo is, the Eli and Edythe Broad General Director is currently conducting L.A. Opera’s adaptation of Charles Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Many Broadway shows, Hollywood movies, et al., are derived from other mediums, [...]

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Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: arthur conan doyle, Charles Gounod, Cross Pollination, dorothy chandler pavilion, Famous Tenor, Greatest Love Story, kitty mcnamee, l.a. opera, LA Opera, Leonard Bernstein, Montagues And Capulets, Nino Machaidze, Pierre Beaumarchais, placido domingo, placido domingo ian judge, Romeo Et Juliet, Sir Arthur Conan, sir arthur conan doyle, Social Milieu, Stephen Sondheim, Tenor Placido Domingo, Vittorio Grigolo, Vladimir Chernov

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