captions - Hollywood Progressive

The Poor of New York: Old-Fashioned Melodrama New Again

July 3, 2011 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

Ed Rampell: Although, as this highly recommended play rightfully reminds us, poverty – then and now – is serious business. Greed was not good when perpetrated by Wall Street’s Gordon Gekkos of 1837, or today.

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: Acts Of Desperation, Artistic Director, bavaria, Bertolt Brecht, Capitalists, captions, Chris Winfield, Cyclical Nature, d.w. griffin, Dion Boucicault, Economic Collapse, eisenberg, entertainment, Fairweather, film, gordon gekkos, greed, Group Repertory, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Hershberger, highly recommended, Irish Playwright, kate o'toole, Larry Eisenberg, Melodrama, new york, Olinka, Panic Of 1837, Periodic Crises, poor, reminds, Repertory Theatre, rhineland palatinate, rightfully, Sherry Netherland, the poor, the poor of new york, theatre, Theatre Goers, thuringia, trisha hershberger, Uncle Tom, wall, wall street

Getting Stoned with De Niro

October 7, 2010 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

Ed Rampell: Will moviegoers feel they’d rather not feel so all alone, and that everybody must get Stone-d?

Filed Under: Film Tagged With: american film directors, captions, cinema of the united states, de niro, ed, edward norton, femme fatales, films, get stoned, getting stoned, jack mabry, marlon brando, martin scorsese, mass media, milla jovovich, niro, probation officer, resident evil, return to the blue lagoon, robert de niro, stone, stones, taxi driver

Il Postino: Going Postal

October 2, 2010 By Ed Rampell 1 Comment

Ed Rampell: Going postal: A rare work of art with working class heroes who are Communists, luminously, imaginatively brought to life onstage by a creative collective of talents worthy of Neruda’s poetry.

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: antonio sk??rmeta, arts, captions, castronovo, charles castronovo, chilean people, communist, daniel cat??n, ed, films, going postal, il postino, jose adan perez, l.a. opera, literature, mario, mario ruoppolo, opera il postino, pablo neruda, placido domingo, working class hero, writing poetry

Break The Whip — A Spicy Theatrical Gumbo

September 21, 2010 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

Ed Rampell: Break the Whip. A theatrical people’s history of the United States according to Tim Robbins and the Actors’ Gang.

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: african clothing, american film directors, break, breaks, captions, christopher ward, cinema of the united states, embedded, film, gangs, gumbo, jamestown, marlon brando, mask, pocahontas, robbins, romance films, spicy recipe, the actors' gang, theatrical, tim robbins, united states, whip, whips, yogi bear

Waiting For Lefty: The Wait Is Over

September 16, 2010 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

Theatre West’s revival of Clifford Odets’ Waiting For Lefty is the most important play currently presented in L.A., and possibly the best production of 2010.

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: acting plays, awake and sing!, captions, clifford, clifford odets, depression, depression era, entertainment, golden boy, group theatre, hollywood blacklist, l.a., lefties, performing arts, play, possibly, revival, theatre, theatre west, wait, waiting, waiting for lefty

“Ruined,” But Not Forever?

September 12, 2010 By Dick Price Leave a Comment

Dick Price: “Ruined,” tells the improbably uplifting story of a tawdry haven from an unimaginably cruel world where soldiers and the rebels they fight routinely rape, mutilate, and murder women for sport.

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: arts, captions, civil war, democratic republic of the congo, forever, geffen playhouse, impossible dream, lynn nottage, mama, mama nadi's, nadi f.c., performing arts, pulitzer prize, pulitzer prize for drama, ruined, ruins, soldier, theatre, uplifting stories

Civil Rights and Wrongs Onstage at Two L.A. Theatres

August 17, 2010 By Ed Rampell Leave a Comment

Ed Rampell: Art emerges out of our collective psyche to reflect our times, and it’s fascinating to see how L.A. theatre is responding to the current attack on our civil, human and constitutional rights and liberties.

Filed Under: Stage Tagged With: california, captions, carry it on!, civil, civil rights, civil rights movement, claudette sullivan, community organizing, coretta scott king, ellen geer, hollywood, hollywood blacklist, jr., l.a., los angeles theater, martin luther king, negro, nonviolence, rolling stones, rosa parks, stella adler, stella adler theater, supreme court, the good negro, theatres, theatricum botanicum, thurgood marshall, topanga, united states, will geer, wrongs

Popular This Month

Brenth Budowsky: What is
astounding and incomprehensible is the degree that Obama and too many Democrats have surrendered on first principle policies where the majority of voters agree with the
progressives.

Wayne Williams: Mike was cantankerous, brilliant, stubborn, and, of course, funny. He never knew his parents, was adopted and raised by a casino boss, served with the U.S. Marines in Korea, wrote for many comedy shows and comics, and wrote perfect prose to his hearts content, performed stand up himself, and taught others how to do so as well.

Steve Hochstadt: Is Hollywood trying to push a gay agenda on right-thinking Americans, as some people claim? I think it’s the other way around: Hollywood is trying to sell products.