Friday, November 4th, 2011
by James Jorden “I’ve almost come to the conclusion that this Mr. Hitler isn’t a Christian,” muses merry murderess Abby Brewster early in the first act of Arsenic and Old Lace, and to tell the truth I’m beginning to think I’m almost as far behind the curve as she was. Recent new productions at the […]
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Tags: anna netrebko, james jorden, leonard bernstein, Mahler, music director, musicalamerica, new york times, period costume, peter gelb, pr, richard wagner, robert lepage, Street Car Named Desire, the met, verdi, willy decker, Zurich
Posted in Rough and Regie | Comments Off on Peter’s Principles
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
New York City Ballet’s new staging of “The Seven Deadly Sins ,” which had its premiere at the company’s spring gala on May 11, puts Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s dark, sinister “ballet chanté” of 1933 into a new context: a tinsel-town soundstage, complete with unison hoofers in the grand finale. Choreographer Lynn Taylor-Corbett, whose credits include Broadway’s “Swing,” has essentially created a Cliff Notes version of this irony-laced yarn, dragging principal dancer Wendy Whelan and guest artist Patti Lapone through seven shallow scenes of human transgression and stripping the work of its brooding soul.
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Tags: After the Rain, Allegra Kent, Balanchine, Beowulf Boritt, Bertolt Brecht, Chester Kallman, Christopher Wheeldon, Clotilde Otranto, Deborah Jowitt, Elia Kazan, Jason Kantrowitz, John Martin, Karinska, Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Marlon Brando, New York City Ballet, Patty Lapone, Peter Martins, Street Car Named Desire, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, The Seven Deadly Sins, Tilly Losch, Vienna Waltzes, W.H. Auden, Wendy Whelan
Posted in The Torn Tutu | Comments Off on The Seven Deadly Sins at City Ballet