Real sorrow is very hard to pull off on stage or screen. I often think that if you want audiences to feel the weight of a character's woes as a screen or playwright, you're usually better off getting them to do something funny, rather than give them a crying scene. It's just really hard to act sadness convincingly. Even if we can see that a character is deeply upset about something, it's a rare actor who can make us actually feel their pain.Abbie Cornish, the young British actress who plays Fanny Brawne in Bright Star, Jane Campion's new movie … [Read more...]

Perhaps the most interesting detail that came up in last night's Theatre Critics' Panel organized by Theatre Bay Area was the subject of presenting plays on unconventional days. Critics' calendars tend to get very busy as the week moves towards the weekend. Thursday to Sunday nights are the fastest nights to get booked up with shows to see.So one way of potentially increasing the chances of having a critic come and see a show as a producer, is by presenting it on a Monday and/or Tuesday. Intersection for the Arts and a couple of other companies … [Read more...]

One of the least satisfying musical experiences I think I've ever had was catching Bob Dylan at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley in 2002. This is really saying something as the combination of Great Bob and the Greek ought to have been a recipe for perfection. But the singer sadly failed to deliver. He played the piano badly, slurred and bleated his words more than I've ever heard him do previously and generally made every song sound unintelligible. My friend and I spent the entire gig playing a game of "guess which famous Bob Dylan song the singer … [Read more...]

The Kronos Quartet is more than 30 years old. Three of its members, including founding violinist David Harrington, are grey and ever so slightly stoopy. But the San Francisco-based string quartet continues to attract young audiences nonetheless. In a climate where chamber music is about as thrilling to the under 30 crowd as mortgage insurance, this achievement is remarkable.At the ensemble's latest San Francisco concert on Friday night (a benefit for the 40th anniversary of stalwart local classical music presenter Old First Concerts), at least … [Read more...]

It's been a fiendish day what with hangovers and three hours of sleep to contend with. On the positive side, these signs point to the fact that Gustavo Dudamel's debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's new music director last night was a raging success.I was especially impressed with the world premiere of John Adams' City Noir, a blazing symphonic work which does nothing if not bring a looming metropolis to mind in all its gritty, engulfing splendor. I was breathless by the end of the piece.I need to go nurse my … [Read more...]

Radio presenters -- especially ones engaged in hosting cultural programs -- are very particular about the way they pronounce proper nouns. This is of course very important: You have to get names right or you risk causing offense to the bearer of the noun in question and/or being completely misunderstood by listeners.I was having a conversation about this topic yesterday over lunch in downtown Los Angeles with the classical music radio station KUSC's great veteran host, Jim Svejda (pictured). Jim talked about how annoying it is that radio hosts … [Read more...]

Never before have I been in a theatre with so many sleeping people.I think I dozed off for about ten minutes or so in the middle of UCLA Live's production of Medea starring Annette Bening as Euripides' vengeful mother and wife. When I woke up to the sound of the black-rubber-suit-and-red-bustier-clad female chorus letting out a blood-curdling ululation, I noticed that my guest, the man sitting next to her, and the two people behind him were all out stone cold. To my right, the couple looked like they'd just been startled awake like me. Five … [Read more...]

The people of the Rogue Artists Ensemble have a wonderful way of working with puppets. The Los Angeles-based theatre company is currently presenting a show based on three of Nikolai Gogol's short stories -- Diary of a Madman, The Overcoat and The Nose at the scrappy-wondrous Bootleg Theater space -- which seamlessly grafts together human and marionette actors to take the audience into an off-kilter world where surreality rules.The ambitious project was created on a shoestring budget, but you wouldn't know it from the quality of the acting and … [Read more...]

Just about every minute of the five hours I spent sitting in the nosebleeds at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles was worth the one and a half hour slog in the broiling heat I undertook to reach the venue from my friend's place in West Hollywood on Saturday afternoon. The occasion -- Gustavo Dudamel's inaugural appearance as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic -- was a passionate, inclusive affair which filled the 18,000-seat arena by the time the orchestra sat down to play Beethoven's Symphony Number 9.I wasn't crazy about the … [Read more...]

The first ever National Arts Journalism Summit at UCLA's Annenberg School for Communication took place this morning. It was a bit of a marathon for the 200 or so people present in the room -- four hours of presentations and round table discussions with only two five minute breaks to catch our breaths and run to the loo!I would like to say that the event was a thumping success, but to be honest, I left feeling somewhat disappointed. There was a lot of flashy technology and fluff (300 people Twittering as we speak!" It's an exciting time!! I feel … [Read more...]