Off Broadway, Cougar the Musical, by
Donna Moore,
is a ninety-minute musical about three middle-age women,
Catherine Porter, Brenda Braxton
and
Babs Winn
and their relationships with young men, multiple roles all played by
Danny Bernardy.
The music is pleasant, the lyrics are amusing and the three actresses are
first rate.
Heartless, by Sam
Shepherd, is an incoherent play, about a strange family of women,
dominated by their mother (the always excellent Lois Smith). In the
five member cast, a daughter returns home with a man, and secrets are
exposed. The playwright has written some good plays. This is not one of
them.
The final concert of Mostly Mozart consisted of two works. Before the
intermission, Martin
Frost
was the soloist in the Clarinet
Concerto in A major, K.622, by Mozart.
His mellow sound and brilliant performance produced a vociferous ovation,
for which he granted the audience a rich encore, a Klezmer piece accompanied
by the orchestra, conducted by Louis
Langree.
After the intermission, the Mass in C
major, by Beethoven was
performed with four fine soloists, Layla
Claire, Sasha
Cooke, Paul
Appleby and Matthew
Rose, with
the Concert Chorale of New York,
under the direction of James
Bagwell.
It was a fitting conclusion to a splendid season.
For opera lovers, the
Metropolitan Opera is presenting a ten-day outdoor Summer HD Festival of
free screenings of operas in Lincoln Center Plaza ending o September 3. I
saw Don Giovanni with an excellent Mariusz Kwiecien in the
title role, with fine support from the other male singers, including
Ramon Vargas and Luca Pisaroni, with the orchestra under the
baton of Fabio Luisi. The female members of the cast were
disappointing, with the exception of Marina Rebeka. It is always a
pleasure to see these fine productions.
.
|
MoMA is presenting a series of exciting French films Gaumont Thrillers: From Fantomas to a Gang Story August 15-September 4. Les yeux sans visage (Eyes without a Face), by Georges Franju, 1959, will please horror film fans. A doctor murders young women to steal their faces, because he wishes to repair the disfigured face of his daughter. It's a very silly, unpleasant film, which features Alida Valli as the doctor's assistant and some other famous French actors, whose reputations were not enhanced by this film.
Police, by Maurice Pialat, 1985, is a wonderful, realistic look at police work in Paris, with a great performance by Gerard Depardieu as a lonely widower detective, who falls in love with a criminal's tough girlfriend (well played by Sophie Marceau). We see the seamy side of petty criminal's lives in this fast moving film, which keeps the audience's attention until the very end. It is a very enjoyable film.
Peril en la demeure (Death in a French Garden/Peril), by Michel Daville, 1985, is an erotic thriller, about a young man, who is hired to give guitar lessons to a young daughter of a wealthy family. He embarks on an adulterous affair with the sensual wife with grave consequences. It is a well made film with attractive actors.
Les cousins (The Cousins), by Claude Chabrol, 1959, is a film, that began a cult in filmmaking in France The nouvelle vague movement shows amoral life, especially among the young intellectuals. A rural cousin comes to live with his Parisian cousin, a bon vivant, who lives for parties and loose women. Both are studying law, and tragedy ensues when the naive cousin falls in love with one of the women. It is a revealing film of the atmosphere of the time, that began a whole spate of similar films.
Nikita (La femme Nikita), by Luc Besson, 1990, is an action packed thriller about a young lady, turned into an assassin by secret government agency. Anne Parillaud is the attractive heroine in this entertaining, but violent film. Watching her transformation from a hardened criminal to a romantic lover, when she falls in love with a pleasant young man is a joy to watch. It is well made film.
Leon (The Professional), by Luc Besson, 1994, is an English language film by the French director, that features a remarkable Natalie Portman as a twelve-year-old girl, whose family is killed by corrupt government agents. She seeks shelter with a neighbor, who is a hit man (Jean Reno), and asks to be taught the trade, in order to avenge the death of her brother. It is a violent film, with an enormous number of dead bodies. Action film fans will enjoy the never ending violence.
08-09-12
Cast
members
David
Coomber
and
Shannon
Garland
at
the
opening
night
party
for
"Bullet
for
Adolf"
at
Hurleys's.
232
West
48th
St.
Wednesday
night
08-08-12 |