On the Town With Aubrey Reuben
Where All the Stars Shine Brightly!
June 22, 2013
06-18-13 (L-R) Anna Gilligan. Condola Rashad. Laura Osnes.
Michael Urie. Christie Brinkley at the Inside Broadway 2013 Broadway
Beacon Awards at Joe's Pub. 425 Lafayette St. Monday evening
06-17-13
Off-Broadway, Around the World in 80 Days, by Mark Brown, based on the novel by Jules Verne, is an inventive, imaginative production with just five actors playing multiple roles, which they perform excellently. The New Theater at 45th Street has been renovated, and is a delightful venue to see this marvelous show.
Dirty Great Love Story, written and performed by Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna, is a play about a couple, who meet, drink. have sex and do not enjoy each other's company for two years, until they realize that they are made for each other. It is a cute, romantic piece, in which the two amiable actors play five roles, and they are entertaining.
The Two-Character Play, by Tennessee Williams, starring Brad Dourif and Amanda Plummer, opened, and the opening night party took place at Lucky Cheng's with the cast and Lee Roy Reams and Jim Brochu.
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American Ballet Theatre (ABT)
presented Romeo and Juliet, choreography by
Sir Kenneth MacMillan, music by Sergei Prokofiev,
with two magnificent dancers in the title roles.
Roberto Bolle and Julie Kent are splendid as
the two young lovers, and it is a joy to watch them
perform. Craig Salstein was superb as Mercutio,
with astonishing speed and turns. The rest of the cast
danced extremely well, and the music, played by the
orchestra under the baton of David LaMarche, is
one of the composer's finest creations.
Inside Broadway 2013 Broadway Beacon
Awards were held at Joe's Pub. The Executive
Director Michael Presser greeted the guests.
Christie Brinkley was the Honorary Chair and Anna
Gilligan was the Master of Ceremonies. The four
recipients were Laura Osnes, Condola Rashad, Michael
Urie and Alan Lind Bain. Six students from
Marine Park IS 278 Brooklyn performed songs from
Cinderella, and they were delightful. Jarrod Spector
and his band also performed. The reception and ceremony
were a festive occasion.
Off Broadway Alliance
2013 Awards were held at Sardi's. Among the winners
were Best New Play Vanya and Sonia and Marsha and
Spike and Best New Musical Natasha, Pierre and
the Comet of 1812. The host was Peter Breger
and among the Legends honored were Kristine Nielsen,
Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Durang, Daryl
Roth and A.R. Gurney. The reception and
ceremony was another festive occasion.
Museum Hours, by Jem Cohen, Austria/U.S, 2013, is
an opportunity for museum lovers to visit Vienna's
Kunsthistorisches Art Museum. The highlight of the film is
the museum guide explaining the Bruegel room to a group of
visitors. It could have been an interesting documentary.
Unfortunately, there is also a story about a museum guard
escorting a Canadian woman (Mary Margaret O'Hara) around
Vienna on gloomy, snowy days. The filmmaker is obviously
obsessed with O'Hara, and we are compelled to watch her
sleeping in a shabby hotel room, looking out of the window
at an ugly wall and singing to herself. This is dull and
adds nothing to the film.
Film Society of Lincoln
Center held press screenings for the 2013 New York Asian
Film Festival June 28- July 15. Gangster, by
Kongkiat Khomsiri, Thailand, 2012, is a violent, bloody
film about the fight between Thai gangs for control of their
territory. Apparently based on facts from the 1950s and
1960s, it shows that the criminal element is the same
throughout the world. IP: The Final Fight, by
Herman Yau, Hong Kong, 2013, is another violent film
about a master of Kung Fu, who teaches his pupils to defend
themselves and learn his philosophy of life. Action lovers
will enjoy both films. Two other films in the festival I
must recommend. Mystery, by Lou Ye,
China/France,
2012, begins with a young woman struck and killed by an
automobile. In a flashback, we learn how she came to be
wandering on a highway. It is a tale of modern China, about
a middle class family, whose womanizing husband is
indirectly the cause of the tragedy. Adultery plays a large
role in this engrossing film, beautifully photographed and
very well acted. It is a realistic view of life in modern
China. Helter Skelter, by Mika Ninagawa,
Japan, 2012, is a fascinating film, with magnificent
photography, about a young model/actress (Erika Sawajiri)
obsessed about losing her youth and beauty and fearing
competition. She resorts to questionable plastic surgery, as
well as a diet of pills. It is a powerful film, with a
profound glimpse at celebrity life. The acting is superb,
especially that of the leading lady.
MoMA is presenting Harris
Savides: Visual Poet June 5-21. Greenberg, by
Noah Baumbach, USA, 2010, features Ben Stiller as
a middle age, lost soul recovering from a nervous breakdown
in California, while looking after his brother's house. He
has an unpleasant personality, which makes his character
hard to tolerate for two hours on film. Savides, the
late director of photography has filmed it quite well. MoMA
presented The Apartment, by Billy Wilder, USA,
1960, which won the Academy Award as Best Picture. It was
well deserved. It is a marvelous film, well acted by Jack
Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray. The
story is intelligent and serious, and the dialogue is smart
and quite funny. An employee's apartment being used by his
bosses for adultery was a provocative subject at the time,
but the magnificent director knew how to handle it. MoMA
is presenting Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the
Hollywood Studios June 5-July 8. Trail of the Vigilantes,
by Dwan, USA, 1940, is a silly Western, attempting to
produce belly laughs, but is really unfunny, All the
characters are ridiculous, and they include fine actors like
Franchot Tone, Broderick Crawford, Andy Devine and
Mischa Auer. However, the director produced wonderful
chase scenes between the bad guys and the good guys.
Opera in Cinema from Emerging
Pictures presented Carmen, by Bizet, from
Teatro alla Scala from a live performance on December 7,
2009. It was superbly sung by an excellent cast, headed by
Anita Rachvelishvili in the title role, Jonas
Kaufman (Don Jose), Erwin Schrott (Escamillo) and
Adriana Damato (Micaela), with the orchestra
conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The production was, in
a word, dreadful. The staging and costumes, by Emma Dante,
were unpleasant and ugly, and the sets by Richard Peduzzi
were equally so. There were many things to criticize,
but let me mention a few. In the first act, children were
required to strip to their underwear for no reason. Carmen
and some women from the tobacco factory were yanked on the
floor by their hair after the fight, and in the last act,
the bullfighters parade into the bullring stripped to the
waist. Thank goodness, one could close one's eyes to enjoy
the magnificent singing.
06-19-13
(L-R)
Cast
members
Sigourney
Weaver.
David
Hyde
Pierce.
Kristine
Nielsen.
playwright
Christopher
Durang
"Uncle
Vanya
and
Sonia
and
Marsha
and
Spike"
received
the
Off
Broadway
Alliance
Award
for
Best
New
Play
at
Sardi's.
234
West
44th
St.
Tuesday
afternoon
06-18-13 |