Features Theater Bettering the Bard May 2, 2018 • Amy Freed has thrown herself into an update of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew by inserting a wiley female contemporary of the playwright into his Prologue, and then steering the debate into more acceptable contemporary currents for modern audiences. • READ ‘Rock’ and the […]
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ARRANGEMENTS OF SHADOWS Abetted by a dozen gifted songwriters, Mandy Patinkin casts a memorable, wistful look at collective memories in ‘Diaries’ by CRISTOFER GROSS ith culture now changing at techno-pace it’s hard to imagine any contemporary artist will resonate with those living hundreds of years from now. On the other hand, vast changes have occurred
PREVIEW SFJazz Honors Miles, Stone Milestones Vibraphonist Warren Wolf previews octet’s October 25 Segerstrom Center concert. In 1969, Miles Davis and Sylvester Stone had milestone years. SFJAZZ Collective, which by design has a milestone year every year, is marking the half-century anniversaries of those artists’ landmarks with fresh arrangements of music from Davis’s In a
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A SONDHEIM SUMMIT SCR services ‘Sweeney Todd’ well with a soaring production that gives voice to the master’s masterwork. by CRISTOFER GROSS n the second half of the 20th Century, Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for 14 full productions and lyrics for another half-dozen. The range of subjects and styles he explored gave
LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT Can Jenn Lyon and Douglas Sills give John Guare a ‘Girl’ to remember? by CRISTOFER GROSS n 2003, Britain’s National Theatre asked playwright John Guare to create a new stage comedy by ‘marrying’ the 1940 film His Girl Friday with the 1928 play that had inspired it. “It was Nick Hytner’s
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A BOUNTIFUL TRIP TO ‘ORANGE’ Aditi Brennan Kapil circles back to the family in foreign Orange County by CRISTOFER GROSS laywrights start each script staring into blankness. Somewhere in that word doc or sheet of paper is the trailhead to something undiscovered – possibly ancient and unformed – they hope to capture in words and
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THE MEDICI ON STAGE An English-language drama in the heart of Florence recalls the first family of the Italian Renaissance. by MADELINE KING PORTER Who ever said, I’m off to Florence to see a play? My guess is, no one. Tourists go to Florence primarily because, as the birthplace of the Renaissance, the city boasts
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THE PLAYWRIGHT ESSAYIST Playwright Richard Greenberg talks about his book of essays, Rules for Others to Live By. by MADELINE KING PORTER laywright Richard Greenberg doesn’t go out a lot. Some people who know this about him but don’t know him, are quick to apply the label "hermit." Greenberg is not a hermit. He just
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TIME BEYOND THE TIME Art Podell’s Folk Music Revival Revival by CRISTOFER GROSS nce a month, the Tudor House in Lake Arrowhead presents a live Saturday night taping of JP Houston and Julie Van Dusen’s "American Parlor Songbook." It’s an evening of humor, song and cultural pulse-taking whose broad perspectives owe to an unapologetic embrace
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REVIVAL Most beautiful and true Cesar Cipriano is Kayama in Chromolume’s production of Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures. n the early 1970s, Stephen Sondheim made musical history, winning the Tony Award® for Best Original Score in three consecutive years: Company in 1971, Follies in 1972, and A Little Night’s Music in 1973. Before launching another run of
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