the arts online this week - may 23-29

Miscast22 – MCC Theater

​Click here for tickets

Every singer and actor has a role for which they hanker and for which they are completely unsuited. Men want to sing songs written for women, mature performers long to embody youthful characters they were turned down for when they were the right age. What mature musical theatre actor doesn’t bemoan his lost Marion the Librarian, what showbiz baritone doesn’t wish he could sing I Could have Danced All Night, and not be laughed off the stage?

Miscast is where these stars come together, each singing a song written for a role in which, for a variety of reasons, they would never, in a million years, be cast themselves. They are all famous enough but they are all screamingly wrong for the part they crave. This is their opportunity to show what they could have done if they had been old enough, tall enough, young enough, Black enough, White enough, or just plain right enough.
And that is why Miscast is one of my favourite annual events.

It is a benefit, supporting MCC Theater, it’s just plain fun and sometimes produces unlikely and memorable performances. I still cherish Raul Esparza and Lin-Manuel Miranda singing Maria and Anita’s duet from West Side Story, with such sincerity and intensity that it put all previous performances out of my head. That’s still available on You Tube If you want to catch up.

A $30 ticket gets you the Miscast22 Revue, Backstage Interviews, Behind-the-Scenes Footage, and more. May 22-25

---

In America - An Anthology of American Fashion

Click here to watch 

Andrew Bolton, curator of New York’s Metropolitan Museum’s current exhibition, In America – An Anthology of American Fashion, narrates this fascinating film about American fashion throughout the history of the United States.

Ten movie directors, including Martin Scorsese and Sofia Coppola, were asked to set the costumes as vignettes in historical rooms at the Met, giving a dramatic setting to the exhibits.

If you can get to the Met, and if you are interested in fashion, the exhibition is on view through Sept 5. If not, this video is a sweeping and often too-fast introduction to the subject. I wish it were longer.

---

The Kindness of Strangers – Andre Previn

Click here for tickets

There was such a strong, positive reaction from readers when I recommended Tony Palmer’s film about Margot Fonteyn a couple of weeks ago tht I thought you might like to see another Tony Palmer documentary, this one about Andre Previn, who died in 2019  aged 90. The film’s title is, of course, a quotation from Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, which Previn adapted as an opera in 1998.

From Berlin refugee to multi-Oscar-winning film score composer, from great jazz pianist to chief conductor of both the London Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, through five marriages including Mia Farrow and last wife Anne-Sophie Mutter (whom he married too late for inclusion in this film), with an honorary knighthood for his services to British music, his story is extraordinary. Andre Previn's remarkable career reached a climax in September 1998 with the premiere of his first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire. He also conducted the production at the San Francisco Opera, with Renee Fleming as Blanche.
​
This film tells the story of the making of the opera, based on Tennessee Williams's controversial stage play, and follows the backstage trials and tribulations from first rehearsals through to opening night. Previn talks candidly about the experience and relates it to his international life and career.

​Andre Previn stood center stage in the world of music for fifty years. Tony Palmer's ninety-minute documentary, filmed in America, Japan, Germany, Austria and England, tells both why and how.

---

Queen Elizabeth 11 Platinum Jubilee – National Portrait Gallery
 
Click here to watch
​
The National Portrait Gallery is a favourite drop-in place for me on my way to the theatre, and the café has always been a convenient place for lunch in the theatre district. I miss it now that it’s been closed for what seems like years for renovations, although they promise to reopen the Gallery later this year.
 
The NPG has literally thousands of paintings, photographs, etchings, drawings, etc of the Queen and they’ve finally woken up to the fact that Her Majesty, now aged 95, is having a Jubilee next week and they should do something about it.
 
This link gives access to an online exhibition of her portraits which is small, and not entirely easy to navigate, but worth seeing. There are pictures here from every era of her long life, many famous images, but also many we haven’t seen before.

---

The Winter’s Tale – Royal Ballet

Click here for tickets

Here’s one you may have missed – I did. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, created his adaptation of Shakespeare’s late romance The Winter’s Tale for The Royal Ballet in 2014. It received ecstatic praise at its premiere, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for its intelligent, distinctive and emotionally powerful story, told through exquisite dance. It is now widely judged to be a modern ballet classic.

The story follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet, through remorse and regret – and after a seemingly miraculous return to life – the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation.

It would certainly never have occurred to Shakespeare that his somewhat overwrought masterpiece might work better as a ballet. Good reason for that is that ballet, as we know it today, hadn’t been invented by 1611 when the play first hit the stage. Clever old Christopher Wheeldon had the insight to see that the play, one of Shakespeare’s late romances, never made sense in its original five-act form. But it’s perfect as a ballet.

Danced by Ryonichi Hirano as Leontes, Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione and Sarah Lamb as Perdita, this production is conducted by Tom Seligman at the Royal Opera House. With powerful designs by Bob Crowley and atmospheric music by Joby Talbot, The Winter’s Tale is a masterful modern narrative ballet.

---

James Cagney and Bob Hope

Click here to watch
 
An American friend reminded me of this priceless clip of two of the 20th century’s iconic entertainers, doing what they do, (or did, because both are dead now), almost better than anyone else. This clip comes from a Friar’s Club dinner and serves to remind us of the level of artistry and precision that was necessary for these two great artists to look as though they are making it up as they go along.

Think of the years of training and rehearsal, of repetition and sheer grinding hard work, to be able to toss this off so casually. At the time of this recording Hope was 53 and Cagney was 56. Pretty remarkable.

They are reprising a scene in the 1955 movie The Seven Little Foys. In the movie, Vaudevillian Eddie Foy puts all his children into his act to take them on the road when his wife dies. Bob Hope played Eddie Foy and James Cagney played George M. Cohan.

---