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Annie - 1977 Click here to watch My first goddaughter (I have lots but she was the first) is now a grown up professional, a partner in a big firm, but she’s always been an actor manque. At the age of three she was taken to her first musical. Annie. All the little girls on the stage, singing, looked like somewhere she should be, so she ran down the aisle to join them, with her father in hot but distant pursuit. She did not take kindly to being thwarted in her quest for stardom. In fairness, Annie has that effect on many little girls and many big girls too. Its score, by Strouse and Charnin, is irresistible as is the cast of adorable moppets, a stray dog, and several excellent adult actors holding it together. The show opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years. In that year, Annie was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won 7, including Best Musical. Dorothy Loudon won for her performance as the dreadful Miss Hannigan and little Andrea McCardle, then aged 12, was nominated for her turn in the title role. She’s still performing at the top level, moppet no longer, shortly to appear at New York’s 54 Below in her solo cabaret. We can revisit this joyous show and its best songs here with the Tony Award presentation of Annie in 1977. Ansel Adams – A Documentary Film Click here to watch I don’t know much about the art of photography, always having preferred painting, but even I know that Ansel Adams was the acknowledged master of the art. Here is a documentary about the man and his life but, more significantly, about the landscapes in the High Sierras and Yosemite National Park that inspired him and which were the subject of his astonishing photographs. Blessed with a father who understood and encouraged this rather odd boy who couldn’t learn anything at school but who, from an early age, could see the world in ways that are denied the rest of us, and, later, with a wife who accepted uncomplainingly his obsession with the mountains and valleys of the West, he flourished. Today, undoubtedly he would have been diagnosed as dyslexic and probably neuro-atypical or autistic. But those diagnoses didn’t exist in the early years of the 20th century and he was lucky they didn’t because he was able to develop as an artist with his unique vision untrammeled. At first he thought to be a concert pianist and was, from all accounts, talented enough to make a career of music, but he was torn between his settled life as a musician with his family in San Francisco and the pull of the landscapes which compelled him into remote places to make photographs which amaze and move us in ways we don’t understand. This film is often slow, taking its time with its display of his photographs juxtaposed with the places where they were made, but are enlivened by interviews with Adams’ biographer, editor, and other experts who provide background and depth to his story. It took me a while to get into Ansel Adams: a Documentary Film, but, once I did, I was hooked. Ring Them Bells! A Kander and Ebb Celebration Click here to watch This is a full-length concert programme celebrating the songs of John Kander and Fred Ebb. Those readers who are not musical theatre nuts – there must be a few of you out there – may not be aware that this great partnership spawned some fifteen of the most significant and successful musicals of the past 50 years. Together, they composed the scores for Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Zorba, The Act, amongst many others, the score for Martin Scorcese’s film, New York New York and Liza, a 1974 concert for Minnelli. Here, the songs are performed by some of Broadway’s finest including Joel Grey, who started it all as the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret, performing his signature song from that show. We lost the great Chita Rivera recently. Here, aged 80, she guest-stars in this 2013 television special, singing All That Jazz, Class, Love and Love Alone, Say Yes, and Cabaret. The show is introduced charmingly by the Music Director Rob Fisher. The late brilliant Marin Mazzie whose smile lights up the stage with her husband, Jason Danieley round out the bill, along with a brief appearance from John Kander himself whose partner, Fred Ebb, had already died by the date of this show. The show's most touching moments come from a comic song, Class, from Cabaret, sung and acted faultlessly by Marin Mazzie and Chita Rivera, but amidst the laughter there are tears because they are no longer with us, this performance demonstrating how very much we’ve lost. For us musicals nuts, sheer bliss. The Seven Year Disappear – The New Group Click here for tickets This is a new play by Jordan Seavey, directed by Scott Elliott and starring Cynthia Nixon, who seems to be everywhere these days, with Taylor Trensch as Naphtali. Naphtali’s mother, a world-famous performance artist, disappeared suddenly seven years ago. And yet, he sees her everywhere: in the faces of friends, coworkers, the guy he’s flirting with in a dark bar. When his mother returns with few answers and a staggering request, Naphtali is forced to confront what he’s spent years trying to forget. Art imitates life and consumes it entirely in this funny, deeply human mystery about mothers and sons, coming of age, and coming apart. The producers need to tell us that “This production contains nudity, sexual situations, strong and graphic language, vaping, discussions of mental illness and the use of illegal substances.” OK, so now we know. The play will be streamed live on four dates. For those not in the US, there are two matinee performances which allow us in Europe to start watching at a reasonable hour. However, note that the ticket price of $69 is high for a livestream, especially as we can only watch at the time and date we have chosen. Choose: FRIDAY, MAR 29 7:30 PM ET SATURDAY, MAR 30 2:00 PM ET SATURDAY, MAR 30 8:00 PM ET SUNDAY, MAR 31 2:00 PM ET Fonteyn and Nureyev – Giselle 1962 Click here to watch My theory is, you can never have too much Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev so, when I come across an unusual clip of the two of them, or one I haven’t seen for a long time, I need to share it with you. This is an early one, Giselle from 1962, Nureyev’s debut with the Royal Ballet and the beginning of their 17-year partnership. No need for words.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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