What to watch this week on the Internet. What really cheers me up is the extraordinary creativity pouring out of my computer. The old adage that 'artists make art' has never been more sorely tested or more triumphantly vindicated. Nobody I know is working, nobody's got any money, everybody is doing something, often something wonderful, impromptu performances from people’s kitchens, even fully staged concerts and plays especially written for Zoom. All sorts of experiments, some more successful than others, but even the ones that fall flat, such as the dreary concert the Royal Opera House tried last week, with 3 very earnest singers singing art songs, one at a time, on that vast stage in an echoing cavernous empty auditorium, or the Zoom play, Staged, with an amazing array of actors from David Tennant to Michael Sheen which fell flat because of a really terrible script, are worth watching for the energy and innovation involved. Well, they tried. Good for them. They remember what Samuel Beckett said, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Act One – Lincoln Center http://lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/show/act-one-428 You may not immediately recognise the name of Moss Hart but in the 30s, 40s, and on into the 50s, Hart was at the epicentre of American theatre and cinema. As a writer, in partnership with the equally celebrated George S Kaufman, he was responsible for some of the biggest hits of the decades including Once in a Lifetime, You Can’t Take It with You, and The Man Who Came to Dinner, among many others and, just to prove he could, Hart had nearly as many hits as a solo writer when he and Kaufman split up. As a director, I probably need only mention that he was at the helm of My Fair Lady although that was very far from being the only major stage play he directed. Towards the end of his all too short life (he died of a heart attack at the age of 57) Moss Hart wrote Act One, an autobiography which was intended to be the first volume of his life story. My late husband, no mean biographer himself, always said the Act One was the finest theatrical biography ever written. Now James Lapine, another fine writer and director, (who collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods) adapts this Broadway memoir for the stage, rendering a funny and touching portrait of the artist as a young man. The cast at Lincoln Center Theater includes Tony Award-winners Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin, and Santino Fontana. It’s available from this Friday at 8pm US time and thereafter on Lincoln Center’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. Virtual West End Live 2020 https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/how-to-watch-virtual-west-end-live-2020/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NL_20_06_14+%281%29&spMailingID=42718087&spUserID=OTc0NDQ0MjA4MjMwS0&spJobID=1781077999&spReportId=MTc4MTA3Nzk5OQS2 Next weekend would in normal times be West End Live in Trafalgar Square, when current shows strut their stuff on the streets instead of the stages. Usually performers, actors, musicians, sing their songs, perform excerpts from their shows, get to know passers-by and generally acquaint theatre lovers and those would like to know what it’s like, with what they do and why we love it. But not this year. Instead, on both Saturday and Sunday at 2pm you can tune into West End Live’s Facebook page and see some of the highlights of West End theatre of the last five years. There will be singalongs, quizzes, and other theatre-based activities. It won’t be West End Live but it should be fun. Cirque du Soleil – Corteo/Volta/Totem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVUZzaMN_BE Cirque du Soleil has millions of worldwide fans but it has always struck me as a Marmite affair. The aerialists and acrobats are fantastic and the athletic skills are not in question but there is a worrying insistence that circus is high art, which tends to work against its own premise. Personally, I find the clowns unfunny and the mise en scene pretentious. But some of the performances are undeniably beautiful and innovative, some are plain creepy. So judge for yourself. This live recording is interrupted by commercials which are annoying but fortunately there’s a ‘Skip Ads’ button each time they occur. Jim Caruso’s Pyjama Cast Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPeHiFb6mPQ One of the most enjoyable ways to spend Monday nights in New York is at Jim Caruso’s Cast Parties, which are Open Mic evenings at the legendary Birdland club. I never miss it when I’m in New York. Of course, Birdland is currently closed but that hasn’t stopped indefatigable Jim. The parties continue, known now as Jim Caruso’s Pyjama Cast Parties. They’re still on Monday evenings but now online, and you still never know which terrific singers are going to turn up, from household names to unknowns. This week’s show will feature the great Ann Hampton Callaway and chances are she’ll do her famous improvisation. I don’t know how she’s going to do it without a live audience to shout out unrelated words and phrases that she will somehow immediately combine into a song but I have faith that with the combination of Callaway and Caruso, anything is possible. If you want to watch it live it’s on Monday at 8pm New York time which is 1am in the UK but it remains available on the Birdland YouTube channel and on Jim Caruso’s Facebook page thereafter. Harold Sanditen’s Open Mic https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl&pli=1#search/Open+Mic/FMfcgxwHNqGswwBtjlJXxcwbKxSRWqCM Harold Sanditen is doing something very similar on this side of the Atlantic with mainly, but not exclusively, UK-based performers. The next one is on June 18th, that’s this coming Thursday, at 7pm on Zoom and on Harold’s Facebook page. He too has an amazing lineup of cabaret guests and this link will give you access details. Metropolitan Opera https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/ Of the altogether delicious line-up this week my choices would be Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with the delectable Susan Graham and Placido Domingo, Verdi’s La Forza del Destino with the incomparable Leontyne Price and Leo Nucci, and Rossini’s rare Armida with Renee Fleming, although the equally rare Semiramide is on offer too. On the other hand, if your taste runs to more eclectic fare, this week also offers two Philip Glass operas – Satyagraha and Akhnaten – both with great casts. The riches of the opera repertoire and the recordings made by all the major opera houses have provided us with an unparalleled opportunity to see the breadth of works and artists that most of us couldn’t possibly have seen before the lockdown. I’ve watched more operas in the past two months than ever before in a lifetime of loving opera and enjoyed nearly every minute. What’s that about every cloud having a silver lining? Well, the virus is a pretty big cloud and the opera streams are a fairly small lining but, you must agree, it’s shining silver. Live with Carnegie Hall – America’s Schubert: The Songs of Irving Berlin https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2020/06/16/Live-with-Carnegie-Hall-Michael-Feinstein-0200PM Almost nobody knows more about the Great American Songbook, than Michael Feinstein. That priceless collection of songs was written during the 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond and they sprang from an extraordinary clutch of songwriters. Nearly all were Jewish, nearly all were refugees who immigrated to the United States from various parts of war-torn Europe, and nearly all became more American than the flag. Chief among them was Israel Baline, a singing waiter who spoke no English when he arrived, until he turned into Irving Berlin, the most American of Americans. He wrote God Bless America, he wrote White Christmas, the most popular song ever written, and he wrote another 1500 songs, many of which have become classics. On June 16th, this Tuesday, as part of Carnegie Hall’s new online series, at 2pm NY time, 7pm UK time, Michael Feinstein presents a programme of Irving Berlin songs. His guests include Kelli O’Hara, one of the glories of the American music theatre, and Broadway singer Tony Yazbeck. There will be some good stories and even better songs. You can watch on Carnegie Hall’s YouTube Page or on its Facebook page. La Fille Mal Gardee – Royal Ballet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbZEYzrPnLc It’s a perennial favourite – a light, comic ballet with Frederick Ashton’s best choreography – and you’ll never see it with a better cast. There’s Marianela Nuñez , with the lightest of footwork and the most beautiful smile, who was born to dance Ashton’s work, and Carlos Acosta who demonstrates what a truly great dancer he is by looking as though he too was born to dance it when, in fact, Ashton’s choreography doesn’t have the bravura quality his prodigious talents demand. There’s also a lovely comic turn from the choreographer William Tuckett as Widow Simone and from Jonathan Howells as Alain, the rejected suitor. If you’ve got a restless little one in your house, here’s the perfect babysitter. What could be better than dancing chickens and a real life pony pulling a real cart? The clog dance is a famous set piece and particularly hilarious here. The cartoonist Osbert Lancaster’s 1959 designs are as fresh as if this were a new production. La Fille Mal Gardee is lovely escapist entertainment and it’s available until June 26th. Museums in Quarantine – The British Museum https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hqq9/museums-in-quarantine-series-1-4-british-museum Janina Ramirez, a favourite academic of mine, although only in voice over on this one, takes us on a tour of the locked down galleries of the British Museum. This tour requires patience, it seems slow, but she picks out individual objects to examine as she considers love, death, spirituality, and more. You just have to find her rhythm to lock into her ability to connect the objects and it’s a treat to see a place normally overrun with hundreds of people, totally deserted. This comes from a BBC series, Museums in Quarantine. Greetings from Rose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyLs7T7b6uM A friend sent me this clip of the great dramatic actor Rosemary Harris delivering advice from one great choreographer and woman of the theatre, to another. It’s from her Commencement speech to the students of the North Carolina School of the Arts. Sadly, I have never met Ms Harris, now aged 92, but I was honoured to know and work with both of the great ladies she is quoting - Martha Graham and Agnes de Mille - and she makes me want to know her too. Every artist, especially those who are struggling now, should take notice of this perfect advice every day, and hang it over their beds.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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