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Wuthering Heights – Wise Children – Bristol Old Vic Click here for tickets Emma Rice’s sensational adaptation of the Brontë classic returns for a limited 48-hour online run. Escape to the Yorkshire Moors and experience Wise Children’s 'wildly imaginative and exhilarating'adaptation of Wuthering Heights, filmed live from Bristol Old Vic's 255-year-old Georgian theatre in front of a live audience this Nov, and available to watch digitally, wherever you are in the world. Rescued from the Liverpool docks as a child, Heathcliff is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights. He finds a kindred spirit in Catherine Earnshaw and a fierce love ignites. When forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed. Shot through with music, dance, passion and hope, director Emma Rice is the darling of the theatrical establishment, the queen of whimsy, and here she transforms Emily Brontë’s masterpiece into a uniquely theatrical experience and intoxicating revenge tragedy for our time. Starring Lucy McCormick and Ash Hunter with music performed by Sid Goldsmith, Nadine Lee and Renell Shaw. Nov 26 for 48hrs livestream. The show will be available to watch anytime, as many times as you like, from 7pm GMT on Fri 26 Nov until 7pm GMT on Sun 28 Nov. Frick - Where in the World – Gold Click here to watch Many of us have really missed the Frick Museum’s wonderful weekly series ‘Cocktails With a Curator’, which they discontinued once the Museum opened to the public again after the pandemic. They have a new series, not nearly as personal or evocative but better than not seeing them at all. In this episode of "Where in the World?," Curator Aimee Ng discusses the use of gold in a rare painting by Duccio. Signifying both a sacred realm and material riches, the precious metal has a history intertwined with trade, conquest, and colonization in West Africa and beyond. The Frick’s temporary move to Frick Madison has prompted new ways of looking at their works of art. The reframing of the collection sheds light on the fact that the Frick's art, although predominantly European, is undeniably linked to the world beyond Europe. In this series, Where in the World?, they’re exploring some of these stories, asking "where in the world" we can find new connections to familiar objects. Starstruck – Scottish Ballet Click here to rent In 1960 Gene Kelly (yes, that Gene Kelly) was invited to create an original work for the Paris Opera Ballet. His jazzy, joyful Pas de Dieux was highly acclaimed at the time but has been rarely performed since. It has now been given a new set of wings by Scottish Ballet’s Artistic Director Christopher Hampson and retitled Starstruck. Escape to the glamour and grace of Paris with this feature film by Hampson with Tony Award-winning designer Lez Brotherston, and film director Oscar Sansom. It combines live performance from Scottish Ballet’s stage production with cinematic sequences inspired by the golden age of Hollywood.The ballet is set to Gershwin’s Concerto in F, with help from Chopin. Gene Kelly’s pioneering choreography and distinctive style influenced a generation of directors and dance-makers in Hollywood, Broadway and beyond. Starstruck is only available to watch between 26 November – 5 December 2021. Once started, viewers will have 48 hours to complete and re-watch the film again within the viewing window. $9.99 rent. Daniel Cainer’s Chanukah Concert Click here for tickets I have a soft spot for Daniel Cainer although it’s not easy to describe what he does. Laziest explanation would be to call him a Jewish musical storyteller. But then, many Jews have been storytellers, there are some in my own family, and some have even been composers, so what’s so special about him? Smart, funny, timely and only slightly irreverent, Cainer’s tales about his family and those around him are always worth hearing and often very moving. He has excellent musical sense, knows how to craft a fine rhyme, is good at wordplay and writes surprisingly haunting tunes you won’t forget. He stays close to home and his songs and his music are for anyone who has ever wrestled with their heritage and their heart, and is partial to bagels. Here is his latest, a special for Chanukah, and he’s promising special guests as a bonus. Nov 28- pay what you can Puncilitis and Other Diseases: Curable, of Course – Alyce Finell Click here to buy Looking for an amusing stocking stuffer? I had no idea that my friend Alyce Finell was a purveyor of puns until she came out with this little book which is full of them. Illustrated by Ed Kurtzman, here are more puns than you can take in on one reading. Some people consider a pun to be the highest form of humour. Some people consider a pun to be the lowest form of humour. Either way, its purpose, says Alyce, is to make you smile, laugh, be happy, which is the best reason for writing a book that I can imagine. I plan to keep a couple on hand for emergency hostess gifts. $9.99 Cinderella (La Cenerentola) – LA Opera Click here for tickets In this comedy, true love conquers all, whether you call it Cinderella, Cendrillon or Cenerentola, — even a pompous stepfather and two self-absorbed stepsisters. This is the Italian version, confusingly called Cinderella here, Rossini’s delightfully entertaining spin on the ultimate rags-to-riches tale which finds our spunky heroine (no damsel in distress here) with an opportunity to nab the most eligible bachelor in the land and outwit her social-climbing family in the process. Fast-rising operatic royalty Serena Malfi and Levy Sekgapane star as our fairytale lovers, alongside a bit of luxury casting with Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Cinderella's mysterious benefactor. Rossini master Alessandro Corbelli returns as the stepfather who tries to foil the happy ending. LA Opera will be offering two livestreamed performances of this Cenerentola conducted by Roberto Abbado for audience members who are unable to attend an in-person performance, or prefer to stay home. Live from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, you only get one chance to watch. And, of course, the performance comes from the West Coast of the United States so the timing of the livestreams is inhospitable for us in Europe. There is one stream we can reach, a matinee that starts at 10pm for us and surely worth it. Nov 28 – 2pm PT and, if you’re on the West Coast, you get another chance to watch - Dec 1 at 7.30 PT. $30. A Puppy for Chanukah – Daveed Diggs Click here to watch You’ll have already noticed I’ve gone a bit more Jewish than usual this week (ah, c’mon, how could I be more Jewish?) so for those not of the tribe I should point out that next week is Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, where we light candles every night, eat potato pancakes – latkes – and give each other presents. Chanukah, as I’m sure you all know, is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. You did know that, didn’t you? Daveed Diggs, from the original cast of Hamilton, whose mother is Jewish, which means that he is that blissful combination – Black and Jewish – wrote this song for Chanukah last year and I fell in love with him, with the song, with the little boys singing it, and with the dog. In a year when we need laughter and warmth more than ever, it definitely bears repeating. Watch it, you’ll see. Pocket Reviews Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike - Charing Cross Theatre The playwright Christopher Durang says that his delightful play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, currently at the Charing Cross Theatre, “takes Chekhov characters and puts them in a blender". He’s much too modest. This is a serious comedy and a hilarious drama and that’s a hard trick to pull off. It won a Tony for Best Play when it opened in New York in 2013 and I bet it would win it again today, so fresh does it still feel. The cast, led by the incandescent Janie Dee and the pitch-perfect Michael Maloney, is irreproachable. Every actor, oldest to youngest, is perfect for his or her role. I don’t know how the tiny Charing Cross Theatre nabbed this one, perhaps because it is directed by Broadway heavyweight Walter Bobbie, but I’m very glad they did because it’s a gift to see a play close up in a small theatre when it’s as well done as this.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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