Arts, Eats & Events
Latest in Arts, Eats & Events
LB OPERA’S “AINADAMAR” IS A TRIUMPH OF CHARACTER OVER CARICATURES
Director Andreas Mitisek's cast seems coached to play subtleties more generally akin to good theatre than classic operatic scale, and the payoff is immediate. Emotion among characters is earned without requiring the audience to suspend disbelief in a flurry of larger-than-life gestures.
BRIGHTON’S RAIN DOESN’T DAMPEN AUDIENCE ENTHUSIASM FOR THE ARTS
Many in the audience at the Brighton Festivals are struggling with a lack of money and time, and on this evening there was bad weather, too. But a lifelong love of dance overcame the elements, and provided more proof of the importance of early exposure to the arts.
LONG BEACH’S ARTS & CULTURE SCENE—COULD IT USE SOME “BRIGHTON-ING?”
GreaterLongBeach.com contributor Victoria Bryan---born-and-raised in Great Britain, a 27-year resident of Long Beach---begins a month-long series of reports from the annual arts festivals in Brighton, wherein she wonders: could something like this happen here?
THEATRE FROM THE STREETS–AND THE HEART–DEBUTS IN DOWNEY
Urban Acts: New Plays From the Street will present four staged readings in donated spaces ranging from a restaurant to a barber shop beginning this weekend in Downey. Admission is free.
“GOOSE & TOMTOM:” A GOOFINESS THAT GETS NEXT TO GODLINESS
Giggle at the goofy fun, be annoyed by the non-linear story line, but to get what "Goose and Tomtom" has going for it requires forgetting the "higher" self for a moment and joining the meditation on the magic of experience.
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN: CAL REP’S EXECUTION IS DEAD ON
Director Thomas P. Cooke turned playwright Tom Stoppard's becoming-a-classic up a notch, using clips from Laurence Olivier's 1948 film to skewer the late overactor for hamming up "Hamlet."
SMITHSONIAN’S SPACE SUIT EXHIBIT CLOSES AT DOWNEY SPACE MUSEUM SATURDAY
This is the final weekend for the Columbia Memorial Space Museum’s first first-ever traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution: “Suited For Space” which is about space suits. The museum is pretty much all that’s left of the aerospace industry in Downey, where they built things like the Apollo series of rockets that took people to [...]
BASTARD’S OF YOUNG MARINE HAS SOME IN DOWNEY CONSIDERING REPLACEMENTS
“I wake up every day proud to be a bastard …” asserts Nick Velez, who is preparing to open a sports bar and restaurant in downtown Downey, in a story in today’s Downey Patriot by city editor Eric Pierce. So, there ya go—job applicants, beware. But apparently we’ve interrupted Velez, who hasn’t finished his sentence. [...]
HAVE-A-GREATER-WEEKEND: DEEP JAZZ, SPACE ODDITIES, OCCUPY EARTH DAY
"Have a greater weekend!" we cheerily well-wished them. "Don't tell us what kind of weekend to have!" they sharply bubble-popped us. So, instead, we're going to tell you to have a greater weekend ... and how.
THE HIDDEN INFLUENCE OF LONG BEACH MUSIC: WE ARE THE SUM OF OUR SONGS
Long Beach's music scene is forever being stifled by a paucity of venues, noise-level restrictions and dancing prohibitions. But Long Beach's sound always finds a way, out.and is apt to show up anywhere. It's strength is in numbers---the sheer number of cultures it taps into.
POST MORTEM’S SENDUP OF “AMERI-CON-A”: SOMETIMES, BURLESQUE IS MORE
“America: A Political Burlesque,” a sort of risible salve for election fever, is the most elaborate offering yet from Post Mortem, a spinoff of the Alive Theatre. While some quite-talented artists get a payoff for all their work, they might have hit the jackpot by paring things down.
‘ROMEO & JULIET’ CLOSES ITS RUN AT GOAD THEATRE SUNDAY AT 2 P.M.
The Long Beach Shakespeare Company's production of "Romeo and Juliet" isn't perfect, but it understands these are two idiot kids, who know about hormones, obsessiveness and instant gratification, but nothing about substantive romantic love.
BOOM: IF YOU WANT TO MAKE ABSURDISTS LAUGH, TELL THEM YOUR PLANS
In "boom," an absurdist play by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb---now playing by the Alive Theatre troupe at the Long Beach Playhouse---people just can't win for trying ... sometimes including their attempts to understand the play.
HOW TO PICK AN OSCAR-NIGHT FIGHT: WHINE ON ABOUT ‘BRIDESMAIDS,” “POTTER”
If you wanna be starting something at the Cinematheque Oscar Party, don't stop pointing out that doubling the candidates for Best PIcture was supposed to improve the chances for "other" kinds of films. But only 9 films were nominated, and none were of the "other" kind. Above, it appears Oscar just isn't wild about Harry, either.
“QUILLS’” ALLEGORY IS HEAVY-HANDED, JUST LIKE THE MARQUIS DE SADE LIKES IT
Cal Rep's production of Obie Award-winning "Quills"---which invokes the Marquis de Sade to make a case for freedom of expression---gets its drive from high-octane acting and lowbrow bawdy, but slows down when the moralizing begins.
