Alexandre Desplat-"Argo" movie score Watertower WTM 39382-excerpts w/ Desplat conducting
Mychael Danna-"Life of Pi" movie score Sony Classical 887254772152-excerpts w/ Mike Nowak, conductor
Dario Marianelli-"Anna Karenina" movie score Decca B0017596-02-excerpts w/Arjuhan Galleva and Telman Guzhevsky, singers-Marianelli, piano- Benjamin Wallfisch, conductor
John Williams-"Lincoln" movie score Sony Classical 88725446852-"The People's House" w/Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Williams conducting
Thomas Newman-"Skyfall" movie score Sony Classical-8765410402-excerpts w/Newman conducting
Danny Elfman-"Hitchcock" movie score Sony 88765417072-excerpts w/Rick Wentworth, conductor
Ludovic Bource-"The Artist" movie score Sony Classical 88697978952-excerpts w/The Brussels Philharmonic, The Orchestra of Flanders and The Brussels Jazz Orchestra-Ernst Van Tiel, conductor
Alexandre Desplat-"The King's Speech" movie score Decca B0015064.02-excerpts w/Dave Arch, piano-Desplat conducting
Dario Marianelli-"Atonement" movie score-excerpts w/Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano-English Chamber Orchestra-Benjamin Wallfisch, conductor
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday 24th February
Alan Menken: music & Glenn Slater: lyrics-"Leap of Faith" (original Broadway cast) Ghostlight 8-4465 -excerpts w/Kendra Kassebaum, Raul Esparza, Jessica Phillips, Leslie Odom Jr., Kecia Lewis-Evans, Taylon Ackerman, Kristal Joy Brown-Brent Alan Huffman, music director,
Gary Adler & Michael Patrick Walker: music & lyrics-"Alter Boyz" (original off-Broadway cast) Sh-K-Boom 7915586050-2-excerpts w/ David Josefberg, Andy Karl, Scott Porter, Tyler Maynard, Ryan Duncan-Lynne Shankel, music director.
Gary Adler & Michael Patrick Walker: music & lyrics-"Alter Boyz" (original off-Broadway cast) Sh-K-Boom 7915586050-2-excerpts w/ David Josefberg, Andy Karl, Scott Porter, Tyler Maynard, Ryan Duncan-Lynne Shankel, music director.
Theatre review: "Chess" from Point Park Conservatory Theatre
Sitting through the two and a half hours of a Point Park Conservatory Theatre company performance of the musical Chess you might, like a player of the game, sit there wondering about your next move, i.e.to sit it through to the end or leave at intermission. After all, there have been many outstanding productions of great shows over the years. But, should you choose to stay, you might consider intermission a highlight while you close your eyes and dream about better days when the Conservatory offered something worth its and your time. And then,you might return to your seat with the hope that surprises will emerge. After all, the plot has a few good things going for it. But don't expect too much.
Actually the show has become quite well known and had a good run for the money in London, 1984-87, although a Broadway version lasted for only two months. Since then, people all over the world have bought tickets to 28 other productions.
There is the potential attraction of songs created by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus formerly of ᗅᗺᗷᗅ the Swedish pop group behind highly successful Mamma Mia, along with lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber-collaborator Tim Rice. Should you be among the insufficiently informed about those people, adding to your puzzlement, don’t look for clarification in the program book. There’s nothing about them in the eight pages of credits, although the assistant stage managers get half a page.
Consider the possibility that this is good training, challenging students to make the best of it. Should they go on to professional careers, if they want to work, inevitably they’ll take on roles in junk.
Which is to say, that in this pop opera, you may look in vain to find worthwhile melodies or clever lyrics. Once in a while a few fragments surface, suggesting going somewhere without succeeding, in pieces which sometimes sound like standard rock and sometimes resemble recitatives in third rate 18th century opera. Even a couple of distractions, a southeast Asian production item and a brief Eastern European choral bit don't add much. Nothing the talented, capable performers do can make this thing better. Yet several of them really shine vocally and establish solid personality in not very complex roles. The book by Richard Nelson has some interesting elements, but they don't go very deep.
There’s a romantic triangle involving two top chess players, an American and a Russian, in a world championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. This also involves political gamesmanship with such obvious elements as the idea that such people are pawns in the struggle. The whole thing centers on a personal contest between American chess master, Freddie Trumper, and Russian, Anatoly Sergievsky, Freddie’s coach or “second” is Hungarian born Florence Vassy, who, tired of his narcissism, falls for Anatoly and he for her. He defects, leaving behind a wife and repercussions affecting his family while she hopes to reunite with her father who may still be alive in Russia dominated Hungary. Apparently the show's plot was inspired by the antics of Bobby Fischer and contrasted with the behavior of other real life masters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.
Director Scott Wise has done a lot to make this look interesting, filling the stage with human scenery in the constant movement of black suited, deliberately interchangeable security people from both sides of the Iron Curtain. He calls forth interesting scenic effects provided by Anne Mundell and adds the now ubiquitous device of live TV camera projections. Such stuff could make you believe that you’re watching something significant but 27 empty songs dominate the experience. In them, Wise has his solo performers avoid histrionics and just stand still delivering their numbers, a worthy choice except that this makes the shallow content even more obvious.
Joe Pudetti stands strong amid the mostly generic characterizations by the cast, giving Anatoly compelling, sincere presence. And he sings magnificently. He has the makings of a star. Keaton Jadwin does equally well in giving Freddie specific, snotty dimension and he handles all the vocal challenges with constant skill. And Ariell Rawding has a lot of class as Anatoly's wife Svetlana.
As for what you won’t discover if you attend, here are facts missing from the program book. The show, like others by different people, began as a concept album, similar to American Idiot,Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita. This emerged in 1984 created by ᗅᗺᗷᗅ, a couple of years after the group had split up following ten successful years together. They were Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Wikipedia points out that, as of 2011,Andersson was active with his own band and was executive producer for the film version of Mamma Mia. Ulvaeus co-produced the movie. Certainly there’s much more to read about them on-line, even if not one word is devoted to them in the booklet created by this educational institution.
I can’t help wondering what will be the Conservatory’s next move. Last year there was the dreadful M33. But this fall featured a marvelous version of The Producers. Hey, kids, that’s show business.
Chess continues through March 3rd at Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Avenue, Oakland. 412-392-8000 or www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.
Actually the show has become quite well known and had a good run for the money in London, 1984-87, although a Broadway version lasted for only two months. Since then, people all over the world have bought tickets to 28 other productions.
There is the potential attraction of songs created by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus formerly of ᗅᗺᗷᗅ the Swedish pop group behind highly successful Mamma Mia, along with lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber-collaborator Tim Rice. Should you be among the insufficiently informed about those people, adding to your puzzlement, don’t look for clarification in the program book. There’s nothing about them in the eight pages of credits, although the assistant stage managers get half a page.
Consider the possibility that this is good training, challenging students to make the best of it. Should they go on to professional careers, if they want to work, inevitably they’ll take on roles in junk.
Which is to say, that in this pop opera, you may look in vain to find worthwhile melodies or clever lyrics. Once in a while a few fragments surface, suggesting going somewhere without succeeding, in pieces which sometimes sound like standard rock and sometimes resemble recitatives in third rate 18th century opera. Even a couple of distractions, a southeast Asian production item and a brief Eastern European choral bit don't add much. Nothing the talented, capable performers do can make this thing better. Yet several of them really shine vocally and establish solid personality in not very complex roles. The book by Richard Nelson has some interesting elements, but they don't go very deep.
There’s a romantic triangle involving two top chess players, an American and a Russian, in a world championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. This also involves political gamesmanship with such obvious elements as the idea that such people are pawns in the struggle. The whole thing centers on a personal contest between American chess master, Freddie Trumper, and Russian, Anatoly Sergievsky, Freddie’s coach or “second” is Hungarian born Florence Vassy, who, tired of his narcissism, falls for Anatoly and he for her. He defects, leaving behind a wife and repercussions affecting his family while she hopes to reunite with her father who may still be alive in Russia dominated Hungary. Apparently the show's plot was inspired by the antics of Bobby Fischer and contrasted with the behavior of other real life masters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.
Director Scott Wise has done a lot to make this look interesting, filling the stage with human scenery in the constant movement of black suited, deliberately interchangeable security people from both sides of the Iron Curtain. He calls forth interesting scenic effects provided by Anne Mundell and adds the now ubiquitous device of live TV camera projections. Such stuff could make you believe that you’re watching something significant but 27 empty songs dominate the experience. In them, Wise has his solo performers avoid histrionics and just stand still delivering their numbers, a worthy choice except that this makes the shallow content even more obvious.
Joe Pudetti stands strong amid the mostly generic characterizations by the cast, giving Anatoly compelling, sincere presence. And he sings magnificently. He has the makings of a star. Keaton Jadwin does equally well in giving Freddie specific, snotty dimension and he handles all the vocal challenges with constant skill. And Ariell Rawding has a lot of class as Anatoly's wife Svetlana.
As for what you won’t discover if you attend, here are facts missing from the program book. The show, like others by different people, began as a concept album, similar to American Idiot,Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita. This emerged in 1984 created by ᗅᗺᗷᗅ, a couple of years after the group had split up following ten successful years together. They were Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Wikipedia points out that, as of 2011,Andersson was active with his own band and was executive producer for the film version of Mamma Mia. Ulvaeus co-produced the movie. Certainly there’s much more to read about them on-line, even if not one word is devoted to them in the booklet created by this educational institution.
I can’t help wondering what will be the Conservatory’s next move. Last year there was the dreadful M33. But this fall featured a marvelous version of The Producers. Hey, kids, that’s show business.
Chess continues through March 3rd at Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Avenue, Oakland. 412-392-8000 or www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Theatre review: "Spring Awakening" at CMU.
The CMU School of Drama offers a beautiful production of the
musical Spring Awakening which has
all too short a date. For me, it surpasses the national touring performance which
stopped here in May of 2009 at Heinz Hall. That version seemed dark and somber,
certainly justified by the story and theme, but lacking elements which could
have served it better. This new one glows with style and soul, enriched by
wonderful singing and expressive direction and choreography from the faculty’s
Tomè Cousin, aided by Bryce Cutler’s scenic designs and Dan Efros’ lighting.
Lyricist Steven Sater wrote the script based on a play by German author Frank Wedekind about life in an adult-dominated, repressive culture of a small German town in the 1890s. There, young people are starting to burst at the seams which confine them to childhood. They urgently want to grow, their bodies metamorphosing, but not knowing why or how to do what hearts and minds urge.
The thirteen-member student cast makes the most and best of
Duncan Sheik’s music, memorably bringing out the lovely choral harmonies,or,in
solos, duos, trios etc sweet where vulnerable tenderness belongs, or with the
right kind of urgency in throbbing rock numbers. Meanwhile the eight member
orchestra, directed by Thomas Douglas, plays everything superbly.
The emerging artists on stage move with grace and meaning in
Cousin’s many memorable ideas of how to
make bodies say what words may not. He fills the stage with movement, using the
large space to have his young people ebb and flow, vividly alive finding
themselves, while dominating adults tellingly hover above them. This is quite a
difference from how I remember what I witnessed almost four years ago, where
dark confines perfectly expressed a major element of the story’s time and
setting. Tomè’s take suggests a different, although valid symbolic meaning. Yet,
in the first act, the presumed oppressive social environment does not come
across clearly and meaningfully.
Lyricist Steven Sater wrote the script based on a play by German author Frank Wedekind about life in an adult-dominated, repressive culture of a small German town in the 1890s. There, young people are starting to burst at the seams which confine them to childhood. They urgently want to grow, their bodies metamorphosing, but not knowing why or how to do what hearts and minds urge.
The main thrust of the story becomes ultimately tragic.
Evidently Wedekind wanted to criticize such a society and to show how it
damaged youth, dwelling on intelligent questioning of religion and of accepted
ideas through one character, teen-age Melchior Gabor. That could have led to
the original play being banned as well as the fact that it showed masturbation,
teen sex, suicide, violence and abortion. The musical version incorporates all
that. But you wouldn’t know how serious this is, or how serious it will become,
from much of the first act. The second
act brings that home.
Taylor Jack Helmboldt conveys Melchoir perfectly in every
note and every gesture while Katya Stepanov and Nick Rehberger continually make
vivid and distinctive all the roles of the adults in the story. Everyone else
remains convincingly dear, as if you’d want to hold them and comfort them on
their way to what could be a brighter future both as characters and
performers. Continuing to display his
imaginative artistry, Tomè baptizes them into such a new day.
Spring Awakening
continues through March 2nd at Philip Chosky Theater, Purnell Center
for the Arts, on the CMU campus,
Oakland. 412/268-2407. www.drama.cmu.edu
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Theatre review: "American Idiot" with a road company at Heinz Hall
A traveling
version of the musical American Idiot
has surged into town for a few days. This ensemble has so much energy you can’t
help wondering how they sustain all that song- yelling while jumping, leaping,
flying, soaring all over a set which looks so solid and detail- filled that you
have to wonder how the whole thing can be set up and torn down on a weekly
basis.
Looking at this year-long-running 2010-11Broadway sensation you could get the idea that it is as much a spectator sport as a theatrical event. Sure there’s a slight story line, something on which to nail all the material from the same-named album by Green Day: Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Trè Cool. But the nearly dialogue-less, 90 minute-or- so item seems more about visually personifying the songs with the emphasis on feelings rather than on the meaning of the words, usually lost in high decibel volume. There are a few temporarily quiet moments with eloquent traces of simple folk-song- like melodies, backed by a string quartet represented by a live cellist in a cage. Why the cage? I guess it’s some kind of a statement, or it may be to protect his tranquility from the uncaged action throbbing all around him.
Especially witness a beautiful aerial ballet personifying Tunny’s hallucinations while sedated in his hospital bed; he and his nurse fly to and from each other yearning to hold on. And there is also a telling expression of how Johnny and his girlfriend are caught in the coils of heroin addiction, as if their tourniquets are poisonous snakes.
You probably need to know that the production should carry a warning that it’s for “mature audiences only” given plenty of profanity plus simulated sex and drug use, even if the characters themselves are hovering on the edge of maturity.
As for the leading roles, everyone sings and moves with all the intensity required while capably suggesting as much personality as possible. But the ensemble carries the day, even if it never transforms into something green.
American Idiot continues through Sunday, February 24th at Heinz Hall, downtown. 412-392-4900 or trustarts.culturaldistrict.org/
Looking at this year-long-running 2010-11Broadway sensation you could get the idea that it is as much a spectator sport as a theatrical event. Sure there’s a slight story line, something on which to nail all the material from the same-named album by Green Day: Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Trè Cool. But the nearly dialogue-less, 90 minute-or- so item seems more about visually personifying the songs with the emphasis on feelings rather than on the meaning of the words, usually lost in high decibel volume. There are a few temporarily quiet moments with eloquent traces of simple folk-song- like melodies, backed by a string quartet represented by a live cellist in a cage. Why the cage? I guess it’s some kind of a statement, or it may be to protect his tranquility from the uncaged action throbbing all around him.
The stage vibrates
with a fascinating flow of remarkable images, Steven Hoggett’s choreography becoming
constantly impressive.
Armstrong and director Michael Mayer’s book focuses on three young men,
Johnny and Tunny who escape their lives in suburbia while Will stays behind to work
out a relationship with his pregnant girlfriend. The former two try to find meaning
in the freedom and excitement of a big city. Tunny joins the military and comes
back war-wounded. Johnny gets into an intense relationship and even more heavily
into drugs, giving up his girl friend in favor of his addictions. Most of the time none of
them is happy or fulfilled, perhaps idiots ruining their lives.
At the start of the show you clearly get the idea that all these people are
angry. Given that, everywhere they turn, TV screens dominate their scenery replicating
and multiplying the images of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, you can
understand their feelings, including the idea that their world is becoming
increasingly bleak. Christine Jones’ set brings that home, dominated by pervasive
technology including looming black sound equipment and bare metal
scaffolds and never a hint of a green day with trees and flowers. There’s also
the graffiti-surrounded toilet upstage to add to the impression. Plus Andrea
Lauer’s costumes make it clear that clothes choices reflect ugliness as a style
statement.
Especially witness a beautiful aerial ballet personifying Tunny’s hallucinations while sedated in his hospital bed; he and his nurse fly to and from each other yearning to hold on. And there is also a telling expression of how Johnny and his girlfriend are caught in the coils of heroin addiction, as if their tourniquets are poisonous snakes.
You probably need to know that the production should carry a warning that it’s for “mature audiences only” given plenty of profanity plus simulated sex and drug use, even if the characters themselves are hovering on the edge of maturity.
As for the leading roles, everyone sings and moves with all the intensity required while capably suggesting as much personality as possible. But the ensemble carries the day, even if it never transforms into something green.
American Idiot continues through Sunday, February 24th at Heinz Hall, downtown. 412-392-4900 or trustarts.culturaldistrict.org/
Sunday, February 17, 2013
"The Best of Broadway" and "Classics" return!
Hello!
“The Best of Broadway” Sunday February 24th (2-3pm) features selections from last year’s short-lived Leap of Faith w/ music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater who also wrote the songs for Sister Act, the musical.
“Classics” Sunday, February 24th (3-5pm) features film music from Academy Award- nominated scores for Anna Karenina (Dario Marinelli), Argo (Alexandre Desplat) and Life of Pi (Mychael Danna). The Oscars are awarded on this evening.
Playlist-Massive Music Weekend-Sunday 2/17/13
Massive Music Weekend playlist for program Sunday February 17th 12:30- 1 pm. Featuring Wilkinsburg/Pittsburgh born vibraphonist Steve Nelson, born 1955. He solos on every selection.
“Steve Nelson-Sound Effect” High Note HCD 7175-“One Thin Dime”w/Mulgrew Miller, p-Peter Washington, b
.
“Steve Nelson-Sound Effect” High Note HCD 7175-“One Thin Dime”w/Mulgrew Miller, p-Peter Washington, b
.
“Dave Holland Quintet-Dream of the Elders” ECM CD 1572-“Equality” w/Holland, b-Eric Person, as
“Steve Nelson-Fuller Nelson” Sunnyside CD SSC 1134-“Easy to Love” w/ Kirk Lightsey, p
“Steve Davis-Portrait in Sound” Stretch CD SCD 9027-2 -“Samba D” w/ Davis, tb-David Hazeltine,p
“Steve Nelson-Fuller Nelson” Sunnyside CD SSC 1134-“Easy to Love” w/ Kirk Lightsey, p
“Steve Davis-Portrait in Sound” Stretch CD SCD 9027-2 -“Samba D” w/ Davis, tb-David Hazeltine,p
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