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When David Mamet’s Glengary Glen Ross first exploded on the stage, its nonstop profane dialogue left many in a state of shock. Some 28 years later, this now ubiquitous vocabulary gurgles from the 7-year-old youngsters on Comedy Central’s South Park as well as from the cuddly, singing puppets from Broadway’s Avenue Q. The current La Jolla Playhouse production of Glengary Glen Ross reminded me that coarse language is the least distressing aspect of Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the internecine office warfare of five rapacious Chicago real estate agents. I would list mendacious manipulation, contemptuous regard of humanity, and unrestrained…
The mysteries of the living theatre conjure romance for everybody but there’s no audience more receptive than the theatre workers themselves. Those giving their lives to the art live with the endless urge to show just how splendid the rewards can be, despite the cost and the sacrifices. Just consider a quick, top-of-the-head list of examples: The Producers, Fame, Kiss Me Kate, Light Up the Sky, The Royal Family, Speed-the-Plow, A Chorus Line, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Fantasticks, Phantom of the Opera, Noises Off, Follies, The Sunshine Boys… (deep breath). Sometimes even the bosses get celebrated.…
If you are a chamber music ensemble, you know that you have arrived when a prestigious music school invites you for a long term residency and puts you on the full time faculty. It is one thing to have a busy touring schedule and a fistful of glowing reviews, but nothing compares with the security of residency. On these counts, it is safe to say that the Pacifica Quartet—in town to perform a concert of Beethoven and Prokofiev Friday (October 5) at UC San Diego—has it made. This month the quartet is embarking on its new residency at Indiana University’s…
While a rallying cry of “the cutting edge artistic innovation” is generally received as a warning to traditionally-minded music audiences, the Carlsbad Music Festival has managed to make this premise surprisingly audience friendly. A pair of festival concerts on Saturday (Sept. 22) afternoon—Andy Akiho and Friends and the choral ensemble Sacra/Profana—demonstrated how this festival makes the avant garde accessible. Following Timothy Andres’ impressive solo piano recital at the Carlsbad Village Theatre (which I reviewed separately on SanDiegoStory.com), the audience members strolled a few blocks through old Carlsbad to Magee Park, where composer and virtuoso steel pannist Andy Akiho and his…
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