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Producers Fran and Barry Weissler have made a lot of money doing what’s called “stunt casting.” They take an appealing show, front it with a “name” celebrity they think audiences would pay to see, surround the star with a cast that can sell the show, and then if the star bombs the rest of the evening isn’t wasted. The Weisslers’ most successful example is Chicago, which has been running for years both in New York and on the road featuring celebrities of highly variable quality. They’re hardly the first to use the technique, though. Years ago, I saw Elizabeth Taylor…
With composer Tan Dun on the podium, La Jolla SummerFest’s riveting presentation of his “Water Passion” at the La Jolla Playhouse Saturday (August 4) may be the festival’s finest hour. And not simply of this 2012 SummerFest, but of every SummerFest since the annual event was launched 25 seasons ago. Over the years, this chamber music festival has staked its reputation on presenting standard repertory at a consistently high level of performance. New music has been treated as an optional side dish, and anything avant garde presented circumspectly as a rara avis. “Water Passion,” a major work of recent vintage…
La Jolla SummerFest 2012 opening Friday, August 3, with a concert of effusive, late Romantic chamber music, including two of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ esteemed versions of his “Bachianas Brasilieras for 8 Cellos.” The festival continues through Aug. 24, 2012.
Four WASPS and a cell phone are featured in Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, now on the stage of the Old Globe’s White Theatre. Mom on the landline has a supporting role. It’s a pocket-sized version of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Fewer revelations, diminished booze and far less time lapsed but comparable in quantity of poisonous residue. It’s always astonishing how easily the veneer of civilization can be stripped away, even in the world of high-price strivers who can afford cute food and esthetic excess as insulation. Reza, being a dramatist of keen vision and superb technique,…
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