Author Archives: Christopher Arnott
Burlesque Excess
The Ninth Annual New York Burlesque Festival starts today, Sept. 29. By Oct. 2 it will have peeled completely away, and winners of the Golden Pasties awards will have been announced. Connecticut has welcomed many of the New York-based artists active in the latest burlesque revival scene. The World Famous Pontani Sisters are not just … Continue reading
Who’s in the Header Photo?
It’s me and Tori Amos. Well, wouldn’t YOU look stunned? She really is that radiant. It’s like she was dipped in the same luminous stuff that makes up Saturn’s rings. She was in the parking lot behind the old Palace Theater on College Street, loading in for a show there sometime in the early ’90s. … Continue reading
Get Over Yourself
I’m Over All That and Other Confessions By Shirley MacLaine (Atria Books, 2011) This is a dumb, lightweight book in which whimsical old Shirley shares things she’s gotten over. And some things she hasn’t. Duly noted, the chapter heading on page 199 reads: I Will Never Get Over the Thrill of Live Performing. MacLaine rhapsodizes … Continue reading
No Time Like the Peasant
You’ll remember that Katy Rubin of New York’s Theatre for the Oppressed came to town over the summer to lead workshops having to do with a planned production of Peter Gould and Stephen Stearns’ politically conscious parable A Peasant of El Salvador, in which a poor farmer who sees everything he holds dear swallowed up … Continue reading
Arts & Ideas & Times
Always canny at making its presence felt year-round and not just for two weeks in June, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas has announced its second annual “Visionary Leadership Award” recipient. It’s New York Times Executive Editrix Jill Abramson, first female to hold that post in the Old Gray Lady’s history. The ceremony is … Continue reading
Another Season, another reason…
Who’s gonna be in Jersey Boys when it trucks to Hartford for a return engagement Oct. 19-Nov. 6? The same Frankie Valli who’s been with the touring company since it first hit the road four years ago, Joseph Leo Bwarie. John Gardiner, who was in the ensemble when Jersey Boys last visited Hartford in 2009, … Continue reading
Play in a Day Returns Friday
This is my own project: a kids’ theater funtime where I choose a classic work of theater, tell the children about it, and then we all adapt, design, rehearse and stage it in the space of three hours. I’ve given Play in a Day its own page on this site, here, with videos of previous … Continue reading
The Molly Sweeney Review
Molly Sweeney By Brian Friel. At the Long Wharf Theatre through Oct. 16. Directed by Charlotte Moore. Set design by James Morgan. Costume design by Linda Fisher. Lighting design by Richard Pilbrow and Michael Gottlieb. Sound design by Zachary Williamson. Stage manager: Katrina Olson. Performed by Jonathan Hogan (Mr. Rice), Simone Kirby (Molly Sweeney) and … Continue reading
New Ron Jenkins play being read at Wesleyan TONIGHT!
Wesleyan Center for the Arts in Middletown is premiering a new play by Ron Jenkins tonight. The reading is held at 7 p.m. tonight, Sept. 28, in the center’s CFA Hall, for free. Must be cool to go to school where Ron Jenkins teaches. I never studied with him, but I followed Jenkins for … Continue reading
Theater-related “New Arrivals” on Netflix
Airplane: “What’s his problem?” “That’s Lieutenant Hurwitz. Severe shellshock. Thinks he’s Ethel Merman.” (The misspelling of Merman’s surname in the YouTube clip above is not my fault.) Some Like It Hot: Features an actual vaudevillean, Joe E. Brown. Plus Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag. Plus Marilyn Monroe playing a ukulele. Of course … Continue reading