Author Archives: Christopher Arnott
Kid City Set Piece
The performance installations and playscapes at the Kid City children’s museum in Middletown have always been impressive. The newest is a “Celebrated Bathing Fluid Dispensary” credited to the inventor Pulaski Nostrum (1854-1906). Through lit signs, machine helps participants soap, rub, rinse and dry their hands—all to the rhythm of a mechanical bicyclist. Kid City claims … Continue reading
Who’s in the Header Photo?
It’s me and Marvin Hamlisch! He was at the Shubert theater back in the ’90s for one of his patter-filled “Evening With…” piano concerts in which he discusses his long and varied career. At the after-party in the Shubert mezzanine, I was briefly invited to shake Hamlisch’s hand, during which I uttered incredulously, “I’m just … Continue reading
The Acorn Doesn’t Fall Far from the TV
Acorn Media has started its own sort of selective Netflix, a Britflix if you will. It’s actually called AcornTV. Acorn is well known to theater geeks as the distributor of such stage-centric DVDs as Discovering Hamlet (reviewed here), the three-DVD television rendition of Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests (which I’ve been meaning to review here … Continue reading
Richard The Slurred
My friend Stephen Kobasa, with whom I’ve attended many impersonations of Shakespeare plays, alerted me to this. It appears to have been posted by its performer, Jim Meskimen, just a couple of days ago, to promote a Hollywood performance at the end of this month. I laughed loudest at the Paul Giamatti one, because I’ve … Continue reading
Pie Squared
BBC Radio 4’s daily arts news show Front Row sliced a terrific bonus performance-art story out of the Rupert Murdoch testimonial pie-throwing fiasco. (See previous post.) The show contacted the fabric artist whose large linen piece “Debate” hangs in the hall where Murdoch was being grilled about his part in the News of the World … Continue reading
Yum! Pie!
British comic Jonnie Marbles tried to hit Rupert Murdoch with a pie—‘or rather, “a pie plate of foam,” as an Associated Press story unfancifully labeled it—during the media magnate’ s testimony in the News of the World phone hacking scandal. Marbles was deflected by Murdoch’ s wife Wendi Deng before the pie—for theatrical purposes, this … Continue reading
Literary Prestidigitation
The branch library a few blocks from here hosted a healthy dinner (with obligatory lecture on how healthy it was) plus a performance by Magic Dan, with guest appearances by a talking puppet bird and a scared live rabbit. Libraries are a heck of a place to see a magic show because when the kiss … Continue reading
Bond… St. James Theatre Bond
“After my great undercover work”—Nkosi’s arm swept around the room—“I now know I am quite the actor. I will come to London and work in the West End. That’s where the famous theaters are—correct?” “Well, yes.” Though Bond had not been to one voluntarily in years. The young man said, “I’m sure I will be … Continue reading
Doors of Perception
All the hoopla earlier this month about the the 40th anniversary of Jim Morrison’s death overlooked the rock icon’s considerable theatrical interests and influences. Musical theater geeks know that The Doors had the biggest mainstream pop impact with a Brecht/Weill song (“Whiskey Bar”) since Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin swung Mack the Knife. Morrison was … Continue reading