Author Archives: Christopher Arnott
We’ve heard of bus & truck tours, but this…
We feel obliged to point out that The Price, not All My Sons, is the Arthur Miller play in which a lot of furniture needs to be moved. All My Sons is about a disenchanted young man who discovers that his father made an immoral and deadly business decision during wartime. Best Arthur Miller play … Continue reading
Rock Bands Which Share Names With Theater Buildings
1. Le Grand Guignol 2. Theatre Royal 3. Pacific Theater OK, so the last one’s more like a battleground. I enjoy making these lists anyhow.
The Final Refrain of Hollywood Fringe 2011
GIRL BAND IN THE MEN’S ROOM: WINNER OF BOTH “FREAKS AWARD” AND “BEST OF FRINGE” HONORS AT THE 2011 HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL. PHOTO FROM DIRTIE BLONDE PRODUCTIONS. Guess I’ve got sound instincts. While in L.A., I saw six shows out of the hundreds available at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Of those, two (Girl Band in … Continue reading
Lou Harry’s Theater Trivia Pub Quiz: A New Haven Theater Jerk Exclusive
Strangest thing about traversing Los Angeles with a gaggle of other drama critics earlier this month was how everyone got my obscure theater jokes. I’m not used to communing with other arts journalist—at the paper I’m most associated with as a critic, I was pretty much a one-man arts department for 17 years. When I … Continue reading
Fringe of the Web
When I was in L.A. with the Engine28 project, I reviewed a slew of rock-themed theater shows at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. In one of the articles, I complimented a production of Robert Ford’s Girl Band in the Men’s Room as being “the most realistic rock-related show” of three I’d seen in a single night, … Continue reading
More Rock Bands Named After Plays
1. Dear Brutus: danceable modern rock band with punk roots from Manchester and Sheffield, England. The play Dear Brutus is a fantasy comedy by J.M. Barrie, a romance in which stuck-in-their-ways characters are offered alternative existences for a night. Much cooler than A Little Night Music/Smiles of a Summer Night. 2. Faust. I feel I … Continue reading
The Soldier Songs Review
PROMO VIDEO FOR DAVID T. LITTLE’S SOLDIER SONGS The songs, I like. The soldier part I’m still wrestling with. Since both shows have classical elements and war themes, it’s hard not to compare David T. Little’s Soldier Songs (which I saw in its final Arts & Ideas performance, 5 p.m. June 25) with Bill T. … Continue reading
The Serenade/The Proposition Review
PROMO VIDEO PRODUCED BY THE BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE COMPANY Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson this ain’t. Bill T. Jones’ 2008 choreographic musing on the Civil War puts an emphasis on civility. Confrontation is not the choreographic goal here. Dancers slide past and around each other. They fuse and release. Communities are formed, then torn … Continue reading
The Dick Van Dyke Won’t-Show
Dick Van Dyke—My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business—A Memoir By Dick Van Dyke (Crown Archetype, New York) OK, he’s in his 80s and one of the most well-liked performers of the 20th century, a guy who always worked “clean” and endeared himself to such iconic iconoclastic artistic geniuses as Gower Champion, Carl … Continue reading
Who’s in the Header Photo?
It’s a mid-1990s me (on the left) standing in awe of my one of my theater idols, Lewis Stadlen Jr. (aka Groucho, Dr. Pangloss, Senex, Nathan Detroit, Max Bialystock, Mickey Fox…) The photo was taken at the Shubert in New Haven at the reception following opening night of the first national tour of Laughter on … Continue reading