Lyric Fest's Paris Festival

The Fest and the Festival

The Lyric Fest art song series made its contribution to the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts with a program it could stage at any time.

Tom Purdom

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

"The Motherf**ker With The Hat' on Broadway

He shudda kept his edge on

Stephen Adly Guirgis knows street talk and can write dialogue of astonishingly funny mad-dog ferocity. But somebody has to speak that dialogue onstage, and Chris Rock, the crass standup comedy star, isn't the actor to do it. The Motherf**ker With The Hat. By Stephen Adly Guirgis; Anna D. Shapiro directed. Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th St., New York. www.Telecharge.com.

Toby Zinman

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Choral Arts Society's Gesualdo program (2nd review)

Modern voices, Renaissance sins

Matthew Glandorf placed Renaissance Lenten music in context by juxtaposing it with modern artists like T.S. Eliot, Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, and Dame Edith Sitwell.

Tom Purdom

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Jon Manteau at L.G. Tripp Gallery

Do you get his drift(wood)?

Jon Manteau wants to cover the world with paint that proclaims a joy in existence.

Anne R. Fabbri

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Orchestra-Ballet's "Pulcinella' (2nd review)

Pulcinella, we hardly knew ye

Jorma Elo's adaptation of Stravinsky's Pulcinella is at once familiar, original and cunningly constructed. But it diffused the audience's understanding of a colorful story, leaving the lead couple as the only recognizable pair.

Jim Rutter

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

Hitchcock's '39 Steps' at the Walnut (2nd review)

Teaching Hitchcock a thing or two

Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 thriller, The 39 Steps, wasn't his greatest film, but it's a perfect vehicle for a spoof. Patrick Barlow's adaptation is part vaudeville, part farce, and always hilarious.

Jane Biberman

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Thaddeus Phillips's '17 Border Crossings' (2nd review)

Who needs borders, anyway?

Thaddeus Phillips transcends the kind of one-man water-sipping show that the late raconteur Spalding Gray created. Phillips ramps his performances up with physical, acting, authentic-sounding accents in any language, and ingenious stagecraft that includes lighting, the latest high-tech gadgetry and the oldest low-tech slight-of-hand.

Merilyn Jackson

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

Basil Twist's puppet "Petrushka' at Annenberg

Who dances better than dancers?

The 1911 ballet Petrushka cast dancers as puppets. In Basil Twist's radical adaptation, puppets portray puppets— an ingenious concept, because puppets can do things that dancers can't.

Jonathan M. Stein

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

"War Horse' at Lincoln Center in New York

Four-legged victims of war

World War I as seen through the eyes of a horse? Yes, and thanks to a remarkable team of puppet makers, puppeteers and actors, it's more magical than a show with live animals would have been.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 11, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

Orchestra-Ballet's "Pulcinella' collaboration (1st review)

What was PIFA thinking?

In a concert ballyhooed as an historic co-production of a ballet company and an orchestra, Falla's Three-Cornered Hat was performed complete, but without the dancing. Which begs just one question: Why?

Apr 11, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read