For the new Broadway revival of West Side Story, Joey McKneely has the daunting job of recreating Jerome Robbins’s choreography. “Mr. McKneely’s task is as hard as it sounds. Like balletomanes devoted to Balanchine many Robbins disciples and fans see every step in West Side Story as sacred. But, as Mr. McKneely pointedly asked, ‘What is the original choreography?'”
Tag: 03.08.09
In San Fran, Even The Walls Are Politicized
“More than 1,000 murals are on view across San Francisco, addressing subjects like the plight of immigrants and farm workers, the impact of the political wars in Central America in the 1980s, AIDS in Africa, gentrification… and the joys of bicycling and buying locally grown produce.” But what happens when political street art moves indoors, into a museum?
Choreography Meets Cognitive Science
“With a dozen high-def cameras and a couple of camcorders, plus pens, notebooks, sketch pads and laptops, more than 40 people spent three recent weeks in a black-box theater on the campus of UC San Diego documenting what was occurring there. The object of their study was notoriously elusive: dance and the process of choreographic creation.”
Musicology On The Broadway Stage
“Whatever one’s take on 33 Variations” – the new play by Moisés Kaufman starring Jane Fonda – “as a theater piece, it is an innovative and engrossing exercise in music appreciation.” Anthony Tommasini offers playgoers some background info on the Beethoven masterwork at the heart of the script.
What It Takes To Assemble A 125th Anniversary Gala
“When you’re running the busiest opera house in the nation, if not the world, a logistical nightmare you could do without is a one-night-only potpourri involving two dozen hand-picked stars in arias and ensembles from two dozen repertory titles.”
Schuyler Chapin, 86, New York’s Aristocratic Arts Chief
Among the posts this descendant of New Amsterdam colonists held were vice president at Columbia Records, Lincoln Center programming chief, Metropolitan Opera general manager, dean of the Columbia University School of the Arts, vice president of Steinway & Sons, and New York City cultural affairs commissioner. Not bad for a man who never finished high school.