When German expressionist choreographer Susanne Linke visited Senegal in 1998, her collaboration with the men of Compagnie Jant-Bi produced Le Coq est Mort (The Cock Is Dead). And this Euro-African dance theater production, coming to Gammage Auditorium on Wednesday, April 11, is a 70-minute tour de force worth crowing about.The…
Arizona Opera’s last offering, Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, was slim and frothy to the point of forgettability. No one is likely to have the same complaints about the season finale, Don Carlo, whatever else may be said about it. This work by Giuseppe Verdi — or, as generations…
This is how famous Denis Leary is: He begins and ends a story by saying, “To this day, when I see Mick…,” and by Mick, he means Mick Jagger. They became pals, oh, seven years back, when the Rolling Stones were on that week’s farewell tour, kickin’ it in the…
Hello, what’s this? Why, could it be another cautionary tale from Hollywood about recreational drugs being — alert the media! — not particularly good for people? (If only they could try the same with guns. Messrs. Heston and Silver: You awake yet?) Indeed, with Blow, director Ted Demme (Beautiful Girls,…
Easily the most creepy (and, by far, most interesting) thing about Along Came a Spider, yet another adaptation of one of James Patterson’s alleged mystery novels featuring beleaguered Detective Alex Cross, is how much co-star Monica Potter looks, sounds and acts like Julia Roberts. Granted, it’s hardly a startling revelation…
French director Patrice Leconte is a chameleonlike talent: Among his films to reach American screens are the psychological thriller Mr. Hire, the period satire Ridicule and the offbeat comic romance The Girl on the Bridge. But, in truth, all of Leconte’s films are romances at heart, though they are often…
Theater fans like to have it both ways. Sometimes it can be a small, bare-bones, black-box production with no frills to take away from the actor’s work and the author’s words. Other times it’s the big expansive show filled with all the spectacle the stage can hold. Either choice can…
Here we come, Once more down the street. Still gettin’ funny looks from Ev’ry old fan we meet. Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees, And people say we’ve done this before, But we’ve got bills to pay So we had them book us a tour! The posters at the Celebrity Theatre…
Amidst the plethora of films with Freddie Prinze Jr., Mena Suvari, Chris Klein and Jason Biggs, it’s nice — in theory, at least — to see a contemporary romantic comedy, like Someone Like You, in which the characters, while hardly over the hill, are all over 30. In practice, however,…
Hollywood appears to be developing a healthy sense of humor about Valentine’s Day, which, from this cynic’s perspective, is a good thing. In the new millennium, rather than dole out romantic trifles like Return to Me as per the usual plan, we’ve seen Valentine (bitter ex-nerd cuts beautiful people to…
As its title suggests, Spy Kids is an action fantasy aimed primarily at the preteen/early-teen audience. For all its thrills — and it has plenty — it’s strictly a PG film . . . which is all the more surprising when you consider its source: Robert Rodriguez, master of bloody…
If the feature-length stuff isn’t doing it for you these days — and who could blame you if it wasn’t? — here are three pieces of short-form cinema you can take in easily this week.The short with the major Valley connection is The Steamer Cleaner, a mordant little comedy about…
The theatrical monologue can be an amazing experience. One person on a stage, with little in the way of props or sets, can carry a crowd anywhere the performer chooses. This convention can bring mighty figures from history to life, as Hal Holbrook has done for decades with Mark Twain…
San Juan Capistrano has nothing on us. Sure, they’ve got their wimpy little swallows choking up the trees every year, but we here in the Valley can witness the wonder and majesty of the annual return of the mighty Cathartes Aura. That’s right folks — the turkey vultures are returning…
Ennio Morricone can tell you stories about each of his 400 children — where they were conceived, what they mean to him, why each one remains so singular and special he cannot and will not choose a favorite. He’s proud even of the orphans, the runts, the bastards, the children…
For years, I’ve harbored two secret but obsessive desires. The first is to furnish an entire house solely with swap meet treasures in truly terrible taste — you know, resin-on-wood wall clocks decorated with praying hands, garish orange floral crushed velvet couches, faded plastic flower arrangements, glitter-splashed plaster of Paris…
After seeing her performance in In Mixed Company’s Pterodactyls, I have scratched Barbara McGrath from my list of Actors I’d Rather Not See On Stage Ever Again. McGrath’s star turn in Nicky Silver’s dark comedy has wiped away my memory of her last several attempts at acting, which I found…
Ever since Arizona Theatre Company announced early last year that it had optioned Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves, I’ve been wondering: Why? This threadbare marriage comedy is usually seen, on those occasions when it’s trotted out, at tiny community houses, where audiences are more tolerant of pale pleasantries…
It’s tough to name the feeling you get being rolled, head first, into James Turrell’s Gasworks — maybe a little anxious, maybe a little silly. Yet when the friendly attendant in a white lab coat reminds you not to sit up once the light show begins inside the spherical chamber,…
Artist Joy Episalla is a student of the past. The history that she documents through the lens of her trusty 35mm camera isn’t one of political turmoil, international conflict or even the lives of great figures. In fact, people don’t show up in her work at all. Rather, the history…
Van Gogh was a lunatic who cut off his ear. Picasso was a self-absorbed cur who abused women. Warhol turned out to be a weird, desperate loner, Basquiat a doomed junkie. Try as he might, shriveled little Toulouse-Lautrec failed miserably at romance. As for El Greco’s explosive affair with that…
We can run, we can hide, we can even try switching films, but there’s just no escaping that pesky Gene Hackman. He starred in The Conversation, he is ubiquitous, and revere him we must — virtually every single time we go to the movies. (There’s even a song by Robyn…
