As I mentioned Monday, I finally got to Art vs. Art (Sept. 26), the crazed art auction/game show/demolition derby that uptowned from Fountain Square to the Vogue this year.
I’ll confess to getting caught up in the same blood lust…
Classical music fans, musicians, critics and administrators around the country are taking sides in a battle that’s been raging in Cleveland.
The situtation: After years of blasting Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most, Cleveland Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg has…
Singers of a certain age often coast on nostalgia. The primary pleasure of attending one of their concerts isn’t so much the sound of their voice or the wit of their banter. It’s being able to say you saw them….
Neither engagingly mysterious or particularly thrilling, “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure,” the season opener for the Indiana Repertory Theatre (running through Oct. 11) offers a handsome but passionless production that lacks either a convincing threat or a committed style.
Despite…
Space is limited in this week’s print IBJ, so instead of cutting down the week’s reviews, I thought I’d share my thoughts here on three recent theater production openings. (FYI: You can find A&E reviews every week in IBJ’s Not Strictly Business…
“Traditionally, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings. But it seems it will soon be over for the singing fat lady.”
So opens a piece in The London newspaper The Independent concerning the slimmer and fitter brand of opera…
With David Mamet’s latest play, “November,” opening this week at the Phoenix Theatre, I was interested in reading the acclaimed playwright’s latest words on his art.
What I found in his recent book “True and False: Heresy…
Time to empty the notebook with some quick items.
–It was announced today that Indiana’s own Twyla Tharp will be the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors this year. She’ll be joined by Morgan Freeman, Barbra Streisand, George Jones, Pete Townshend…
Today’s Start with Art luncheon at the Convention Center unofficially marks the start of the arts season in Indy.
So were you there? If so, what did you think of Col Dean M. Esserman’s talk?
For those who weren’t, Esserman–Chief of Police…
Many an inbox has found an e-mailed link to the website Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com over the last few years.
I’m mentioning it here, though, because it’s most recent entry–#108 if you are keeping score–takes an open shot at classical music, claiming among other things…
For years, other cities have been experiencing the unique pleasures of seeing musicals in concert. In New York, they call it Encores! In L.A., it’s Reprise!
Finally, Indianapolis is catching on. And while there is no exclamation-marked name for our version…
A brief review I posted here on Friday of the IndyFringe show “Peace on Terror” has generated some intense reaction. See the post and ongoing comments here. The conversation, led by someone involved in the show, has spilled over…
You heard it hear first–unless you’ve been hanging out in the halls of Butler University.
BU theater head John Green and prof/actress/director Diane Timmerman will be launching a new theater company next summer. Dedicated to bringing the best of world theatre artists…
As you can see from the previous three posts, I spent most of the weekend on and around Mass Ave soaking up IndyFringe. It was great to see such strong crowds out. The festival continues through Aug. 31 and while…
Today, some family friendly fringe–in the company of my 6-year-old son.
We started with “Tastes Funny,” in which a pair of goofballs (the Ed Grimley-haired Daniel Oldaker and the stunning, “Pretty Woman”-era-Julia-Roberts-looking Ranik Huszar) performed admirable feats of plate spinning, juggling, and…
For the first night of this year’s IndyFringe Theatre Festival (aka IndyFringe or Indy Fringe), I decided to select four showsthat looked to be among the most risk-taking. After all, what’s a fringe without something out there on the fringe? (Skip…
David Amram (recently seen here in town at the opening of the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Kerouac/Frank exhibition) has been named Composer in Residence for the Democratic National Convention. See full story here.
The story reports that Amram, who has…
A positive sign on the local arts scene (and we certainly could use those), is the launching of more professional arts organizations. Community theater is fine, but the more paying work there is for actors, directors, and designers, the better…
IndyFringe 2008 launches this week with a kick-off party Thursday and performances beginning on Friday.
This year’s lineup includes 270 performances of 53 shows–including one-act plays, improvisational comedy, dance pieces, magic acts, confessional one-person shows and difficult-to-describe oddities.
As in the past, the shows aren’t…
In putting together this year’s IBJ A&E Season Preview (coming soon to your favorite business paper), I saw a mini-trend emerging.
It starts Aug. 28-29 with “Classical Mystery Tour,” a visit from a quartet of Liverpoolian-look-and-sing-alikes at Conner Prairie.
That same…
