Arts & Culture

Jonathan Shapiro’s Sisters In Law (based on the cleverly titled 2015 book by Linda Hirshman) is about the U.S. Supreme Court’s first two female justices and their relationship on and off the bench. In an irony of history rightwinger Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman to sit on the high court. Stephanie Faracy portrays Sandra Day O’Connor like the screen version of Doris Day wearing robes. The Arizonan comes across as a not too bright all American gal and goody two shoes, who really doesn’t stand up for what is right.

 

On the other hand, Clinton Supreme Court appointee Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Tovah Feldshuh) is a feisty East Coast Jew with a lifelong devotion to equal rights for women. If O’Connor is one of those people who go along to get along (for instance, according to the play she waffled on abortion rights), Ginsburg is cut more in the crusader mold and perceived as being “pushy.” (Which, as she correctly points out, is code for an anti-Semitic trope - calling Jews “pushy” is like labeling Blacks “uppity”).

 

The delightful computer-animated feature Abominable is one of those rare movies that will enchant adults and children alike. Set mostly or entirely in present day China, the 97 minute movie about an Abominable Snowman starts out in Shanghai then embarks on a road trip throughout the People’s Republic. Various destinations in the “Middle Kingdom” are vividly brought alive via exquisite, eye-popping, jaw-dropping animation.

 

Abominable is a co-production of Dreamworks and Shanghai-based Pearl Studio - the two studios previously collaborated on the 2016 3D computer-animated Kung Fu Panda 3. With its Eastern locales and predominantly Asian cast, one could say that SoCal-based Dreamworks is “pandering” to Chinese ticket buyers in the world’s most populous country, where what appears to be a form of state capitalism has produced an enormous urban middle class with disposable income.

 

 

This originality-loving Rampy gets grumpy when mediocre productions are repurposed from one medium to another in order to exploit brand name recognition, maximize profit by re-using the same content, etc. I hate today’s remake/redo/sequel syndrome from one medium to another by unoriginal copycats. Having gotten that out of my system, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the West Coast premiere of Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, which re-works the 1993 star-studded movie comedy (followed up by that inevitable sequel in 1995) which reunited that Odd Couple, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, with Ann-Margret, along with original music performed live by an orchestra, composed by Neil Berg, lyrics by Nick Meglin and book by Dan Remmes for the stage version.

 

It’s often said that in comedy, “timing is everything,” and the opening and closing of the Sacred Fools Theater Company’s production of Deadly is perfectly timed. The proverbial curtain lifted at the Broadway Main Stage on Friday the 13th and Deadly will run through Halloween weekend. Of course, it must be noted that while there may be some light moments in this spooky, macabre musical - notably during the droll song “The Southern Way” - Deadly is not a comedy.

 

In lesser hands, Rogue Machine Theatre’s production of Bekah Brunstetter’s Miss Lilly Gets Boned could have been a conventional crowd pleasing rom com. Instead, this one act play veers wildly off of the tried and true primrose path into uncharted territory which hasn’t been explored much on the boards since Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 Rhinoceros. (Interestingly, Rogue’s Co-Artistic Director, Guillermo Cienfuegos, helmed an unforgettable version of Ionesco’s play in 2017 at Pacific Resident Theatre, which like Rogue’s current venue is in Venice.)

 

TORONTO (Canada), September 25 – If the United States is to be trusted again as a reliable, constitutional democracy, it will have to find the collective courage to break through decades of denial and address an array of ugly truths about itself and the role it plays on the world stage, according a scathing new book by seasoned American journalist William Boardman.              Ed Shiller, publisher of Toronto-based Yorkland Publishing, calls Boardman’s newly published EXCEPTIONAL – American Exceptionalism Takes Its Toll “a radical act that exposes the self-deception and evasion induced by American exceptionalism. The book addresses unpalatable American realities in an effort to contribute to radical change before we’ve pitched too far into the abyss.”  In the introduction to EXCEPTIONAL, an anthology of Boardman’s recent political essays, the author writes:   American Exceptionalism permeates our culture. Most Amer­icans were taught to believe in American superiority long before we were able to think for ourselves. “America is the greatest country in the world.” It’s an article of faith.

 

 

The world premiere of Leda Siskind’s thought provoking, topical The Surveillance Trilogy is so perfectly timed - opening the same week that Edward Snowden’s book Permanent Record has been published and the Trump administration is mired in an alleged whistleblower scandal - that one of three things must have happened:

 

1) Trilogy’s publicist is a marketing mastermind who contrived for Snowden to reappear on the world stage and for the Inspector General/Director of National Intelligence/Trump whistleblower brouhaha the same week this play opened, as publicity stunts for Trilogy;

 

OR:

 

2) The playwright is a theatrical Nostradamus with the gift of prophecy;

 

OR:

 

3) The insightful Ms. Siskind has her finger on the pulse of our times.

 

I have just read a superb book by Mark Isaacs, an Australian who has documented several years of effort by a group of incredibly committed young people in Afghanistan to build peace in that war-torn country the only way it can be built: by learning, living and sharing peace.

 

The book, titled The Kabul Peace House: How a Group of Young Afghans are Daring to Dream in a Land of War, records in considerable detail the struggle, both internal and external, to generate a peaceful future in Afghanistan. Some might consider this vision naive, others courageous, but few would doubt the simple reality: it is slow, daunting, incredibly difficult, often saddening, frightening, infuriating or painful, sometimes uplifting or hilarious and, just occasionally, utterly rewarding.

 

 

 

Artists Rise Up Los Angeles returned to the stage on August 27 at The Federal NoHo in order to raise consciousness and cash for a cause. The live performance also raised lots of laughter, as the show was co-presented by Minority Reportz, a comedy “consortium” that highlights mostly non-white, female comics who are often underrepresented by the “mainstream” comedy club scene.

 

ARULA founding executive producer and artistic director Sue Hamilton kicked off the fun- and fundraiser, taking the mic on the stage of the upstairs space within the North Hollywood eatery and nightclub to welcome the capacity crowd and introduce speakers and entertainers. The day after 2016’s presidential election, Hamilton, an L.A. theater director and acting teacher, resolved to “take our emotions and our art and put it onstage and to give the proceeds to” progressive groups. By January 31, 2017, ARULA was on the boards, raising hell and money.

 

The 2019 Paul Robeson Theatre Festival took place Aug. 23 - 25 with the theme of Awakening the Past, Present and Future: A Retrospective. This third biennial event was presented in Theatre Four at L.A. Theatre Center in Downtown Los Angeles by actor Ben Guillory, co-founder and producing artistic director of the Robey Theatre Company, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Actor Danny Glover is also a Robey co-founder. As Guillory reminded the audience in the sold out intimate space, both the festival and company are named after Paul Robeson.