Category: Theater

Tidy Tidbits: Viewing & Reading

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CULTURE NOTES

This month, the Sarasota cultural scene re-awakens with orchestra, opera, theater and choral performances.  Not as many as in the new year, but what I’d call a mini-season.  Earlier this week, we had the treat of a session on the costumes for the musical, Evita, being presented by our favorite Asolo Repertory Theater.  This costume brunch featured a Skye conversation with the show’s costume designer along with commentary from the head of the costume design shop and a key member of his team.  Not only are Eva’s gowns and dresses lovely, they are  flawlessly constructed so that quick costume changes can be carried off on stage by other members of the cast!  Very ingenious use of clips and magnets and the like!  Now, I doubly can’t wait to see it all.

We also went to see and hear the Sarasota Opera’s production of La Traviata.  The local maestro is a big fan of Verdi’s works, having presented all of them over the past 28 years, and this was a lovely evening.  The sets were gorgeous and the singing most enjoyable.  We thought that this Violetta was very good and the Alfredo, exceptionally so.  I like this opera because it has fewer characters than some and  one main plot line.  And we saw a performance by the San Francisco Opera a few years ago which meant I was familiar with it.

RECENT READING

Female Spies  

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.  Novels about young women during the two World Wars are plentiful these days and practically a genre in themselves.  This new novel, like so many others, has parallel story lines, but takes up the topic of female spies during WWI.  It’s 1947 and Charlie St. Clair, English, is unmarried and pregnant and under the influence of her mother who has her own plans for this unplanned pregnancy.  Charlie, with ideas of her own, is on a quest to find her cousin Rose who has not been heard from in three years.  A cryptic note takes her to London where she meets Eve, a ravaged and emotionally damaged former spy.

Charlie ends up traveling with Eve and Finn, Eve’s aide-de camp and general factotum, in her search for Rose.  The Alice Network of the title refers to a group of real female spies who worked for Britain under the direction of a young Scotsman.  The novel unfolds in alternating chapters between Charlie in 1947 and Eve in 1915.

It becomes a somewhat harrowing tale of danger and torture as Eve shares her experiences during both world wars, and you, the reader, come to understand why she drinks to oblivion and what she has suffered.  While Charlie yearns to find her cousin, Eve is out for revenge, and over time, the two quests become intertwined in ways neither could have imagined.

Eve is a brilliantly drawn character with her stammer and her insignificant appearance.  I enjoyed this novel, but, in some ways, found it more of a vehicle for relating the history of the Alice Network.  The characters Alice,  Violette, and Uncle Edward are based on real spies while the other three, Charlie, Eve, and Finn are the author’s creation.  To me, the pairing of Charlie and Finn was not a convincing one for the long haul.  (~JW Farrington)

Women of Note: Film & Theater

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WOMEN OF NOTE.  By happenstance, not by planning, we’ve seen and heard about some notable women in our recent film and theater-going adventures.   Founder Thomas Sung’s legacy to his children, all daughters, was his bank, Abacus Bank. Three of them work there; one, Jill, as the CEO, which is both significant and important.  Jane Jacobs was an activist back in the day when women were housewives and not supposed to be involved in politics. Not to mention that she was a working journalist.

Lastly, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, real women, not just names of cosmetics, were founders and heads of their own very successful companies. This was in the 1930’s. Their story is told in the delightful musical, War Paint.

FILM FARE

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.   We missed seeing this at the Sarasota Film Festival so were pleased it was playing here at the IFC Center. I had high expectations, based on what I knew about it and some overheard comments, and was not disappointed. A documentary about the banking industry, fallout from the crisis of 2008, and the fate of one small bank in Chinatown, New York, it’s also a portrayal of a strong and loving Chinese family. Thomas Sung, a lawyer, founded and ran Abacus Federal Savings Bank for many years until two of his daughters, Jill and Vera, succeeded him as CEO and director. What Cyrus Vance wrought when he brought charges against the bank unfolds over a five-year legal battle and a nine week trial. Simply excellent!

Personal note: I learned, after I’d seen the film and told him about it, that our son’s father-in-law knows the Sung family. They were friends of his aunt and he first visited them when he was a student.

      Citizen Jane: Battle for the City. Author of the groundbreaking work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, writer Jane Jacobs became an activist who fought against urban development that threatened communities at their core. This documentary is a wonderful depiction of the rise of Postwar modernism (think Le Corbusier) and the building of large scale low income high rises meant to solve the problems of slum neighborhoods. In fact, this form of urban renewal was a failure; decades later these buildings in cities across the country were all leveled.

Jacobs looked at cities from the perspective of the people and what happens on the street. A New Yorker and a resident of Greenwich Village, she mobilized neighbors to oppose extending 5th Avenue through Washington Square Park. They won against the powerful Robert Moses, the “villain” in this piece. Later they successfully fought a proposed expressway through lower Manhattan, another project Moses was attempting to ram through. This is a superb film, especially for city lovers.

War Paint. This new musical, staring Patti Lupone and Christine Ebersole, profiles roughly 30 years in the careers of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Strong women both, they were vicious competitors and probably kept each other on their toes. Lupone and Ebersole are stellar stars in their own right and each gets her due in alternating scenes and songs showcasing their triumphs and woes and their somewhat lonely personal lives.

They came from poor backgrounds and each reinvented herself and then offered women the opportunity, found in a jar, to become beautiful, to “Put Your Best Face Forward.” The two male leads also have substantial parts, one as a husband and the other a gay devotee.  Each takes on marketing and sales responsibilities for his female boss. They have some juicy lines and are paired in a couple of rollicking songs.

Arden’s and Rubinstein’s clientele was primarily wealthy women of a certain age. Eschewing early television advertising, they are soon eclipsed by upstart Charles Revson with Revlon’s Fire & Ice lipstick. This musical was a lot of fun and I’d love to see it a second time!     

Personal note: We first saw Patti Lupone as a young actor in The Acting Company (founded by John Houseman) in Saratoga Springs in the 1970’s. More recently, we saw Christine Ebersole in performance twice in San Francisco as part of the Bay Area Cabaret series.

Note:  Images of Jane Jacobs, Helena Rubinstein (Daily Mail), and Elizabeth Arden (Lifestyle Lounge) are all from the web.  Header photo is the curtain for War Paint at the Nederlander Theatre.

Tidy Potpourri: Books & More

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Here are notes on two beach reads, my thoughts on a difficult play, and a great restaurant find for birthdays or anniversaries.

LEISURE READING

Karen White’s Flight Patterns is an absorbing novel about family secrets and the tortured relationship between two sisters and a good candidate to take to the beach.  Set in New Orleans and Apalachicola, Florida, a coastal town on the panhandle, it’s multi-layered with twists and turns as the complicated relationships between Georgia and her sister, Maisy, and their mentally ill mother, Birdie, play out against Georgia’s return after 10 years away and the hunt for a missing piece of china.  Birdie was distant and in her own world when Georgia and her sister were children so they were raised primarily by their grandfather and by their grandmother when she was still alive.  Grandpa is a beekeeper and Georgia is a fine china expert who comes back with a client to research china he has that is similar to a piece she thinks she has seen before.  I enjoyed the characters and also learning about Haviland Limoges china.

Footnote: Character Georgia’s research prompted me to search online for more information about my great (or great great) grandmother’s Limoges china which I inherited from my mother.  Based on the markings on the back of the pieces, I was able to determine that it was probably made in 1887, but so far I haven’t located any images of the pattern.

Georgia by Dawn Tripp is a well-researched novel about Georgia O’Keeffe’s early career and her relationship with photographer and artist promoter, Alfred Stieglitz.  Decades older than O’Keeffe, Stieglitz gave her flower paintings wide exposure with an exhibit in the gallery he owned.  Seductive, passionate, and domineering, he was mentor, lover, husband, and philanderer who too often tried to control her and her art.  Tripp’s prose is evocative and sensual and portrays Georgia’s struggle to be seen as an artist (not a female artist) and how her appreciation for what Stieglitz could offer becomes warped over time.  This was the book for the April meeting of our island book club, and most everyone liked it.

THEATER

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity.  Our local repertory company, Asolo, deserves much credit for presenting this challenging play.  Written by Kristoffer Diaz and first presented in 2009, it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama and winner of an Obie Award for Best New American Play.  It’s an exaggerated comedy about professional wrestling, as shown on TV, and we had ringside seats.  Literally!  In the small theater, we were in the first row on the floor (no stage) and right at the edge of the ring when it was pushed out for the second act.  The actors rushed by us carefully, never stepping on our toes!

The main character, Mace, is not a star, but a wrestler paid to lose to the big names like Chad Deity.  Mace and an Indian-American friend convince their bosses to let them fight each other, but they are then marketed as “terrorists.”  With undercurrents of racism and the overriding theme of money, this is a loud play with a strong message.  I found the first act tedious and too long, while the second act had lots of action and revived my interest somewhat.  Overall, not my favorite of the season.

SPECIAL OCCASION DINING

To celebrate my birthday, we tried Maison Blanche on Longboat Key.  It’s located in the Four Winds resort.  The dining room is understated with floor to ceiling white drapes lining the walls, a glass tower topped with a large floral display, and tables with comfortable round back chairs. 

With both a 3-course prix fixe menu for $65 and a la carte selections, there is something to appeal to every palate.  I enjoyed the tomato tart to start followed by the sautéed halibut special over pureed spinach with scattered chanterelle mushrooms and then the cheese course.  Actually we shared the cheese course and my spouse’s apple tart dessert.  He had the octopus salad and the red snapper.  This was the best food we’ve eaten in this area and the service was impeccable!

Credits:  Georgia O’Keeffe photo by Bella Orr (ThingLink); all other photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Culture Notes: Music, Politics, Movies

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What follows are paeans to lively performers and great theater (Born Yesterday and The Originalist) along with comments on two challenging films.

MUSICAL RICHES

I swear you’d think we live in a big city given all the musical offerings we have!  In the last two weeks, we had the return of handsome baritone John Brancy (this time with pianist Peter Dugan); an exceptional orchestra concert, Estonian Voices, with the award-winning Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir performing the Mozart Requiem; and then a Monday morning brightened by New York based organist and conductor, Kent Tritle.  On the faculty of both the Manhattan School of Music and Juillard, Mr. Tritle is also organist and director of cathedral music at Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  He was bubbly and delightful in conversation and bounced from his seat down to play the impressive digital organ (we learned a lot about the latest digital organs and how the stops operate) at the Church of the Palms in Sarasota.  Demonstrating his musicality, he played works by J. S. Bach, Franck, and a very familiar sanctuary-filling postlude by Widor  It was a most memorable morning!

SUPERB THEATER

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we are blessed with fabulous live theater locally.  Recently, we saw the 1946 play, Born Yesterday, presented by the Asolo Repertory Theatre.   Set in Washington, D.C. it’s about politics and wheeler-dealing, but more significantly about the transformation of junk dealer Harry Brock’s mistress Billie from a so-called dumb blonde to a self-confident assertive young woman.  It starts out a bit slow, but then catches fire and Billie (Christina DeCicco) is wonderful and her evolution both hilarious and poignant to watch.    Beautiful set, great cast—everyone from the leads to those playing maids and doormen was top notch—with a story line that faintly echoes some of the political concerns of today.

Next up was the third of the political plays this season, The Originalist, a three-character drama focusing on Antonin Scalia and two of his law clerks.  Scalia engages in an ongoing sparring match with one of them, Cat, a liberal black lesbian, which is occasionally enlivened by a competitive card game.   Edward Gero has the look and walk of Scalia and when he first takes the stage I felt for sure we were seeing Scalia himself.  This is great drama that is even more relevant as we await the hearings on Judge Gorsuch.

THOUGHT-PROVOKING FILMS 

We didn’t see them in the theater so we watched two notable films at home on our biggish small screen.  One was Jackie.  Natalie Portman (nominated for best actress) is most convincing as Jackie Kennedy, but for those who idolized the woman, this film will not necessarily endear her to you.  Contained, reserved, and always smoking, this Jackie is unto herself ever mindful of her image and that of her now late husband.  The film focuses on the short period of time right after Kennedy’s assassination when Jackie gives a key interview and re-lives the events of that horrible day.  If you accept, as I do, writer Barbara Leaming’s theory that Jackie was suffering from PTSD (something not yet identified in 1963), then her behavior is more understandable.  Not an easy film to watch.  

Moonlight won best picture—much to the surprise of everyone, especially the creators of La La Land who were winners for an instant—and we felt we ought to see it.  It is a raw and powerful film that I think I kept on appreciating after it was over.  Chiron’s story is the maturing of a poor black boy wondering about his sexuality.  It unfolds in three chapters from his grade school years as he is bullied for his difference, to his teen years and his fragile friendship with Kevin, to his adult life alone working the mean streets of Atlanta.

His mother is a drug user and mostly unavailable to him.  As a kid, Chiron is rescued by Juan, a drug dealer.  Juan and his partner, Theresa, offer Chiron warmth and stability and regular meals.  The interactions between these three individuals are some of the brightest spots in the film.  Years later, Kevin surfaces and prods Chiron into a bit of reflective conversation.  For more on what this intimate film achieves, I highly recommend this review in The New Yorker by Hilton Als.

Notes:  Header photo from Asolo Repertory Theatre; Moonlight image from www.indiewire.com