Classics and New Works Shake Up the Theater And Dance Scene This Fall
by Jeff Favre
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - As the days get shorter and Downtown Los Angeles slips into the cloudy shadows of long fall nights, the performing arts community is responding with works colored by a dark emotional palette of angst, anger and even murder and mayhem. The edgy Broadway hit Spring Awakening should drive a rarely spotted younger crowd to the Ahmanson, while fans of Elizabethan theater surely will crave the new murder mystery The School of Night. “Why laugh when you can cry?” is the mantra for opera buffs who never seem to tire of the tragedies Madama Butterfly and Carmen. Elvis Costello tunes serve as a soundtrack for a Miami City Ballet performance, and family drama seethes from the stage in both The Joy Luck Club and Elevator Repair Service’s The Sound and the Fury. That’s only the beginning of a packed season.
For complete listings, see Theater, Opera & Dance on page 19.
Wide Awake: Few Duncan Sheik fans would have predicted his musical based on a 19th-century German play would be a critical or commercial success. It turns out to be both. Sheik, whose 1996 song “Barely Breathing” put him on the pop music landscape, spent eight years collaborating with Steven Sater on Spring Awakening, an alternative musical adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play about rape, suicide and other biting subjects. The musical opened on Broadway in 2006 and won eight Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical, and it’s still packing houses in New York. The touring company, which will rock the Ahmanson Theatre Oct. 29-Dec. 7, includes some members from the celebrated Broadway cast.
Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 628-2772 or centertheatregroup.org.
Brit Lit: Most critics of Elizabethan-era scribes place Christopher Marlowe second only to William Shakespeare in stature. His death by stabbing at 29 cut short a brilliant career, but it also created a mystery about whether he was killed accidentally, or whether he was murdered because he was a spy or because of his bold atheistic stance. Peter Whelan delves into the murky surroundings in The School of Night, which, although a critical success in its 1992 debut in London, is only now receiving a U.S. premiere at the recently renovated Mark Taper Forum Oct. 30-Dec. 17. The play’s title, taken from a line in Shakespeare’s Loves Labour’s Lost, refers to a group of renowned scientists and poets known as the School of Atheism. Few writers know more about the life and times of Marlowe and Shakespeare than Whelan, who has penned several plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Dancing With Elvis: Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello and choreographer Twyla Tharp have collaborated with the Miami City Ballet for a new work titled Nightspot. Tharp’s recent successes have involved other music icons, including Billy Joel and Bob Dylan. This marks the first major commission by the company, which longtime New York City Ballet member Edward Villella founded in 1986. Janine Zeitlin of the Miami New Timesdescribed Nightspot as “splashes of classical ballet, Broadway, Cirque du Soleil, fight clubs and Latin dance.” At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Oct. 24-26, the Miami City Ballet dancers will be accompanied by a live orchestra. The evening’s lineup also includes two works - Tarantella and Symphony in Three Movements - by George Balanchine.
A Family That Plays Together: Few stories are more emotionally rich than that of the Chinese-American women in Amy Tan’s 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club, which was adapted into a hit movie and then a play. Susan Kim’s stage version has never been performed in Los Angeles. It retains Tan’s rich characterizations and realistic exchanges between mothers and daughters, and among best friends with past secrets and current challenges that require love and support to endure. Yeah, it sounds syrupy, but it resonates. This production, running Nov. 6-Dec. 7, will be the second play in East West Players’ 43rd season, and as the nation’s oldest Asian-American theater, it seems an appropriate choice.
East West Players, 120 N. Judge John Aiso St., (213) 625-7000 or eastwestplayers.org.
Elevator, Going Up: Anyone expecting mainstream theatrical fare at REDCAT clearly has never seen one of its productions. Elevator Repair Service, a New York ensemble formed in 1991, is noted for its highly stylized adaptations of works from other genres, including novels. Its latest creation, The Sound and the Fury, brings to life the first chapter of William Faulkner’s novel of the same name. The chapter, “April Seventh, 1928,” introduces a dysfunctional family in Mississippi, as told from the point of view of a mute who cannot distinguish past from present. The production runs Oct. 9-12. Faulkner’s layered, at-times disjointed writing style is mirrored by the company’s performance, which includes several cast members portraying the same characters. Elevator Repair Service once toured Europe with a seven-hour verbatim version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. This production is a mere two-and-a-half hours, because it covers only one chapter. But its complexities still staggered New York audiences.
REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., (213) 237-2800 or redcat.org.
Opera’s Dynamic Duo: On the heels of L.A. Opera’s split opening shows - Il Trittico received raves; The Fly did not - the company returns to two of the genre’s most beloved works, Madama Butterfly and Carmen, by Giacomo Puccini and Georges Bizet, respectively. Robert Wilson’s minimalist 2004 production of Madama Butterfly returns to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where it runs through Oct. 18. Puccini’s tragedy features soprano Liping Zhang as Cio Cio San and Franco Farina as Lt. Pinkerton, though what truly sets the show apart (and divides audiences) is Wilson’s slow-as-molasses movements and characters who engage in quirky walks. Carmen runs Nov. 15-Dec. 14 and will feature two newcomers to L.A. Opera: Hungarian mezzo-soprano Viktoria Vizin will portray the gypsy diva, and Nancy Fabiola Herrera, also a mezzo-soprano, will tackle the title role, which she performed recently at the Met.
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 972-8001 or laopera.com.
The World on Stage: The New LATC, the transformed Spring Street space formerly known as the Los Angeles Theatre Center, signaled its ambitions last year with an international program, and this year’s collection of works is even more eclectic. The Face of the World Festival, which began last month, has plenty left to offer, with theater and dance works through Dec. 14. Canek from Mexico is a life-size puppet show depicting the story of a Mayan warrior and a young Yucateco whose friendship is impeded by cultural differences (Oct. 10-12). War Stories is Joyce Guy’s multimedia exploration of an African-American man trying to move up the ranks in the U.S. military, with a story told from his daughter’s perspective (Oct. 31-Nov. 23). El Maiz, also from Mexico, is a theatrical ritual performed by Jesusa Rodriguez, based on Mesoamerican traditions (Nov. 23).
The New LATC, 514 S. Spring St., (213) 489-0994 or thenewlatc.com.