Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

The Old Globe's The Women is now on stage and the Globe sent me some pictures of the finished gowns and dresses.  It's amazing to see what they've come up with after seeing the costume sketches and all the work that goes on in the costume shop.  These dresses are incredible!  The play runs from September 13th through October 26th.

Kate Baldwin as “Mary Haines” and Kathleen McElfresh as “Crystal Allen,” with cast members behind in THE WOMEN; photo by Craig Schwartz.

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

The Old Globe is competing with Hollywood this weekend as each launch what I'm assuming are very different versions of The Women.   Hollywood gives us the big studio backed version of The Women starring Meg Ryan and her hair (ummm, Shirley Temple anyone?), Annette Benning, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes, and Debra Messing.  Honestly, it looks awful.  But here in our own backyard, The Old Globe offers the stage version of The Women, directed by Darko Tresnjak, who has an affinity for comedies of decades past and says this play is the grandmother to contemporary comedies like Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City, and Gossip Girl. 

There's also a classic movie version from 1939, directed by George Cukor,  starring Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell and Joan Crawford.  If you haven't seen it, march on over to your computer, fire up the Netflix and add it to your playlist. It's a hilarious satire and catty romp through the lives of well-bred (mostly), but not well-behaved women in Manhattan high society.  Now, while you wait for the DVD to arrive, you can march (lots of marching) over to The Old Globe and see the stage version.  The Women was a play first, written by Clare Booth Luce, a playwright, turned editor, turned congresswoman.  She wrote the play as a biting commentary on her own social set in 1936 - it's an all-female cast, so you might say she put a portion of that social set under the microscope.  The story revolves around Mary Haines and her female friends, a group of women who gossip, snarl, marry, divorce, have affairs, talk about men and each other, and change their clothes.  It was a smash hit on Broadway, but since the popularity of the classic film, it's not staged all that often.  The classic film has, however, become a cult favorite with gay men.  Next time you go to Rich's, just toss out the term "jungle red' and you'll see what I mean.  Jungle red is the nail color worn by many of the women in the play/movie and becomes a code word for the gossip mill that feeds this well-dressed ecosystem.

There are lots of reasons to see this play, not the least of which is the witty dialogue. But one of the draws is undoubtedly the clothes -- the glorious, 1930's skirts, gowns, gloves, hats, jewelry, and shoes!  The Globe's costume department has been working like mad to create over 65 costumes for this production - and there are only 15 actresses!  That's a lot of costume changes.  There are around 25 wigs in the show, along with lots of hats, shoes, jewels, and handbags.   I visited the costume shop in the early days of the project, when the costumes were at the sketch stage and just beginning to be assembled.  I spoke with Darko and costume designer Anna Oliver about how they approached the costumes for some of the characters.  I also snapped some shots inside the costume shop.  Here's a behind-the-scenes look... I can't wait to see the finished products.   The Women goes into previews this Saturday, opens next Sunday, and runs through October 26th.

Click the image above to view the slideshow in a popup window.

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

Photo by Chelsea D. Whitmore

When I first moved to San Diego four years ago from Atlanta, Georgia, I was often homesick.  I'd call my friend Kelly to whine about how it never rains in San Diego.  My rants would go something like this:  "How does anyone get any reading done here?  My New Yorkers are piling up and taunting me. When do you get to curl up on the couch and watch the entire Godfather trilogy on Bravo?  It's always so damn sunny and everyone's constantly outside enjoying nature.  It's incredibly disturbing!"

I longed for rain.  Particularly, the southern downpour I'd experienced during my eight years in Georgia -- confident, merciless rain with thunder and crackling lightening.  The already lush landscape of the south would glisten in its aftermath and I would emerge from my apartment recharged from a lazy day of reading.  I've since adjusted to the quality of life that comes with steady sunshine and the occasional sprinkle storm, but I've never forgotten the nesting and intimacy you get with a rainy day.

The title of Richard Greenberg's 1998 play Three Days of Rain, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and currently on stage at Compass Theater (formally 6th at Penn), refers to three pivotal days of rain in one young architect's life.  In a play about the desire to find answers, those three rainy days come to symbolize our failure at ever really knowing the mind and heart of others.  Our knowledge is often clouded by our assumptions, which are quick to surface when our desire to know is strong. Three Days of Rain is beautifully written, with artful phrasing ("exquisite perversity") and plenty of wit.  My favorite line was definitely "being in a good mood is not the same as being a moron."  Classic.

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

Corey Madden has been combing the beaches of Southern California talking to surfers for the last year.  She's talked to runaways living along Pacific Beach.  And she's spent a lot of time with professional surfers who have retired from the sport and now find themselves ostracized from the surfing community. 

Madden, the former associate artistic director at the Mark Taper Forum in LA for 15 years and now a visiting artist at UCSD, has also been thinking about Orpheus, the ancient myth of the Greek poet and rock star who could tame wild beasts with his lyre skills but who loses his love Eurydice to the underworld god Hades.  Madden combined her interest in surfing culture and the tale of Orpheus into a new musical called simply Surf Orpheus. It's currently being produced by the Theater and Dance Department at UCSD.  I recently went to a rehearsal of Surf Orpheus and took some photographs.

As you can see, it's a visually rich production with complicated moving set pieces and a big cast.  Madden partnered with noted choreographer Jaques Heim of Diavolo Dance company in LA and acclaimed composer Bruno Louchouarn to create the look and sonic world of Surf Orpheus.  A number of things stood out at rehearsal, not the least of which was the dedication of the undergraduate acting students, technical crew, and stage management team.  It's really quite amazing that UCSD supports a production of this scale at the undergraduate level. 

You can hear Corey Madden and Bruno Louchouarn talking about Surf Orpheus on These Days today.  The musical opens tonight, Tuesday, May 13th and runs May 17th.  Performances take place at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theater on the La Jolla Playhouse campus.

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

Are you a fan of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould(pictured right)?  Sony Classical recently issued "Glenn Gould: The Complete Original Jacket Collection," an 80-CD - yes, I said 80!!! -  limited edition boxed set of all the studio recordings the pianist made for Columbia and CBS Masterworks.  The price is $222, which is surprisingly cheap for all you get. 

Starbucks is defending its book choice despite evidence that the author fabricated parts of the story.  

This is funny.  The theater critic at St. Paul Pioneer Press doesn't like the latest play from the Guthrie Theater and publishes a negative review.  The Guthrie then takes out a full page ad for the play in the Pioneer Press.  The ad features a full review from the theater critic at the twin cities' alternative weekly, CityPages.  It was, no surprise, a positive review.  

Check out the photographs of artist Vee Spears.  Her collection of child portraits called The Birthday Party are mesmerizing.  She was inspired by watching children play at being adults.  She shoots on polaroid film and then does post-processing digitally. 

David Ulin of  the LA Times has an essay on rereading favorite books from one's youth - do they hold up?  When you reread as an adult, with more experience and a whole different life lens, certain once cherished books may still resonate, or they may lose their spark. 

And, finally, who knew the hugely influential economist John Maynard Keynes had such an adventurous sex life?  Evan Zimroth is currently working to decipher his sex diaries.  Yes, Keynes kept sex diaries - written with codes - and they are kept in the archives at King's College in Cambridge.  Isn't it just like those kinky economists to keep sex diaries about their conquests?  I mean, you've seen one economist sex diary, you've seen them all...  

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

“Death ain’t nothing but a fastball on the outside corner,” says Troy Maxson, the central figure in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences, currently on stage at Cygnet Theater.  Troy is a mix of bravado and nurtured bitterness, and he taunts death throughout the play.  He claims to have wrestled with both death and the devil, though it’s clear as this story unfolds, Troy’s personal demons aren’t giving up the fight.  

Troy is played by Antonio T.J. Johnson in this terrific co-production between Cygnet and the San Diego Black Ensemble Theater.  I loved this play.  Delicia Turner Sonnenberg directs a talented group of actors who make Wilson’s beautiful dialogue both sing and resonate.

Johnson, as Troy, is superb (the role of Troy was played by James Earl Jones on Broadway, and he won a Tony for it). He has fun with Troy’s ego-driven swagger while keeping the character’s self-doubt in play.  Johnson uses his size to great effect, making Troy a domineering figure but also agile and fluid. The anger in his physicality softens when he warms to his wife Rose (Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson, who is wonderful) or when grief takes over.

Wilson wrote Fences as part of a ten-play cycle charting the black experience in America.  Each play is set in a different decade of the 20th century (the cycle’s other Pulitzer Prize winner is The Piano Lesson).  The series is sometimes called The Pittsburgh Cycle because nine of the ten plays are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, an African-American neighborhood in the Pennsylvania manufacturing town where Wilson grew up.  

John Lahr (one of my heroes - he writes with such grace about the arts), the senior drama critic at The New Yorker, wrote of Wilson's plays: "The blues are catastrophe expressed lyrically; so are Wilson’s plays, which swing with the pulse of the African-American people, as they moved, over the decades, from property to personhood."

The themes in Fences are familiar to the stories we often tell.  There are stories of fathers and sons, and the struggles of marriage.  There’s the struggle for dignity in work and the pain of dreams denied.  And, most importantly, there is the story of race;  of how these familiar, universal themes unfold through the African-American experience. 

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

My friend Jessica and I never expected to end up in Southern California. We both grew up on the East Coast; I’d always imagined a 5^th floor walk-up in my future, or a haunted Victorian with bay windows and lots of nooks. But now we each live on canyons, with lots of glass and light.  Jess has a fire pit, for pete’s sake.  We don’t have fire pits back east.  We have fires in barrels on neighborhood corners, but no one drinks martinis standing around those.

I figured “Sea of Tranquility,” at The Old Globe Theatre, was a fitting play for us to see on Friday night. It’s playwright Howard Korder’s (the Globe’s Playwright-in-Residence) comic take on the persistent belief in the transformative powers of the West. 

Jess and I have recurring conversations about where we live; it’s our way of finding meaning here, a way of grafting our ideas of ourselves onto this still new and different place.  The main characters in “Sea of Tranquility” seek the West as a way to escape the past. What they find out, of course, is there is no escape.

Ben (Ted Koch), a psychologist, and his wife, Nessa (Erika Rolfsrud), sell their Connecticut home and relocate to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  When we first meet Ben, he’s in therapy with an older lesbian couple and a Jewish boy who has taken up the Nazi cause. His swastika-wear is a laugh offered in lieu of exploring the boy’s anger at his mother’s newfound sexuality.  I like the humor, but I would have preferred some insight into how his world has turned upside down.

We meet a number of Ben’s clients throughout the play; in fact, there are fourteen characters in Sea of Tranquility.  I felt like I was watching a series of vignettes that are supposed to tie together, but I couldn’t find the thread.   Ben is the link, but a weak one.  As a therapist, he’s the impetus for revelation from others, so when we’re later expected to make sense of his emotional life, I didn’t know or care enough about him. Actor Ted Koch does what he can with Ben, but the character is thinly drawn.  In fact, he’s more of a foil for the other characters and for Santa Fe itself. 

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

A lot has happened while Culture Lust was in the shop. 

Everyone continues to be shocked by the tragic death of 28-year-old actor Heath Ledger.   His passing has movie critics citing the deaths of James Dean, River Phoenix and even Marilyn Monroe as comparable stars who died as their careers were beginning to peak. 

I thought Ledger was making good career choices and am saddened that his life and work is cut short.  Brokeback Mountain had its problems and pleasures – one of the latter is the scene where Ennis discovers his and Jack’s shirts entwined in the back of Jack’s closet.  Ledger’s performance there broke my heart. 

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

Cirque du Soleil is at the Del Mar Fairgrounds

Cirque du Soleil is in town with Corteo, one of its six touring productions. I went to the opening Friday night and let me tell you, it's all the things you hear about their shows: awe-inspiring! jaw-dropping! death-defying! Since compound adjectives seem to work when talking about Cirque, I'm going to add one of my own: nerve-wracking!

I was anxious the whole time about someone falling (phew, nobody did). I've developed a late but mild fear of heights, which obviously added to my anxiety. But it's also too unbelievable that people can twist their bodies in that way, or make them fly through the air, or suspend themselves 20 feet above the stage by a PIECE OF FABRIC!, or hula hoop across a tight rope 30 feet in the air. I mean, who does this? What is the molecular make-up of a person that says "Hey, I want to try that!"? It might be like the speed gene, which I definitely don't have (while driving, I've been called "grandma" more than once, but I brush it off. Safety first!).

But despite the damage to my nerves, Corteo is crazy fun and makes for a great night out. "Corteo" is Italian for cort?ge, which means procession. In this case, the procession is a funeral parade in the form of a carnival, all imagined by a dying clown. Not the scary, creepy kind of clown, the cute 16th-century Italian kind.

The costuming and set are gorgeous. It's a mix of 16th- century Italian fashion (think Commedia dell'arte), traditional big top wear, and the latest in gymnast chic. There's also less make-up in this show - you can see the performers' faces, which look all to cucumber cool as they're flying through the air.

My favorite numbers: A man climbing a ladder perched against...nothing! It just stood straight up in the air and he had to wiggle the whole way up to balance it. He flew up and down it and then brought out a bigger ladder and proceeded to slowly make his way up, balancing, with no net underneath.

There was also an amazing opening number which had women swinging from three elaborate chandeliers high above the stage. Oh, and a real crowd-pleaser, deservedly so, featured a female little person (not sure what the p.c. term is) attached to a bouquet of huge helium balloons. She floated out into the audience where people would gently push her feet to move her around as if passing a beach ball above their heads. Now that I'm writing it, it sounds kind of weird. But it was really magical and, at the very least, something you don't see every day.

Even if you've been to other Cirque du Soleil shows, I suspect these things never get old. Del Mar Fairgrounds hosts the big tent, and you can learn more here.

Oh, and check out this whistle performance from the show. This was the only act where I wasn't nervous that the performer would get hurt. I could care less about vocal chord strain.

Note: Angela Carone is taking a well-deserved vacation. She'll be back at the helm mid-October. Hang tight because good things await!

Cygnet Artistic Director Sean Murray assures San Diegans that such growth does not mean a change in programming: "It promises to be a home for us to explore and expand on the eclectic and surprising material we've become known for."

I, for one, am excited about what this means for adventurous theater in the city. While Cygnet isn't able to mount two shows in both spaces at the same time -- yet!-- the addition will allow them to extend more popular runs because they now have another space for rehearsals and set work for successive shows.

Cygnet plans to bring the Old Town Theater up to code with new lighting and sound equipment, among other renovations, and will begin producing work there in the fall of 2008.