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For more photos by Chris Sikich, check out countfeed.tumblr.com.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: The Children’s March
GENRE: Music/Family
GROUP: Singing City
ATTENDED: Fri., April 26, 8 p.m., The Church of the Holy Trinity
CLOSED: April 26
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: This newly commissioned work by Philadelphia composer Andrew Bleckner and acclaimed Philadelphia storyteller and narrator Charlotte Blake Alston features Singing City and the Singing City Children's Choir. It tells the story of the 1963 Children’s March in Birmingham, AL, that changed the course of civil rights in America.
WE THINK: Singing City, one of the first integrated choirs in the country and a long-time interpreter of American musical tradition, rose to the significance of their task and gave this new work (by Philadelphia’s own Andrew Bleckner) intense life. In conjunction with the Singing City Children’s Choir and five adolescent soloists (students at Germantown Friends School, Northeast High and Rador High), Singing City interpreted the Children’s March in Birmingham and the history of racism that led to it with the solemnity and reverence it rightfully deserved.
The piece, enacted in four parts, documents the history of African American disenfranchisement from the first ships carrying slaves from Africa through Brown v. Board of Education and, ultimately, to the Children’s March. The text of the piece, written by Philadelphia storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston (who read parts of her libretto on stage), incorporated lines from historic race legislation within call-and-response song structure that invoked the gospel music tradition. Despite the occasional awkwardness of this technique (the baritone soloist sang through a large section of the 14th Amendment), all parties involved should be commended for creating a piece so inclusive of this history. The contributions of the Singing City Children’s Choir, whose sections animated the growing participation of children in Birmingham to the desegregation struggle, were perhaps the most notable. Singing City took on a heavy task by trying to recreate the energy and emotion of this crucial moment in Civil Rights history, but if the long standing ovation they received was any indication, they at least came close.
–Sameer Rao
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Panama pride.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: Panama 500
GENRE: Music
Artist: Danilo Pérez
ATTENDED: Fri., Apr. 26, 8 p.m., Kimmel Center
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Five hundred years ago, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time by. Join Grammy Award-winner Danilo Pérez and the Panama 500 Band for a night of music recounting the various explorations of this new world of water.
WE THINK: Danilo Pérez could never be accused of being ashamed of his roots. The pianist namechecks his homeland as often as possible, usually leading to multiple tunes with “Panama” in their titles on each album. He also founded the Panama Jazz Festival, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.
The band that he debuted at the Kimmel on Friday, Panama 500, is named for the anniversary of the first European to reach the Pacific from the New World, when Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513. After a lengthy opening piece that blended Pérez’s “Pacific Ocean” and “Panama Libre,” the composer stepped to the front of the stage to give “credit to the indigenous people” who that anniversary neglects to mention, though the garrulous Pérez was quick to flash his wide grin and note that he had no intention of turning the concert over to protest music.
Pérez deftly combines a keen musical intellect with an irrepressible showmanship, both of which were on display on Friday. Little of the mostly original music was new, though the quintet dug into it with vigor. The pianist was joined by his longtime bassist, Ben Street; the remarkable drummer Brian Blade, his bandmate in the stellar Wayne Shorter Quartet; Cuban percussionist Roman Díaz; and violinist Alex Hargreaves, a student in Pérez’s Berklee Global Jazz Institute in Boston. Citing the recent tragic events in his other, adopted hometown, Pérez broke from the program with a tender, elegiac reading of his piece “Prayer.”
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: These all have something to do with 1492, I swear.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: 1492: Music and Dance From Spain to the Americas
GENRE: Music/dance
GROUP: Latin Fiesta and Concilio
ATTENDED: Thu., April 25, 7 p.m., Suzanne Roberts Theatre
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Maria del Pico Taylor and international guest artists take you on a time traveling journey inspired by Columbus' arrival in the New World.
WE THINK: Beginning in 9th-century Spain and ending in 19th-century Cuba, 1492 took PIFA's time-travel theme to heart, though the results were muddled. The cast had plenty of accomplished artists – including fiery dancer Liliana Ruiz, singers Vania Taylor Watson and Jorge Maldonado and pianist Maria del Pico Taylor (also the program's artistic director). The performances were earnest and heartfelt. Ruiz is such a force she lifted the vibe whenever she appeared on stage, and a spirited conga line made for a lively finale.
But the production was clearly under-rehearsed and rough around the edges. Various time periods and cultures were presented with little to no context, which made for confusing transitions, as well as a lost opportunity to share the roots of and connections between this multicultural array of artistry.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Philip Glass + physics = kids show!
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: Icarus at the Edge of Time
GENRE: Music/reading/video
GROUP: Philadelphia Science Festival featuring the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra
ATTENDED: Wed., April 24, 8 p.m., Kimmel Center
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A re-imagining of the Icarus myth set in outer space, with the don’t-get-too-close danger being a black hole instead of the sun. Score by Philip Glass, script by physicist Brian Greene and playwright David Henry Hwang, and video by Al + Al.
WE THINK: The family-friendly program began with a 25-minute talk by Greene about the theory of relativity and the physics of black holes. Greene wrote the children’s book upon which Icarus is based, and his visual-aids-enhanced talk was as entertaining as anything that followed.
The Youth Orchestra performed Glass’ generally unremarkable score, which didn’t have sense of urgency found in many of the composer’s other pieces. A video artily told the story — ’tween Icarus was shown mainly in closeup and medium shots, with each frame busily filled with images of warped checkerboards, swirling bubbles and repetitive (hello, Philip Glass!) machine motions. Actress Kate Shindle read the text with plenty of pauses for the video to do the majority of the story-telling work. It all was pleasant, but lacked the seemingly-hoped-for sense of wonder.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: Time Machine: The Lost Hour
GENRE: Theater
GROUP: Philadelphia Young Playwrights
ATTENDED: Wed., April 24, 7:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Fri., April 26
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION:”... a multigenerational journey that careens through then, now and next. Boundaries blur, the audience takes part and histories revise in the doing.”
WE THINK: At last, a show that really lives up to the science-fiction promise of PIFA's time machine theme! Short plays written and performed by area high school students, supported by UArts students and professional designers, and directed by David Bradley — a "multigenerational ensemble" — link together in a fun adventure about "a pocket in the universe" where people receive a lost hour to complete a special task. Timekeepers in snazzy white coats by designer Alison Roberts enforce the time rules, including my favorite, number 13: "break all rules in the name of love."
The plays range from poignant romance to social satire, supported by a large ensemble who also request some fun audience participation. Bradley's in-the-round staging on Maura Roche's fun set somewhat overcomes the Innovation Studio's sightline problems, and provides a large playing space.
We don't forget that the writers and performers are high school students — cheerleaders, cell phones, and angsty love come up more than once — but their earnestness is part of The Lost Hour's charm. These cleverly connected plays have meaningful things to say about Time, about what it is and how it affects us, and they express these ideas with heart and style.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Prima! Rufus! Judy!
Damon Feldman, the man behind all things Celebrity Boxing, refuses to go down and out for the count. Bar him from state sporting matches — even with pillow gloves — and he finds a way in. This time, Feldman’s got a public official (Congressman Bob Brady) two red letter causes (autism, anti-bullying) and an actual boxer (Bernard Hopkins) to help him get back to Philly. On May 2, Feldman and co. will hold a press conference to announce a series of fights, a New Champions of Tomorrow Professional Boxing reality series for Philly’s Channel 4 and a secret new venue to play in — which will probably be the New Alhambra/ WWE/Asylum space at West Ritner in South Philly that AEG has/had on hold. As for John Bolaris, he wrote his bye-Philly note in his Metro column this week, saying how he was leaving for New York City in June for jobs-un-described. The main news here is that I didn’t even know he wrote for the Metro until a friend told me, so there’s that. John, thanks for the good times, the girls, and the wonky vacation plans.
View galleryYES WE KNEW THIS DAY WOULD EVENTUALLY COME. It will have been, like, more than three years since it opened on Broadway next summer, but the Kimmel's website just got updated with a listing for The Book of Mormon running at Forrest Theatre from July 29-September 7, 2014. (We knew that RSS subscription would eventually pay off.) It's awesome news: This musical is truly great, and we definitely don't know that because we downloaded a Broadwaycam pirate tape and watched it enough times to even be able to sing along with the "Fuck you, God" song. And now... waiting a year. Hello!
Every few weeks, Critical Mass will feature one Philly Love Note in its collaboration with blogger Emma Fried-Cassorla of phillylovenotes.com.
LOVE NOTE RECIPIENT: The Art Museum
I AM: Beryl Belcher, an investigator with the Defender Association of Philailadelphia who grew up in Philly, left and came back.
These huge arts festivals can be overwhelming — how to figure out what's worth seeing? CP's sending someone to nearly every event PIFA's putting on over the next month to help you decide, so check back with Critical Mass all month long for comprehensive, ongoing reviews.
SHOW: Prima! Rufus! Judy!
GENRE: Music
GROUP: Rufus Wainwright and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
ATTENDED: Sun., April 21, 8 p.m., Verizon Hall
CLOSED: April 21
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Opening the first half with selections from Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna, vocal soloists Melody Moore and Kathryn Guthrie tell the story of an aging opera singer attempting to confront her past to regain her triumphant status as one of the world’s most celebrated sopranos. After intermission, Wainwright recreates excerpts from Judy Garland’s famous 1961 Carnegie Hall program – considered one of the greatest nights in showbiz history.
WE THINK: To celebrate the April 23, 1961 date of Garland's comeback as well as his ability to craft a rich opera that actually sounds like his music, Rufus Wainwright crunches two of his most daring and best loved programs into one satisfying whole. Two of Wainwright’s singers from Prima Donna boldly tackle that opera’s somber, twitchy-percussion filled selections before a brief intermission. After that it’s show time and Wainwright, in a sparkly tux jacket with tousled hair, goes about the business of vocal dexterity, subtlety and schmaltz in the name of Garland.
—A.D. Amorosi
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