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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
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: That Time
GENRE: Theater/dance
GROUP: Tongue & Groove, RealLivePeople(in)Motion
ATTENDED: Sat., April 20, 8 p.m., Kimmel Center
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Tongue & Groove is a critically acclaimed theater ensemble that spontaneously performs unscripted scenes and monologues inspired by personal information anonymously submitted by the audience . . . Especially for PIFA 2013, T&G is collaborating with dance company RealLivePeople(in)Motion, an ensemble that is similarly catalyzed by the audience’s true stories.
WE THINK: Tongue & Groove continues to evolve, tweaking its improv format to fit PIFA's time-machine theme by prompting audience memories about moments in our lives we would like to return to, shared anonymously on Post-it notes stuck to a timeline (write clearly, please!). Mine — the morning of my first wedding in November 1989, to follow my impulse to run away and thus spare myself a year in hell — was not chosen, but audience reactions made clear whose were.
Bobbi Block's talented long-form, realistic improv-ers are smartly teamed with RLPiM, dancers in street clothes who likewise explore real life. Actors dance and dancers act together successfully in the T&G style of creating genuine, rich relationships in an instant and finding humor in human behavior rather than punch lines. Using a variety of formats and styles (monologues, domestic scenes, inter-generational conflicts, instant message exchanges), the hour-long show I witnessed blended stories united by their complex emotional levels: I laughed heartily, yet felt tears rising by the end.
Working against the performers, it must be said, was the ironically named Innovation Studio, which stifles innovation. Whoever chose the high-backed plastic chairs and didn't provide risers apparently never sat in a theater before: in the second of five rows, I couldn't see performers on the floor unless they stood, and I watched through a picket fence of heads. Even the back row of high chairs had trouble, but in the fourth row of normal-height chairs — which would feel close in any of the city's much less expensive but more sensible small theaters — the conditions are miserable. Moreover, shifting for a better view makes the unsteady chairs creak and squeak, producing a steady undercurrent of the-locusts-are-coming sounds. Artists must either build a stage on the beautiful hardwood floor or limit their choices and punish their audiences. How can the Kimmel Center lead us into the future when its designers learned nothing from the past?
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Five too-short plays about the future.
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: FutureFest
GENRE: Theater
GROUP: Luna Theater Company
ATTENDED: Sat., April 20, 8 p.m., Adrienne Theater
CLOSES: April 27
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Luna Theater Company journeys to the future with their second annual play festival, FutureFest. The world premiere of five one-act plays, FutureFest explores how our visions of the future inform our understanding of ourselves and world today.
WE THINK: In keeping with PIFA's time-machine theme, FutureFest offers five vignettes about possible futures. It’s hard to imagine such a premise without the dystopian societies and Dickian virtual realities we’re used to, and the festival definitely delivers in that respect. There are androids, post-apocalypse scenarios, marriage-counseling simulations, artificial organs and even “head sex,” which is much better than that sweaty, smelly, “real sex” we have now.
Oddly enough, it’s the show’s vignette format that makes it hard to sit through. Sci-fi inventions tend to work best when properly introduced, and then demonstrated more thoroughly, in a longer format, like a novel or feature-length film — enough time for a little world-building. At least three of the stories here attempt to pack so much unfamiliar terminology into so little digestion time that a lot ends up being incomprehensible.
Still, Luna makes good use of the space, piling a lot of post-apocalyptic junk onstage and colorful TV installations in the wall that give the show a more cohesive visual feel. The performances are spot-on, as well. Whether they’re playing familiar types or bunnies that create universes, the actors know exactly who they are and what they want, even if the audience isn’t so sure.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Philadanco addresses the Big Bang.
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 Big Bang!
GENRE: Dance
GROUP: Philadanco
ATTENDED: Fri., April 19, 8 p.m., Kimmel Center
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: In this riveting program created just for PIFA, Philadanco celebrates The Big Bang, 13 billions years ago!
WE THINK: Philadanco pulled out the stops for this show, which begins, and ends, with a bang. The bill of fare presents a potpourri of 'Danco's dance styles, in four works that highlight the company's superb technique and demonstrating how its choreography has evolved over the years. It begins with an energetic early work of classic Philadanco style — long, graceful leg and arm extensions coupled with deep, athletic leg work — and ends with a contemplative contemporary dance featuring a bevy of elegant yet physically challenging duets. At the show I saw, throughout the program, people clapped and whupped during the individual pieces; they just couldn’t wait till the work ended to acknowledge an especially impressive feat. And who could blame 'em: this stellar corps delivers heartfelt body and soul for this exhilarating program.
PREVIOUSLY IN PIFA: Dan Deacon is in your iPhone.
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