First Nighter: 'Les Miserables' Returns in Sizzling 21st-Century Upgrade
There was a time when musicals bought for the movies had a contract clause stipulating that the film version couldn't be released until after the Broadway run ended. The reasoning was that if the...
View ArticleAngels or Devils
There are many reasons why arts organizations today are facing cash constraints: lower demand, aging donor bases, substitute forms of entertainment, and on and on. These are serious, problematic and...
View ArticleAt San Francisco's de Young Museum: A Week of Art -- And Flowers
Art. Bouquets. More art. More bouquets. Once again San Francisco Bay Area floral designers have outdone themselves with their floral tributes to selected works in the de Young Museum collection. The...
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Feeling Human at Bleecker Street Arts Club
Feeling Human, a group exhibition at the Bleecker Street Arts Club includes work by Mira Dancy, Austin Eddy and Ryan Schneider. Curated by Adam Mignanelli, of Ballast Projects, the exhibition maps the...
View ArticleOn Seeing Online: Circles and Signs
This edition of "On Seeing" includes new work made for the web, most seen here for the first time. It was created with support from curatorial intern, April Baca. When I started this column in 2010, I...
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Tucker Murray: Pop Star Rising
By the time Tucker Murray tore into the final bars of "Everyone Says" near the end of a recent set at the Cutting Room, the crowd was on its feet. And it wasn't just because the song's rousing pop...
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Jacob Hashimoto's Gas Giant at MOCA Pacific Design Center (PHOTOS)
This is a photo essay I shot on March 20, 2014 on Jacob Hashimoto's installation at MOCA Pacific Design Center as part of my continuing survey of important works in the Southern California art world....
View ArticleMaking the Most of Jazz Fest
Jazz Fest 2014 has recently announced the 2014 lineup. Rest assured, the well-rounded New Orleans Jazz Heritage Society has programmed something for everyone. Headliners include Bruce Springsteen,...
View ArticleWomen at the Armory
A sampling of international female artists at the New York Armory Show.
View ArticleBahia Shehab: Art As a Tool for Change
"Graffiti is like flowers. They are beautiful, but they don't live long." An interview with Lebanese-Egyptian street-artist Bahia Shehab about the role of art during the Arab spring: "You cannot...
View ArticleA Conversation With Scott Rogers
"Your dad makes shoes, you go into the shoe business. Your dad makes shows, you go into show business." -- Scott Rogers Scott Rogers was born into a family in the entertainment industry. An industry he...
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Harmony -- At Last
It's only taken 17 years for me to get the chance to see Harmony again. That's the Barry Manilow-Bruce Sussman musical that had its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, which I've...
View ArticleThe Humanizing Element
Sir Ken Robinson said the following on feeling and knowing: Feeling and knowing are part of the same complex of a whole being. Our feelings are a form of perception. And they are affected by what we...
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Say It Loud: I'm Gay and I'm proud? Not in 1970s Philadelphia. Enter Doctor...
There's no need for masks and conversion therapy. The playwright, director and lead actor all weigh in. Part one is with the playwright, Guy Glass. Although a work of fiction, Doctor Anonymous was...
View ArticleIs Opera Dead? Is the Met Next?
San Diego Opera will close its doors this year; an era is ending whether I want to admit it or not. I performed there many times and always had an extraordinarily collaborative experience. It felt like...
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The Range Wolf Is Andrew J. Fenady's Fresh Take on the Classic Jack London...
Jaunty Andrew J. Fenady, the award-winning writer/producer of dozens of TV shows and movies, including The Man with Bogart's Face (1980) and Chisum (1970) with John Wayne, has a rousing new novel being...
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Everything You Love About The Sound of Music Is a Lie
My mom has always been a big fan of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, which portrays the tale of the von Trapp family as a bold, passionate, flee-Nazis-in-the-night kind...
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My Own Private Tron: Jean-Pierre Roy at Gallery Poulsen
Jean-Pierre Roy is engaged as a painter in an ongoing project which appeals to me very much; and not only in my capacity as a painter, but also as a metaphysically-inclined science and science fiction...
View ArticleMaria Lassnig -- At 94, Finally Getting Her Due in New York
After 70 years of painting, Maria Lassnig is finally getting her first New York show and it is beautiful. Maria Lassnig's show recently opened at MOMA PS1 and it is an almost complete retrospective of...
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The Next Big Thing
Mike Hamel is a singer/songwriter from upstate New York with a lot to say. Hamel recorded Where the Change Is (a 6-song disc available on Itunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, and others) with the help of a...
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