Los Angeles Times - The Arts

'Flora, the Red Menace'

Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Despite the casting of Eden Espinosa and Manoel Feliciano, Reprise Theatre Company's remount of this 1965 Kander & Ebb show fails to bloom.

In the "Jeopardy!" category of theater trivia, "Flora, the Red Menace" has quite a few possible responses. "What is Kander & Ebb's first Broadway musical?" "What is the show in which a teenage Liza Minnelli made her Tony-winning Broadway debut?" But if you were to venture "What is a rarely produced work by an acclaimed composer-lyricist duo overdue for revival?" I'm afraid your winnings would take a noticeable dip.

L.A.-born Victor Quijada comes home with his Rubberbandance Group

Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The troupe, based in Montreal, is an energetic blend of hip-hop, ballet and contemporary movement.

PEERING into a photographer's lens, Los Angeles-born Victor Quijada, with his dark eyes, chiseled cheekbones and stylish black hair, could be posing for a Versace ad. Until he starts to move, that is, and his sinewy, streetwise popping and locking flow into impossibly high leg extensions, tossed-off pliés and handstands -- all exploding from a torso-torquing body built for speed.

Gregory Crewdson poses at the Gagosian Gallery

Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Also: James Richards, Takashi Murakami and John Sonsini

All the world may be a stage, but Gregory Crewdson 's big color photographs manage to flatten it into a backdrop for an overproduced photo shoot. Like ads for luxury cars, pricey perfumes and exotic getaways, Crewdson's 19 nearly 5-by-8-foot inkjet prints at the Gagosian Gallery are less concerned with exploring the world they depict than with selling a fantasy about it.

'Lady' at the Lankershim Arts Center

Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

What opens as three buddies' hunting-trip reunion veers into a meditation on war and middle age.

Stephen Gifford's elegant, troubling set signals that the Road Theatre production of Craig Wright's "Lady," now at the Lankershim Arts Center, will take us into uncertain territory. Framing the jagged, raked stage are panels depicting trees in various stages of autumnal change: some green, some vibrant orange, others fading into brown. Then you realize the panels are shaped like dog tags.

Theater Beat: 'Glass Menagerie' by Actors Co-op in Hollywood

Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Also reviewed: West Coast Ensemble's 'The Sweetest Swing in Baseball,' 'The Brain From Planet X'

Thomas Lanier Williams was 25 and still living with his family when, in April 1936, he confessed to his personal journal: "This house frightens me again. I feel trapped -- shut in." Not quite a decade later, he broke through to Broadway with a play that fairly vibrated with those feelings. By then, he was Tennessee Williams. His play: "The Glass Menagerie."

Portrait of Ledger wins Aussie prize

Fri, 9 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

A portrait of Hollywood star Heath Ledger painted weeks before his death has won an Australian art award.

Kathleen Chalfant, 'Red Dog Howls,' tackle the Armenian genocide

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The veteran actress plays a 91-year-old survivor in the play.

New York

Activist turns L.A.'s traffic islands into national parks

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There's a serious purpose behind his seemingly farcical 'The Islands of LA Nat'l Park' campaign. He wants people to discuss uses of public spaces.

IT COULD very well be a mirage: A trick of the glaring morning sun or something misread in the pre-caffeinated early morning haze.

A Native American take on comic art

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

A New Mexico museum exhibit shows the natural affinity tribal artists have had for the graphic storytelling techniques from Marvel and other comics.

THIS summer is overflowing with images of familiar superheroes and ominous villains, and the world of American Indian art is digging up its own version of the comic art form at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, N.M.

East West Players put their own spin on 'Pippin'

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Hip-hop moves meld with the understated style of anime.

BLYTHE MATSUI holds her arm straight out, hand flat, palm up, while rotating her body. Dressed in a white lace tank top cropped above her navel and camouflage cargo pants rolled up to reveal high-heeled leather boots, the dancer-choreographer and former Laker Girl turns to Mike Moh, an extreme martial arts specialist, and says: "Blade open."