Arts

Arts

Capitol Steps Puts the Mock Back in Democracy

Review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Whether the debt-ceiling wrangling in Washington has you gnashing your teeth or near tears, take a deep breath—and prepare to laugh it out. The Capitol Steps have returned to Cranwell Resort for their fifth-consecutive summer residency, and our elected representatives have given them

By Editor

Arts

Big Dance Theater’s U.S. Debut of Supernatural Wife: Big Fun, Big Ideas

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: Cherylynn Tsushima One thing you should know before seeing Supernatural Wife, Big Dance Theater’s take on Euripides' sort-of tragedy Alkestis  – and you should see it -- is that dance is probably the least element of this enchanting and intelligent multimedia

By Editor

Arts

LDP/Laboratory Dance Project Makes a Winning Pillow Debut

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Without a doubt, LDP/Laboratory Dance Project, an all-male, contemporary troupe based in Soeul, is the most winning company to perform at Jacob’s Pillow thus far this summer, a season that has already seen more than its share of superb performances. Forget

By Editor

Arts

Review: "Sylvia" at Berkshire Theatre Fest

When A.R. Gurney's play Sylvia debuted in 1995  at Manhattan Theatre Club with Chalres Kimbrough, Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker, the New York Times critic wrote:  "Not since Abie's Irish Rose has there been a play as critic-proof as Sylvia, at least for

By Editor

Arts

Jazz on Three Summer Days, a Chat with Vita Muir

Summer 2011 marks the 16th anniversary of the Litchfield Jazz Festival, of which jazz DJ Dave Hershorin of New Orleans WWOZ radio says, “It’s what other jazz festivals wish they could be.”   Litchfield Magazine recently named LJF founder Vita Muir one of the 50 most influential people in the

By Editor

Arts

Lar Lubovitch Lets Loose at Jacob’s Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photo: Todd Rosenberg Lar Lubovitch is a master of shape in space. In his work, form and flow take precedence over narrative or message, and his dances are a joy to watch. In the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company's appearance at Jacob’

By Editor

Arts

Zoe | Juniper Jumps to the Doris Duke Theatre

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: Christopher Duggan Seattle-based zoe | juniper is a young multi-disciplinary visual and performing arts company headed by the husband and wife team of dancer/choreographer Zoe Scofield and photographer/video installation/sculptural performance artist Juniper Shuey. The company made its Jacob’s Pillow

By Editor

Arts

Leon and Richard, Together Again

by Scott Baldinger Bard president and American Symphony orchestra conductor Leon Botstein (above left, in 1975 at the age of 29)  is also the numero uno champion of the 1940 opera Die Liebe der Danae, the gloriously coloristic but neglected work composed in Germany by Richard Strauss (above right, at

By Editor

Arts

Cutting Edge Exhibit Down by the Riverside

by Betsy Miller Picture Shirley Bassey singing her hit song This is My Life in one of her dramatic costumes.   Now imagine her singing the same song at different points in her career, all captured on video that has been fragmented by an artist, who further fractures the images with

By Editor

Arts

Louise Lecavalier: Daredevil Dancing at Jacob's Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos: Andre CornellierLouise Lecavalier is petite, more than 50 years old, sinewy and muscled, and a dare devil dancer with a stage presence that grabs your attention and never lets it go – not only when she is moving with complete physical abandon, but

By Editor

Arts

From Cuba to Becket: DanzAbierta's U.S. Debut at Jacob's Pillow

Dance review by Bess J.M. Hochstein Photos by Carlos Furman In DanzAbierta’s hour-long  work, MalSon, the dancers wear gray and black and the sole scenic prop is a gray block, about the size of an super-deep mattress. All color comes from video intermittently projected on the back of

By Editor

Arts

Todd Reynolds on the 10th Annual Bang on a Can Festival

The rock band Wilco, which hosted the recent Solid Sound festival, was not the first musical group to commandeer MASS MoCA. In 2002—just three years after the museum was founded – Bang on a Can, a group of musicians and composers dedicated to commissioning, performing, creating, presenting, and recording contemporary

By Editor